Festival of trees and mood lipstick

Tonight for family home evening we went to a local community event called the festival of the trees.  Each year several trees are decorated and donated to this event.  All proceeds go to a local community aide program.  It was fun to see all the trees.  They also had Santa, crafts, little items for sale etc.  It was so cute seeing James react to Santa and yell, 'there's Santa!  I see him!'  I can't wait for Christmas this year with him. 

Well as part of this event they had an area called Santa's toy workshop.  Inside was lots of little items for sale.  Ariana decided to buy a lip stick.  It looked so strange (green in the container) but hey whatever it was $1.  Of course when we got home she had to go put it on.  Soon all I could hear was crying and yelling for me to help.  The lipstick was apparently called mood lipstick and while green in the container went on clear and then changed color.  It changed color alright to BRIGHT pink and Ariana couldn't get it off her lips or hands.  She was frantically trying to scrub her lips and hands to no avail.  Her lips are really chapped right now so that didn't help at all.  She cried and cried and vowed she won't be going to school until it comes off.  I can't help just laughing at this because she is so convinced that school tomorrow is ruined and when she came up for scriptures wouldn't uncover her mouth.  Yes I tried to help get it off and did the best I could but only time is going to help with the rest.  We did get it from bright pink to a slightly lighter shade.  Alexis and I even tried the lipstick to be funny and so she wouldn't be the only one with pink lips.  (I only put a very minimal coat on so ours wasn't as bad)  we'll just have to see what the morning brings.

32 weeks

This past week went by really well with the small exception of James waking up one night from 3AM-10AM.  That night really didn't help because the night before I had been unable to fall asleep until about 3.  Funny now not so much then but at 6 AM he started jumping on and saying he needed to check his email.  After getting the girls to school he finally decided to play cars by himself and I fell asleep while he played.  I woke up and had to search the house for him.  I finally found him passed out under the kitchen table.  He stayed there until almost 1.

So aside from that day it was a great week.  I only gagged once and that involved no throwing up afterwards so hooray a week with no vomit!!!!  I've had a few times where stepping on my left foot has sent some shooting pain up my leg to my back but nothing too bad or close to what I had at this point with James.

Last Thursday we had the start of our first real snow.  Friday morning I was shoveling the driveway and my neighbor didn't like that.  She told me I wasn't allowed to have the baby in the driveway.  She said, 'I will drive you to the hospital but I don't driver babies!'  Oh if only she knew how James arrived.  She probably would have really freaked out.  Funny thing shoveling the nice fluffy snow was much easier on me than trying to pick up the leaves.  No bending required just push the shovel.

Baby girl continues to be more wiggly and her movements are very noticeable.  She normally lays on my left side and kicks me on my right but one night she switched.  She was really active that night!

With the snow here I'm having a hard time imagining what trying to get around with James and a tiny baby will be like during the winter.

Saturday night my friends here in Idaho Falls had a little shower for me.  A lot of people were out of town so just four of us went to Garcias, a local Mexican restaurant.  It was fun!  I saw an idea on pinterest I thought was great and so dud my friends.  In leu of gifts they brought a freezer meal and recipe.  I'm so excited and very grateful to have my freezer have meals ready for when baby arrives because life gets pretty crazy those first few weeks and months.

31 weeks- Let the final count down begin!

Only nine weeks to go by my calendar due date.  This little one is my first baby that by ultrasound measures ahead so while I would normally say she will go past her due date just like my others who knows!  Both Alexis and Ariana measured a week smaller than their due date.  James was right on.  Susana (or Susanna the spelling hasn't been decided yet) measures a full weak ahead.  It will be fun to see how she ends up comparing to her siblings.  She'll come when she's ready though.

The last couple weeks have been good pregnancy wise.  I still am holding to a pattern of randomly throwing up one morning each week but I feel so much better than before so I'll take it!  My back is starting to hurt more at night so I roll around a lot and I sleep in a pillow mountain.  Baby girl is definitely getting stronger.  The past couple days some of her movements are so strong they startle me.  I love watching my belly dance.  Two nights ago I couldn't stop laughing as she made my phone and lap top bounce because they were resting on her.  Alexis still always asks if she's awake so she can feel her move.   Alexis doesn't have great timing though and rarely catches her big movements.  I love that Alexis wants to be so close though.

