Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I know it's not technically Halloween yet but I don't think I'll have time tomorrow to get online! Things are going good up here for the most part! The weather is ok and hopefully it won't rain tomorrow when we take Cadon trick or treating, as the rumor has that it might. :\ I have been pretty busy lately trying to stay caught up on work and getting the house ready for the baby! Every time I think everything is ready for her I find something else I should do! Today I have been really busy. I worked from about 6:30 - 2:30 non stop. Then I cleaned house and made my miniature caramel apples! I don't like caramel apples so I can't taste them to see if they're any good, but I hope that they are. I am kind of bummed because the caramel slid off the apples and didn't stay very well, I'm not sure why that happened, I tried cooling off the caramel and everything! So they're not very pretty!
I really hope that Paiton doesn't come tomorrow! I have said from the day I found out my due date that I didn't want her to be born on Halloween! Now I'm scared I may have jinxed myself. So hopefully she'll stay in until Saturday - which is November! Yay! However we are definitely going to be walking tomorrow night taking Cadon trick or treating, and the dogs are coming too! I'll post pictures so check back over the weekend!
Here are my miniature caramel apples in the process....
And here they are post caramlization
This is my friend Rachel from work. She is about 24 weeks pregnant with Thomas and I am almost 39 weeks pregnant with Paiton!

Ho Hum

So I went to my doctor's appointment this afternoon. Although I kind of wish I hadn't, it was pretty depressing. First off I have gained 10 pounds in two weeks, which I was freaking out about but Dr. Jones took one look at me and told me it's all water retention. My feet are HUGE and my hands are pretty swollen too. She said there's quite a bit of fluid in my stomach as well and that Paiton isn't actually all that big after feeling around, it's mostly retained water. Then she checked me and I am a.....1. A ONE. That's hardly any different from last week! This news made me cry and I tearfully explained to her that she must be mistaken. The heartburn, the throwing up, the hip and back pain, I must be more than a 1. She assured me that I am not. She suggested that I start walking and doing whatever I can to get things moving. My blood pressure is still really high. Her words were "You really need to have this baby soon." Um....ya think!? Yeah, I'm aware of that!! Do you think I was up watching TV all night for the past two nights for absolutely no reason!? So here we are....still waiting for a baby and making virtually no progress. Luckily I have a great husband because when I called him and he asked how it went I just started crying. When I got home he had gotten us some steaks, potatoes, bread and Martinelli's to cheer me up. What a sweetie.
So that's my update. Please be thinking of us and sending us some good vibes! For some reason Paiton just doesn't want to meet us yet, but we sure want to meet her! Preferrably before I lose my mind!!

Dr. Appt.

Well I am 38 weeks. Sorry, there will be no happy face or exclamation point today. I am getting miserable. Well actually I guess I have gotten miserable, I am there. I haven't slept more than 3 hours in I'm not sure how many nights. Yes, I have heard 2,000 times "Well just wait until the baby is here." The good news is that once the baby is here my hips won't hurt so much from holding her in, my back won't be as distorted and tied up in knots, and my heartburn won't be so bad that it makes me throw up all night. So yeah, I think I'll be just fine when the baby gets here. At least while I'm up at night I'll have something cute to look at. Judge Hatchett and the infomercial people just aren't cutting it for me. Maybe if I ask Dr. Jones she'll just go ahead and pull Paiton out while I'm there. Think so? I really could use the help. I at least know that if I haven't had her by this time next week I'll have an induction date set. I really don't want to be induced, but I don't want to be pregnant even more. Everyone is asking me why she's setting an induction date before I'm due and the reason I was told is because my body can't handle having a huge baby because I'm too little, so they want to get her out before she's too big for me to have. I think it's about that time and my hips agree. I'll add to this post after my appointment this afternoon. It cannot come fast enough. Please PLEASE let there be progress....

Pumpkins, Ducks, and Quelf

We had a pretty fun filled weekend, but not fun enough since there is not baby news to report :\ Friday night we went and saw Saw V with Spencer. They are stretching the series but it was good times. We hoped it would scare Paiton out, it didn't. Saturday we didn't do too much. We took Matt's car to get a part put on to make it quieter for little Pai in the backseat and walked around the mall, but I think I already reported on that. Still, no baby. Saturday night we picked up Cadon and he spent the night with us! It was fun. Kotah loves Cadon and they snuggled together on the couch last night and this morning. It is a good thing Paiton is a girl because I can't imagine loving another little boy as much as we love him! He is just so funny and cute, and boy does he love his Uncle Matt. He snuggled him like crazy last night. The entire night he kept rubbing Matt's back and wrapping his arms around Matt's neck. It was too cute. He is such a sweet boy I can't even describe it!



