Evening with the bestie

So I found a babysitter last minute & asked Melissa if she'd hang out with me last night! I needed to get out of the house and *try to get my mind off having this baby!!!

She had some errands to do at Walmart so a good portion of the night was spent walking around Walmart, lol! Just like a typical mom outing! It was nice though bc it encouraged contractions and I got to walk and hold little Lauren! (I even changed her diaper and wow! It's been awhile since I've changed a butt that tiny!!)

After Walmart, we swung by her house to drop some stuff off and then proceeded to Applebee's for some dinner. It was a nice evening and have me something todo besides focusing on when my baby is coming! 

I am 12 days from my due date....Brayan was born 14 days early, Ariella 7 days early & Jaeger 11 days early so I'm kind of in the mindset of "any day now!".  Today I have been having lots of low contractions with pressure and cramping, just not very comfortable but nothing to make me think I'm going into labor anytime soon.  With Nathan 4 hours away, he keeps reminding me that he has his phone on etc and to call him if anything changes. He really doesn't want to miss it!

3 days ago, Tuesday, was my appt with Ruth, the midwife. My normal midwife, Joy, left last Friday for a month for some more training!! 5 babies with her and now she's gone! Ruth was Melissa's midwife tho and it was nice to be at her birth to see how Ruth handled things etc and I like her too! She has lots of experience as she said that Lauren was her 1,658 birth! Wowzers!  Anyway, Tuesday I saw Ruth and I was dilated to 3.5, 70% effaced, & baby was at a +2 station. So moving in the right direction anyway!!  Baby is super low tho making for things to be not very comfy! I really hope baby decides to make her appearance this weekend. Nathan will be home which will be one less thing to worry about and I can be done! :)  

Oh, and everyone keeps reminding me that tonight is a full moon. Apparently more women go into labor on a full moon...we shall see!!

End of week 38, start of week 39!

Melissa with Lauren at Applebees

Date Weekend

Here is another thing I've been meaning to post about...our date weekend away!!!  I even need to look back on the pictures to remember what we actually did!  How bad is that?!  See why I have to blog....

We divvied up our kids...J, A, & C to Gma and Gpas and T & B to Melissa's for part of the weekend, and then back home to have Haley and Hannah watch them til we got back.

We left Friday and came back Sunday.  While making our way to the cities, we leisurely stopped at some thrift stores.  We found our way to the Ivy Spa Club where we received our first ever "couple massage", complete with a relaxing time sitting in robes by a fireplace, eating cheese, crackers, and chocolate covered strawberries. Mmmmm...  They had this amazing pregnancy pillow that allowed me to lie directly on my tummy, which felt so amazing since I haven't been able to be in that position for a long time!!

(Gotta love his "bunny shirt" that we wore for the first night of our date.  People kept giving him weird looks, lol! :)

Then we headed to Annie's Parlor for a good 'ol fashion burger and fries.  It was so yummy with all the onions!!  And of course since we were sitting outside, Nathan was distracted by all the power lines by the deck and was constantly looking at them until it got too dark :)

We debated a while where we were going to stay, trying to figure out if we wanted to be in the city or out a little ways....so we chose out...over by the mall of america!  The next day we took the shuttle over to the mall for a few hours and walked around.  It's nice to do that about once a year.  More than that is just too much!

We used the rest of the day to just lounge around and enjoy each other's company.  It was so nice!  And the weather was beautiful so we even laid out in the sun for a bit.

For our late afternoon activity for Saturday, we booked a horse-drawn carriage ride around Mpls!  It was so relaxing and the weather, again, was beautiful!  It was pretty much the same loop as we took when we did the segway tours a couple years ago, but Nathan said that riding in the carriage was much more relaxing :)  Our driver served as a tour guide as well and explained things and buildings as we went past them.

All set to go!

