Labs

Aggies blood arrived safely in OH today, so thankful!

On another note, I'm scheduled for an induction in the morning.

Belly Update

Just a little belly update:  the button in my middle is not quite it's self.

This is my first experience being "over due".  It has been a humbling one.

While we Wait

While we've been waiting for little Miss Salem to make her grand appearance we've kept ourselves busy, maybe too busy? Probably so.

 Me Ma has been dominating the kitchen.

 Grandma and Grandpooh were also in town this week for Mike's youngest brothers graduation from the Navy EOD program.

 The kids have enjoyed receiving bundles of gifts. 

 Hosea is ready for more nerf wars.

 Grandpooh likes a good war.

 My parents (mema and papa) are staying with us.  Grandma and Grandpooh rented a condo at Destin.  We went to see them on one of the more fair days. It was in the high 60's, so we scoped out the beach and then swam in the heated pool.  The grandparents enjoy visiting with one another.  Hard to believe we had a beach trip in December.

 Shelling with Papa.

 Uncle Aaron's graduation. Only 1/3 of the students that start the program complete it, so it has been a great accomplishment for him this past year.  We are all very proud of him!

 All who came to watch the ceremony.  Mike's Family.

Mike and I bought the children a new playground for Christmas and My dad has been working away at getting it together this week.  Now that Mike is off for the holiday he can help also.  Hosea has been helping all week, he is the little supervisor under the roof. 

I've also had some adventures of being the parent of a "special needs child", we always joke that we have a "special needs child", as our dietitian was so kind to inform me of it on our last visit.  As if I was not aware.  I thought "lady if there is anyone closely acquinted with this fact, it's me".  So in making light of that........ I've made some "special" phone calls trying to find a lab that will draw blood work and overnight it to two different locations, as a follow up for our positive genetics results, per her Dr's instructions.  After a couple hours on the phone, I found a lab that will draw it, but we will have to ship it ourselves.  So then I made some more "special" phone calls learning how to over night blood.  Then I went on a "special" scavenger hunt to find materials for this "special" shipping project.  After all the information and material was gathered for this "special" project, I turned it over to my man, since the lab work must be drawn on the 26th of December for it to make it's scheduled arrival on the 27th to it's destinations, I thought giving my current circumstances it was best in his hands. Oh.... unrelated, but also on the "special" spectrum, I made another series of phone calls to get some "special" medicine for my "special needs childs" g-tube infection.  I'm really glad I didn't have anything planned this week, so I could take care of all our "special needs". 

Induction Cancelled

After talking with Mike, I think we are going to cancel the induction. I would have just deleted the previous post, but I feel like this is characteristic of how things go in late pregnancy, ups and downs.

Induction

I had an OB check up today.  I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday.  It is not for medical reasons.
Here are the real reasons in no particular order.
1. My Dr. doesn't seem to want to be delivering me on Christmas.
2. I want to be home on Christmas.
3. Mike will get a few extra days off work, but the bulk of his "baby leave" will overlap with "christmas leave".
4. My older brother and family will be in MO from France, and I want my parents to feel the freedom and have the time to be both here for the birth, and back to home in time to see my brother's family before they return to France.  I'd feel pretty badly if they didn't get to see them. I'm bummed enough that I don't get to see them.
I do fully realize that this is not the ideal way to labor, and in all likely hood am prolonging my labor, but I feel like it is a more practical choice given our current circumstances.  I am however prayerful that she will come on her own before Tuesday. Stranger things have happened.

OK..... I think I'm ready?

All Christmas gifts are purchased and wrapped
All Bedding is clean
Bathrooms clean
Baby/guest room in order
All unused children clothing is properly stored or given away
Fulfilled promise to kids to bake gingerbread men
Eyebrows are waxed
Toes painted red

All the important stuff...
Oh wait, I still need to change the fishes water.
I also plan to execute a week full of appointments, but if we miss those they can be rescheduled, I don't think we'll miss them. :)
By next weekend my only appointment or obligation is to have this baby girl, it almost feels like a relief to think of giving birth and sitting in a hospital room for a couple days compared to the schedule we've been keeping at home and away.

Baby Shower

A lovely friend hosted a baby shower for Salem and I.  Shiloh was also in attendance to "help" with gifts.  It was a lovely brunch, with my favorite meal breakfast foods.  I wish I had more pictures of friends, but i forgot to demand a group shot of everyone on the couch.  A big THANK YOU to everyone who came and helped!

