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So I realize that I'm one of the few people remaining on the planet who watches Jeopardy with any regularity. Okay, nightly.

Now, I also realize I'm a geek, and that this show is not exactly targeted at Gen Xers either. However, you can tell a lot about who a show is targeted to by who advertises during commercials, and who are the featured sponsors. Well, for around the 3rd night in a row last night, Nick and I took note of the sponsors right before the closing credits, and realized just who the show is targeted to. Let's just say they're all probably gathered together in the Rec Room over in the Pavilion. Seriously, they are all geriatric product sponsors! As in, Gold Bond Medicated Itch Powder, some kind of joint product, hemorrhoid cream, one that I can't remember (but which was decidedly targeted toward the elderly), and then finally Breyer's ice cream - which may seem benign at first glance, but let's just say: soft food = denture friendly.

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing wrong with the grey-haired population. I'm just saying - can the marketing department at Merv Griffin/KingWorld possibly get some new sponsors? Ones that make me feel that I don't need to watch Jeopardy with a tall glass of prune juice in hand?

Ah well, I suppose it's not the biggest deal. You could probably even call it trivial.

Heading into our last weekend...

as a family of 4!

My goodness that's surreal. Tomorrow will be raining all day, so it'll lend itself well to just hanging around and soaking up family time. We even bought a few extra treats for these next several days just to make things a little extra special.

I have to get some more photos of the boys up soon, but in the meantime, let me leave you with Riley's new favorite joke to tell...

"Why did the taffy cross the road?"

ANSWER: "Because it was stuck to the chicken."

Gets me every time.

We have a date!

So, had my appointment today - and got some good news! Mr. Liam has been served his eviction notice - he has been given one week exactly to vacate the premises. That's right, if Liam doesn't come on his own in the next week, I will be induced next Tuesday, June 3rd at 8:00am. Which means so much for this week's poll! I'll have to think up a new one.

It'll be interesting to see if I end up going into labor on my own before then - with Riley there was the preterm labor but that was it. With Elliot, he came 4 days late - after being induced. I must have some mighty cozy womb in there. Combine that with the full body massages Liam is getting from my contractions.... I probably wouldn't want to leave either!

I was registering some fairly decent contractions on the monitor today, roughly 6-7 minutes apart and pretty steady. They weren't lasting quite as long as typical labor contractions, though... so nothing too convincing yet. I think it's probably just a tease, and come next Tuesday morning, I'll be packing my bags and heading for my luxury suite (yeah, right) at the Birthing Center.

I do feel good knowing that it won't be longer than a week away. I am also thrilled that my favorite practicioner in the group, my midwife, is the one who will be on call to deliver. She had been in Italy for several weeks, but is now back and ready to catch babies! As a matter of fact, she'll be on call this Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then Tuesday... so chances are if I deliver in the next week, she'll be the one delivering Liam. Which makes me VERY happy.

So, that's the news. No more dilation or effacement - I'm still at 2cm and 50% effaced. But if these contractions I'm getting mean as much business as they seem to, that could all change fairly soon.

I'll keep you posted! And check back soon for a new poll. :o)

Single digit countdown!

Wow, 9 days left to my due date. That's kinda wild. I'm very well aware that it's no guarantee of a baby by then, but it's still something to see. I have a 3:30pm appointment today, we'll see what the scoop is. It's really hot and muggy here today - I could definitely deal with having baby OUT on these kinds of days. Blech.

Anyway, I'll update later with any news you might be interested in!

But enough about ME. Let's talk about YOU....

What do YOU think of ME?

Juuuust kidding. I'm very much done talking about me - feel like it's all I've been doing lately! And I feel like I have nothing uplifting to remark about myself for tonight, so I will abstain from crabbing about anything. Ouch, your resounding cheers and applause are deafening!

So, let's talk about something else. How about... the weather? It's been gorgeous these last few days and no signs of stopping. It will be perfect weather to do a little grilling tomorrow, so I'm excited for that. I can't wait to sink my teeth into a nice turkey burger! Or two. Mmmm.

