Fannnnncy

Last night we went out for a 'planned interruption' with our community group. We do this every two months or so. Planned interruptions can be game nights, dinner out, bowling, going to see a movie- pretty much anything other than the regular community group routine.

One of the couples in our CG had a gift card to The Melting Pot, and offered to use it last night to pay for everyone's cheese fondue. (Super generous) People who wanted chocolate fondue after just had to pay for that separate.

It ended up being that only the girls wanted chocolate fondue in addition to the cheese (surprise, surprise), and so our side of the table gathered, and stuffed our faces with yummy chocolate!

I know everyone says this, but we LOVE our community group! Everyone is so nice, funny, interesting, and different. It's really easy to like all of them! We've been together for eight weeks now, and have had the chance to get to know each other pretty well. I can't wait for the next year to unfold as we get to know these other twelve people even better!

Here are a few pictures from our gathering last night :)

Update

A few things have happened over the last week to update everyone on. What sticks out in my mind the most is that we went 6 looooong days without a refrigerator, which was no fun! There was really no reason for it to take us that long to find a new one, other than the fact that I am married to someone named John Dorr, who likes to take forever making decisions. He had a certain price in his head of what he wanted to spend, and boy was it unrealistic! He also wanted a french door, freezer on the bottom refrigerator, which are far more expensive than the regular side-by-side refrigerators we've had in both our houses. Anyway- on Saturday (after going to 6 different appliance stores together, and searching on Craig's List for hours...) he promised me we'd have on by Tuesday, up and running. He really started to feel the pressure Sunday night when he realized that the more days we go without a refrigerator, the more days we have to eat out...which is not cheap, nor healthy. He bought one Sunday night, and it was installed yesterday! Yipppeee!! He got it from Lowe's (scratch and dent), although you really have to search for the defect. It's pretty fancy to me, but it's what he wanted. We originally planned on buying white, but went ahead with stainless steel. The plan is over the next 6-8 months to update the rest of our appliances to stainless steel. It is sooo nice to have a working refrigerator!


I am 37 weeks- FULL TERM this week! That means that babies born past this week have no health concerns, and are fully developed! It's a pretty big milestone in pregnancy, and I'm so glad we made it! I had my weekly appointment yesterday morning, and I am 1 cm dialated, which is further along than last week. Avery is still head down, and the doctor said she could feel her head. Our doctor said it's good progress to be head down, and 1 cm dialated since I still have 3 weeks. I really hope next week there's even more progress made!

This coming weekend is going to be lots of fun! A few weeks ago I planned another Game Night at our house. We had so much fun in July, we decided to host another one. This time though, it's also going to be Fall Food Night...so all things chili, apples, and pumpkin! So far there's about 16 people coming, which will be great for playing games! Last time we just split up into different rooms and played games, and then rotated through the different games- it was a lot of fun! I'm also really excited for the weekend because our good friends Ben and Jen are coming in from out of town for a last minute visit! I've known Jen since high school, and have stayed really close over the years. Her and her husband just moved from Buffalo, NY (14 hours away) to Raleigh, NC (4 hours away), and decided to make a visit before Avery arrives! It will be great to see them, and have them here for game night!!

BIG NEWS for John...he passed his radiation board exam! He wasn't expecting to find out for another month or so, and was thrilled to find out so soon! I am so proud of him! This means now that next summer he can move along in the process, and take part 2. He studied so hard for his test, and really had to put a lot of fun things on hold so he could prioritize this exam. SUPER PROUD!!

Becoming a reality

With close to only 3 weeks left until Avery is due to make her arrival, certain things are becoming a reality to me. The last few days it has really hit me that life will be changing forever. When people say this, unfortunately their minds go in a negative direction, but I don't feel that way at all! I have heard from so many people (men, women, Christians, non-Christians, planned, and unplanned pregnancies) that it's the best life change a person can experience. Who wouldn't want that?!

Since I'm not currently working (other than tutoring privately on the side), I have time during the day to sort of do whatever. I find myself running a lot of errands; which is when the reality of what's to come hits me the most. I totally recognize that running errands really won't be the same for a very long time! Not only will there will her schedule to work around, but there will be a bulky car seat and stroller, a diaper bag to lug around, and running in to CVS for 7 seconds to get something will never take 7 seconds! And it's not just the 'baby phase' that will be hectic, I'm sure once she hits toddler stage, it'll be even more crazy to run errands, and get things done in a timely (you know me...) fashion.

With that said- I cannot wait to be a mom! I am so ready, so excited, and so dying to meet Avery! I feel so blessed that God chose to allow us to become parents, and I can't imagine how much more blessed I'm going to feel once we have her!

