Sophie

I feel like a horrible blogger - not updating my blog with our excellent news until nearly a week after it occurred, but I've been understandably busy.

Sophie Eloise arrived last Thursday morning at 5 in the morning. We're both doing great, and we're all a little tired, but still. Great. She's a really good baby, and I am over the moon about her.

Then of course, there was Christmas and a houseful of guests.

I don't think we've ever been so blessed at Christmastime.

Gabbie is an excellent big sister, and I'm so proud of how well she's doing. There have been a few additional tantrums, and, just to make things a little more interesting, she came down with a cold on Christmas eve, so she hasn't been able to hold and play with her baby sister as much as she wants.

Thankfully, there are plenty of new toys in the house to keep her busy. Her favorites include her toy kitchen:

And chapstick:

(I'm glad she's so easy to please.)

But now, I'm going back to my favorite activity - baby cuddling.

Tantrums

Last night at bedtime we experienced the most epic 2-year-old tantrum to date. Gabbie is definitely not the kind of kid who calms down through crying; she just gets more and more upset until she's practically hyperventilating and we need to step in to calm her down. This kind of sucks because she gets the attention she wants which doesn't help to discourage the tantrums. But, she was over-tired (she has had short naps two days in a row, plus she refused to nap over the weekend), over-sugared, and over-indulged (it's hard not to give her what she wants these days because I feel guilty about how much her world is about to change without her having a choice in the matter), and she just lost it.

Also not helping the situation was the fact that Aaron and I couldn't help but laugh, something that sets her off even more because she gets embarrassed.

We finally got her calmed down and she was, of course, asleep two minutes later. Oh, Two. Two is interesting to say the least.

She's not the only one who regularly loses it these days, either. I am having a very hard time with concentration and patience, which doesn't lend itself well to finishing up tasks at home and work, or when dealing with a two-year-old. Last week I was feeling overwhelmed, over-tired (she's definitely not the only one; we're all exhausted these days), and it was my turn to lose it. Aaron laughed at me a little as I burst in to tears, exclaiming, "Everything is going to change!" (um, duh), and "How is my baby (Gabbie) going to handle it?" (As Aaron pointed out, we (both oldest children) and several million other oldest children have handled it just fine for thousands of years).

Someone else in our house, who shall not be named here, also threw a mini-fit about potato chips (or, really, the lack of) and how I need to replace what I finish off when I go shopping.

We're all clearly a little anxious. Even though I want the baby to show up now (GET OUT BABY!), I'll be fine with her coming next week, because then at least I'll be done with work (2.5 days left!) and then some of the anxiety will be alleviated. We're also reducing Gabbie's days in daycare during my leave, so hopefully that will also help her relax. I'm looking forward to a day of just the two of us together if we get it. If not, well, of course I have something else I can be excited about.

About as disjointed as I feel right now

Ever since this past summer, when I found out I was pregnant and then accepted the Big Promotion at work, my poor blog has been sadly neglected. I kind of feel bad about this, especially since my pregnancy with baby number two has not been nearly as well documented as my pregnancy with Gabbie was.

Other things have fallen by the wayside as well. Reading. Getting my hair cut (it's seriously long). Pretty much anything other than work, spending quality time with my family, and basic house keeping (just enough to keep it from getting gross).

So, needless to say, even though having a new baby is definite craziness, I'm kind of looking forward to how much my life is going to slow down any day now. (ANY DAY NOW! DUE SUNDAY! AHHH!) As Aaron and I were dragging our butts out of bed way too late again this morning, we reflected at how we've hit the point in this pregnancy where it feels ridiculous for people to expect anything from us, and yet here I am, working away, trying to get yet another annual report done, data collection instruments drafted, participating in conference calls and meetings, getting everything as complete as possible before I leave people here to fend for themselves.

Also, my house, while fairly decorated for Christmas, is a mess right now. I lack both the energy and motivation to care about it.

Yet, I have so much to do, and I feel like I'm running out of time. The best part about the baby? I'm pretty sure I won't care about those other things for a while. I can't wait to meet her, and get to know her, and hibernate with her and the rest of my family.

I know for sure it's not going to be a walk in the park, but I still can't wait!

Week 39

I cannot believe that I'm here already. There are less than two weeks until my due date and I'm sort of freaking out. Of course, the doctor told me again last week that I'll probably be late again. As a "hey, maybe this will make you feel better about that" kind of gesture, she told me that for babies born the week of Christmas there are special receiving blankets and they get Santa hats. I? Really don't care about blankets and hats. I just want to meet my baby!

I turned 31 last week, which was pretty much a non-event. Aaron and Gabbie got me a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and Gabbie also gave me her cold, which I have been battling ever since. I must note that coughing while having the entirety of a small person's weight on your bladder is not a gambling game I like to play. Also, pregnancy is super sexy. Obviously.

As a birthday present to myself, I scheduled a massage which ended up happening on Friday evening. In addition to being a fabulous way to end a long week, it alleviated the sciatic pain I had been dealing with for a couple of weeks. That itself was worth probably triple what the massage costs. I will be going back again.

This weekend we relaxed, which was sorely needed. My mom and sister stopped by and brought me some new comfy pajama pants and a robe, some completely adorable sweater/leggings sets for Gabbie, and a bunch of candy for Aaron. We got started on decorating the house for Christmas, and bought all but the last couple of things we need for the baby (we still just need burp cloths and about 12 more cloth diapers), and assembled the crib.

I rounded out the weekend by organizing my underwear/sock drawer and going through all of Gabbie's clothes to weed out those that don't fit her anymore. Can you say nesting? I also rounded out the weekend by daydreaming about hiring a housekeeper to do a top to bottom clean of the house. As I said to Aaron, that's how you know you're nesting but are also too sick to do anything that requires much energy.