Today, Sunday, we watched Cars this morning and Uncle Matt went to get us donuts! Yum! Also Cadon spent the morning pretending to be a dog. He crawled around saying "Woof woof". He even laid in Kotah's bed for awhile and got nice and covered in dog hair. Silly boy.


Then we went and fed the ducks at the big park in Nampa. He had a lot of fun with that. There were TONS of ducks and they must have been starving because they were trying to attack Matt and steal the bread. Eventually Cadon decided that he should eat the bread instead of the ducks and he refused to feed the ducks anymore!
Cadon didn't want the ducks in the water to be left out so we had to make sure and feed them too!
Titi and Cadon Uncle Matt and Silly Cadon
Matt was afraid the ducks would take him over and steal the bread.
This is what happens when you spend the night with Matt and Titi:


Then Matt and I had lunch with our friends Scott and Jessi who were here visiting from Utah. It was a lot of fun and we are glad that we got to see them. After that we headed back to Mom and Dad's where we carved pumpkins! They turned out good and although Cadon wasn't super interested he had fun. Carissa's is on the left and it's the first time she's ever carved a pumpkin! She did good! Then Cadon's is next with the stickers. Mine is third and it's a skyline that Spencer drew for me! Then Cami's is last with the cute stars.
Cariss and Cadon working on her first pumpkin!
Us carving our pumpkins. The boys didn't care.
We also played an awesome game that we got called Quelf. It is really funny and I can't really describe it but crazy things happen. Like this: Mom had to be on the floor and keep one hand touching the floor at all times and Matt and Spencer had to hold hands the ENTIRE game. So funny!

It was good times and it is crazy to think maybe this was our last baby-less weekend. Who knows? Or we could have two more baby-less weekends, we'll see!!! My feet are HUGE and my stomach is HUGE and Paiton is HUGE so hopefully not too much longer....

Head Tennis Coach

CONGRATS TO MATT!!

On Friday Matt got offered the head tennis coach position at his school! He always wanted to be a teacher and a tennis coach, and now he is! He is coaching girls basketball right now, which he really likes. His first game is on Monday and I am going to go watch! Tennis starts in the spring and he can't wait! I am so proud of him! We didn't think that he would get this opportunity because they already had a tennis coach, but lucky for us something happened and he's not coaching anymore!! Woohoo!!
Today is Saturday and Dane's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Dane! Matt and I are missing out on the big party this afternoon. It's pretty far out in the middle of nowhere and I have been getting really carsick the last couple months. Plus I don't really want to go into labor out there in the middle of the party or something! We are trying to stay close to home as much as possible. This morning we had to take Matt's car to have some work done to it and while it was being worked on we walked a few blocks to Elmer's and had breakfast and then walked back. It was 32 degrees and soooo cold! Then we headed to Target and walked around and then to the mall and walked around there. We were hoping I'd get some contraction action but....nothing. So we gave up and came home. We figured we had bothered little P enough for one day :) Although something really exciting did happen while we were at the mall! Our new Forever 21 was open and it is HUGE. I can't even explain it. I have seen lots and lots of Forever 21's but never one even half this size. It is so big it has multiple separate rooms and even a guy's section - crazy!! So I was pretty excited about that. I can't wait until I can go buy some clothes after the baby is born!! Yay!!!!!! Poor Matt was a little overwhelmed and the line was literally about 25 people long so we didn't explore too too much!

We made it.

Well we made it! My mom comes home tonight at 6:15. Now I can stop being careful :) I was really good all week and didn't hardly leave the house, let alone walk around or do anything that could potentially start labor! But now Mom is going to be home in a few hours and all bets are off! I went to Target and walked around, then psyched myself out and decided I should probably not do that all by myself! I have been feeling alright, just tired and huge! It is hard to sleep, nearly impossible I'd say, and Paiton is getting very heavy to carry around! Dr. Jones told us that she would be here within three weeks....that was almost two weeks ago. Which means we only have a week left until we prove her to be a liar! I am nearly 38 weeks now and more than ready to have this baby - as scary as that is! I am assuming that now that Dr. Jones predicted she'll be a couple weeks early she'll actually be late...let's hope not!

Doctor, doctor, give me the news!

