The baby has dropped . . .

  Wednesday night I woke up at 3:15 a.m. to go to the bathroom and started to have a lot of cramping. So I laid there for an hour and it didn't go away. Then I got up and walked around for awhile and it still didn't go away. So five hours later I called the doctors office when they opened and they wanted me to come in (unfortunately I knew exactly what they were going to do and wasn't looking forward to it). Turns out that the baby had dropped and I guess the cramping is normal. So again, the doctor said ANYTIME!!!!! We packed the bag and put the car seat in and we are ready to go. I feel stupid driving around with an empty car seat, but I guess better safe than sorry.
  Not much has been going on lately. Seems like life is just in slow motion. All summer it seems like there has been something going on all the time or something coming up to look forward to. But the calendars are empty now, and we are just waiting. It's so weird to just be waiting. I wonder what color of eyes she's going to have. Jordan wanted to guess what day she will come. He thinks September 11th (my Aunt Diane's birthday, that's one week early). I think the 17th, one day early.
  We have our next appointment on the 1st and my work baby shower too. I'm kind of excited for it. It should be fun to see everyone and show Jordan what I do. My job is restricted to the public so I can't really bring people to work and show them what I do. So I thought if Jordan wanted to he could come and then I could show him around. We'll see how everything goes.

36 week appointment . . .

  We just had our 36 week appointment this morning. Last time we were in and out before our appointment was even suppose to start. NOT THIS TIME! I had been cramping (I learned today they're not called cramps anymore, they're called contractions now) a lot and having some other symptoms as well so they hooked me up to a Non-stress test to check the baby's heart rate, movements, and my contractions. And then they sent us for an ultrasound. Everything checked out great. She weighs 6 lbs. 2 oz. and should probably weigh about 8 lbs. when she's born. The doctor said that my body is just getting ready for the birthing process and everything was fine. He just wanted to make sure that nothing was wrong. Which Jordan and I really appreciated. He said it could be anytime! And he'll see us again in a week. It's so weird to think that it really could be anytime.
  So we are still prepared and ready to go. Tomorrow I'm going into town to get the last of the things that I will need and then I'll be able to pack our hospital bag. Jordan is getting pretty excited. I can't wait to see him with her in his arms. Our next appointment is on the 1st so more to come then.
   

Our craig's list find . . .

  So Jordan and I went to Fletcher's the other day to pick a few things up and the sales lady started showing us this really cool stroller (They're like vultures. They just hover around until they spot your weakness) . So since we hadn't really decided on what kind to get we were interested in her sales pitch. She got us hook, line, and sinker! She showed us the BOB! Unbeknownst to us it was way over our price range (that's why they don't have price tags on them!!). What a let down. She totally had us sold on it. It was like the Rolls Royce of strollers. I think they must work on commission in that store :) Anyways, it seemed like from then on every stroller we saw was a BOB. You know when you really want something and you know you can't get it. Then you see it everywhere. It was torture. So I got on Craig's list one night and BAMM!!!! There is was. A slightly used BOB stroller. I drove up to Portland the next morning and brought it home. I'm pumped! What a deal. 

The BOB!

  We had our doctors appointment on Tuesday. Everything measured fine and is going good. Just doing the waiting game now.

  Our wood is stacked! Can you believe it. Thanks to Jordan and his buddies we will survive the winter : ) Thank you everyone for helping. I'm sure glad Jordan has friends.

This is almost half full.

A little more. . .

8.4 cords of wood (they stacked 5.6 cords)

The crew! Thanks guys.

  Jordan's family from Utah was here for a week and we got to see them quite a bit. They always run the scandia run and wanted Jordan to run it with them. So at the last minute (literally like five minutes before they left our house) Jordan decided to run. This was funny to me because he's not a runner. AT ALL!!! But whatever, I knew I wasn't going to run it. So I gave him some baby powder and away he went. I have to admit I thought it would take him much longer than it did. By the time I got there to watch him finish he was done. Did I mention it was a 10K. He finished in 56 minutes!! Wholly cow, that's amazing. I guess I have to eat my words and admit to being wrong. He is in great running shape. I think his only regret is not putting enough baby powder on (can you say chaffy!!). I think this will probably turn into a family tradition. And I might do the scandia walk next year with our BOB stroller (don't hold me to it though). We also took the bronco to the coast while they were here too. It was a lot of fun. We love that bronco.

