Hopefully I make it that far, or hopefully not...

Today I had a doctor's appointment, and we were able to go ahead and schedule my C-section. As of right now, it's for October 30. I think it's possible I could end up in the hospital before that, though, as my due date is November 1, and I already have painful contractions through most nights. With Ewan, I was exactly 37 weeks when labor started, and it wouldn't surprise me if that happened again. I just wanted to update everyone. I'll be in the hospital for Halloween!!! Meep. But that's okay, I bought the baby a newborn hat that is a black owl with littel tufts that stick up on top. He'll be very cute wearing it in the hospital.

Just for fun, all of my boys relaxing together, enjoying some Sesame Street before we had to leave this morning. Note Ewan's stash of Transformers that constantly accompanies him everywhere. Bryce was lamenting the fact that it was a nice, cool, snuggly-type morning and he had to get up and exert himself.

Partying for Corgan

This weekend, I had dinner with a bunch of friends, including my sister. It was a "non" shower if you will. I'm very self-conscious when it comes to things like showers. The day of my wedding shower, I literally nearly had a panic attack. I don't know why really - just everyone staring at me and how funny it feels for me when people do really nice things or buy something for me. So in order to avoid that a little, I wanted to just get to have dinner with some of my oldest and closest friends. Granted, it was still a "party" that was kind of thrown for me, and yes, people gave me things, but the fact that it was just like going out to dinner made it seem less overwhelming and I was much less self-conscious.

Ashley, Missy, Sarah and Shannon went all out for me, and it overwhelms me the work and love they put into everything. And then at the dinner, friends from every era of my life were there. It was very interesting to have all of them there together. From my earliest hours on this earth, of course my sister Ashley, who is totally awesome. She is the first person to hold my babies when they come into this world and the one who hands them to me. She's been with me through so many dark days. Erica came and I've known her from the time we were knee-high to a grasshopper in church. My first memory of her is both of us yelling at each other during the primary program because one of us sat on the others' dress. It's such a funny thing to remember. Then from my singles days, one of my best friends I've just been reacquainted with, Marianne, was also there. She is a major reason that I was able to stay sane while Bryce was on his mission. And then during my time so far as a wife and mother, Missy, Shannon and Sarah. They have each been such important parts of my life over the last three years and have put up with lots of my insanity.

There were so many wonderful gifts, some owl-themed (thanks, Ashley! The owl that hoots is among the favorites.) I would post some pictures of the cute clothes, but trust me, after the baby comes and is actually wearing them, I probably won't be able to resist posting a new picture of him every time he wears something for the first time. My actual favorite present was from Missy, who got two of the best pictures from Labor Day and had them nicely framed, along with a third frame giving me one free photo session of the baby. Just seeing our beautiful boys in these pictures taken by someone so talented and able to capture them perfectly... Bryce and I each sigh in disbelief every time we look at them. I'm so excited to see the picture that ends up in Corgan's frame! (And thanks to Missy for all the pictures in this post!)  I want to post about all the presents, but this is already too long! Although I will say the favors that Shannon, Sarah and Ashley made touched me so much that I did shed some tears in an alone moment. The iris bulbs were such a personal touch, and something I'm very sentimental about. I loved everything and I'll be a good girl and send out proper thank you notes this week. (If I'm not lazy this week, I might actually post a picture every day of each one. For my own entertainment if not anyone else's!)

I've posted just a few, but more pictures and details from the night can be found here. Thanks to everyone involved for all the love and I can't ever tell you how much it all means to me.

I just wanted to post a picture of Marianne because I'm still so thrilled she's back in my life. She came over one night last week while the men were working and we just talked for over five hours. I love her. *Sniffle*

One of the framed pictures.

My friends: Erica, Shannon, Sarah, Ashley, Marianne, (me), Missy
Thanks, everyone!  (And a special thanks to Sarah, who covered my dinner.)

Promise not to call him Corgy

(Wow, I haven't done this many posts in a long time...)

Okay, so I'm a terrible secret keeper.  At least with my own secrets - with someone else's secrets I'm good.  With my own, I just can't keep it in.  As a result, I've whispered the baby's name to enough people here and there that it is really quite pointless to keep it any kind of "secret" any longer.  So here goes:  Corgan Kelly.  That is his name.  Now if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all.  :)

