Just Can't Wait

Well, seems like Brother can...we are on schedule to go in tonight at midnight for my induction, and will post pictures from the hospital tomorrow or Thursday if we can.

I can't wait to just get him home and start settling into a new routine as a family of 5. The girls know what's going on and are reacting accordingly with more temper tantrums today, etc. Andrew took the morning off to get some last minute things done around here and to enjoy the gorgeous weather and family time - our last as a family of 4!

So thankful that the girls have each other to get through this together...as they get older and more willful, there is more fighting, but also more loving.

Love you so much my best sisses! :)

Our Presents

We've been opening some presents lately, for the girls and for Brother. Kara (and then Anna) decided that they wanted to be presents too. I personally think Kara rocks her gold lame skirt, and that the mullet really completes the look. :)

Today is our 7 year anniversary. With Brother eagerly anticipated, Nana staying with us to help out (thank you!), and Kara and Anna being their usual sweet/newly very bossy selves, the day was not all about us, and we had to stop our yearly anniversary trips a few years ago. Nonetheless, we were able to carve out some time to reflect on the last seven years and think about how to be a better wife and husband to each other as our family and relationship changes. Love you, Andrew; I couldn't ask for a better husband, and I look forward to, oh, 70 more years together. :)

Hopefully coming is a video of the girls saying "Happy Anniversary;" our camera batteries died. It comes out as "Happy Nannyversy," since they say "Nanny" for "Anna," and it's super cute!

Just the Four of Us

Officially late. Still waiting...getting a little uncomfortable since he's sitting up so high on my ribs...loving on my girls. Still not enough hair in the right places for bows, so bow headbands it is. They like their "pretty bows," I love my pretty girls and am getting sad about my last few days with them.

Oh Girls...

Hope you continue to be this funny after Little comes. They're telling a lot of funny stories and jokes lately. Tonight I asked them to show me their bathing suits, and this was their posing...pretty much they just told me "show booty" over and over, if you can't tell. :)

My big girls are growing up. We are doing better dealing with temper tantrums...they still have them, but recognize after the fact that they were being silly and tell me that they shouldn't have had a temper and that next time they won't (when prompted, of course). They're doing better with reasoning ahead of time too, so I can stop a lot of potential screaming that way. I'm also proud of them for learning to ask for what they need and being polite instead of just whining/crying. Sentences are great! Unfortunately the girls' improved behavior is not in place when they're with Andrew (maybe because he only understands about 50% of what they say)...

One More Week

Of these bests being my only ones.

If he doesn't come before then (and Andrew and I suspect that he won't, but he may surprise us...hopefully not before Andrew's mom comes on Thursday), I'm scheduled to be induced next Tuesday night, June 30th, so he'll be born July 1st. It would be nice for scheduling...we'd go in at midnight, so could put the girls to bed before we go, then I'd be laboring while they slept, and could see them not all too long after they get up in the morning, depending how long it takes. Plus I'm comfortable with being induced, since I was last time and had a very pleasant labor and delivery experience, as labor and delivery go.

We'll see. Still lots to get ready before then, it seems like. Every day I hope that it doesn't happen today! Only one more week of wishing that. :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Andrew, the best dad and husband. I'm proud to be his wife and the mother of his children - I teared up at church this morning just thinking about it (only partially due to my very late pregnancy hormones!). Love you baby, and so do your other 3 babies.

Andrew started the day in bed with his best girls - who did not want to stay asleep in their crib last night at all...I couldn't resist capturing this moment, with Kara's hand in Andrew's face and Andrew's head on the rubber duck she took to bed with her. :)

Andrew played with the worship team at church this morning, so was gone when the girls got up. Kara got down off the bed to go find him and ended up a crying mess on the floor upon learning that she couldn't say "Happy Father's Day" to him, since he wasn't there. They both ran and gave him huge hugs when we joined him at church, and told him then.

My climbers (and not good posers), sitting on top of their kitchen. Daddy's beauties. He's spent plenty of time snuggling and playing with them today so far, loving on them and being adored by his daughters. The icing on the cake is probably the compliment the nursery worker gave him on the girls' throwing skills. :) They are definitely mommy's girls to the core, but are nonetheless daddy's little girls, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

They have been nothing but silly lately...Anna especially. She did eventually say "Happy Father's Day, Daddy," in addition to "Happy Tigger Day, Blueberries," etc. Kara wished a happy Father's Day to her baby seahorse, too, of course.

Happy Father's Day to Grandpa and Pop, too! We all love you very much.

Not Interested...

Me - in cleaning and "nesting" and getting ready. Prompted in part by...

Little Mister's disinterest in coming. He seems quite happy and moves around, is way high up on my ribs, doesn't really contract me very painfully more than once a day if that, even with continued nursing, etc. Right now he has the hiccups.