Here's Jordan and Josh deciding what shoes he should wear

Deodorant, a runners best friend. 

The four siblings

Here's everyone that ran

This is after the race

Here we are at the coast.

Jordan was helping somebody that got stuck

This is Cole our nephew. He really enjoyed the bronco too.

  Well it keeps getting closer and closer. I can't believe how fast the whole pregnancy has gone. This last month will be a quick one. I think I'm about as prepared as I could possibly be. I can tell that she's getting bigger in there. She is starting to make it a little uncomfortable for me when she tries to stretch out. One of my coworkers called the other day and said they wanted to throw me a pot-luck/shower. I thought that was really nice. I'm really excited for it. It will be fun to see everyone again. I bet they will think I'm huge compared to the last time they've seen me. Which by then it will be about two months.

Here we are at 35 weeks.

(And just to let everyone know, I managed to squeeze into

this outfit. It's not maternity!)

 A little different than the next picture at 24 weeks.

This is me at 24 weeks

  More to come later. Hope all is well. I should only have one or two more post before she gets here. And then there will really be something to share with everyone (if time permits, I'm going to do my best).

The Last Full Month. . .

  Holy smokes, can you believe that August is the last full month that we will have before we have the baby! When I flipped the calendar from July to August I couldn't believe it. We haven't been up to too much recently. I'm kind of limited on the activities we can do with my back situation. It has gotten a little better, but as soon as I try and do anything like vacuum or mow the lawn I soon regret my decision to do so. It's a lot harder than I thought to just do nothing. Especially during the summer. But it's all for a good cause. She has been moving around so much lately. You can now see my belly change forms when she moves. Jordan gets a kick out of it. I love watching his face light up when he feels or sees her move. It never gets old. I'm getting so excited to think that soon she'll be sitting on my belly not in it.

  We've had two doctors appointments since our last post and everything seems to be going along as planned. We have one more two week appointment on the 17th and then we start our every week appointments. Can you believe it. Time sure does fly. We had one of our birthing classes on Wednesday. It was very informative. We really enjoyed it. Our next one is next Wednesday. And we had our breastfeeding class on Thursday. That too was very beneficial. Everything seems to be falling into place for this little one to arrive. I'm not sure what else I need to do to prepare, but I'm sure there's something. Jordan asked our Doctor if he could deliver the baby. And he said absolutely. He's super excited for it.

  I had my baby shower on Sunday. It was so nice. Everything turned out just perfect. April and Kelli threw it for me. They did a wonderful job. I got so many nice things from everyone. I was glad so many people came to share my special day with me. We are luck to have such thoughtful friends and family.

  We decided to go have an ultrasound done just for us, nothing to do with medical reasons. We thought it would be really fun and exciting to see her at this stage (basically because I'm impatient and couldn't wait 6 more weeks). When we started the session she was sleeping way down in my hip. We tried everything to stimulate her enough to wake her up, but it didn't work. She did move just a little bit so we were able to get some pictures of her face. It's amazing how much she looks like Jordan. That Petersen gene is super strong.

  We finally finished splitting wood. What a relief, especially for Jordan. He was the one doing ALL the work. Hopefully when it gets stacked there will be enough for the year.

  Nothing else has really been going on. Here are some pictures of our recent activities:

Here's Jordan still cutting wood. It felt like we

were never going to get done.

Here is KODA helping . . .

I can't believe how fast our garden has grown

since the last time I put a picture up.

Lazy summer days.

And here is the grand finale!

Her arm is up by her face.

She has Jordans nose and lips.

This one is my favorite.

  We are so excited to meet her and see her in real life. The ultrasound tech said she weighs about 5 1/2 pounds. And everything measures normal for how far along I am. It was very reassuring to be able to see her and know that everything is perfect with her. We've got everything washed a put away and now we are just waiting for her to grace us with her presence. 

  More to come later. Hope all is well with everyone.