I had my 37 week doctor appointment today. 37 weeks!! That's full term!! Woohoo! Now Paiton can be born with very little chance of any problems! What a cool milestone to hit! Dr. Jones of course got called out to deliver a baby as soon as I got there. This happens literally almost every time I'm there. I hope that Paiton is born during the day so that I get to call Dr. Jones out of someone else's appointment!! I saw the P.A. instead and she was very nice, I actually liked her a lot. P's heartrate was 138 and my belly was 37 centimeters - perfect! I am now completely effaced and dilated a fingertip. Which excites me because it means I have begun making progress! It's not even a 1 yet, but hey it's something! :) So that's the update. I have two more appointments, my last one on November 4th and if I haven't had her by then they will set up an induction date. So cross your fingers that she comes sometime after Friday so I don't have to be induced! But it must be after Friday because that's when Mom gets home!!

Shower. RIP. Weekend Update.

Hey all. So here is a recap of our weekend, just in case anyone cares! :)
Friday - Friday night Matt and Spencer went to a movie they had been wanting to see. I went to Mom's and played games with all the girls. Then Spencer spent the night as usual on the weekends and he and Matt played a new game they got on Xbox. Two of my AMAZING girlfriends from work made Matt and I a bunch of food! It was very very sweet and DELICIOUS and we are so grateful for them and their delicious cooking!
Saturday - We just bummed around the house during the day, then Matt and I went downtown. We had dinner at one of our favorite places - Brick Oven Bistro. When we got there there were fire dancers getting ready to perform! I was so excited, but they ended up taking way too long and we didn't get to see them. We had tickets to the Steelheads hockey game and they were second row seats! It was really fun to be that close and watch the guys get their faces smooshed into the glass! Good times! While we were at the game Cami and Mom were sending us text message updates of how the Red Sox game was going. We ended up leaving the hockey game a little early and headed to the bar at the Ram to finish watching the Red Sox game. I had a milkshake and it was good times! Go Red Sox! Dustin Pedroia is my favorite! Then we headed home.
Sunday - Mom left for her cruise (lucky!). She will have lots of fun. Matt and I didn't do too much, in fact we didn't even get dressed until like 4 pm. Then we headed to TGI Fridays to watch the Red Sox game. (As a side note our efforts to get DirectTV or Dish Network installed were futile. There are too many big trees in our neighborhood and they claim they wouldn't be able to get a signal. Dang it!!) So we headed to TGIF and ate as slow as we could while watching the game. Eventually we felt that we had sufficiently annoyed the staff there so we left. We headed to a new bar to finish the game. It is kind of weird to be huge and pregnant and walking into a bar and I always feel like people are staring at me. Luckily in this particular bar I was greeted by a cute girl yelling at me "Yay! Another pregnant lady!!" She was 7 months pregnant and was there watching the game as well! Too funny. Poor Red Sox lost, dang it! But my boyfriend Dustin Pedroia did score the only run!! So, R.I.P. this year Sox, next year for sure.
Today, Monday, my work had a baby shower for me! It was really fun and sooo much more than I expected or deserved probably! We got tons of presents, they had a cake, and fruit, and mini quiches, and cookies, and apple juice, and muffins and so much stuff! It was very sweet and kind of overwhelming! I hope they all know how much I appreciate and love them!
Here are a couple pictures:

All of the presents - it took an hour to open them all! (Don't mind the Halloween decorations for the kiddos in the background :) )
My cute cake!
Me (not cute) and the cake (super cute)
I have been feeling good. I had Braxton Hicks contractions all weekend pretty constantly, it was more annoying than anything! I have my weekly dr's appointment tomorrow, so we'll see what she says about progress! This baby CANNOT come this week for sure. My mom is gone on a cruise for work and there's no way I'm having this baby without her! I need her! So we'll see what Dr. Jones says tomorrow and I'll post an update!

It is not a tumor

I don't know how well you'll be able to tell, but Paiton is ALWAYS head down and her body, legs and feet are up my right side with her feet firmly tucked in between my ribs. I took a picture looking down because it was so lopsided, but I don't know how well you'll be able to see. So look for the tumor on the right side, that's my kid. Plus, for all you crazies who want to see how huge I am now I took a picture of my giant belly for you :)

Whoa! HUGE.

Tree Huggers

Hi! I am doing much better, thanks for everyone's concerns and emails. I haven't had any contractions since Wednesday - yay! Even then they were just tiny and not that painful (on Wednesday that is). So it seems that for now Paiton has decided to stay put in her nice, warm little home. Good choice :) I am now working only part time and from home, which is nice, but I kind of feel like I'm doing more work for less money! Not nice!
Here are the pictures of Matt, Dad, and Spencer attacking the tree in our backyard. Basically we have HUGE trees all around our house, which is really nice in the summer because they are so mature and offer lots of nice shade and squirrels :) But in the winter we have soooo many leaves to pick up and anytime there's a storm we have tons and tons and tons of branches. Plus, this particular tree is blocking the view we need to have satelite TV installed! So the boys decided to tackle the problem by cutting down a bunch of the branches....Here's what happened!

