Quick Update

We had quite the eventful last couple of days here at our house.  It started Saturday when we finally got rid of our pool table downstairs! YAY!! We sold it to a friend of Curtis' and they came and picked it up that evening.  Luckily they managed to get it up the stairs with only some minor wall bumps and scrapes, but oh well, it's gone and we have so much more room in our basement now! Blake did end up having to help (much to his dismay) but they definitely needed the extra help cause there were just 3 other guys besides him. 

However, that night after they all left, I started feeling contractions.  They were not extremely painful, but enough that I was noticing each one.  I started counting in between and they were coming every 5-8 minutes, so we called the hospital and they told us to go ahead and come in.  This was at about 9:00 that evening.  We had kept Brooks up just in case we decided to go in, so we got him in his jammies and took him to my parents house.  We dropped him off and settled him in with them and then got to the hospital about 10ish.  They checked me in and hooked me up to the monitors to see how things were going.  Baby was moving a ton and I was still having consistent contractions, but I was only dilated about 2 cm at most.  Then the contractions started slowing down around 11:30, so they took me off the monitors and told me to just get some sleep.  Yeah right! I got about 30 min or so and then the contractions started again and this time were a little stronger and again 5 min apart.  This lasted from 1:00-2:30, then they decided to hook me up again to the monitors since I couldn't sleep anyway.  Shortly after they hooked me up, the contractions quit again! ugh!! I tried to get some more sleep and got maybe an hour or two, but nothing good! Finally I just decided to quit trying to sleep around 6.  I was having some contractions, but not consistent, and not as strong.  They brought me eggs and a blueberry roll and juice for breakfast, which was much appreciated since I was starving! They started talking about sending me home at this point since I was still only dilated 2 cm and not having strong contractions.  I was pretty bummed at that point! But then our very indecisive little girl decided that she wanted to try and be born again and the contractions started getting more regular and stronger again! They ended up putting me on pitocin at this point to see if that could just jump start things the rest of the way and get me progressing faster.  This was about 7:30.  I started doing really well on the pitocin and had strong, regular contractions, but still not dilating anymore.  The contractions started slowing down again around 9:30 or so, and they finally decided that my body just wasn't quite ready to get rid of this little girl yet.  They thought about breaking my water, but decided me going naturally over the next week (since I'm still a week early) would be the better option.  So we were sent home.  I was a little disappointed we couldn't meet our little girl yet, but I also didn't want to end up with a longer labor than necessary or even a C-section, so I got over it without too much struggle. :) 

Then Sunday night we went ahead and still had Brooks' and Lane's birthday parties.  We had it at my parents house instead of ours since I was exhausted and just didn't want to host anything after our eventful and tiring night! I have a bunch of pictures from the party, and I'll hopefully post more about them in the next couple days!  All had a fun time even though baby girl tried to ruin it all for her big brother and cousin! :)

Anyway, we went to the doctor this morning to see if anything had progressed, and no, I'm still only dilated 2 cm, so we are just waiting to see what happens! ugh! My next appointment is Friday.  Hopefully I will have the baby before then, but who knows.  I'm still having contractions, but not regular or strong enough to warrant another trip to the hospital.  I'm not going in now again until they are really bad or my water breaks! I'm kinda hoping she doesn't come the next couple days and I can get caught up on some rest and get a little more energy back.  Brooks is pretty happy to be home tonight too since he's spent the last 2 days at Grandma's.  We had on the schedule months ago for Brooks to be at grandma's today anyway so I could get end of the month ACE work done, so we just stuck to that plan.  I thankfully got a bunch of work done today, so that was nice not to have to do end of the month stuff with baby around! Brooks keeps saying he had fun at grandma's, but it's pretty evident that he missed being home too! (Don't we all miss home when we are away!) Anyway, that was maybe a little longer post than I had planned, but I just wanted to fill everyone in on what had been happening with us the past couple days! I'll try and keep everyone updated if anything else happens!

To make the blog more interesting, here are just some fun pictures of Brooks with his new toys I bought him a couple weeks ago at a big consignment sale.  It's nice to find him some 'new' things for pretty cheap!!

 Dinosaurs!! I got a huge bag of them for just $10!

 Brooks likes to fly the pterodactyl (sp??)

 I also found a Thomas ramp that Brooks just loves!

 and the best part is he can pretty much just do it by himself without making us help him everytime!

Jell-O Eggs!

Brooks had so much fun making Jell-O Eggs for Easter, that he requested we make them again for his birthday party this coming weekend.  He loves to help stir the jello and see all the different colors.  Amazingly, he also likes to eat the eggs! I say it's amazing, because he still does not try many new things, and he definitely usually doesn't like the taste of new things!  Since he's actually venturing out with texture and taste by eating Jell-O, I agreed to make the eggs with him again.  However, this time around making the Jell-O Eggs has been quite the adventure. 
We started with red ones, and Brooks did an awesome job stirring the mixture.

