Friday OB and Galleria!

On Friday we went to my OB appointmet.  I was 3 cm dialated and very efaced : ) Baby sounded good and the OB said I could go into labor any day now.  After the OB appointment the kids and I hung out at the Galleria while Doug went to work.  We love the playground there and the kids had a blast watching the ice skating, especially since they had Santa skating on the ice! He waved to the kids every time he came around and they loved it. 

Shutterfly Holiday Cards!

Shutterfly has a completely awesome promotion going on right now where you can earn 50 FREE holiday cards if you write a blog on why Shutterfly totally rocks and how you plan to use their cards.

 (Check it out my blogging friends: Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow -> http://bit.ly/sfly2010)

This is great for me because: 1.  I already love shutterfly! (Whenever we order pictures we get them printed by shutterfly.  A lot of times they even have free shipping.  The family pictures we just sent out to everyone were printed by shutterfly.) and 2.  Their holiday cards are absolutely beautiful! There are so many different designs to choose from.
 
You can make a card on Shutterfly for just about any occasion.  They have Thanksgiving Cards (http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/thanksgiving-cards), Birthday Invitations ( http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-invitations) and Birth Announcements ( http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements) to name just some of the few.
 
These are the Christmas cards that I really like:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/snowflake-elegance-noir-christmas-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&fa=8&storeNode=93476&fb=2&fc=1
 

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations/crochet-scallop-green-christmas-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

 

 

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/scalloped-scarlet-ribbon-christmas-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&fa=12&storeNode=93476&fb=2&fc=1

There are so many to choose from that it was hard to narrow down to just 3!  They have flat cards and folded cards but I prefer the flat folded cards.  For holiday cards there were over 700 to choose from! I can pretty much guaruntee that you will find one you like ; )

School Work

Here is our latest art gallery in our kitchen.  It has both Logan's preschool projects and our homeschool projects.  Check out my little artists!

Aila's Thanksgiving Dress

I love dressing my kids up for the holidays! Let's be real... I love dressing them up all the time! LOL I really wanted Aila to have a nice fall looking dress for Thanksgiving.  Logan has a nice brown polo shirt and brown and green sweater vest so he is all set.  I couldn't find any fall looking dresses at garage sales so I decided to try Goodwill.  I got this adorable dress for Aila for $2 and it still had the original price tags on it (originally it was $23.50!).

Now all I have to do is make her hair bow to match : )

Sheppard Update- November

Wow I am late getting this out! I usually get this out on the first of the month! Some people even thought I must have been in the hospital having the baby since I didn't send this yet. LOL Well here it is. Better late than never!


Welcome to November. I am already freezing my tush off in Texas. The middle of the day is nice but the mornings and nights are freezing. OK so it is not as bad as NY or anything, but the cold here is different than in AZ. It goes right to your bones! I am going to have to get the kids more winter clothes soon!

This month we won't be going to any events. We are going to try to take it easy until Levi comes, which should be very soon! We plan on having Thanksgiving at our house with Doug's parents. Doug is such a sweetie and has his heart set on making me the perfect turkey since he knows I will be homesick.

Here is how everyone is doing:

Doug- His Crohn's seems to be under control now and he is having less and less stomach pains. He doesn't have to go as often for his IV meds now either, so that is nice. He is absolutely loving his job and the people he teaches love him. He just finished up with one of his seminary classes and only has a few more weeks of Greek left. Please keep him in your prayers because foreign languages are not easy for him and Biblical Greek is extremely difficult.
Logan- Logan is loving preschool and he is finally starting to talk more at school. He is so shy and we are having a hard time getting him to come out of his shell. He is obsessed with figuring out initial letter sounds now and he can understand when you spell some words. Doug and I have started spelling some words backwards so he can't figure it out anymore, i.e. we used to be able to say something like, "Do you want to take the kids to the P A R K" but now we have to say "K R A P" because he knows that one. LOL

Aila- Aila is starting to show signs of her "terrible twos". She is no where near as difficult as Logan was at this stage, but she is more whiney and sensitive about certain things. She HATES having her face or hair washed. She will cry and say "Ow! Ow! Ow!" as if you are hurting her. But mostly she is a sweetheart. She will randomly pray for different people throughout the day now. She stops whatever she is doing and closes her eyes real tight and says "Dear God, Bless (whoever she is praying for) Amen!" She had her 2 year check up today and weighed 26 lbs and was 34.5 inches tall. The doctor estimated her adult height to be 5 ft 6 in, which is crazy to me because I always thought she was my midget child!

