Snow Day

It snowed all day yesterday and into the night. Church was cancelled today due to the fact that all Arlington buildings were closed. Don't think we would've made it to church anyway. I slept in until 10am this morning. Thank you John! It was weird though because when I looked at my clock it said 9 o'clock. I was surprised to find that it was an hour behind. Don't know how that happened. Or when that happened. Does that mean that I went to sleep at 2:11 last night after finishing my book instead of 1:11 like I thought?

Last night I packed the hospital bags. I had started the baby's a while ago. I put a few more things in there and packed for John and I, except our toiletries of course.

Some friends are coming over later today to help me clean and organize in preparation for John's big party on Tuesday. Part of the help I need involves organizing baby stuff because it's strewn all over our bedroom which is where we can do some party over flow and people can use the restroom, so I want to make sure it looks good too.

Malachi has been amazing lately. He's at an age where he learns so much so quick. Yesterday he was learning how to tell time on a wall clock that isn't digital. He's been learning about it on his little digital clock, but it was so much fun to see him learning about the small hand and big hand of the clock.

I don't know if he understands how close we are to bringing home his little brother. I've been pregnant for so long, I wonder if he thinks this baby is ever coming out. I think he'll be amazing when his brother comes home though. Malachi's such a caring young boy. I know he'll love his brother so much.

I've decided and have told God that the best day for me to have our son is Friday Feb 12th. John has a long weekend that weekend, so if I went into labor after 2pm on that day - it would be great. Of course I know that no matter when he comes, it will be great. I'm just so excited!!!!!

I am alive!

My mother in law called me recently to see how I was doing. She noticed I'd been very silent on my blog the last few days.

I have had some very blog worthy things happen the last few days, but I haven't had a computer to blog with. We've been not so patiently waiting for the arrival of our new netbook. It arrived today! I now have a computer that I can do more than update my Facebook status and read my emails with. BTW my phone makes for a horrible computer.

Since I last blogged, I've had two Dr appointments, almost fell asleep during worship at church, had a surprise baby shower at mom's group, and got a few more things done for the arrival of the baby. You'll notice, I didn't put on there that I had the baby.

Nope. Not yet. I'm also not patiently waiting for that. I'm trying though. I know it's good for him to be in there as long as possible. I also know that I can for sure say that he'll be with us no later than the 23rd of February, because my Drs don't let their patients carry more than 41 weeks. I'm really hoping to go into labor naturally though, and avoid the pitocin. I hate pitocin - it's evil.

The surprise baby shower with my girl friends in mom's group was so great. My friend Elissa is due three weeks and one day after I am, so they did a joint shower for us both. We're all hoping that I'll have the baby before the next mom's group meets because I'm so ready for this son of mine to show his face. I don't want to be pregnant on the 9th. We both got some great gifts - I'm going to make one of the outfits his wear home outfit because the pants match a pair of pants that Malachi has and I can't wait to see them wearing the same pants and take lots of pictures of that! Our friends prayed over us before we parted and that was such a blessing for both of us. Neither of us is having a first child (this is her third) so both of us are understandably tired and overwhelmed by the responsibilities to our families and our pregnancies. The prayers brought so much peace for both of us.

I had my 37 week appointment yesterday. The exam showed that I'm still as pregnant as can be and have not started any kind of labor. I was really hoping she'd tell me I'd started dilating or effacing, but oh well. He'll come...eventually. :) I have all my appointments scheduled through my pregnancy. My last appointment is scheduled for the day before my due date. If we're not in labor by that day, I'm sure they'll schedule an induction. Please, please pray that I don't have to be induced. Like I already said: pitocin = evil.

On the Foreign Service front: John got his orders and we also got our housing survey. The two of us are now deciding what our priorities are for housing. Some are obvious of course like security. I've also started research into schools. It looks like we have some pretty good options. I should also find a pediatrician and a neurologist for Malachi. I'm probably going to have to bring the baby to the pediatrician shortly after we move down there for a check up. It all seems like its getting more real, oh and BTW we're moving to post in mid-April. John has to work out with his boss exactly what day, but it looks like we'll be down there in about 12 weeks. I'm so excited!!

