Easter Sunday

Charlie and I made it to the 10:30 service at our church, then headed over to my parents' house to spend the day and have dinner. Charlie got a giant Easter Basket from my parents full of fun things like a Goodnight Moon matching game, some cute striped socks, a soft little bunny, and some books about Easter, but her favorite things by far were the little pastel eggs with malted milk eggs inside. My mom only put two in each egg, so Charlie only ate six or so, but then she played with the eggs for the rest of the day. The dress she's wearing is my latest sewing project. Happy Easter, everyone. Jesus is Risen!

My Old Friend Terbutaline

Like I said, I'm reliving my first pregnancy. After Jeff left for work, and after I put Charlie to bed, I started feeling more contractions. By 1am they were painful, and regularly eight minutes apart. I called Jeff, but couldn't get him to answer, so I called the hospital, and they told me to come in. Now the contractions were 5 minutes apart, and my mom was on her way to take me in, since Jeff was still not answering. By the time she got here they were 4 minutes apart, and when I was finally in a room and on the monitors at Harrison, they were 3 minutes apart and really painful, and a wicked backache had started, too. I got two injections of "the Terb," as we like to call it, and the contractions gradually subsided. Since I was so early and not dilated, they sent me home at 6am with strict instructions to come back if this all started up again. I will be 34 weeks on Wednesday, and any more time Abby can get is golden, so I am now on husband-mandated bedrest, and am back to living in my pajamas, kind of like the first three months of this adventure. I feel much better today, but exhausted from no sleep last night, so I'm off to bed, but please keep praying for Abby to stay put and get strong and healthy before she comes!

33 1/2 Weeks and a Watermelon Belly

So I find myself reliving my first pregnancy- 33 weeks, and having enough contractions to worry my husband and make him want to do the dishes and clean house for me, but not enough for me to be in actual labor. I would have a contraction, not painful, just uncomfortable, and then another one five minutes later, then 15 minutes later, then two minutes later, and this went on all day long yesterday. Yes, Kristy, I am drinking lots of fluids. Today I only had five or so all day long, but felt very tired and crampy, and again did not get up from the couch all day. So I have literally done nothing at all for three days, I look (and feel) as though I have swallowed a watermelon full of elbows, and my only entertainment is Charlie's couch acrobatics, Disney musical performances, and occasional kisses and snuggles (the pictures above were taken today). She definitely keeps me laughing, but I am quite ready to get on with this, even though I know every day I don't go into labor is another day of growth and development for Abby. If you are praying for us, please pray that Abby stays put for as long as she needs to get strong and healthy; that I will have peace about this (and extra patience), and that Jeff can go to work and not worry about us too much, because I know he does. Don't worry about us, though; God is in control, and His timing is perfect.

Charlie Bucket Gets a Haircut

When I realized that most of our nicknames for Charlie were starting to revolve around her wild, untamable hair and recent affinity for nudity (Mowgli, Man-Cub, Jungle Savage), I decided to cut my losses and fix what I could, and that meant cutting her crazy, Charlie Bucket-from-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-hair. I have been trimming it myself for some time now, but she needed a real haircut, so I took her to Regis at the mall, where I get my hair cut, and we proceeded to terrorize the salon for about twenty minutes. Now if you are thinking to yourself "what a terrible, negligent mother she is, not taking any pictures of this momentous event in her first child's life," let me tell you what I was doing. Remember that the man-cub prefers life in the nude, so I compromised and let her take her shirt off before placing her in the chair. She is also two, and adamantly rejects confinement of any kind, especially unfamiliar confinement where strange women are sneaking up on her with sharp scissors. So I sat in the salon chair and held my half-naked street urchin tightly against my eight-months-pregnant belly, all the while encouraging and commending the efforts of the woman with the scissors and thanking the other precious stylist who sat with us and fed the angry, hairy monkey Hershey's Hugs until the traumatic experience was over. I waited until my sweet little girl was safely home, brushed off, and happily naked again before trying to take any pictures, and that's why they are all of her eating macaroni and cheese, because otherwise I would have no pictures of the day at all. I do what I can. Now she looks like Luke Skywalker. An improvement? I think so.

More California pictures

California Trip

We had so much fun in February visiting friends and family, celebrating Charlie's second birthday, and soaking up the warm sunshine. Yes, we have sunshine in Washington, but as Jeff says, the sun here is broken- it shines, but doesn't produce heat. We got to see all of Jeff's family at Charlie's party, and took some great pictures (could my husband be wearing a more offensive shirt?), and Charlie received about 100 presents, all of which were chosen specifically to be able to fit in my suitcase. Note: flat presents do fit well in suitcases if you get one or two of them, but 100... Charlie had a great time playing with all of them, at any rate, and we were so grateful that everyone wanted to get her such fun things and come spend the evening with us. We can't wait to go down to visit again, but we hope to stay a little longer and get to relax a little!