Surprise Delivery!

HAHAHA! No, Baby has not arrived...even better (well maybe not better, but really exciting)!

Last week, Mailman Vince rang our doorbell with a surprise package from England.  It is always exciting when we get packages from England but we had no idea what was in this package or what it was for.  I showed it to Dave and he said, I could only open the outer layer of wrapping (he thought it was a Christmas present).  I went and opened the outer layer of brown packaging paper and realized that there wasn't anymore wrapping and that maybe we were supposed to see what it was.  I took it back to Dave to make the judgment call.  It turns out that Grandad Fred and Lin had sent us four advent calendars.  Now, Fred and Linda didn't even know how much I have always loved advent calendars and how much of a wonderful surprise this was for me.  Two of the advent calendars were for Dave and myself with chocolates for each day leading up to Christmas and the other two calendars were for Scout and Molly and they had doggy chocolates for each day leading up to Christmas.  Typically, the chocolate advent calendars here have really crappy cheap chocolates in them.  I cannot wait to have some wonderfully creamy English chocolate each day.  How fantastically wonderful is this December going to be?!?!?

I've already told Dave that the human calendars need to be packed in the hospital bag so that we don't miss out on any fun while we are delivering the little one.

The girls posing with their advent calendars

37 Week Update

We had our 37 week doctors appointment today.  It's the same procedure every time we go...check in with receptionist, leave a urine sample, meet with nurse to get vitals taken, go to examination room and wait for doctor.  This appointment was no different from the other 4006 appointments we've had during this pregnancy.  While I was having my vitals taken, I noticed that my blood pressure was rather high.  I've had really good blood pressure this whole pregnancy.  Last week it was a little higher than usual but still within the normal range.  When the nurse took me back to the examination room she told me to lay on my left side while I waited for the doctor.  When the doctor came in, she saw that I had an elevated blood pressure and ran through a checklist of questions for us...am I feeling any pain on my right side under my ribs, have I had any blinding headaches, urinating more than normal, etc.  She also noted that I had some protein in my urine.  I haven't had any pain in my ribs, blinding headaches or excessive urination so she went to get a blood pressure cuff so that she could double check my blood pressure.  My blood pressure had gone down into the normal range and she was seemed pleased.  She is having my urine sent off for a culture to make sure there isn't an infection and we will hopefully get those results next week.  She told me that I need to take it easier than I have been--more laying around, preferably on my side with my feet elevated.  She said that the weight that I gained since last week has all gone to my ankles (or where my ankles once resided). 

Baby's heart rate sounded good and was coming through at 139.  We didn't do an internal exam (the doctor, nor I thought it was necessary today).

Our next appointment is next Wednesday (November 24).  It was a little tough trying to find an available slot with Thanksgiving being next week the office will be closed on Thursday and Friday.  We will be going to the other office across town, but that will be fine since we get to see one of my favorite doctors!

It's Not You....It's Me

There is no excuse for my lack of blogging lately-other than the fact that I'm a lazy, lazy woman!  I think about blogging often...but before I can move my laptop over to me (approximately five feet) I've lost interest in writing.

Nothing too terribly exciting has happened since I last blogged but I'll catch you up just the same.

The day after Granny Roady left, my dear friend Allison came down for the weekend.  Initially, she was going to have a baby shower for me up in Newport News, but with my due date rapidly approaching my doctors thought it best to not travel that far from home.  She came down and helped me finish up the nursery.  I had some wall art custom made for the nursery and Allison helped me to hang it all.  Only a few curse words slipped from our mouths while we were working.  We also went and checked on the new Container Store while she was in town.  Just a warning...that store can be dangerous!

I also had a visit from Lil' Kim and her boys on Tuesday.  I'm pretty sure she has two of the cutest boys in the whole world!  We just hung out and caught up on lost time.

I had a doctors appointment on Friday and all is looking good.  Baby has a strong heartbeat and is measuring on schedule.  The doctor also tested me for Group B Strep and did an internal exam to see if I am close to delivering.  The doctor said my cervix has thinned very little and Baby still seems to be pretty high.  Looks like we still got a ways to go.  My next appointment is November 17.

The swelling in my ankles at the beginning of last week was at it's worst!  Dave said that if I wasn't pregnant, he would think I had broken my ankle.  It appears that the swelling has gone down quite a bit and I'm pleased to not that my ankles may be back where they belong before we know it!

We got some curtains for the master bedroom that promise to block out 99% of the light.  Our plan is for me to sleep when Baby sleeps so we want to make it so that I can sleep anytime of the day.  I have been practicing my napping and seem to have picked it up pretty quickly.

The baby pool is still up and running.  Make sure you make your prediction before it closes on November 25 (or sooner if Baby comes).  The link is on the top right of the blog or you can click here to be directed to it.  Our earliest prediction is coming up this weekend.  There are some really interesting predictions so check it out!

