1 day left- because that's all my moral can handle

(hopefully in 10 years we won't have to resort to pictures like this to convince our children that we were 'once' cool and adventurous.)

I've never been this pregnant before. Alex was 'born' 6 days ago in her 9 month calendar. By this time in her life we had already spent 4 days in the hospital and been home with my mother for another 2 days. In her calendar I have written "Alex is such a good happy baby, she make all sorts of faces when she sleeps. Uncle Michael, Aunt Danielle, Gwen and Dan all came to visit today."

Last night I was sure this it was the end. We had the opportunity of having some old friends from Montana over for dinner, as well as Michael and Danielle. It was SO MUCH FUN! Sitting and talking and watching Alex play, I really enjoyed myself. As we were getting into bed I thought, well that's it, the last planned activity, the last thing that needed to get done, I'm ready now. So when I woke up a few hours later at 2:30 am with some serious contractions I was pretty excited. I didn't want to jinx it so I didn't start timing them until about an hour and a half had passed and by then they were almost perfectly 10 minutes apart. I had given up on sleeping so I moved to the couch and tried to read "The Great Apostasy", which is a great book, but after an hour I dozed off waiting for another contraction. I woke up 2 hours later pretty upset after I realized that the contractions had stopped. I was so ready, today was going to be the perfect day to have my baby.

Sweet Tyler let me sleep in, then made me breakfast, took care of Alex all morning and then took me to the mall to buy a new pair of sandals (my fantastic reef sandals broke yesterday after over 3 years of being worn nearly everyday). We met Kate and Archie at the play place and pushed them through the mall in our super awesome brand new 2 kid stroller. By the way, the wonderful Brady family totally surprised Tyler and I by all chipping in to buy us a 2 kid stroller. It is perfect and beautiful and I love it. This was my excuse to try it out. We had lunch at the food court and fulfilled a marriage long dream of getting our pictures taken in a photo booth. Alex wasn't so enthusiastic, but the pictures of the 3 of us are priceless. And now here we are, a nap and a handful of contractions later I finally realize that Baby 2 isn't showing today. BUT, I am very optimistic for tomorrow.

T minus 2 days. No baby yet

This is photo of me 2 years ago. The night before I was cut open and Alex was taken out.

Here is our young little family 2 years ago. Alex was hours old and Tyler and I were simply in awe of what just happened.

Present Day:

Doctors Appointment this morning. I remember smugly making this appointment last week, so sure that I would never make it this far and would be calling days ago to cancel while holding my baby girl, surrounded by an aura of light.

Got permission to take a safe for pregnancy sleeping pill that Kate gave me the heads up on. If i'm not going to have this baby for a few more days, at least I won't have to lie awake for hours at night anymore.

Good news though, I'm currently 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. It was a little less than the "Oh my goodness, you are at 8cm, this baby is coming out NOW, off to the hospital you brave woman!!!" I was secretly (and delusionaly) hoping for. Or the 3 cm that would have gotten me a trip for lunch to Tucano's from Tyler. But it is progress. Doctor stripped my membranes again, to put it mildly. Tyler said it just about gave him a stomach ache just watching. I felt fantastically awful for about an hour afterwards but everything has calmed down and once again I feel great.

Tyler has to leave for firefighter testing in Idaho on Sunday and not come back until Tuesday night. My Mom will be arriving Sunday to make sure there is an overlap, but she is only here for a week. What if I don't go into labor for another WEEK!!! Then Tyler will have started classes again, Mom will only be able to stay for a few days, and then I'll really have to wear out my welcome with the Bradys. So I'm currently debating wether to gamble, assume baby won't arrive until after Tuesday, tell Mom not to come yet and not waste those precious days on potentially nothing. This could backfire and end with me both Tyler and Motherless, dragging Kate to the delivery room in a panic on Monday night, but right now I'm fairly sure I'll be pregnant forever.

3 days left

(Because every post needs a picture. Brady family, Christmas 2009)

Almost 2 years ago a friend of mine was due to have her baby (Lindsey) and she decided to post every day until the baby arrived so that if she didn't post, we would all know that something was happening and she was probably in labor or already had the baby.

So I think that is what I will do. Not much else to do these days, since this week my days have been spent...

1.exhausted on the couch from not being able to sleep at night

2. thinking about leaving the house and having some fun, but the thought of doing so with Alex makes me even more exhausted

3.trying not to obsess about labor, bringing a baby home, ppd, and just exactly life will be like once she comes out of me

4. constantly cleaning the house so when labor does happen, I can return home to a clean house

My visiting teacher lent me a book called "HypnoBirthing: A celebration of life", it keeps referring to another book called "Childbirth without fear". So far from what i've read in Hypnobirthing, i'm sold. I wish I would have read both of these 9 months ago. I've got Childbirth without fear on hold at the library (in the off chance I don't go into labor for the next 3 days), and I really hope it gets returned in time.

