Joy comes in the morning

I started to write about how irritating these pre-labor contractions are getting, but I didn't feel like hearing myself complain.

Instead, I am focusing on the joy that the Lord brings. What joy is available to me!

Parenting has been tough lately. House selling has been tough. Packing has been slow. Baby has been low. (Now I'm writing a song.)

But the Lord is the strength and joy of my life. I just forget that sometimes. I tend to become too distracted with the minor details of life and forget to focus on the bigger picture. He is above all and knows all. He sees my struggles. He knows my pain. His hands are reaching out to me.

So, as I wait for this waiting to be over, I know that His joy will come. What reassurance I have in that.

More Crafty Crafty Stuff and A Very Long Day

So, yesterday I had a sudden hot flash. It was weird. I thought I was going to go insane. Then, my feet swelled up and I developed some lovely cankles. I had just been noticing how skinny my ankles had stayed throughout this pregnancy. Well, hello, water retention. I cannot hide from the loveliness of the last few weeks of pregnancy. The cankles are still there today and don't look like any amount of propping up with help. I am officially ready to have this baby.

Today was a very long day. A long day of feeling like a failing parent, being frustrated, irritable, swollen, and just plain crazy. Aidan must sense the impending change because he is getting beyond difficult to manage right now. I feel like all I did today was discipline, or not discipline him when I needed to. He got a chair, climbed onto the counter, got some matches, lit one, and dropped it onto a candle. This happened while I turned my back for all of 60 seconds. I think it must have scared him a bit and hurt his finger a little because he was sure upset about it, as was I. I felt like a horrible parent, then I felt enraged. I am hoping that he is cured of that particular curiosity, but I fear not.

Nesting is my new passion in life. This afternoon I made granola and muffins. I also did 5 loads of laundry, made dinner, cooked up a bunch of ground beef and chicken, went grocery shopping, cleaned out the freezer, tidied up the pantry, and cleaned up the kitchen. I am now officially pooped, well sort of. I still have a few things to do....like eat cereal and get my crafting on. I am working on a blanket for the little one and it is not quite halfway done yet. I also have a few other projects in the works as well.

Yesterday

I missed blogging yesterday because we went to church and then to my parent's house for the day. We didn't make it home until around 11 pm and I was tired and had extremely swollen feet and ankles.

This is what I was doing yesterday all day:

There is one more I am still working on. My sweet sister helped me out and it was so much fun. I had bought a bunch of plain onesies at a garage sale for like .25 each and the remnant fabrics were 50% off as well. I loved how inexpensive it was to design these and I think they turned out super cute. The one with the letter "n" does give a little clue as to what we might be naming her, but we are waiting to reveal that when she is born. We have been back and forth and not 100% sure for quite awhile, but we think we may have narrowed it down. That could all change when we finally meet her though.

Home Again

Seth got home at 12:30 a.m. So happy he is here and that he will be here until the baby is born.

Aidan woke up at 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, and 4:15 a.m. Seth got up the first 2 times, but didn't hear him the other times. Let's just say that I got little to no sleep last night. I also almost got stuck in the rocking chair with a 30 pound sleeping toddler in my arms. It was no easy feat to maneuver my big pregnant self out of the chair. Apparently, all of this waking had to do with "monsters." We learned this fact this morning from the little stinker himself. He wasn't sick, thank God, but "scared of monsters." Great! This is going to be a new challenge to walk through.

We took a nice family walk to the park. The breeze was so nice even though the sun was hot. I had lots of contractions.

Had our first showing of the house this afternoon. It was a no go. Happy to have a clean house though.

Ate dinner with Seth's family to celebrate his Dad's b-day. Had ice cream from Sonic and came home.

Aidan pooped out into his carseat.

Seth and I watched Friday Night Lights while I worked on some fun crochet projects. Made another super cute headband and started working on a diaper cover.

So tired and hoping for sleep to come easily tonight.

Dear Baby Girl

Today was a long day. It is now 11:15 pm and I am just now sitting down to write you this letter. Your daddy is on his way home from South Carolina and I am afraid I will not be able to wait up for him.

I have been thinking about you a lot lately. Wondering what in the world you will be like, look like, smell like, etc... I love looking at your little clothes and imagining your soft baby skin. It is truly getting hard to wait to meet you because I am just so excited about you.

You've been very still in there today baby girl, but you let me know you are there, waiting to meet me too, with your little hiccups and feet pressing against my side.

