Pregnancy Ticker

When I was pregnant with Lily I could never tell you exactly how far along I was, I'd just refer people to my due date. This time I downloaded one of those pregnancy tickers for my desktop, and one for Mike's because quite often these days I can't stand sitting down at my computer and if his is on I'll just check a few things on it. So this pregnancy anytime someone asks me - I can tell them exactly how many weeks along I am and even how many days I have left (before the due date anyway - it would be heavenly to actually be done by that date!). It's been nice to know what week I am on when people ask me - I am confused by how it is calculated, but the ticker is jiving with what my mid-wife has been saying so I'm going with it. The problem with these pregnancy tickers is I don't just want the little message about what is happening with my baby to change once a week, I want it to change every day, scratch that - I want it to change every time I look at it! The rest of this pregnancy is looking really long to me right now!

Here's my baby belly at 33 weeks:

This week has been hard. I taught my last lesson in Relief Society at church before the baby comes (Ah, nice to not have to worry about that for a while), but since Sunday my back pain has been getting worse and worse. I can't get in a comfortable position. Walking, sitting, lying down...can't do any of those things comfortably for an extended period of time. When I do and I go to change positions the pain is excruciating. Mike moved our glider chair downstairs so I'd have a comfortable place to sit in our room, and then he walked over next-door to get a recommendation for a pregnancy massage from our friend who is also a massage therapist. I hope we can set up an appointment soon - I am in desperate need! When Mike called and left a voice mail with the lady to set up a massage - he started it out introducing himself and saying: "My wife is...10 and a half months pregnant..." I busted out laughing and set him straight saying nobody is ever 10 and a half months pregnant! He was thinking it was 12 months and subtracting back on how much time he thought was left. Thank goodness pregnancy doesn't last an entire year! According to some friends and random strangers I will probably look about 10 and a half months pregnant by the end of this. It is funny how many different perspectives people have looking at the same thing. I have been told everything from I'm "so tiny" to "Whoa! you're ginormous!" I tend to agree with the latter, but according to my midwife I'm measuring on target. So that gives me some comfort, but oh how I look forward to getting back to my normal self again.

Pregnancy is such a strange experience. It is so crazy and miraculous what our bodies can do! This time it seems much more real that there is a tiny individual growing inside me because I've been though having one come out and getting to know her. I'm getting pretty nervous about being a mother of more than one! It seems kind of sad to me knowing that I won't be able to give the same kind of attention to this baby that Lily got. Not that that might not be a better thing in many ways. Sometimes I think maybe I'll be a better mother of two than I am of one. It's just going to be such a different experience. I've been a mother to one for almost 4 years now! It's a big change, but an exciting one.

Lily has been such a dear especially these last few days. I'm so grateful to have her as my little girl! She's played so well on her own as I've tried to rest my back, and given me such sweet loving attention. Not that there haven't been moments, and time outs, but she is such a sweetheart! Now if only she will go to the bathroom on her own without saying she's too scared!

Me and my girls!

Catching a nap on what's left of mom's lap!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Random Cuteness

I thought this video of Lily dancing to Mike playing the piano was too cute not to share. This is from February and just a sample of some of the cute moves Lily comes up with when she's dancing. She's becoming quite a free-styler! I thought the slow/fast steps looked pretty funny.



Just curious - does it glitch on you after about the 2:30 mark? All my Quicktime videos are doing that, and I can't figure out a solution. Just wanted to know if it gets glitchey on your computer too?

Still kicking!

Written last night - I just had to finish adding the pictures. I haven't been feeling like posting most of the time because it's just too uncomfortable to sit in my little folding chair at my fold out computer desk and I don't exactly have a lap for my laptop right now - so I've hardly even been turning on my computer these days. Plus all my energy has been going into growing a baby and taking care of the little girl I still think of as my baby - though she is growing up so fast it constantly catches me off guard. Here are some recent pictures of my little lady that I love. 

I have this one as my desktop wallpaper right now

She is gone to the hardware store and the bookstore with her dad right now so I thought I'd take some time sitting at the softer kitchen table chairs to write a little update. We'll see how far I get...

Still 2 and a half months (~10 weeks) to go before baby Sierra is born, and I am counting the days! I so wish I could fast forward through the next two months and just be holding my little baby in my arms right now! I am looking forward to meeting her, and having my body back to myself - sort of... Not that you ever are all to yourself again once you are a mom, especially when you are nursing! But I think it is preferable - as interesting and amazing as it is to have a little person growing inside you and wiggling and kicking...there comes a point where you've had enough. I'm hanging in there, but my back is so sore, and I wake up in the night to make myself turn over because apparently I need a conscious effort to roll the weight of my tummy from my left side to my right. And by the time I wake up to do it my body is so stiff and sore I can't help but cry out from pain as I make the transition. Before I even lay down at night I just sit there for a minute as if 'I'm not really sure I want to do this..' 

I feel like my belly got bigger a lot faster this pregnancy, but I found a picture of myself last time at the same stage and it looked pretty big at this point when I was carrying Lily too. Maybe it was just a more sudden change this time. Maybe it's just harder because I'm older.

29 weeks - last time I just happened to be turning 29 at the same time.

