Overwhelmed

Sunday marked the 7 week countdown til my due date. I am positively OVERWHELMED with everything that I have left to do before the arrival of our daughter. Some things are minor (like stocking up on groceries, organizing the linen closet, my dresser, and bedroom closets), others are rather big. Like setting up her room. Trying to get Jeremiah into his new bed was an absolute joke. It took all of 30 seconds after I left the bedroom for our little stinker to get up and play... and when he would hear me come back to his room to put him back in bed, he would run to his bed and hide under the covers. After an hour of playing this game I gave up and stuck him in his crib. Louis and I talked about it, and since Jeremiah does so well in his crib (and refuses to sleep in anything other than a crib or play pen- not even in our bed!) that we would just get a second crib and leave the twin bed in his room to get more used to. I don't have the energy right now to switch him into his twin bed, and I don't want to push something new on him so close to the arrival of his new sister- especially with how well he does in his crib and how much he truly loves it. When he starts climbing out of his crib on a regular basis (he's only done it once so far and it was when he was PISSED!) then we will start to do the whole transition again. For now it's a battle that we aren't ready to fight. The only reason we were even attempting the switch at this point was to avoid buying a second crib when we already had one, and a free twin bed from my parents (they gave us my brother's old twin bed). Luckily we found a great deal today on Craigslist- a crib, mattress, changing table, changing table pad and dresser for $250. We took it as a sign that Jeremiah needs to stay in his crib =)

I was planning on writing more but I can barely keep my eyes open right now, and would prefer to have a short and coherent post tonight than a long and sloppy one. Tune in for part 2 tomorrow.

I survived Christmas

With the grace of God (and a little bit of help from my husband!) I survived five Christmas celebrations in two days with a sick two year old while being 32 weeks pregnant. I pray to God that I am never ever this far along in a pregnancy around the holidays again. If Louis had it his way (and he has me halfway convinced as well!) this will be my last pregnancy, so there is (hopefully) no risk of that happening again. Unless God has other plans.

We still dont' have a digital camera! Our plan to get one as our Christmas present went down the drain when Louis found a set of speakers he wanted for his truck dirt-cheap on Ebay last week. So now I have to wait to get my dad's digital camera from him to upload Christmas pics. Oh and my Christmas present from him? A Wii fit and a new Ipod! =D Jeremiah has more toys than can fit in his closet.

Look for another update tomorrow; Louis and I are going to watch TV now!

To answer the tummy pic question... I actually haven't taken one yet! I'll take one over the holidays and post it hopefully this weekend. The entire rest of the week is CRAZY so don't expect too much until after Saturday =)

Just a quick baby update- I think the baby "dropped" yesterday. I started getting all those not-so-fun symptoms that the baby has officially lowered herself into position for being born but has every intention of sitting cozy for the next 6-8 weeks (6 if I'm early, 8 if I deliver on time. I'm praying she doesn't stray more than a day or two past my due date). If I could have her at the end of January or first week of February I will consider myself a VERY lucky mama... I'm so through with this thing called pregnancy right now! I see my OB/GYN again on Monday. Hopefully by then I will have somehow burned off the two dozen or so cookies I have polished off last weekend alone and the tamales, chorizo and eggs, cinnamon rolls, ham, and potato salad (among other things) that I will be enjoying on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Stepping on a scale after a huge holiday weekend is not exactly pleasant, and I am hoping to avoid a repeat of the scolding I got for the weight I put on from eating too much Halloween candy.

'Twas the week before Christmas...

Is it just me or is anyone else in as much of a shock as I am that one week from today is Christmas Eve?! Honestly... where did the entire month of December go... scratch that... where did this year go?! I still have much to do to get ready for Christmas Eve (when we celebrate with Louis's family) and Christmas Day. On my list to do are the following:

*Send out Christmas Cards. I"m doing that today... we had to wait to get our Christmas pictures back, which we did yesterday. All the cards are already written and addressed; I just need to stick the pictures in the envelope, seal them and stick a stamp on the envelope. I'm hoping to drop them off at the post office on my way to Jeremiah's speech lesson this afternoon.

*Finish buying gifts- for my Dad, Jeremiah's teachers, and stocking stuffers for Louis and I. I thought I still had Louis's haul of presents to buy, (I was waiting for his last paycheck to come in before I hit the stores), but we just agreed this morning that rather than exchanging presents, we would do a joint gift of getting a new digital camera and buying "Band Hero" for the Wii. Band Hero won't be too much of a splurge since we already have the instruments from Rock Band, and enough Best Buy gift cards to make up half of the cost of the game. I'm excited about getting a new camera at last- I hate having to constantly borrow my dad's or my mother in law's!