We hired a midwife a few weeks ago and I love her so far.  Having home based midwifery is so nice!  I love not having to drive to the Dr and that my care seems much more personal.  Yes I'm excited to be one of the people I used to think crazy for wanting a home birth.  This really is something that 10 years ago I would have rolled my eyes at and sworn that it would never be me.  

"Stop crying"

Tonight Alexis got very frustrated practicing the piano.  She ended up pouting and crying all through scriptures, prayers, brushing her teeth etc. because of this.  Right before she went down to bed she had curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor and was crying again.  We told James to go give Alexis a hug to help her feel better.  He does and then we hear him say the following, "Stop crying Lexis.  Stop crying you are not a baby!"

(So funny to hear your two almost three year old tell this to a 10 year old!!)

29 Weeks

While I was pregnant with James I posted a lot.  Pretty much weekly from 20 weeks on.  Blogger became my pregnancy journal.  I've really struggled with doing that this time for a few reasons.  For one Taylor and I did not make this pregnancy public until I was 20-21 weeks because we didn't tell Alexis, Ariana and James until then.  We waited for the end of summer to tell them because this summer was full of a different change for them.  They spent half the summer in NV with their Dad for the first time and we didn't want to add any additional confusion to that.  Also I enjoyed watching my belly grow last time but have really struggled wanting to see or take any pictures this time because of my starting weight.  I know just having a healthy baby should mater most but my weight has truly bothered me to the point that it is hard to be in pictures.  I've actually requested my doctor and now midwife to please not tell me my weight because I know I will stress in ways I shouldn't right now or just flat out start to cry.  (Ya Taylor had to deal with that one Sunday right before church.  Buckets and buckets of tears because I stood on the scale.)

This pregnancy has been very different for me.  My first trimester I was pretty sick and for a lot of it my kids were gone.  A blessing because I really wasn't very functioning but I was miserable without them so it made things a little worse.  Crying and throwing up doesn't work well.  I burst a blood vessel in my eye doing that.  I also threw up in lots of new places.  Most notable episodes so far have been: 
*  Poor old lady next door got to witness me throw up on the side of the house because I was trying to take out the super stinky trash.
*  next to a hey field on the side of the road
*  down my parents hallway after getting home really late from Disney Land (my Mom gets saint hood status in my book for insisting I go lay down and cleaning up for me)
*  In my hand on the way to school
*  On Taylor's back pack in the middle of the night (it wasn't on purpose the back pack just happened to be where I was)
*  down my own hallway and wall and James thinking and yelling to me that the dog "poopied" on the floor and wall.

Sadly throwing up hasn't gone away this time.  Its not as bad as it was weeks 1-15 and I go a week sometimes without but I'm never sure when my next 'fun' episode will come.

Another difference this time is in both ultrasounds I've had baby girl is measuring a week ahead of her due date.  We'll see what that means for delivery....

Maybe its just because its my fourth but I can't keep track of my weeks.  Saying how many weeks I am actually makes it seem like I have longer than just saying beginning of January.

Both Taylor and I are very excited about this baby.  Happily (and a relief to see) Alexis, Ariana and James are too.  There have been a few questions to answer but Alexis in particular is extremely excited for her new sister.

 

A sweet surprise

This morning I was really late waking up.  Ariana was already upstairs by the time I was getting dressed.  When I came out of my bathroom she was standing by my bed with a bowl of cereal and a bagel cut, toasted with jelly on each slice sitting nicely on a small cutting board.  She told me that she hadn't gotten the chance to give me breakfast on mothers day so she decided to do it today.  It was so incredibly sweet.  I almost cried.  Such a wonderful way to start my day.

Dandelions

I have put several hours into trying to keep our front yard dandelion free this spring (the back yard is an entirely different story).  The past few days everywhere I drive the air is full of dandelion fuzz.  To my dismay the wind has been blowing gently towards our house so that consequently this evening the front lawn is full of dandelion seeds.  The edges in particular look like the soft down of a bird.  Ugh!  So as crazy as I know I looked I dragged my vacuum outside and vacuumed the millions of seeds lining the edges of our lawn.  Yes I know it is crazy that I vacuumed our lawn but it worked great!