After we got those all mixed up and poured in the molds, we started with the orange ones.  I have 3 molds, so we can do 2 batches at once.
This is how the orange batch turned out.....

Yes, Brooks fell off the chair while stirring the pudding mixture into the jello.  You can kinda see where he was laying on the floor by the splatter void.  It was a really big mess to clean up.  I grabbed him right away (he was screaming mostly because the whole thing scared him and he was covered in Jell-O) and took him to the bath tub.  He finally calmed down once I got his clothes off him and he could play in the tub.  However, by the time I was done washing him and changing my clothes, the jello had started to solidify on the carpet.  I didn't even know where to start cleaning that up! Rags and paper towels did practically nothing! Blake brought home the rug doctor cleaner (this all happened right at supper time) and started washing the carpet that way.  Thank goodness after many, many, many times over the spots with the rug doctor, it got mostly cleaned up.  We can still see an orange hue in spots, but since we hope to someday replace the kitchen and dining room carpet with laminate wood flooring, we can live with it!  I still think the chairs are sticky in spots, and it will probably take awhile to finally get those all clean, but at least it's pretty well clean!
Anyway, we quit making the eggs that evening, but at lunch the next day we took the red ones out of the fridge and Brooks was still excited about them! And he still loves to sit in those chairs and help/watch me cook.

And of course Brooks enjoyed eating one :)

I decided to continue making the other colors of eggs.  Brooks did get to stir again...."I promise I'm being very careful stirring this time mommy!" (daddy didn't trust it as much as you can see him holding the cup!)  I don't blame him for not wanting to clean up again!!!

We have since successfully mixed up another orange batch, blue, yellow, and purple, so with only green to go yet tomorrow, hopefully this round of making Jell-O eggs will go without more accidents!

Play time in Smith Center

Not much has gone on this week, so here are just some random pictures from our Smith Center trip last weekend.  Brooks really enjoyed his new Thomas book that came with little engines and a play mat.  Thank you Great-Grandma and Grandad Burgess!

 

 The marble ramp was a bit hit again.  It was the first thing Brooks asked to play with when we walked in the door!

 Swinging with Daddy was another big hit.  Brooks really liked it when Blake was in the swing beside him!  Brooks had so much fun that he cried when we had to be done.

We had a fun weekend, but Brooks was pretty happy to be home and play with Cheyenne this week!

 Where you going Cheyenne?  What can we get into together?!

 Gotcha!

Happy Easter!

We went to Smith Center for Easter this year.  Thankfully since Blake had the weekend off and Fridays are his normal 'off' day, we were able to go down Thursday night already.  It was nice to spend all day Friday just hanging out.  We did end up driving to Phillipsburg that morning to go and visit the nearest ACE store to Smith Center.  We had a good talk with the one of the owners there, so it was a good trip and nice to see a small town ACE doing pretty well!  When we got back to Smith Center, we went to Orschlen's to see the chicks, ducks, and bunnies.  I think this was the highlight of the day for Brooks!

On Saturday afternoon, Smith Center had their community Easter Egg hunt.  They had a division for 0-2 aged kids, and that was perfect for Brooks.  He was able to get several eggs, so that was fun for him!

He was very excited when he discovered some of the eggs had M&Ms in them!

On Sunday we went to church.  Brooks is constantly talking about Grandma and Papa's church, and especially whenever he sees a cross somewhere.  I think he really likes the stained glass cross they have at the front of their church!  After church we had a great Easter lunch and then it was on to another Easter egg hunt.  Brooks is getting pretty good at them!

 Brooks' older cousins were really good about leaving some eggs for just Brooks to get

Just had to take a picture of the 3 Burgess men.  Looks like they were in serious conversation, but I doubt they were! :)

We did take a few family photos as well, so any of you who are wondering just how big I'm growing with baby #2, here you go! I'm ready to be done being pregnant and carrying all this extra weight!  This picture is probably the best one we got.  Brooks didn't want to look at the camera and smile in very many of them.

 But this one is probably my favorite! Trying to get Brooks to smile!

Now with a fun Easter weekend over, we really have no other plans until the baby comes! It's nice to just get ready for her arrival, but it's kinda crazy to think that it's the next thing on our schedule! Hopefully we don't have to wait all the way until May 7 and she decides to come early! (I'm ready now!)

Easter Round One

Last Sunday my parents had everyone over for supper and an Easter Egg hunt.  The weather was still beautiful, and we all had a fun time being outside. 
Brooks finding his Easter basket!

On to the Egg Hunt!

Everyone enjoying the egg 'harvest' and discovering what's in the baskets and eggs

M&Ms.....Yum!!

Brooks and Lane had fun playing together while we were waiting for supper time.

Playing with new sidewalk chalk!