Welcome to Earth!!!

Carter Michael Ross. Born December 21, 2009 at 5:09pm. 8lbs 20 inches.

Stories, pictures, details coming sometime. For now, I will hold him as much as possible.

D-day minus twelve.

**No change in baby land. Which I'm fine with. A baby on Christmas would blow. My blood pressure was still too high so they made me stay at the office forever trying to get it to come down. I tried to explain it only gets high when I'm at his office but he wasn't buying it. Sure enough, 4 hours later at my dads house, the blood pressure was a perfect 120/80. Being half-naked at the doctor apparently raises my blood pressure. Wonder why?
The doc did another ultrasound and said everything looked great. I asked him to double check and make sure it's a boy. It's definitely a boy.

**We have no name for the baby. Seriously. We're not just keeping it a secret. No name. Mya is insistent we name him Juice Box. So far, that's all we've got.

**Mya peed her pants 3 times today and fell down the entire flight of stairs. Rough day for us both.

**Jaida's new favorite phrase is "never". She picked that one up from her cousin Nathan (thanks Bec). It drives me crazy.

**I still haven't loaded all the Disneyland pictures on my computer, thus no post. I got a little "picture burn out" if you can believe it. One of these days I'll catch back up.

**Mike and I went on our last date tonight before the baby comes. And then life starts all over as we try to figure out how to be a family of 5 instead of 4.

**My sister-in-law, Holly, came over today and helped me organize and clean the toy room. And she brought me some frozen meals for when the baby comes. She's officially a saint in my book.

**I've read 3 books in the last week or so. Because I'm fat and lazy. And lovin' it. I actually haven't been reading during the day, just having trouble sleeping at night so I'm getting more reading time in.

**My apologies to anyone who read my last post and clicked on the link with my brothers name thinking they were getting an engagement story and instead read about him pooing his pants. Hopefully it at least made you laugh. I'm not sure you'll ever get the engagement story.

**And my favorite story for the day:
While I was in the shower a few days ago, Jaida decided to call Mike. He's not on my speed-dial yet so I'm still unsure how she figured out how to call him. He didn't answer. She left a message:
"Dad....Mom's in the shower. If it's possible, could you come get her...." Long silence. Then she hangs up.
She calls him again. Another message
"Dad. Are you in a closing or what? This is Jaida. Not Mya. This is Jaida. Could you come home?"
Mike got the messages and then tried to call me back at least 5 times. Jaida didn't answer (even though she knows how)
Next thing I know, I hear his voice. "Linds???"
I was upstairs. "Why are you home?"
Turns out when you're 2 weeks from having a baby and your 5 year old leaves messages on the phone about coming to get mom in the shower, you panic a little.
We obviously had a little talk with Jaida which I'm sure was completely useless because she sort of does whatever she wants to. Her response, "Dad came home!!" with a big smile. Victory.

Hopefully pics of Mya's birthday and Disneyland coming before the baby!
Time for bed.

Wahoo!!!

My little brother, Jeremy, is getting married!!!! He got engaged to Ashley Nicholas on Saturday in Chicago. We haven't heard the story, but got a text. We're personal like that.
The wedding will probably be next June after Jer finishes his 4th year of medical school.
We're all excited and love Ashley. Thankfully. My sister and I were sure for quite a while that Jeremy would marry someone we didn't like. Glad we were wrong.
And we're thankful she's patient and are pretty sure she's gotten (is gotten a word?) a good taste of what Jeremy and our family are really like after all the Sunday dinners she's been to. And she still said "yes".
Welcome to the family, Ashley (even though we already considered you family)!!

Baby update.

