Are we ready?

This is the question most asked of Kam & I. Its interesting as I sit here this morning and think...are we ready? Another popular question is what do you still need? I usually answer , "nothing" then later I freak out because I feel we are missing some essential items, like a boppy pillow, changing table, and baby monitors to name a few. But then I sit back and think of my great grandma Elise and what she had to raise her 3 wonderful daughters.

A little history on GGJ.........She has been my only connection to biological pregnancy questions on my maternal side. Her daughter Jean, my grandma, passed away before I was born, and then of course my mother, her granddaughter, Jackie, passed away when I was 6.

Throughout both of my pregnancies I have contacted her with questions and just to hear how things were in the "old days". She is more than willing to share her stories, as at 96 years young she is still sharp as a tack. There are days when she isn't as sharp as she once was, which is hard for us to understand, but she still does VERY well. I also have a wonderful mother, mother-in-law, grandmas, sisters, sisters-in-law, and miles of friends to pull advice, stories, and laughs from, but nothing says it quite like my great grammy!

She told me on her second birth that she was out doing chores and told her husband it was time to have a baby and thats just what she did. She went inside called the mid-wife and it was baby time. No hospital, no monitors, no anesthetic...NOTHING, just her, a midwife, and a baby on the way. When this bundle came out she didn't have a boppy pillow to help her breast feed, or monitors to hear if the baby was awake in its crib, or a changing table equipped with butt paste and many lotions. I feel that my grandma Jean, and my great aunts, Clarice and Linda turned out really well. Okay Linda was born at a hospital but I am pretty sure she didn't get to come home to a Bumbo seat! :) And GGJ was not worried about things on her Target registry that she needed before kids came. :)

She probably was also not worried about how the family pet was going to react. Which has been our latest concern, I mean its almost obsessive on my part. (I know thats a shock that I would obsess about something!) We are so worried about how our "baby girl" Sadie Mae will react. Will I still have time to snuggle her, will I still call her my "doggy-dog dogerton" will I still play "dance with the mama" with her? Will I still give her a puppy massage? I know most of you are picking your chins off of the floor, but these things really do happen at our house! :) I know Sadie Mae will do wonderful, she is great and she will love "baby hippi" as her best friend. and vice versa. :)

We will be fine, and yes we are ready. We have a lot of questions of "when can we do that?" but we have a WONDERFUL support staff around us to pull information from! :) And even if we don't pull the advice out it always flows freely! :) Which we love!!!!

Thank you again for all the love and support, Kam & I are so blessed to have amazing people in our lives offering up much love and prayers. Please know we (Kam, I, baby Hippi, & Sadie Mae) are forever thankful!

More to come........but in the mean time, MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!

should I start freaking out yet????

Hello all, oh how I hate that I go so dang long between posts. I was thinking maybe a video blog is the way for me to go, I mean really, we all know how I LOVE to talk. If thats a shock to some of you...then you do not know me, and what are you doing reading this! :)

Oh time, where have you gone? I honestly feel like yesterday we were just making the big announcement. "Is this the LONGEST pregnancy ever?" (only mom will get that joke!) But then again as I watch my ever growing belly I realize that its gone really slow. So are we ready? I don't know if you are ever ready...I mean we have diapers, we have clothes, we have the necessities, but ARE WE READY??? I think it must just come to you, I don't know if thats the right answer, but I sure hope it does. They say the best way to prepare for a baby is for a couple to get a pet. Well most of you know my pet history, NOT GOOD. NOT GOOD AT ALL. But maybe I wasn't meant to be a single mom, because now that Kameron & I have raised Sadie Mae, I think we have done real well. I mean she has her moments, she can be a little crazy, but all in all she really is a wonderful dog. Lets hope this shows some type of merit to our parenting skills. We also come from very good parents, so hopefully we learned a thing or two. Not to mention about 90% of our friends are parents so the network of people we can reach out, is endless. :) I think we might make it!

We are now doing 2 doc appts a week. Which is good, better safe than sorry. I can't say that the appointments have gone EXACTLY as I would like them to, this child likes to rock to it's own schedule and really thinks following the rules at the doctors office is not on his/her schedule. Well lets hope this is not a preview of what is to come. As we all know, I tend to like things my way, somehow I think that is all about to change! :)

I cannot believe its 13 days away. We c-section on 3/3 at 7:30am, YIKES! I think we have to be there at 5am, I mean I am a morning person but REALLY?!?!?! We will have my mom and Kameron in the delivery room (as long as the anesthesiologist allows 2 people. And Kam will cut the cord, not normal for c-sections, but Doc Bradley is letting us get away with it! Kam's parents will be at the hospital at the same time as will Emy. I am sure more will arrive that day to greet us, I am so excited. Sometimes I think I am so excited I could wet my pants, for those of you who have been prego you know thats not a big stretch of the imagination.

We had my parents here this past weekend, dad helped Kam in the basement and mom helped me hang things in the babies room. Also on Saturday my sister Emy and I were baptized. You might think thats odd, but neither of us ever had been before so it was a big deal. I was so happy to share the special day with Emy-she is very special to me! :) Not to mention she is one of Hippi's Godmothers! :)

Also we told our parents the sex of the baby, but we are still keeping it TOP SECRET from everyone else. Not that this is easy, because it is NOT. But everyone will find out soon enough, after all its only 13 days! :)

As we do 2 doc visits a week, Kameron cannot attend any more, we are saving his days off for when the baby gets here. It has been SO wonderful having him come with me, I am so much more relaxed then. But I do have a wonderful group of people who I have begged to take me to the remaining 4 appointments. It is hard to find people who have jobs that are flexible enough to let them take time off to run me to Bismarck. Luckily Tammi can take me today and Monday. My mil, Rusty will take me next Thursday and then the last appointment on 3/1 will have me going by myself but Tanya on call in case I need anyone. Kameron was pretty worried about me being alone and since he isn't the easiest to get ahold of at work, I need people on speed dial in case I need anything. When I go up on 3/1 I will be staying up until we come home with baby. Lynae was kind enough to offer her home to us until we check in to deliver.

We are forever grateful to all of our friends and families who have offered much love and support throughout the past 35.5 weeks. What a trip it has been! We ask you to continue your prayers in the next 13 days as, our anxiety levels have began to rise and we know we aren't out of the clear yet. Thank you in advance for the millions of prayers that go up for us and baby hippi! :)

We love all of you....

Hopefully you will be reading more from us sooner than later! :)