Kyle, Jenna... and two more make four!: Last post...

... as a family of three! I feel so many different things about this. Surreal, excited, bittersweet. It felt like my whole pregnancy I just couldn't wait until he was here and it was over, but now that the moment has arrived I'm starting to feel the nerves. I shouldn't really be nervous about the c-section itself because I've been through it before, but... it's still a surgery. I am so thankful that Kyle's aunt will be with us during everything; she's the OB nurse manager where we're delivering, and she is going to be there to make sure everything goes exactly how I want it to. SO great, I appreciate her so much! In fact, she e-mailed me and told me she was putting together my "team", and I trust her completely so I know she'll make sure we're taken care of. You're the best Aunt Pam!

I think a lot of my nerves are actually centered around Payton; how she'll do without us at home for several days, will she feel like I abandoned her, how will she react to her new baby brother. It's funny, when I've gotten together with my friend Jamie and her baby Bradyn, Payton hasn't taken much interest in the baby at all. She's so into her "babies" that I figured she would be all over a real one, but it was almost like he wasn't even there. In fact, I was holding Bradyn one time, and she asked me if I could put "that" down so I could play a game with her! She helped me burp him once and was very gentle, but her interest just isn't really there. Not that it has to be I suppose, as long as she's cool with Kyle and I taking care of him!

I have a three day weekend before my maternity leave officially starts, which sounds great in theory but I almost wish I had more to do because the time just seems to drag! We still have a few things to do; install the car seat (kind of important), return some last minute things to the store, that kind of thing. We already cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, and Kyle has done a TON of work on the backyard. I joke that he's nesting too, but it's outdoors. He's ripped up several trees, a big tree trunk, trimmed a bunch of branches, fertilized the lawn, ripped up our deck and started to build a new one... I will definitely be posting pictures of that project once it's done, it's going to look amazing! We're only replacing part of it, because we figured out that there's a patio under part of the deck, which we thought was great and we're going to use it! We also bought one of those big play structures at Costco for Payton, which is a project that will probably take several days to put together too. She's seen pictures of it and calls it her "park", she's super excited about it! She told me she wants to invite her friends over to play on it. Kyle and I have wanted to get a play structure back there, and we thought this would be the perfect summer to do it. On the days when Payton wants to play outside and I don't feel like packing up a bunch of stuff to drive her and the baby to the actual park, I can just sit on a lawn chair in my backyard with the baby and watch her play!

Before...

... and after! Very excited to have a ready made patio! It really opens up the backyard!

Payton supervising her father's work efforts

We had a good 4th of July, it was pretty low key. We tried to light off fireworks with Payton, but she was NOT having it! If it made noise, she was extremely frightened of it. The only things she liked were those little pop it things that making a popping noise when you throw them on the ground. Eventually my mom took her inside the house, and after a minute her little head popped up in our front window. She was completely ok once she wasn't outside, and even clapped when they went off!

My adoring audience!

The one and only time I touched the sparkler

Things are getting frightening...

Much better inside!

Sweet girl with crazy hair :)

Since tomorrow is officially our last day just the 3 of us I feel like I need to do something to make it extra special... Kyle is super motivated to finish the deck, so Payton and I might just have some mommy daughter time at the pool or something. We're planning on going out to dinner though, just trying to decide where. I'm thinking something light, like soup for me. The really hard part will be trying to sleep tomorrow night! We have to be in Corvallis at 5:30am, so it will be a really early morning. Not that I'll be sleeping anyway I'm sure! My surgery is at 7:30, so any positive thoughts and prayers at that time would be appreciated. I still can't believe we're going to finally get to meet him. I'm really curious to see how much he weighs! I haven't gained nearly as much weight as I did with Payton, so it will be interesting to see if he is as big as she was... my guess is around 8 pounds, but we'll see. I keep thinking I'm going to go into labor on my own, but a big part of me is relieved that it looks like things are going to go as planned. I wanted this experience to be a lot less stressful than the last one, and it looks like that will definitely be the case! I'm looking forward to an overall more relaxed experience this time. We're going to have so much help this time too; our small group has signed up to bring us meals every other day for the whole month (they are awesome!), not to mention having both sets of parents 10 minutes away will be hugely helpful as well. We're very lucky!

So... next time you hear from me, it will be a birth blog! I don't have a laptop anymore so I'm not sure when that will be. We'll be in the hospital for a few days, so it may not be until the end of the week when I'm finally able to blog all the details. I'll try to get one out with all the baby's stats though! Time of birth, height, weight, and of course name :) Wish us luck!