Almost there

Well its been 3 weeks now since we started thinking we could have a baby at any minute and still no baby! :) I am 3cm dilated, fully effaced and having lots of pre-labour signs including non-stop braxton hicks contractions which I don't remember having at all with Violet. Unless baby decides she wants to be born this weekend, we are scheduled to meet her at 9:30 on monday morning.

I think its a very good thing for all of us that we have had this time for me to nest, for Jon to get all the major projects off his list and for Violet to have some bonding time with mommy and daddy before her life turns upside down. I think we now have everything in order for the baby and many, many other projects have been ticked off the household list so we are ready to receive.

I am so ready to meet this baby. I have started aching a little to have her in my arms, not to mention the aches that makes me feel 'finished' with being this large and heavy and ok with the thought of not be pregnant anymore. I will be sad not to have baby all to myself anymore but I am guessing she and I will have quite a lot of togetherness after her arrival too.

We have generally been managing to get some sleep around here but it is certainly not a sound night of sleep for all of us every night. Between multiple trips to the bathroom, middle of the night worries and a sometimes busy baby, I have been losing a bit of sleep, but I think I'm doing better than average. I even managed to sleep well during the recent heat wave with the exception of one night - thanks to Jon. Jon, of course is disrupted by all my activity and likes to get some middle of the night worry/anticipation in there too. Violet is doing well but has had a few disrupted nights for no reason other than the likely one that she knows she is about to deal with a lot of change.  She thankfully is a heavy sleeper.

Other than kicking the soother habit, Violet has also had her guard rail removed from her bed - there is no question that the 'baby' in that girl is rapidly disappearing. Something has changed in her little head in the past couple of weeks and she is just more grown up in her language, her humour, her ability to pick up complex ideas and her ability to give us attitude like she is a teenager. V is also becoming a bit of an organizer, she likes to make statements like "ok let's get to work" when we ask her to help tidy etc. and she revels in doing a good job. She has started tidying her room and making her bed - and doing a fine job of it I have to say!

V is anticipating baby with excitement but we are starting to wonder if we have over prepared her for the role of big sister. Sometimes we get the sense that she thinks she has to become an adult overnight, like when she says (repeatedly) "Daddy/Mommy, make sure you don't give me beer or wine or soda water or coffee after the baby comes!" She has also started focusing a large amount of energy on her babies, playing a mommy that just had a baby and taking her role very seriously. It is truly adorable. It's also very funny, hearing my own voice/words coming at me as she soothes her little one.

One of our biggest gripes lately has been the dog. Oh that George! He has been using the house as a bathroom on and off for a couple of months now. We aren't even sure what makes him do it, it is not need, he's pissed about something. It may be connected to this pregnancy because it seems to be getting to him. He has been trailing me more closely than ever since I became pregnant but the closer I get to the end, the more trailing time I get from George. He follows me everywhere and whines at me to stop moving around because, I guess he finds it tiring, go figure. When I finally settle to bed he is right beside me on the floor, snorting, scratching, snuffing and eventually snoring which has reached a point of disruption that I can no longer take (for some reason I am not my usual patient self...).  He eventually leaves to sleep elsewhere in the house but likes to take a lengthy tour first to check things out as he clicks his nails all around. This tour can and usually is repeated several times in the early morning hours to see who he can manage to rouse to hang out with him. If he was a younger dog, we would be exercising him to the point of complete exhaustion, but alas, even though the old boy is holding up pretty well, he can't take on too much physical activity any more.

My darling husband is now confined George to the basement at night which would normally mean that George would whine at the gate but he has been tricked into thinking that Jon is also sleeping downstairs so it has worked so far. We have now dropped him off at the doggie place for a couple of weeks so we can focus on baby and Violet for a while. Hopefully he will adjust well to baby.

It's been a wonderful summer so far, hard to believe it is coming to an end but what a way for summer to end with the birth of our new family member!  Check out our summer 2010 album for some new pictures from the last few weeks. We have had some wonderful times, especially swimming at the lake and chilling out in the cooled down hot tub or the kiddie pool during the heat wave of last week. Now we are planning a quiet weekend to get rested up as much as we can and enjoy this time before baby arrives.

Next post - baby!

And now August

It's been a busy summer to say the least. We have had a lot of fun with our Ottawa guests in the month of July. Mark and Joy and their boys Alex (6) and Carter (almost 4) visited for 2 weeks. All the kids got along so well and had a lot of fun together. It was a great opportunity to catch up with our wonderful friends and get to know their boys. We spent time in Victoria, Mayne Island and in Vancouver. We were all very worn out every single day!

