Readers Are Leaders

Abby is continuing her education by learning to "read" certain books with her dad. She can finish the pages for him in about 5 books that they read often. It is pretty adorable to hear him stop reading and listen to her pick right up where he left off and finish the page. Now we just need to get her to learn her ABC's (I know... bad parenting, since she is way smart enough to have known these for months).
















Abby and I took some paperwork over to the crisis pregnancy center today since I do all the bookwork for them in my job as treasurer of the board. While we were there one of the volunteers noted that I "looked like you are about to have that baby." Unfortunately... not. And today I definitely felt like I was about to have a broken back from carrying this heavy little girl around. I think we are going to set the "over/under" for her at 9 pounds and I'm pretty sure the smart bet is going to be way, way over.

Could we have some whine to go with dinner please?

We've had 3 days of wildness and it is wearing our patience quite thin. Grandma Jennie better get here soon to snuggle Abby. She's been super tired, but doesn't want to miss out on any of the action, so rather than peaceful evenings with Abby napping, we get whines. Lots of whines. When she does finally go to sleep it's for long naps, so it isn't too terrible if you can get to the sleeping part.

Lots of sleeping... 15 hours between last night and 9 when we put her to bed and lunchtime today when I woke her up so she could eat. She did take a little snack break at 7 am, but went back to sleep within 5 minutes of finishing her bottle. She must be growing this week! We had to put away the things that were 3-6 months sized. The straight 6 months size still fit, but barely. Today Abby is wearing a pair of jeans that Steve had picked out for her to wear during football season. We are glad that she is big and healthy, but it is making our previously purchased wardrobe slightly obsolete. Lots of her cute "Baby's First Christmas" gear would fit her now, so I'm sure it won't be her size when December actually rolls around. Oh well... at least most of it still has tags on it and can be given as a gift.

We bought a dvd recorder to replace our dead dvd player and dying vcr. So far Abby and I have transfered 6 of our vhs tapes onto dvds. Still lots and lots to go. Guess we know what I'll be doing in my spare time for the next few weeks :-)

The BIG News

Just when we thought we had things figured out and under control, Sparky threw us for another loop. While a normal infant at week 34 would be 4.9 pounds or so, Ms. Sparky is well over 7 pounds. The ultrasound technician said the doctor would be able to give us the official weight, but she only knew how to get within the range. When I came home and tried to calculate the weight based on metric conversion I came up with 8 pounds, 1 ounce. Either way, Sparky is at least 2 pounds heavier than the average baby and will likely be here sooner rather than later. Based on her size, she is equivalent to a 36 week old baby, which would put a revised due date around April 7th. We are hoping to get some better information on the new plan of attack next Wednesday at our weekly visit.

So... other than that, week 34 is off to an uneventful start. My knee is bruised from the fall on Sunday, but not hurting. We now know why I feel like I have the world's largest baby in my belly. We have most of the essentials ready to bring Sparky home and now we just play the waiting game.

Congratulations to Becky Rasey for being the first to figure out that Sparky's name is Abigail Grace. Steve and I originally were debating between Elizabeth and Kathryn, but neither really ever really just seemed to fit Sparky. So after much debating and consideration we decided that Abigail was going to be the best name for our little gal. So, Abby will be joining our family shortly and you can all pray for a safe delivery and for a healthy little girl.

Also... on the above ultrasound photo Steve and I are trying to decide whether Abby's arm bones look more like a pirate skull or the ginger bread cookie from Shrek. Feel free to add your interpretation of her interesting photo to the mix.