bellenger's: life of a family of four: Blog Neglect..

I know, I know. I'm terrible at this! Maybe I'll at least continue this every 2 month update ha ha.. MAYBE. Don't get your hopes up! :-)

So last update Christian had left for Recruiter School and we were at 28 weeks pregnant. Well... NOW Christian is HOME from the 7 week school and up to 36 weeks prego! Only 4 to go!

I spent the whole time Christian was gone thinking about all the things I needed to do to get ready for baby and for my mental health before baby! Well... pretty much nothing on my to do list got done... I spent the first few weeks thinking I had plenty of time and then it hit me that he would be back in 3 weeks! Ooops :-) Most importantly everything for the nursery is under control and we would be good to go if she decided to make her debut today! (She's not though ha ha)

These are a few pics from the last baby shower, March 21st. Then Mom, Grandma, Shannon and I... And then my prego sister, Shannon, and I with our bellies :-) Me at 34 weeks, Shannon at 27 weeks! She's having a boy, Parker, due mid June!

My mom, grandparents and I decided we were going to drive down to San Antonio for Christian's school graduation and we were all set, hotels booked, just time was taking forever to go by to actually leave. So the plan was to leave March 22, last baby shower was on the 21st so then we would be all set, 34 weeks prego, Dr had no objections, just to get out of the car every 1.5-2 hours to not get blood clots (not a problem, between me and papa, potty stops would be at least that often ;-) ha ha). We were ready and excited for 80 degree weather and to get a mini vacation and road trip! I had a regular check up, 34 week-er and before leaving for Texas to make sure everything was still good to go. Everything was normal, baby wiggly, good heart rate, and measuring was finally caught up. They say generally your uterus measurement matches the week of pregnancy you are in-34th week, 34 cm! (She's been about 1.5-2 cm behind the week at previous appointments, growth spurt!) So without going into too many details that some people don't want to know ha ha-pregnancy is funny with all the leaks, pains, stretching and swelling, the day after my Dr appointment we had a few... well symptoms I guess you can call them, that were weird... So calling and asking the Dr about these happenings, they said I was probably fine but to come in if I felt like I needed to... I figured I had 2 business days before Texas Trip to get checked out in case something was up. Well, Thursday (2 days after check up) I had 2 what I decided were real contractions in about 10 minutes and thought I'd better get checked out JUST IN CASE... No baby needed to be born on the way to Texas or on the way back-Mom didn't want to deliver her ha ha. So I get an appointment for that afternoon, everything with baby seems fine, they decided I probably had a yeast infection or something bla bla BLA (PS, uterus measured at 33 cm, 2 days after the last measurement... baby dropped a little!) Since I was going out of town they thought they'd do an exam to see any evidence of a yeast infection, bla bla BLA more... Well that got ruled out. Then they decided they would check for cervix changes (dilation, effacement) since I was already "in the position" ha ha. WELL turns out, 34 weeks prego, I was already 1cm dilated and 50% effaced-you can look it up if you need explanation on what that means ha ha. SO my family wouldn't let us take the trip to Texas :-( ... It wasn't likely that McKenna would come, usually it takes weeks and weeks before dilation gets significant, BUT we couldn't risk it... Saddy pants, no vacation or San Antonio tourism... And baby didn't come the days we would have been gone... UG. ha ha... So Christian had to come ASAP from school, JUST IN CASE... We all got a little nervous that McKenna would hurry and decide to come before dad got home! So Christian graduated early afternoon March 25 and was home by midnight :-)
(PS it's been a week and still no baby ha ha).

I've decided that she is a little trick-er; a prank baby. Gets everybody all excited and then says "PSYCH!!!! FOOLED YOU!" ha ha... This week we hit 36-the start of the 9th month of pregnancy! Only 27 days until the due date!

So (sorry, gotta do all the baby updates!!) Monday (March 31st) I had pretty consistent contractions throughout the day, none painful, but they were there! Nothing like 5 minutes apart, but at points only 7-10 minutes apart, so I didn't know what was going on... (Little trick-er here....) She dropped again that day too-less lung pressure, more room for food ha ha-my belly lower and poking out more... WEIRD. So after calling the Dr about these new developments, I was told what to watch for to be reasons to get checked at the hospital... So we waited it out-I had a regular check up scheduled for Tuesday (yesterday). So I'm ready for this appointment, ready to hear something that I wanted to hear-but after telling the Dr what he was supposed to be doing in the first place (he was RIDICULOUS. Let me tell you, I'm surprised my blood pressure didn't fly through roof and throw me straight into labor with this idiot doctor (my normal Dr missed my last scheduled appointment with her and then went on 3 weeks vacation! woo. She should be back next week THANK GOODNESS) so for these last 3 visits I have told you about have been with different doctors each time, but this man yesterday. RETARDED. not impressed. I could go on and on about him-MOVING ON :-) )

