Break, please?

Oh Braxton Hicks contractions, why must you give me so much trouble? You have been going on all day, no matter how much water I drink or how much I sit down and rest. Why must you get worse when it is hot out? Please, how about a break for awhile?

Clothes for my Girls

I just realized...

Megan wears size 5 bottoms for shorts/ capris. (ok, sometimes 6)

Courtney wears size 5 dresses and shirts.

They are almost 3 years apart in age, but apparently not in clothing sizes!

Interesting.

39 Week Checkup Today!

Wow, already 39 weeks! I could have this baby anytime now!

Things were pretty normal at today's checkup.
Gained back the 1/2 pound I lost last week.
Measured 38, which I thought was odd because I was 39 last week. My midwife said it's either because I dropped some more or because measurements are subjective (can be different between providers).
Platelets are still hovering about 100,000, they were 105,000 today. (still no steroids!)
Iron count was 12.9, I have been taking iron supplements for a couple of weeks now, so I'm glad it's up a little bit.
Low blood pressure and great heartbeat! (I was actually having a contraction while she was finding the heart beat and seeing how he was laying- ouch!)

She asked me if I was having any "real" contractions and I told her that my contractions haven't stopped, but I don't think they're "real." She said the Braxton-Hicks are going to keep going as long as it's hot out, she pretty much told me to stay inside during the heat and drink lots of water (seriously, how much more can I drink??) And Matt, can we turn the air down a little bit more? Maybe it's even too warm in my house??

She also told me to start taking Evening Primrose Oil and drinking the Red Raspberry Leaf Tea- ok, I did this with the other two and nothing seemed to help them come on time!

I didn't have her check me for dilation/ effacement today either, I'm sure I'm still sitting at zero, so why even do it?? I'll get checked next week though when I'm 40 weeks. Maybe something will be starting to happen by then...

My midwife also told me that she is the one that is on call this weekend and I kind of had to laugh, do you really think I'm going to have this baby this weekend??? I told her to just schedule my 2 week overdue induction! (First all my overdue appointments/ ultrasounds/ and non-stress tests of course to make sure he's doing well in there!)

I just have to joke about not having this baby on time or I'm going to be really disappointed in the end!

Fishing with the Daisies!

Today Megan had her last Daisy outing of the year. Her troop combined with another troop and went fishing. This was a Girl Scout sponsored program put on by the Game and Parks of Nebraska (I think). We met at a local lake and each girl was given a fishing pole and a tackle box. They received a little bit of instruction and then they fished for about an hour.

Here are they are learning how to fish from the instructor:

Let's go fishing!

Megan fishing from the dock...


I can't believe she picked up the worm and put it on her hook! I wasn't going to touch it and the instructor said she would only do it once, so the girls were forced to put the worm on if they wanted to fish. Megan just jumped right in and picked it up! Her daddy would've been proud!

Megan caught a fish! (She actually caught three of them while we were there today!)

They got to keep their fishing poles and tackle boxes, so now she can go fishing with her dad whenever she wants. I also think she learned a lot today and she did almost everything herself, except take the fish off the hook and throw it back into the water.

Next year, we are opting out of Girl Scouts. We found out that the Girl Scouts of America supports ideas/ programs that we don't believe we should be supporting as Christians. We refuse to give our money to a program that supports programs that go against the morals and values that we are trying to teach our girls. We are going to look into an alternative scouting club next year called the American Heritage Girls.

A Night of Pampering!

Last night was quite fun! I had received a gift certificate back at Christmas for a pedicure and I thought now would be a good time to use it!

On Monday nights, we have Uncle Night here at the Ruwe house. Matt's brothers and sister-in-laws come over, we eat some food, and spend the night playing with Megan and Courtney. Last night, I thought that maybe while the uncles are over here with the girls, us sister-in-laws could go out for pedicures!

So, I emailed everybody and they were all on board! There were four of us that met for pedicures and then we went out for supper! It was a great night of relaxing and for me, time away from the girls. I got a pedicure and then I got served at a restaurant, I didn't have to do any work!

