Nursery, c-section, stockings, oh my!

Well folks, we made it through the carpet installation and are now well on our way to finishing the nursery. Thanks to Scott, Laura, Joey, Hannah, Rebecca, Benjamin, we are making some progress. Pictures will follow as soon as we have something more to show for our work!

In more important news, the c-section has been officially scheduled and will take place on Thursday, September 23rd. Woo-hoo! There is an end in sight! My goal all along has been to make it to 38 weeks and 9/23 is the day I hit that mark. Even though my body feels like it can't make it another 10 days, I am determined to do it! All my doctors can't believe I'm still working, but until they tell me I can't, I will work every day in order to have as much of my maternity leave available after I deliver as possible. We are just thankful that Dean is doing well and we've been given the "ok" to get to 38 weeks. Other than the edema and sleepless nights, I'm doing quite well! Here's a picture of my beautiful feet/ankles/calves. See if you can tell where each begins and ends!

 
Benjamin was rubbing my left foot a couple days ago and I asked him to rub my ankle. He started squeezing my calf. I told him again, please rub my ankle. He started rubbing my foot again. I asked him if he knew where his ankle was and he pointed right to it. I asked him where my ankle was and he looked at my leg for a second then said, "I don't know!" I think I laughed a good 5 minutes over that! Poor guy couldn't see my ankle at all.

Here's a picture of what I wear each day now. I have no idea how Grammer gets these suckers on by herself every day because I've had Scott and Laura help shove my feet in on more than one occasion! Grammer makes it look so easy, but let me tell you, when you've got two bowling balls in your belly it's a little difficult to touch your feet, much less put on stockings! Maybe I should call Grammer for some tips!

 
We've been so blessed to have had 3 baby showers...Smith family, Church family and work. Here is a picture of most of the gifts we received...
 

 
The picture does not include the cribs, changing tables, dresser, playpens, clothes, toys and various other items that were handed down to us. Thank you to all of you passed along so many baby things to us! I don't even know how much money you have saved us, but I know it's a large amount!

At my ultrasound this morning the boys' measurements were taken. Baby A (Daniel) weighs 6.5lbs and Baby B (Dean) weighs 7.10lbs! We can hardly believe how big they're getting! I'm now spending about an hour in bed at night before switching to the recliner. I've found that I can get a few hours of sleep by sitting up instead of lying down. Below is a pregnancy picture so you can see for yourself how much I've expanded over the past 36 weeks!

Notice my pretty blue & white wristband?  I got that bad boy today when my Dr. sent me to the OB Triage at the hospital due to my swelling and tenderness in my left leg.  Since this was happening in my left leg only, she wanted to be sure I didn't have a blood clot.  I left the house at 8:30am for my first appointment, went to my second appointment at 10am, arrived at the hospital just before 11am and didn't get out of there until 5:45pm!  Apparently there were quite a few people who needed the services of the Radiology department more urgently than I did!  Scott left work early to bring me lunch and wait with me.  A nap and 4 or 5 episodes of 'Hoarders' later I was taken to Radiology for an ultrasound of my leg.  Another hour and a half later I was told everything was ok and I could go home.  So much for making it through my pregnancy without a trip to the hospital!  Thankfully there was nothing to keep me there and I wasn't put on bed rest.  Only 10 more days to go!!

Take care...