*Decorate our Christmas tree! We bought it on Sunday (Day of Louis's birthday party), but didn't get around to decorating it, since Louis spent most of the afternoon hanging up our Christmas lights outside, and then he was in Phoenix from Monday night until last night. We're going to make a romantic evening out of it tonight after Jeremiah goes to bed. (Speaking of bed, we're putting Jeremiah in his twin bed for the first time tonight. Definitely send some prayers our way if you think about it; our little guy isn't known for staying put very well and he LOVES his crib!)

*Bake, bake, bake cookies. Lindsey is hosting a "cookie exchange" party on Saturday, where everyone in attendance brings a certain amount of cookies to share, including the recipe, and you leave with a nice assortment of cookies. I'm making strawberry jam thumbprint cookies- I'll bake those up tomorrow. Then on Sunday, Morgan is hosting her annual "cookie baking" party, where a big group of us spend all day baking up dozens upon dozens of cookies. Each recipe that we make (usually around 5 or 6 cookies from what I remember) gets tripled or quadrupled- and everyone also gets to take home a nice assortment as well. We've been doing this since high school and everyone looks forward to cookie baking- it's usually the one day a year where a lot of our high school friends see each other in person rather than just facebook!

*Wrap presents... I still have quite a few presents left to wrap, and the ones that I have wrapped already need to be decorated. I've been storing them in the baby's closet, since Jeremiah is known to climb on top of boxes, throw them, you name it, and I didn't want to have to wrap things more than once. I haven't decorated any presents yet so that the bows and ribbons don't get too smashed before they get opened.

In the midst of all this chaos, I still have to take my second glucose test to test for gestational diabetes (which will take up at least an hour of my time; you have to wait an hour after chugging the glucose before you can draw blood), clean our house, watch the last few Christmas movies that I haven't seen this holiday season yet (Home Alone 1 and 2, the Nativity Story, and A Christmas Story), take Jeremiah to look at Christmas lights and visit Santa, and find a few moments to stick my feet up and relax. Every little thing wears me out... and being 8 1/2 weeks away from my due date that is to be expected. Everything I eat also gives me heart burn, but since I' m constantly hungry (and needing to nourish my daughter) I can't exactly give up food. I can't wait for all of these horrible pregnancy symptoms, especially the leg cramps, to go away!!

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Disneyland on Jeremiah's birthday:

T Minus 10 Weeks!

As of today I am 30 weeks along in my pregnancy! Starting on Friday I no longer have monthly OB/GYN appointments; instead I will be going every other week for the next six weeks, and then weekly up until I deliver. With Jeremiah I knew all along that he was going to be late (and boy was I right- 10 days!) but I have a hunch that our princess is going to be either just a little early or right on time. Or perhaps I"m just having some more wishful thinking, who knows.

Jeremiah turned two years old on Wednesday. His birthday party two weeks ago was wonderful, and our family day at Disneyland on his actual birthday was even better! Louis refuses to set foot in Disneyland unless it is on Jeremiah's birthday. He will endure a long day of walking around and Mickey Mouse for our son on his special day but that's it! My annual pass expires the third week of January, and I honestly can't see myself going back before then =( I would not have been able to handle Jeremiah by myself at this point of my pregnancy. Louis helped out SO much with carrying Jer in line, pushing the stroller, and keeping up with him. I don't know how I would have done it by myself, so as sad as it makes me to not be able to use my pass up until the very end, it's probably for the best. I won't be renewing it until sometime next fall, or possibly closer to Jeremiah's 3rd birthday. I refuse to take a newborn to Disneyland, especially if I have to take care of Jeremiah on top of it. Louis does not have a pass, nor will he ever get one! We took lots of pictures on my mother in law's camera (yeah we're still working on getting another one) but I forgot to borrow the cord to transfer the pictures from the camera to the computer, so those will have to wait.

I can't believe that the holidays are here again! I have been really on top of Christmas shopping this year, doing lots of it all year round, that I really haven't had to fork out a ton of cash at once or do lots of massive purchasing all at once, either. I still have to get Louis his Christmas gift; I just decided to give him the present I got for him on his birthday (which is in one week). I have a hard enough time coming up with one great gift for him, but having to come up with two great gifts so close together is extremely difficult!

Anyway, once again I apologize for the lack of posts. I have barely had a moment to sit down at the computer, between Jeremiah's party, hosting Thanksgiving, Louis being gone a LOT, Jeremiah's lessons, his birthday at Disneyland, and attending my cousin's baby shower. Look for another update in a day or two, I promise I"ll be good =)