We also had a visit from Jon's sister Rachel and our nephews Ben (10 in a few days) and Sam (7). It was great for Violet to have some time with her cousins and her Aunt. She loved every minute, I think because she got totally spoiled and because the boys were so good to her.

So our guest accommodations have been well tested now and seem to do the job.

Here are some recent pics.

Jon worked like a mad man during the Spring to get the house in order before our guests arrived and to prepare for the arrival of our newest family member. Things are looking great and the house is really functioning well with all our new space and storage room! He still has an awful lot of projects on 'the list' but I think we are down to the kinds of things that are on any homeowners list now - phewf!

Baby update

I feel huge :) Our latest doctor's appointment gave us some indication that baby might decide to arrive earlier than the scheduled date of Aug 23rd, but then again maybe not. This coincided with a terribly painful night when I had thought several times that I might be going into labour. As a result I left work a couple of days early and have been on mat leave now for about a week. The painful night was caused by a combination of baby 'dropping' (which was pretty painful in itself as it felt like she was making room for that larger than average head for about a week!) and my hips beginning to separate which somehow involved a nerve that ended up feeling like cyatic nerve pain. OMG! What a night. I ended up doing a lot of things that I would have done if I was in labour like yoga poses and a soak in the not-so-hot- hot tub. I eventually felt good enough to go back to sleep, after about 3 hours, but woke up convinced that I was done with working. I think all this hip pain was probably exacerbated by the fact that I've gained 40lbs already. I am 'big all over" this time around :) I'm really hoping that there is a LOT of water retention going on in this body.

I have been looking back at our blog from my pregnancy with Violet and her early days and realize that this baby might start feeling like the typical second child because we have written so little about this pregnancy. There is no doubt, I truly get it now, that pregnancy and I'm sure parenting when you already have another child is just a completely different experience. We just don't find much time to write down what's happening with the pregnancy, Violet or life in general. I love being able to look back and remember in detail all the little things that make our family life so special and valuable to us so I am hopeful that I will manage to find the time to write things down here more often - our new second computer should help I hope.

One of the major differences with this pregnancy is that I have slept a lot more (and I'm bigger - have I mentioned that already!?), oh how I hope this is a sign of things to come! I'm not sure if its me or baby but I manage to sleep most nights these days. I only have trouble if I can't get right back to sleep after going to the bathroom (currently only 1 time per night!) or if Violet wakes up for some reason. Then its my head that keeps me awake and baby usually joins in for an early morning visit that can last for quite a while. I have been really enjoying having this little being inside me and as much as I am starting to feel like I'm losing my mobility and want to meet her soon, I kind of like having her all to myself for the most part.

We have finally put the name search to bed...but we aren't telling yet!

Our baby room is ready now as well, just missing a piece of artwork from big sister Violet. We will take some pics and post them.

Violet update:

Violet accomplished a major milestone in the past couple of weeks. She finally gave up her soother "soosie". We tried at Christmas and lost her voluntary participation at the last moment and for some reason we just haven't had to gumption to push the issue again until recently. We did start to push it though a couple of weeks ago and she decided to have a few practice nights without the soosie before officially letting the soosie fairy come to take the soosies away for little babies. She got along great and only had a few nights where her settling down to sleep process was longer than ususal but we also had guests at the time so we weren't surprised. Finally she thought she had enough practice to let the magical fairy some to our house. The trade, of course, was well thought out by Violet. She wanted the soosie fairy to leave her a scooter, in a box, with a gold ribbon. Her wish was granted and now she is the proud owner of a 5yr+ Razor scooter complete with girly kneepads, elbow pads and gloves. She woke up on the big day and immediately put on the safety gear and took her new scooter for a ride around the house. Of course, as she likes to sleep naked these days (no its not our way of saving on pj costs!) it was quite a sight!

Violet is very keen to be the centre of attention and really is experimenting with being funny. When we were in the car with Rachel, Ben and Sam during their trip, Violet piped up with several stories that all ended with "a man getting covered in goo"! We all did think it was pretty funny and induldged her for about 5 minutes. Then Sam said "Violet do you want to hear something really hilarious?" To which she responded with perfect 3 year old comic timing "no thank you!" Many more laughs ensued.

Some favourite words and phrases are "actually", "but mommy or but daddy" and anything with 4 or more syllables. She really likes Fancy Nancy books which include a lot of 'fancy' words so I think this is where she is picking up a lot of her words. She loves to learn and is really keen on learning her letters and how to write them - patience is not always with her to make it happen but she is still keen to keep trying.

V is so excited about the baby - hope it lasts when baby is actually here. A few weeks after baby's arrival she will be starting preschool so we are hoping it will be good timing for her to have her own special thing starting.

Well there is my epic update. Let's see what news the next one includes... :)