Baby Shopping

Today we went to Wal Mart to use some gift cards that we got at our shower in Dallas. We had quite a few things left on our list. We knocked some of them off the list today.

While it's exciting to have done that, I discovered how much I really hate Wal Mart. Since I don't feel like totally reliving the experience, I'll make this brief. It was really crowded, dirty, didn't have some things that I thought would be basic for furnishing a baby room, and had really long lines. The only upside: a helpful woman in the baby section. Unfortunately, still not helpful enough. We did save about $80 because we didn't buy them at Babies R Us, but it's not a fair estimation because some of the things are different sizes: diapers, wipes, etc.

Tonight I packed the baby's hospital bag. I started packing a lot of stuff that I ended up taking out of the bag because I know that the hospital will have it. In the bag, I left: onesies, socks, diapers, diaper creme, and wipes.

I guess I could pack a bag for us soon. If this pregnancy goes the way that the other one did then I'll need my smaller maternity clothes for after the delivery. Unfortunately they're not for the right season. I might be wearing some baggy clothes on the way home.

The last couple of days I've felt something pointy pointing my belly. Without knowing for sure, I'm assuming that it's an elbow. It's possible it's a knee, but there's really no way to tell. Then tonight when I was making dinner I felt something move inside and put my hand on the belly. It was something small and softer than the joint I've been feeling. I'm guessing a hand or foot. I never got to this point in my pregnancy with Malachi and amongst all the unfun stuff I've been going through these last few weeks, it's been a lot of fun to experience these little things.

The cold that won't go away...and other stuff

Remember the cold that I had a couple of weeks ago? Well it seems that Malachi did catch it and it was dormant until a few days ago. This cold never seemed to bring his spirits down, and on the first day that he was pretty sick, I had to work at keeping him laying down and watching t.v. He never seemed to get much of a fever if any at all, and he's barely coughing now. He is still suffering from nasal congestion and is still blowing some pretty colors (she says sarcastically). We skipped church today to keep his cold with in the family (hopefully). Malachi was supposed to graduate to the next class up today with his friend Kimberly, who I'm sure is very sad he's gone from church, again.

Yesterday morning we went to Costco with a couple who is moving to Ecuador in May and wanted to start stocking up with things that they need to bring down with them. We spent quite a while walking through the warehouse, but fortunately for me it was at such a slow pace that I didn't have too much of a hard time. I did take a break in the furniture section at one point, but so did the rest of the group. I found a leather chair and ottoman that I really like and would be good for nursing, and would serve to be just an awesome chair for our furniture collection (and would really be the first thing we bought for our furniture collection since we gave away our old living room furniture). I didn't get the chair and ottoman, but I did get a pack of socks! I've needed new socks for a while. I probably should've just gotten two new packs of socks and thrown away the old socks that are now hole-y. We went to a restaurant for dinner with them called City Diner. None of us had been there, and only two of us liked their food. I don't think Malachi liked his food either. But we were all really hungry and ate the food, even if we didn't like it. I'm happy for the two that did like it though, at least we all weren't eating food we didn't like.

After a short nap for Malachi and I we went to a couple's house (with their knowledge of Malachi's cold, and permission to bring him over) to have dinner and games with them while the kids played and watched movies. We've known this wonderful couple for over seven years now and have enjoyed living near them again, if even for a short time. We don't get to see them often enough and we really enjoyed our time last night. The adults sat in the living room for dinner and the kids sat in the dining room. After John and I had both finished our dinner and were enjoying the fellowship with our friends, we heard one of their kids yelling out to us that Malachi did something, to which he yelled out to us that he puked.

