names.

Our boy name has changed. Yes, that's right. Emery is no more. Our new pick? Landon. That's all we have agreed upon for now, at least! Matt decided that Emery was too similar to Emily and just wasn't a very strong name. I can see that. After all, it is a unisex name. I still love it but I wasn't completely attached to it (see, I do that for a good reason).

Now, thinking up a middle name for Landon has proven to be quite the challenge. Or I should say... thinking up a middle name for Landon that we both agree upon has proven to be quite the challenge. Matt is still set on a Biblical/Hebrew name and that's FINAL. I, on the other hand, think a family tie is more important. Choosing a name you don't love just because it's Biblical doesn't make too much sense to me but whatever... we'll let that slide, I suppose.

I did some research and discovered that we have two family names that can be associated with the Bible: Philip (OK) and August (meh). So I like Philip but don't completely love it...

Landon Philip Hales
Landon August Hales

I think I can force myself to like Landon Philip (not sure if we would spell it Philip or Phillip)... but Landon August is kind of a stretch.

Then I thought of Landon Forster (Forster is a surname from Matt's side of the family). It flows so NICELY.

Landon Forster Hales - But it's not BIBLICAL. I tried telling Matt that there must be a forest mentioned somewhere in the Bible and Forster means "forest" so... connection! But I don't think he's going to buy it.

oh, hell.

My due date is THIS MONTH!

I was telling Matt last night about how, even though I'm the one who's carrying this baby, I still don't think I'll be able to fully wrap my head around being a parent of two until the day is actually here when I'm holding the little one in my arms. YIKES.

Round two, here we come... Give me one more year of infancy and I think I'll be set for life... but I'm still happy with our decision to have two back-to-back. I would rather pay now and live later. ;) Although we might have one more. We'll see.

Anyway, my weekly checkup yesterday morning was GREAT! Why so great? Because I passed the final test... GBS negative. That means that I can labor at home and birth at the hospital. Phew! And that also means we can go home from the hospital the next day. I think now the thing I'm stressing about the most is burdening someone with having to babysit Noah overnight. We have gotten offers for help which we'll certainly take but it's still stressful to think about because I've never been away from Noah overnight... ever. And I keep thinking what if none of the three people who've offered aren't around or can't come for whatever reason? We take Noah to the hospital with us? Matt drops me off and goes back home with Noah? lol! That would be terrible. But hopefully that doesn't happen.

In other news, fundal height was measuring 36 (at 37 weeks) and heart rate was in the 150's.

I've been thinking more about baby names lately, too (I don't know why, it's not like we don't already have it narrowed down enough)... I think mostly for the girl names though because we have more middle name options. I think I've decided that Lilah/Lyla/Lila is my least favorite of the three. I don't know why... I even had a dream about talking about not liking it. I think it's just too frilly-sounding or something and that's totally not my style. Chloe and Isla, on the other hand, are some pretty cool, chillax girl names. Isla reminds me of Isla Fischer who is cute and hilarious but not over-the-top. And Chloe is just adorable but not too cutesy. That one reminds me of Chloe Sevigny, who seems to be pretty laid-back and I like her style. You know, good associations are important. And we will leave the middle name open for Emery (Nolan or William) and wait until we see him before making that call. I'm just so excited to find out if Noah will get a little sister or a little brother! :)

random cuteness.

This post will most likely be all about Noah so you can just go ahead and skip it if you want.

I keep some bubbles (like the kind that you make with a wand) in the bathroom to entertain Noah during his bath and then after his bath, I usually sit him on the toilet for a "potty-tunity." Well, I thought... I would blow some bubbles while he was sitting on the toilet since he loves them so much and otherwise wants me to hand him everything in sight (the toilet paper, nail polish, lotion... anything he shouldn't have). Well, he started laughing his little tush off on the toilet while I was blowing bubbles and making silly sounds. Then I remembered Sphincter Law (thank you, Ina May) and how laughter helps the sphincter muscles to relax, lol. Needless to say, that was a successful "poop-scursion!" Don't you love the words I make up? I usually try to make him laugh anyway so that he is content sitting on the toilet but I don't think I've ever heard him laugh so hard as he did last night. It was cute.

