The baby has not arrived yet, but I am not close to my due date yet. I had a midwife appointment today and that went pretty well. My blood pressure is nice and low, but not too low. I asked for an internal exam, partly because I wanted to know where I was, but also because my midwife lives 45 minutes away and I tend to have fast labors (Benedict excluded), so if I’m hanging out at 4 cm, that could me a labor sans the midwife.

I am not 4 cm but I am at 2 cm, nothing big, but 75% effaced, so making progress. She could feel the baby’s head but is pretty sure the baby is sitting like this:

So I’ve spent a lot of time today hanging out on my hands and knees as well as my birthing ball. I will tell you the excruciating hip pain I’ve had for a few weeks now is pretty much gone now. I think that means I’ve shifted the baby just enough to set her/him the right way. I’ve decided to avoid the couch for the rest of my pregnancy and will be relaxing in my rocker or on the birthing ball. Sleeping might be another issue, but I’m thinking now that I know how to make my hip not hurt as much, sleeping won’t be a big issue.

Oh, and did I mention I’ve been having leg cramps at night? This is the first time in a long time that I’ve woken up with charlie-horses, or the beginning of one. I actually woke Joshua up screaming the other night. (Hey, in my defense, it hurt and woke me up out of almost sound sleep.) We were out of bananas and I guess my cal-mag wasn’t doing it’s job, so I had Joshua buy two bunches of bananas at the grocery yesterday. I feel a lot better now too. (Bananas are high in potassium helps with leg cramps, in case you didn’t know.)

So here we are, I am 38 +3 weeks pregnant and ready to go. The biggest question around the house is “New baby or new Pope first?”

 

Wow, just thinking about when the other babies arrived, I could have a new babe in arms in just over a week.

Margaret and Benedict both arrived one week before their estimated due dates, while Karol was a bit late and Caecilia was four days late. My estimated due date with this baby is the Feast of St. Joseph (on the 19th).

Karol woke me up this morning with the question of “guess what’s in four days??!” and when I said what, he said the baby was going to be born. Hmmmm. Maybe he knows something?

Either way, I should have a new wee babe in arms by the end of the month.

I managed to save the cake!

I decided to just make the cake a trifle and set about putting it together. I managed to put too much milk in the frosting and ran out of powdered sugar, so I added cocoa powder and turned it into chocolate mint frosting. I then whipped up some cream, without sugar, to help cut  the sweetness of the icing and the ganache, and it helped a bit.

In the end, I put a layered the bowl with cake,  frosting, crushed mint candies, whipped cream, ganache, then I repeated the steps another time to fill the bowl.

 

The cake was a big hit and very tasty, someone I am married two may or may not have had two helpings.

Karol had his pinewood derby today and he was very proud of his car, as you can see, it was a pretty neat car.

(and not to brag, he won his den race and his pack race! He also took first place in the design category, I’m pretty impressed.)

I may have a cake fail on my hands. Well, no, I do have a cake fail. It’s all good, I’ll make a trifle out of my mistake cake. Anyone know if I can use buttercream frosting in a trifle?

 

 

 

 

 

 

God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His son, has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This morning, right before I got out of bed, I was hit with a case of the hives. This is not too uncommon for me and usually they go away when I start making breakfast.

Not today.

Today I had them on my face, on my legs, on my belly, on my scalp, on my neck, and on my arms. I’ve never had them that bad before, ever. They stuck around all day too, until I took allergy medicine, then after an hour, they subsided. Of course, Joshua, who got to hear from me all day about how bad they were, didn’t get to see them when he got home.

Has anyone out there ever gotten bad hives while pregnant? What did you do?