False Alarm #1...

So, this is how it all started out, Monday night (Sept 8) I was pretty much up the whole night with a very bad crampy feeling. It was constant and not really coming and going, so I figured it was just pre-term stuff, to get my uterus ready. It didn't really hurt but was uncomfortable. So anyway, it started to slack off around 5 am, so I got a couple hours of sleep and then got up for work Tuesday morning. When I got up, they started again, and was pretty much constant through the day, except now my lower back was in pain. It was just crampy all the way around and mostly on my right side. But anyway, I stayed at work all day and around 3 or so I started noticing that they were coming and going, so I started timing them. They were about 5 minutes apart and lasted for about 35-40 sec a piece. I still wasn't in terrible pain, but it was definitely uncomfortable, so I figured it was just pre-term labor and would slack off. Well, for about 2 hours, they kept coming around 5 minutes apart. No matter what I did, lay down, walk, they continued. So, my mom convinced me that I probably needed to go to the hospital and just check it out because at this time it was about 5:15 and my doctors office was closed. I called and talked to the on-call dr. and they said to come on in and just check. So, in we went. I really didn't think I was in "real" labor, because the pain was definitely bareable, but who knows, I've never done this before. David was pretty funny because I kind of just sprung the whole news on him that we needed to go, so he was a little confused and not real sure about the whole situation, but he took me anyway, I think he was in a state of shock that it actually could be happening.

We got there, they checked us in and took us back to triage. There they checked me (which killed, by the way). She said I had not dilated and my cervix was closed. So, they hooked me up to monitors to monitor the contractions and keep an eye on Tyler's heart rate and my blood pressure. She said the contractions were about 2 1/2 to 5 minutes apart, but weren't very strong. So, anyway, after about 2 hours, a Pepsi, jello, and a card game, they were finally going to let us go, but wanted Tyler to be moving a little more than he was. So she checked me again, and scratched his head to get him moving. He did of course and so they released me. Still no change, but said hopefully it wouldn't be too much longer.

So, we left the hospital starving around 8:30. We went to Chick-fil-A and then headed to Barbra's to watch "Baby Mama" which is hilarious, by the way.

My contractions never stopped and actually got stronger, throughout the movie, they were killing me and mostly on my right side from back to front. At the dr they said it's probably hurting more on that side because he's balled up over there, but who knows.

And so we got home around 11:30 and David went into nesting mode. He's so sweet, he wouldn't even let me lift a finger, but he cleaned the whole house and even steamed clean the bathroom! He's such a wonderful husband!!! Much to my surprise, I slept pretty good, woke up every once in a while with a contraction, but nothing unbearable! So, woke up around 7:30, took Kylie for a good walk, got my shower and picked up a little in our room and then headed to work. I'm still having contractions and they are stronger than yesterday, but not very consistent, so we'll see. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully we will have our little boy before the end of the week, but I'm not taking bets on it. :) Thought I must document this day, so we'll always remember this! So, we took a few pics in the hospital. Love that place! :)

On a side note, it actually was a good thing that we went, because we totally got lost in the hospital and ended up walking around for about 15 minutes looking for the right place, so now we know and it will be alot smoother when we actually go for the real thing! :)

Introducing...

Wyatt Richard Sidden. I bet you thought I was going to say Tyler, huh? This is a precious little friend that was born September 2, 2008 @ 7:00. He was 8 lb, 14 oz and 21" long. He is so adorable and we are so excited he's here, we just hope that he tells Tyler it's not so bad being out of the belly, so he'll come join us too!! :)

We are doing pretty good all things considering. I'm still not totally miserable, so that's good! I am very anxious for Tyler to get here, but I have decided that he is going to be stubborn and not come for a while. But whatever is best, I'm just trying to enjoy the last few weeks.

We have everything ready and David is super excited. If you know him he is not a very patient person, so he is chomping at the bits for Tyler to get here. So, we'll see.

We had a great weekend. Did do too much but it was relaxing and we got lots accomplished. Friday night, we went to a good friend's birthday party. Brian Ashley's parents had a cook-out for his birthday and boy was it good. Great food, great friends, what more could you ask for? Then, Saturday we slept in. I took Kylie for a walk and then came home did laundry and picked up around the house. David went to Lowes, got a new ceiling fan for Tyler's room, installed it (which looks awesome, by the way) and then had to repair a little leak that was outside by the chimney. He is such a handy man and I'm so thankful for him and his hard work!!! Then I went to Barbara's to hang out. We did some grocery shopping then had dinner. So we were back home around 9:00, hung out for a bit and then went to bed. Sunday morning up for church, then we had a Scouts for Christ pot-luck and played games with the kids (2nd-5th graders). Then I went to the Siddens to visit for a little while, home to take a short nap, then back to church. We all (CYP) went to eat afterwards and then headed back home (after my much needed McDonalds chocolate fudge sunday) and went to bed. And here we are again Monday Monday... We have 9 days till Tyler's due date, so we're in single digits now!! YAY! Can't believe it's so close! Here's my 38 week pictures.

Must be a popular time...

Seems this time of year there are so many birthdays and anniversaries. Last week on the 26th of August was Millie's 3rd birthday. We celebrated with a lady bug party on Monday (Labor Day), Sept 1st, which was also Steve's birthday and my great friend Melissa's. I'm not even going to try to begin to wish all my friends and family happy birthday one by one, because I know I will leave someone out and don't want to do that. But know I love each and everyone of you and are so thankful that you are in my life!

Today is David's mom and step-dad, Mike's 2nd Anniversary! And tomorrow is My mom and dad's 31st Anniversary!! So Happy Anniversary to yall!! I love you so very much and wish we were there to celebrate will all of yall!!

And also, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Sidden which hopefully will be born today, Sept 2nd!! Can't wait to see that precious boy!

So Monday was Labor Day, which means no work....YAY! It makes Sunday oh so much better when I know I don't have to work on Monday, don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sleeping in and doing what I want all day is so much nicer! :) So Millie had her 3 year old birthday party and boy did she have fun. There were about 30 something people there, and I didn't manage to take many pictures, but I did get a few of her with her cake.

After the party, I went home to relax a little and then we went to Steve and Kay Lynn's for dinner. They are building a fence for their back yard and David was helping with that so we went to get Chinese. Boy was it good and then on to pie for Steve's birthday. So needless to say, I ate WAY TOO much yesterday and will probably pay for it on the scales come Friday, but hey, I only have a couple weeks left, so I better enjoy the few extra calories while I can! :)

Here is my 37 week belly pics. Boy is my belly starting to feel really big! I really think it's even popped out more in the past couple of days!

So now on to week 38! I can't believe it's already here! Time really does fly by! At our last appointment Friday, the doctor said everything looked good. He seemed to think that Tyler was weighing about 6lbs, so we'll see. I'm sure he'll gain some more before he picks his birthday, but I hope not too much more!

On a side note...

You have to check out my sister's blog, the link is Stephens Family. My precious nephew, Austin, lost his first tooth and boy is he excited. It doesn't get much cuter than that! :)

Shower Number Five

Today was my last baby shower. They had a me a shower/luncheon at work. It was very nice and I enjoyed it. I get really nervous about showers especially when it's from people I really don't know. But it turned out to be great and not awkward at all. They always have tons of food when they have get togethers and there was no difference today.

We got some cute little outfits and different nick-knacks that I'm sure Tyler will love. We got some Target gift cards and he also got a cute little elephant with his name on it. I'll post a few pictures of some of the stuff we got.

Here is a picture of most of the ladies in my office. Of course, none of the men were invited, I guess they figured they wouldn't contribute to the food preparation! :) It was fun and now on to Thank you notes! :)

Time flys when your having fun...

I guess that is how the saying goes. We must be having a blast because I can't believe it's almost the end of August already!!! This past week and weekend was pretty uneventful, so that has been nice. We took the youth group to Emerald Point (a huge water park) last Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and I think everyone had a good time. It was pretty crowded because it was a Saturday but the lazy river and the pools suited me just fine. :)

Sunday was pretty productive. After church David went on a long bike ride with Brian and I did laundry and got all my stuff and Tyler's stuff ready to be packed. It still hasn't made it to the suitcase, but it is washed and folded, maybe I'll work on that tonight. Here is my 35 week belly pictures. Boy is he dropping and making me uncomfortable! :)

Last week was a pretty neat week for David because he got to baptize a guy in our youth group, Stephen Rusterholz and his mom, Sue Rusterholz. It was really neat to see the both of them baptized the same night. They are such sweet people and we have definitely been blessed to have them as part of our "family." Here are a couple of pictures I took. I hate I didn't get one afterwards, because David's waders leaked or something and he was soaking wet from chest to toes.

Also, last Thursday and Friday I went to Asheville for work. It wasn't too bad except for the fact that Tyler did not like me sitting all day, so he was sure to let me know it. We had an employee appreciation dinner Thursday night. It was a great steak supper and here is a picture of the group. I am the only girl at the very end of the table. It's not the best shot, but that's what you get when you have a man take the picture! :)

I went to the doctor Wednesday for my 36 week check up. He said everything looked good. My blood pressure was back down, so I was thankful for that. No progress yet, but I guess that's okay since he really is not suppose to make an appearance for 3 1/2 more weeks. Which seems so short, but yet so far away. I just can't imagine how much my life is about to change! I just can't wait to see his little face! David is convinced he is going to look just like him, so we'll see. He's getting super excited! We are at weekly appointments now, so I think it will make this process go even faster!

On another note, we had our carpets cleaned this week. They look awesome. David decided to put up trim in the living room, since we had not done that. So while all the furniture was out, he did that and got the living room back together last night which was a huge help, because all the furniture in the kitchen was starting to stress me out a little. The trim looks great and really adds to the room, he's so handy!! Of course being anal about Tyler's room, I had his room put back together as soon as I got home from work. So everything is almost back in it's place. It's a good feeling!

So other than a few here and there's we are ready and set for Tyler to come.

Here is my 36 week belly pictures. With every move he now makes my entire belly is transformed, it's so funny to watch. Everyone at church was saying my belly was lop-sided, because that night he must have been sticking out his bottom on the right side, because it was definitely obvious! :)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I rented a birthing video this week for us to watch. It was definitely "older" but I guess it had the pertinent information in it. It was 5 hours long, so needless to say we fast forward through a few things, but we actually did learn a few things. I'm going to go get another one today of an actual birth, so David is not so shell shocked come the day of. So I'll let you know how that goes. :) Wish us luck!

Sorry for the randomness of this blog. I'm guessing that's how it's going to be from now on!

We finally bit the bullet

We have been thinking, praying, and discussing this for a while now, and after much talk, hours, and decisions (mostly on David's part at the dealership) Saturday we bought a brand new van!! Now, I've never been one for Mini Vans, but I love this one. I really don't feel like I"m driving a van, it has so many cool features and I know it will be so practical for us! Hauling the youth group and precious little Tyler. Both of our cars were at the end of the road ( I mean, mine wasn't but it was at the point, trade it now, or run it out), so we decided to trade both of our cars in for a 2008 Honda Odyssey. I know what you are thinking.. "one car in this day and age" cause that was my initial reaction too. But we are looking for a little car with high miles that will get us to and from work, for the one that doesn't have Tyler for the day, which honestly will probably be me. Our handy financial friend helped us come up with this solution which I think was the best solution to our problem and will be the best decision in the end. So that being said.... It was bitter sweet saying bye to our cars, but we got to drive off in a vechicle with 21 miles on it, which was a first for both of us, so we were pretty excited. You should have seen David! (which by the way, LOVES mini vans!) I haven't taken any good pictures of it except at the dealership, but I will get on that asap. For the mean time, I found an exact picture of it with the color and everything so you can get the idea. The first one is our actual van, it's just not the best pic. This was when the guy was explaining how to work all of the features, so I jumped out and snapped a quick shot.

So we are pretty excited about our new purchase! :)

This week has been a good week so far. It's getting really hard for me to get comfortable and I'm really not sleeping all that much either. Tyler is making himself known, for sure. I am on weekly appointments now. It just seems crazy to be so close! I have had really great blood pressure through the whole pregnancy around 100/60, but yesterday when I went for my appointment it had gone up 138/84!! It worried me a bit, the doctor seemed to think that it wasn't that bad, just weird that it had jumped so far up when I have been pretty much doing the same stuff. So I go back in a week to check it and then we will go from there. I haven't been "checked" yet, so I don't know if there is anything going on down there as of now. But lets hope and pray Tyler likes his little home for at least a couple more weeks! Here are my 34 week belly pictures, as we move on to the big 35!

I leave for Asheville, NC in the morning for work. Already a few of the guys already told me that if it gets too boring and we need a break, they are going to give me "the look" and I must immediately start having contractions, yeah, we'll see how that works out! :)

We'll come back on Friday night and then take the youth group to Emerald Point on Saturday, which is a big water park in Greensboro. I'm excited about the lazy river and relaxing by the pool all day! Sounds like music to my ears!

TGIF!!!

That's all I can say about that. This week has been so busy! I'll start off with last weekends events.
Thursday night we left Winston and headed to West Virginia to spend the night with some good friends Bonnie and Will and their 3 kids. It's about 1/2 way to Ohio, so a perfect place to stop for the night. We got in about 9:30 hung out for a few hours and then went to bed. We woke up pretty early Friday morning because we needed to get to Ohio to start the days events. We got to Ohio and immediately went and got David's suit for the wedding. It looked great on him, by the way. Then headed home for some lunch. It was a good afternoon, just relaxing and getting to spend time with our family. Then that night we headed down to Marysville (about 30 minutes away) for the rehearsal and dinner. Zach and Carmen, David's best friend's wedding. It was outside and honestly the weather was great, I thought it was going to be so humid and hot, but it turned out to be very nice. This is a picture of us 4 at the rehearsal dinner.
After that I went back home with Sarah (David's sister) and David stayed the night with Zach.

Saturday morning we got up pretty early and headed down to grandma's for my shower. They threw a great shower and had so many neat touches!

We got everything else we needed and so many cute things! It was a fun time and also very relaxing, a few friends and mostly family were there. Here are a few things that they made for the shower. David's mom and sisters made a precious "clothes cake" it had onesies, burp cloths, and receiving blankets wrapped in it. Then on the outside it had passies, towel, shoes, and a precious laughing bear on top. It was so cute!! They did such a great job! :) There was so much wonderful food, I wish I had taken a picture of everything, but these cake squares made my mom had his name on them, it was so cute and grandma's cinnamon rolls, look how huge they are! :) And then we had so many wonderful casseroles, fruit, and punch. It was great!

Here are a few random pictures from the shower.

So after the shower we headed back home for some R & R before the wedding. We headed to the wedding around 5. It was a gorgeous day! It really wasn't hot at all and the weather was great. They had the wedding under a big tent in the back yard (which is outlined with corn) it was amazing and we had so much fun taking pictures. Carmen was beautiful and the wedding was perfect! Here are some random pictures from the wedding.

So after the wedding we went home and crashed. Sunday morning we got up pretty early and headed back to NC because VBS started Sunday night and we had to be back for that. We had a pretty uneventful trip home, I even drove a few hours (so that means David must have been exhausted, because he never lets me drive). We got home around 3 and headed straight to church. VBS started at 5:30. David was the main character/song leader. So he put on the show every night. He did a great job as always and the kids just love him! He was Deputy Dave and complete with his costume. Every night we would chant for him and he would run out after the fog of course! We had a great turn out this year around 120 kids! It was a great week. The decorations were so cute and covered all the hallways, fellowship hall, auditorium and classrooms. A lot of work went into this week! We did VBS Sunday through Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:30 complete with a meal and everything. The kids were divided into age groups and named different space names. I was the craft teacher for the Red Rockets. Our class was the 4 year olds. They were precious, but of course they are 4! :) Here is a picture of our class.

Needless to say by the end of each night we were all pretty much exhausted! Each night the kids had a box in the front of the auditorium to bring can goods and the class that had the most cans at the end of the week got to slime Deputy Dave. I think it was a little more than he bargained for because if you know David you know he is a gagger. So on Wednesday night, the Aqua Astronauts won. So one by one (about 15 of them) got to poor a cup of "Slime" on him while he was sitting in a kiddy pool. The slime was baby shampoo and jello. It was ok until he started getting it in his mouth and nose and then there were a couple of times he really did start gagging. I felt so bad for him, but of course being the wonderful man that he is, was a great sport about it and didn't even complain. He just waited till they were done and ran outside to get sprayed down with the water hose!

I just have to add that Millie was so concerned about Mr. Da-bed. I was holding her and her face was absolutely adorable. She was so sad that they were pouring things on him and after it was over, she kept wanting me to take her to him so she could see that he was ok. Then she felt his head and gave him a big hug and she was better. It almost made me cry it was so sweet!

It was a good end to a great VBS!!!

And now we are in the last month before Tyler gets here! We are trying to get everything in order and get prepared for him! I am so excited and can't wait to see his precious face. I am starting to get a little nervous about the whole delivery, but I know that everything will be fine and we'll have a precious little boy to show for it. We are on our 34th week, but here are my 33 week belly pictures. I'm starting to get very uncomfortable and feeling like I really am pregnant! :) This weekend should be pretty easy going. Going to try to get some stuff done around the house and get Tyler's room completely in order and hopefully get a few more hours of shut eye! Because Monday begins another busy week! I have to go to Asheville, NC Thursday and Friday for work and then Charleston, SC Friday thru Sunday with the kids for their last summer trip before school. Lots of fun, but sure to be tiring.