Here they have cut down a few branches but there's one left that they REALLY want to get down. They had to get some rope to help...
Oops. The branch cutter pieces separated and are now swinging from the tree!
Putting all their effort into breaking that branch, it just would not budge!
Things are getting serious now...
Dad ends up on the ground, and still the branch will not snap!

Not going to give up!!We are making some progress and have moved across the yard...
YAY!! They finally got it!! Way to conquer it boys!!!!

I had some pictures from Brandon that I was trying to put up here, but it says they're corrupt so it won't let me. He got to spend a few days in Bahrain and didn't have to work. I think he had fun while he was there. He called all of us a few time. He sounded good and seemed to be having fun, it was really fun to get calls from him!! I wish I could upload the pictures, there is one that is kind of funny of a Starbucks! The sign is both in English and in whatever language people in Bahrain speak! It was funny to see the men sitting in there drinking their coffee in their big gowns and turbans! Starbucks has apparently taken over the world!!

Update on P Body

Just wanted to update everyone. On Monday, 10/13/08 I had a couple contractions throughout the day, nothing too horrible. That night at midnight I was woken up by really strong, really painful contractions. I walked around my house, watched some TV, and took a bath. They were getting worse. I called Labor and Delivery and they told me to come in. I didn't really want to because it's a long drive and it's still too early for P to come. So I called my doctor and she said "Do you feel like going in?" I said "No." She responded "Go in anyway". So I woke up Matt, we packed the hospital bag in a hurry, grabbed the diaper bag, and drove to the hospital. We live almost 40 minutes away now that the entire freeway there is 55 MPH!! It was a looong drive. We made and they checked us in and put us on the monitor. Paiton was doing really good and I was contracting a lot. I was in active labor. Scary! The nurse checked me and I still wasn't dilated. Now we are stuck in a catch 22. When you're 36 weeks as I was exactly they don't do anything to stop your contractions, I had assumed they'd give me the Terbutaline shot like they did before, but nope! The flip side is that since you're only 36 weeks they won't help your labor along by breaking your water or anything, which was fine with me, except for that that left us with one choice - go home and deal with it! Had I been dilated they would have admitted us and we would have had a baby. So they sent us home. Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment and still was not dilated at all. The dr. took me off work and I'm now only working part time from home. She said that I am in early labor and will be until Paiton gets here, which she now thinks will be early. So lucky me, I get to just be in labor for who knows how long until she gets here! Luckily I haven't had any contractions since yesterday so that's really good. The next time it happens we are supposed to go back in and get checked out again. So we'll see. I am really thinking, hoping, forcing her to stay in until November 1. That's my goal! She definitely cannot come next week, my mom will be on a cruise and there's no way I'm having this baby without her!! I never thought I'd say this but - PLEASE STAY PUT BABY P!!! I love you but I don't want to meet you just yet!! Keep on cookin! Just wanted to update and check back later because I have some awesome pictures from this weekend of Dad, Matt, and Spencer attacking a tree in our backyard to cut some of the branches off. I can't explain, you need to see the pictures!!

Pumpkin Patch.

Can you believe how good at blogging I am being!? Can you even keep up!? This is exciting times for the Locke/Lurcook family! :) So much to share!!
On October 11 we took Cadon to the pumpkin patch. I MUST mention that Paiton is due one month from now!! AGH! How exciting! So we took Cadon to the pumpkin patch and it was FREEZING. It went from warm to winter here in about 2 seconds. Apparently we get no fall, which is a huge bummer. Mom, Carissa, Cadon, Matt, Spencer, and I bundled up and headed out. We took a hayride out to the pumpkins and picked the perfect ones. Then we headed back and fed the chickens, lambs, and pigs! We were going to feed the cows too but the mom cow did NOT look friendly! Mom really liked the pigs and there was a polka dot one that would run from one end of the pen over to where we were anytime he thought we had food. It was good times. Then we headed into the little store where they have a bee hive in a glass case so you can watch the bees make their honey. Cadon liked that. He also made a new friend, a little black cat that followed him around. Cadon enjoyed chasing him and calling him "Dada" (??). At that point we could no longer feel our ears or fingers so we figured it was time to go! Then everyone came to our house for enchiladas and we decorated Halloween cookies! It was good times!!