This especially nice because yesterday while we were playing at the mall, Courtney climbed up a tree and a little boy decided to climb behind her and she couldn't get down. She gave me this look of fear and I jumped up to go get her off! Well, in the meantime, I pulled some more muscles in my stomach and they were sore all afternoon. These were muscles that were already hurting, so I just made it much worse! But Courtney didn't fall! Today I can barely walk because they hurt, time to load up on tylenol!

Today we have another busy day, so hopefully I'll have some time to sit and rest this afternoon.

Time to get going!

Sweet Baby Rowan!

We got to head down to Lincoln Saturday afternoon to meet my new niece! What a sweet little girl! And very, very cute!

I wanted to give the girls a chance to hold her since we are going to be having a baby around here in a couple of weeks. I asked Courtney first if she wanted to hold and her she said yes! She was so good with her! She just grinned and looked at her the whole time!

Then we let Megan hold her.


Then they both wanted to hold her!

They both did really good with her, which gives me hope. I am not worried about Megan adjusting to a baby, but Courtney might be a handful. She wants a sister, not a brother. I am glad Courtney had a smile on her face and was so gentle with her. We'll see if things change within the next couple of weeks!

Our Big Helpers!

Saturday, Matt went to Menard's and bought 60 more 2x4's for the basement walls. He is really moving on the basement lately and maybe there is hope that the office will be done by the time the baby is here?

Anyway, Matt has brought wood home before and he always enlists the girls to help him carry it downstairs (I am not helping!), so the girls got right to work on Saturday.

The girls probably carried about 10 2x4's down and Matt carried the other 50, he carried about 5 at a time though.

We thought this was a great lesson in teamwork, they worked together pretty well, but we also heard a lot of "Megan, slow down! I can't go so fast!!" from Courtney on about every trip down the stairs.

I also heard Megan say this to Courtney about the 8th trip down, I think she was complaing and was getting tired. "Just because you are tired doesn't mean you give up!" What words of wisdom from a 6 year old!

Off to Lincoln!

Since apparently I am not going to go into labor anytime soon, I am going to go see my new neice tonight! I thought, "Why wait around for this baby to appear, go enjoy life!" So I am!

We got her present all ready, food ready to take to her parents, and I am ready to meet this new bundle of joy I have heard so much about!

And if I do go into labor, we'll just come home! It's only about 45 minutes away!

Helen Keller and a Rainy Day!

I decided that I have written enough about me and and haven't added any pictures lately, so I took some pictures of the girls and I am going to post about them today!

Thursday is Megan's sharing day at school. They are currently studying a unit on "We are the World" and they are supposed to bring things for sharing that pertain to what people need or how others have helped people. This is the first week of this topic, so we had to think about what Megan wanted to bring last night and this morning. Megan finally said she wanted to take her book "Helen Keller." She chose this because Helen Keller needed somebody to help her in life. If it wasn't for Anne Sullivan, she wouldn't have gotten anywhere!

Her and Matt recently read this chapter book and Megan really enjoyed it! She tells me all the time about the manual alphabet and Matt even says, "Do you know Helen Keller gradutated from Harvard with honors?" It was a big deal in our house!

This morning, we couldn't find the Helen Keller book, so we decided to find a picture on the Internet. As I was reading through Helen Keller's biography online, Megan kept interrupting me and saying, "Mom, I know that already." "Ok, Megan, but I don't." I hope she does a good job sharing today, she is pretty impressed with the story of Helen Keller. She says it is her favorite book! (Now if only we can find it again!)

Here is our printout that she took to school today.

It was also raining today and the girls love rainy days because they get to use thier umbrellas at the bus stop. Actually Courtney does not come outside with me everyday, but when it is raining, she jumps at the chance!

False, false, false

Yep, just got back from the midwife and I am going nowhere fast! I am not dilated/ not effaced, nothing. again. She said that I'll be hanging out for awhile yet, which was my original plan. Might as well plan my induction date for the middle of June!!

Heartbeat was fine, I was measuring 39 1/2 for being almost 38 (yikes), she said, "What have you been eating? steak??" I didn't gain any weight and my platelets are at 107,000- up 6000!

Not much else, I will go back in a week and I am not going to get checked again until I am 40 weeks at where I will probably STILL be nothing!!