Kara and Anna - in posing for the camera - they were having too much fun running, dancing, and jumping, as usual. :)

Today marks the longest I've been pregnant - 39 weeks and 2 days - that's the day I delivered the girls after being induced (which has been making me very nostalgic for my pregnancy and their newborn days). I guess we're just going to see how long I can keep a baby in there this time. At least I know he'll be here in a couple weeks at the latest - I think I'll be able to schedule my induction date at my doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Maybe when I have that date I'll be a little more interested in preparations. Until then, we're laying low, but having fun with our first-borns (and I'm giving them lots of extra snuggles!).

I've Got Nothing...

Except some cute pictures of the girls from a couple weeks ago. We took one of these bags to go swimming at Ellen's, so they like to drag them around (or be dragged around) and tell me they're going to "Miss Ellen's house."

Had another doctor's appointment today and I've progressed 1/2 cm in 2 weeks and am not very far along. So, really nothing going on. No real contractions, just debilitating leg pain a few times a day from Brother punching something in my hips. I finally measured on track instead of small (hoping that doesn't mean he's huge)! I was offered an induction at the end of next week (right around my due date), but I declined - Andrew's mom is coming on my due date at the latest anyway, so an induction for planning purposes doesn't make as much sense, I'm generally not too uncomfortable, and I am not really interested in delivering earlier than he wants to come. The doctor doesn't like anyone going past 41 weeks, so I'd be induced at that point...we'll just wait it out.

I need more time anyway. I've been more than discouraged by the messiness of our house and slowness with which I'm able to get things ready, since the girls are being SO demanding with temper tantrums all the time about anything and everything - it just takes a long time and undivided attention to respond to them appropriately. I've gotten a lot done, but it just doesn't really look like it when I step back and look at things objectively.

Emotions are high all around. We're all like this...

Happy one minute - screaming and going crazy the next (this is Kara), with little situational change...ugh.

On a happy note - the girls can say whatever they want, and have been talking SO much more: being inventive, funny, and narrating what's going on - even talking to each other (usually telling each other what to do or arguing - "no ____" vs. "no ____" in very serious tones). They've started saying some pretty long sentences too, minus articles. They can both (finally!) count up to 5 reliably, and love telling me how many of things are there, or how many they want. Doesn't quite balance out the tempers, but it helps!

Our Last Hurrah

This past weekend we took a last family of 4 "vacation" to St. Charles, which is only 25 minutes from our house. We left Saturday around noon and came home a little more than 24 hours later. It seemed like a lot longer though, since we had so much fun - the girls did especially, which made it extra fun for me and Andrew. The main highlight was staying in a hotel - ours had numerous fountains that they splashed in, as well as a pool, of course, for a swimming adventure Sunday morning.

Happy girls pulling around our suitcase...Kara did it first and then called Anna over so they could be "bests" and do it together. As you can see, Anna wasn't quite as into the sisterly love...

Anna being a joker - they are starting to display their senses of humor, Anna especially. Kara is more likely to be the one in the background saying "no," and telling me the truth instead of making up silly stories...though she's a joker in her own right. They've been running around the house the past couple weeks making turkey noises and when I asked Kara what her turkey name was, she told me "grandpa." :) Today they ran around saying "Anna Porgy running away" and "Kara Porgy running away" from the nursery rhyme Georgy Porgy..."when the boys came out to play, Georgy Porgy ran away." They are so much more fun now that they can express themselves!

Pretty much all we did on our trip was walk around downtown St. Charles and eat various meals (mostly outside, a novelty) - rain/a huge thunderstorm kept our time brief Sunday, so we didn't spend as much time at the big park by the river as we would have liked. Highlights included: the first restaurant that had a waterfall and tons of birds looking around for food, a dog in a stroller - the girls circled the stroller forever until they finally got to pet him, bouncing in the booths at another restaurant, seeing horse-drawn carriage rides - one with an especially loud horse that was much imitated, and a huge dog they got to play with at lunch Sunday - it licked their faces and tried to take their people, which=fun in their book! They also apparently liked the "mean boy" who pushed Kara and then tried to take her milk cup. They have since decided that they didn't like the dog in a stroller, because babies should be in a stroller, and that they didn't like the horses. Whenever we go somewhere the past few days, Anna makes sure to tell me there are "no horses" before we get out of the car. One of my highlights was when we saw the covered wagon near downtown and Anna (and Kara) told me to "uncover wagon." :)

It seems like we're still going to be waiting for a while before we become a family of 5 (I've been having fewer contractions than even the very few I had weeks ago, and he seems like he's more comfortable in there than ever...I am too). Today the girls started telling me they want brother to come out of my tummy, which is definitely new. In case he does come soon, I am so thankful that we got to have one last little time of focusing only on the girls and having fun with them!

