Benjamin

I had an appt yesterday. I am still holding strong at 1cm. So it seems that Benjamin will unfortunately NOT be coming early!

The c-section has been scheduled for 12:30 on Monday August 10th. I am still hoping for him to come earlier, but I doubt that will happen. At least I know the end is in sight. less than 3 weeks now.

Here are some pictures of me at 36 weeks. Scott said my belly looks bigger here than normal, but either way it's still huge.

The Incident

I have been asked to explain what happened this weekend, so here I go.

Friday evening we went over to a friend's house to have a pool party for our care group. 3 couples, 5 children. The kids played on the playground, we ate (pizza, chips, salad, watermelon, brownies and ice cream), and then we swam. Well that's the order most of us went in. Will swam and swam and then eventually got out of the pool to eat maybe 3 bites of pizza and then went back in the pool. He was having a BLAST because they had a diving board.

After all the food was cleaned up I joined the kids in the pool. This pool has a long step just like our pool did at our blue house in Tampa. So I was sitting on that step with Kirstine next to me on my right. She was playing with a watering can, most of the time watering my head. The other dads were to my left and we were talking. Scott was in the deep end with Will. Next thing I know I look over and Kirstine is underwater. I thought nothing of it at first and grabbed her to pull her up. But the second she was in my arms she threw up all over me. I yelled at Scott who swam faster than I have ever seen him swim in my life. He took her and did I don't know what. Some back thrusts and other stuff. She threw up more. He yelled for us to call 911. We did. Don't remember much after that. Was hyperventilating a whole lot. By the time the ambulance arrived she was done throwing up and was seeming okay (except for the nonstop crying upset thing). They checked her out but said we definitely had to go to the ER for more exams. So Kirstine and I rode in the ambulance, while Will and Scott followed us.

I layed on the stretcher strapped down in the back and she layed on my chest holding me. She cried the whole time. She was still in her swimsuit and I had a big towel laid over her. The guy in the back with us gave her a little stuffed bear dressed like Ronald McDonald and a little beanie baby horse. They are her new favorite toys (Horsie and Ronald Bear).

In the ER they did lots of poking and prodding and listening to her lungs. They tried to get blood from one of her arteries (I think?) but were not having any success. They did her right hand for like 5 minutes, then her left hand for like 5 minutes, and then back to her right hand. They eventually got it. She did not like that at all. They took an x-ray and ran an IV into one of her hands.

Uncle Bill, Aunt Janet, and Rob came up and got Will for us. So he had a WONDERFUL night camping out at their house and sleeping in Big Will's bed.

At around 11:30 Scott took Kirstine to the bathroom, and when they got back she was a whole new Kirstine, the normal one. The first sign of normality that I saw was when Scott was standing up holding her and they were talking about her 2 stuffed animals. Scott said something about the teddy bear being dressed up like Ronald McDonald, and she laughed and said "That's silly!". From there on she was the most social little thing. Asking everyone what their name was, showing everyone her earrings and toenail polish, doing the things that Kirstine normally does. It was a very comforting moment, because it was then that we knew all would be well.

They admitted us into the hospital and we got to our room at about midnight. Scott left shortly after to go home and get some stuff. They brought in pillows for Kirstine and hooked up her IV at around 1:15. So that's when she went to sleep. She asked me to sleep with her, and the nurse said it was totally fine, so I climbed up into that hospital crib and cuddled with her til I couldn't physically lay like that anymore. It was pretty tight in there with Benjamin in the middle of us. Scott got back around 2am and I left shortly after. (There was only 1 "bed" and there was no way in the world I could even sit on that remotely comfortable for more than 10 minutes, much less try to sleep on it, so I went home to sleep). Scott let me sleep late and didn't call to wake me up til about 9am. I got dressed super quick and went to Party City to get her balloons and a party bag. By the time I got there they were coming in to start unhooking everything from her.

So that's it. Our terror story of the weekend. Praise God that both Kirstine and Benjamin made it safely through the weekend. I had NO contractions during all of that, which is very odd for me. (I did have some once I got home from the hospital in the middle of the night, but none while any of it was happening).

Kirstine saw a picture of a kid in a swimming pool Saturday morning while she and Scott were hanging out at the hospital, and she got excited and wanted to go swimming again. Yesterday Scott asked her if she rememebered what happened and she said, "I went under water. And then I got mommy." She also said that she had fun at the hospital and wants to go back. Scott said when any of the nurses or doctors would leave her room Saturday morning she kept asking where her friends went. So cute.

Hello Baby Toby!

We met Baby Toby this weekend and Will and Kirstine LOVED him. Here are some of the pictures we got: This first one is of the 5 current grandkids. There won't be just 5 for much longer so we had to grab it while we could.

