Well....This week marks our 35 week mark of pregnancy. 4-5 weeks left! Due date of March 4. I'm ready for her to be here, but I'm so not ready on other levels. We've been so blessed with gifts for Arleigh so far. Thank goodness! Swayze had given her cousin a few things, and we have collected PLENTY of hair bows. (This is the south after all!) But now it's starting to get a little more real. Our dining room table is covered -just waiting on the furniture to arrive to get it all together. Hopefully the grands will make deliveries soon. ;-) We've still got to get our bags packed and everything together. I have 6 different to-do lists, but I'm having a hard time getting anything done.
Regular old life has been busy as well. Seems like Christmas went with a blink of the eye. January was birthday month in our family. My mama spent January caring for my Pop. I've been working like crazy getting ready for maternity leave with the real job and daisymaes. Life is wild.
I haven't been the spunkiest preggo lately...which makes nesting a problem. (If this is TMI, look away now.) The getting up to pee 5 times a night I don't mind. I'm sure it's just the natural adjustment to taking care of a baby. Adding to my heart burn, dry mouth, congestion and regular morning pukes, we now have nose bleeds and back aches. I feel like a druggie. I'm taking benedryl, sudafed, prenatal (of course), pepcid, and lots of peppermint smoothie Tums. All regularly. My doc assures me it's fine. This week we've added tylenol, icy hot and a heating pad.
Monday was ROUGH. Miss Arleigh found a nerve connected to my right hip, and I spent the day in tears. Serious pain for 3 days. But, as of today - Friday, I've recuperated enough to make a quick trip into our newly rebuilt Hobby Lobby. (HEAVEN. ON. EARTH. I think I was SO excited I couldn't even notice the pain!) My back is still achy, definitely more by the end of the day, but it seems more typically pregnancy bearable pain than the seriousness of sciatica with the hip pain. (Sciatica was horrible. I couldn't drive, hardly move...It was BAD. John made a great nurse.) A lot of the back ache in the past few weeks has more to do with the fact I'm (she's) just now gaining weight, so with my finally growing belly it has me and my back out of whack. The placenta had moved up to where it belongs, so we're no longer on watch. (Thank goodness!)
Even with all the "HOT mess" associated with pregnancy, I am SO thankful and blessed to have this opportunity. I've had friends with serious complications, and we're really blessed we haven't dealt with preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. I'm using this more to journal than complain, and I would take 20 times this much to have our sweet baby here with us. I think back to the journey to get pregnant, and how Arleigh started her life on the same day exactly one year later as the one that didn't make it - It's amazing. And SUCH a blessing. I'm sure when we hold her the first time, all this becomes a distant memory.
I have started going to the doctor every week now. Which means you get checked. UCK-O. It's not so fun. I haven't dilated or effaced or any of that, and the cervix was so closed he couldn't even tell if she dropped. So - we get another ultrasound next Thursday. (For those that know me and my family, not dilating or even effacing is part of it. The Junkin's have beautiful C-section babies.) I'm still holding out for natural - but I'm not setting some beautiful birth plan in my head to get smashed. Arleigh's gonna get here one way or another. It could all change and we go from nothing to a baby over night. WHO knows. Good news is we get so see our squirmy-wormy priss-pot again before she gets here, which I don't mind at all. :-) She is such a swimmer/cheerleader/soccer star inside. And she's funny. She'll be moving up a storm for Clarence to see or for me, and when her daddy gets close - or anyone else for that matter - she stops. It's a hoot. :-)
I haven't had too many cravings. I have more fits about what I don't want than what I just have to have. Mainly my likes are Edy's vanilla ice cream, baked potatoes, boiled carrots, watermelon and La Gran cheese dip. But definitely not together. I know....so goofy!
In other news, we've decided to go with Valley View for daycare. It makes the most sense for us. I do have concerns because they go on a "school system" 180 day schedule, which means we'll need an outside village for help because we can't take off 3 weeks at Christmas and other holidays. But it has a top-notch Christian educational program, it's super clean and organized, it's right by our house, and we can do only half/days mornings (John will be super dad in the afternoon). Our neighbor is the director, and is willing to work with us when John's schedule changes or I'm out of town for business or emergencies. She knows our closest family is 40 minutes away. And that's important, because John won't be able to leave his mail route and it's difficult for me to leave my job. And, most importantly, it means that's where we need to be for church. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Tuscaloosa is so different from my home town and home church. I went to the same church my entire life. Here, people church jump ALL the time. Just when you think you like a church, the little group that made up your new church family leaves to go somewhere else. It's been hard to plug in. And hard to just stick it out. It's made me lackadaisical with church. But, this answers our questions. God has a way of that to me. :-) Plus, the only thing I know to do as a parent is have my kid in church. That's the only definite to parenting. The only thing that matters.
Now that I've gone on and on about us, how are you?
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