Pimp my ride

I'm lucky when pregnant in the sense that I don't get morning sickness at all. Ever. Maybe a little gaggy, but that's about it. But my body makes up for it in other ways, and I don't get a respite for the entire nine months. First, exhaustion. Now, I know everyone is exhausted when they are pregnant, so nothing new, but I swear sometimes I can't even lift my arms. The worst part for me is back pain. BAD back pain. In fact, a shooting, spiking pain that starts on my left hip and goes all the way down my leg is usually my first indication that I'm pregnant. I'll have days where I wake up okay, but as I'm walking, it will literally feel like I've been shot - the pain is that sudden and severe. Sometimes my leg will buckle beneath me. I had this with Ewan, but only at night. With Fynn, it was so bad there were days I literally couldn't take care of Ewan and had to call someone to come get him because I couldn't even walk through the kitchen to make him food. This pregnancy I've had it as well, but there have been good days interspersed. Until this past Friday. It has been so very, very bad. And no respite. And I'm so frustrated. The pain really is so awful, and I consider myself to have a pretty good tolerance for pain. The problem is that I also have a high tolerance for medicine, and mere Tylenol does absolutely NOTHING to help this pain. I don't even bother taking it anymore, because it's pointless. Nights like tonight, where even laying down doesn't help, but merely makes my leg throb as if reminding me, "Hey, at least you didn't throw up like some people," I feel like I just can't do it anymore. I just want one normal day, pain free, where I can walk around my house without stumbling or shrieking. I am a pretty melodramatic person by nature, but I really try to hold it in with this. I try so hard not to react - it throbs constantly - but then the shooting pain comes so suddenly, so sharp that it completely takes me by surprise. There's no real point to this post, just to express my frustration and tears and MAKE IT STOP!

I told Bryce I'm going to buy a wheelchair (only half-joking.) I'll need help from my friends and family to "pimp it out" for me. I want a 20 oz. Coke holder and a compartment that keeps my chocolate chip cookies warm while also keeping my milk cold. A guacamole and chip dispenser would be nice, an outlet for my iPod to charge, and some nice rims would be good, too, 20 or more inches please. An arm that pops up with a water-misting fan will be absolutely necessary as well. I'm sure I'll think of more later. I'll accept blueprints and prototypes by mail. Hurry, I have two months left.

TWO MONTHS! Waaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

(Disclaimer: I am so excited to be having this baby. I've accepted this is my lot when bringing a new little guy into the world. I'm grateful for this pregnancy- it just doesn't make it any easier.)

Name suggestions

I just wanted to thank everyone for their name suggestions. Bryce and I both looked at all of them, and come to the same general consensus on each one. I do now have what I think is a perfect, wonderful name for the new baby, but it's possible I may change my mind once I look into his wee little eyes. For that reason, and also to avoid any rude reactions we may get - which always irritate me - we are keeping it secret until he comes. I'm not flattering myself that everyone is just dying to know the baby's name, but I wanted to acknowledge the suggestions and thanks for the help!

Good things

To make up for my earlier rant, and to put myself in a better mood after Fynn threw up again all over his crib and bedding, and Ewan had an accident on the floor, I'll now post some things that are good right now and that I am grateful for.


1. John showing up to pick Ben up a little early, bearing an ice-cold 20 oz. Coke. And he didn't even take me up on my offer of $1,000,000.

2. My new table and chairs, which I plan on posting about soon. Too long I endured a peeling table from Goodwill. No more. Ikea to the rescue. My kitchen looks so nice.

3. The dogs are staying in the yard. For now.

4. The littlest baby is moving more and more every day and making his presence known.

5. We are getting a brand-new, FREE double stroller from some incentive program at Bryce's work. YAY!

6. Fynn is napping. Hopefully to wake up puke-free this time.

7. No one else is sick (crossing fingers).

8. I think I figured out what happened to the fish. Pretty sure it swam way up into the shell in the bowl and got stuck. Which, you know, is sad, but at least I know. Whether it was suicide or not, I can't be sure.

9. On my table are several good fashion magazines just waiting for me to peruse.

10. Bryce promises to not be late from work.

11. I dreamt I had adopted another rabbit. Woke up to find it wasn't true. Always a bonus.

*** Updated to add one more great thing - Just now, I flipped on the TV to see if Oprah had anything good on, and Ewan, sitting on the couch coloring next to me, randomly said, "Yeah, Oprah's a fake." He swears he never heard anyone else say it, that he made it up himself.

Boring, I know, but that's all I had for now, without getting totally sappy. Which I don't like to do. So there you go.

Quest for the Holy Grail

Ugh, it's late, and I want to be asleep.  But I remembered I needed to check Ashley's blog for Chloe's birthday pictures, so I popped up really quickly.  While I was looking, I was reminded of something that happened at the party that irritated me.  One of the people asked the sex of my baby, and when I told her, she said, completely dismayed, "OH YOUR POOR THING!"  And she didn't mean anything by it, and it's not like it's a lone incident.  It's just the cherry on top of lots of comments I've gotten, both from strangers and from acquaintances, who I know mean well, and it's not really offensive as much as "IHHH!"  (Ashley knows exactly how that should be pronounced.)

Anyway, it boils down to this:  when did giving birth to a girl become the Holy Grail of pregnancy?  I admit I wanted a girl, but it was more for naming purposes than anything.  I have the hardest time naming my boys, and I have the perfect girl's name all ready to go.  But I'm thrilled we're having another boy!  It's gonna be so fun (hard, but fun).  I always knew I would have tons of boys.  But people will ask me, "Do you know what it is?"  And when I tell them it's a boy, they always look so deflated and disappointed.  "Oh, well you'll get your girl next time."  Um, what?  This is a person who is coming to be a part of our family, and he belongs here!  That's totally awesome and exciting and just indescribable!  Boys are so cool.  One of my favorite sounds in the world is a little boy imitating a race car, or roaring like a tiger.  I love their cowlicks and skinny legs.  I love their dirt grimy hands when they cover mine.  And I love when Ewan, in perfect imitation of me and every member of the Anderson family, grabs my arm or hand, squeezes as hard as he can while gritting his teeth and says, "Squeeze you 'til you pop!"  They are just awesome, and in case there was ever a question, once I found out it was a boy for sure, it was like, "Oh, of course, I knew you were coming.  We've saved a place for you."  

Even if I have to call him "No-name Taylor."

Sonogram pictures

I've been planning on getting these scanned forever, but every time I got someone to help me do it, I'd completely forget to give them the pictures. So here they are now, and thank you, Missy and John for scanning it when I finally remembered to pass them on!

This one shows his face best, and the next one shows his little hand.
And this next one is how we know it's a boy!

Help me name the baby!

Obviously, I love Irish/Gaelic names.  I love both of my boys' names so much.  Ewan Bryce and Fynn Christian.  Both Bryce and Christian are family names, and I kind of wanted to follow that same pattern, but I might have to break it this time.  I love the name Liam, but after a little research, I really feel like it's gotten too trendy for me.  My whole idea was to name him Liam Kelly.  That's just not going to work for me, now, even though here he is constantly referred to as Liam.  The other name I found that I like is Cael or Caelan.  But I need a middle name!!!  I can't think of anything.  And obviously I can't do Cael Kelly.  So, if you know of any good middle names for that, or if you know of any good Irish names I'm not thinking of (that aren't too popular), shoot me some ideas.  With both kids, when I finally "heard" their names in my head (thanks to Ashley for helping me put Ewan and Bryce together.  And I fell completely in love with the name Fynn after seeing the Ethan Hawke version of Great Expectations when it first came out.) I swear it was like angels singing, they were so perfect.  I want the same experience for this one.  It's part of the reason I wanted a girl; I knew I was going to have such a hard time finding another boy's name I love.  Mary Ann is on her way this morning to Ireland for a lovely trip.  She's also going to keep her eye out for me.  Maybe a baby name book right from Ireland...

Bargains for baby

I always cheat myself out of the big "purchasing" moments in my life.  I refused to go to prom.  I didn't buy a real wedding dress when we got married, but had someone make one that I really didn't like.  Then I didn't buy any kind of a nursery set for either of my two boys when they were born.  With Ewan we were strapped for money, and I just bought stuff here and there, super-cheap, not-good quality stuff.  Then with Fynn, I think since he was the second, the idea of a fabulous nursery theme wasn't on my radar.  But I decided that with this baby, I really did want him to have a nice, matching crib set, especially since he'll be in our room until we move someday.  We won't even put him in the crib until he's four or five months old, but Target had some of its cutest stuff on 50% off clearance, so I just *had* to get it.  Hopefully it will be around for a little longer so I can keep adding pieces.  You can see the things I did buy here and here on Target.com, although it's not on clearance on the website for some reason.  It's probably only exciting for me, and the baby couldn't care less, but I'm just excited I finally was able to indulge in the moment and have a matching set for him.  

Etsy, I love you

Bryce took Ewan out of the house for a little while, and Fynn is asleep, so I found myself with - gasp! - nothing to do. So since I know what the baby is now, I decided to do a little Internet window shopping. All I have to say, and I say it in a wail, is: why didn't I know about Etsy when I had the first two boys?!?!?! I have a feeling I'll be browsing Etsy a lot in the future. So much cute stuff, and this wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.

This owl onesie. It's killin' me, it really is.

And this cowboy burp cloth.

Why do I love pirates so much?

And owls, again? I want this in my size.

I'm totally happy that it's a boy, because that's who he's supposed to be, but oh, man, if it were a girl... I would never let her take this off.

Why can't I sew????

Can't forget the big brothers.

I'm learning to love bugs since I had boys.

And I'm sorry, but this is just cool. Really really cool.