Then we were all in his bedroom doing storytime before bedtime and Noah came over and I say, "baby" while rubbing my belly. He actually said the full word, "baby" while rubbing my belly! He usually just says, "bay," lol. Then he decided to rub my boobs and say "bay" so now the baby is in my boobs.

siblings.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how Noah is going to feel when a new baby is suddenly in the house and he's no longer the center of attention. Putting myself in his shoes, I can imagine that might be quite a change! Needless to say, I'm concerned for him and just want to make sure he knows that he is still just as much our baby as he's always been and he is not being replaced! Just... complimented. :) I have frequently heard that going from one kids to two is a bigger adjustment than going from no kids to one! I can believe that. I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth transition for all of us! Noah will be such a good big brother.

Also, Noah's upper canines are finally emerging. It was pretty obvious they were bothering him last night. :( I gave him some Tylenol before dinner to help but he kept waking up throughout the night crying. I guess his paci must help soothe his pain or at least take his mind off it because I gave that back to him and he would go right back to sleep. But I know Matt had to go tend to him several times before he went to bed and I got up four times between midnight and 6:00! Poor guy.

On a side note: My body must be used to short intervals of sleep at this point because I don't even feel tired anymore when I have to get up, lol. It has been well over a year of not sleeping through the night for me so it must finally be setting in for my brain that that's just the way it is and I better love it.

Yesterday, Matt and I both had the day off! It was soooo nice. We took Noah with us to my appointment since it was early and I thought maybe it would be nice for him to hear the heartbeat and whatnot. Not that he really grasps what that sound is but... anything helps, lol. Then we took him to daycare after that.

Matt and I went to the Chevy dealership to test-drive a Traverse! Or rather... we wanted to make sure it fit into our garage (luckily, the dealership is just around the corner from our house). Well, guess what? IT FITS! Barely. Like, you better be paying attention when you step out of the house into the garage because if you're not careful, you will end up face-planting yourself into the front of the vehicle. But all that matters is that it fits. We will have a bigger garage someday, lol. So we are going for a silver Traverse... with second row captain seats (one carseat in each!). I'm really excited to get it even though that won't be until May. But we thought yesterday would be a good opportunity to check it out since we both had the day off and Noah was in daycare!

After that we went to Olive Garden for lunch. That was nice because, you know, it's not every day we get to go out to a restaurant by ourselves! Then we came home and took a nap, I got dinner started, ate ice cream in bed, we finished up a couple more errands and then it was back to reality. ;)

toddlerhood.

The toddler stage must be forgotten pretty easily because I can't exactly piece together how one would want to get pregnant again after enduring toddlerhood. Seriously. I am glad I got pregnant while Noah was still an infant because if I wasn't right now, I'm sure I would be reconsidering our family plans.

That's all.

the classic 'last month' wardrobe crisis.

I recently purchased four new shirts to finish me out until the end so, thankfully, I'm good in that department. However, I have two pairs of "nice" pants that I wear to work: (1) Demi panel khakis and (2) full panel black trousers. The black pants are great and I so wish that Gap had a pair of khakis with a full panel available (although, at the time, a demi was fine so I probably would have gotten the demi anyway... bad decision). This little panel around the bottom of my belly has gotten quite snug (in a very uncomfortable way) over the last few weeks and I think it's time for their retirement.

I will definitely only buy full panel pants from now on (if I get pregnant again). So... I have about four weeks left, give or take, so I'm not about to invest another $60+ in nice pants (as much as I'd love to, it's just not practical). I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and start wearing ::gasp:: JEANS to work a couple days a week! Not that my workplace really cares... but you know. This "end of pregnancy" wardrobe crisis never fails me. The same thing happened last time but with shirts instead of pants (at least those are cheaper). It was easier to get away with maxi dresses and gauchos in the summer but being pregnant in the winter is a different story! It's definitely more expensive to be pregnant in the winter than it is in the summer (but I have a preference for winter fashions myself).

the most wonderful dream.

Last night, I had the most peaceful birth dream! It was painless, quick and at home (unplanned, lol). Apparently, I could feel the baby descending and thought it would be smarter to stay at home... that's how it started. How nice would that be to determine I'm in labor when I'm already complete? Hah! Well, baby came right out and I held it to my chest for a minute before even checking to see if it was a boy or a girl. Then I discovered that it was a girl. That's pretty much it! I hope it's that simple. :)

Well, our pictures are done! They turned out so fabulous. I put most of them on Facebook but here is a collage I created and there are two more at the top of the blog. I will create a new page (link will be at the top) to some of my favorites for anyone who isn't friends with me on FB.