Silly cat! He actually sleeps this way! AGW has learned how to drag him around and pretty much tortures him all day :) He handles it very well, considering. We love this park! She is so brave now, she goes down all the slides and climbs and hangs on anything she can. What a monkey!

This is at preschool orientation. She starts school next week.

What a goober!

Pretty girl. Pretty flowers.

She is LOVING the cool weather and wearing her new jacket!

AGW also loved the Labor Day fireworks downtown. When they started she jumped and yelled "I happy!!!"

Poor girl. Daddy always passes out and forgets to share the bed! I don't think she minds though!

Her climbing makes me so nervous :)

Alright folks, nothing new here. More to come this weekend!

Where to begin...

Last week was busy. I have pictures, but I'll have to upload them tomorrow. We started off the week with AGW's preschool orientation. It went really well and I love the program so far. The school is at a church, although it's not a religion based program. The church is only a block or so from our house so we can walk, and we both enjoy that.

AGW and I also began our Christian Moms Group and Mothers of Preschoolers group at our church. Both were great opportunities for me to meet other moms and for AGW to play with other kids her age. The highlights for her were snacks and a movie, and now she thinks that's why we go to church! :)

Parks are still a common interest of ours and AGW and I continue to hit the trails, swings, and slides, several times a week.

We also continue to frequent the gym and lately I've had to drag her away! I'm just so glad that she's enjoying herself while I attempt to walk Hayes on out :) I'm really going to miss that place during my required 6 week recovery, but I sure will be motivated to get back!

Hayes and I have weekly doctor's appointments now and we received great news today that he is in the correct position (unlike AGW), very low, and I'm starting the slow progression to labor. I'm so ecstatic about the possibility of going into labor naturally that I almost can't sleep. I refuse to pray for it to go my way instead, I pray for a healthy baby and delivery of any kind. So this news was unexpected and gave me hope!

If I do continue to progress and end up going into labor in a few weeks, then everything will workout with AGW. We will take her and get her camped out in the room along with us. I have all kinds of fun stuff to entertain her for the many hours I may be laboring. The pack-n-play will be her temporary bed for the overnight stay and everything else will work it's self out. Some people don't agree with a toddler being in the room while I deliver, but fortunately it's not their toddler! Carey and I have a couple of friends that IF available may come distract AGW during the actual birth, but for the most part, she'll be right there with us. We'll see how well that plan works out!

Carey is doing well on his cardiothoracic rotation. Much to my disappointment, last week he was home around 8:30 each night. He did get to come home for the Labor Day afternoon, so I can't complain too much! I'm not sure that he's getting any opportunities to step into the O.R. but his upper level residents are better so he doesn't complain much.

A very boring week, huh? I'll take it! Pictures soon....

& s of now) we won't need a c-section! Praying everything continues to progress naturally :)

& It begins! Hayes is In the right position, really low, and I'm 75% effaced. We have 4 weeks to go and we're off to a great start! My doctor feels like (a

? must be a post-call zombie :)

? Carey is asleep in agw's room. Through the monitor I can hear jabbering, a train whistle, and little footsteps running back and forth across the room. He

It's a busy week as we begin fall activities and a new rotation. Tomorrow Carey begins his month long rotation in Cardiothoracic surgery. That means that we survived transplant, yay! I know we had lots of prayers going out last month and we are so grateful.

I'm not sure what to expect with CT, we haven't heard much about that service. His call schedule won't change, he is still on call Fridays. I like that schedule because he is off Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. That leaves him available to go to church and our Life Group on Sundays. I'm really hoping that he won't be home as late in the evening during this rotation, he was home about 8:30 each evening during transplant. AGW struggled with that quite a bit and became even more of a daddy's girl! She sure did miss him!

I was very proud of the growth I saw in Carey during transplant. He did have to deal with some conflicting personalities and work ethics (or lack of) and learned a lot about choosing battles and holding his tongue. It wasn't easy, but he never said the things he was really thinking (except when venting to me :) and that probably made the next 6.5 years a lot more bearable.

AGW is still learning and challenging her independence through the terrible twos. This last week she has been a little more testy than usual and is ignoring the word "NO!". She is pushing her limits to see what she can get away with as well as acting out a little in response to Baby Hayes. I have a feeling I'm about to have to become a little more firm with her...

Tomorrow we have orientation at her new school so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. We also have playgroups at the church on Wednesday and Thursday. AGW loves going to play with her friends! It will be nice to have something to do outside of the home and great for AGW to have the social interaction.

We had a check up for Baby Hayes this morning all is well. He's is right on track and the pregnancy is perfect. I'll start having weekly appointments now which means that we are getting close, finally! We do have a surgery scheduled for October 6th, but we're going to wait and see how things look the last week of September (I'll be 39 weeks then) and hopefully we won't need the surgery. If there have been changes in my cervix at 39 weeks then we'll let mother nature proceed, if there has been no progress, then we will continue with the surgery.

I'm still hoping against the surgery (but just praying for a healthy baby either way!) for several reasons. The first (and a BIG worry of mine) is that AGW can't be in the room for surgery or recovery and we have no one to care for her during those hours. She can stay the night with us in the hospital after the baby is born, so that's not a problem, but during the actual surgery I have no idea what to do with her! The second concern is that I am so limited in activity after surgery. AGW isn't going to understand why I can't play outside with her or go for our walks or even go up and down the stairs as much. Not to mention the fact that I can't drive for two weeks. And lastly, I don't think I was as successful with nursing after a c-section and hope to struggle less in that area this time around. So, even though a c-section works a lot better with Carey's schedule, I plan on walking, squatting, eating spicy foods, and whatever else I can find that induces labor naturally. Ultimately, it's not up to me anyways so we'll see what happens!