Peanut, where are you? IMPORTANT UPDATE!

Can you see the Peanut in the picture above?

There he is content to be in his mommy's tummy.


But that didn't last forever...

CAPTAINS LOG:

3:05 am

I woke up with contractions that were definitely different then the Braxton Hicks I've been experiencing. I think we're going to be having a Halloween baby after all. I guess B wins the bet, he thought so all along.

4:13 am

I can't go back to sleep, contractions are coming every 6 minutes or so. We're supposed to wait until they are 5 minutes apart for at least an hour before we leave for the hospital. They are getting so intense and I'm getting a little nervous. We're about 20 minutes from the hospital here as long as we don't need to go during traffic. I'm debating waking B up and heading to my parents who are only a few minutes from the hospital. But then everyone will be up and waiting for something to happen. Then again, I baked lime bars and set some aside for the nurses. I could make up a plate while we waited. Or I could have someone else make up the plate. Am I talking about lime bars right now?

4:43 am

Still 6 minutes apart. If I were like my mom I'd already given birth by now. Her labors last about an hour after the first pain. When she had me, she went in to her check up and was already dilated to 5 without having felt any contractions at all.

4:58 am

I'm tired and keep thinking I can take a little nap but napping thru contractions just isn't happening. That's it- that one really hurt. I'm waking B up.

5:26 am

Still about 6 minutes apart but they are getting stronger. Heading to my parents and continuing to count to that 5 minute apart mark.

This better not be a false alarm... wish me luck!

Happy Halloween!

I'm a big fan of family holiday movies. Watching the movies is another way of getting into the spirit and gives me the warm fuzzies in general.



I do not watch horror movies. I mean, I have but it is always, ALWAYS a mistake. B practically forbids it because he knows the result is paranoia, sleeping with the lights on and me buried half-way underneath his body the entire night. Go ahead and try to picture me (and the Peanut) trying to wedge myself underneath him with the covers pulled up to my neck. Sweating or not, the covers must stay up around my neck.

This post here is a perfect example of what happens when I decide to watch a horror movie. I laugh hysterically whenever I read it.

So this morning I plan on watching my annual movies of Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! and B will surely watch Young Frankenstein.

We don't have any plans for tonight but I'd like to think I'll be in labor :)

No sign of the Peanut yet but I'll keep tweeting updates!

Joanne's Baby Shower

On the 17th I went to yet another baby shower! It seems that a good portion of my high school dance team got pregnant at the same time. Joanne is in the middle and is due on December 20th (about 31 weeks along), Theresa on the right is due on December 12th (about 32 weeks along) with her second and Jen on the left just got married.

I'm in the process of getting some engagement and wedding pics from Jen so we can swoon over her gorgeous details.

Celeste was also on the dance team with us as well as 3 other ladies who had/have due dates between July and December. It's an epidemic.



Theresa made this display (she is super crafty) that had our name tags and table assignments.



Loved these little diapers AND they had a bonus. One of these diapers was dirty and the person with the dirty diaper won a prize.



I was at table Rubber Ducky and we each received these little cinnamon rolls with a "thank you for showering our 'lil bun in the oven".



There were salad and sandwiches galore....



and a dessert table. All the desserts were adorable and sported little labels, which I love.




Holy moly, I had a bite of these and nearly died. Go make these immediately.

I asked Jen and she let me know they were a Bakerella recipe, found here.








I love dessert tables. I'm sure you aren't surprised at all.



This is just evidence that I steal all your ideas. I used the clothesline idea from my shower and then sewed some burp cloths like Elle Bee and LeAnna.



Hey hot mama. You see, I'm not the only one sporting non-maternity dresses and high heels!

Joanne is just one of those super stylish people. Darn those naturally stylish people.



Speaking of stylish, this is Jen (who you've met) and Annamaria (fellow dance teamer) and her baby girl.

This child didn't make so much as a peep. She is the poster child for mellow kids. Plus, she has the most adorable thighs.



Here are the 3 preggos! Some of us look like we are about to explode.

Congrats Joanne and Theresa!! Can't wait to meet your winter babies!

We have a deadline people

We went to the doctor's office yesterday in which I was only 1 1/2 centimeters dilated. She still managed to stick a finger thru and touch the baby's head. That's just odd to me and really not very comfortable. Did you hear that, she stuck a finger through and touched the baby's head. You see the kinds of things we say when we're pregnant. There are no boundaries.

She asked if I wanted to have the baby as soon as Monday. I must have had a deer in headlights look because I was totally unprepared for that question. I just feel odd about picking the baby's birthday. If I were super uncomfortable I might have just gone with Monday but I didn't feel like my increasily angry stretch marks were a good enough reason to force the child out. I may come to regret that decision :)

We talked it over and decided to schedule an induction on Thursday which puts me a full week past my due date. This gives Peanut a chance to come on his own which is supposedly a faster process than being induced. Come on Peanut!