Riley just turned 5 last week and I officially feel ancient! Truth be told, though - he really has grown up so much and I know that he's just learning more and more every day. I am SO excited for him that he gets to start Kindergarten in September! Okay, and a little excited for me that I get to go school supply shopping for him. :o) Unfortunately, he's been dealing with some growing pains - they even wake him up at night sometimes. I wish I could take it all away for him, but I know it comes with the territory, and again - I'm so excited for him that he's getting older and bigger.

Elliot had a growth spurt and all of a sudden looks way older to me. He says these really comprehensive sentences filled with idiomatic expressions and little nuances of the English language- it blows me away. He has started telling me many times daily that he loves me, and he's been trying to be really careful around my bad knee that I fell on. He will double check through the day that he has straight which is my good vs. my bad knee. So sweet.

My boys are SO different from each other but both such delights.

So that's it - I will end the weekend on a high note. Will this be my last baby free weekend? Who knows. In the meantime, if you have tomorrow off - enjoy. And I will speak with you soon!

Is no news really good news?

I see the blog here has been getting a higher amount of traffic than usual. Methinks you're all checking in to see if Liam has arrived, and as you probably know - no he hasn't. My next appointment is Tuesday, so I'll update then with anything of interest. In the meantime, no news is.... well, just no news.

Looks like a beautiful weekend ahead around here. Maybe we'll even get a wee bit of landscaping done before Liam's arrival. It would be nice to actually have something IN the giant pots outside our front door.

That's it for now - thanks for checking in!!

Monday, Monday...

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was actually quite nice - decent weather, and got a lot accomplished. Today and tomorrow will be a little unseasonably cool, but then the next week after that will be quite nice... nice weather for having a baby I hope! I know, I know... patience. There are still 17 days till my due date, after all.

In the meantime, we've just been breaking our time between prepping for baby and RESTING. With two older kids, the whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" idea is pretty much out the window, so I'm trying to build up my reserves now. Although to look at me, the only physical reserve I'm building up is... ahem, let's call it stored energy. :)

At any rate, here's a recent photo of my little mad scientist Riley. I swear, this kid's hair only looks presentable for around 2 hours after it's blown dry, and then it takes on a life of it's own.

Over and out for now!!

Well, would you just look at the time...

Yes, I'm coming to you live at 3:55am. Just woke up, and as if the double whammy of being 9 months pregnant and then falling and feeling like I got hit by a Mack truck just wasn't quite enough - I'm sick. As in, two golf balls lodged in my very sore throat sick. So, as far as sleep goes - three strikes and you're out. Between the combination of the above, I just can't get comfortable. I guess it's just good practice for when Liam arrives, let the sleep deprivation begin!

In the meantime, you get to hear me complain in the wee small hours of the morning now. :)

What a revolting development...

Well, in a moment of bumble, bumble, trip and tumble - I fell today. A doozy, straight onto my knee, smashing the kneecap up against some concrete. As my friend Janina would say - "just call me Grace." Unfortunately, it was at Riley's preschool picnic, so I was all but useless there. Thank goodness Nana took the day off and came along, thanks to her the kids were actually able to do some activities and enjoy themselves for a bit before I finally decided I wanted to get home and call the doctor. Saw my midwife, who said Liam looked good on the monitor, and everything seemed fine. She did urge me to go down to the ER to have my knee looked at, but I'm thinking after a night of icing it, and keeping it elevated - I'll have a better idea of whether I've got some sort of serious injury here. According to my dad (who wrote the book on knee injuries), it'll feel much worse tomorrow. Hooray.

However, to find a silver lining in all of this, my midwife did an internal exam to see if the contractions I've been having are doing anything, and sure enough - they are! I went from being closed up like a drum on Monday to 1cm dilated and 50% effaced today!

So, that's the update for today. Until the next one, you can just imagine me quasi-waddle/limping around my house. What a beautiful, ladylike sight.

