It came....and it went

The month of December that is!

While we had a really nice Christmas this year, I'm pretty much glad it's over. I'm so exhausted and it's been such a busy month, it's sort of nice that the holidays are just about finished so we can get back to normal (whatever that may be!)

So I just realized how lacking the blog has been - yikes it's been 20 days since the last post. I seriously had something going on just about every one of those days. I came down with a terrible chest cold the day after my last post. Well, it started as a really bad sore throat - like intolerable. That lasted for 3 days and then finally on the night of day 3, I started feeling the cold symptoms. Then the bug went directly to my chest - full blown coughing fits and chest congestion....not good. I had an appt with my midwife who took one look at me and perscribed me a z-pack and told me I could take sudafed & robitussin....thank goodness for the robitussin. Went through 2 bottles of it in less than a week. It was the only thing that kept me from dying of coughing fits. By the end of my z-pack, I was sort of feeling better, but then I'd have a day of regressing and then a day of feeling a little better. 2-1/2 weeks later, I've still got this annoying cough hanging on and occassional nasal congestion, but overall, finally getting better.

I took a couple of vacation days in the past few weeks, mostly to get ready for Christmas. I spent the one day baking - something I sort of swore I wasn't going to do this (pregnant) year. But I did the usual - over the top, way too many cookies deal. And from the number on the scale today at the doctor, it appears that I had just a few too many cookies!!!! Especially when 2 weeks ago, I had actually lost weight from my previous visit. Now granted, baby grew a lot these past two weeks (I measured 3 inches more this week than 2 weeks ago), but I have to say, I did overindulge over the holidays and now am paying for it! Too bad I can't diet for new years, just more work I'll have after baby comes. I'm still doing better than my first pregnancy, but I've got 7-1/2 weeks to go and with the baby growing like it is now, I'd better start watching what I put down the hatch!

Tony and I went out on a date a couple weeks ago. We went to a nice dinner to a place we hadn't been before and then to go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We haven't gone in the past two years, so it was nice to go again. Unfortunatly, the show wasn't as good as it has been for us in the past. We got cheap seats, which may be the reason, or it could have been the disgusting nose-ear-scalp picker/eater we sat next to (that's a long story - and gross). It was nice to go out together though.

I was off on Christmas Eve, but busy doing last minute stuff and then we went to church at 4:00. After church, we went to my sister-in-laws house. Santa (my BIL) came for Hannah, and I'd love to share the picture of her priceless face, but I managed to delete all the pictures on my memory card late Christmas Eve night - I'm a bit more than irritated about that!!!! Luckily, my SIL copied my pics before we left, so the only pictures I really am missing is Hannah writing her letter to Santa with his cookies & milk. Still, not happy about that!!!!!

Hannah slept until 8:30 Christmas moring, but was so excited to come down to see what Santa had brought. We had a great time watching her open her gifts. Her favorite things were her music box, Hungry Hungry Hippos and her nightgown. She likes sitting in her bean bag chair too.

Later that evening, we went to my mom's for dinner. We ate and open gifts there and then hung out for a while. Hannah burned her fingers on the glass of their fireplace. Good news is, we iced and iced all night so she's fine. Bad news is - it HURT!!! But I guess that's one way for her to really know and understand why she shouldn't touch something hot, espeically after we tell her not to. She had a great time over there though.

Saturday morning, we packed back up and headed to my dad's. We opened gifts there and had dinner. It was a good day, but long and after day 3 of Christmas, we were all getting pretty tired! My dad made Tony a cornhole game - KISS (of course). It's really cool and Tony loves it, although he's having a hard time digesting the fact we will actually USE it!!!! Can't wait to play this summer!

We got home around 7:30 that night and all pretty much crashed. Hannah was in bed by around 8 and slept until 9 the next morning! We all took it easy pretty much on Sunday. You know I was tired since I didn't really even clean the house this weekend. It finally was killing me by 8:00 Sunday night, so I had to run the vaccuum!!! Then it was back to work Monday. As I mentioned before, I had another prenatal checkup today - all is well, baby is growing and is back head down again (it was sideways last time).

And that's about it! We have simple plans for New Years - I plan on doing some sewing over the weekend and relaxing. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and have a safe, happy New Year!!!

Now I've got to plan Hannah's 4th birthday party and continue to anxiously await the baby's arrival!!!

Just busy again

I'm not really surprised that I haven't posted in over 2-1/2 weeks since they have been jam-packed busy!

I was supposed to have my first appt with my new midwife on 11/24, but after getting there and starting my visit, she had to leave to deliver a baby before she came in to see me. It was sort of disappointing on one hand, but reassuring to know she drops what she's doing to deliver babies. I had to get my glucose test done anyway, so it was no big deal and we rescheduled for the following week.

Then it was Thanksgiving Thursday. We went down to my Dad & Julia's for dinner. It was just us and them, so it was very low-key and simple....just right! After that, we went to Tony's sister's house for a little while.

Friday, Black Friday, we awoke to our first snowfall of the season. I wasn't too happy, but Hannah was thrilled. The good thing is that most of it was gone by mid-day.