(Really, I shouldn't be surprised at this. I was two weeks overdue with Megan and 0 cm dilated...I think I was 40 weeks pregnant with Courtney and the same. ugh. I hope I don't pass these overdue genes onto my girls!)

Going in today.

I'm going in at 3:45 today to get checked for dilation/ effacement, I have an appointment tomorrow morning, but they were fine with changing it, so we're going in!

If I am dilated, that is great, hopefully we'll have a baby soon.

If not, I'll be a little disappointed, BUT I am not due for 2 weeks and I am not that uncomfortable, so if I am still not dilated and 0% effaced, so be it. :) I'll just tolerate the contractions....

Long night...

I was up at 3:30 am this morning contracting again. I had to get up to go the bathroom and they started. I am glad I slept good until then! They went on til about 5, I actually sat up in bed and drank two full glasses of water. I didn't want to wake Matt up because they weren't really hard and he's been sick. They finally tapered off about 5:15 or so and then Matt's alarm went off at 5:30. I think I drifted in and out of sleep until he left around 6:45. I said to keep his phone on him and answer it! I also asked him what our plan is if I go into labor (he works all the way downtown).

Megan came into my room at 7 (I was hoping to sleep longer) and she laid beside me, I am contracting this morning and my stomach is sore, so we'll get Megan off to school and Courtney and I are supposed to tour Rotella's this morning, but that might not be happening. I might just stay in the comfort of my own home for the morning.

Maybe Courtney and I will go walk around the block some more and see if I can get anything to happen. oh and maybe take some more tylenol.

Real or false?

Tonight about 6:45 I started to contract, not little ones, big ones that made me stop in my tracks and I almost felt sick. They kept going, so I decided that if they were real, I was going to keep them going! The girls and I went for a walk around the block a couple of times. I only had to stop a couple of times to get through them, but made it. We came back, I gave the girls a bath (I know, I shouldn't, but if we did have the baby tonight, I want them clean!). Now, they have slowed down a bit....

Every evening they start and every evening, they get a little bit stronger than the previous night and then stop when I go to bed. We'll see what tonight brings. Again, I'm not getting my hopes up. (Last night, they started about 9:30 and went til about 11 pm- this is when I said to myself, "you better get some things ready!" So I started rounding things up for the hospital last night at 10:30!)

With all these contractions being even stronger tonight, I went ahead and got even more things ready to go. I have a pile of clothes/ stuff ready for me to go the hospital. Snacks are ready, cameras are ready, baby stuff is ready. Babysitters are lined up (for the most part). I think we're getting there! Megan has a field trip tomorrow, so we even got her lunch packed tonight and her clothes picked out for tomorrow just in case I'm not here to help her get ready in the morning.

One last story, I had another case of pregnancy brain last night. I have piano lessons on Monday nights, so last night, I wanted to get supper in the oven so it would be done after lessons. I got the meal put together (chicken and rice casserole), turned the oven on to 350 and put it in for 90 minutes. I gave piano lesson and came back after lessons just to find the oven off! What?? I know I turned it on!! So, I turned the oven up to 425 and our meal was done in a half an hour. It was cooked, but not as good as usual. Ugh, I'm getting tired of this! (One night I put my clothes in the dryer for the next day, but didn't turn the dryer on!)

Congratulations!

I just wanted to say congratulations to my brother Shannon and his wife Melissa. Their daughter, Rowan Elise Hasemann, was born last night at 11:14 pm. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches long!

I can't wait to meet her! (But I won't be able to yet because I'm still having contractions and shouldn't be leaving town!)

Pictures added

Just to let you know, I added pictures to the earlier posts from today. Scroll down and look if you want!

Just for the record!

I just wanted to write down that I have been having contractions all day, but they are not all false contractions. They are different.

Actually they started last night at supper. We were eating at CiCi's pizza and I was having contractions pretty consistently. They would start towards the bottom of my stomach and work their way up. My stomach would not necessarily get hard as a rock either, plus I didn't have to go to the bathroom after every one like I do with the Braxton Hicks. I think I was having a few false ones in there, but they were definitely different than what I am used to!

Before I went to bed, I drank 2-3 glasses of water to make them stop, but then after I went to bed, I was up going to the bathroom quite a bit! Around 2, I realized that I was contracting again and that my stomach hurt from them all. I couldn't sleep! I drank another glass of water, took some tylenol, put a fan on me (I was hot), and went back to bed. Amazingly, I went to sleep until around 7 this morning!

