Crazy Hair Day

Today Liam's school was having a crazy hair day. If they donated a "gold coin" - one or two dollars - they could wear their hair crazy and didn't have to wear their uniforms. This was the best we could come up with without having to go out and buy crazy hair color. Of course when Jonas saw that Liam got to wear his hair crazy he wanted crazy hair too.

Apparently when taking pictures of crazy hair you also have to make crazy faces!

Birthdays Galore

Liam and Jonas seem to be invited to tons of parties. The whole process of finding birthday presents is exhausting for me. I walk back and forth between 3 or 4 stores checking what toys each store has and what prices. In my condition that's a lot of work! I have been wishing there was a way for me to make something cute but when they are little boys who only like Star Wars there isn't much I can do except buy them a toy. So when Jonas was invited to the party of a little girl from playgroup I was so excited because it meant I could easily make her something rather than buy her some silly toy (what kinds of toys do 2 year old girls like anyways?) I found this tutorial for a messenger bag with measurements to make it for a child. It is probably a little bigger than I would like for it to be but this way she can grow into it. I keep seeing tons of tutorials for fabric flowers as well so I made one of those with the extra fabric.

Picking out fabric is so much more fun than picking out toys!

36 weeks

I know I just posted a belly picture last week but with so many people telling me how much I'm growing I wanted to see it for myself. (Its hard for me to tell by just looking in the mirror without something to compare it to.)

The last week has been strange. I have been having a lot more hip pain than usual on top of the symphysis pubis pain. When I stand up after sitting or lying down I have a hard time moving. Sometimes it takes 30 seconds before my legs will move properly. I really feel like an old person! Also on Sunday I thought I was going into labor. It was about 2 in the afternoon and I was resting. I started feeling contractions and then they kept coming. I was trying to pay attention to how far apart they were. Sometimes they were as close at 4 minutes but other times 10 minutes. They kept going like that until I fell asleep that night. The intensity never increased and they never got regular with the times so I didn't bother calling the hospital. It was just a little scary because I was only 35 weeks. Since then I have had quite a few contractions through out the days but nothing like Sunday.

I had an antenatal appointment yesterday (Tuesday) and when I told my midwife about the contractions she didn't seem all that concerned. She said even if I had her soon she should be okay. I am really hoping to go at least another couple weeks though. Not that this means I am definitely going to have her early but sometimes it feels that way. Just a few minutes ago it felt like she was trying to break out of me! It probably has something to do with her sitting so low in the pelvis and being so active. I was going to try and get some things done after lunch today but I think I might have to just go lay down instead.

The midwife felt my belly for that baby's position and said she didn't think she was all that big. I was kind of surprised by that because I feel like I am getting close to the size I was with Jonas (my 8 lbs, 5 oz babe). I guess we'll see when she comes out!

I am getting really anxious to meet her. Every time I see a baby I just want to cuddle our little one. A couple weeks ago we finally sat down together and seriously looked at names. We have a nice long list with 4 that we both really like. We have ranked them but haven't chosen one for sure. We'll just have to see what we think after she is born. We've also decided to keep them a secret (so mean!) :)

Sickies

Our current house guests

Winter has not been kind to our family. Over the last few weeks one or more of us has been sick at all times.

Of all of us I was the least sick. Maybe it has something to do with the prenatal vitamins and crazy amount of water I drink each day. I managed to get through it with a sore throat and runny nose every morning that doesn't bother me much the rest of the day.

Jonas has had a cough and runny nose off and on the whole time. For some reason my poor kids get a croupy sounding cough as soon as it gets cold. We even have a heater in their room at night but it doesn't seem to matter. Nothing will stop this kid though. He still has just as much energy as always!

Liam has now had his second flu. The first time was so bizarre. He woke up one morning and spent the next couple of hours in the bathroom - so obviously we kept him home from school. That night he was up most of the night throwing up and then the next morning he was fine. We still kept him home from school. We couldn't understand where it came from and thought maybe it was food poisoning (except that didn't make sense because we had all eaten the same things that day). When I took him back to school the following school day it all made sense when I saw that seriously half the school was out sick.

Yesterday Liam had a busy and fun day. First he had a birthday party to go to and after that we went to a church talent show. After the party he started to lose his voice but I just figured it was from having so much fun and being so loud. Then at 10:30 last night I heard him calling for me. He said he was going to throw up and that he was too hot. I brought him a bowl (because we never trust that he'll be able to make it to the toilet) and checked his temperature. Sure enough he was 101 and within a few minutes had thrown up. He seems to be feeling a little better today besides a sore throat but I am staying home from church with him.

Poor Nate has been the worst. It must have been 3 weeks ago now that he started to feel sick. Mostly blocked sinuses, a cough that wouldn't go away, and we could hear it in his chest when he breathed. He finally went into the health centre on campus on the Friday of that week. The Dr. said he had bronchitis and a sinus infection, put him on antibiotics and scheduled another appointment with him the following Friday. The next Friday he went in still not feeling 100% so the Dr. put him on a more aggressive dose of antibiotics and sent him for a blood test because she thought he might have whooping cough. And she scheduled him for another appointment for the following Friday. At that appointment he was told he didn't have whooping cough but did have Pneumonia. He has been mostly feeling better but still has a cough. Now he is just supposed to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get any worse.

We haven't been to church as a family for at least 3 weeks. I'm not sure I can take anymore of this sickness garbage! We are having a baby in less than 5 weeks and this house is full of germs!! I'm hoping this nesting thing kicks in in full force before her arrival so I might be able to get this place disinfected.

35 weeks

I am at that point in my pregnancy that when people see me (even if they just saw me a week ago) they will say "WOW! You are really getting bigger!" and other people who don't know me very well say, "It must not be much longer now!" and when I tell them that I still have 5 weeks they feel very sorry for me.

34 weeks

Only 6 weeks to go! That sounds like such a short time to me. Sometimes I hope it goes by very slowly so we are able to get ourselves organized and ready for her arrival. Other times I can't wait for her to come so I can hold her, introduce her to her brothers and be finished with labor. Not much new going on except that my belly keeps expanding and my clothes aren't fitting so well. Even my maternity shirts all seem too short.

I must say I've been pretty disappointed with being pregnant during winter. I was really looking forward to having my own little personal heater to carry around with me this winter but it doesn't seem to be working. I am always cold! I have to wear layers and layers (of clothes that don't fit very well) and it doesn't seem to help. I have 4 layers on right now and I'm still cold.

On a happier note the baby is doing well, growing rapidly and still kicking!

Jackpot!

One of the American guys from church (there are 5 American families in our ward right now) was going back to the US for a few days. Nate gave him some money and a "wish list" of things we hoped he could get for us while he was there. Because he was only there for a few days we figured he might not have time. Or if he did have time we would be lucky if he brought us back a few candy bars. This is what he brought us!...


That is the biggest bag of Reese's I have ever seen! The only problem now is that every time I walk into the kitchen I want to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup.