Confidential to Aunt Leona...

Aunt Leona, I got your comment and it was really sweet! I wanted to email you back but you didn't leave me your email address! You can email me directly at mkringler@gmail.com. Love you!

38 week checkup (Full Term)

The doctor is calling her "Flipper". A few weeks ago, she was transverse (sideways, with her backside down), so I did my rear-end-in-the-air exercises and she got into the correct head down position. But now, she's back upright, with one foot sticking down into my pelvis - called a "footling breech" presentation. Her head is underneath my right ribs, and her back is under my left ribs. I'm back to doing my exercises to try and get her to turn the right way again, but if she isn't head down by my next doctor's appointment we're going to have a baby a week earlier than we thought. Luckily, she is still strong and healthy with a good steady heartbeat and good weight, so I'm trying not to get too stressed out about things. Everyone please just think good "upside down" thoughts in our direction!

It's the last week of the year...

I hope everyone had a very merry and festive holiday weekend! I know we did - but we may never need to eat again! We ate like kings all weekend, and we'll be living off leftovers until next year... I think that's the best part of the holidays. Here's the Cranberry Apple (Crapple) Pie I made for the Coles' Christmas Eve dinner - Mike says it was delicious but for some reason the bottom crust was a little soggy this time. Guess I need to make another one to make up for it! I also made a Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake with Kahlua Cream - I thought it was delicious, even if I did find the recipe on the internet and it called for a boxed cake mix! I'm going to have to remember it.



My paperwhite narcissus bulbs are blooming like crazy - I keep them on the front porch because frankly they stink and make me sneeze, but I think they are very pretty. I brought them in to take a picture of them and they made the whole room smell, so I think next year I'll try the red amaryllis bulbs.

And finally, I managed to get my husband in the same place as me long enough to get a picture! Unfortunately, I didn't realize I looked so TIRED! But, here you go - (as always, click on the image for a larger photo)

We opened all the mysterious boxes from the family last night, and let me tell you we were blown away by the amazing gifts we received. Our little girl is lucky to have such a wonderful and generous extended family! (And I'm incredibly grateful for such a great set of in-laws!) Everything was so great and thoughtful, but I have to say that by far the best gift was the one Mike's mom sent to him. It really took his breath away and rendered him speechless - he was extremely touched.

Christmastime!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with family and friends and some relaxation. Mike will be working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (as usual) so we don't have much planned, but we'll be having dinner with our friends and opening all the boxes from our family that are piled up on the counter! My main goal this weekend is to get a picture of me and Mike together and looking decent so I can post it on this blog. Wish me luck!

37 Weeks

Just got back from our 37 week checkup - Everything still looks fine and now she's actually measuring 37 weeks! I asked how it would be possible that she would go from measuring so big to measuring just right, and he said she probably got tired of everyone saying she was fat! In reality though, I think she's just running out of room in there. But I am 0 cm dilated and 0% effaced, so she's obviously not ready to come out just yet! Only 3 weeks to go (I hope!)

Baby Gymnastics

As of yesterday, we are now on a once-a-week schedule of doctor visits. She could be here any day now!! Luckily, at yesterday's visit the doctor informed me that she is now head down for delivery. Mike and I have been doing exercises to get her to turn (mostly me, there's not much Mike can do about it!), and while it looks ridiculous, it appears that it worked! Basically it consists of me with my rear end in the air for 20-30 minutes every night, and we used headphones with disco music (her favorite) to convince her to put her head in the right spot. So, crazy and weird, but it works! I'm going to keep doing it so that she stays in position until she drops, but I've put some classical music on the ipod to use instead. (Mike is pretty embarassed that his daughter already likes disco and Queen - she really rocks out when they come on the radio!) What can I say...she's her mama's girl. Not much else to report right now - at this point its just a waiting game to see when her birthday is going to be. We have about 28 days until her actual due date, so its still pretty early, but we're completely packed for the hospital, have the carseat installed, and ready for any surprises. I'll let you know how it goes!

5 weeks to go...

Okay, I'm starting to get tired of lugging all this baby around! It really feels like she's gained 20 pounds in the past week. I can't get comfortable enough to sleep at night, and I walk slower than the snowbirds at Target! Here's a picture Mike took of me on Monday, looking huge and squinty (it was a very sunny day):

Notice the Thanksgiving wreath on the door (I put the Christmas one up yesterday).

And look at all the progress Mike has made on the bathroom!


Okay, I don't know why this picture makes it look like the tiles aren't level with each other, but they really are. If you click on the photo it will show you a larger image that looks a lot better. He has done a really great job so far - better than any contractors around here would do. All he has left to do is cut and set the rest of the tiles, grout, seal, and install the fixtures and I'll finally be able to take a hot bath! I swear, I really lucked out when I married him - he's so handy!

Other than that, there's not really much going on around here this week - I have my Anatomy/Physiology final tomorrow that I should be studying for right now, and Christmas cards to get sent out, and uniforms to wash and iron, so I'll talk to you again later!

Childbirth Class

So yesterday was the Childbirth class - much to Mike's chagrin! Poor guy - he had to sit in a classroom with 11 other couples from 9am - 6pm, going through all the birth videos, breathing exercises and relaxation stuff. Needless to say, he would rather have been ANYWHERE else! But, we got through it and we had a good time, especially during the relaxation exercise... the lights were off, we were all supposed to be taking deep calming breaths and relaxing on the floor, and all I could do was crack up laughing at how miserable he was! It's very embarrassing to be the couple who can't follow directions - especially when all you have to do is lay there quietly! But that's okay - I hope we laugh together as much during the actual labor. And he really did learn a lot about the stages of labor and the different techniques for handling each phase. Plus we got demonstrations of all the different medical tools that might come into play, and we had a tour of where our little girl will be introduced to the world. And we got a lot of free samples and coupons, so that's a plus. So now I think we really are ready for her to get here - all we have left to do is pack the bag for the hospital!
Well, we're not totally ready - she still needs to turn and get in the right position, but I learned some exercises I can do to get her motivated in that direction. So once she does that, THEN we'll be ready. 38 days to go!