I took him to the bathroom to clean up, and asked him what happened. He replied that he took too big of a bite and choked on his food. He's done this once before...when he was two. I know that he didn't learn from this lesson because this morning he ate half of his clementine in one bite. /sigh

I'm really loving that John has tomorrow off. I wonder what we'll do...probably hang out and rest, my favorite thing to do right now.

My due date is in less than a month, weird, and cool. I love that he's chillaxing and growing and waiting until he's ready to come out. I'm still looking forward to a normal labor and delivery.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I love you!!

35 Weeks 2 Days

In my previous pregnancy I had Malachi at 8:04pm Central Time 35 Weeks and 2 Days into my pregnancy. Tonight at 8:05pm my pregnancy became something entirely new to me.

I thank God that my baby is growing and hanging out (or in) longer than his older brother. I look forward to going into labor and having a normal labor (with epidural of course) and delivery.

Great Date. Sick Kid.

Yesterday morning I noticed Malachi had some symptoms of a cold coming on. I thought I would observe him throughout the day and see if we needed to cancel our date and the babysitter. I don't remember seeing anymore symptoms.

I went out shortly before our date and had some facial waxing done and got a manicure. I was a little worried that my skin wouldn't calm down after the waxing. But the dining room was dark so John said he couldn't see anything. It had calmed down a lot by the time we got to dinner, but still wasn't back to normal.

We went to a great restaurant called Ristorante Tosca. It's restaurant week in DC so we got an amazing deal. We had great food and the company was awesome (for me at least, hopefully for John too). We both looked great. I wish we'd taken a picture actually. John got a new shirt and wore a suit. He looked really, really nice. I wore a dress that I already had, but looks great now too. It's a red knee length dress and when I paired that with my black tall boots, I had a great look going on. It's nice to feel sexy this late in pregnancy.

I got a lot of reactions to the belly last night, mostly just stares or smiles. One of the waiters guessed I was two weeks away from birth (it's possible!) and as I was walking out of the ladies room and another guy was walking into the mens room he did a double take and exclaimed loudly "whoa." Usually I don't mind attention like that, but it seemed weird. We really enjoyed our dinner and made our way home.

When we got home at close to 10pm Malachi was still up. He has all his babysitter's wrapped around his little finger. From now on I think John and I need to be more "strict" about when they put him down. They had a lot of fun. I talked to my friend for a bit before she left and then we put Malachi down. He seemed to have a stuffy nose when he went to sleep. I told him that he could come tell me during the night if he didn't feel well.

And that he did. He came in at 5:45 this morning to tell me just that. As he was telling me he coughed and displayed a very stuffed nose. I prayed for him and then got some of the little bit of Chilren's Sudafed we had left and gave him some. I had us lie down for a little bit but at 6:10 I could tell that he wasn't going to be going back to sleep. John's alarm was going to go off at 6:15 anyways and he was going to be making noise getting ready for work so I decided not to even get frustrated trying to get more rest.

So I turned on the TV for what I supposed would be a day of laying around watching TV. I didn't imagine the difficulty it would be to keep him laying down doing that. He really wants to just get up and play. I'm very happy about that, except I want him to lay down and rest to get better.

Right now he's watching season 1 of the original Transformers cartoon. He got that for his birthday and he loves it. My day looks to be full of trying to keep him in a mostly horizontal position. That plus paying bills - some people might not like that, I love it. It feels great to pay them.

It's a miracle!

For those who read my blog and have stopped reading John's because of the lack of posts he's posted twice in the last two days. That's right! I know it sounds impossible, but it's true.

2010 The First Week

How was your first week? Hopefully it was better than mine. I woke up on the morning of the 1st with a runny nose. Today I'm still coughing a bit but the nasal congestion seems to have calmed down a lot. I'm still coughing a bit - mostly when I wake up or laugh.