This morning I woke up having them again, except these were more of a mixture of Braxton Hicks and the lower ones. I got out of bed before my alarm went off. It actually felt good to get up and walk around, if I lay in bed too long, my back starts to hurt. I got the girls up and Matt gave them baths. I was still contracting every once in awhile. Before we went to church, I took some more tylenol. Church was fine, more contractions and then they have just been on and off this afternoon. I usually have a lot of contractions in the morning and then they taper off around lunch time. Some this afternoon have been lower stomach ones (real?) and some have been Braxton Hicks. We'll see what tonight brings.

I have also lost my appetite. I really don't feel like eating, which is so unlike me! I ate a small breakfast, lunch, a small snack and now supper. I wonder what that is about! Maybe I am still full from CiCi's last night?

In no way am I giving up any hope of having this baby early. I would love it, but I'm not getting my heart set on anything! I know better! But maybe I should pack my bags and line up babysitters...

I am due June 4th and my 10 day overdue date is June 14th! (Actually one midwife said I could go over 14 days, so we'll see.)

Can we paint??

The girls have found the paints again and are busy making creations at the kitchen table, no, wait, Courtney is busy painting her hands and wrists with green paint!






I wonder what my kitchen table will look like when this project is over!

I don't care anyway, it all washes and they are having fun! As long as they don't get any on their clothes (hence the white towels), I am happy!

We have a carseat!

We went carseat shopping yesterday and Courtney and baby boy now have new carseats!
(Babies R Us had 20% off sale!)

Baby's new carseat, it was a display model, so we got it for $100 off plus another 20% off! I don't really like the colors, but I couldn't pass up that deal. It is also a carrier that will hold him until 35 pounds, but I'm sure he'll outgrow the length first.

Megan and Courtney. We are going to keep Megan in her Britax Regent until she outgrows it. We bought Courtney a new Britax Frontier 85. This will turn into a high-back booster seat for Megan when she outgrows the harness and then Courtney will get her Regent. The Frontier is good until 2019, so we will get 9 year's use out of it! I'm excited!

Thanks to my friend April, who is a carseat tech, we have them all properly installed and ready to go!

We can now have this baby!

Wait, maybe I should pack my bags too. :)

Olympic Day

We had a great time at Olympic Day today with Megan!

It was a beautiful day out and we all came home with sunburns on our faces.

I will post pictures soon, I think I only took about 120 today!

Can't wake up!

Days like today I wish I drank coffee.

I cannot wake up, it doesn't help that I was awake from 3:30-5:30 last night or even maybe longer. Ugh. Then when I get back to sleep, Matt's alarm goes off and he's up. Then I get back to sleep again and he comes to say good bye. (Which Matt, I do appreciate, but I'm tired!). Then shortly after that, I need to get Megan up and off to school. Hopefully I can take a nap today!

On a lighter note, Courtney has cracked me up lately.

1. Yesterday she told me she's never going to change her underwear again just because she doesn't want to. Good thing tonight is bath night and she will be forced to. :)

2. A couple of days ago she said, "Mom, I can't wait for your baby to pop out so I can sit on your lap again." Not too long Courtney!

3. She has also told me that I smell because I have a baby in my tummy. Wait, she said my baby smells, not me. Because he is a boy baby.

4. The other day at the mall, we were playing and she came over and said, "It smells like boy poop." Get use to it Courtney!

37 Week Platelet Count

101,000

I wonder what the hematologist will say, she says they can't get below 100,000 or else I will need to go on steroids!

Guess we'll see what they are next week!

37 Weeks

I had my 37 week appointment this morning. Things are great! I gained 3 pounds (oops!), but my midwife was not really worried. I really thought I would get in trouble, they only want us to gain one pound a week, but since I'm almost done, she said she was not going to yell at me. She thought maybe it was water weight or sodium, but I'm not really swollen up. She said 25-35 pounds is normal baby weight for a pregnancy (I'm up to 35 right now) and she said anything after that is extra weight that a mom will need to work at to get off. I'm not too worried about it. :)

She then asked me if I was having any contractions and I said, "Contractions, I'm having them all the time!" She said, "Labor contractions?" and I said, "no." I asked her about travelling 45 minutes away this weekend for a graduation and she said that would be fine, especially since it takes awhile for me to start labor and have a baby. She said if I was going to Kansas City or any place further, she would have to think twice about it.

