34 weeks

     I'm getting close to the end. And it really can't come fast enough. (Which I know, pretty much every pregnant woman says. but I don't have my appointment until tomorrow, so all we know is that the Floradix is working fantastically on making me less exhausted, and that I look about as done as I ever got with Jessica and Jacob. So I guess we'll see if I get any bigger.

34 weeks pregnant. (okay, closer to 35 at this point, but oh well, still huge either way)

       Though, judging by comments, I shouldn't get any bigger. People are often shocked when I tell them I'm due at the end of February. They seem to think that it must be "any day now" by the way their eyes go wide. Lol. 

     And, I wasn't actually planning on being able to write today. I gave Nathaniel a certificate for a weekend getaway for Christmas, and that was going to have been this weekend. Sadly, the person I'd talked to about babysitting (so it could be just Nathaniel and myself) had a family funeral yesterday. Those are hard enough as they are, much less with 2 extra small children to deal with. So... Nathaniel and I contacted our timeshare, and got it rearranged, so we're not going until next weekend. So, yeah. but that's almost all I can think of for this past week, except for one story about Jacob.
      Jacob, sometime recently, discovered the book "Where the Wild Things Are", and decided that it was his favorite. He'll sit and turn the pages for a while, and often, when he gets to the page where the wild things "roar their terrible roars", he starts growling. (Which is hilariously cute)  Also, I find myself reading it to him generally at least 2-3 times each day. And that's only because if I'm sitting down reading to them, I hide the books that I have already finished reading, so as to allow me to have some variety. It's very cute though to see him beg for me to read it over and over again. His little puppy dog eyes are almost too much. ;)

Counting down.

      Wow! So, umm, yeah. Hi everyone. Been a while. Graduated school, Christmas, Anemia, and now probably dealing with the worst sickness I've had in years. Not fun. And that's why I haven't written. So, now I've got a lot to catch up on, I'll add pictures if I have them (obviously I've got some Christmas pictures) but most of today's post is probably going to be just little blurbs about a bunch of random things, and little stories about the kids that I found cute or funny.
     
      So yeah, to start with, on December 16th, I graduated from my school. No, I did not get all the clinicals I needed. I graduated at the lower level, and was given an extension to get the rest of the clinicals I need. I am still trying to get them, so that I can be an Emotional Health Facilitator, so, if you or anyone you know wants to help me out by receiving a process, let me know. ;) Graduation was good, though long. My poor kids were going crazy up past their bedtime.
      Oh! and a cute story about it. Jessica was way excited when I told her that we'd be going to my graduation that evening, except she had a hard time getting the word right. She kept calling it my gradu-LA-tion. So cute.

      Sadly, the weeks leading up to Christmas were extremely overwhelming to me. I'd taken on too many things, mostly projects for people that I was making for their Christmas gifts. It was rough. I tried not to let myself get too overwhelmed emotionally by it, and to still help bring joy to my kids for Christmas. I don't think it worked very well.

      Ooh! A cute story! Lol. The Friday before Christmas, Jacob and I were getting ready to go pick Jessica up from preschool. It was cold, and I dressed Jacob in his coat and hat. He then came up to me, and kept pointing at my head, as I was getting on my boots. He still isn't really speaking much at all, so we have to figure out what he wants with the pointing, and with asking yes or no questions to which he will respond by nodding or shaking his head. Anyway, when I didn't figure it out soon enough, Jacob went and grabbed MY hat, brought it over, dropped it in my lap, and then pointed again at my head. Apparently he was very intent on making sure that I didn't freeze either.
      That weekend things started looking up for me with the overwhelment as well. All of the gifts I was making for people started really coming together. Yay!
       Monday, we started making progress with Jacob on his speaking. He said his 4th word! And, while some of you may roll your eyes, I know others of you will be quite proud of this... His 4th word... was "Brains". Oh yeah. Mama, Papa, Ball, and Brains. He's also getting quite a bit better at repeating words now too. He won't speak on his own, but he will repeat some of the smaller words most of the time. He does seem to understand a lot more than he says though, and it seems that its more that he's choosing not to speak, rather than not being able to speak. So I'm not terribly worried about it. At all.

      Okay, so Christmas... We did a lot of stuff for Christmas. We've got both families in town, and mine is very laid back on timing and specific traditions, so we're able do both.  So, Christmas Eve we went over to Joe and Melindae's house for dinner. Sadly, it was really late, which made it difficult for the kiddos with bedtime. (and me, getting me to bed at midnight was a nightmare, hopefully not to be repeated) But, even with that, overall it was good. While there, we also did our normal traditions of opening Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve, and reading stories. I would prefer to make PJs for my kids for Christmas, but this year that just wasn't happening. Maybe this next year, if I can keep myself from getting too overwhelmed with things. ;)

Here are their PJs. I didn't get a family picture in PJs but at least I got this one. This is them coming out Christmas morning. They definitely look excited, though I think for Jacob that might just be because I'm taking a picture.

