Christmas 2012

Christmas was lovely, despite my terrible cold. I was actually feeling better on Christmas eve but I may have overdone it that day and kind of did myself in for the next few days.

Livi singing carols at her preschool performance the week before. 

Sofie had to miss it because she was sick. 

Christmas eve my side of the family came over for our Christmas fruit crepe breakfast, presents and then a turkey dinner before church. A lot of family but that's how we roll! Crepes are a family tradition and I would have been happy with just that for dinner too!

Playing with the stuffed nativity while waiting for presents to start!

Maggy was very excited.

One of Livi's presents from Marmee was a Hello Kitty Snuggie. She loves it :)

Sofie all wrapped up in her snowman blanket.

We were well enough to make it to church thankfully! Sofie didn't go up with her class because it was past her bedtime but Livi went and "recited" part of the Christmas story. She had missed some weeks recently so she was a little unprepared, plus she goes between the preschool class with Sofie and the K-2 class with her friend so she isn't always consistent. She was excited to be first in line though because she was the shortest :)

Livi with her K-2 class!

After church we went to look at a few Christmas lights. The last house had a hologram Santa in the window and Livi freaked out with excitement. She didn't even want to stay. "We have to leave and get to sleep! Quick before Santa comes!" It was the fastest bedtime routine ever! After she went to the washroom Jon went outside the girls window and rang Santa bells and said "Ho Ho Ho". Livi was so excited she couldn't handle it. She nearly started crying and just buried her face in my neck. It was perfect.

Setting egg nog and cookies out for Santa.

Ready to pop at 40 weeks

Christmas morning was just with us four. We opened presents and had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, topped off with egg nog to drink. After a short quiet time we headed off to Jon's mom's house for the girls to get more spoiled! There is something about being the only grankids on both sides! The dinosaur from uncle Tony and Auntie Lisa was the winning toy this year. Livi has barely put it down!

Opening presents on Christmas morning! 

Santa got her a "real pedal" bike! It was what she had been asking for since Thanksgiving.

It's a little big for her but I think she will grow in to it by summer!

Sofie got a tricycle to help her learn to pedal! She was already doing really well on it :)

Yes, I bought my girls matching pj's for Christmas Eve!

Sofie heard the mention of desert and climbed up to the table signing to eat at Gramma's house.

Boxing day was a little rough. I was so tired and such a mess the next morning. I think the two days of Christmas was hard on my cold and I was back to being sick. Jon was a little grumpy too because my coughing had kept him up. I also thought I might  have been slowly leaking amnio fluid for a few days so my midwife wanted me to get it checked out. We finished packing our hospital bag, just in case, and headed off to get checked out. I think everyone had the same idea and the maternity ward was packed. Everyone waited through Christmas and came on boxing day! It wasn't amnio but there is some extra discharge to keep an eye on. Fun times! Thankfully, one of my midwives happened to be there and did all the checking for me. No nurses needed :)

I'm still just less then 2cm dilated and haven't had much else change. The full moon is coming on Friday, which is my period based due date. That tends to bring out the babies so I'm still hopeful for this week! I  saw the midwife again today for our regular appointment and got the midwife to strip my cervix to hopefully get things moving along. 

I still need a lot of prayer to get healthy though to make it through labor. Coughing hurts during braxton hicks, I'm scared to cough during the real thing! This is really wearing on me and my family. I'm feeling guilty for neglecting my kids for sleep and putting so much pressure on Jon. He is still getting over the cold too. Livi is acting over compensating a little for attention and dealing with her own worry about me I think. I've tried to reassure her as best as I can but she doesn't understand all my emotional ups and downs. I don't cry often so I think that worries her the most, and I cried a lot yesterday. 

No Baby News

No baby news. I'm sick. I have a terrible cold that has me snotting, coughing and aching. Jon is sick too. It is going on three days now. I'm terrified of going in to labor feeling like this but I also want this pregnancy to be over so badly! I think it would be best at this point if I got healthy first. The girls seem to be on the mend but are still sick. They are dealing with the boredom and hours of television a day well but are starting to go a little cabin fever crazy.

The possibility of messing with people's Christmas', if that is when I go in to labor, is weighing on me. My doula has 4 little kids who I'm sure would not be happy having to wait for presents while their Mommy is away, not to mention my own kids who believe in Santa! We want to foster that belief so he has to come Christmas eve. Plus, if it happens Christmas eve or day my friend who is a photographer won't be able to come. My sister can take pictures but I was really excited to have pro shots this time. I know I'm stressing about things that are outside of my control but what else do I have to do with my time? Everything else is ready! Please pray for me and my family. This whole out of control thing is always hard on me!

Almost There

Christmas is coming soon and so is this baby! We have been so busy but I don't know if I have anything really that interesting to post about. Plus, that blogging 7 posts in 7 days at the beginning of November was exhausting!

Me:
I'm feeling VERY pregnant these days. I'm have a little more than two weeks left until my official due date. Only one week based on my calculations. I'm feeling every symptom in the book. I feel swollen, huge, and nauseous again after eating almost anything. Heartburn has lessened because the baby dropped a bit but breathing is still labored at night. The midwife said that was because of hormones. I'm craving tons of milk these days. I don't even like milk. At least it is healthier than all the popcorn chicken I ate when I was pregnant with Livi. I did have one evening of pre-labor that actually had me a little worried I was going to go in to labor but the contractions stopped once I sat down and relaxed. The last few days have brought on braxton hicks' every hour throughout the day which is no fun. They are so strong I frequently have to breath through them. I'm convinced this baby won't be late.