I also had my blood taken again to check my platelets, I should know what my number is by the end of the afternoon. Hopefully it is over 100,000, if not, I will probably have to start steroids.

My blood pressure was fine and I was measuring 38 cm, my midwife also thought the baby dropped a little bit, but not as much as he will drop in the end.

Baby boy is head down and she thought he was facing upwards. Heartbeat was good too.

Courtney went along with me this time. We talked and read books while we waited and then once the midwife walked in, I had to stop playing with her and talk with my her about the baby. During the appointment today, my midwife looked at her at one point and said, "She is always so good at your appointments!" I will take that as a compliment!

Today's thoughts

1. Check clothes for stickers before sending them through the washer and dryer.
Megan had a sticker on her brand new tinkerbell shirt and after about 3 washes, I'm still trying to get the stickiness out!

2. Maybe my ears get more sensitive when I'm pregnant.
I gave the girls a bath tonight and almost made them whisper because they were being so loud (or at least I thought!) I don't like loud noises anyway, but they seemed to be louder than normal. :)

3. I can't do everything anymore like I used to!
Good thing I only have a little over 4 weeks left (3 technically) and I can get my stamina back. I will also be glad when I won't have to worry about contractions and drinking enough water during the day.

4. I only have about 4 more weeks of wearing the same clothes over and over and over. Just grin and bear it for now!
I love coming home from the hospital because I get a whole new wardrobe to wear!

5. I really need time to myself during the day.
I love that my girls get along so well and they will go off and play by themselves after school.
I love that during the day when Megan is at school, Courtney will just go to her room and play by herself. Little does she know that "quiet time" is really for mom and not so much for her.

Bus stop weather

The weatherman must have gotten my message from yesterday. I asked him for some improved weather for the bus stop.

Yesterday it was terribly windy and rainy , so much that our umbrellas were turning upside down and they were doing us no good. It was pretty miserable out there and I came back into the house soaking wet. I can do wind and rain, but just not the combination of the two!

Today was much better! No rain and no wind...just a little cold, I can handle that! Thank you!

PS Now bring the sun out and life will be that much better!

This Weekend!

I think this last weekend just flew by! Maybe it was because we were so busy. :)

Friday night was Ruwe family movie night. I got to pick this one- it was "The Muppet Movie." I watched this movie ALL the time as a kid and it brought back some nostalgia for me. Of course, the girls didn't know who Kermit the Frog or Miss Piggy were, but they soon learned! And Matt let me know that he had never seen the movie! (It's usually the other way around, Matt usually picks the movies that I haven't seen). He fell asleep with about 1/2 an hour left and I think the girls got bored with it, but I loved it!

Saturday afternoon I had a wedding shower for one of my old teaching friends. She's getting married in June (hopefully we'll make it to her wedding with our new baby). The shower had great food and great company, I got to reconnect with some of my old teaching friends that I haven't seen in over 5 years or so. We laughed a LOT at a question/ answer game and she opened her presents, which also brought some more laughter!

Saturday night was an outing with my family, well, most of my family. We met at a steakhouse to go out to eat for Mother's Day. It was a very nice evening and I got to spend some time talking with my sister-in-laws who are also pregnant. One is due in about 10 days, so it was nice seeing her one more time before she has the baby. I didn't realize it, but there is nobody here in Omaha who is pregnant along with me that I can really sit and get support from. It was nice talking to her because we are both in the same stage at the same time. I wish her lots of luck with her upcoming delivery!

For both of my sister-in-laws, it is their first baby, so it is fun to see their excitement. I think it is funny how early they are getting everything ready, but I was the same way with my first! (ok, maybe not as early as they are doing things, but things got done earlier with my first two than with this one). First babies come with a lot of excitement. There are some days I don't even think about having a baby in a month because I have to two other kids to chase! I will be lucky if I have clothes in the dresser for this kid! I also see all the things they are doing that I just want to say, "You don't need that," or "I bought that and it was terrible." But I'm not saying anything, they have to learn like I did. Now with my 3rd, I know exactly what I need and don't need.