I did use the time of sickness to read a book that I've been looking forward to. All 765 pages of:



This is the 12th book in a series. It was supposed to be the last, but the last book just kept getting longer and longer and the writer (who's not the original writer of the series because the original writer has passed away) decided to make it a trilogy. So...I don't get to see the end of the series for another two years. That makes me a little upset, but I'll probably still read them just to see how it ends.

I liked this book but it didn't keep me up for hours to finish it. Partly because John would get really mad at me because of the pregnancy and the cold. Mostly though because it didn't pull me in like the previous books had. I think that must be due to the length of time waiting between books. However, I was pleased with what happened in the book. I do look forward to seeing how the series ends (in the fall of 2011).

We have very few plans in the month of January. So far, I have mom's group on the 11th and 25th, I have an OB appointment on the 19th. That's all that's on our calendar.
I do believe however, that I'll have an appointment every week after that, so I guess we could add the 26th. But even with those four things on the calendar it's so empty compared to November and December. That does leave us with lots of time to prepare the apartment. We need to do some rearranging in our bedroom with clothes so that we can make room for the baby's clothes. We also have to move our dresser over a bit to fit the pack 'n play next to it.

We have to make a trip to Baby's R Us for the bed linnens. We also have to go to Wal Mart and Target to get some things to use the gift cards that we got from the Dallas shower. I love getting new baby stuff, I'm so excited!

Malachi's been kind of suffering some cabin fever lately. The last couple of nights by the time dinner rolls around he really just needs to run circles in our living room to get rid of his energy. Today I took him to kiddie korner at our apartment complex. They pour out a big bucket of toys on the floor and let the kids have at them. I was afraid he wouldn't find anyone to play with because all the kids are pretty young, but I shouldn't have been. He's so sociable, nice and outgoing it's so easy for him to make friends. He ended up playing with a boy younger than him for about 20 minutes.

It snowed again last night. Just a bit more than a dusting really but he really enjoyed walking to the activites center through the snow that was on the grass. I told him to wear his boots anticipating that he would want to do that.

John took a progress exam today - he did really well. I'm so proud of him for the progress he's made. He's getting his time in Spanish extended because there's a lot of time between when he's currently scheduled to finish and when we move. By the time he's done with Spanish he's going to be doing so well.

I start Spanish on the 19th. My materials are being sent in the mail right now - should probably get them quite soon actually. I'm nervous that I'm going to learn certain things wrong because it's CD learning and not face to face. Luckily I have someone at home who I can practice on and correct me when I'm wrong.

34 Weeks

Today I'm 34 weeks along in my prengnacy. This is a point in my pregnancy that is new to me. Right now in Malachi's I was in the hospital. I was coming off the horrible magnesium but still hooked up to the IV with the antibiotics.

Today, I'm lounging on my couch nursing a cold. The baby is doing great. His heart beat is perfect, according to the Dr yesterday. At this moment he's resting on my right hip with the hiccups.

I'll be honest. I'm not enjoying pregnancy right now. I haven't been sleeping well. There's a large (almost 19 inches long now) rolling, kicking, punching, hiccuping, stretching (oh the stretching!) baby in my tummy. It's very hard to do most things now, and I keep bumping into things. Yesterday I bumped into the counter at the Dr's office three times while standing there. Doing simple chores like dishes has become very hard to do, I can barely reach the back side of the sink. John started doing laundry a few weeks ago because I can't reach the bottom of the laundry cart we use.
I keep telling myself that it's worth it. I really know it is, the last four years have been proof of that. But I tend to have a hard time looking past the now when I'm not feeling well.

There are other things I could whine about, but I guess I won't. I'll just say, I can't wait to be able to exercise again! I won't be able to start running again until a couple of months after I have this bundle of joy but I plan on starting at the gym on a treadmill walking and some light weight lifting as soon as I'm able. It was a HUGE mistake to start a pregnancy at 40 lbs over weight. If I ever get pregnant again I'm NOT going to make the same mistake. Also, if I lose a bunch of pounds I'm going to look amazing! I have to look amazing for the Marine ball this year (yes I know it's about 11 months away, but the next two months are taken up by pregnancy and the baby, then we have the move, by the time we get to San Jose it's only about six months to plan. Plus it's my first and I have to look great!)

