Mueller Time: Are we there yet?

We have spent the last week and a half playing the waiting game. I know it's just the beginning of many waiting games. Some things finally arrived, for now we are waiting for the big one...our daughter's birth! Nervous, excited...ahh so many emotions!!!

Brian found a way to keep himself busy during these waiting games. He went online and did some shopping. Now, for those that know Brian, you understand that there is no explanation for these purchases, just...it's Brian. Being a great dad, he got his four-legged daughter a chew toy.

This is Maui's favorite chew toy right now! We'll see how long it last.

He got his future daughter a little something.

Oh great, thinking of how to soothe his child.

Then he got a few things for himself. I will say, was very impressed, he had to actually assembly the box and electrical wiring. This is where his engineering skills are seen.

The useless box will reside in his office.

This he has been wanting for a really a long time. I was gracious enough to model.

He thinks it's funny. Personally, I'm scared! Although I have to admit, I would love to see the nurses' faces if he just randomly walked across the nurses station with a horse head on. Doesn't say a word, just walks across. Hmmm!?!?

Finally, party time! I had been waiting for my showers for what seemed like eternity, being 36 weeks seemed so far away. First, was my school shower. My wonderful 1st grade team and former kinder team coordinated my shower and all chipped in and got us our car seat. The school got us an extra base with cash to purchase any extra things I needed! Brian and I were not expecting such a generous gift. We were honestly just expecting money towards the car seat.

Again, how did this little former Texas girl (notice how much shorter I am) get so lucky. As an added bonus they had all the first graders write me letters with mothering advice, hilarious!! I was told not to be a bad mom and play with my baby. Many mentioned I give my baby milk and "musht" food. I mean really, pretty practical advice if you ask me. My all time favorite from my special friend that makes the baby kick when I say his name..."don't give the baby hot sauce because he could burn his mouth." On the walls of the first grade hallways are graphs predicting when they think the baby will be born and what she will weigh. The weight cracks me up, has from 1 pound to 10 pounds. Gosh, I hope she doesn't end up weighing 10 pounds. They kids are getting excited for me, it's so cute!

My next shower was graciously hosted by my friend Ashley (wife of a co-worker of Brian) with the help of our former roomie, Sara! They did such an amazing job!

They got all the colors to match the baby's room.

A delicious cake. I actually saved the top tier for the baby's smash cake. Something I had never heard about. I knew saving the top of wedding cake for your 1st anniversary, but for a baby. You apparently save the top and when you take your baby's first birthday pictures, you use this cake as the one they get to "smash." My photographer had mentioned this to me. She said I could bring in a cake for the pictures. I just thought I would buy one. We'll see if it hold ups. I wrapped it, boxed it, and froze it!

We then all proceeded to decorate onesies.

They all turned out so cute.

I did one too and very nervous. As you come to know from either working with me or just by reading my blog you've come to know I skip words when I write...

I wrote first in marker, then began working to add the details with the puff paint. Ugh!!! I messed it up, surprise, surprise!!! I ended changing it to"I'm just here and I'm already awesome."

We were a small group, but could not be more grateful to have met such great friends!

For those that didn't understand why I melted my face in last entry. Here's why...my head looks so tiny is comparison to my giant belly! During the shower, Brian went to the Boulder toy store and got a kite. What else does a husband do while his wife is at a shower? Duh!

The next waiting game was to our scheduled version procedure, to have the doctor turn the baby. I was very nervous. The only real risk was having an emergency c-section right then and there. I kept thinking, "are we really ready?" I kept telling people we were but deep down I wasn't too sure. That night I couldn't sleep.

I had a dream that our baby was born and she was the size of my finger. Doctor said it was normal, just had to rub her down and put her in water. Once she was placed in water she got bigger, about 30 lbs bigger! I was so excited to see her full head of beautiful brown hair. She had these adorable freckles. Then, I was sad and really confused that she was really dark. She looked liked she had been tanning at the beach for two weeks. I kept thinking, I'll love her, not matter what, but why is she so dark? Brian and I aren't dark?
I'm so eager to see what she's going to look like!!!

My alarm went off at 5:45am and was up right away, ready to get to the hospital. Put my bag and the baby's bag in the car, just in case. We went up to labor and delivery and they put me in a triage room. They put the monitors on my belly to check the baby's heartbeat and my contractions (don't really have any). It was pretty cool to hear the heartbeat over the speakers.

There's my tiny head again! Before they hooked me up to an IV and began the procedure they had to do some routine checks. They checked my blood pressure first. It was really high, 144. It's normally in the 120's. My highest was 137 and at that point the doctor was little concerned. So when my doctor saw 144, she wanted blood work done asap. The nurse said, it was probably just nerves. Then came an ultrasound to officially see exactly where our little one was. Looked at the monitor, our little one flipped on her own!!!! My exercises of being on all fours had worked. Brian thinks it was the pool. He helped me do summersaults in the pool. Whatever it was, it worked! Therefor, nothing had to be done. Just blood work and they wanted to watch the baby on the monitors for about 20 minutes then I could go. Sounded easy enough.

Well, our little one is a little swimmer. She kept moving around and messing up the monitors. It took two nurses and about an hour to monitor her. Normally, one would be scared when the sound of the heartbeat disappears, but the nurse and I saw her kicking around so we knew she was just a wiggle worm. The nurse decided to check my blood pressure again, 128 and blood work came back clean. Yep, it was just nerves. Although the doctor wants to keep a close watch, I'll be back in her office on Thursday. So now what? She's head down and now we wait for labor to begin. It could be tomorrow, it could be in three weeks...let the waiting game begin!

How far along? 37weeks, 1 day