Sunday morning started with a "Happy Mother's Day" from Matt and he asked me what I wanted for breakfast, so that was good. The girls bought me a birdhouse, which I thought was neat. We also had a great guest speaker in church and then we were off to Matt's sister's house to spend time with his family for Mother's Day. This was nice seeing everybody on his side, even great-grandparents were there, so the girls got to see them. They of course, spent half the time coloring/ painting fingernails with thier aunts. That's what they are for! They love it!

We got home late afternoon/ early evening and we were exausted! The girls watched a movie and I counted down the minutes until bedtime. I have to admit, I really enjoy being busy, but I just don't like how exhausted I get from everything. My back was hurting from sitting around all day, but I really didn't feel like doing anything when we got home to make it feel better, so I just dealt with it.
I went to bed with a sore back, but felt much better this morning. I love the effects of being eight months pregnant!

Today we are back to a routine, which I like. Megan is back to school, Matt is back to work, Courtney and I have the day together. I am going to get caught up on things around here, next weekend the only thing we have is graduation back home, so we shouldn't be too busy. :)

36 Week Update- Finally getting ready for baby boy!

Well, after our scare last Saturday of having timeable contractions for 3 hours (and on Monday also), I decided to get things into gear this week!

Monday- After a little bit of pleading, Matt and his brother took the baby's dresser from the basement to the baby's room- even though it is still Matt's office until he gets the basement done. We found a wall to put it on and it's there ready to be filled with clothes!

Tuesday- My mom came in and graciously went with me shopping to get last minute things for baby boy. This only included things I need when he comes home from the hospital- diapers, sleepers, bath items, wipes, socks, a few more clothes, etc. I hit a clearance rack of 3-6 month summer clothes, so he's about set for that size.

After our shopping trip, we came back to my house and we cleaned up the dresser, since it has been in construction zone for 6 months. It looks so much better now! My mom also helped me bring all the baby gear up from the basement. This included the swing, two bouncy seats, bathtub, and diaper pail. Again, buried in construction zone! She also brought in a pack and play with a bassinet on top to use when we bring baby boy home.

Wednesday- I had MOPS in the morning and then in the afternoon, I worked on cleaning up the baby's room a little bit. The girls' art supplies were in the closet and I wanted to get them organized and ready to move out. I got those cleaned up, but needed help to move them.

Thursday- My mother-in-law came in helped me some more! She cleaned up all the baby items for me. Well, with a little bit of help from Courtney, the swing is cleaned up and put together, the bouncy seats are the same. The bathtub is ready to go and so is the diaper pail.

We then headed upstairs and cleaned up the baby's room some more. She helped me take all the girls' art supplies into the sitting room off my bedroom. I thought this would be easier because my desk is in there and they can do projects on there instead of on the office floor. (which is now baby's room/ Matt's office)


We also went through all the baby clothes and saw what I had, what I had too much of, what I can use, and not use. I have had two other moms give me some 0-3 months hand-me-downs that are in great shape, so those went in the "we will use" pile. I also went through the stuff from my shower and looked again at what I had received and went through those. I definitely want some new clothes for this baby, not all hand-me-downs, and a lot of clothes from my shower will work, so those also went in the "we will use" pile.


For those of you who want to know, we have plenty of onesies/ sleepers for 0-3 months! We also have plenty of socks (I bought some on Tuesday, but found a bunch, so I am going to take those back). I also have plenty of 3-6 month summer clothes, but not as many onesies or sleepers. We might see how big this kid is before I go splurge on this size! I am not sure where we are going to be for 6-9 months yet, I'm betting it will be winter time, but if he grows fast, we might be in that size during the summer.

I also got out all the blankets, receiving blankets, crib sheets, waterproof mattress pads (need one more yet), towels, washcloths, burp rags and threw those all in the wash pile.

Friday- Today's mission is to wash everything. By the end of the day today, we should have everything washed up and put in the dresser!

One item we still need: CARSEAT!!!

