Braxton Hicks or Real Contraction/Labor?!

I know I still have 10 weeks, but this little lady could decide she wants to come at any time. And with Casey being out of town for work, it freaks me out even more that it could happen now and I wouldn't be ready.
Last night I was having some low belly contractions. Nothing painful, just similar to what I had with Jacqueline when I contracted to 7 cm without even knowing it. So, my big question is.... How do I know if it is BH or Real? I know they say that BH will go away, which did happen because I've had nothing this morning, but with me, it could be hard to tell. I did contract to 7 without even knowing it, and I slept through it, so they aren't unbearable. I can't leave the girls, and it would be weird to take them to the hospital, and I would be driving myself, so really, HOW DO I KNOW?!!!

30 weeks

Today the girls and I spent a couple hours in Boulder. Leah had her appointment with the girls at the CU Language Project, and then I had my 30 week OB appointment. In between, we stopped for a smoothie at the new smoothie place that took the place of Juice Stop - which is where I went every couple weeks on my break when I worked in Boulder 6 years ago. Leah wasn't very cooperative for most of her appointment, which was a little disappointing, but she had a new girl. She had a new girl last month too, so I think that is part of the reason she hasn't performed as well.
My appointment went well. I left my sample right away, and then within a minute or so getting back to the waiting room, the nurse was there to take us back. I weighed in close to 142 pounds. The highest the scale got was 141.9, so I gained less than a pound in 2 weeks, which is making up for the 9 lbs in the previous 4 weeks. :) After I weighed in, we made our way into the exam room with the nurse. My blood pressure was 124/60. And then Eryn came in! She's huge! She has 2 weeks left before her baby is due, so it's a little sad that she will still be on maternity leave when Baby Tina comes, but 2 our 3 isn't bad when you get the doctor on call! She said they will prick my finger in a month to check my iron levels, and next appointment I will sign my VBAC consent form and we will discuss all that goes along with that. And around 36 or 37 weeks, I will have a quick ultrasound in the exam room to check on baby position. I told Eryn that Tina is now on my bladder and she said it feels like the head, but who knows. And, even with the ultrasound to check position, she could turn in the weeks between the ultrasound and the birth. I measured in at 30 cm, right where I should be, and Tina's heartbeat was 140 BPM.
Here are this week's pictures. Enjoy! Casey left last night for Dallas for the week, and I forgot to have him take a picture before he left, so Jacqueline took a TON before she went to bed. She just couldn't get the right picture - either no belly, or not enough, too blurry. Here are a few that I saved:

Jacqueline posed me for this one; I guess she thought I needed something different. She worked on the perfect pose for about 2 hours before we took them - from the minute I told her that she was going to take the picture. :)

This one is pretty good... one of the best ones.

This one was zoomed in too much.

And here is Jacqueline imitating my pose. :)

And we finally got my usual pose, after a lot of takes!

I have set up my appointments through November 1st (39 weeks). They are all on Mondays at 9:45 because appointments at 10:30 and later no longer work.... my baby starts preschool 2 weeks from today! :(

Pregnancy Craving #3

I have a new obsession with orange Jell-O. I've added madarin oranges, and last time I really liked it, but this time I would rather just have the orange Jell-O on it's own. It has become my new bedtime snack, instead of ice cream. It's so yummy!!

Leah amazes me every day!!!

Leah is now 21 months old. She talks really well (much better than Jacqueline did at her age) and sings so many songs! Her list includes:
ABCs (says all of them)
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Row Row Row Your Boat (started the end of last week)
Rock-A-By-Baby
Oh Don't You Remember (lullaby that my mom and grandma sing) - started this one today
If You Are Happy and You Know It
The Clean Up Song
Days of the Week

(and maybe a few others that I can't think of!)
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Ring Around the Rosies

She knows moon and star for shapes
And she counts to 13!!!!!

Also, something that I find hilarious is that we have blocks up on the window in the kitchen that spell out baby. Leah pointed to them and said "B-A-B." It was so cute!!!