I think I felt a lot better at this stage last time, but it's hard to remember. I do know by the end of my pregnancy with Lily - which went about 10 days late - I was not sleeping, having chest pain and trouble breathing and my body was going numb if I laid down. Since my back feels so bad already this time - I really hope the time left just flies by, and that this little girl is not so content as Lily was to just stay where she is. I would be thrilled to have her come a few days early! We'll see how lucky I get :)

February has been a good month. There have been better and worse days of course, but we have made some good memories. Lily was so excited about Valentine's day (obviously since she was preparing for it in January) And though we didn't do anything major or extremely romantic it felt like we drew out our little celebrations of love over several just nice days. I love Valentine's Day - not for cheap stuffed animals or overpriced flowers, but just because I think it makes us a little more aware of expressing love to each other. We made even more valentine cards for our Grandmas who live far away with hand-print hearts and this cute picture of Lily playing in her ballet dress. 

We planned dinner and a movie rental with our friends Mikey and Apryl for Wednesday, but it just so happened that Mike had Monday off, or got done early - so after Lily's little Valentine celebration that morning at preschool we had a nice day out as a family winding up with dinner at Red Robin on a gift card we had. I am always happy not to have to cook, and it's even better when we don't even have to pay for it! 

Lily at preschool with her Valentine bag - she had to wear her tutu that morning!

Lily with Miss Ginny her preschool teacher

A Valentine Lily made at preschool for our family - the Sweetheart hearts on either side are one for mom, one for dad, and the heart with the face in the middle is for Lily's baby sister - the other ones are for all of us to share :)

Lily with her preschool valentines this year

Mike had a job Tuesday morning (the actual Valentine's day), but he had bought Lily and I each a little gift and had me open mine before he left. Then as I was making a little video of Lily opening hers so Mike could see how she liked it - he walked in the door from a last minute cancellation and got to see for himself! It was kind of a bummer about the cancellation, but I was thrilled to see him and get to spend another day together! Lily got some mini La La Loopsy dolls which she loves and some M&M's. (The pictures I took of Mike and Lily playing with them were all blurry.) Mike got me my favorite chocolate truffles and the new Taylor Swift CD. I hardly ever even think to turn on music myself, and have never been a country music fan, but Mike knew that I was kind of intrigued by Taylor Swift from a show I saw about her. I absolutely love the CD - it was such a good gift! I need to turn on music more because it just brought such an upbeat romantic feel to the day. Mike danced me around the room to it pregnant belly and all, and we've been listening to it a lot since. The other day I had to laugh out loud to hear Lily and Mike playing legos together and Lily singing along in her cute little voice: "Someday... I'll be... livin' in a big ole' city!" Especially since at one time it was Yo Gabba Gabba or nothing! Seriously - she was like a little music Nazi. I am definitely a Taylor Swift fan now - what a beautiful talented girl - her videos are really great too. I must confess I am a girly girl at heart and love to watch cheesy romantic movies with happy endings (though not trashy ones and I'm not into romance novels!). Her songs tell stories and are real and romantic so that's right up my alley. I got Lily and Mike the soundtrack from Despicable Me to try to broaden Lily's musical horizons, so even though there are more grown up songs she loves it because it is Despicable Me and "the music my mom bought for me!" She is so cute dancing around and singing: "I'm having a bad, bad day..." with her hand on her hip and this little swagger in her step. 

I almost forgot, we also caught a movie that Friday as a family - which is always a treat for us. We saw The Secret World of Arrietty - it was really good, though a little scary to Lily (though the movie treats make up for it to her). We love Hayao Myazaki movies - he had a hand in this one, and it was as beautifully done as the others we've seen. It was such a nice week just enjoying spending time together. It's so refreshing to do nice little things with and for each other that we don't do every day. 

That's probably enough for one blog post so I'll save some of my other thoughts for another time. I think I hear Mike and Lily at the door. Oh! - gotta go read her new Pinkalicious book with her! It has paper dolls, and a fold out poster, and stickers!!! She's so excited! What a cutie :)

Feelin' the Love

Lily was ready to make Valentines several weeks ago. She loves to do 'projects' with her mom. And since I am not always as creative with project ideas for a 3 year old as I should be - we've been ready for Valentine's Day since about the middle of January... At least we have the valentines ready to give to Lily's preschool class plus a couple friends - I only had 20 lollipops. And while we were in the valentine mood we peeled and shaved some old crayons to make wax paper hearts for a banner. The valentines ended up taking way longer than I expected them to, like such projects always do - so the banner did not get finished the same day. I hung it in our window a few days later and have been enjoying how it catches the sun. A Martha Stewart idea from way back.

I guess I should take some photos of the valentines as well. I tried to have Lily contribute as much as I could and still have them turn out cute. Lily colored construction paper and helped me with the crayons, and I cut out the pieces for the cards during her nap so she could help me glue them, and made a place for her to sign her name. We did finish the same day at least. I was pretty impressed that she didn't get tired of signing her name so many times before we were done. (I was totally expecting her to stop halfway through and say "This is bor-n!")

A sample of Lily's Valentines

the flip side

This just shows how lazy I am getting that I didn't take them out the bag and lay them all out to take a picture. 

...but this gives you an idea of the stack we made, and how many times Lily stuck to writing her name!
I was impressed with her :)

They turned out pretty cute I think, nothing amazing - but more importantly Lily helped make them! (It's not like the preschoolers are going to treasure them forever or something!) I sometimes have a hard time figuring out just how much Lily can help before she gets tired of it loses interest, or I get tired of it and take over. It's tough for the perfectionist in me to let go and just let Lily do things sometimes - so I wasn't too worried about making 'the perfect' valentines this year. I'm learning!