I have a "Normal" pregnancy now!

I had my 30 week appointment today. It went well. The baby's heartbeat is in the 150's and I am measuring at 31 weeks. My doctor just keeps getting more excited every time I see her. She told me she wants me to have a big baby. She also said that my pregnancy is now considered "normal". That is the best thing to hear.
The girls are doing well too. They came to the appointment today and stood right by me while we heard the heartbeat - Raleigh told me she "loves to hear that sound". My doctor said, "probably not as much as your mommy does!"
We are getting into the beginnings of the busy part of busy season for James too. I am so thankful that his office is so close to home. We stopped there for lunch today and he has been trying to make it home for dinner almost every night and then go back to the office after the girls are in bed if he has to. Hopefully the rest of busy season goes fast - We are getting excited for the baby to come.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Raleigh and James are on their way to the Daddy Daughter Dance tonight. Raleigh's Friend Allie and her dad came to pick them up. They are going out to dinner and then to the dance. Raleigh got to go to Grandma Kuipers' house to get her hair done (it is beautiful) and her nails done. I feel like I just sent Raleigh to the prom or something and that James is going on a date with someone else!

Sydney is having a bit of a hard time with this whole thing. When we went to pick up the coursage, Sydney got tears in her eyes and said, "but...where is mine??" She decided she wanted to get dressed up in her Cinderella dress and dance with Daddy before he left. Grandma even did her hair. She wants to go so bad. I told her in a couple of years she could go - I need some Mommy-Sydney time. Sydney is now watching Dora and doing the Chicken Dance...

And sometimes we eat with elephants...

Sydney cracks me up lately. Every morning for breakfast her animals have to eat with her. They even need their own bowl. Yesterday her elephant Yellow had to have breakfast with her.

Sydney is so proud of herself. Today we ate with 2 tigers...

Also, we are at 29 weeks - a great place to be. Everything with this pregnancy seems to get going well. I can tell the baby is getting bigger and bigger. We finally started getting Sydney's old room back to a nursery. The girls even call it the baby's room. I have some blue hanging in the closet and a lot of pink to part with.

28, 4, and 5 1/2

We made it to 28 weeks!
Baby James would have been 4 years old today, and
Raleigh is excited that she turned 5 1/2.James took a few hours off from work and we went out to Holland to the Boy's "spot" and put the Cars balloon that the girls had picked out on James' grave for his 4th Birthday. James and Raleigh shoveled a path for us and cleared off the boy's headstone as well as Grace's.

We had actually tied a weight on the end of the balloon so it did not fly up into the trees this year! We took the girls out to lunch at Froggy's downtown and then took a short (but cold) walk to the Peanut Store to pick out some candy.

The girls wore their "team shirts" and baseball hats today (their own idea) because they thought James and Hudson would like it.

Ice Skating Day

Raleigh's school had an ice skating day today - I recruited James to come with for a few hours to help the girls. Raleigh would have done fine by herself but I knew Sydney would need help and I am not the one to to it this year. James skated with both of them for awhile and then ended up taking turns with each of the girls. Sydney needed lots of help even though she thought she was doing AWESOME! Raleigh liked to skate holding James' hand - she got frusterated with herself for not being better. I had to tell her that it was only her second time and it takes awhile to get better. I think everyone had fun (James got a workout) but I think the girl's favorite part was having lunch and birthday cake with Daddy at his office after.

My Favorite Picture of 2008

I was going through my pictures of this last year so I could order some copies and I ran across my favorite picture of 2008. I think my mother-in-law took it - it was when Raleigh and Sydney came to the hospital to see their brother Hudson. I felt so bad for Raleigh - I could tell she knew what was going on and did not want to have to deal with her parents being sad again and did not want to have another brother in Heaven. This picture pops up on my screen saver every once-in-awhile and it brings me back last May. I am glad that I don't see Raleigh like this very often but it reminds me how much she cares about her brothers, Sydney, and her mom and dad. It is fun to finally see her get excited about this new baby that is on the way. I think she still is a little guarded but she finally does talk about what things are going to be like when the baby is here.

I am almost at 27 weeks - I cannot believe I have made it this far. We pray every day that this baby stays healthy and is born full-term.

Another good appointment

I had another good appointment at the doctor's office today. I took both girls with me and they did well too. I was supposed to have an ultrasound but they said I was not scheduled which was weird because I saw them schedule it in the ultrasound book when I was there last time. Oh well, I really don't think I needed it anyway. The girls were a little disappointed because I told them they could see the baby for a couple of minutes. I didn't get to see my doctor either because she got called to a delivery about a minute before she was supposed to come see me. We saw her out in the hallway right by the exam room when we walked in and 2 minutes later the nurse came in and said she had to head to the hospital - I saw another doctor and that went well. It was actually the first time they used the dopplar for the heartbeat because in the past I have always had ultrasounds.
Anyway, they want to put me back on a "normal" schedule which just happens to be every 2 weeks now so I will continue to go every 2 weeks for a normal checkup.
The baby has been moving around like crazy lately which is nice and just like his sisters. I finally was able to buy him a little outfit - we don't have too much blue in our house. I am planning on moving Sydney into Raleigh's room sometime in the near future - I am finally to the point that I am believing that we may end up with a healthy baby at home again.