Houston we have a date!

Yes a date that our little Ainne will join the ranks of our family... We do indeed have a date.... as long as she is a patient miss and waits for said date. We all know that babies do not always wait until they are told..... HOWEVER if she has not decided that she wants to start the show early... then she will make her appearance on July 14, 2009 at 7:30 in the morning in the labor and delivery operating room at RMH. Dave is over the moon! and so am I to have a date that we can look forward to now.
It is a good thing that this child will be a repeat C-section as when they measured me today I was measuring 37 1/2 weeks along. This child is going to be a larger little girl. Of course there is the plus or minus 20% from the sizes that we are given off of the ultrasound.... and the ultrasound tech Lecia also reminded me that it is harder to give a good weight on babies that have a lot of chub to them, because fat weighs less than muscle. So there is no real way to tell what she will weigh until she is born. If she is all muscle... and I can tell by looking at her little cheeks that she IS NOT, than she could be over 10 lbs.... if she is all roly poly then she may be more like 9 lbs. I personally am hoping for the 9 lbs. though truth be told all I truly want in this world is for my little girl to be born healthy. Aside from that I am not going to be asking for too much more.
We just got the paper work done for Dave's leave from work. He will stay home with me at the very least from the date that the baby is born until 2 weeks after that. The rest of the 6 weeks post partum he has asked to work a reduced schedule so that he can be home to help to put Ash to bed and what have you. I am so grateful for this for two major reasons. One dealing with Ash after a C-section will be difficult... and as they restrict everything for two weeks after the surgery it makes sense to have Dave there to help me. Then to have him home early to adjust to the bedtime routine especially will be nice for a couple of weeks until we have settled into a routine and Ash is more used to having a baby in the house. The other reason that having Dave home is so important to me is that with Ash he went back to work the day after she was born. He didn't have any real time to get to know his daughter. I think that it is important that Daddy have a bonding time with baby as well as mommy. And so with Ainne he will be there for two weeks ( with the option of the third) and hopefully will have a real opportunity to get to know his daughter. This is our last child and I want Dave to have as much chance as possible to enjoy the birth of this child. He and I spoke just the other day about the birth of Ash and he admitted to me that it was a little bit of a letdown to have to be to work the next day and that he wished that he could have spent a little more time with Ash and that it could have been a special time for him as well. That made me want to cry... though I suspected that it might have been that way for him. Water over the dam and nothing to be done but make sure that doesn't happen again. So we have taken steps to ensure it won't.
We are a little bit nervous as he will not get paid for the time off.... and the logical thing to do would be to save money now to make up for lost pay then.... but that is always easier said than done. Like most people we live from paycheck to paycheck and like most other people we don't do it so very gracefully. At the end of the week we are usually looking at how to stretch the last dollar a hundred feet or so. And we also have left a lot of the baby prep until the last minute. I garage saled a lot of clothes so we are mostly okay there.... but we still have a lot of stuff to get.... You know little things like burp cloths and receiving blankets ( I used a lot of Ash's um for bibs I read it on the internet and when I wasn't pregnant it sounded like a GREAT idea.... two months later I realized I would have to buy them all over again. Hind sight is always 20/20. Oh well) and then the big things like we need a new crib ( The Ashlynnator made it clear that the one we have just won't make it through another baby LOL) and a tandem stroller and car seat bases. So saving isn't really in our near future. We will make it I am certain... because if there is one thing that I have learned it is that God will provide. So we are taking a deep breath and taking a step back from worry. I am sure that if we eat beans and rice for two weeks.... we won't even notice once we have a new baby in our arms.
Speaking of preparations though.... I feel like I am a million years behind where I need to be. I have Dave take the baby clothes out of storage... and I start to go through them... i get sidelined by Ash and then he takes the whole lot back to storage to make life easier. This scenario has repeated itsself several times.... and each time I tell him that we NEED to get all of this done. He shakes his head and says "It will we have plenty of time" but when I look at the calendar I see less than two months with time steadily ticking AWAY from us. I keep saying we need to start buying packs of diapers for the new baby when we get them for Ash... and then we run short and he says there is time to stock up . But with only six weeks left and me having to be on meds for contractions ( for only another three weeks after that they stop them and let my body decide) I think that he is totally bonkers. If we keep it up this way.... he will be running out to buy diapers after we bring the baby home. My mom commiserates with me and tells me about how my brother Brenden's coming home outfit was bought by my father while she and Bren were in the hospital. It is just a little harder she says with the second and third. Never a third here ... but I am getting what she is saying. And speaking of coming home outfits... um yeah well we don't have one yet... of course not sure what size we should be buying as newborn seems a little chancy. But again I am trusting that even if I don't know what the plan is there is a divine plan and we will watch as it unfolds and I will feel silly for worrying. Seems like every time I worry the end result is the same.... I have worried and lost sleep over these things.... and what ever happens happens anyways.... I wish in some ways I could take a page out of Dave's book. He NEVER worries.... and it drives me bonkers as I am worrying about everything.
In a few short weeks our life is going to be turned upside down... AGAIN. It was such a wonderful upside down with Ashlynn... and I am sure it will be with Ainne too. I am so looking forward to meeting my new daughter. I can hardly wait to see who she is and what she will be like. So now I have a date that I will meet her on. I am over the moon and terrified. Yes I have been through it all before but this is a new one... and will be added to a family with a toddler.... I am going to be a mommy of two... and how pray tell me am I supposed to do that... I fly apart at the seams half the time with ONE. So here we go loppty loo.... and on the 14th of NEXT MONTH... we will no longer have the questions... instead we will have the baby.