Christmas Activities: Part 1

I actually did a better job of posting about this year's Christmas-related activities than I thought I did…I blame the pregnancy brain for the forgetfulness, because y'all were about to get a post with a bunch of repeats.  Good thing I looked back!  

I have SO many pictures from all of this year's Christmas-related activities that I am going to break it up into a few posts to make it easier on myself.  I already blogged about choosing and decorating our enormous Christmas tree and An Evening With Elves at Marbles, so I think the next activity on the list was the Holiday Express at Pullen.  I already blogged about part of that trip (our visit with Santa), but there were a few more photos that I haven't posted yet that warrant some blog space.  After our visits with Santa, we went outside for a bit to listen to the music, and Lilly and Hadley had the BEST time dancing together.  Jon took a hysterical video of it, but all I have are a few photos:

I may be biased but aren't they the cutest besties you ever saw?!

Lilly: cheeeeeeese/I'm over it.

I thought I got some photos of our family with the Aldridge family, but those must have been on Steph's camera (or possibly I am crazy and dreamed the whole thing).  I for sure did not take NEARLY as many photos of this year's Pullen adventure, probably because I was pretty sure we were all going to die of frostbite…it was SO COLD.  Not as cold as it is this week, but the coldest day we'd had before now.

I also continued the tradition of having L make an ornament, thanks to Steph's MOPS group again this year for the idea (I stole their idea for last year's ornament as well, I hope when they move next year she finds a MOPS group with just as many great ideas for me to steal HA!).  We turned a thumb print into a sweet little reindeer! I am not sure why I don't have a photo of the finished product, but picture it tied with a pretty glittery red and green ribbon at the top and on the back I wrote "Lilly, Christmas 2013."  We made 12 of these total and gave them to teachers, Carney, grandparents, family, etc. and they were a huge hit!

This year, Lilly participated in her first Christmas program at school!  Boy, was it cute.  I thought we had good seats, but they turned out to be terrible and I was unable to get any good photos or video.  Basically, her class and the other toddler class kicked off the program by processing in and singing a few songs, one of them being "Twinkle Twinkle Christmas Star" (to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star").  I swear if we'd been able to get a good video you would have melted from the cuteness.  I wondered how Lilly would do in front of so many people, but she was right at home and put on quite the performance.

The toddlers.  You can't see Lilly because she was standing up dancing around with her Christmas star.  Typical.

 After they sang, the toddlers came to sit with their parents and watched the "big kids" performance.  Amazingly, Lilly sat in my lap and watched the entire thing with relatively no squirming.  I was impressed.  Seemingly every time there was a break in song, though, she would start clapping and say (loudly), "YAYYYYYY, BIG KIDS SINGING!"  Of course she was encouraged by the laughter of the other parents.  My little ham.

LOVE this little dress and that sweet face, even if she is cheesing!

Watching the big kids...

...and eating the Christmas star???

Another thing we did again this year was to take Lilly to see Christmas lights.  We went to a house last year with the besties where we could walk the girls around and they liked it fine, but Lilly was REALLY into the lights this year.  We took her out one night after dinner to a few houses that were close-by and did a drive-by, and she was enthralled.

Sooooo excited to see the lights!

The remaining photos I have are of our family Christmas celebrations with the Baums and the Eakers (my family), and there are a TON of photos from all of that so I'll save those for another post (hopefully tomorrow night since I'd like to be done with Christmas posts after this week!).  I'll leave you with some fun pictures of us decorating the Christmas cookies that we baked for Santa!  We baked our cookies at home but between last-minute preparations and packing, Mama did not have the energy to decorate before we left to go to Grandma Susie and Papa's house, so we took our decorating supplies with us.  I'm glad we did because everyone had a good time decorating, especially Lilly but I think it's because she consumed at least her weight in sprinkles in the process, ha!

Concentrating hard.

The taste tester!

Aunt Meredith is the best cookie decorator ever.

Aunt Meredith is also hilarious.

Seriously.

The finished product!

Santa must have thoroughly enjoyed his cookies, because he did not leave too many crumbs!  I need to note that Mommy thoroughly enjoyed them as well and I happen to be really glad they're gone because I'm pretty sure baby and I ate at least one entire tray full.  They were REALLY good, if I do say so myself.

Hopefully I can finish up the Christmas posts tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Sarah

BB2.0: 35 Weeks and a Lilly Update

I know it's all anyone has talked about today, but it was COLD here today.  I think it was 7 or 9 degrees when we woke up?  Of course I am not nearly as cold as those of you who experienced temperatures in the negatives, but it's cold for Raleigh, for sure.

