Easter madness

These past couple of weeks have been eventful ones. I'll try to keep the chronology as straight as I can. The first drama was Sarah Jane's summer hair cut. She did not want it this short, but is learning to love it.

Next, my colleagues put on a shower for Flori. They were very generous and it was a lovely occasion.


On Easter weekend we went to Raleigh to celebrate with our friends the Clerkins. We had a wonderful time. I defer to Flori's description below for the remainder of our happenings.




Flori:

"Here are our latest happenings. When I went to the Dr. last week, she told me I was dilated to a 3! Over the next few days, I started having lots of contractions, with a few hours of 5-6 minutes apart. I started to get nervous because it's a little early still, we were visiting friends in Raleigh for Easter, and Rob was supposed to
go to Chicago for 3 days this week.

After a great Easter weekend with our friends, the Clerkins, from
Bloomington, we drove the 2.5 hours home (as quick as we could!) and called the doctor, but the one on call told us not to come to the hospital, but just wait for my regular appointment on Monday afternoon. That left us with the dilemma of whether or not to send Rob on his trip. I had heard several stories recently from women whose 4th children came within a couple of hours and we were both afraid that if
I DID go into labor, Rob would miss it altogether. So he stayed home (but now nothing is happening and I feel so guilty!)

At my appointment, they did an ultrasound to check the baby's size and they estimate her to currently weigh 7 lbs. 13 oz. The tech got some wonderful 3D pictures of her face and she already has chubby cheeks and looks like a beautiful baby. She got one last photo to reassure me that it REALLY is a girl—I keep having dreams that it's a surprise boy. They also did a stress test for the baby and she is doing well, even with all the contractions. I had 4 contractions in the 20 minutes that they monitored me. The tech was so excited for me—"You're contracting!"-- but the doctor didn't seem very impressed and all those weekend contractions did not go very far towards putting me in labor. If I don't start on my own, I will get induced on Monday, April 23rd. So whatever happens, I'm down to less than 2 weeks, and I'm good with that. We've got all the baby clothes and bedding washed and set up and I've been trying to get meals in the freezer and stay on top of the housework so we'll be ready when she does come.

We witnessed one great Easter tradition in our friend's neighborhood—the annual bunny drop. An eccentric older man at the end of the cul-de-sac gathers an assortment of chocolate Easter bunnies with the aim of testing packaging to see which are most sturdy. He then tests each one by dropping a large rock (this year he used a log of firewood) on top of the bunny and watching both box and bunny for signs of destruction. At the end, they dump out all the chocolate on a big table and let the kids go at it. It was quite funny and the girls thought it was great. Rob is seriously considering becoming the eccentric neighbor who starts this tradition in our own neighborhood.

As for the girls we ALREADY have, they are doing great! Today is their first day back at school after 10 days of Spring break. Maddie has been studying opera at school and gets to attend a dress rehearsal of "Pirates of Penzance" tonight at the fancy uptown theater. She has
been very anxious about the baby coming and has helped me a lot with organizing and planning things out. Eloise has been accident prone lately, falling off her bunkbed ladder, falling out of our friend's treehouse, and having a major bloody nose this morning (good thing it
was time to wash the sheets anyway!). Luckily she hasn't done any major damage, but she has a good set of bruises and scrapes. She is getting very proficient on the piano and just finished learning her first piece using the pedal. As our older girls enter a more moody
and melodramatic phase, we have really noticed and been grateful for Sarah Jane's cheery disposition. She is almost always happy and fun to be around—even when she does throw a tantrum, it seems to be mostly for form's sake and she can quickly pull out of it and go back to
being cheerful. She is the most excited for the baby to come and constantly asks questions, kisses my tummy, and tells EVERYONE that she was the biggest baby at 10 lbs. 4 oz.

Anyway, that's what happening in our world! We're also waiting for our
lovely spring yard to recover from the three nights of record-breaking
20-degree lows we had this week. We had just proudly planted our first
garden and everything was decimated. Too bad we didn't inherit green
thumbs from anyone.

Hope you are all well and happy!

Click on the web albumn below for more wild and crazy fun

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