 

Just about 37 weeks here

Preparations for Baby and Christmas are just about done. I just finished a 12 dozen baking exchange on Friday so I have lots of goodies in my freezer. We hosted our extended family Christmas again but got it catered this year! 30 people in my house was a little daunting but I enjoy having people over. This may have been a crazy undertaking so close to baby time but I survived! Plus my mom and Grandma hired me a cleaning lady for a few hours the day before to make sure everything was done. Now I have a clean house all ready for baby!

I just have to pack for the hospital and would like to bake some muffins with the girls yet but I've stocked my freezer with meals. All the baby stuff has been taken out and set up. Christmas presents are all bought and just need to be wrapped. Just want to clean the car out a bit and set up the car seat! Then done!

I'm really hoping to have this baby before Christmas, like this weekend. That gives me enough time to get home and recovered a bit before Christmas. If she doesn't come until after Christmas I think I'll be really anxious that she won't be here before the new year. And she HAS to be here before the new year! It would mean having to keep her back a year from school. I'm fine with keeping her back if she needs it but I want the choice!

Jon:
Just found out that Jon is going to take some months of parental leave. Such a blessing! I love that he can do this. He isn't going to start until January 23rd, so the first few weeks with baby might be a little rough but we have some help lined up. My sisters and Mom have some holiday's and Jon's mom is going to come help for the first two weeks of January. Yay for family!!!

Livi:
She is growing up so fast. She is so helpful and independent. She has been taking a lot of pride in being able help me out, particularly with Sofie. She likes to get things for me to use on Sofie, sweep up the daily spilled Cheerios, and fold laundry.

We are planning to have Livi at the birth of her baby sister. We have talked about it a lot with her and she wants to. I warned her that I might cry, and scream and use adult words. She tells me that it's okay... she will just stand quietly beside me and she knows I'll be so happy when the baby comes out. I even showed her some very explicit YouTube videos about birth. Her reaction? "Oh WOW!.... yuck." We have my sister in charge of her, so if she can't handle it she can take her out. I'm pretty sure she will be fine though.

Livi loved decorating for Christmas and was so helpful. She is looking forward everyday to opening the advent calender. I bought a little wooden Christmas tree made out of boxes so I could put notes in it every day this month. Some are fun things for her to look forward too. Some are facts about Christmas and some are little love notes to my girls. We are two days in and each day she has carried around the note to show every one. She is so cute.

She is very in to sounding out letters and words these days. She spelled Mom and Dad all by herself today by sounding out the letters and was very proud of herself. Although afterwards she said "I wish Mom was spelled M O O." Thanks Livi.

One of Livi's favorite things last month was learning about dinosaurs at preschool. She came home everyday telling us fun new facts. I helped on the the Dino Dig where they went looking for bones. SO MUCH FUN! She has a best friend at preschool too. It makes my heart so happy for her. The two are inseparable. She seems like a really sweet little girl too. So thankful for that because some things she comes home with from a few of the kids is a little questionable. If I'm still pregnant next week I want to invite her friend and her mom over for a play date. We'll see how I'm feeling though.

Sofie:
She is flourishing. She had a bit of a lull with her speech for a while but it seems to have taken off again. She is starting to put two words together and repeat things verbally when she wants something and we are saying no. She even tried to tell Jon about visiting Santa the other day... at least that's the story we think she was trying to tell. Most perfect Santa picture ever!

She LOVES preschool, although it is a little hard for her at times, particularly when she has to sit through circle time. All the kids seem to be really great with her and welcome her by name when they see us coming. I'm so thankful for that! The teachers and EA are really awesome with her too. I'm feeling really positive about this first introduction to the school system.

As far as the attachment goes she is very attached to us and the people she knows but has no hesitation to go up to new people and ask to be held. Me having this baby will be hard for her. She is differently attached to me in particular and I don't really know how to handle it. She will be in a perfectly good mood, engaged with what she is doing, or who she is with, until she sees me. As soon as she sees me, she will whine and flail and even cry. It is frustrating. Part of me just wants to hide in my room because with me gone she will be fine with Jon, another part of me wants to go and cuddle her (although that doesn't always help, she might still flail and whine even in my arms) and another part of me wants her to deal with it. I will have to do housework and she can't have my attention all the time. I foresee many hours of her crying at my feet while I breastfeed in the near future. Any adoptive mom's reading this and dealt with this? Not really sure what to do here.

Sofie has just begun really enjoying watching cartoons and will bring us DVD's that she wants to watch. I love this. We love movies in this family and I'm glad that she is starting to enjoy them too. We watched Brave together the other day and I don't know if it was more entertaining watching the movie or her reaction to the movie. She was yelling and shouting at the screen and throwing herself around. It was so epic. She was VERY involved..

All in all, we are surviving. Getting ready for Christmas and baby is consuming most of my energy right now. I waddle slowly these days but things are getting done! I have a week dedicated to relaxing now. Yesterday I got to have a mani/pedi with Em for "work" (it was our end of the year get special treat), today was a massage, tommorow is the chiropractor and Thursday is accupuncture (for pain and induction) accompanied by some membrane sweeps from my midwives. I will also probably take some castor oil on Friday... it worked last time! Pray for baby this weekend!