A nanny, bed rest, and dr appt tomorrow!

I guess I should have never said "never," but I did and once again it bit me in the behind. I never thought I would have a nanny and now here I am having a nanny come 4 times a week to cook, clean, get groceries, and take care of the Tike. I put up a battle with Adam for awhile about this, because I really didn't want someone doing my job. I take a lot of pride in cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the Tike, Adam, and everything else. It's part of my identity and as a stay at home mom those are just things I do. I grew up that you just do your job, no matter how hard, and that's it. I finally agreed with Adam, that we should hire someone to help us out a little until I'm not on bed rest anymore or until the baby comes. To be honest the only reason I finally agreed to it was because I knew it was the best thing for me and NBC. I had finally come to grasp that my most important job right now is being an incubator. Nothing can replicate what I'm doing for NBC and that has to take priority over everything else right now. I knew if I didn't start taking bed rest seriously that we might have a baby born even sooner than what they're expecting. Every week NBC can stay cooking in my belly, the better. So as hard as it is for me to sit back and let her do my job, I will do it because the biggest job I have right now is keeping NBC put!

We found our nanny on a website called care.com. After reviewing lots of profiles I narrowed it down to a handful and then showed Adam the list. He then picked out Mink. Mink, our nanny, seemed like the nanny we were looking for. She is 47 and had lots of experience with children (is a mom, grandma, karate instructor, went to a nanny school, etc). She was willing to do everything we needed done and her scheduled worked great with when we were going to need her. An email and phone call later and we had her coming in two days. The first time she came I pretty much showed her the ropes and then from there she's just taken off. Mink is doing a great job and the Tike has really taken to her. This morning he was so excited when she came through the door and wasn't very happy that she was cooking instead of playing with him. As his mom (and the person who hides out upstairs while she's here) it melted my heart to see that he's really taken to her and so quickly (this is only her fourth time coming). It seems as though everything is working out and I've definitely needed to take it easy this past couple days, as I feel a lot of changes going on.

So in my bed rest time I've managed to make up all of Jr's highlight photo books (birth-present), print/bind Jr's first year blog, organize/burn all videos and pics, work on my blog, and pretty much anything I can do while sitting on my bottom. I tell Adam I've been nesting like crazy, because I can't do anything else right now.

So not only do we have a good nanny, I'm also very fortunate to have an incredible husband. I give thanks each and every day for the wonderful husband I've been blessed with. Adam has been absolutely amazing since the day I've met him, really he has. He's especially been amazing since I've been put on bed rest. He already did a lot around the house and with the Tike, but somehow he's managed to step up his game even more. I've never seem him (& the Tike) do so much laundry in my life. I'm blessed beyond belief and really can't give thanks enough for the amazing man that I get to share this life with.

The Tike got to feel his brother/sister kick the other day for the first time. His face was absolutely priceless when he felt his hand move. He didn't quite know what to think of what was going on.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't look at the Tike and just smile on the inside and out. It's amazing watching him grow each and every day.  He's so much fun right now and is really growing into our little boy. I'm amazed at how fast he catches onto things and how if he really likes something he never forgets about it. Lately he's been signing crocodile to us all the time (Adam and I call it the gator chomp). We sing him "Row, Row, Row," and the version that's in one of his favorite books ends with "If you see a crocodile don't forget to scream!" So of course, we always do crocodile and now so does he. He constantly wants to pray too. It melts my heart to see him sign/say pray all the time. We always pray before we eat and then right before bed. It's so cute how he'll clap his hands together and look at us to see if we're going to pray. In preparation for NBC we've been explaining that he's going to be a big brother and have him give the baby (my belly) kisses all the time. He's constantly saying, "Hi Baby," too! He says it is the cutest little voice. We've also had him practice saying NBC's names (boy and girl name) and "Big Brother!" He's also into saying, "Oh no," if something goes wrong. I believe this comes from his favorite song, "The octopus song." It's kind of a food chain song of the ocean and each time one of the animals is eaten we say "Oh no!" It's cute because his sock will come off and he'll pick it up and say, "Oh no!" Or he'll drop something and look at us and say, "Oh no!" The way he says it is just so cute! His little mind continues to grow each day and the words continue to flow. I don't think we can go a day right now without him saying something new! What a fun stage!

Last week I went in and they tried to run the fetal fibronectin test, however the results couldn't be processed. So unfortunately the past two weeks in a row we've not been able to have that test done. I call it our 2 week insurance policy. Hopefully when she runs it on Thursday we can get the results back. During my appointment last week she checked me and not much had changed, which is good news. NBC's heart rate was 135 bpm too. Everything seems to be going great with the baby. I go in tomorrow for an ultrasound to measure my cervix length and then on Thursday I have a checkup with the dr. I'm anxious to see what we will learn in these next couple days.

So last weekend Adam and I went out for our date night. We went to have dinner at PF Chang's and here's what our fortune cookies said:
A pleasant surprise is coming your way. 02, 12, 21, 25
You will soon receive pleasant news of a personal nature. 03, 10, 18, 24, 31

-I wonder if any of the numbers will be the date when NBC is born?!

"Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him."- Psalm 62:5