Basically they ask, why does labor (a perfectly natural and normal thing) hurt? Oh, because we are told it will and we are afraid of it. So we go into this 'fear- tension- pain' cycle which sends us into the fight or flight response, which obviously you can't do in labor and so all the body's helpful chemicals misguidedly get sent away from where they are needed most.

I don't know if I will be able to master all the great techniques the book gives for calming yourself and breathing, relaxing and not worrying before Labor day, but reading it has seriously calmed me down SO much and given me this whole new empowered outlook that HECK Yeah I CAN do this, why wouldn't I be able to, why should it hurt?

I'm sure all of you who have actually experience labor are rolling your eyes thinking "just you wait until it starts dear, you will be singing a different tune". This is probably true, but I sincerely believe in the whole mind over matter thing, and that this is what my body was meant to do. I was talking with my grandmother a few days ago and mentioned my fear of, yet commitment to a natural, drug free birth. I was amazed by the stark contrast between her generations feelings against drug assisted birth... "Why would you possibly want to do that to the baby", and my generations feelings toward natural childbirth of "Why would you possibly want to do that to your body?!" I guess time will tell how resolute I really am, but I hope and pray that I really can do this.

Haircut

I forgot to mention that Tyler GRADUATED!!! Friday we went to the ceremony and got to see Tyler honored as the class Valedictorian and give his speech. He did a great job, especially since he refused to prepare a speech and just made it up as he went!

After graduation we had a celebration day with movies, icecream, Oreo's, and Sobe. But before all that happened, Alex got a haircut.

This is the before. You can sort of notice the 3 layers, cheekbone, shoulder, and back. Those little hairs on the bottom have been growing since she was born!!! It was a bit traumatic to cut off all that hair that i'd been trying to grow out for 2 years!

Alex thought the process was pretty silly.

Kara did a GREAT job of not only giving her the haircut, but keeping her happy and entertained while she was at it.

I think having the mirror there to pull faces in helped.

Kara even styled it when she was all done, which was an amazing accomplishment because Alex really didn't like the blowdryer. I'm pretty sure grandma and getting to hold the water spritzer helped.

Alex was pretty done with the whole pampering thing by the time it was all finished. What a couple of cuties!

Weekend pictures

A picture update.

Walking to grandma's house in the rain. Alex was thrilled to be able to splash to her hearts content through ALL the puddles on the way

So much fun.

Alex and my cousin Alyson who had been attending BYU. Alex just adores Alyson, it was sad to see her go home for the summer.

Saturday Kate ran a half marathon and Tyler and I decided to go support her. We didn't get there until after she finished (she was fast) but we spend the day at Thanksgiving point with them afterwards.

After standing in line for 10 minutes to ride the ponies, both children declined.

Oh, and Alex got a haircut! Once again thanks to the magic scissors of Kara. After going back and forth for months, I decided (with much urging) that it's better for Alex to look cute everyday, than 5 minutes a week when she lets me actually do her hair. So we went with an adorable little bob and I just love it!

Got some great Daddy daughter pics, seeing as Kate had just run 13 miles (and was pretty tired), and I was behind the camera.

Alex's second favorite thing, walking on walls. Her first favorite would be picking up rocks.

39 weeks pregnant and weighing in at 3 newborn calves.

Some popcorn tree's.

This is just a cute picture of Alex's new haircut.

My favorite Brady tradition. A Paella afternoon with Kate's dutch oven bread and some Brazillian lemonaid. Now that the weather is nice we can all join the cooks outside and play a game of bags or in the sandbox, lounge in the hammock, or play with the dog. I could do this everyday (mostly because it's Kate who does the chopping, Ben and Devin who do the cooking, Kara who makes the lemonaid, and I who get to do the lounging!)

Our new SANDBOX!!!! Alex and Archie love it, so does Tyler.

Bags is another fun Manker tradition that the Brady's have adopted. The kids love getting in the middle of it.

This is Alex cheating.

This is Alex stealing the bags.

Alex dressed herself up. Tyler's paramedic badge and some rubber gloves: her new favorite toys.

I just love this picture. Whenever I open the doors, Alex decides to play in the little gap between it and the screendoor. It's super cute.

