A Very Carly Christmas

Well another Christmas has slipped away and boy did it go fast. We had a great weekend. We spent most the day on Christmas Eve with Brian's family. It was really fun and relaxing, lots of time to play with Carly and give her lots of Christmas pets. Then it was off to Nana's for a Christmas Eve feast then a marathon of opening presents and throwing the discarded wrapping paper at Uncle Alex who holds the trash bag, always a favorite past time. Then back to the K's house for a Carly walk and a dip in the jacuzzi. I only stuck my feet in, as I didn't want to boil my daughter. Then off to bed to wait for Santa....

Christmas morning we had aebel skivers. It was fun to make them for my new family, who have only sampled the Solvang "fast food" version of them. We gobbled them up and were so full, I am so glad they came out ok. Then more presents. Then it was time to hit the rode for my Aunt Lea's house, where we feasted again and you guessed it opened more presents. Gavin got a Cadillac Escalade ride on car thingy. It was so fun and at times horrifying to see him barreling down the hill in the back yard with Delianna in the passenger seat. They of course had a blast and sent Grandma and I running for our lives a few times. It was sure fun to watch them open their presents and imagine our little one playing with them next year.

After all the fun and unbelievably awesome food, we packed up our car to the brim, we couldn't even see out the back window, all three of us wracked in the loot from both of our generous families, and headed for home. It was another great year and the last one before Aisling comes to steal the show, if she hasn't already. It sure made us feel loved and very lucky.

The next big event will be Aisling's birthday. Now that Christmas is come and gone, it feels even closer. 3 more months to go!!!!!

Final Lap

Today we enter the 3rd trimester, we are officially 27 weeks. Three more months to go till this little girl is out. I can hardly wait either. My friend Kathy had her baby on Monday it was an early Christmas present as he wasn't due until the 1st week of January. I got to visit her a little bit on Wednesday and she and baby looked great. It made me realize that I am going to be having one of those baby contraptions of my own soon. It was pretty sobering, but also very inspiring. Now we wait for Ingrid and then it's my turn. I am so glad I have some great friends who are braving the path for me.

After 27 weeks of being pregnant, you may ask how things are going and how I am feeling. Well, I like to call it the good, the bad and the ugly. Let's start with the good. I am so excited and happy to be carrying my little girl. I am so attached to her already and I think about her 20 times every half second of every day. I love seeing and feeling her kick. I love dreaming about what she is going to be like. I love the way Brian is already so sweet and good to her. I wouldn't give it up for the world. Now for the bad, I feel pretty good most the time, but there are other times where being pregnant is no fun. The constant indigestion, the uncomfortable nights, the constant need to run to the restroom, not being able to breath after climbing one flight of steps and on and on. And of course there is the ugly, I don't exactly feel like a dainty princess. I am the heaviest I have ever been and am constantly knocking into things with my new girth. My feet swell up some nights so it looks like I have Elephant hobbit feet. I can barely reach my legs anymore to shave so I am starting to feel like King Kong. (sorry that may have been too much info) And I am just starting to develop stretch marks despite my obsessive applying of non-stretch mark lotion. So there it is, but no matter how uncomfy or frightening I look I still come back to the good. I love this baby and I can't wait for her to get here. I know the rest of it is temporary and the outcome is worth it. I may vent about it, but I wouldn't give up this experience for anything.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow and we will be celebrating with both families this weekend. We are calling it a very Carly Christmas (after Brian's folk's dog). I think it will be a great couple days. Our last one without Aisling.

The sacrifice of my toes

While hurrying down the stairs on Saturday to get the laundry started (and more importantly to get to the hot fudge Sunday Brian brought home as a surprise) I slipped and fell on the last few steps in our townhouse. It was more of a slide and I bounced down the last few steps on my rear. Everything is ok so no worries, baby and I, for the most part, are fine. My two toes on my left foot took the brunt of the impact. I've got a nice bruise on my middle toe and haven't been able to wear anything but flip flops since the fall, so I just hobble around with cold feet. I don't think anyone has even noticed my slight limp, which just proves to me that I must have had a significant waddle going already.

The incident was more shocking than anything. I was certain I was going to go into labor like on TV. And for a while every slight twinge gave me an anxiety attack. But now I am calm again. Everything is good and our lil' bean is still kicking away in there. It is amazing how attached I already am to this little person that I haven't even met yet. I just want her to be safe, nothing else matters, I'll take the sprained toe to save her any ounce of discomfort.

Make like a tree and leave

I talked to HR yesterday and set a day to begin my maternity leave. It will start on February 20th and I should return to work sometime at the end of July. I'll actually have 4 weeks off before my due date to relax a bit. February 20th doesn't sound so far away either. I think things will start to really get busy baby wise after Christmas. I am anxious to see this little one and get my body back. I can't wait till March so I am hoping the time goes quickly.

The other fun thing that happened yesterday was seeing Aisling kick from outside. I saw the slightest little tremor on my stomach when she kicked. It was pretty cool and means she must be getting bigger. She is all over the place these days, kicking high then low then to opposite sides. I am certain she is doing the splits sometimes when I feel her kick both sides of my stomach at the same time. She also complains when I lean too far forward when sitting at my desk. She kicks like crazy. I think she is trying to tell me that I am crowding her space.

Christmas party fun

Last night we had our cast member Christmas party down at Disneyland. We had a great time with Greg and Sienna and thoroughly enjoyed our evening which went something like this:

4:45 left work for Disneyland
5:15 stopped at Mickey D's to use the restroom facility
6:30 Parked the car
6:45 used parking lot restroom
7:30 entered the park
7:45 used Fantasy land restroom
8:00 ate horse-meat-like cheeseburgers from the Village Haus
8:30 used fantasy land restroom again

Notice a pattern???? Yep, our little angel was hunkered down on my bladder for most of the evening. This is her charming new game she likes to play with mommy. She kicks and does every thing she can do to try and make me have to go nonstop. Very funny..... She did eventually move and things got back to a normal level of bathroom use at least. Am I sharing too much????

We really did have a blast last night though. We went on lots of fun fantasy land rides, which is about all I can handle at this point including Casey Jr. (we sat in the Caboose, yippee) and the Story Book boats which I haven't done for years, but have a feeling will be doing quite often once Aisling gets here. The non-pregnant portion of the group got to go on Space Mountain, man I miss roller coasters, while I waited like a good mom on a nearby bench.

It was a good time, but I am paying the price today as I am so tired I can hardly keep my head up. I think even baby slept in as she is usually kicking me by 8:30 or so, but I just started feeling her a few minutes ago.