This child is already roughly 7 lbs, 5 oz so he doesn't need to keep growing. I hope he;s all feet and tiny little head. Hee, OK maybe that would be a bit freaky.

Either way, something is happening by Thursday the 4th! We check in that morning at 5 am.

Thanks to LStewart I'm now able to tweet via text message and so I plan on giving some updates on Twitter. I feel so fancy! The updates are up on the right side of the blog or you can just follow DandyClaps on Twitter.

Down to the nitty gritty here. I have had some of the most HILARIOUS comments on my facebook page on how to induce labor. I might just have to try some of these, ha!

They include but are not limited to:
*Eating pineapple/pizza/eggplant/spicy foods
*walking
*jumping jacks
*railroad tracks
*raspberry leaf tea
*membrane sweeping
*doing "it", how doing "it" helps and very specific forms of anatomical manipulation

and my personal favorite...

*Ok sounds like you're going to have to jump up and down while 'sweeping' as you're eating spicy pizza all while doing it. Try it!



This video makes me laugh, I wish they would have kept the camera rolling. If you want to see something crazy check out the next video where the kid scares the mom into labor.

I love old wives tales.... any others I may have left out?

40 weeks and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g

Well, I'm officially 40 weeks pregnant. If Peanut is anything like his father he feels no need to change what seems to be a very comfortable existence. Why mess with things when he is so happy where he is?

I still feel pretty darn good. I'm a bit tired, my skin feels like it might stretch apart in places and there is a lot of pressure so I waddle a lot.

The following pictures are for those of you who think I look just beautiful and hardly pregnant at all. :)

Viewer Discretion Advised: If the site of a naked mama belly freaks you out, turn back now.



My pajamas don't quite fit anymore. I still like to make an effort to be sexy for B. Can you tell? I mean, we are still kinda newlyweds.

Adding to my sex appeal are the 2 innies and 1 outie that I currently have. How does that happen? This really freakish thing happened to what was previously my belly button piercing. Despite the fact that I haven't worn a ring in years the scar tissue stretched and stretched and stretched. My belly button popped out but the piercing holes just kept getting angrier and angrier until they started sprouting stretch marks- straight out of the scar tissue.

If you look closely you can see what is a perfect X shape on the top one and the bottom one has more of a circular pattern. The X shape is quite evil looking, it freaks people out. It's actually a bit painful.



Despite thoughts that I was getting stretch marks previously I didn't actually get any (besides the evil X) until 37 1/2 weeks when all of a sudden I've started sprouting them all over the underside of my belly. They are still fairly light and it's not to bad because at this point I can't really see them under there.

I've decided that there really isn't anything you can do about them so I'm just not going to worry about it. I will be very curious to see what will happen to the angry purple X after Peanut is born.



Huh, whaddya do?

Speaking of sexy, last month my mom and I went to Target to get some post-baby underwear. I don't think wearing thongs or my cutesy boy shorts is going to work. It makes me laugh that I'm buying full butt underwear for post-baby that looks exactly like the underwear I wore in grade school. What's up with the patterns on these things? AND I had to get pads, which I think I've only used a handful of times in my life. Big diaper-like pads. Sexy.

Anyway, as I was looking at the wall of briefs, bikinis and other unknowns, a very pregnant lady was asking me a bunch of questions. What should she get? What size should she get? Will she need pads too? What am I getting?

I gave her all the second hand information I knew of and then my mom asked her when she was due. Her answer? She was being induced the next day... because she was 2 weeks past due!

The woman was due 2 weeks ago and had a cart full of necessities and very little information. People are crazy.

So here I am, as prepared as I'll ever be... just waitin' for this little boy to make his appearance! If possible I plan on giving an update on here before I go in. If you don't hear from me for a couple of days... well then you know I'm in the hospital. Can you believe B & I don't have internet access on our ancient phones?

I have a check up this afternoon so everyone cross your fingers for some dilation or something! I'll keep you posted!

Cranberry Orange Chews

No baby news yet! What's the next best thing? Food. Dessert is the next best thing.


Cranberry Orange Chews are a family favorite of Elle Bee's and that kind of endorsement is good enough for me.



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. The recipe starts with 1 1/2 cups (3 whole sticks!) or room temperature butter. Really, with this kind of a start you just can't go wrong.





Mix the butter with 2 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon orange zest and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. 2 whole teaspoons of vanilla- I'm telling you this recipe gets better and better.



