Sugar cookies and an anniversary

Yesterday we made sugar cookies in hopes that little Owen would want to debut. Ha! My sisters were both home for the weekend...so nice! We watched the PPP (Pole Pedal Paddle) on Saturday and grilled both Friday and Saturday night. Yum! It was a busy, but relaxing weekend with my family. It is wierd to think that this could be the last weekend without Owen. So crazy! 10 days from the due date today!

My parents are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary today. How incredible is that? I am so blessed that they are my parents. They are great role models! I am so thankful for all that they did to raise us girls. They are taking a trip to Europe to celebrate the big 30 in October this year. They didn't want to chance not being here for the birth of their first grandbaby and do anything close to their actual anniversary. My sisters and I got them a nice knife set. They have been using the same ones from their wedding. I told them they have to keep these new knives in good shape for the next 30 years. :)

Their wedding day 30 years ago.

Work Baby Shower and sneak preview...

And finally, a sneak preview to the maternity pix that my dad took of me! Thanks so much mom and dad for helping with this little project. It was so good to get it done, especially since we have only 2 weeks to spare. Walter and I realized recently that we didn't have a single picture of us that someone had taken throughout this whole pregnancy. Sad, huh. Well, we fixed that! Pictures to follow of our "maternity shoot."

We have a doctor's appt. in the am. Tomorrow I will post on any progress...forgot to post last week that I am 80% effaced, no dilation. We are excited to see if anything has changed! 17 days to go!

37.5 weeks

37 weeks

I'll admit it, I've been a blog slacker lately. No excuse. Lame. :)

Today I am 37 weeks! Wahoo. Only 20 days left (hopefully) 'til we get to meet our sweet little busy boy. I have been feeling really good this week. Lots of energy and motivation to get all the last minute stuff done before d-day. ;) I've been on a few 4 mile walks and have enjoyed the weather SLOWLY improving. We finally got our tax return + home tax credit back and splurged on an outdoor set. We love it. Now we are just praying that it warms up finally. Don't worry, living in Central Oregon my whole life I know not to hold my breath!

I had a great time last week at my work baby shower... I will post pictures tomorrow. It was soooo good to see all my work girlies and catch up on all the St. Charles drama and news. Ha! We got a very generous gift card for Target and other great blankets, toys, etc. We were able to finish most of the items on our registry. We finally feel "ready" for baby Owen. As ready as we think we can be at least. I will have to do a post on how our life and house (space) have already changed and he isn't even here yet! Jeesh.

My mom and I are getting up early to go garage salin' and estate salin' tomorrow. It has become a weekly tradition since I've been off work. Sooo much fun. We love finding good deals...especially on furniture. We love to refinish old stuff. I cherish this time so much with my momma and sisters when they are home.

Off to make some dinner, we ate a huge breakfast with Laura this morning and haven't been feeling hungry all day. I think we're gonna have a grilled chicken salad tonight. Keep it light! :) Night night!

Dusty's prom (Walt's little sis)

Naughty Memphis Dog. He dug up my raspberry starts. Boo!

Our new patio set! :)

30 days...

We had our 36 week doctor's appt. this am. All is good! I am still having inconsistent contractions fairly often, but feeling pretty good otherwise. I am officially 36 weeks on Thursday and after that we have the go ahead for delivery if my contractions get strong and consistent again. It is soooo weird to think that our little Owen could truly be here anyday. Because I will be past the 36 week mark this week my dr. removed the bed rest limitation. Praise God! I just have to take it easy and use common sense to not overdue it too much. He thinks that Owen will "probably" come earlier than our May 27th due date. We will see.

After our doc appt. we went and took care of some more things on our baby registry and got our bags mostly packed and ready to go! The events over the weekend really gave us a practice run and helped us to get ready for what is eminent! I have one last baby shower with my work friends on Thursday night, I can't wait! I miss all my work girls soooo much!

Here are some pictures from our visit to Kfalls of the girls scanning (ultrasound) my mom, dad, and Walter for practice. Lori will be back in Central Oregon in just over a month to start her extern at St. Charles where I work. We will literally be across the hall from each other, sooooo cool. Can't wait!

False Alarm

What a weekend! Be prepared, this post is a little lengthy! We did go down to Klamath Falls from Thursday through Saturday. We had a good time visiting my sisters and the weather was great. My parents and I drove down to Medford for the day on Friday and spent the morning with my grandma Whipple. It was good to visit with her, mostly. We mowed her yards and pulled weeds in the nice 75 degree weather.

We ate twice at Nibley's cafe. Anyone been there? We LOVED that place! After a sleepless night on Friday night with back pain and small random contractions we met my sisters in town for breakfast on Saturday at Nibleys. After eating a big cinnamon roll ( I shared MOST of it, ok? hehe) I started getting really strong braxton-hicks contractions while we were at the restaurant. I have barely EVER had them during the duration of my pregnancy thus far, so it was weird for me. Sure enough, as I continued sitting through our breakfast I continued to get 5 more contractions in about a half hours time. Last time we had been to the Dr. he had told us we needed to call if we had more than 5 contractions in an hour time.

We decided to jump in the car, GOD forbid if we had to deliver or stay overnight at the Klamath Falls hospital. It has a nickname of Murder West, instead of the real name of Merle West. Ha! We got about 20 miles out of town and realized we hadn't filled up on gas. Crap! Walter was starting to sweat a little at this point. :) We were able to find a small little town off the highway with a pump, thank God! We continued the 2 and a 1/2 hour drive back home to Central Oregon, all the while contractions VERY regular at 6-7 minutes apart. No biggy right? By the time we got to Lapine (about 20 minutes from our hospital/Dr.) my contractions were consistently 3 minutes apart and growing in strength. Ummmm, OMG are we having our baby? Walter and I were on high alert. We made a list of the things we would need if we had to stay at the hospital while driving seemingly faster and faster to get to town. Ha! My poor husband was getting a little bug-eyed. We made the call to the Dr. finally while driving through Lapine and were instructed to go to the hospital for an eval...

While at the hospital for 4 hours they monitored me and baby Owen. Owen did great and still is doing great. My contractions continued at a consistent pace of every 3 minutes. My blood pressure was pretty high (155/96) when I got to the hospital. I've been really low during all my pregnancy at 90-100/60 so this was a little bit of concern for preeclampsia. They ended up giving me a drug (Terbutaline) to stop the contractions after determining that I was not dilated at all. Usually after 35 weeks they let you go into labor without stopping contractions or anything, but because there were no other big signs that I was going to deliver they gave the drug and were able to get the contractions under control. I was discharged with the understanding that I be on bed rest except for bathroom and meals. OMG, hardest thing ever for me!

I am still a walking contraction-machine. Ha! I have my 36 week Dr. appt. tomorrow morning so I should know more about the next 4 weeks and if I will possibly not be making it that long until delivery. My family is disappointed they don't get to meet Owen early. Walt and I are going to be really ready the next time I actually go into full labor. Our list is refined and we are mentally as ready as we are going to be. Any day now! Wow, how crazy!

35 weeks

I can't believe (i know that statement is a little warn out) I only have 5 weeks until meeting my sweet baby. I am getting even more restless at night. I think my husband is a little "over" the 5 pillows i have jammed into bed next to me. Ha! We are soooo ready to meet our son, it's pretty much all we talk about!

I am off to Klamath Falls this morning with my parents for a few days to visit the sissies. Walter will join us tomorrow after he finishes his morning class. We are staying at the Running Y! I have heard good things about the resort, but have yet to stay there. Happy early weekend!

Spring Wreath

I spent the afternoon putting together a wreath idea I found at one of my favorite crafty blogs, Tatertots and Jello. It was a lot of fun and easier than I thought it would be. Feel free to check out her tutorial here. I made a few changes and wanted a little more fabric incorporated in my wreath. Sooo cute and looks great hanging on the front door of my house. I'm thinking about adding some string and some wording to it at a later date. Happy Monday!

Owen's Room!

We love how his room turned out! I've never been a huge fan of the baby blue/baby pink pastel rooms so it was fun for us to experiment with some fun colors. Walter did an amazing job on the wainscoting and I love the chocolate brown color on the walls. We still have to find some pictures to put in the frames (or maybe we'll wait til we have some little newborn pix). Otherwise, his room is ready....and clean for now. :) Can't wait to add things that compliment his personality as he grows. We are getting a rocking recliner refinished that will also be going in the room. It isn't exactly the largest room, but we will make it work. Have a great friday everyone!

34 weeks

34 weeks today! Woohoo! I had lunch with my dear friend, Tara. We dined at Cafe Alfresco in Redmond. This post is for her, since she was giving me a hard time for slacking already in blogging. Ha! We both ate yummy salads and then walked across the street to a new fabric store. I drooled a bunch over the cute fabrics and got a few to do some projects with. I also purchased a super cute pattern book, can't wait to try some out.

I am about to make my famous egglant parmesan to take over to my parent's house tonight. Yum! I should put together a recipe, but i'll admit it's hard because I do soooo many recipes out of my head, not really paying attention to the "actual" amount of anything. Anyone else cook like that? My grandma Justus cooked like that. Just add stuff until it tastes just right. I will have to do a post on some of the yummy recipes she passed on to me and my cousins before she passed. She was a special special lady. She deserves a post all her own. Soon! Tara and I stopped by Tate & Tate and she got me a berry cobbler and loaf of bread to finish of my menu for tonight! Thanks Tara!

I must get to prepping my eggplant. Can't believe my belly still has 6 more weeks to grow. Scary! ha!

Dr. Appt update

Dr. appt. this am went great. Owen has grown in the last 2 weeks! He is now right on target for measurements--no more concern of him not growing enough. Yay! I will be 34 weeks this Thursday. I truly can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. We are ready, though. As ready as we're gonna be...little do we know how unprepared we probably really are. ha! That's part of the joys and challenges of parenthood, right?

Walt did not have any classes today so we ran errands in Bend this morning after our appointment. I feel very blessed to have a husband that I can spend most of my days off with. Thank goodness that we get along great and don't run out of things to talk about, because lately with being off work, I am home A LOT! It has been a special time for us to rekindle our relationship and focus on becoming parents! I love my husband and it is an honor to embark on this journey with him! We are beyond excited to enter into this new chapter in our lives of being parents and having our first child. Just in case you couldn't tell. :) It is very overwhelming to think of the responsibility we will soon be undertaking! I feel so much more respect for my parents and what they had to go through to make sure that my sisters and I turned out somewhat decent. They made it look easy! :)

I'm going to take some photos of Owen's nursery so that I can post them tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. Please be patient with us as we learn the ins and outs of this whole blogosphere world. This blog will serve as a way to keep our family and friends in the loop of the weekly going-ons in the Whipple-Griffin house. Can't promise that I will be at all consistent in posting, but I'm definetely going to give it a try. I (Karen) am the main "author" of the blog, but Walter may occasionally join in.

I am currently 33 weeks, 5 days pregnant! I can't believe we are entering the last 6 weeks before little Owen Scott Griffin arrives. I have been very busy learning to sew (thank you momma!). I have done lots of burp cloths, and baby quilt, and have recently pulled out some patterns for other baby items. It is nice to have this as a distraction, as I am unable to work anymore due to a weight-lifting restriction. The first couple of weeks off of work were really really hard for me. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can't sit still for long (understatement! ha!), so being off work for the last 11 weeks before baby was something I was not prepared for or desiring! It has been a very big adjustment for me, and Walter too. I told my Dr. I might have to go on "mental" disability too for how stressful the whole transition to not working has been. Now 4 weeks into my disability leave, I have finally found peace in the situation. I've come to realize that there is likely NOOOOOO other time in my life that I will actually have time for me, time to be bored, and time to get ready physically and mentally for this baby that will be changing our lives.

We have our 34 week appointment tomorrow morning. We are praying that little Owen is continuing to grow as he should. At our 32 week appointment he was measuring 2 weeks too small. The Dr. said that at this appointment if he hasn't grown enough, we may have to get another ultrasound to make sure he is growing properly. As long as it is not a health concern, bring on the small baby for delivery! ha!

We will keep you posted on how the Dr. appt. goes tomorrow. I'm glad you have decided to read our blog. Please feel free to comment as you wish. I would love to know who's reading and if you also have a blog. Let me know! :) Thanks friends and family for joining in on the Whipple-Griffin life. Enjoy!