Still Waiting

Well, here's the baby scoop: we are still waiting for this baby to come.  We get a little nervous at times as my blood pressure wants to creep up a bit, which makes my doctor want to start talking about inducing me.  However, she knows how much I want to avoid that, so as of now, I am on a sort of bedrest.  Although every time I take my blood pressure at home, it is normal, so that is good.  I think being sick last weekend (bad stomach bug- the first time I have thrown up this whole pregnancy) got me really dehydrated, and kind of spiraled me into this.  But I have to say, I feel good in general, other than being 9 1/2 months pregnant.  Ha.  Anyway, I had the doctor sweep my membranes, hoping that might help bring on labor, but nothing much has happened as of yet.  We also made smoothies from all sorts of tropical fruits (supposedly fruits like pineapple, mango, and kiwi can bring on mild contractions etc.) and did some acupressure, but to no avail.  I'm not supposed to go on long walks at this point (I've done plenty of that over the past 3 weeks anyway) and I'm really not interested in using castor oil.  So now I'm just waiting and thinking positive birthing thoughts.  :)

I stopped working this week, which was nice, and allowed me to rest quite a bit more.  I also worked on a few crafty projects this week to help the time pass and keep me distracted from wondering when this baby will come.  I sewed a diaper bag and some diaper cases, made a basic picture family tree for Gabriel, as well as some picture flashcards of family members.  He seems to like looking at those, and he can name quite a few family members.  He gets especially excited to point out both sets of his grandparents. 


I think it has been somewhat of a hard week for Gabe- or at least the last few days have been hard, as I have had less energy and he has a little cold.  That makes for a whiny baby, but he tries to be happy.  We have enjoyed the warmer weather on some days, and have tried to take advantage of that.  Gabe has asked for lots of walks ("Gok! Mama! Gok!)" outside and we have done that, although more in the evenings when BJ comes home since I haven't had tons of energy for pushing the stroller.  Other days we go out on the patio or on the lawn and blow bubbles, or do a short walk around the block and to get the mail.  I have enjoyed hearing Gabe's babbling this week.  He has been whispering to himself as he plays, something that sounds like "ti-koo-ti-koo-ti-koo".  He has also been pointing out various articles of clothing- "souz", "sass" (shoes, socks), "paaatssss" (pants) and he tries hard to say shirt and other things, but they don't sound much like the real word yet.  Perhaps my favorite word that he says (this week!) is cheese- "tziiiiz", which he says kind of in the back of his throat, over and over while he eats cheese, or if he sees a camera!  I'm not sure how he made the "say cheese!" connection at first, but we are going with it.  So funny.

He loves to pretend he is talking on the phone, and he will hold up my cell phone if he can get his hands on it, or his play cell phone, his favorite car, or anything that remotely resembles a phone- even the foot pedal to my sewing machine!

Gabe's antics keep us laughing pretty constantly; as you can tell by the amount of "Gabe stuff" I post on here, he is the main thing that is going on in our lives.  There isn't always much other stuff that is interesting to post about.  I have liked using this forum as kind of a family journal though, and especially chronicling Gabe's growth and development since I am waaaaaay behind on his baby book.

Speaking of chronicling, BJ and I had some fun reading from our journals about the time we were dating, engaged, etc. and realized that we didn't write nearly as much as we should have.  Fortunately, on a road trip we went on early in our marriage, we brought along a tape recorder and some blank tapes, and told "our story" up to that point in as much detail as we could between the two of us, filling both sides of several tapes.  A year or two ago, BJ converted the audio on those tapes to mp3s with the intent of transcribing it all some day.  This week, spurred on by reading our hilarious but sadly lacking journal entries, BJ began the process of transcribing the first tape.  Judging by the eye rolling and laughing coming from his corner, I can only assume the recording must be pretty cheesy.  I am going to go in and edit and format the document so it can be easily read.  Then we can add it to some of the other stuff I have compiled from that time period (some of our email correspondence- also pretty cheesy and entertaining to read).  Anyway, I think that recording a little bit at a time (as opposed to trying to sit down and write all at once)  is a good way to preserve some of our memories, and is possibly more motivating when you have a ton of stuff to catch up on!  Then you can have a record of what your voices sounded like, and you always have the option of transcribing it. Anyway, just a thought.  Here is one more picture that I just barely caught on camera the other day- just one more thing that represents the funny things Gabe does all day that amuses me!