I also went ahead and scheduled my 37, 38, 39, 40 and for me, the 41 week appointment! While I was at it, I should've just scheduled my week overdue ultrasound/ non-stress test along with my induction, but maybe we won't get that far. :)

Tips for getting through the last 4-5+ weeks: Drink lots of water, rest, spend time with Courtney and Megan, get a plan of what to do with children when we go into labor, and pray for a natural/ non-medicated birth!

PS- If anybody has any advice on how to deal with a very jealous 3 1/2 year old bride in these pictures, please pass your words of wisdom on! I'm think I'm going to need them in about a month!

Mom, Look what I got!!!

This morning, Megan woke up and came into my room with a big grin and said, "Come into my room mom!" I asked her what for and she said, "You'll see!" I was in the middle of something, so I said, "What is it? Can you just show me?" So she ran back into her room and brought me this:




I asked her what it was and she said, "A note from the tooth fairy!" We read it together and then I asked her if she left any money. She said, "Yes!" and showed me her tooth box. She was very excited that the tooth fairy came!



I think the tooth fairy is going to get a break for awhile. Megan doesn't have any loose teeth at the moment!

A Note from Megan

Tonight Megan decided to write the tooth fairy a note about not coming last night.

If you can't read it, Megan wrote:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

You didn't get my tooth last night.

16124 898-0005

Did you forget? Yes you did.

Top right corner: Love, Megan Ruwe

Maybe the tooth fairy will come tonight. :)

The Tooth Fairy is going to go broke!

Megan lost tooth #5 last night before bed. It was another situation where her tooth was REALLY loose and Matt and I wanted her to lose it before she went to bed. She could twist it all around and bend it forward and backwards and we told her we didn't want her to choke on it or swallow it while she slept. As we were getting ready for bed, she went into the bathroom and just pulled it out! We got her tooth box out and she put it in for the tooth fairy...

except the tooth fairy went to bed and forgot to visit. :)

Actually the tooth fairy is out of one dollar bills right now. "She's" been giving Megan $2 for every tooth and can't find anymore cash.

The "fairy" was scrounging around the house last week trying to find money for the last lost tooth and since "she" wasn't expecting this one to fall out so soon, there is no cash around. The tooth fairy should just go to the bank and stock up on one dollar bills, I think Megan was a little disappointed when she woke up this morning and the tooth fairy hadn't visited. She got over it pretty quickly though and got ready for school. I just told her that since she lost it so late at night, the tooth fairy didn't get the message. Maybe "she" will come tonight.

And yes, the tooth fairy is a girl. We have had this discussion in our house many times now!

Contractions again?

Yep, my contractions started about 1:30-2:00 this afternoon, right after I went on a short little walk with Courtney. They were pretty consistent again and by the time 3 or so rolled around, I couldn't walk anymore! I was really anxious to go the doctor at 4 and see if they were doing anything or not. (and just for the record, we are having Uncle Night tonight and I am hosting playgroup in the morning, so I had to clean this afternoon too! But with contractions where I can't walk, I can't do much. Thankfully Matt and Courtney helped and the place is clean!)

So, I go to my midwife appointment at 4 and I asked if she would check me. I will be 36 weeks on Friday, so they always want an idea of what you are doing anyway. I told her I have been contracting all afternoon again and I had contractions on Saturday for 3 hours. She checked me and I am not dilated, not effaced, nothing!! She said I am exactly where I should be for 35 weeks. I am glad because I didn't want this baby to come early- 1. for health reasons and 2.because we have nothing ready for the little guy (not even a carseat yet!).

She said that I probably have an irritated uterus (and yes, this is a syndrome!) After doing some research online, I found this definition:

1. “an 'irritable uterus' means simply that your uterus contracts without causing any changes in your cervix, or labor.” (Childbirth.org)
2. “’Uterine irritability’ is a term used to describe the phenomenon that prior to the onset of labor, the uterus can contract in a disorganized fashion (during pregnancy),” explains Dr. Laura Klein, an OB-GYN at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Rather than strong contractions that come and go every few minutes there can be kind of a constant low level twitching of the muscle.” Most of the time these contractions are simply a nuisance and don’t lead to labor. (Babyzone.com)

When looking at what to do, I found this information:

The ultimate cause of IU is unknown at this point and no research has been conducted to provide information regarding the triggers of IU. Based on our group of IU sufferers’ anecdotal reports the most commonly reported triggers are (1) activities, such as lifting heavy things, walking, standing, exercising, and (2) health related issues, such as dehydration, a full bladder, stress, hydronephrosis, urinary tract infection, may all trigger the occurrence of IU. In addition, few IU sufferers also reported that wearing tight pants, and being out of shape may cause IU. One of our objectives is to begin the effort of collecting additional information about IU. A survey to collect information from IU sufferer is currently underway.