Lilly was prepared!  Except it appears that she's taking no-pants lessons from Baby Grace.  Kins doesn't look amused.

I'm pretty beat today (story of my life these days, yes?), so I'll get right to baby boy's 35-week stats.

Size of Baby Boy:  Over 18 inches long and just over 5 lbs - the size of a honeydew melon:

Baby's kidneys are fully developed and his liver can process some waste.  He'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight (GREAT.) as most of his physical development is complete.  Exciting stuff.

Weight Gain So Far:  Somewhere between +28 and +30 lbs.  If you recall, as of last week at the doctor, I was up +30, but I weighed myself on my home scale last week and then again today and it was closer to +28, so either my home scale is whack or I am losing weight.  I feel sure it's the former, but whatever.

Cravings:  I am still favoring sweets over anything else, but lately I've found that I am not partial to anything specific and often times can't decide what I want to eat.  So weird.

Aversions:  Still not a thing, I've been very lucky!

Symptoms:  Extreme fatigue, probably due to all of our activity as of late.  And the peeing, gosh I feel like my bladder must be shrinking.  Also I've been experiencing some lower back pain.  Today in particular the back pain was pretty bad even when I was just sitting, and I also have been having contractions - mainly braxton hicks but I had some this afternoon that felt different.  I have been trying to rest tonight and crossing my fingers that resting nips those contractions in the bud, because I'm not ready yet.  So far, so good.

Movement:  Babycenter says, and I quote, "Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore..."  WRONG.  Bunch of liars.  Baby boy is still playing soccer on the regular in utero.  Either my womb is huge or he's smaller than I am thinking he is so he still has plenty of room to dance party his face off?!  A girl can dream, right?

What I Miss:  Can't think of one thing, unless you count sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time without having to get up to pee.

Signs of a Bump:  I feel like it has exploded into even more huge-ness over the past week.

As a refresher, here's what L looked like at 35 weeks:

What I'm Thankful For:  I re-read the blog post, and ish started getting real this week in my last pregnancy, so I'm thankful that this time around I have been "textbook!"  Also extra thankful for Carney this week and all of her hepl, as well as all of our sweet family and friends who have been checking in on Lilly.  We love you all!

What I'm Looking Forward To:  My sprinkle on Saturday!  It was supposed to be last weekend, but we pushed it back a week due to our travels to New York.  I can't wait to spend time with my sweet girlfriends!

Next Doctor Appointment:  Monday, January 13.  Originally it was scheduled for next Wednesday, but I had to reschedule because that wasn't a good day for Dan and he wants to attend.  Can't wait to see baby boy!

All in all, everything is great with Baby Boy.  The nursery construction has been completed as of today (!!!!!), so now we can get to work (and we have a LOT of it to do!).  The crib will hopefully arrive next week, so I would love it if baby could hold off at least until then. And if someone can find me a dresser on Craigslist that isn't fug, I'd appreciate it.  

A quick update on my sweet Lillian Grace: Thanks to all of you for your sweet messages, calls, texts, etc. to check on her.  She seemed to be in better spirits today but was by no means "better" - still pretty pitiful and feeling crummy so I am glad we had a follow-up appointment scheduled with the doctor.  The steroid she got at the hospital appeared to do nothing, so I'm really happy that we'll probably get a huge bill for something that didn't work (sarcasm).  The probable diagnosis from the doctor today is walking pneumonia.  Poor thing, right?  I feel awful for her.  L's symptoms could have pointed to a number of things, but the fact that we've been fighting this cough on and off pretty much since November in addition to the wheezing and gunk in her chest makes the doc think walking pneumonia.  The doctor discussed three treatment options with us: an antibiotic, another (different) steroid, and an anti-fungal medication.  She did not want to give us all three at once, mainly because she didn't want to overload Lilly with medication but also if we can pinpoint which one of the three treatment options fixes the cough then we'll have a better idea of exactly what caused it in the first place.  So, for now, she sent us home with the antibiotic and instructions to continue increased breathing treatments every four hours in conjunction with the antibiotic.  If the cough is not a LOT better by Thursday, we have to go back and reevaluate and more than likely get a steroid, which L would get via her inhaler.  Happy thoughts and prayers would be much appreciated, I wish I could take it away from her!