Me- I am 38 weeks pregnant this week and am in complete nesting mode. Every day I have projects that I want to tackle. I am having contractions all the time and I feel like I waddle like a penguin.

XOXO,
The Sheppard Bunch

38 Weeks Prego!

I am 38 weeks this week! Only 2 more weeks to go! At my last OB appointment I had lost another pound and the baby was measuring 2 weeks behind.  But Logan and Aila always measured 2 weeks behind so I am not worried.  We have an ultrasound at the hospital on the 19th and if for some reason it looks like the baby is not growing they will induce me that day.  I am sure everything is fine though and I have been having so many contractions that maybe I'll even have the baby before then.  I am already dialated to a 1 1/2 and am 70% efaced.  Levi's head is nice and low at the -1 station.  (0 station is when the head is about to come out and +1 means the head is out - just to give u an idea of how low he is) I'll keep you posted!!!

Bed Time

Garage Sale Treasures

Most people would probably look at this and think, "Man that is a piece of junk!"

I, on the other hand saw a treasure just waiting to be found! We only have one couch in our living room and we have needed some more seating. We don't have room for anything big, but the siza of this chair was perfect. It just needed a little TLC : )

 

Now we have a beautiful chair that only cost us 8 bucks! 

I am 37 Weeks Pregnant!

Braxton Hicks have kicked into high gear and I feel like the baby is going to fall right out! I am hardly sleeping at night.  I toss and turn.   I have to get up and go to the bathroom about 10 times.  I lay on one side and then it falls asleep, I lay on the other and the same thing happens.  So yeah... no sleep for mommy.  This is the first time that I think I will actually get MORE sleep when the baby gets here! We'll see about that though!

I can't wait for Levi to get here.  I have my hospital bag packed, my birth plan all typed out, the bassinet is set up and his clothes are ready.  Doug is getting the carseat into the van today and getting all the baby stuff out of our storage closet. 

We go to the OB tomorrow and we'll see if these Braxton Hicks have been causing any "changes".  I am having so many that I will be shocked if they aren't doing anything yet.  I was supposed to have another ultrasound soon but the ultrasound place is completely booked all the way up to my due date! (One of the things I hate about this OB office is that scheduling appointments are a NIGHTMARE!)  The OB keeps wanting to check on the growth of the baby because she doesn't think I am gaining enough weight.  But so far this baby is measuring right at 50% in my ultrasounds which is bigger than Logan and Aila because they were smaller than average so I keep telling the dr. that this is going to be my big baby and she keeps looking at me like I'm crazy.  LOL

Here is what the internet has to say about a baby at 37 weeks:
Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb.  Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard).

Please continue to pray for an easy, uncomplicated labor and delivery and for Levi to be healthy! I will keep you all updated as we get closer to his big debut!

Trick or Treating

 So Saturday night after Logan's school festival I had contractions off and on all night.  I almost called my ob several times but then they would stop or slow down so I knew it wasn't the real deal.  Then Sunday on actual Halloween I woke up sick as a dog.  No more contractions but bad stomach pains and I felt completely drained.  So Doug had to get the kids in their costumes all by himself and take them trick or treating without me.  I was so bummed that I had to miss out, but I am glad that atleast their daddy was able to take them.  Doug had a hard time painting the kids faces.  Logan's clown face was a little scary and he put whiskers on Aila...I've never heard of a lady bug with whiskers.  LOL But he definitely gets an A for effort! The kids got so many goodies that they had to come home and empty their buckets after the first block! They didn't get just candy either.  They got giant rubber bugs (Logan's fav) and Jack o Lantern bell necklaces (Aila's favorite), whistles, army men, spider rings, etc.  When they got home I let them eat a few pieces of candy in the bath tub so that they wouldn't make too much of a mess.  I think this weekend was the first time we have ever seen Aila on a sugar high.  She was jumping up and down and running all over the place.  No more candy for her for a while!