Carissa and Cadon in the cooold wind!Part of the big pumpkin patch. So pretty!
Titi and Cadon, he refused to look at the camera!
Getting off the hayride.
Nana helping Cadon find the perfect pumpkin!

Look at this cute boy. There can be no cuter!!!What a little sweetie.

Cadon and the piggies! He is making the pig noise right now :)Feeding the pigs.
Mom feeding the lambs. They were all shaven and freezing looking!
Watching the crazy pigs.
The beehive behind glass. We thought Grandpa Riggs probably would have liked this. If he were there he could have found us the Queen!
Ok, on another note Matt and I took Carissa some ice cream and little baby presents last week to celebrate Lurcook baby #2. Mom also had gotten her a little present so we had a little party!
Every pregnant lady needs a steady supply of ice cream....
The outfit/burp clothes mom gave her. Generic colors for now :)
Baby rattles that Paiton gave to her cousin.

Cadon loves to lay on Maya and play with her soft ears when he's sleepy.Matt's Baby Bjorn FINALLY got here and he is so excited to use it! We had to get it all fitted and ready to go! This was a present to Matt from Baby P and me :)
Yumm.....Cadon eating the ice cream clown that Titi and Uncle Matt Matt picked out for him.
Sleepy boys. This is Matt's favorite thing to do!!

Really?

Someone suggested to me that I make a list of all the things that I didn't know about being pregnant and that it would end up being pretty funny, so here goes.

1. I didn't know that most of the Old Wives Tales would end up being true. At work we did all the tests to determine the sex and all but one said GIRL! Also: bad heartburn means baby has hair - I have excruciating heartburn constantly and the ultrasound showed hair! Morning sickness = girl, true.

2. Speaking of heartburn I didn't know that I would spend 9 months throwing up stomach acid into my own mouth. I know it's not pretty, but it's real life people.

3. I didn't know that I would be so sick through the first 16 weeks that I would actually lose weight and have to gain it all back, not that that would be a problem, see below.

4. I didn't know that I would spend my life eating whatever I wanted and never gain a pound, but as soon as the morning sickness subsided I would gain much more weight than I had thought possible. I REALLY didn't know that I wouldn't even care that much.

5. I didn't know that I would get stretch marks. I really thought I was above that. Turns out not only did I get them, but on a place I didn't even consider and never once lotioned up. Dang it.

6. I didn't know that in the last 4 months or so Matt and I would spend our evenings watching my stomach bounce around and playing "Guess that appendage" when things would poke out of my belly.

7. I didn't know that there was really no option other than waddling for walking your last month or so. I used to think "Just walk normal!" but that is really hard when there is a baby head pushing against your pelvis and bladder.

8. I didn't know that it would be this hard to be pregnant. I know it's not for everyone, but I have had kind of a rough time and I don't really enjoy it! Sometimes I feel guilty but then I realize that I got pregnant for the BABY, not for the pregnancy and I feel better.

9. I didn't know that before she was even born she would have more clothes, toys, and stuff than I do.

10. I didn't know that I could love something so much that isn't even here yet. I didn't know that I would be perfectly content to sit and feel her move around for hours and never notice the time passing. I didn't know that it was possible to make myself cry just by imagining what she will look like or who she will take after.

11. I didn't know that having a baby with my husband would make me love him even more and I surely didn't know it was possible to love him even more than I already did.

12. I didn't know that Matt would immediately embrace parenthood and be the greatest dad ever. Sometimes I find him just standing in P's room looking around and a day never goes by when he doesn't tell me how excited he is or that he wishes she were here so that he could kiss her forehead and every inch of her little body.

13. I didn't know that Paiton would have the hiccups about 3 times a day and that it would crack me up every time.

14. Lastly, I didn't know that being pregnant made you lose your mind, find your heart and soul, cry a million tears (sometimes without knowing why), be more excited than you ever thought possible, count down days, feel like 9 months is really 9 years, and turn you into a completely different person, a MOM!!!!

Random pictures

Here are some pictures I got from my parent's house. I will be adding more tomorrow as I took some tonight! Matt and I went to Mom's house and took Carissa some of her favorite ice cream from Baskin Robbins and some presents to celebrate Baby Lurcook #2. Now that she's in the second trimester we decided it was time to celebrate. I will put those pictures up here tomorrow. Until then enjoy these few!!

Playing the "what's the baby poop made out of" game at my shower. Sick!
Hmm....what could it be...
Cadon the ham. This picture is SOO adorable!
This is Cadon's "baby". He is too sweet with it and was feeding the penguin baby popcorn! What a good little sharer he is!