OK so after me reminding what is supposed to happen at the week 36 visit and that test getting done-I was again "in the position" so I had to ASK to have the cervix check-you'd figure if a patient was dilated at the last appointment they would see what was going on 2 weeks later, AND only 34 weeks pregnant with the dilation. BUT oh NO, had to ask for it! GRR. So this man made this checking a very unpleasant experience (last time it wasn't so uncomfortable, what a jerk ha ha) Anyways, he decided I was maybe 1.5 cm dilated and still 50% effaced.

NOT WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR.

BUT oh well. She tricked everybody again! She's ready when she's ready!

(PS-uterus measured at 34 cm-and I KNOW she has been growing like a weed, so dropping more on Monday... she keeps getting lower and everybody thinks she's just not up to par with measurements-nope, she's just getting lower in my belly!)

(below: week 35-Sunday, March 29, before dropping, if you can compare and see the difference)

(below: week 35, Monday, March 30, after dropping-poking out front more)

(above: here is yesterday-beginning of week 36-I know, I know, I don't look huge, but it's a big difference from before pregnancy!)

So at this point, who knows when she will decide to make her debut. My sister and I were both 3 weeks early, so I've been expecting a early baby-so if she will be like Shannon and I, she will be here next week-probably April 7 or 8, but I guess we will see what happens! I started to figure she would decide to come today since it's April Fool's Day, but it's not looking like it :-)

Other than all that... McKenna has been really wiggly and growing like a weed. At this point, according to the books she should be putting on about an ounce a day and they say about 6 pounds, 19 inches... but I bet she'll be smaller :-) My belly is growing, stretching and hurting worse now since she's dropped even more, but I would do this part of pregnancy over and over again rather than the beginning months and months and months of sickness. I just haven't given birth yet to know my opinion on that part yet :-) I'll let you know! And Braxton Hicks contractions keep a comin' more often so who knows! She's seeming sort of stubborn and can't make up her mind, if nothing else, she'll be here in less than 4 weeks :-)

Basically that's the baby update.

Here are the pretty much finished nursery pictures (basically there just needs to be a baby....)

Things are still a little cluttered but we'll get it worked out :-)

The family heirloom cradle (will be moved to our room when she arrives) with the PERFECT fitting mattress we ordered online and the cute little covers my friend Brenda made (THANKS BRENDA!!) Notice the princess bee's on the top left cover :-)

And I love the pink curtains on the closet, so she can't pinch her fingers when she is older-

only con: Morgan thinks she needs to get into EVERYTHING.

(story: when we bought this house, it came with all doors, including closet doors, but then after removing all doors due to painting the entire house and having new flooring put it, AND the flooring man having the empty house to himself (with all doors placed neatly in the garage), we somehow MISPLACED an ENTIRE CLOSET DOOR when it came down to putting them all back in.

Sounds sorta fishy, huh?!)

Needless to say, we will have the guest room (man room) fully equipped with closet doors and cute perfect matching pink curtains in McKenna's room :-)

We changed our minds on the crib set-we found this on-for about 50 bucks cheaper than the other and it came with 13 pieces, instead of just the 4. And the colors all match perfect-LOVE IT!

So here's Christian to talk a little about whatever he wants! :-)

Well, I was originally supposed to go to Recruiter School in the middle of March. I called up some people to get it changed to allow me to be here for the birth of McKenna. They changed it to the beginning of February, thankfully. It was a challenging school that continuously racked your memorization skills. After two 8-12 minutes speeches, 4 in person sales labs, and 3 telephone sales labs, I graduated. There was much celebration with classmates after each of the big tasks that were set before us. I became a big fan of chicken wings at both Hooters and Buffalo Wild Wings. On graduation day, I was awarded the sales lab top performer award, which means I did really good at the 4 in person sales labs. I will begin Recruiting for the Air Force on May 1st, in Boise, ID. It will be a big change from what I have been doing, but I am up to the challenge. This new job will allow me to stay in Boise, ID, which is a great city to live in, and not have to deploy. This way I can be here for my family and friends. This will also allow me to continue to go hunting in ID. I can not wait to get my first Elk. Hopefully that will be this year. If you are interested in joining the Air Force and are in the Boise area, come find me and I will see what I can do.