holding pattern...

and so the life of little sleep begins. falling asleep last night was not an easy feat...but i do believe at some point i did actually sleep. chris and i got up around 3:30 to start getting our things together...and at 4am my phone rang. who on earth is crazy enough to call me at 4 in the morning? well - the hospital - that's who. there are no available delivery rooms at the hospital this morning so we are in a holding pattern. waiting for either a phone call from the hospital giving us the green light to go in OR if i haven't heard by 9am i am supposed to call back to get an update. good news in this situation - the nurse told me i could eat breakfast. and hopefully as soon as i publish this post i'll be able to fall back asleep for awhile. another note - Chris didn't feel all that great when he woke up - so maybe this little bit of extra sleep will do him good - still needing prayers that he continues to feel better.

doctors

Chris and I were off to the doctor yesterday morning...not a baby doctor - a sick doctor. :( Chris woke up feeling terrible - so we stopped at urgent care in Lexington. Turns out he has a sinus infection. He got some antibiotics and we're hoping that he starts to feel better soon! He's been getting lots of rest, but still feeling pretty rough. We're hoping he starts to feel much better today.

My 41 week appointment wasn't until the afternoon, but since Chris was sick - we headed on over to my doctor's office to see if I could get in earlier - which was no problem. The appointment was pretty brief overall. I had progressed to 3 cm and my doctor said she wasn't going to let me go to 42 weeks. She said she didn't think I'd necessarily make it to 42 weeks, but would like to go ahead and schedule an induction and most likely before Friday. Chris and I had already accepted this because we had been told last week that they may keep us after our appt. We were just relieved to be able to head home and give Chris a chance to get better. I couldn't imagine giving birth with him feeling as bad as he felt. My doctor said she'd have the scheduler call us to set up a day and time and that was that.

Before we could get out of the parking garage - my phone rang - it was the "scheduler". She said that we were scheduled for Thursday morning at 5 am - to report directly to labor & delivery. 5am means we'll be getting up around 3:30 or so! I suppose we might as well get used to being up at all hours. :)

We finally have an end in sight - I'm not going to be pregnant forever! We are praying that Chris starts to feel better today and so excited to meet our son tomorrow!

waiting..

welp...still no baby yet. we had our dr appointment yesterday am - my doctor had called in sick - so i saw another doctor (who used to be part of the group/practice, but left some time ago - she works a week here and there to help the office out - so she is working this week. she was awesome - really liked her). i was dilated 2 cm + and 80% effaced. she "stripped the membranes" - which was QUITE uncomfortable. this is supposed to/can help get labor moving along. she thought i may have been leaking water - so she had me get an u/s to check my fluid level. fluid level was pretty high - so she said definitely not leaking, but that i'd be sure to know when my water broke. (as i picture myself at work or at the grocery store and with a grand splash...boom i'm in labor) she was very excited for us and seemed to be pretty confident that we'd be back at the hospital in the next 24-48 hours. welp...we're 24 hours down...24 to go to see if she was right. neither chris nor i slept very well last night...we're on edge wondering if it's time...but alas nothing to indicate that's the case. having contractions, but they're kind of all over the place as far as intervals are concerned. still waiting...

37 weeks

We had our 37 week check up on Monday. Baby Clark's heartrate was 146 bpm and my weight and blood pressure were great. We found out that there has been a little bit of progress toward this little guy's arrival - I'm currently dilated 1 cm. Although I'm sure that doesn't mean a whole lot at this point, but it's better than nothing! I'm still feeling great - for which I am so thankful!

36 Week Ultrasound

Charlie and Allie are just so excited for baby Clark to arrive - they wanted to be sure I mentioned that.

36 weeks!

We had our 36 check up on Monday. I had been measuring small at my past couple of appointments, so my doctor scheduled us to get an ultrasound at 36 weeks to make sure baby Clark was growing as he should. Needless to say we were pretty excited about getting to see the little guy again. Turns out - he's not so small - they said he measured around 5 lbs 11 oz - which is right on track for 36 weeks and that he'll probably weigh about 7-8 lbs when he's born. He also scored 8 of 8 on his biophysical profile - which just proves he's as perfect as we thought. :)

Here's baby Clark's latest photo shoot:

Profile shot - the u/s lady couldn't get over his lips - he's sticking them out here

Foot:

Another profile: And now for the 3D pics:

He started out pretty patient with us...

But then he got a little pouty...

Can't wait to see this little guy in person!!

Nursery Update

We've still got work to do to get the nursery ready for baby Clark, but here's a few pics of some recent updates:

Memorial Day Weekend in Lake City

We spent Memorial Day Weekend up in Lake City, Michigan. We snuck in a quick visit with the deRoo's on Thursday night - staying over with them in Zeeland. Friday morning Chris and Taylor played 9 holes of golf at 6:30 AM!! We also snuck in a visit with Grandpa Buter Friday morning before heading up to the cottage.

We had a very nice and relaxing time - per usual. We had amazing weather and really enjoyed our last family trip as a couple. Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures - but the whole Clark family was there. We spent our time reading, fishing, walking, playing yard games and most importantly eating smiley face cookies.

34 - almost 35 weeks

Charlie loved it! My goodness the boy has some crazy ears!