      I will say, my favorite part of Christmas Eve, was that when I told Jessica I was going to read the Christmas stories, if she wanted to come, she dropped everything she was doing, playing with her cousins, and came running, screaming in delight. So did a lot of the cousins. It was great. That had always been one of my favorite traditions, and I'm glad I can continue it onward.
      Christmas was beautiful, even if it was terribly packed and draining. All of the out and about and interaction is very draining for me, but at the same time, it was Christmas, so it was planned, which helped. Sorry, I don't feel like giving a run-down of gifts, or even posting tons of pictures of Christmas morning. It's not about the gifts. I was pleased by my children's reactions to the gifts though, and that they loved even my homemade gifts. We went to Melindae's for brunch, (and sadly, we were the cause of it being about an hour later than planned) and gift giving there, and then we went to my Mom's for more family and gift giving. (And Mom loved their handprint calendar, yay!) The only thing I really have to say about any of it is that I am so overwhelmed with the generosity of our family. (both sides) After Mom's we also went up to Grandma Newbold's house. That was nice for me to see my extended family on Christmas as well, but I think that one may have been a bit too much for Nathaniel. Oops.
     
      Okay, so, also, right before Christmas I hit 30 weeks in my pregnancy, so here's that picture...

Yes! Love the fuzzy pink slippers, and the bits of my kids you can see peeking in.

But I don't remember any of the specifics from that appointment, except that I was measuring big. Which, really, basically means nothing, except that the baby is growing.

      And, then, the weekend after Christmas is when everyone started getting sick. It had started with Jacob, who got a really dry nasty cough, but his cleared up within a few days.   Then Jessica got sick, and hers took a lot longer. to get rid of, probably about a week and a half. The Saturday after Christmas is when my sickness started. It started with me just being sore and achy. REALLY sore and achy. To the point where moving at all was excruciatingly painful. Luckily it was on the weekend, so Nathaniel didn't have to worry about work, and Monday, when he started working at his new job, I seemed fine. Then I started having that dry cough. It never did anything, and I didn't seem to have any cold symptoms, just the cough. Which was bad enough, because it wouldn't stop, and so I then was sore everywhere from coughing. (especially while pregnant)  And then the cold symptoms hit a few days later. Now, 2 weeks later, I'm fighting huge amounts of sinus pressure. So its all I can do to stay calm when every little thing and movement causes pain in my face. I can even feel my teeth rattling when I move because the pressure is so much. Not fun. And this is the getting better phase. It was worse. But yeah, doing everything I can to get rid of it. Hopefully I can clear the sinuses in the next day or so, this is getting ridiculous.

      Okay... almost done. We are definitely counting down on the pregnancy now. This past Monday I had my 32 week appointment. (though I was really about 33 weeks at the time) Sadly, I don't have a picture for it. What with being sick, it just totally slipped my mind. I'll get one at the 34 week. Important info at the 32 week appointment though. I measured at 36cm for my uterus, which is 4 cm big. Maybe he'll come a bit early. ;) (Not likely, it doesn't mean anything as I said before) I also seemed to stay steady on weight, maybe gaining a few ounces, but not much. I'm actually happy about that, because I seemed to gain an awful for the first while. I've gained about 40 pounds, which was about the total amount for Jessica and Jacob, and I've still got a month and a half left.
        However, the biggest thing from this appointment is that the hospital FINALLY got my blood test results back to them. (I had the test done in October) Yeah... In October I was rather anemic. Which means that now, 2 1/2 months later, I'm probably EXTREMELY anemic. No wonder I've been so exhausted all the time. So my midwife suggested a food-based Iron supplement, and I started taking that. Oh. My. Goodness. Seriously the difference is amazing. I feel so rested when I wake up, and I sleep better, and I dream, (which I'm not actually sure is a good thing, since they're crazy dreams, but hey, it means I'm getting deep sleep) and I wake up before my alarm.... Its just great. Too bad the supplement ends up being about $50 a month. But the iron tablets that previous midwives/doctors have recommended have never seemed to make any difference at all, so I'll stick with this. Even at the super expensive price.

        And... last but not least, another cute story from Jacob. I'd been in the kitchen making lunch, and needed to come out, which means going over a baby gate. Well. Jacob likes to stand at the baby gate and watch me, but especially when I'm super pregnant, that makes it really difficult to get out. So I came up to the gate, and said "Jacob, can you please get out of the way so I can come out?" And he did move, but he turned and kind of sidled away saying "beep! beep! beep!" Oh I just about died laughing. It was hilarious.
     Phew! we made it. Hopefully it won't be so long before I write again, and hopefully I'll have more pictures. ;)