Happy thoughts and prayers go out to my sweet mama tonight, too, as she gets her second round of chemo tomorrow.  Love you!

And with that, I'm off to bed.  Tomorrow is hump day, wahoo!

Sarah

It's been a long...

…day.  Weekend.  Year, even though we're only 6 days in now.  The last three weeks have been a whirlwind, and this mama is tired.  The Holidays were a blast, but a blur of travel and busy and wonderful memory making with family.  I promised myself I would get to a Christmas post at some point this week, before it is mid-January and weird to be posting about Christmas.  I figure that as long as folks still have their lights (and Christmas trees!) up, it's still acceptable for me to blog about Christmas activities, right?  :-)

My Holiday break was technically over last Wednesday.  I was playing the week by ear, and trying to decide whether to work on Thursday and Friday or save my vacation.  It looked like the plan was going to be take vacation, or at least half days, because Carney was available to work and Dan had some availability, so we were going to use that opportunity to get some things done around the house (namely playroom organization, nursery progress and operation clean out Lilly's stuff).  We got the unfortunate call on Monday that Dan's grandmother had passed away very unexpectedly, so we knew we'd be heading to New York sometime towards the end of the week to be with family.  

I spent the next few days in a blur of unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry, re-packing and running errands.  To make matters crazier, the weather in NY decided to go nuts, and we all started to worry about how we were going to make it there.  Driving was considered.  I'm glad we waited it out and crossed fingers for non-cancelled flights, because the combination of Lilly and an 8-month preggo with the smallest bladder in the history of the world in the car for that amount of time would surely have tortured Dan to the point of insanity.

Thursday's flights were cancelled, but luckily we were able to fly to New York on Friday afternoon.  Lilly did great on the flight even though she missed nap - we kept her entertained with some new books and small toys I found at Target on clearance (and, of course, Elmo).  Everything was really smooth, until the airline lost our carseat and we sat around in the airport for 2.5 hours after we landed trying to find it.  Seriously, the one piece of luggage that was an absolute necessity.  Isn't that the way it always happens?  

The weekend was a blur of services and family.  Grandma Mary was one of the most incredible, kind, loving people that I've ever had the chance to meet and spend time with, and we're all better people for having had her in our lives (Not to mention she was a saint as she birthed and raised TWELVE children!!!).  She will be truly missed, and I am so glad that we were all able to go and be together as a family to celebrate her life.

The only picture I took over the weekend.  Lilly woke up on Sunday and said, "Mommy, Lilly wear tutu on airplane."  And you know what?  I did not even try to fight it.  She looks cute and got a lot of smiles and waves, even from the most sour-faced TSA folks.  In this pic, she's super excited to be riding the escalator like a big girl.  Cheeeeeeeese!

They say bad news comes in threes, so I knew something else was coming, it was just a matter of when.  My Mom's breast cancer diagnosis + Grandma Mary's sudden passing = 2.  Number three came last night when we finally made it home.  

More bad weather in New York caused a plane to skid off the runway, which delayed our flight (and seemingly the entire airport's) for several hours.  Lilly has had a cough on and off for well over a month now, and we can't seem to get rid of it.  It wasn't too bad at the end of last week, but I knew it was going to be cold in NY so I tried to get her into the doctor on Friday morning before we left just in case, but it didn't work out.  She was fine all weekend but coughed a lot more than normal during her Saturday night/Sunday morning sleep and woke up Sunday and was pretty pitiful.  I called and spoke to the nurse on Sunday morning, and the plan was to take her straight to the doctor from the airport since our flight was supposed to land at 2.  With the delays, by the time we finally got off the plane and to the car it was 4:30, and the doctor's office had been closed for about an hour.  At this point I was trying not to go into a panic, because I could tell there was something wrong with my baby girl.  She really had not eaten in a good four days, which at first I chalked up to being out of her routine until I realized that she genuinely felt terrible.  They normally are more concerned with drinking than eating, so the fact that I had a hard time getting her to drink anything on Sunday had me worried about dehydration as well.  Also, from the time we got to our gate and even getting on the plane, all she did was lay on my shoulder and nap on and off.  That is VERY unlike her.  Even with all of the missed naps and lack of sleep from the weekend's activities, she would never just sleep on me like that…she rarely even did that when she was a baby.  On top of all of that, she seemed to be having a hard time breathing…I counted that she was breathing between 40-50 times in a minute, which is worrisome.  

