Homeward Stretch

I'm now officially full term (as of 3 days ago) and getting very excited to meet our little guy.

It still could be weeks before his arrival, or it could be hours. I'm remembering this stage well when I feel like a ticking time bomb-so eager yet trying to be realistic about timing. It's both wonderful and frustrating. Last Wednesday I wasn't dilated or effaced at all, and today (Monday) I was so excited to learn that I'm about 80% effaced and dilated to a loose 2 (I'm at 3 at the opening of my cervix and more like a 2 where Carter's head is, in case we want to get detailed about it). With baby #2, it's common for your body to begin prepping earlier. So, while this is where my body was at 24 hours before I went into labor with Avery, I'm trying not to get too excited since things will likely go differently this time.

Getting ready for a baby the second time around seems so much easier! I feel very very little, if any, anxiety about the labor process and I feel so much more ready for the newborn stage. The tricky part, of course, will be balancing that out with taking care of a busy toddler at the same time.

I can't say I've slowed down in preparation for Carter until maybe just recently. June was a very busy work month, with prep for WFC's fiscal year end and annual conference being intense, a new rental house that we bought, fixed up, and rented out, annual meeting for Project Hope Northwest that I coordinated, and still doing Beza Jewelry stuff on the side. Then, late June and most of July was a very busy and fun social month-Bodine trip to Mt. Rainier, 4th of July, 10 year reunion & festivities (big success!), Amanda and Brian's wedding (Jacob was a groomsman, Avery was an amazing flower girl, and Frank was the officiant), a week in Sunriver, baby shower for Carter (a wonderful afternoon from Cousin Katie), 60th birthday party for Frank & Jan (hosted by us and McClungs at the McClung's house).

As of Friday when I officially hit full term, I've decided to switch into work-only-at-home mode. This gives me more time with Avery before Carter's arrival and it avoids the risk of going into labor in the middle of a work meeting. It also seems more necessary this time because I'm so much more uncomfortable at this stage than I was with Avery. One day last week when I was in the office, Carter was in a position that made it dreadfully painful to even walk. I'm pretty much constantly in a notable amount of discomfort, and at times terribly exhausted or uncomfortable. I don't remember it being that extreme at all with Avery. We also have cleared our calendar as much as possible-even sold our tickets to the JT & Jay-Z concert in Vancouver :( Finally starting to get some downtime though and it feels fantastic....although, I have a weird sickness where I feel almost guilty when I'm enjoying downtime without doing. I'm working on getting over that.

Jacob and I went on a date night to Al Boccalino last week, which is where we had one of our last nights alone before Avery arrived. This is the picture we snapped right after dinner.

I had originally planned on doing maternity pictures again, but decided to save our time, energy and money to do some after Carter's arrival instead. However, when we were on vacation in Sunriver this month, I asked Cousin Kristina if she might take a few for us. I realized that it would be fun to have some belly pics with Avery in them, and that my Carter belly has turned out to be much larger than my Avery belly was. So we took maybe 10 minutes to snap a few pictures in the middle of family hangout time (after family group photo and before a trip to Goody's for ice cream). Kristina did a beautiful job of capturing this stage in our family's life.