35 weeks 158.5 lbs

So, this week was supposed to be the BIG week...no, not when Charleigh is due, but the week we find out, for sure, if we will need to have a c-section or not. We waddled into Dr. Maher's office (well, I waddled, Justin just walked) hoping for the best. So, here is the deal...I have a low-lying placenta (that's the little organ type thing that attaches itself to the side of the uterus in order to nurish the baby with blood, food, nutrients, etc.) Well, in most pregnancies, the placenta knows to attach itself to the top of the uterus, mine attached down at the bottom. This doesn't hurt the pregnancy at all, it just make delivery complicated. You see, if the placenta is too close to the cervix when it starts to dialate, I could start bleeding uncontrollably. Or if it is delivered before the baby, it could mean bad news for Charleigh. Huh. My regular OB, the one who will be delivering me says he doesn't feel comfortable having a natural delivery unless the placenta is AT LEAST 5 cm away from the cervix, the high risk doc, who will NOT be delivering me says it only has to be 3cm away. Well, mine measured 3 cm away this week. What that means......??? I guess since Dr. Mehta is delivering me, I'll be having a c-section. I thought I would be totally okay with this verdict, especially if it is the safer way to go. But now, a little part of me is sad that I won't get to try it the natural way, that I'll have all that recovery time and that maybe, just maybe...I COULD do it the natural way if we tried...

Well, I just want to be safe. I don't want to push for natural and then have something happen to my baby girl...or myself I guess. (sigh)

So, Dr. Mehta told us last time that if we scheduled a c-section it would be on Sept. 14th. Now that, my friends, makes me happy. To have a date! woo hoo! And if she decides to make her appearance before then, I wouldn't be mad at her :)

At our appointment this week we also got to see Charleigh again :) I love watching her. But, the ultrasounds are getting much less interesting, she can't move as much cause she is packed in there (I don't realize how tightly she is packed until I see it sometimes), and you can only fit very small parts of her body on the screen, so, they are getting harder to make out. Not to mention her head dropped way below my hip bones so we couldn't even get a good picture of her face this time, no profile picture at all :( So, all that was to say, we have ultrasound pictures but, they aren't very good. But the good, and scary news is...she weighs 6 lbs!! And the entire time she was practicing breathing, the tech was very impressed with her. Don't all parents think their kid is advanced (I know better, I taught high school ya know).

About the nursery, I did decide to cover the closet. (Thanks for all your input blog readers) I made a polka dot curtain. Instead of a regular curtain hem at the top, I added ribbons for tying so that it would have a little pink in it.
So, I've also been busy making my designer hospital gown, me being the designer. haha. I love it so far! I'll post pictures when I'm done. Not that I'll be wearing it out on the town or anything but, I figure it may make me feel better when I'm laid up in bed. Plus the pictures will be much more colorful don't you think :)

Well, this weekend we are going to have a garage sale! We HAVE to get rid of some stuff before Charleigh comes...and a little extra cash wouldn't hurt either. If you're in my area, stop by :)

Oh, another purchase I am pretty stoked about is the Angel Care movement monitor we got. I am the queen of all paranoia and I understand that having a child is only going to make this worse soooo...we got a video monitor. But, that apparently wasn't enough. I started worrying really badly about her not breathing, and just horrible things like that. So, I heard about these mats you put under the mattress that detect the slightest movement (like the baby breathing), and if there is no movement for 20 whole seconds it sends an alarm to the monitor in my room. It really works! Justin and I tried it over and over and it seems pretty sensitive.

Okay Okay, I have to tell you about the Mother/Daughter Retreat our ministry put on for the high school girls this last weekend. It was a blast. Well, Satan was seriously trying to mess with us (I guess he knew it was going to be good!). The first night, all the girls start to arrive and our speaker shows up too (Ruth Geertz from Atlanta...she's awesome in case you wanted to know). But our musician, who was supposed to be there an hour earlier is still no where to be found, and we can't get in touch with her! I was really worried something bad happened to her but it turns out, her calendar just got out of whack and she was still up in Bham! haha, from what I've heard that is just NOT like her at all...so, I am sure it was a little trick by the devil to mess us up but...he must not know bout us...

So, I called in some favors from some local talent who ROCKED the weekend! Test #1 passed!

Then one of our church vans wouldn't start..what? Oh, and once we got it started, there was no AC!! but we perservered! test #2 passed! Sooo, we load all the girls into the vans and relocate them to our amazing beach house...um, it sleeps like 50 people...the coolest! I had all the girls gather in the living room and just let them have a discussion about the night's topics...I just love sitting there listening to them. They have hearts for Christ, they want to help each other and they are ALWAYS looking to learn more. They inspire me to keep learning more too. So, after an hour and a half of discussion on Purity and waiting for the man God has in store for you...our conversation ended and they all headed out to the beach for a late night walk and pictures. And queue the streaker....seriously, a naked college boy runs by...luckily he was pretty fast and the girls didn't see much but still...really Lucifer? So, they all ran back in screaming, haha, test #3 passed! After syrup fights, the hugest pancake breakfast, and awesome mother/daughter time and workshops...it just turned out to be a sweet weekend.

Tomorrow I head to our first newborn parenting class...Justin will be out of town with work so I have to waltz in there alone :( My baby is going to look like a bastard child...