 Yummy Food

 Drinks

 Waffel Bar; Shiloh really enjoyed this and selected big and little chocolate chips, powdered sugar with her syrup. 

 Since we were just two, and Mike had Hosea and Aggie coaching a soccer game, we were in the truck, and this was us all packed up with our goods, plus two pirate costumes I needed to return to the store on the right there, which were not for the baby shower.  I really enjoyed having my big girl with me, she was so sweet and elated to have some mommy and me time.

Here we are growing. 30 weeks. Shiloh yet again, my photographer.:)

Shirts

I got some fabric Saturday to make appliqué shirts for the children for when baby bean is born and I just couldn't wait to get started.  I still need to get a shirt for Aggie, but that will come soon.

22 weeks

This was last week, Shiloh captured it for me, a little blurry. I realized I'm over half way through the pregnancy and haven't taken a baby shot yet. So here we are growing.

Baby girl names?

Please help us name baby bean, we are stumped.  We usually can name the children in minutes, we've lost our skill.

Ultrasound Photo Shoot

These were some of our favorite pictures of our newest little girl.  They were so generous we have about 10 of them.

 Foot Obviously 

 Her hands were very active, she kept pointing at us.  It must have been that americano I shared with Mike on the way.

Her sweet profile. 

It's a Girl!!

We found out yesterday that baby #4 is a girl!
Everyone was betting boy.  Goes to show what everyone knows :). Except Shiloh that is, she held fast on girl.  Hosea switched to girl 2 days prior to the reveal, a 6th sense maybe?  Little Schloss girls are so sweet, so I am thankful to welcome another, my little man is pretty great too though, just saying.

I am currently in the middle of my 20th week.  All the baby's measurements appeared to be right on target.  Good news.  Given my most recent maternal past they will do another ultrasound in 6 weeks to keep a close eye on things.

Baby Bean 15 weeks

I had an OB check up today.  The heart rate was 140.  They put a referral in for me to have an ultra-sound at a specialty OB clinic, so once that goes through we will schedule the big ultra-sound.  We are hoping to find out the gender this time around.

Ultrasound

I had an ultrasound today, it showed that I am about 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant with one baby.  They will do another one in 2 weeks to be sure.  This puts me due at then end of December.

The goings on in Whoville

This week has been a full one. Starting it off with the news of a new Schloss on the way and heading full speed into a week full of appointments. On the new Schloss; I have all the symptoms of early pregnancy. That's what tipped me off to the matter. That has continued this week. Tiredness, hunger/fullness at the same time, with the pang of yuck in my gut. I think they are calling that nausea. Pressing on! We had an audiology and ENT appointment this week. Aggies hearing aid got sent to the shop for a good look over before the warranty is up. They replaced all the inner parts to make sure we had some good years with it. That was nice. The ENT said Aggies right eustachian tube is clogged. There isn't treatment for this, just wait for growth. We got the stopper taken out of Aggie's ankle braces. Which gives her a little more range of motion with them on. Sort of a weaning process I guess. She's been pulling up to her knees, which she couldn't do with the braces on b/c of the stopper. So the idea is she can pull up to knees with the stopper out, and we can work on pulling to standing from there. This will likely take much time. We saw the genetics doctor again in Birmingham. We have a new game plan. All the labs that were ordered last time didn't have any significant findings. So the plan is this.... We will see another general genetics Dr. soon. The one we've been seeing specializes in mitochondrial disease. She wants us to do this to make sure she's not missing something obvious. If noting turns up from that, then we will have the muscle biopsy repeated along with some more labs. As Aggie is still a candidate for a mitochondrial disease, her last muscle biopsy was not tested properly which we were told had ruled out the disease, but it in fact did not. On to other news. Our Haiti trip has been cancelled. It's not recommended for pregnant people to travel to underdeveloped countries. We do not know what the future holds for us in adoption, but it is still certainly on our hearts. Plan B..... since we had already bought tickets to Haiti, and had child care lined up (my parents), we paid a fee to get our destination changed and Mike and I are taking a vacation to Colorado for some much needed rest and relaxation. We are headed to a very remote cabin in the mountains. Then we can come back home and face the giants.

Tag...... we're it!

We are excited to announce the Lord has entrusted us with yet another little being. Schloss baby number four is baking in the oven and is expected to be complete this November or December. We will have to wait for an ultrasound for more details.