36 weeks

I'm 36 weeks today and had a doctor's appointment this morning. She told me I'm 2-3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. The dilation doesn't alarm me at all because women can stay dilated for weeks before delivery but that much effacement is concerning to me. Effacement is the thinning of the cervix in preparation for delivery of the baby. 100% effacement (or completely effaced) means that labor is right around the corner. I read online that if you are a first-time mom your cervix will usually efface before it dilates. If you are a second-time mom your cervix will usually dilate before it effaces. I wonder what the statistics are on a fourth-time mom... Ha ha! No, but seriously, this baby cannot come early. I'm trying to talk to the little guy (Greyson) about it. We close on both houses on Sept.16th. That's a little over two weeks away. We do not have time to deliver a baby between now and then. This whole entire house needs to be packed up and moved. I'm a little panicked. Upon hearing the news from my doctor's appointment John told me I need to stop doing so much and sit down whenever possible. In his words, "Enough being super-Julie." So, I guess I'll get out my magic wand.

Talking

In the last few weeks Brody & Ty have been little chatterboxes. They have suddenly just started saying so many words I can't even count them all. They imitate all sorts of words and phrases they hear. The ones that make me laugh the most are "Oh boy," "Ah geez," "Holy Moly," and "No way José." They still say "Nih Nih" for Hunter, "Unc Unc" for Uncle Mark and they use signs for certain things like kitty and cracker vs. attempting those words (I think out of habit mostly). They have started to put little baby sentences together like "Bye Bye Daddy" and "Big Owiy" (Owie) but their spacing of words is very deliberate and cute. They'll say "bye bye" together but wait a second or two before saying the second word like "Daddy." They both know their names and can say them but when they first started saying "Brody" it sounded more like "Boobie." They also know when they are being funny and will say "Stinker!" because that's what I call them when they are trying to get away with something naughty (but not too naughty). It's so cute! I love this age!!

Offer!

Our lives have been beyond busy the last week or so since AT LAST a buyer has fallen in love with our house and we have accepted their offer to buy. We had several showings and two interested parties last week. One apparently fell through and neglected to call back our realtor after seeing it and expressing an interest but I wasn't too disgusted being that the showings were a day apart and the house was already clean. We are so relieved and excited with the news of the offer. There have been multiple inspections (one regular and one involving a basement specialist) and we have an appraiser coming on Monday. The buyers have an FHA loan, which means that the appraiser that the bank sends is very picky about certain things, one of which is peeling paint. So we were instructed to re-paint the garage and a few areas around the outside of our house (basement windows, back door and an old milk door that is no longer in use). This really aggravates me because I just repainted the garage two years ago and cannot believe that the paint is peeling already. I even took the time to scrape and prime it beforehand. AGH! So my brother and I have been out there painting for the last few days getting ready for Monday. We have a lot more to do so thank God John's available and not working weekends anymore. My inlaws are taking the kids all weekend so that we can get this done in time. The first time around it took me several weeks to complete the job but I was doing it by myself. Unfortunately there is rain in the forecast so I'm praying that the weathermen are wrong. We need these buyers to have their financing approved so we can get out. John is still driving to Whitewater every day for work (over an hour each way) and the baby is coming in just over a month. The closing is set for Sept. 16th and Greyson (the name we have chosen) is due to arrive Sept. 27. Eek! I'm overwhelmed with how much has to be done before then but am also very excited at the prospect of finding a new home. We have found one possibility in Oconomowoc but are still looking around a bit more. We need a community sort of in between Milwaukee (where I work) and Whitewater and we really like Oconomowoc. They have great schools, nice lakes with public beaches and conveniences of a bigger city but still a small-town feel. We just need to find the right house for what the bank will loan us. It's all coming together!