9 MONTHS...and 1 month left

Belly at 36 weeks- 9 months

This week marks 36 weeks...9 MONTHS! I can hardly believe it! I was walking Kaya on Satursay afternoon, and it hit me that it was exactly one month left til my due date...wow!

I'd say we're definitely ready for the most part. We have a few things left to do over the next month such as get both car seats installed in the cars, put the bassinet in our bedroom (where she'll be sleeping the first few weeks), and maybe buy some more newborn diapers. Both our bags (for us and her) are pretty much packed...and what's left to pack are things that will be last minute things like our phone chargers, water bottles, and things like that. I've picked out three outfits for her to wear at the hospital, and they are so cute!! I'm keeping my wardrobe pretty simple: loose pajama pants, a nursing tank, and a lightweight robe to wear.

I e-mailed a bunch of my girlfriends who have had kids within the last year or so, asking them advice on what to bring to the hospital for myself and her. The response was great, and I feel like I have a much better idea of what to pack in preparation!

September has been childbirth class month! We have two newborn care classes, five childbirth classes, and a hospital tour throughout the month of September. Everyone is pretty much correct: they're pretty boring! But my outlook is that I'd never enter a marathon without training, or give a speech without some sort of preparation, and childbirth should be no different! Even if I learn one thing- it's worth my time!

I start going to the doctor every week now for weekly checks! They'll be listening to the baby's heartbeat, which they've been doing since week 16, and checking to see if I'm dilated. I'm preparing myself for no dilation at this point, but it would be awesome if there was a little something going on! Anything that will speed up us meeting Avery would be great :)

This is what BabyCenter.com has to say about her development...

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

Happy Birthday, Baby Rosalie

Happy Birthday,
Rosalie Noel Enscore!

You were born last night, and are so stink' cute! You have an adorable little sister who is obsessed with you already, and two amazingly loving parents! Can't wait for you and Avery to grow up together, and play girly together!

Little paper lanterns

We have white paper lanterns in our office downstairs, and they create a really pretty glow! I hate the ceiling lights because they create such stark lighting, and these were a good alternative!

When we started talking about the nursery a few months ago, we discussed getting lanterns for the baby's room so we wouldn't have to turn on a bright ceiling light on in the middle of the night for diaper changes, and feedings.

I found a great website that specializes in these paper lanterns- all different shapes, sizes, and colors. Of course...we decided to go with PINK! We bought 5 packs of 10, and had to assemble them ourselves. We had a pretty good system going, and TEAM DORR worked well together!

I loooove the way they turned out- so cozy, sweet, and delicate looking! Not to say we'll never use the ceiling fan lights, but I think these will be more pleasant to squint at at 2am :) Another cool thing about these- John put them on sort of a dimmer switch, and there are three different settings of 'brightness' so we can adjust them according to how bright we want the room!

The process begins...making the lanterns.

Here they are before they were strung on the light cords.

One view from the room, a little blurry.

Safety first...John will one foot on the glider, and the other on the foot rest :)

Water Camping

Two years ago we went camping on 4th of July weekend with some friends on an 'island' in Seaford, which is only about 10-15 minutes away, but feels much further because it's so remote! It was a lot of fun, but there were some rough points: it was really hot (over 100 degrees) with NO shade at all, no bathrooms, and we had to swim to get to shore because the boat would get stuck if we went any further.

We haven't gone camping there since that summer, much to my happiness...until tonight. John planned a last-minute night out camping with some friends a few days ago, and decided to go back to that little island in Seaford. I decided I'd go for a few hours, and hang out, but not spend the night. John kept telling everyone it wasn't that bad, and that we'd just barely wade to the shore. Ummmm- ok, John! I knew better...

People most definitely had to more than wade. I'm so lucky I got to pull the 'pregnancy card' on this one, and was able to be brought via air mattress to the shore! I stayed for about three hours, and most everyone else stayed overnight.

I'm not always the best sport when it comes to living outside what is comfortable to me...and this was no different! (I'm thinking being almost 9 months pregnant played a pretty big part in this.) I didn't sleep at all last night from a horrible backache, woke up early to get ready to host a baby shower, was on my feet all day, and camping in the sand on the beach just wasn't something I was looking forward to. Although I felt that way, I also reminded myself that these impromptu trips with friends will be few, and far between when we have a baby. I am also so outgoing that the thought of missing out on a social event with friends nearly kills me! I'm glad I went for a short time- and I'm also glad I left when I did!

Here are just a few pictures from the night.

John multi-tasking. Sharpening his stick, while eating his hotdog.

Betsy, Rae, and Katey

Me being brought to the shore via air mattress. Thanks John, Stew, and Jon!

This is what we pulled up to on the boat. 'Come on Leah, it's not that bad...'

Sooooo tired after a long day!