Doing well

No baby yet... but things are at least starting to happen. I've been having lots of braxton hicks contractions and at my 38 week appointment I was examined and told I am already 2 cm dilated! Miracle of Miracles... I had nothing even close to that with Jacob (even at 41 weeks) so I'm excited to be showing some progress. I've started taking a bunch of herbs to help get my body ready for labor and I think they must be working. I had my last session of acupuncture on Tuesday - this time it was actually quite nice and relaxing. For those interested, these are the herbs I'm taking (per my midwife's instructions):

- 2 cups of red raspberry leaf tea per day (tastes yummy with honey), I up that by 1 cup each week until I reach 4 cups per day. I'm hoping I don't make it that long - 4 cups of herbal tea a day is a lot in my opinion.
- Black and Blue cohosh that I switch off taking every other day
- 2 capsules of Evening Primrose Oil every night before bed

It has been hot and muggy up here for a week now and the result is that I have swelling in my hands and feet and some in my face along with a few other symptoms and was told me I am dehydrated. I always get told that even though I drink a lot of fluid throughout the day, so I'm not sure what more to do.

We finally have the help lined up for Jacob that we need for the few days we spend in the hospital. This has been a big stress for me as the two girls I had lined up ended up not working out. I have a teen from my ward that will spend the night here and take care of his night and morning routine and then he will spend the day with my friend Mettina and her two daughters that live two buildings down from us (he loves it over there). He will most likely not get a nap during the day (he does not sleep in other places) and I can forsee that being a problem, but it is only for a few days and so I'm not going to worry about it. I am simply relieved to have a situation set up for him that I feel good about.

Big news! (For me at least). I finished the scrapbook I made of my courtship, engagement and marriage with Brent. I think I have worked on it only twice since having Jacob and knew I would never get it done at the rate I was going. The problem I had was getting my stuff out and setting it all up. So I set up my table in our spare room and left everything out. Then a few nights each week I worked on it while Brent was gaming on the computer after Jacob was in bed. That way we could still talk to each other and each do something we each wanted to do. I completed 36 pages in about a month and finished the album the other night. I am so excited that I actually finished something! Hurray for accomplishments.

We are excited to celebrate the forth of July tomorrow with my sister and her family. We will be barbequeing and making homemade ice cream and root beer.. it doesn't get much better than that. I hope that all of you out there have a wonderful and safe weekend.