Today, I finished getting some of your things ready and it was fun. I plan to pack our bags for the hospital this weekend, just to be prepared. I also managed to walk to the park with your big brother and carry him part way home. You made it a little difficult to do so, but I managed well enough and just had to deal with an achy back for the rest of the evening. It probably didn't help that I scrubbed the bathroom and baked cookies after Aidan went to bed.

Sweet little baby, I have now shaved and painted my toe nails (to the best of my ability) and am ready for your arrival. I know that it may still be a few weeks, but at least my feet look fresh and pretty. I made you a few headbands tonight too and I can't wait for you to try them.

Tomorrow is a big day for me because we have someone coming to see our house, the house you will never really know. It is kinda sad because this will be the home we bring you to, but only for a short while. You will start your life in South Carolina, a new place for us all.

I want you to keep growing healthy and strong and come when you are good and ready...just don't make me wait too long. :)

I love you,

Mom

Scattered

So, I'm at a loss for a good subject as I've been doing this blogging thing like every day now and am so not creative.

Plus, for some reason, my brain has withered away to nothingness on account of the baby I carry in my womb and I cannot for the life of me remember simple things....Like, for instance, taking a diaper with me to Aidan's Dr. appointment just in case he had peed like 5 gallons into the one he had on and I looked like I neglect my child.

My child is so funny though. Even if his mother does forget to change his ridiculously full diaper before taking him to the pediatrician. When the doc came in the room, he said, "Listen to my heart," followed by, "Check my ears." When asked what his favorite food was he said, "Candy!"....and "Broccoli." For the love child. You don't eat either thing that often, but at least you said something healthy after an enthusiastic vote for candy. He also managed to spill a bunch of water, fall off the table, and eat half the sucker stick along with the sucker. He did great getting his shots though. So brave and so sweet. He even said he'd go back again.

I tried my hand at sewing again today, but got a little stuck while trying to figure out how to put a zipper into the lining of the purse and just gave up and took a nap. It was a great idea!

The rest of the day was pretty blah and humdrum. I mean, we ate food, talked, I went to Wal-mart again to find some sort of diaper my child won't pee out of in the night (Aidan woke up for the 3rd time in a row absolutely soaking wet).

My mom and I started watching a sad movie about World War II and smuggling children out of the ghetto. I was crocheting a blanket for the baby so I could try and distract myself from crying too much, but it just plain got to me and we opted to turn it off and go to bed.

Seth gets home tomorrow night. Can't believe the week without him is almost over. It went by so much faster than the last time.

I felt really uncomfortably pregnant today. Hoping for some renewed energy tomorrow.

254 days down

I have been pregnant just that long. Pretty crazy, huh?

Well, today was quite the busy little day.

Woke up super early to Aidan, soaking wet again. Mom helped me change sheets and I made him get back in bed. He complied and stayed in there for another hour or so. I trudged back to bed and fell fast asleep, waking to find a completely fed child contentedly reading books with Mimi. Yippee!

Got a nice long shower. So nice. So refreshing. So private.

Took off to Wal-mart and then my  midwife appointment. Appointment went great. No cervical check, but good conversation and such. My group B strep test came back negative so that was good.

Ran home to check on things and make myself some lunch. Sat in silence. Uploaded pictures to blog.

Then I treated myself to some slow browsing of the aisles at Joann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. I don't remember the last time I did that, but it was heavenly. I picked up a bunch of super cheap, super cute fabric remnants and some other crafty supplies and headed back to my mom's house.

We went to the Farmer's Market, then came home to eat our fresh veggies. Aidan had a few meltdowns at dinner.

Took Aidan to the park after dinner and then he was shipped off to bed early.

I decided to get my sewing machine out and try to finish a purse I am making. Being my very first sewing project, and being rather new at this whole thing, I had quite the time of it, but accomplished a few things before throwing my hands up in the air and calling it a night.

So, now I sit.... 254 days pregnant and still a very horrible seamstress. We will have to remedy both these things.

Goodnight.

Crafting Fun

Here are a couple little projects of mine lately. The first is a sweater and hat set that I made for our precious baby girl for the winter. The flower can be attached or taken off. The little blue slippers are for Aidan. I was fooling around with a bootie pattern that I made into a larger size and changed up a bit to make little slippers just his size. Thinking to sew some buttons on them somewhere for fun.

I'm working on several other projects as well. Pictures to come soon! (Hopefully better pics too...these are a little washed out and I took them in a hurry)

Let's live it up till labor begins....