Winding Down

This past week was a busy one for us, and the girls handled it as well as could be expected, but still didn't do well with us messing with their schedule EVERY day. Monday we went to the Cardinals game (as our Fredbird meeting post indicated), Tuesday we had my doctor's appointment during their nap time and then toured the hospital where Little will be born, Wednesday first thing in the morning (before they usually get up) we had the ultrasound, Thursday we went and hung out and swam at my friend Ellen's with Caitlin, who was in town with her baby girl Carolyn, who's pretty much exactly a year younger than Kara and Anna and whom I'd never met. Friday we had dinner with friends, and then Saturday and Sunday we went on a last little vacation as a family of 4 (more on that later).

Hoping to just have a low key week to be able to get everything and everyone ready for Little's arrival...getting the girls back into a normal routine will help! The past couple days Kara has seemed a little feverish and out of it...and today she really was being difficult...since she's been such a temper queen lately, it was hard to distinguish what was because she's not feeling well and what was just her stubborn little will, and thus how to respond to it.

Here are a lot of pictures from my attempts to get everyone to pose at "Miss Ellen's house." The girls had a ridiculous amount of fun swimming, even though it was pretty cold (Anna tried to drown herself a hundred times by trying to swim away from whoever was holding her, and repeatedly told me she wanted to "sink"), and were sweet to Carolyn...it was the first instance, though, when one of them didn't want to share something with a baby, so we've been talking about how they don't have to share everything with brother. As much as they love babies and are excited for brother to come, I guess we can't be sure what it will look like when he's here!

The shoes were a distraction, as you can see. They did all share some snuggles, though, which was cute. :)

"Little" Mister Update

I had my long-awaited ultrasound today, and as I expected, he is not too small (I knew those 30+ pounds had gone somewhere!). In fact he clocked in at the 72nd percentile. At 36 weeks and 6 days he's already 6 lbs 11 oz, which is how big Kara is when she was born (Anna was a bit smaller). I'm not showing any signs of going into labor, and my fluid levels were good, so Little is shaping up to be a big baby, it seems. If my experience last time is any indication, my body likes to hold on to babies. We'll see. I'm just hoping he's not so big I have to have a c-section.

It was a nice surprise that we were in a room that had a 3-D ultrasound this time...seeing pictures of him made me really look forward to his arrival. I love that his cheeks are so chubby already. Andrew and I both immediately thought, "wow, he really looks like the girls." These pictures of the pictures are not the best representation of how he looked onscreen, but isn't he a cutie? :)

Happy Birthday Nana and Grandma

Happy Birthday Nana (Monday) and Grandma (Tuesday) from your little cheeseball granddaughters (and from your daughter/son)! The girls have gotten good at saying "Happy birthday Nana" and "Happy birthday Grandma." I just need to record it!

They really love hanging out in this suitcase. It's where their "hi" and hugs game originated, which can be seen below from when we were playing in the car the other afternoon.

It used to be they would just hug each other...now they're involving other people/things they carry around. And last night during our hospital tour we got them saying "Hi Andrew Pierce," "Hi Kara Pierce," etc. before they gave hugs.

One more little snippet that makes me laugh. Another fun game they play is calling for each other when they want the other to come play/sit with them. It's almost exclusively a loud cry of "Sissy!" though they can finally say "Kara" instead of just Rara (it's still Nanny and Rara though). Too cute.

The Highlight of Their Lives

It only took walking the wrong way (and therefore almost ALL the way around the stadium in 90 degree heat). It was worth it. Kara said "Fredbird touch hat" for the next 20 minutes (Andrew was holding Anna, so I didn't get to catch her reaction in the same way). We looked at this picture for 20 minutes straight after we got home (they cried when I accidentally clicked away from it (that was probably mostly exhaustion, but still)), and made up a Fredbird song. Etc.

We also all shared their first ice cream cone at the game - it was hot! - no pictures since they were messy and on our laps, but the guy sitting next to us took one so he could show his wife how cute they were, so I guess they were. It kept them from wanting to get up and go potty for the thousandth time - though they did great with it, annoying as it was - Anna stayed dry the whole time with a couple of successes, Kara had one accident and one success. We're proud of them for knowing and telling us when they need to go. Still working on underwear...

And yes, I am full-term (37 weeks) in just a couple days. Andrew said I don't look it, not sure I agree (I think the worst part of my pregnancies is loss of muscle tone...babies eat my muscles); I don't really feel it, especially compared to last pregnancy. We have our ultrasound (finally!) Wednesday morning, so we should know more then - I measured small again last week, though not as small as I had previously. Still not worried, but something to keep in prayer.

New Car

The girls are in love with our new car. We spent a lot of time in it over the weekend...just playing and checking it out. They have yet to ride in it - that will come tonight. I haven't really processed having a 2nd car or the fact that I'll be driving a van (though this is the exact van I wanted and we had decided a van was the best choice for our getting to be large family), but that the girls love it so much makes me happy. They cried when we had to leave every van we looked inside of, and cry when we have to get out of our new car.

Though we've worked on saying van, it's currently a "big car."