induction

throughout my whole pregnancy i said i'd rather not be induced and just wait for baby to come on his own. well, that was when i wasn't 40+ weeks pregnant. i've already been in labor and delivery twice in the last week and a half and have left both times without a baby in my arms. a week and 1/2 ago, i was up all night one night with horrible abdominal pain due to the hernia i have. although they didn't do anything for the hernia pain, they monitored carter and found he was doing okay. i was having regular contractions, but not progressing in any way :( after doing the monitoring of carter and an ultrasound, the doc said he looked good and i should go home and take it easy. thankfully the abdominal pain subsided (after 24 hours) and we just keep waiting.
then, yesterday i had realized i wasn't feeling carter move much, so i layed on my left side, drank some cold juice and counted how many times i felt carter move in 2 hours (this was something doc told me to be doing). in that time i didn't feel him move at all. i wasn't super worried, knowing that this far along, babies aren't moving as much (there's just no room) and that i can't feel all of the smaller movements he makes anyway. i went ahead and called my doc and the birth center at the hospital, and they both said to come in to be monitored for a bit. so, eric and i headed out again. thankfully, my sister's in town so she took care of jackson for us (thanks, jen!). after getting checked in at the hospital, they put the monitors on me and i did a non-stress test. carter passed within 10 minutes...he's doing great! the nurse was reassuring and said i did the right thing to come in, but again...no baby in my arms.
so, all that to say i'm changing my tune about being induced and am scheduled to go in on monday morning. i'm still hoping i go into labor on my own today or tomorrow, but if not i should be leaving the hospital early next week with my precious carter gregory. i can't wait! we'll keep you all updated as soon as possible after he's born. the hospital doesn't have internet (we are in north idaho, you know...you can't expect too much!) so, as soon as we get home we'll send out a post.

getting closer

we're due to have carter on wednesday. i had an appointment this morning and learned that i'm dialated to 3 cm and 70% effaced. after striping my membranes, the doc said he wouldn't be surprised if i deliver in the next day or two...i'm hoping he's right!

more communicating

this morning jackson ate his breakfast all by himself. i gave him a piece of toast while i cooked an egg for him and then let him eat the scrambled egg with his hands. he did a great job and the coolest part was when he had just a couple bites left he did the sign for all done. he didn't smash the eggs in his hands or throw them on the floor (his normal routine when he's done eating). i'm so proud of my little man.

blue's clues

what is it about blue's clues that gets my never-sit-still-for-anything son to do this:

there are other movies he watches (like baby einstein, the wiggles, sesame street) and none of them cause him to just sit. what is it about joe and blue?

ps i got a picture to upload. i did a small one and was able to be patient and it only took 8 minutes! but isn't he cute?

more?

i'm not sure if i've mentioned it before, but jackson doesn't say much yet. he also hasn't really seemed to catch on to the little bit of sign language we've been trying to teach him. today, however, he did the sign for more. he was eating his lunch and wanted more hotdogs. i showed him the sign for more and asked "more?" and he did it. and did it again and again! here's to hoping he'll start communicating in other ways besides fussing!!!

climbing

jackson learned how to climb onto the couch this morning. this is a little unfortunate because we often put things on the back of the couch that we don't want him to get...like the camera. and the off-limit items are what i think drove him to figure out how to get up there. he was pretty proud of himself for getting ahold of that camera. now he just needs to figure out how to get down. he seems to think that he can just kinda walk right off...this makes momma nervous.


(on a completely unrelated note, it's snowing here. it's very wet snow and so not sticking at all...but i'm still not ready to be thinking about snow. hopefully it goes away soon and stays gone for a long time.)

"mommy"

jackson doesn't talk much. he says daddy quite a bit and he'll say ball ("ba") and has said more ("mo") and every now and again he'll say mama...but not very often and it hasn't ever really been directed at me or about me.
the other day eric was showing jackson some pictures on our camera. they came across one of me and jackson pointed to it and said "mommy". eric asked if i heard what he said and of course i didn't. but don't worry, because they came across another picture of me and jackson said "mommy" again. music to a mother's ear!

bottle be gone

as of late last week, jackson is no longer taking a bottle. he had been having one 3 times a day (before each nap and at bedtime). at his 1 year doc. appointment dr. brian said i should try to get him to just use sippy cups. so i started slowly decreasing the amount of milk he got in each bottle. we got to 2 ounces for each bottle and he seemed to be adjusting just fine. then last tuesday he didn't have his morning nap so he was extra tired when it came time for his afternoon nap...so i decided to see if he'd fall asleep without having a bottle at all. i took him to his room, gave him his pacifier, rocked him for a minute and tucked him it...no problem, he was asleep within minutes. over the next few days, we skipped bottles here and there and he continued to have no objections. i have now put the last bottle away and thankfully our little man is still sleeping very well. it was easier than i thought. now, i'll have to start thinking about when we'll want to have the binkie be gone.

pictures...or a lack thereof

one thing that makes me kinda sad about having dial-up internet is that it takes FOREVER to upload pictures. actually the last couple of times i've tried uploading pictures for my blog i've ended up getting an error message and not even being able to get the pictures posted at all. i've realized that i do most of my blogging around pictures i've taken and now that i'll rarely be able to post them (at least from home...which is where i'll be a lot especially after next month when i'll have a newborn and 15 month old to take care of) i'm afraid i won't blog as much.
i'll try to keep it updated (mostly so i don't have to hear it from my sis about not having anything new to read on my blog).
here's some news from last week:
on wednesday i woke up with some pretty bad abdominal pain. i had had similar pain a month or so ago and my doc said it sounded like i had a hernia trying to make itself know. well, after an appointment that afternoon, it was confirmed that i do indeed have a hernia, but due to that fact that i'm pregnant, there is not much that can be done (in less it gets really bad, then they might do surgery...thankfully, we're not to that point yet). anyway, back to wednesday morning...the pain was bad enough that i called eric at work and asked if he'd be able to come home for the day to help with jackson. he's such a great husband! he came right home and after jackson's morning nap took him to the children's museum in spokane. (here's where i'd like to post some cute pictures eric took.) shortly after they left i realized the pain was going away so i took advantage of alone time and got 3 loads of laundry done, did the dishes, vacuumed and cleaned up the living room. now we're just hoping for no more pain during the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy.

after spending most of friday in my pj's i decided i wanted to get out and do something. so i decided we should get jackson a costume and take him to eric's parents and grandparents house. as soon as eric got home from work, we headed to target (i thought they might have their costumes on sale). they did, but there wasn't anything that'd fit jackson. so we headed to fred meyer...same thing there. we decided to try costco and if they didn't have anything, we'd call it off. they did have some costumes and the cow was the perfect choice for our little guy. (again, imagine super cute pictures of my super cute son in a super cute cow costume). i think he had a good time, and i got enough pictures to scrapbook.

yesterday, eric spent most of the day painting our family room. it's pretty big and open, so i felt it was okay for me to help a bit too. he did all the prep work and started all the cutting in (there was lots of this due to the 4 doorways and 2 windows). i did the rolling...which took less than an hour. now we just have to get the 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms done. do you think we can do it before carter's born?!

and now the boys are sleeping and i'm getting to get caught up on all the online happenings.