Preparing for baby

In the last few weeks the nesting bug has hit me.

• I have put together the crib (but not made it up yet)
• Cleaned out Silas' closet
• Unpacked, sorted, and hung up Newborn-9 month clothing
• Washed all the bedding, receiving blankets, wash clothes, and bibs
• Prepped all of the newborn diapers
• Put away all of the generous baby shower gifts
• Wrote and mailed out the thank you cards for said gifts
• Unpacked and put away the tub of school books in the living room
• Sorted and cleaned up Silas' toys

I need to a few more things to prepare for Declan, including

• Make the crib
• Bring in the pack n play, swing, car seat, and other baby gear
• Clean up the baby gear and get it placed where I want it to go
• Hang Declan's name in the boy's room
• Purchase final items from the baby registry (if interested you can find it here)

In addition to preparing for Declan, I also have to prepare for a new school year. Teachers go back on August 5th with students returning on August 12th. I'm due the week after that, but fully anticipate Declan not arriving until the very end of the month. That being said, I still have a ton to do to prepare. I've spent the last few days working on school projects.

• Lesson plans August - November
• Snack Menus
• Newsletters

They are not 100% complete, but they will be once I have access to my classroom and some more information, which will come when the school year starts. Unfortunately that means I'll be spending a few evenings working late to get caught up. I am hoping to get into my classroom a week early so I can start unpacking and rearranging. There was major work done with the plumping in my building so I'm basically starting from scratch this year. Given how far along I am I need some help. I may be putting an SOS on Facebook for friends who might be able to give a helping hand.

• Rearrange furniture
• Unpack boxes
• Organize art cabinet 
• Put together new tables
• Put together new easel 
• Hang bulletins (parent wall, birthday wall, art displays, picture wall, alphabet wall)
• Start the insane amount of paper work
• Call new families to set up classroom visit
• Finish all paperwork for new students
• Create documents for DHS
• sign ins
• health/accident records
• document collection 

It's all very overwhelming to think about. I am hoping they will allow my EA to come in early to help too, but if she isn't paid I doubt she'll be able to do it. I plan on working until Declan arrives so it's pretty much up in the air concerning when I will be home. If he doesn't arrive before Labor Day I will go on Maternity leave then. I'll be 42 weeks so my options will be very limited. I hope he decides to come before then, but not before school starts!

35 Weeks

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant. I had my regular OB visit and was given some very good news. A few weeks ago when we had a 4D ultrasound of Declan done we learned that he was breech, meaning he was not head down. I have been really stressed out because a breech presentation would likely mean that I would have to have a repeat cesarean section.

It's no secret that Silas' emergency c-section really upset me. I know it was out of my hands and that it was necessary for his health and safety, as well as mine, but it took me a very long time to accept those facts. The hardest part about his birth was that he was whisked away for treatment and I wasn't able to share those first few hours of his life with him. Having the incision split open and contracting an infection didn't help either, nor did the repeat visits and the re-admittance to the hospital.

In the process of healing from my experience with the section I learned about ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network). I knew that a vaginal birth after cesarean (or VBAC) was a possibility because my mother had three of them (I was a c-section baby) and a very close friend of mine was starting her VBAC journey. I started attending meetings with her as a support person and learned more about the network and how to prepare myself for one when the time was right.

I've been working towards preparing myself for a natural vaginal birth. I've been taking care of my body and my mind. I've also hired a doula and a VBAC friendly OBGYN. I'm resolved to the fact that it may be out of my hands again, but at least this time around I have a plan if it does end in a repeat cesarean. That is something I didn't plan for the last time. There are some scenarios that could make this birth an automatic CBAC (cesarean birth after cesarean), but as of right now my OB doesn't have any worries.

What I was worried about with a breech baby was having my opportunity at a VBAC taken away. There are a number of things a person can do to try to get the baby to  turn including chiropractic care, spinning babies exercises, and and external version. I had planned on utilizing all of those, however the good news is that Declan is no longer breech. He is head down and nestled nicely in my pelvis, as my OB put it.

Let's just hope he stays that way!

Pictures of Declan

 I'm currently a few days shy of 35 weeks pregnant with our second son. We determined quite early that if we had another boy we would call him Declan. Once we found out it was a boy we only had to find a middle name. After a lot of thought and consideration we decided to give him the middle name Thomas. Thomas is the name of my late brother and Josh's late uncle. It's a twice blessed name and we are very excited to give that to Declan. 

With this pregnancy I decided to take pictures every two week. I'm not sure if I will start taking them weekly now that I am so far along, but the ones posted start at 8 weeks and increase by two weeks, with the exception of one. The picture of my belly after the yellow shirt is me on my birthday, other wise they are done bi-weekly. As this pregnancy continues I will post new pictures. 

Declan's ultrasound pictures. I think he looks a lot like Silas. Maybe I'll make a comparison mash-up to see if they really do resemble one another. 

Once Declan is born I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures of him to share as well! 

Pictures of Silas

I had been rather neglectful in my picture posting on the previous blog, and I hope not to fall into that pattern this time. I won't be transferring all of the photos because I ran out of space very quickly that way. Fortunately I found a collage website where I could create mash-ups of photos that won't take up as much space. 

These are all pictures of Silas. 

Progression pictures of my pregnancy with Silas 

Ultrasound pictures of Silas

A year of Silas! 

Silas on each of his birthdays 

Welcome!

Welcome to Where the Willinghams Are! If you have just stumbled on us, I hope that you'll check out our previous blog to learn more about us. If you followed Seriously Silas, then thank you for migrating here!

We moved blogs so that we would have more room for pictures and updates as we expand our family. We are so excited to be adding a new addition to the Willingham family and hope to only wait 5-7 more weeks before he arrives. This will be the place to see pictures of Silas, Declan, Josh and myself, hear updates about how we are adjusting from being a family of three to a family of four, and just the occasional updates.

Looking forward to sharing our lives with you all!