5 days left

Maybe because I was really, really, really hoping to go into labor yesterday, or the fact that these contractions keep taunting me and getting my hopes up, maybe it's the mess of cereal all over the floor that I just don't want to clean up, or the nearly constant heartburn, it could be the 2 year old who refuses to obey or even acknowledge me when ANYONE else is near, or the fact I have to pee about every 5 minutes or risk an 'acident', but it's getting harder and harder to be pregnant with every minute of this day.
I'm trying to count my blessings. I really do feel great, other than the walking, bending, sleeping part of life, I really have no complaints at all. Alex and I have Tyler completely to ourselves for the week and he has been treating us like queens for the last 3 days! We have had nothing but fantastic adventures and fun since graduation and I have a million pictures to post.
Life is good, the sun is shining, Alex is healthy, Tyler is happy, I have no aches and pains, or babies to feed at midnight. If there wasn't a human being stretching my belly to capacity and then some, life would probably be just about perfect. If I don't have this baby by Saturday, there will be tears.

I want to be like Aunt Kate

I was watching Alex play with her doll and stroller this mornings when she suddenly stood up, blew me a kiss and said "bye bye". I asked her where she was going and she replied "I'm going running with Kate, k!?!"

Kate has been running a lot since the weather is getting nice and when she goes, Archie usually comes to play at our house. Sometimes we will switch kids and Alex gets to ride along in the stroller while Kate runs and pushes her along. We went to watch Kate start a 10k last week and are going to root her on at a half marathon this weekend! Obviously Alex has started to associate strollers with running, and running with Kate, it's adorable.

Minute to Win it BBQ

I know, I know, so many posts!!! This has to do with the fact that I want to get all these great pictures and adventures posted before blogging is the last thing i'll want to do. It also has to do with the fact that all I remember of the first 3 months of Alex's life is sitting indoors and feeling trapped, alone, bored, and overwhelmed. So i've been on some kind of fun crusade, trying to pack as much fun in as I can before I'm out numbered by kids. It's also helped to take my mind off pregnancy in general and Tyler's absences and so I've been dragging anyone I can along with me on adventures and game nights, hence, lots of things to post about.

Saturday I convinced the whole Brady family to get together and have a BBQ/ minute to win it party. I've been craving meat like crazy since I attempted to give up tortured flesh, and finally had to put my 'crusade' on hold until post pregnancy. You've never experienced a real pregnancy craving (my body NEEDS that NOW) until you your not getting enough protein and your body is so used to getting it from meat. Anyway, so I Needed a BBQ as an excuse to gorge myself, and I really wanted to have one last Hazaah outdoor fun party while my body and babies would let me.

Archie and Ben. Both wondering when the fun is going to start.

For those of you who have not heard of 'minute to win it' go here and watch a clip or an episode or something, and laugh your heads off. The games are twice as much fun to play as they are to watch, and i usually end up crying from laughing so hard when I watch them.

Those are looks of agony, not excitement, as we struggle to work our way to the end of the sock to get the penny out. Without being able to use our other hand or body to help in anyway.

I tried to get a hilarious picture of each player.

Tyler schooled everyone at the pop can rubberband game.

Devin and Kara just never looked ridiculous. Unfortunately for Kate and I, there were far to many embarrassing pictures to choose from.

The kids got semi neglected during the festivities (by their parents, luckily grandma was around), we ended up with some really messy faces that I think came from the mixture of "here go feed yourselves yogurt" and dirt.

This one was hilarious. cotton balls sticking to noses.

Archie didn't really like it when Uncle Tyler took away the yogurt that Archie was filling with grass and woodchips and then trying to eat. I believe that is yogurt on his overalls.

Here we go, the 38 week pregnant picture.

Devin was the only one remotely successful at the throw the card into the watermelon game. And yes, that is a picture of a prophet.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Archie is just the most photogenic kid ever.

Bobble head Kara. She tried the entire body technique.

Kate was super focused, between this game and winning a 10K run earlier that day (yay, go Kate!!!), she was a bit sore the next day.

We love that we can even get Grandpa and Grandpa to play our silly games with us.

Super awesome fun day 2010 ended with the kids getting baths, and then they wanted to go right back outside. Waiting like puppies at the door for it to open.

Here is what I plan on posting about next. Ashes our lovely dog, decided to dig a huge hole next to the basketball hoop. Alex and Archie discovered this and it became the fun place to play. Hence, our awesome husbands decided to makes life easier for the wives and more fun for the kids.

TaDa!!! So they built a sandbox! Today we filled it with sand. I anticipate this box, along with gallons of sunscreen and perhaps a makeshift shade will make this summer a lot more bearable.

Finally, a semi decent picture of Alex in my pride and joy. That dress I made from Great grandma's pattern. so cute.