Aidan was up early again this morning....soaking wet. So, I stripped the bed and started the laundry with my eyes half closed.

Breakfast was like usual. Found some cute yoga pants my mom bought me for my birthday. Decided to wear them even though I don't like tight pants on my pregnant self. Wonderfully comfortable choice, everyone who sees me is just gonna have to live with it.

Got ourselves ready and headed over to play with our dear friends Davis and Susan. The boys really love to play together so it is always a good time. Since it was so nice out today we took a walk to the park.


Sweet boys sliding and holding hands....cuteness.

     

After a great walk, I left Aidan and went for my 1 hour prenatal massage that I received for my birthday (yeah, like 3 months ago). It was so nice and relaxing and I'm glad that I got it in before little baby girl gets here. Susan was so gracious to watch Aidan for me and even try to feed the monkey some lunch.

Picked him up after I was done, got him down for a nap, and made myself a nice little lunch while watching 27 dresses. I picked the movie up from the library the other day figuring it would be cutesie and whatnot, but oh well. I watched for a little bit while I finished my lunch and completed some sweet crocheting projects. Pictures of those will have to come later as well due to my ridiculous internet issues.

Then I hit the hay. Got about 30 minutes of rest before I heard a banging on the door. Our laptop arrived. Yay! We will have no room for an office or anything when we move, so we purchased a laptop with a nice little webcam so we can skype with the family and they can see how cute our kids are and miss them all the more.

Aidan woke up and things got seriously crazy. 

Picking up the house/packing to go to my mom's/trying to keep my child from destroying things pretty much sucked the life out of me.

Aidan threw a bunch of paper towels in the toilet and flushed. PERFECT. We just had a major clog in our main drain which coughed up a huge bunch of nastiness into our laundry room and required some professional and somewhat costly assistance. Now I think I know why.

Drove to my mom's. Aidan smashed grapes in his carseat.

The weather was more than perfect so we went for another walk after dinner. So nice if I didn't have a big ol' baby pushing down in my pelvis. Contractions while walking in nearly perfect weather kinda take away from the nearly perfect weather.

Finished the evening with a bowl of ice cream and some tv watchin. I like going to my parent's house because they have cable or satellite or something like that and I can watch whatever ridiculous show I want. Tonight's choice: I didn't know I was pregnant on TLC. What craziness.

Well, time for bed.

Here we go!

So, first day of baby blogging countdown.

What did we do?

Firstly, Seth left the house at 4am to catch his flight to Columbia, which set me on a weird pattern of sleeping and waking. Then, Aidan woke up at the crack of dawn, ran into my room, and said, "get up" in his bossy little voice. We made breakfast, I showered, and then took off for Mita's house. I dropped Aidan off and drove to the hospital for my meeting with the maternity coordinator.

Can I just say....I think I am going to like this hospital much better than the one I delivered Aidan at? I mean it's pretty much all just assumed at this point, but it seems like a great place to give birth.

Got done with my appointment, dropped some stuff at the library, picked up Aidan and some boxes. Boxes. For packing. Oh yeah, cause I am like totally going to pack up my whole house and move to South Carolina with a newborn and 2 year old. I need to really get moving on this stuff.

Ate some delicious eggs for lunch....and chips and salsa. Naptime was much needed. After naptime, Aidan helped me bring in the boxes and set up his new little drumset in the bathroom.

Aidan sang the Veggie Tales theme song for awhile while he played away on his drums. Then, we listened to Coldplay and "danced." Dancing for me has gotten a little awkward/difficult, but I held him and swayed. I figured if I started bouncing maybe the baby would come, so I just kept my grooving to a minimum.

We made a quick run to Whole Foods before dinner and then ate leftovers from the other night. Then, we had a fun little playdate with Oakley (the sweet little boy I watched for almost a year) and his momma. The boys had fun together especially now that Oakley has started walking. They left close to 7pm.

I cleaned up the kitchen, talked to Seth, picked up toys, and got the little booger face in bed.

Sweet little booger face.

Once the boy got off to bed, I started utilizing those nice boxes and packed a couple of them. If I do that every night I could pack like 14 boxes in a week.

Anywho, that's the scoop of the day. My back is a little achy, I just had a big contraction, and totally used the bathroom, got in my p.j.'s and washed my face while waiting for my pictures to upload. I thought about having my 3rd bowl of cereal too, but the pictures loaded just in time.

Now, I think I'll climb in bed with a glass of wine, my Bible, and my latest crocheting project and see how long I last.