(taken from http://www.irritable-uterus.com/)

So in other words, they are Braxton Hicks contractions. My midwife said today one of the most important things was to stay hydrated. I told her that I drank 3 bottles of water today while they were going on and they still didn't stop. She thought that was because it takes awhile for the water to hydrate my body. I thought that was interesting! 3 hours though?

One of the main concerns with these contractions is that they will cause a pregnant mom to go into preterm labor, but since I am past 35 weeks, they would let me have the baby if they turned into real contractions. With my history though, my midwife thought that I would probably still go overdue. She thinks these really don't have anything to do with labor, but that everything is just "irritated." Nice! Just once I would like to deliver before my due date! (or even ON my due date!)

On a different note, I went and got my platelet count checked again today and they are up to 113,000. Yay for higher platelets! They were 94,000 three weeks ago. They want them above 100,000 for delivery, so they are going to check them every week from here on out! Hopefully they will stay up and I can avoid steroids.

4 1/2 weeks go until official due date.

Who REALLY reads my blog?

Just wanted to note that from 2 til 4:30 this afternoon, I was contracting every 3-5 minutes.

My midwives told me that if I had 6-10 contractions in an hour, to give them a call, so I did.

I called them and she said the 6-10 rule only applies if you are under 35 weeks. I turned 35 weeks yesterday, so they said that if I went into labor, they would let me go, but they certainly don't want to encourage it. They said lay around (check), drink lots of water (check), and take a warm bath (maybe later). She said they could be braxton hicks yet because I'm not cramping, I'm just tightening, but they were pretty regular. She also said something else could be going on- bladder infection, baby flipped, overdone it (I haven't done anything all day!), or whatever. She said to take it easy and lay around the rest of the weekend, have Matt help with the kids. She also said if I can't sleep tonight, to take some tylenol pm, but to call her back if they got worse. She said, "You remember what labor contractions feel like?" I said, " I sure do!"

We'll see what the rest of the night brings. I've stopped timing them, so I don't think I'm feeling as many. I'm not getting my hopes up in anyway of having this baby early. I want to go as natural as I can, so I am fine waiting around.

I go in Monday to the doctor and I will start getting checked for dilation, so maybe we can have a better picture of what is going on.

PS- Courtney just looked out our front door and there were two May Day baskets on our step! How fun!

AWANA Awards

I know this is about a week late, but better late than never, right?

Last Sunday after my baby shower, we headed over to church for AWANA awards. The girls have been attending AWANA every Wednesday night for the last year and have memorized many Bible verses and grew in their knowledge of God and His word.

AWANA awards is where the students get awards for the completion of their books and for other things that they have completed throughout the year.

The Cubbies went on stage first. This the preschool age group.

Every night at Cubbies, Courtney had handbook time (where they told their teacher their verses and played in their room), storytime/ song time, playtime and snack time.

Here, all 60 Cubbies got up and sang two songs they learned during the year "Jesus Loves Me" and "We Are AWANA Cubbies"

Courtney is right in the middle in the yellow dress.

We didn't get a picture of Courtney getting her awards from her teachers (we got video), but after she sat down, she had to figure out what she got!

She got a little kitty for reviewing her verses all year long.


She got a mini Cubbie bear for completing her book.


Next went the Sparks group, this is grades kindergarten through 2nd.
First they brought the kids who participated in Sparks-A-Rama and won first place. Megan is way on the right in the long dress.

She brought back her blue ribbon to her seat and showed us all!

After she sat back down, the leader of Sparks proceeded to give out the book completion awards. She got to go back up and get this award.

Afterwards, we got to enjoy some cookies!

We'll see you again next year!

Courtney will be in Cubbies again and Megan will be in Sparks again.