Update

I had my 39 week doctors appointment this morning. My due date is on Thursday, July 2nd so this was my last appointment before my actual due date. The appointment went well. I am now dilated 3cm and I am still 80% effaced. My doctor did a procedure that has the ability to put me into labor. She said that 30% of women who have this done go into labor within 24 hours, so we will see! I was planning on running a bunch of errands after the appointment but now I feel like a time-bomb waiting to go off! I don't want my water to break at the Grocery store so I decided to come home. Kevin is working in St. Paul and my parents are at the cabin. I just called Molly to come over and hang out. I am nervous I will go into labor by myself!!! Luckily the bags are packed and I feel ready so I will just continue to wait. My doctor said that if I don't go into labor on my own, she will induce me on July 8th, 9th or 10th (depending on the hospital schedule). The good news is that this baby has to come out at some point! Maybe my next entry will be from the hospital (keep your fingers crossed!)

Ready and waiting...

I have spent the last week waiting to go to the hospital. I have ran every errand I can think of, washed every bottle, blanket and onesie and organized every room in my house. I am not sure what else to do. Luckily my friends and family have tried to keep me busy by taking me out for lunch, watching movies with me and calling to chat. The waiting game is tough! The Nelson's (my Dad's side of the family) had a huge reunion to celebrate my Grandma Nelson's 82nd birthday at my Aunt and Uncle's cabin in Alexandria. Everyone went but me. I really wanted to go but didn't know if I should be 2 hours away just in case and now the reunion is over, I stayed home and no baby. When will he be here??? Our bags are packed and the car seat is in the car. Now all we need is baby! My next appointment is on Monday morning so hopefully the doctor will have some news for me then.

I posted a few pictures from the Allen baby shower I wrote about last week. I hope you are enjoying your summer and finding lots of fun things to do!!! If you have any good ideas of ways to stay busy (out of the heat with minimal movement) let me know!

38 Weeks

I had my 38 week appointment today and I have no new news :( I have not progressed since my last appointment. The good news is that the baby's heartbeat is strong and all vitals looks good. I guess we will just play the waiting game...Next appointment is a week from Monday. Maybe we won't make it to that one :)


Jenny and Kathy (my sister and mother-in-law) threw me a baby shower a few weeks ago. Jenny hosted it at her house. We had a delicious lunch and played a few fun games (I learned a lot of trivia about babies!) Kevin's Dad's side of the family came to celebrate along with his Grandma Helen from Tulsa. Her and John (Kevin's grandpa) made the long drive from Tulsa to participate in the festivities. It was so sweet of them to come. Helen made a BEAUTIFUL blue and white baby quilt for Baby Allen. We got a lot of great gifts including a baby WILD jersey and some tiny hockey equipment. It made us so excited to take Baby Allen to his first WILD game next winter! It was fun to see everyone and celebrate. A special thanks to the Allen's for hosting!!!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!!!

What a week it has been! I officially finished the school year on Wednesday. I packed up my classroom and moved LOTS of boxes home. Much to Kevin's dismay, the boxes are now sitting in our garage for at least a year. Sorry! I tried to give some stuff away but as any teacher will tell you, it is hard to part with 5 years worth of materials. Who knows the next time I will need a glue stick, number puzzle or literacy game... It was sad to say goodbye to my students and colleagues but I am very excited for the adventures ahead!

On Thursday I had my 37 week doctors appointment. Dr. Pric told me that I am now effaced 80% and dilated 2.5 cm. The progress continues!!! Although I am feeling the sense of urgency to get things done before the Baby arrives, I am also preparing myself that it could be a few weeks. The unknown is very hard for me. I am a planner, I like to be prepared for things and I don't really like surprises. So as you can imagine, the unknown date of arrival is driving me crazy!!! I have my next appointment on Friday so I will keep you updated.

On Tuesday afternoon, the out of town family started to arrive for my Grandma Davis' 90th birthday celebration. We had about 35 people at my parents house for the weekend. Relatives came from South Dakota, Denver, San Fransisco, Iowa, Dallas, and Kansas to celebrate. It was a wild weekend!!! We went from one activity to the next including: golf, lunch dates, a BBQ, a birthday party, dinner at Biaggi's and a baby shower. Kevin and I also attended a wedding in between two of the events. It was a fun and crazy weekend. It was so great to see everyone and spend time as a family. The weather was beautiful and we spent lots of time outside laughing around the campfire. Seeing everyone makes me wish we all lived a little closer so we could get together more often. We feel so blessed to have such a fun and loving family!

On Sunday morning, the ladies gathered together for a Baby shower at Santorini's in Eden Prairie. It was a beautiful shower with great food, wonderful favors and amazing gifts. Thanks to everyone who came a special thanks to Linda for putting it all together. Baby Allen is a very lucky little guy!!!

Baby Showers!

Kevin and I have VERY generous friends, co-workers and family members. We have had several showers and still have a few more in the upcoming weeks. My school hosted a shower and my girlfriends threw a shower last weekend. The Allen family is hosting a shower this weekend and my mom's side of the family is throwing a shower when they are in town for my Grandma's 90th birthday. It is so fun to get together with people and celebrate. We feel very blessed!

A few of the pictures you will see are from my "friends" shower. It was so fun to get together with the girls. We played a few games, ate a delicious lunch and opened gifts. We played "guess the size of the belly" and I realized that I must appear to LOOK a lot bigger than I am. Almost everyone's string was huge when they tried to measure it around my waist. I think some people's measurement may have been big for Kate Gosselin (from Jon and Kate plus 8 who had sextuplets). Yikes!!!

After the shower, we went to my parents house to have dinner with Molly before she went back to Madison. We laid out the gifts on the table and had fun playing with them. My dad kept saying "what is this for?" "did we have this when the kids were growing up?" "how did we ever raise 5 kids without this stuff?" Auntie Molly tried out the tummy time mat and Kevin practiced with the Baby Bjorn. Baby stuff is so fun!

We had our 36 week appointment on Friday. We were surprised to find out that I am dilated 2 cm and 50% effaced!!! I realize that I could stay at 2 cm for a few weeks but my doctor said that it will probably happen sooner than later. We went home after the appointment and I frantically started washing baby clothes and organizing his closet. There is so much to do before his arrival!!!

I only have three days left of school before summer vacation. I am READY to be done! I will miss the kids and my co-workers but it will be nice to have a few weeks to get stuff organized at home before the baby arrives.

We have a very busy week and weekend coming up. My mom's entire side of the family is coming in town to celebrate Marge's 90th birthday!!! We have many fun events planned including a birthday party at her apartment on Saturday afternoon. It will be great to see everyone and spend time together.

Pictures!

I am just now adding the pictures that went with the last few entries. The picture of me in the orange dress is from my birthday and the other pictures are from Molly and Michaels graduation.