I will try to be a better blogger.  Help me come up with some things to blog about.  Give me your blog topics in the comments section. 

Allez Cuisine!

Granny Roady came to visit this weekend and help me with my latest project.  Since I got pregnant, I decided that I wanted to make a bunch of food and store it in the freezer so that when Baby got here I wouldn't have to worry about cooking for a while.  Our chest freezer arrived a couple of weeks ago and I have been anxious to fill it.  Monday and Tuesday, I gathered the recipes that I wanted to prepare and started to make my shopping list.  Granny Roady arrived Wednesday afternoon and that evening we went out in search of the ingredients for the meals I wanted to prepare.  We went to Costco and got the meat and some of the vegetables required.  Then we got to Sam's Club and got a couple more things and finally we hit the Target to get some containers to hold all of the food once it was prepared.

a few of the ingredients

Bright and early Thursday morning, I ran to the Harris Teeter to get the remainder of the ingredients and Granny Roady ran to Food Lion to get some Glad OvenWare for a few of the dishes that we will want to cook in the same dish that we store it in.  We then rendezvoused back at the house to get our cookin' on!

Granny Roady started off by chopping up 10 pounds of beef while I chopped 8 pounds of onions.

The giant bowl of chopped onions

the beef that Granny Roady chopped

By the end of the day, we had prepared three Chinese Chicken casseroles, four meatloaves, eight Moroccan hamburgers, three bags of spaghetti sauce, two giant bowls of black bean chili, three shepherd's pies, eight containers of beef stew (and a partridge in a pear tree).  Needless to say, I didn't feel much like preparing dinner last night, so Dave ran out and picked up some Chinese for dinner.

The first three completed meals!

mmmm, smells good!

Our freezer now has lots and lots of food in it.  We also have a bunch of meatballs that we can use for various recipes.  I have a few more recipes that I might make and freeze, but I feel like we have a good handle on things with as many meals frozen as we do.  We will be able to eat several of the dishes for a few nights at a time.

This is getting a little old now

Our bounty of food!

This Just In...

For those of you who are waiting to make your baby pool guess until you hear Dave's birth stats...we have some late breaking news:

Dave weighed 7 lb. and 13 oz. when he was born and was 21 inches long. 

Happy guessing!

Taking a Dip in the Baby Pool

As we anxiously await the arrival of Baby Mulley, we have decided to host a baby pool.  People can guess when Baby will be born and how big (or small) he will be.  This is just a friendly competition with no money required to participate.  Who knows, maybe the winner will get a sweet prize in the end!?!

Just to give you a few stats:

• The doctor has determined our due date to be December 9, 2010
• Baby Mulley is a boy
• Elizabeth weighed 10 lb. 1 oz. when and was 23 inches long when she was born
• We are not sure of Dave's exact weight and length at birth.  We are waiting to hear back from the royal family.  We do know that he was "big and round and beautiful" on the day he was born according to Grandpa Mulley.  If we find out more about Dave's exact weight and length we will let you know!

To make your guess, go to www.bebepool.com/mulley

Go ahead, make your very best guess!

Say My Name!

For the past 35 or so weeks we have been asked what we are going to name our Baby.  Some people haven't asked as much as just tell us what our Baby's name is.  The day we found out we were pregnant we started thinking about names that we liked and even had a list on the fridge for a while (too bad none of you thought to look for it).  We checked out a few books from the library and laughed at many of the names and pondered a few of them.  We both have very traditional names and really like the idea of our baby have a traditional name that everyone can spell and pronounce.  Dave and I have listened to everyones' suggestions and have really appreciated the fact that everyone has cared as much as they have.

Here are just a few of the names that Baby has been called:

Giuseppe-Dave and I started off with this name.  It feels funny on the tongue and was just fun to say.

Hermione-Renee decided that baby needed a strong British name and picked this one before we found out Baby was a boy.

Rupert-When I let Renee know that Baby had a penis she quickly said "Well, you clearly checked the wrong box when you put in your order.  Rupert is his new name!"

Megatron-A good strong name.  We are pretty sure nobody would want to mess with a baby named Megatron.  Why not Optimus Prime?  We thought it was too southern of a name-being a double name and all!

Britican-This one came about when I decided that Baby will be half BRITish and half AmerICAN.

Tadpole-Granny Roady came up with this one.  She has also made more than her fair share of suggestions for Baby's name (many of which never made the short list).

Reba-A popular name amongst the gay community.  Uncles Rick, Rob and Marcus have named Baby Reba and Marcus is pulling out all the stops to make sure "Reba" won't get beat up even though his name might be Reba.

We are going to continue to keep Baby's name to ourselves for now, but we cannot confirm nor deny that his name might be featured in one of the following clips: