Recent Doctor Visit

I think it's so funny every time Erik gets embarrassed because it rarely happens. Today after our doctor appointment, I asked him to take some pictures of the kids and me in front of some pretty flowers at the clinic. After much encouragement begging for a self portrait of just us, he finally got in the picture with me and then rushed us to the car so that we could get out of there fast! He was soooooo embarrassed! Even though the picture isn't the greatest, I had to post it for the memory. :)

I love my OB. I really do. Every time I see him, I realize even more how special he is! Today I had a doctor appointment and Erik and the kids were able to join me! It was nice to have Erik there to help me remember what the doctor said and to help watch the kids (who were amazingly well behaved, by the way!). Dr. Griffiths came into the room immediately (never has a doctor been so consistently punctual) wearing some Wrangler jeans with fat-soled cowboy boots, a dress shirt without a tie, and his white coat. He's such a cute old man! Erik said that outfit made him cool. :)

I have gained 30 pounds total this pregnancy, which Dr. Griffiths was totally okay with. He says what usually happens is that the mom's weight plateaus off at this point (let's hope that's true!). His guess (by feeling) is that the baby is 4 1/2 pounds right now, which Erik said is about the size of a 2-liter pop bottle. Dr. Griffiths considered this to be pretty good size for a baby at 31 weeks, but we'll get another ultrasound in a few weeks for a better estimate of size, since I measured 32 weeks on exam.

He still considered me a candidate for a VBAC, which I couldn't stop smiling about, but I feel very comfortable that he will make the safest decision regarding the delivery. We talked about contractions and how Braxton Hicks can be much more painful for third-time moms compared to first-time moms because the uterus is so scarred, particularly after C-sections. I thought it was really cool that he gave me his direct personal pager number and if I start having more consistent contractions with any pattern to them, or have any other concerns, I'm supposed to page him. What Ob/Gyn gives out his personal pager number to his patients?!! I am just so impressed with Dr. Griffiths and love that he has committed so much of his life to medicine (but I will never encourage Erik to practice like that!). I scheduled my next appointment for two weeks from now, so we'll know more then.

We also were able to tour the birthing center while we were there. It was just remodeled and everything looked so nice! After touring there and talking a little bit about the pros and cons of delivering there, compared to the downtown hospital we were considering before, I think we've decided on this one. Two things that make me the happiest about this hospital is (one) they are very VBAC-friendly, and (two) they have a C-section suite just down the hall on the same floor, so if I had to have a C-section, I wouldn't have to be transferred downstairs to the operating room, it would be done right there on the same floor. Everything is falling into place for this birth!!! Baby will be here before we know it, I'm sure.

Some pictures of the kids from last night (can you tell that we got our camera back? :)....

Maida: "It's hard to hold this pose because I'm still pregnant."

As I was in the kitchen, I heard Skogen saying, "Cheeeeeeese," over and over again, so I looked in the living room and found this little clown wanting me to take his picture.

At the Lake

Our neighbor's parents live on a lake. She invited me and the kids to join her and her little boy, Brayden at the lake this morning, along with her sister-in-law and two nieces. It was so much fun! Maida really loved swimming in the water! Skogen liked it until he fell in and got all wet. Then he spent most of the rest of the time either eating or testing his boundaries on the dock! It was a nice, enjoyable morning in the sun.

Skogen saying, "Cheeeeeeeeese!" and baby Brayden in his cool shades behind.

Maida splashing in the water. I had to remind her not to splash people, which her and Skogen both thought was really fun to do!

Maida climbing on the rocks with her new friend, Maddie.

We had a yummy picnic in the sun.

I could not get Maida and Skogen to look at me at the same time!

Maida and Skogen had fun with our neighbor's neices, Maddie and Annika!

Maida yelling at me saying, "My husband doesn't want you to take a picture of me right now!" Of course her husband had to come to the lake with us! We just can't get rid of him!

Two weeks ago I thought that I was going to have to get Skogen's hair cut again soon... that was before it got so humid! Now his hair is almost an inch shorter with the humidity! It just curls right up.

Thanks, Nikki, for inviting us to go to the lake! It was so much fun!

Playing Church

This is a really long video. I actually cut out more than half of it as it started out being almost nine minutes long! Most of you probably won't watch the whole thing, but if you do, here are some of my favorite things about this video...

* When Erik asks what their favorite song is and Maida replies, "Ninty-O-fifty-three."

* How Skogen stands up whenever Maida stands up and sits down whenever Maida sits down.

* When Maida sings, "I stand on the Lord..." a song she made up.

* When Maida gets mad at Skogen for singing too loud... this really happens in real church! Skogen sings SO loud that we have to keep reminding him to sing a little quieter.

You can double click to make the video bigger....

Videos of Baby Number 3

I love how each of my pregnancies have been unique. Not only have they been completely different (in almost every sense!), but I have tried to make each one special in its own way. One thing that will always stick out as being the most unique moment in this pregnancy happened last weekend when Maida, Skogen, and I had the privilege of joining Erik in the emergency department, where he is currently doing an ultrasound rotation. Erik escorted us back into our own private room, where the kids ate breakfast and ran around, while we took a peek at the baby! Erik performed the ultrasound and did a GREAT job! We were able to take our time looking at the baby alone and even recorded some great videos! I had such a good time watching our baby move around, open and close its mouth, and watch the little heart beat. This will be a special time that I will treasure forever.

I have been so excited to share the pictures and videos with all of you, however, my computer has not been cooperating with me, so I put together the pictures and videos as best I could. I titled the pictures and different things in the video (as if I was writing to the baby), so hopefully you'll be able to pick out the different things. You may have to watch it twice! My favorite part is when the baby sticks out its tongue (toward the end of the video). Enjoy!

DOUBLE CLICK TO ENLARGE!!!

Traditional Birthday Cake Celebration

Maida was due on Erik's birthday. We spent her due date (his birthday) at the park playing frisbee and walking, trying to get her to come out. She had other plans, though, and didn't come until two days later.

Even though she wasn't born on his birthday, she was born close enough to it, that for the past three years, her birthday has taken over the beginning of the month and we really don't do anything special for Erik's birthday, too. This year, however, my mom was nice enough to make the traditional Kinkel birthday cake for Erik and Maida (even though she wasn't here to eat it with us!) and Erik, Maida, Skogen, Barkley!, and I had our own little birthday celebration. Erik didn't open any presents, but it was nice to do something special for him for once, too. Maida was a little confused with us singing to her and Daddy, but I think she had fun and enjoyed sharing the spotlight with him. After they blew out the candles, we dug into the cake and devoured the entire thing! It's so special that Erik has always wanted to continue on with the traditional cake that my family grew up having.

(Double click on the video if you want to make it full screen.)

30 Weeks

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant.

I can't believe it! This pregnancy has gone by so fast.

I'm at the point, now, where everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready for the baby to come, if I'm getting uncomfortable, if I'm still enjoying being pregnant, if I regret not finding out the gender or if I'm enjoying the unknown... and questions of the like. The answer to all of them is "Yes!"

I'm uncomfortable, but thankful to be pregnant.

I'm ready for the baby to come, but content to keep him or her inside for a little bit longer.

I love thinking of what might be inside and sometimes drive myself crazy trying to figure it out, but I'm looking forward to delivery day when I hear Erik say, "It's a ....!!!"

Lately I've been getting a lot of gender guesses, just by the way I am carrying the baby. I really enjoy hearing what people think, especially women from other cultures. They seem to have an intuition, a special sense, a unique way of telling if a baby is a girl or a boy. It's fun to hear!

Webshots

Maida and Mommy

Skogen's chocolate pudding mess

Maida's favorite outfit - high heels, a tutu, and a crown.

They love seeing themselves in the webcam!

Party Pictures

For Maida's third birthday, I decided that I would try to throw her a big birthday bash in celebration of her golden birthday. Originally I wanted to do a ladybug party, Erik wanted a dinosaur party, and Maida just didn't know what she wanted. Eventually I realized that most of Maida's friends were boys, so I tried to go a more gender-neutral route. Erik came up with a pirate theme, but after we talked about it more and more, Maida informed us that she didn't like it because "Pirates are scaaaareeeeyyy." So, that's when I got the idea of having a pirate and fairy party. I convinced Maida that it would be great and that she could be Tinkerbell, a fairy princess. After more brainstorming, I came up with a costume for Skogen to be Peter Pan, and a thrift store shopping trip provided materials for me to make Erik a Captain Hook costume. I also purchased fairy costumes for all of the little girls and pirate costumes for all of the little boys. To my surprise, though, on party day not many of the boys were interested in the pirate costumes! But most of the little girls liked to wear their wings and carry around their princess wands.

60 guests joined us in our backyard that we transformed into Never Never Land and called "Scharrer Cove". We had the "Fresh Catch Diner," where the cake, snacks, and drinks were served, along with "Treasure City," where we had a kiddie pool filled with sand and buried treasures for a treasure hunt. It was a very cool, rainy day, so we had a campfire going most of the day, which seemed to take the chill off. Erik finished setting up Maida's playground just an hour before the party (he also worked on it until 4:00 in the morning the night before!) and the kids really seemed to love playing on the playground. We did have one game of "Pin the Patch on the Pirate," but had to cancel our bean bag toss through the pirate's mouth because it looked like it was going to rain any minute and we wanted to make sure and eat cake before the rain came. To our surprise, the rain held off and we had a wonderful afternoon.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and for all of the presents for Maida. She has never ever ever received that many gifts at once! Every day since the party, we have taken out another couple toys to explore and Maida says, "I can't believe that I have so many friends." Thank you, again.

Here's a video that I put together of the day. My Uncle Gary took over 200 pictures of the party, so it was really hard to pick and choose pictures to go into the video. If you would like to see more of the pictures from the day, I posted all of the pictures to: http://scharrerfamily.shutterfly.com/. (By the way, I'm trying out a new online video service. YouTube kept taking my videos offline without warning me and it was making me upset. So, I'm going to try Vimeo and see if that helps.) You will have to turn the sound all the way up to hear the music - for some reason it's really quiet. Also, if you double click on the video, it should go to full screen. Enjoy!

Maida's Golden Birthday - Three Years Old from Kara Scharrer on Vimeo.

Maida's Golden Birthday Party

Although Maida's golden birthday party may not have been quite the spectacular birthday party that I was aiming for, I really hope that Maida will treasure the special day forever. We had a pirate and fairy party! Maida was Tinkerbell, Skogen was Peter Pan, and Erik was Captain Hook. I also had fairy costumes for all of the girls and pirate costumes for all of the boys. The pictures are currently loading onto the computer, but while I wait for all 300 of them to download, I thought I would post a couple...

Having A Webcam...

is like having your own photo booth!

Except for you don't have to put any money in.

And you can take as many pictures as you want!