A couple of updates...

First of all.... Welcome to the world Jude Finnegan!! One of my absolute best friends Tara had her baby this past weekend - enduring a rigorous labor and delivery. Hand that woman a medal of honor. That or her ADORABLY cute little guy. I swear he gets cuter by the hour. Many, many, congrats to Tara and Alan. :o)

As far as my updates go, not much was cooking at my doctor's appointment, although for "internal reasons" which I will spare you, as well as the fact that this is my 3rd delivery, and I live 35 minutes from the hospital- I have now been instructed by two of the physicians at my practice that as soon as I think labor might be started, to get my bum into Labor and Delivery. This should spare us the experience of a roadside delivery.

Riley's preschool/kindergarten transition meeting went well. He was approved to continue receiving occupational therapy twice a week for the next school year, so that's fantastic news. And tonight Nick and I go to his school for Kindergarten Orientation!! Serenity now!

That's about all for now. Will update more soon - hopefully with photos.

Howdy howdy...

Hey all. Sorry it's been nearly a week since my last update.

Busy week this week, today is my regularly scheduled OB appointment - we'll see if anything's cooking internally. Then tomorrow I have a meeting with school district personnel regarding Riley's placement next year. Wednesday evening is Kindergarten Orientation for parents - ack!! And Thursday Riley has his physical and then a preschool picnic as long as the weather holds out. And Friday.... NOTHING! Yeah. I'll probably try and just curl up in a ball and recover.

I will try and get a photo taken of me so you can see me at nearly 37 weeks. I'm definitely rockin' the Shamu look at this point.

Talk soon!!

Those cats were fast as lightning...

Oh yes, we've got some kung fu fighting going on over here. At least in my tummy. Kung Fu Master Liam seems to have picked up some new tricks. Never have I seen such acrobatics in my abdomen. It looks like when people do that little move that they lace their fingers and then do the "wave" with their arms and elbows? I think it's a disco move. Anyway, imagine your abdomen doing that, and that's pretty much what I have going on here.

Other than that, everything is still pretty much status quo here. Liam actually just tried to fight a contraction with all fours. Which was interesting. But in the end, he fought the contraction - and the contraction won.

Gorgeous weather here, hope it's the same wherever you're reading this from!!

My bizarre occurrence of the night...

So a few of you are aware of the fact that we have a cat, Schere, who in the last couple months has taken to using the toilet bowl to urinate. This is not unheard of for cats to do, although I imagine it's still not terribly common. Schere uses the bowl all through the day, 5 or 6 times - and it puts a smile on my face to hear that telltale tinkle coming from the next room. Our good little girl. Until tonight. In my largely pregnant state, as well as the state of perpetually needing to pee - I started waddling my way toward the bathroom. Out of the corner of my eye, Schere started making her way to the commode as well. We glanced at each other, and it was immediately understood - the race was on! And that lithe little booger of a cat beat me, hopped on the bowl and made me WAIT! I was horrified. Upstaged by my own cat. I suppose that considering she's the only other female in the house this was bound to happen at some point. Some moms and daughters fight over sharing clothes, who gets to use the dryer first... Me? I get to fight my cat for the toilet. You just can't make this stuff up.

It's a good thing I don't wear a mood ring...

... the poor little bugger would explode. I'm telling you, these ridiculous mood swings are the pits. One second the world is bright and beautiful, the next I'm a cranky, tired mess. I think part of it is due to the weather, the weather we're having right now is the same kind that you get in late autumn - at which time I normally go into a depression because I LOATHE the winter. But add onto that the rigors of caring for 2 preschoolers, keeping house, and growing a human - and I guess one of those is the last straw. Like this morning, I nearly went into a rage during my futile attempts to sweep up the miniscule little granules that fall off the bottoms of english muffins. What ARE those things anyway? ARGH!

At any rate, I just hope the weather gets warmer again soon, and things start settling down over here. And in the meantime, don't even think of setting foot into my house with an english muffin.