After being on the phone back and forth all afternoon with the nurse, we brought her home, gave her a larger dosage of breathing treatments than normal, and monitored her for an hour.  It didn't work, so we packed up to head to the Emergency Room.  We were really trying to avoid the ER and make it to the doctor first thing this morning instead, but the nurse really felt like it was the right thing to do, to make sure L's lungs were functioning properly and that she didn't have pneumonia.  

We were admitted relatively quickly, and several nurses examined L and told us that her lungs sounded clear and that it would probably just be a matter of a doctor coming in to examine her and then releasing us with instructions for extra breathing treatments until the cough cleared.  We still were happy that we went, if for nothing else than peace of mind.  However, it took literally almost 2 hours before we were able to see a doctor.  In hind sight, I'm glad that it took so long, because by the time the doctor got in to see us L's lungs were clearly blocked again.  It sounds like none of the nurses could hear anything because we'd given L a breathing treatment before we went to the hospital, which had temporarily cleared whatever blockage she has.  The doctor decided to give her a more advanced breathing treatment via a nebulizer (instead of the normal arch nemesis inhaler that we've had to use in the past at home) as well as a steroid and then reevaluate.  If there was no progress, they wanted to do a chest x-ray (Cue panic in Mommy and Daddy at the thought of a chest x-ray!).

I am not sure how, but L was in a surprisingly good mood although she did NOT like the device they put on her toe to monitor her oxygen levels.

Sad little hospital anklet.  And aforementioned oxygen monitoring device.

Cheeeeeese!

She was so sad about this breathing treatment.  She has become a pro at our home treatments, but this one was different.  She finally cooperated but had these huge crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks the entire time…it broke my heart.

Sad baby = sad mama and daddy, too!

Long story short, the breathing treatment and steroid seemed to clear everything up to the point where they were sure it was not pneumonia so we did not have to endure the chest x-ray.  I am so glad, because I'm not sure my nerves could have handled it.  They sent us home with a diagnosis of probable asthma (which she will hopefully grow out of!) and instructions for increased breathing treatments until her breathing and cough are both better.  They also told us to see her normal doctor on Tuesday to reevaluate since by that time the steroid would have had time to kick in.

L was such a trooper in the hospital, and I am so grateful because it could have been a lot worse, and we were all exhausted as it was.  We'd had a very busy weekend where she missed out on a lot of sleep (those of you who know my child know that she needs her sleep!) and she felt pretty crummy, and I was so relieved that she was cooperative.  She wooed all of the doctors and nurses with her charms, and every single person that came in to see her, whether it be nurse or doctor or even respiratory specialist, she called Dr. Vining (her ped).  It was hilarious.  "Dr. Vining put that on my toe."  "Dr. Vining gave me medicine."  "Dr. Vining gave me a popsicle."  Um nope actually that was a nurse/male doctor who looks nothing like Dr. Vining.  So funny!

Happy to get a popsicle to get rid of the nasty steroid taste.

We got home around 11:30 pm and L was asleep before I even put her in her bed.  She slept until around 9:45 this morning with no issues - her cough seemed to be much better overnight and that in combination with the fact that she was clearly exhausted made it a good night - I think I slept better than I have in months.  I wish I could say the same for today.  It was maybe the longest day I have ever had with her.  I am pretty proud of the patience that I demonstrated today because  normally I have a serious lack of patience, but I honestly don't ever remember a day like today.  Maybe I am mis-remembering, but I can't even remember a time when she was a baby where she just cried all day non-stop like she did today.  Dan came home early this afternoon to try to give me some relief, but of course she only wanted Mommy and he was quickly frustrated with the way she was acting (I don't blame him, I was on the verge of tears for most of the afternoon and just about at my wits end).  I didn't even get a break at nap time, because she really only slept for about 45 minutes before a coughing fit woke her up and she couldn't settle back down for sleep.  Thank God for Carney, who brought Kinsley over this afternoon and played with Lilly for around an hour and a half and it was a much needed break, not to mention really the only time all day that Lilly wasn't crying nonstop.

We have an appointment with L's doctor tomorrow at lunch time to check in and reevaluate.  Honestly I can't tell whether she's doing better because today was a rough one, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to exhaustion vs. feeling crappy.  Her cough actually sounds worse to me today than it did yesterday, and while her breathing is not quite as labored as it was yesterday, it still didn't seem back to normal today.  I am anxious for my baby girl to feel better!

I think that catches us up on the weekend.  I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with better news about L feeling better and being almost caught up on sleep and in a great mood (fingers crossed!), and a 35 week update!  "35 weeks' just gave me serious anxiety.  SERIOUSLY WHERE IS THE CRIB I ORDERED LAST MONTH AND WHY IS IT NOT HERE?!  At least our nursery construction is 99% complete.

Happy Monday!

Sarah

BB2.0: 34 Weeks...and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, friends!  In all of the excitement of the Holidays, I missed the 33 week update (whoops!), so I'll just get to the 34-week stats since I'm writing about it a week late.

Size of Baby Boy:  A cantaloupe...

...and getting bigger seemingly by the minute.  More on that later.  He weighs about 10 4 3/4 lbs and is almost 18 inches long.  His central nervous system and lungs are both continuing to mature, his fat layers are rounding him out (can't wait to eat him up!) and his skin is smoothing out.

Weight Gain So Far:  As of the doctor yesterday, +30 lbs.  I was hoping to keep the weight gain at +30 or less for the whole pregnancy, so I am definitely going to fail that goal but I think I'm okay with it.  I have had quite literally NO CONTROL around anything sweet.  I am pretty sure I ate at least 20 of the sugar cookies that we made for Santa, among other things.  If I am ever pregnant again, it needs to be during a different time of year!

Cravings:  Sweets, sweets and more sweets.  Nothing unusual here.

Aversions:  Still nothing here, either.

Symptoms:  Tired.  Lower back pain.  General discomfort.  And pressure towards the lady parts.

Movement:  Much like his sister, Baby Boy has a lot of hiccups.  He is huge, but evidently the fact that he's running out of room does not phase him because he is still having plenty of in-utero dance parties!

What I Miss:  Good sleep (and uninterrupted, no peeing 25 times/night sleep!).  I know, I know, that is only going to get worse!  And sleeping on my stomach.  Have I mentioned that yet?  It hasn't phased me at all this pregnancy until recently, like the past few weeks.  Maybe it's because I have a hard time getting comfortable in general, who knows.

Signs of a Bump:  Of course! 

I wrote a 34-week post for Lilly, but for some reason the photos aren't showing up (annoying) so I don't have a comparison for next week.  I could go downstairs to look through the photos on my computer, but I'm too lazy.  :-)

What I'm Thankful For:  So much that I don't think I could list it all, but to name a few: family and friends.  A wonderful Holiday.  My health and this healthy pregnancy.  A new year.  

What I'm Looking Forward To:  My sweet friends and family are throwing me a sprinkle next weekend, and I am so excited about it.  Also, organization/house/nursery progress!  Also maybe the eventual completion of the construction in the nursery...???  And Lilly's 2nd (when did my baby grow up?!) birthday.

Doctor Appointment Update:  I rescheduled Thursday's appointment for yesterday because I wasn't sure what our travel plans would be for the funeral this weekend.  Everything is just peachy!  My blood pressure is still perfect at 120/70, and baby seems to be perfect as well.  I love hearing that sweet heartbeat!  Dr. B said that he is still measuring 2 weeks ahead - as of yesterday, he was measuring at 36 weeks.  Not gonna lie, I had a minor panic attack when she said I was measuring at 36 weeks - I was induced with L somewhere around 36.5!  So close, and still so much to do.  The doctors still won't commit to any sort of "we won't let you have a 25-pound baby" plan, but Dr. B did order an ultrasound for my next appointment (36 weeks) "to get a better idea of how big he actually is."  I'm excited to see him again!

Next Doctor Appointment:  Wednesday, January 15.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful NYE!  Ours was totally lame very low-key but also perfect and just what we needed.  Dan's office overlooks the acorn drop/fireworks, so we grabbed Chinese takeout and took L downtown to watch the 7:00pm "family" acorn drop.  She LOVED the fireworks.  We also unpacked, took all of our Christmas decorations down, and watched a movie in bed.  So old.

Chinese and fireworks downtown

The Baums at midnight.  Happy New Year!

We spent today running errands to try to get ready for our trip and then had a traditional New Year's Dinner with Bo, Meagan and Kinsley.

Shopping.  Love these two.

My sweet little butterfly brushing her teeth before bed.

Hope your NYE and NYD were both wonderful.  I think a lot of folks go back to work tomorrow...at least there are only two more days to the weekend!  

I'm not sure whether I'll get to any additional posts this week, but I'll be back next week.  Here's to a happy, healthy new year for all!

Sarah