Benjamin News

This post is more for future memory of my pregnancy than for your information.
Last week I had an appt. at 9am on Monday morning. I didn't want to ask Aunt Janet to keep the kids since they had just gotten back from vacation. So they, in their double stroller, went with me. I took a caprisun and a snack for them and let them have it as soon as I got back into the room.
This visit was preceded by a very contraction filled week, one night being so bad and painful that i finally took a pill for it. Needless to say, we weren't that surprised when I was dilated more than I should be. My OB was a little worried so she wanted to have me monitored. If I had been by myself I would just have stayed in the office and gone to a different room to sit on the monitor. But since I had both kids we decided it would be better to go downstairs to the hospital to hang out in triage. That way I'd be in a big room with a tv so the kids could watch cartoons. (My OB office is 2 floors above the hospital). After being on the monitor for an hour I had to get a urinalysis which came back saying I was dehydrated. So then I had to stay another hour drinking lots of water so I could take the test again. Eventually Scott was able to get off work to come take the kids home (around 12:45), and I left at 1:45. Scott then ordered me on bedrest for the week. I only minded when there were times that I had stuff I really needed to get done. But for the most part I had a very nice, lazy week in bed and laying on the couch watching movies. Scott prepared lunches for the kids that Will could get out of the fridge by himself, and the kids did a great job of playing upstairs and in the new playroom and letting me be lazy. It was nice that it happened on a week where I had NOTHING on the calendar. Also during this time I took a contraction-stopping pill every time I felt a contraction (usually only in the evenings).

My appt this week was Tuesday afternoon, and probably thanks to the no contractions and the nice restful week, I was a little more closed and am totally fine. No bed rest needed. And I can do whatever I want now. I will be 36 weeks tomorrow. Now the fun baby preparations can begin.

No pictures...

So here's the deal... Our home computer is at it's breaking point. It runs soooooo incredibly slow that I completely refuse to use it anymore. I don't know what to do to get it fixed. Usually our friend Sean does it. But what do you do when you don't know computer guys? Where are you supposed to take them? So what my plan has been for the past months is this... I load the camera onto my computer. Then save all pictures to my flash drive. Then I plug the flash drive into my work computer and blog from there. Here's the problem - I loaned my flash drive out and don't have it back yet. So until then I'm just not doing pictures. I think Scott has one so I'll look for it and hopefully that will work. But that's why I haven't even posted lately.

Information about our Tampa trips will come when i have pictures to show with.

As for what's going on with the James Family right now...

Kirstine is fully potty trained. She slept in panties for the first time last night and it was a success. She has been in panties during nap for a while, but in pullups at night to be safe. But after about 2 weeks of waking up dry, and then lately even going up to 3 hours in the morning before she will even pee, I made an executive decision last night to just let her stay in panties. I think we're good!

Kirstine LOVES to sing. That's all she does these days. Her favorite songs are Waves of Mercy (she does the hand motions sooo cute), the rock song that was our theme for our backyard bible clubs (and she does these motions so cute too), Jesus Loves Me, Old MacDonald, and The Sun is Hot.
She is the most friendly little thing I've ever met. She talks to everyone we see. And on some days (like today) Will is too. And he tells everyone EVERYTHING. His usual start to a conversation has something to do with him liking the Gators, and then he asks that person if they like the Gators too. Kirstine is also obsessed with toenail paint. She gets so excited when she sees women with their toes painted. "She has paint just like me!!!" We made friends at story time with the girl next to us this morning with that as our start.

Both kids are incredibly anxious for Benjamin's arrival. They love to kiss my belly. Kirstine loves to put her hands on it and then scream "He moved!!!" Usually he didn't move when she said that, but it's super cute. She hugged him one day and said, "Hi, Benjamin. Nice to meet you!" Did I mention before that when I told Will that Aunt Faydra was going to have a baby (the day she went into labor) he cried for 30 minutes. Because it wasn't fair because he wanted our baby to come out and not hers. It was very cute.

Basement Update:
Almost done. We are done rolling, I just have to do all the trimming. The carpet is in we just have to schedule them to install it. And then there are just a few small details that need to be done (like putting the light and outlet plate covers on, puttying the holes in the baseboard and then I have to touch up that paint, handles on the cabinets...). Then comes the fun of decorating, putting shelves in the closet, and moving all the toys in! That closet part is most important since that is what is holding us up with fixing Will's room to make space for Benjamin's clothes. (We need his toys out of the closet so we can add organizers there to fit more clothes).

4th of July plans? Tonight is free swimming and some festival thing up the road. Tomorrow Scott gets off around noonish so hopefully we will go to Alabama Adventures. No plans yet for Saturday morning. In the evening we are going to a friend's house for a cookout. They live a block away from downtown Homewood, so we will then walk up the hill to watch the fireworks. Very interested to see how this goes. Last time we saw fireworks Will loved them inside the van, but K hated them everywhere.

Oh, and Benjamin news? I've got 6 weeks to go. My belly is huge, or so I think. I'm 1 cm already, but that's normal. They've got me going in for weekly visits already. Contractions have mostly stopped, thank goodness! I still have them occasionally, but they're not painful and they don't last. We're just waiting on the basement to get done so we can get the rest of our preparations moving.