After the cold goes away I think I'm going to recruit my friend to help me with some baby stuff. I have to rearrange my bedroom a bit and get all of his clothes put away. We still have a bit more shopping to do and I have to pack my hospital bag. Who knows when I'm going to have this baby. I want to be really prepared. I'd rather be over prepared then under. It would be horrible to go into labor and not be ready for it.

Hmm...I can't think of anything else to write, and Malachi's recruited me to play Don't Break the Ice.

Cold

The meaning of the title is two-fold.

One: It's very, very cold here in North Virginia. Right now according to my little weather gadget it's 27 degrees but according to weather.com we have a wind chill of 8 degrees. My father-in-law commented on the way to the car this morning that without the wind it wouldn't really be that bad. He's right.

Two: I have a cold. This makes me very sad. I've been able to go so far this "sick season" with out catching anything. It's actually a pretty amazing feat because John's been sick a couple of times. Things tend to be passed around FSI a lot. I woke up on the 1st with a fairly runny nose. I drank a lot of water that day, and then yesterday I didn't drink as much water and things didn't move as freely. The same can be said today. The cold's not too bad. I've been able to make meals (washing hands of course) and go to church, but my sinuses are stuffed up and starting to hurt tonight.

I had been noticing throught my pregnancy a scary thing. It seemed that my hearing was starting to go. In a not normal way for me to handle medical things, I hadn't talked to anyone about it. It scared me because there's a family history of hearing issues. I really didn't want to be under 30 and starting to lose my hearing. And then on the 1st, after all the drainage started all of a sudden my hearing is back in full force. It's a very weird thing for me and the world has gotten very loud. I have an OB check up tomorrow, so I'll bring that up and see if water retention could get that bad and cause these symptoms.

Today has been an emotional day...

****BREAKING NEWS*****

I have to interupt this blogging session to announce that Malachi just taught his grandma Spanish.

Malachi (to Grandma): Como se llama?
Grandma: My name is Grandma.
Malachi: No, no, no. Me llamo Grandma.

And now back to your regular blogging.

...because today is the day in my previous pregnancy in which I went into the hospital and all the drama started. Also, I'm having symptoms that I never had with Malachi's pregnancy. One of them being an extreme difficulty in breathing. I never remember Malachi getting in the way of my breathing. I was actually getting pretty scared yesterday because even laying down wasn't helping with my breathing. I also realized that my heart beat was really fast. I took my pulse and it was 220 bpm. That freaked me out even more. John, being the awesome hubby that he is calmed me down a bit and suggested I go watch something funny. I went into my bedroom and set up Coupling (the BBC version - one of the funniest TV shows I've ever seen) and John and I watched an episode. In 15 minutes my pulse went down to 150 bpm. At the end of the half hour it was at 160 bpm. I was satisfied that I wasn't going to need to go to the hospital. Before John came in to watch TV with me he did a bit of research. He told me that the breathing difficulty is very normal in the 8th month when the baby's so big and is pushing against the mother's diaphragm. It supposedly gets easier to breath once the baby drops which could happen any time.

This morning I noticed another symptom that I didn't have with Malachi (to my knowledge) but it's not really sharable. Let's just say it's weird and freaked me out. I've done some research on this symptom and it looks to be very common. It could be caused by a few different things, so I'm glad I can just talk to the Dr about it tomorrow.

I started writing this blog entry many hours ago, and about an hour ago I got out of bed unable to fall asleep because of everything on my mind. I figured I would finish it and post it now. This seems to be a trend in my life the last few entries. At least this entry didn't sit for days. I was going to try to find some pictures on an old hard drive of me during my last pregnany so I could post them here for y'alls enjoyment. However, the hard drive they're on still isn't accessable yet. Maybe some day...maybe.