Pics to come soon of all the craftiness I've been doing. I'll probably have to eat like 10 bowls of cereal while I wait for them to load though.

Goodnight all!

36 weeks and counting

I feel like I am getting huge all of a sudden! Baby girl has dropped down lower and is definitely head down and ready. Just how ready, I don't know though. Gained 17.5 pounds so far and feeling pretty good most of the time. Had an icky sinus infection this week that I'm still trying to get over. Looking forward to holding my little baby soon and sleeping without so many pillows. Still having lots of contractions off and on, but I know that means absolutely nothing sometimes, so I am patiently waiting these next few weeks. 

Planning to blog every day until she comes and take lots of pictures. I really want to get a lot done before she is here, so we are going to be as busy as possible until she decides it is time. 

The countdown to baby blogging begins....

My heart is full: A letter to my son

My sweet Seth Aidan,

You are the most energetic two year old I know. I can't believe that you are mine, and am so amazed at how grown up you've become lately.

This morning you said in a sing song voice, "Jesus loves me, this I know" and it melted my heart. I love to hear you talk about praising Jesus and to see you remembering things we've told you. You have started wanting to really sing with us and your favorites to sing along to are "Skinamarinky Dinky Dink", "A Bushel and a Peck", and the "ABC's".

Your vocabulary and memory constantly blow me away. You know so much for being so little. You seem to really comprehend emotions and other things too. I love being able to reason with you and explain why things are the way they are.

You are talking a lot about "baby sister" in Momma's belly these days. You felt her hiccups and now you suck in your tummy and puff it out to mimic hiccups in your belly too. It is super cute. You seem to understand that there is a little baby coming and we talk about it a lot. Today we bought diapers and pacifiers for her and you seemed to definitely understand that.

Some of my favorite things you've said recently are:

"I not watch Gabba (Yo Gabba Gabba). That guy scares me."
"Those kids not hear me." (After saying "hi" to a bunch of kids at the pool)
"I'm not good, I'm 2." (In response to someone saying, "How are you?")
"I play big tar when I am big." (Talking about guitars)
"I not run away."

You are so friendly and say "hi" to everyone. You love to talk about anything to strangers and will usually tell them what we are doing. You also love to announce that you have a poopy diaper in public. You told some man at the library the other day that you "did a big poop" and I just happened to overhear it.

You are starting to become more imaginative in your play and will play with your food a lot when you are eating. Today you were scolding one of your hands for not sharing with the other hand. You then proceeded to take turns eating with each one.

My heart is so full of love for you. I can't even begin to express it. I am blessed to be your mother and can't wait to continue this relationship we have. You are my pride and joy and I don't know what life would be like without you in it. Even when parenting you can be challenging and exhausting, I find it so much more rewarding and fulfilling. I have learned so much from you and can't believe it has already been almost 2 1/2 years since you entered our world.

I love you,

Mommy

It's a new day

We had a successful trip to South Carolina and found a place to live. We decided to rent a 2 bedroom apartment for the time being as we wait for our house to sell. It is definitely going to be an adjustment for us, but I am looking forward to the challenges and the newness of it all. I felt very melancholy when we came back to our house here in Kansas, but I know that God will open new doors for us in SC.

Our house is officially on the  market and we've had NO ONE come by to see it yet. Blah! It is nice to have the incentive to keep the house clean and picked up, but I really wish the fruit of my labors would pay off a little. Praying that the house will sell in the next couple of months at least.

Baby girl is starting to work towards her big debut. Spent an evening in the hospital last week getting monitored for contractions and had to get a shot to stop them. I am currently on a medication to keep them at bay and have not had any more long episodes of contractions since, but getting several good ones a day (by good, I mean nice and painful). She has moved down into position and they said she is really low. Already dilated and effaced a little bit, so it will be interesting to see what the next few weeks hold. I am supposed to be taking it easy, and am doing so as much as possible, at least for the next couple of weeks.

Seth is working in South Carolina all week so I am home alone with the little boy and the big belly. :) Trying to keep busy, not too busy to cause any labor, but busy enough to keep us distracted. Starting to feel the weariness of the final few weeks and ready to be done with this pregnancy. Thankful for feeling good up until this point though.

Well, that's that. I am going to work on some fun crocheting projects this week when I find some time and maybe do some other fun crafts too. I know that once the little girl arrives I won't have time to devote to such things. I should probably start washing up some of her clothes too.