Went to the doctor yesterday. I'm 36 weeks which means the "checking" begins.
Started with my weight and blood pressure. I don't look at the scale any more. It makes me nautious. And then I set off the alarm on the blood pressure machine. Too high. Boo.
So they made me lay down for 10 minutes to see if it would come down. Still too high. I tried to explain that the anticipation of being half-naked in the doctors office may have something to do with the high blood-pressure. The doc still didn't like it.
They tested for Strep-B (which I was positive for with Mya so I imagine I'll still have to have the antibiotics). And then the doctor actually asked me if I wanted him to check my cervix this time or wait. Um, do I WANT you to?? No, actually, I'd rather you not have to check me EVER and keep your hands to yourself but there's really no way around that.
I already had my pants off so we may as well. I assured him I would be a zero since I never dialated with the girls.
Turns out I'm almost a 2 and 50% effaced (whatever effaced means). And I laughed an ironic laugh. Because this is the ONE month where it would be quite inconvenient if he actually came early. Once I hit a 3, watch out. The baby's coming.
So he told me to "take it easy". Have you met my kids?? And the other bundle of little girls in the neighborhood that frequent my house daily? Take it easy is NOT in the vocabulary around here.
For now, I'm scheduled to be induced on the 28th. We're hoping that's the date and not anything earlier (though I'd LOVE to not be pregnant anymore). I'd like to enjoy Christmas without crying the entire day from post-baby hormones. Should be an interesting few weeks.

And for those of you who have requested a "fat" photo on the blog. . . Not gonna happen. It's hard enough to avoid mirrors. I don't need it posted for all the Internet to see. So if you wanna see it, it's going to have to be in person (Jaimi). :)

Monday.

Monday morning I woke up to Mya sitting at the top of the stairs singing "Jingle Bells" as loud as she could while she watched the snow fall out the window. She didn't come to wake me. She just started singing. It was a great way to wake up.

We went downstairs and snuggled on the couch and watched cartoons together waiting for Jaida to wake up. Then we ate breakfast.

The girls were excited about the snow and wanted to "shovel" the driveway. So we went outside and started shoveling. 1 minute later my neighbor came over and snow-blowed for me (thanks Dianna). So the girls shoveled the grass and street instead.

We came in and warmed up. The girls played Barbies together while I got the laundry started. Then Mya took a bath while Jaida showered.

The girls went back downstairs and played dolls while I cleaned all the carpets upstairs (thanks for the dirt devil Kristin).

Then it was lunch and time for school.

Mya played with friends (at our house of course) while Jaida was at school and I continued to work on laundry and edit photos (still not done--ugh).

Back to get Jaida from school.

When we got home, Mya asked if she could "dash through the snow." Back outside to play. I watched from the window. And finally had to go outside and chat with Mya about what snow she could eat. This was after I watched her eat brown snow from the street (which she thankfully spit back out), and snow off Jaida's boots. I finally intervened when I saw her pulling snow off the bottom of the car. Her response "I won't get sick, Mom. I like it."

Mike got home and Mya informed him they were "dashing through the snow really, really fast."

Dinner and then family night. We did sticker books of the Christmas story for the activity and Mya kept calling the angels "fairies". Close enough I guess. She also insisted her sticker donkey sit on the baby Jesus. I suppose 3 is too young to be sacreligious.
We then sang "Away in a Manger" at least 10 times (not exaggerating and we sang all 3 verses). Both girls had the 1st verse memorized by the end. Mike was the one insisting we keep singing it. :)

The girls and Mike then ate an ice cream treat while I ran a few "Christmas" errands.

Back home and bed time. Mya first. We read "Pinkalicious" (which we read every night and Mya can do much of it by memory) and "The Hungry Caterpillar". We then sang a few Christmas songs and "I love to see the temple" (also sung every night).

Jaida reads with Mike while I'm putting Mya to bed. Then we watch TV together. Probably not a great habit, but she'd already read books earlier in the night.

I fell asleep with Jaida while Mike folded ALL the laundry.

Nothing spectacular about the day, just one I'd like to remember.

Marathons.

It seems like running has become more popular lately. And I hear of more and more people running half-marathons and marathons. But despite the growing popularity, I still think it's quite an accomplishment for someone to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.

Just wanted to give a shout-out to my sister-in-law, Bec, who will be running her first marathon tomorrow in Las Vegas. We'll be thinking of you. Wish we could be there, but I'm too fat. We'll definitely be cheering from home!!!!

I'll be with you next year. ;)

And. . .I'm done.

I know pregnancy is designed to be this way. So that you're so miserable by the end you don't care what it takes to get the baby out. Regardless. I'm done. And yet I still have 4 weeks left. Boo. I've lost all desire to do anything. Even eating seems like a nuisance. And for me that's saying something.
Time is oh so slow. Speed up please. Please.