Logan's School Fall Festival

Logan's preschool put on a free fall festival.  They had tons of bouncers, a rock climing wall,  horse back riding, hay rides and TONS of games where the kids could win treats and other prizes.  Logan's favorite was this one bouncer that had 2 huge slides to go down.  We thought Aila would love riding the horse since she loves pony rides so much but she TOTALLY freaked out.  She preferred playing games and winning treats.  My favorite was the free snow cone stand : ) We did so much at this festival that I started having lots of contractions and we had to leave so I could go home and rest. 

Our Neighborhood Halloween Party

Our neighborhood had a Halloween party for all the kids at the office.  Logan and Aila loved seeing all of their friends in their costumes.  Aila wore her Snow White costume to this one because I didn't want her getting her lady bug all dirty before Halloween.  Good thing too because they had some yummy punch and cupcakes that she devoured! Logan even won a McDonald's gift card for best costume in the 0-3 age group!

Halloween at the Children's Museum

On Thursday I took the kids to the free night at the Children's Museum.  They had lots of special events going on for Halloween so the museum was actually quite crowded this time.  The kids got to go trick or treating to different booths and got to make their own Halloween cookies! Plus the museum had some new exhibits we hadn't seen yet.  I feel like every time we go we find something new!

Playing with puppets behind the puppet stage:

They love talking on these phones to eachother.  It even has a little video camera so they can see eachother! 

Aila loved climbing all over these big squishy blocks! 

Logan's favorite part is always the Kid City.  They have an ambulance and the kids can even turn on the siren and play with all the doctor stuff.  Here is Logan trying to listen to my heart:

 Aila in the back of the ambulance:

Aila driving the police car:

The kids enjoying the cookies they made:

Happy Halloween!

We just want to wish everyone a happy and safe Halloween! We love you all!!!

XOXO,

The Sheppard Bunch

FEAR!

I am starting to panic about labor and delivery. It seems silly since we were supposed to loose this baby and God did a miracle to save him so I shouldn't be worried at all and just know that God is going to take care of it.... But I am still worried.

My biggest fear is needing a C-Section. I know lots of women who have had C-Sections and I know they can be medically necessary, but just the thought of being cut open with a curtain in front of me and a shower cap thingy on my head totally freaks me out. Plus there is all the pain of recovery and it creates risks for future pregnancies/deliveries.  And you don't get to hold your baby right away.  You do all the work of carrying this heavy baby around for 9 1/2 months and your husband gets to hold it before you....so not right!

With the fear of C-Sections comes a fear of the baby being breech or transverse, having his heart rate drop, having stalled labor, having placenta previa, basically anything that would cause my OB to say I need a C-Section.

And then there is always the fear of the baby not being born healthy.  Logan had to be on oxygen his first day of life and that crushed me.  Thank the Lord it was nothing more serious, but that experience has made delivering an "unhealthy" baby all too real for me.  What if Levi comes out and can't breath? What if he comes out and there is something seriously wrong? And the worst...what if he comes out still born?

I keep telling myself have more faith! Trust in the Lord Vanessa! It is in His hands! But then I go to sleep and all I have are nightmares about all of this stuff.  I wake up down and defeated and have to try to pick myself back up again before I go to bed the next night. 

So I am asking for prayer.  Please pray that Levi is 100% healthy! Pray that my labor and delivery go smoothly with no need of medical interventions and no complications.  Pray for me to have dreamless sleep the next few weeks!