From where we boarded our carriage

Our carriage dropping the people off before us

That evening we went to eat at Chevy's, a nice mexican restaurant that was only a few blocks from our hotel.  It gave me a reason to wear one of my only maternity things I own...a dress :)

Sunday morning we headed back to pick up the kids and ended our weekend with breakfast from Perkins.  It was an incredible weekend and so glad we have friends and family willing to watch our brood so we can get away for a few days, even though it only happens once every couple years.  I'll take it :)

Mirror Image

As I was looking back on my blog, I realized that I have missed writing down so much of this year, it's ridiculous!  I do really hope to get better at it, even just a small sentence with a picture because looking back and the memories it keeps is irreplaceable!  Especially in these busy days, I know I will forget so much and this is a way that I can remember.  So bear with me!

One thing that I wanted to document because I think it's such a cool story of how God brought our families together, is the story of how Melissa and I met. (The lady whos birth I attended last week...)

So back in Feb, I got a friend request on facebook from this 'Melissa'.  I checked out her profile first before accepting and saw that she lived in Washington state and we didn't have any mutual friends. Hmmm.  Maybe she friended me by mistake?  Whatever.  I just ignored it bc I saw no reason why I wanted to be facebook friends with a lady all the way across the country of whom I have no mutual friends.

So fast forward a couple days....I was in charge of collecting meals for the Forsman family whos house burned down at the beginning of the year and a lady named Aimee came to drop off a meal.  I did not know Aimee previously.  That night Aimee had sent me a friend request via facebook and I accepted.

Fast forward a couple more days...When scrolling through facebook one day, I saw a picture of "the lady that friended me from Washington" on Aimee's newsfeed!!!  What???  Is there some connection??  So I looked further into the picture and saw that her and her family were moving to St. Cloud and going to be the new owners of Bounce Depot!  But still...why would she friend me?

After seeing her family picture, I got an idea of why she wanted to connect.  She had 5 small children.  Ah-ha!  So I accepted her friend request and we started communicating via facebook.  Then things started getting weird...in a good way...of all the things we had in common....

 They had 5 children.  Boy, boy, boy, girl, girl.  (Only our 5th children are a different sex)
Their kids were 7, 6, 5, 3, 1.  Ours were 7, 6, 5, 3, 1.
Their #2 & #3 kids are Irish twins.  Our #2 & #3 kids are Irish twins.
Their Irish twins and our Irish twins birthdays are the same time of year, making all 4 kids the same age for 2 weeks.
If this wasn't crazy enough...

I found out she was pregnant with #6....  We hadn't told anyone yet but I just couldn't NOT tell her!  We were pregnant with #6 too!!!

And here's the kicker....ready for it?!?!....She was due the DAY after me!!!!  What?!?!?.....

Then the similaries continued....we, of course, found out we were expecting the same sex child :)

We have so many other things in common, including similar looks and get asked ALL.THE.TIME. if we are sisters.  I would seriously have a lot of money if I got paid for every time someone asked us that.  Our kids get a long great with eachother and our husbands even like each other and get along fabulously! lol!  I'm just not sure most people find a family so similar to theirs when their family is a little 'unusual' to begin with!  It's fun to be out with a couple similar to our and then get asked about our kids or if we have any....uh, yeah.  "We have 10 kids between us, 8 yrs old and younger, and we are both expecting our 6th, due a day apart" lol!  Most people don't believe us....

This was taken the morning after our kids and I had a sleepover at their house!  Both our husbands were out of town so we took advantage of that and played :)  We sat at the splash pad for SEVEN hours the day before! And of course I didn't get any pictures.  But the kids had a blast....and so did we :)

 After our double date at Cafe Renissance.  Amazingly great atmosphere and food!

And that's why I feel so blessed with their friendship!!

A birth that was not my own

Last Sunday, I was so privileged to be able to witness the birth of my best friends' 6th baby!  After 5 rather complicated hospital births, her and her husband decided to have their 6th baby at home.  As long as she could make it to 36 weeks, she was in the clear to birth at home. Well, she made it the longest with this pregnancy than she did with any of the others by 1 day (all her babies were "preemies") and at 36+3 days, her beautiful baby girl was born!

It was so amazing to be on "the other side" of the whole labor thing!! To be able to experience labor and birth without actually being the one *in* labor, was wonderful!  Melissa did SO well! I will always remember this experience (and Melissa prob will too! lol! :)  Now it'll be my turn to go through labor soon and her turn to be there.  I'm guessing we both like watching rather than doing. :)