Dear Baby Bean: 35 Weeks: Mother's Day Weekend

Dear Baby Bean-

Hello there little mister! We have had a big week and an even bigger weekend and I'm happy to be telling you all about it. It seems that my little talk to you from Tuesday worked because our appointments on Friday went much better and we were even cleared to travel to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. I am getting ahead of myself, though, so let's start with the most important information first...your appointments on Friday.

We had such a fun start to the weekend because Uncle Brandon decided to fly in for Mother's Day! I've known about it for a long time but couldn't write to you about it because it was a surprise for Grandma Cindy and I know that she reads this...we couldn't give it away. I picked Uncle Brandon up from the airport on Thursday night and he was with us all day Friday to go to our appointments. We started by going to see Bernie. She was pretty concerned with Dr. Losure's report from Tuesday and told me that on top of twice weekly ultrasounds, she also wants us to have weekly (and possibly twice weekly) non-stress tests. According to Bernie, we will be hooked up to a monitor for an hour so that the nurses in the hospital can monitor your heartbeat to make sure you are doing OK. At this point, we have weekly midwife appointments, twice weekly ultrasounds, and weekly or twice weekly non-stress tests. We are going to be seeing and hearing a lot of you in the next five weeks! Aside from that, the appointment with Bernie ran smoothly and she even said that at this point, if I go into labor, she wouldn't try to stop it...you would just be born! That is so exciting but I would rather you stay in there for a couple of more weeks so you can get a little bigger and a lot stronger.

After our visit with Bernie, we headed over to Dr. Losure's office for our biophysical profile. He was extremely pleased with you and he was able to give you all 8 of your points within 5 minutes. He was so surprised! He said my fluid levels went from a 6 to a 13 which is excellent. He's a little puzzled as to why they were so low on Tuesday but says that he wants to keep monitoring you twice a week just to be positive everything is OK. Because of all the good news, we were able to head to Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Rand's house without any hesitation. We are looking forward to next Friday's ultrasound because it is one that will measure your growth- I'm anxious to see that you have hit at least the 5 pound mark. Keep up the good work, Bean.

When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house, they were so surprised that Uncle Brandon was there! They had no idea and we pulled it off perfectly. We headed to Grossman's to eat dinner and they went to visit Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Walter. It was a perfect night and we had a lot of fun.

Saturday was a day spent around Grandma and Grandpa's house. I went to get my hair done in the morning and Daddy, Uncle Brandon, and Grandpa Rand went fishing. We spent the afternoon and evening together and it was nice to not to have to go anywhere.

Today was Mother's Day and it was so nice. We went to church and then headed to dinner with the whole Walter family at Iannarelli's in Howe. It was so fun to see everyone and we even got to go out to Aunt Lou and Uncle Bernard's afterwards for dessert. We had such a nice time and it was sad when we had to go home. The nice thing was that we were able to bring Uncle Brandon back with us because he doesn't have to fly back to Atlanta until tomorrow. When we got back into town, Daddy indulged one last Mother's Day wish and took us all to Dairy Belle for ice cream. It was the perfect end to a nice weekend.

I can't believe it is Mother's Day and I have one beautiful baby girl and another beautiful baby on the way. We are so excited to meet you, Bean, and only have to wait a few short weeks before we can see you. I love you so much and can't wait to hold you in my arms in a few weeks!