Then I went shopping. It's sort of a tradition to meet my friend Erin and her mom & sister out, so that's what I did. I hadn't really intended on doing much shopping but after about 5 hours, I had enough! My feet hurt so bad and I swore I never wanted to walk again!!!

The next day, I cleaned the house top to bottom. We had a poker tournament at our house, so it was a long day. Tony finished 4th (I think) which was good. At least he's doing OK this season...I can't catch a break at all! I wonder what I'm doing wrong or different, but I can't seem to make the right moves to win these tournaments!

Sunday I was busy with errands and realized I had over done it a bit because I was having contractions - like a handful an hour and that went on for a couple of days. Monday night 11/30, I had a meeting after work.

Tuesday morning, we had our 1st appt with the midwife (again). It went really well. Other than we had to wait to get in for what was supposed to be her first appt of the day. But anyway, we really liked her and she even asked me how I was feeling and talked about the baby!!! What a concept! She was able to feel the baby and said it was positioned head down already and everything seems great. She's guestimating that the baby will probably be about the same size, maybe a few ounces bigger than Hannah was. Anyway I was so glad to have switched providers and am looking forward to the rest of the pregnancy with Mary Jo. I had Bible Study Tuesday night after work. It was a late night - we got home around 10 and crashed!

Wednesday last week was the only night I didnt' have anything planned and I ended up working a little bit late doing our monthly forecast and then had to get back on the computer after dinner to finish. So much for a "do nothing" night.

Thursday night was my NAWIC holiday social. I left work around 1:30 to run a few errands for the social and then went over to the hotel we had it at to set up. It was a good night. I ran the canned food drive and we collected a ton of food! It was a good dinner and a decent night out, but another late one.

Last Friday, we put up our Christmas tree after work. Hannah loved it and was so super eager to do it all this year. She enjoyed putting all the decorations on the tree. It was a bit bottom heavy, so I had to do a little adjusting of her work, but it looks nice!

Saturday morning, we all got up and dressed to go get pictures taken. I had to get Hannah's Christmas pictures taken so I also roped Tony into doing family pics again too. He just loves it!! I also combined this trip with pregnancy photos as well. They all turned out pretty good.

After pictures, Hannah had a birthday party to go to at the mall. They had lunch at the food court and then went to Build-A-Bear.

I hung out at the mall and did a little shopping, but mostly hung out with all the old men who sleep on the couches around the mall!!! It was funny, I hadn't really noticed it that much before, but every resting area I stopped at to sit had an old sleeping guy there! Too funny! Tony did his shopping and Hannah's party was done around 4:00 and then we went home to rest a while. Then we headed out to dinner and then back home.

Sunday, we got up and took Hannah to see Santa. She was excited again this year. She was a bit crabby in the morning and I told her that she'd better be good since Santa is watching. On the way there, she asked me to play "Happy Girl" in the car so she could stop being cranky. After she saw Santa, she said, "Mommy, Santa didn't know I was being cranky this morning" I told her thank goodness we listened to Happy Girl to help her be happy before we got there!!!!

This past Monday was gymnastics and then when we got home, I realized Hannah had a fever. She looked like she was really tired when I picked her up from daycare, but then I saw that it was her eyes that said she didn't feel well. She had a 101 fever so I gave her some motrin and put her to bed. I had a vacation day planned for Tuesday to try to get some things done, so I decided to keep her home with me. She woke up with a 99.5 temp and I took her out shopping with me since there was a ton of stuff I wanted to get done and she didn't seem to be really sick. I did a bunch of running around and we got back home around 12:30. Hannah took a nap and I had a conference call for work. Then I started on a project. I had decided to make "gift jars" for my administrators at work this year for Christmas gifts. I have 9 direct reports now, so Christmas gets either super generic or really expensive fast for all of them. I had to find a handmade option that didn't cost a ton of money. I decided on these jars. It was a good idea, I think. I hope they like them! They are all of the dry ingredients layered to a cookie recipie and then you add a tag with the rest of the recipie for them to make the cookies. I hung the new blind I ordered for the baby's room, but there's something wrong with it. The slats don't turn and the blind doesn't stay all the way down. It's a cordless blind so it has tension that holds it up and down and there's something wrong. I'm sort of annoyed since it's a $100 blind so I guess I'll be taking it back this weekend for them to order me a new one. I had my Christmas dinner Tuesday night for Bible Study group.

I finished these up decorating the jars last night after work. I like them and I hope the girls do too! I'll have to think of these homemade things for next year too - it's so much more affordable! I made 9 of these for probably around $35-40.

Hannah seems to just have another cold. The mornings seem to be the roughest part of the day, but other than that, it seems to be just another annoying cold.

Today was our Christmas party at work. I am so glad tomorrow is Friday! I'll be 30 weeks tomorrow so I'm down to my last 10!! I'm feeling very pregnant these days. The contractions have stopped since I have slowed things down a bit. I can definitely feel the 25 pounds I've put on. Sleeping is getting harder and I'm winded after doing pretty much anything. This baby is still pretty active and moves alot still, much stronger too lately.

So there you have it....my reason for not blogging for a while! the next couple of weeks aren't quite as busy, but still pretty full. Before I know it, Christmas will be here and then New Years and then I'll have like 6 weeks to go until the baby comes!!! We're getting anxious!