Snow and Sickness

I'm officially 36 1/2 weeks today! When I went to the doctor on Friday, she said I'm 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She says I won't make it to my due date (March 24). I hope she's right! There will be a full moon on March 8 so maybe that will be the big day! I have been working really hard at school trying to get everything in line for my sub. Hopefully tomorrow when I leave school, I will finally feel ready to not come back the next day. I go back to the doctor this Friday... I can't wait to hear if I've dilated anymore! :)

We finally had SNOW! Unfortunately, my baby girl had a stomach bug and wasn't really up for doing much playing. It was her first time having a yucky stomach sickness! She handled it really well. I took off Friday to spend with her, we ended up having a snow day on Monday, then I was feeling a little yucky myself on Tuesday, so I pretty much had a 5 day break. Lyla was back to normal for about a week and now she's sick again. :( Poor thing. This time she has a fever- hopefully it's just a virus but it could be a urinary tract infection- still waiting to hear back from the doctor. So anyway, back to the snow talk, here are a couple pictures of Lyla from that one snowy day... I actually do have snow boots for her but when I put them on her, she just cried and cried! So, we stuck to jeans and tennis shoes! :)

And for those of you who have heard me talk about our construction:

Can you imagine how dusty our house is from this?!?

Circus 2012

We had a great time at the Circus! The kids were really good and seemed to enjoy most of the show. They were getting tired at the end. Here are some cute photos from the night:

Hagen's Baby Shower

Today was such a great day! Thank you so much to all of my family and friends who came out to celebrate baby Hagen! (We missed those of you who couldn't make it!) We received such a wide variety of the necessities... it was great! (And some super cute clothes, too!) And how memorable that it snowed on Hagen's day- those were some huge snowflakes!

Many people asked about Hagen's room and I had to be honest about the room being no where near ready yet. We decided not to paint his room since we're planning to put our house up for sale soon. His room doesn't really have a theme- it's sort of funny because Tommy and I kept going back and forth about how we would decorate the room and now we're not really decorating it at all! Tommy, of course, wanted an Eagle's theme and I find something adorable about elephants. I think I will search for some cute elephant fabric and have my Grandma make curtains for his room. I didn't even get a bed set for Hagen- I guess you really realize things you NEED and don't need by the time that 2nd baby comes around!

When I got home from the shower with my car full of gifts, I decided to leave everything in the car until that room was READY! There's not enough time for me to drag my feet about it. It took me about 2 hours to clean everything out of the room- what was in the room you ask? Christmas decorations (it's a lot easier to throw things in that room than put them in the attic!), Tommy's hunting gear, all of my binders and educational books from grad school, workout equipment, etc. I was so excited when I could finally bring the gifts inside- unpacking and organizing everything is the BEST! Currently, I have a load of sweet baby boy clothes and other items in the dryer! And even though my back is killing me and I'm so tired from slaving in his room, I cannot wait to get those clothes folded and put away. We do not have NEAR as many clothes for this baby as we did for Lyla but I also had 4 showers for Lyla and I think it's a little different buying clothes for girls than for boys. BUT- don't get me wrong... we have PLENTY of boy clothes right now! :)

Thank you SOOOO much to my awesome sister who was in charge today... I know it's not very often that I give you control, but you did a great job, Stacey! The blue chocolate fountain was awesome! :)

Here are a few photos from the day:

H is for Hagen!!!! 6 more weeks! :)

The big sister :)

The cake!

Dear Hagen!

Baby boy's name will be Hagen, which is my maiden name- I love it! When we were pregnant with Lyla, Hagen was going to be our boy name. I didn't know how my dad would feel about the name since it's his last name so I asked him about his thoughts... he agreed that it's a really cool name. Actually, one day I was strolling the halls of St. Christopher's and saw a child's artwork hanging on the wall with the name "Hagen" on it... wonder where his parents got that name? Hagen's middle name will be Bo. 'Bo' is the name that my sweet husband, 'Luke', gave to his Grandfather. They drove around and hung out just like 'Bo' and 'Luke' from the Dukes of Hazard! Although I never had the opportunity to meet Bo, I completely understand how special Grandparents are and can still see the imprint Bo left on Tommy's heart. So, Hagen Bo it is! We've been calling him "HB" (his initials) which is also short for "heart-breaker" :). This pregnancy has been so very different from the first. I loved every minute of being pregnant with Lyla... I kept up with the measurements and knew exactly which fruit she was compared to each week. Now, I have to really think when people ask me how many weeks pregnant I am! Whoops. I titled this post, Dear Hagen!, because I want to apologize to him. I have a picture of my belly almost every week from when I was pregnant with Lyla but not ONE from this time. (And there won't be any) The second time is so different- you don't feel as "glowy". I know people say you carry boys different than you carry girls... and boy, do I think that's true! This baby is like a little basketball in my tummy. Tommy says he thinks I was bigger with Lyla- I don't know... I feel like my butt's gotten bigger this time! Hopefully everything will go back to normal as easy as last time! Hagen is SO active... he seriously moves almost all day long. I sit at the table teaching my reading group and wonder if my students notice that my belly is moving around all over the place... I can see it with my peripheral vision! It would probably really weird them out! Lyla was no where near as active- you would occasionally see her roll from one side to the other but never did she kick me all day long! And, Lyla had hiccups ALL the time- so cool... Hagen hasn't had any yet!

This pregnancy is different for me in other ways as well. Over the winter, I slipped on ice on our back deck. I fell flat on my back. Since then, I've had a pain in my back but never had it checked out because it sort of came and went... but now that I'm pregnant, the pain is more intense and frequent. I'm worried that something is a little messed up in my back but will have to wait until after Hagen's born to have x-rays. You're not going to hear me complain about the way I feel... people who see me everyday probably have no idea that I'm actually in pain when I'm walking down the hallway... but they don't need to know! Someone the other day actually said to me, "Do your feet hurt?" and I said 'no!' and they said "Oh, I always hear pregnant people complain about their feet hurting"... and I responded with, "pregnant people think they need to complain about everything." No! You don't need to complain, you don't need to eat for two, you don't need to post it on Facebook every time you feel your baby kick... that's silly! I would rather be more mindful of people who may be reading/listening and aren't able to have a baby of their own. I just feel so blessed.

On to another wonderful topic- Lyla Grace! I finally uploaded pictures from my new camera and realized there are some that are just too cute not to share. Lyla is growing so fast! The best thing she does right now is after she laughs, she'll wind down with, "oooooh, gosh" haha. You might need to hear me do this in person. It is TOO cute! I'm not sure where she got that from but it's hilarious when she does it!

Here she is after a bath:

And, on her new bike she got for Christmas:

And with her adorable bookbag she also got for Christmas with her name on it!:

And here she is playing at the Children's Museum in Short Pump:

If you don't think that little girl is cute, you're crazy! :) Thanks for reading!