What do you mean some of my zest looks green? I was just slightly short on the orange zest and threw in a bit of lime zest because we have a surplus of limes around here right now.



In a separate bowl mix together 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt.



Here you see my nephew and niece doing the tedious cookie work. I'm not overly fond of cutting cookies into shapes and/or deocrating them.



They are finishing up the Amaretto Orange Bites for me. I think family cookie making is one fantastic reason to procreate.



That and the ability to make goggles out of cookie cutters. The fun never ends!



Add the dry to the butter mixture, stir to mix and then beat until the dough starts to come together, about 5 minutes or so. I kept going past the point you see above but before you got one big clump of dough.



Mix in 1 1/2 cups of dried cranberries and 1 1/2 cups of coconut. It may seem crumbly but you can press it together in the next step.



Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on a buttered cookie sheet.



Bake in the oven until the edges just begin to brown, about 8 to 11 minutes. The less cooking time, the chewier the cookie. Let them cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.



What do you do if you and your family are really loud and noone hears the alarm go off, thus over-baking into hard completely browned cookies?



Well, if that sort of thing were to happen and you don't feel like breaking a tooth trying to chew them, I have heard you can dip them. Dip them in coffee or tea like a biscotti. They will still taste amazing. Don't you dare waste one of these cookies.





These were immediately declared a winner. You get this great orange kick and the cranberries give off so much flavor. They are buttery but still chewy and an absolute must try.



Thanks Elle! I have a feeling these will be a yearly cookie from now on.

Peanut's Room, Part Two

I've only showed you one wall of Peanut's room in my previous post but I didn't forget about the tour!



OK so I forgot to take before picture until after I had already started to take everything apart. Originally this wall held two of these bookshelves stacked with books. It doesn't look like it but the 2nd shelf fit to the right under the overhang from the blinds.



Thank you B's parents for the dresser! It's also from Ikea and fit well into the style I was looking for. I decided against a changing table and opted to put a changing pad on this dresser as it was the right height.



Before I had even cleared out this room I knew I wanted to decorate it with some interesting bicycle art.

So I got on etsy and really the rest is all history. Things got a bit out of control and we nearly ran the risk of being able to make wallpaper out of all the prints I wanted to buy. Luckily I lost my job when I did.

I have a hard time editing out cute things.



Do you know that Peanut has an entire drawer of cute hats and shoes?!



Baby boy clothes and accessories really have come a long way. I've been lucky enough to inherit a good amount of clothes from friends and family. Yay for boys older than mine!




After a lot of going back and forth we ended up getting rid of B's old bed. Guests who come will have to rough it on our deluxe air mattresses and couch space. We promise it's comfortable! Really, the only people that stay over are B's friends and they could roll a sleeping bag out on the porch and be fine. Not that I would do that, I'm just sayin'.



Here is the after...

Lovely crib, compliments of my parents! It's one of those convertibles that becomes a toddler bed with a railing and then a full size bed frame later on.



More artwork purchased from etsy, pictures from our engagement session and possibly my favorite piece of art... the bee made by a very special little girl.

My dad glued it to foam board and then cut it out with an exacto knife.



Do you remember the trip China Town for paper lanterns? Well, here they are. I just bought a ton and then my mom and I stood there asking my very patient dad to switch them around until we came to a decision on what looked good.



On the other side of the room we have more storage for Peanut's books, some of his toys and his DVD collection. Yes, he already has DVDs.

I love that when he gets older I can display his favorite books in hopes that he'll make his way over and pick one out for us to read.



Wow. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and this belly just doesn't seem real.

Hello, Peanut are you ready to come out?



Our apartment is actually a dual master so Peanut has his own bathroom. This is the blah-before.



Here is the revised Peanut potty room. The curtain came from Urban Outfitters, the B washcloths we found at Home Goods and the rubber ducky was a gift and it says hot on the bottom if the water is too hot for the baby.

Oh and I love the Skip Hop Hare set which is the little bunny whose ears are actually a brush and a comb and whose face is mirrored underneath.



That concludes Peanut's room tour! The above mirror and Farmgirl Paints original artwork is in the hallway between our two rooms. The mirror was already up and the peanut picture was just so perfect below it, announcing the entrance to Peanut's wing.

For now it's just sitting and waiting for it's ruler!

Road Trip to This Heavenly Life!

Have you been to This Heavenly Life before? Written by the incredibly talented Sarah her stories are always well-written and full of character. In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month she has been hosting Write Pink!

I'm kicking off survivor's week with a story about one of my cancer experiences. It may be a little weird but I don't suppose you'll be surprised by that. :)

Please stop by This Heavenly Life to see my POST and leave a comment to be entered into a giveaway from the Vintage Pearl!