Progressing towards labor...

I had another prenatal appointment yesterday. These appointments are once a week now, since I am in my 9th month. At 37 weeks and 5 days yesterday, my doctor "checked" me for the first time, to see if I was making any progress. She said I am "almost 2cm" dilated and about 50% effaced, and that the head is really low (at a -1 station). Dr. Young predicts at least another week until I go into active labor. And because she is in a low position already, she said I should have an "easy labor." Of course "easy" isn't actually "easy," but it was still good news to hear! :) My labor with Mekhi lasted just 6 hours from start to finish, being induced with prostaglandins. I have very good memories of how everything went, and I was able to get through the labor without even needing an IV or any medications, with support and distractions from my sister Renee and dear friend, Jessica. My worry this time (up until now) was that since I'm not planning on being induced, that I would be one of those women who are in labor for 24+ hours (or 42 like one of the women in our birhting class told us)! So it was reassuring to know that things are starting to progress already, before I am even in labor. It is reassuring to know that when I do go into labor in a week or two, some of the work will already be done! It is also exciting that Wade and I will get to go through the experience together this time. He is such an amazing and supportive husband, I am really looking forward to sharing such a profound experience with him!

My mom and sister fly in from Oregon on the 6th, so they are really hoping that Phoebe waits for their arrival before making hers! Mom is really looking forward to being present for her birth... so we'll just have to see how God plays it all out! Either way, they will get to be the first family to visit and meet the new addition to our family! Mom and Valerie will be here from the 6th through the 16th, and then they'll head back home to attend a family wedding. So hopefully Phoebe does come just a few days early so that they will get to spend more time with her!

We are expecting the Dorrell side of the family a week later. James and Carrie will be arriving by airplane from Seattle on the 23rd, and the rest of the family (Jack, Barbara, Melissa and Heather) will be driving down together from Coeur d'Alene. Now that the previous guest room became the nursery, we will be getting creative with sleeping arrangements so that we can all share this special time together!

My other sister Renee and her family live here in Boise, so in her first month of life Phoebe will get to meet all 3 grandparents, 5 aunts, 2 uncles, and 3 cousins (and Grandpa Jerry will have the best view of all, I am sure, from heaven).

I turned in my preadmission form to the hospital last week, put the infant car seat in my car, packed the hospital bag and diaper bag yesterday, and our babysitters (Auntie Renee and Uncle Zach) will be home from camp in a few hours, so everything is ready... that should buy us another week, right? Now I can relax and enjoy a weekend of leisure with my husband to celebrate our first wedding anniversary! Needless to say, I will not be fitting into my wedding dress this year! But we are looking forward to enjoying our wedding cake that we saved in the freezer :)

Preparing for Phoebe

Phoebe Lynn Dorrell is due on July 11th... just over 3 weeks from now! We have been busy getting prepared, and I think it's now safe to say that if she decided to come early, we would be ready!

Wade put in a new laminate wood floor in the nursery to replace the carpet that he had torn out when he bought the house (cat damage). We found a few steals on Craig's list that helped us fill the room, and Wade painted the changing table to match the crib.

We went with a pretty girly decor this time, and I have to say, it was very fun to decorate it. I've been busy preparing meals to freeze so that we can have more time to spend together as a family, and less worry about who/how will we make dinner with the new baby requiring so much of our time. We're ready when you are Phoebe!

Early Morning Snuggles

Mekhi stayed up pretty late last night, since we were babysitting his 3 cousins in the evening, and there was way too much fun being had to enforce the usual bedtime. Usually he is in bed at 8:00pm, but last night it was close to 9:30 before he was tucked in. This morning he didn't come into our room until almost 8am, instead of his usual 6:30-7am waking time.

Most often when he wakes up he follows a routine called "pillow-time." He's been doing pillow-time for several months now, but we didn't know it had a title until he recently used that term to refer to it. A standard pillow-time morning consists of him waking up, immediately coming to our room to open the door and let Bayley (our 10 year old beagle) out of our room. Then he usually shuts the door again and gets several pillows off the couch, and usually either a blanket off of the couch, or his favorite "blue blanket" that he's had since he was an infant. He places the pillows and blanket in the little hallway by our bedroom door and since our door is closed we don't actually see what he does out there, we can hear him playing, and talking or singing until we get up. Then when we come out we see the evidence of pillow-time, which usually includes a few toys and occasionally a few kitchen utensils. He's very good at self-entertaining while we grab a few extra winks before we gather the energy to get up and join him.

This morning, however, there was no pillow-time. Mekhi came in at almost 8am, climbed up into bed next to me, and snuggled. Now that is the perfect way for a mom to start a day... with snuggles from her favorite 3 year-old :) He snuggled for a good solid 5 minutes before he very softly said "Mommy, can you get me some oatmeal?" So we got up and had some breakfast.
It's amazing what 5 minutes of snuggle time can do for my motivation to start the day! I hope that we have more snuggle time mornings in the future. Especially with little sister Phoebe due to join us so soon, the more snuggles I can get from my sweet boy, the better!

Getting Started!

Friends have told me I need to start up a blog before I get too busy with the new little one and lose my opportunity for free time :) Well, that makes sense. I'll start adding stuff now and in about a month we'll have somewhere to post all our adorable baby pictures and stories about how Mekhi is adjusting to being the big brother!