Braxton Hicks???!!

Welcome 29 weeks!!!! :) We have SO MUCH to do in the next 11 weeks!
The girls were sitting down to dinner, Casey was doing a walk-through with Pat, the guy who heads the company that has been working around our house for about 2 weeks now, and I was about to sit down at the table with my plate of food, when..... All of the sudden I got a very bad, full belly cramp. Yes, it was my first Braxton Hicks contraction! No back pain, thank the lord! :) Along with this being my first BH, it was also my first full belly contraction. So, thank you Baby Tina for 2 firsts!!!

Glucose Results

I got a call this morning just before lunch from the OB/GYN's office. Sharon was calling with the results of my test, which came back normal. Yay! No Gestational Diabetes!!!! :)
She also let me know that they checked my iron level, which was a little low, so now I need to start taking an iron supplement. I wasn't very surprised by this because I had to take an additional iron supplement with the other girls as well. So, in a month they will prick my finger at an appointment to check if my iron is back up where it should be.
If it is back where it needs to be, they usually have me stop the supplement, but doesn't that mean my iron level will go back down? Shouldn't I take it until the baby comes? Hmmmm.

Week 28

Today marks the start of week 28, which means I had my last 4 week appointment (next will be in 2 weeks), and I also took the Glucose Tolerance test. After I dropped the girls off at my friend Stacy's house, I drank my orange glucose drink on the way to the Chiropractor. Surprisingly, it tasted much better than I remember it tasting when I was prego with Leah, not quite as sweet - with Jac I had the lemon-lime and that was very sweet!

I got to the hospital about 3 minutes before my hour time limit, so I jumped to the head of the line for blood draws, which was nice. It turns out that I could have drank it about 10 minutes later than I did because my 11 appointment with the OB upstairs ended up being at about 11:15, so I sat in the waiting room up there for about 25 minutes.

My stats were all good. I weighed in at 140, which is a 9 lb. gain in 4 weeks. Wow! :-/ My blood pressure was 112/62 and my belly measured in 29 cm., which doesn't concern the doctor because they have a leeway on either side of 2 cm because the baby could be hanging out in a weird position. I do feel like I have gotten a lot bigger over the last few weeks. My MIL says she thinks I will go in October since I look so big, which would be fine with me, but after Leah being a week late (and who knows when she would have come had I not been induced), I'm not holding my breath. We also listened to Tina's heartbeat, which sounded good for me. Dr. Jamroz didn't tell me what it was, so my guess is that it was normal and nothing to worry about.

Going back in time, Casey felt Tina move for the first time on Friday the 6th as we were driving to Iowa. I sat for a very long time, so she was very active. I love watching her move, and even though this is my third pregnancy, it could never get old!

Possible TMI!!! Stop reading now if you don't want to hear the rest: I was also informed by the nurse that starting next week I will be peeing in a cup at each visit so they can check my proteins. Yippee! That just means I have to remember to drink lots in the morning, so when I get there I have something to leave for them.

Hole in the entryway ceiling

We have three guys here today, tomorrow and probably on Thursday as well who are helping us to make our home more energy-efficient and bring the insulation up to the current standards. Well, the girls and I were eating lunch, when the boss came in and got me from lunch to show me what happened. He prepped me by saying that this doesn't happen very often, but occasionally it does. We walked into the entry, he pointed up, and there was a hole in our ceiling!!!!! Oops! There was a lot of dry wall on the stairs too, but I missed that photo op!

Fun with the Water Globe

I spent most of yesterday and some of today cleaning the Highlander, and Casey dry walled the furnace room in the basement in preparation for the guys coming to make us more energy-efficient on Tuesday. Casey spent some time playing with the girls, and I was able to snap a picture of the three of them playing Hi Ho Cherry-O together.
Casey also inflated the water globe for us. It's a really cool toy, as you can see. All you do is hook the hose up to it, and it's a fun sprinkler to play in. Jacqueline loved it, and Leah liked it too, but she had more fun running away from it.