Festival Of Lights

Last night we took Morghan up to Charleston for a little Christmas surprise. It's called the Holiday Festival of Lights and we had heard lots of good reviews so we bundled her up and headed out. Naturally she passed out in the car as it was a long ride, but when we got there and I woke her up she was thrilled to see so many Christmas lights everywhere. It was about 4 miles of Christmas light displays and you just drove through it all in your car. I had forgot to charge my camera battery but managed to snap a few "decent" shots on my phone. My pictures really don't do the displays justice so I apologize!


After we went and saw all the lights we ended up at Santa's Village where we walked through the gift shop, sweet shoppe, and then a quick bite to eat. We got some hot chocolate and just as we were about to get stuff to roast marshmallows this sweet older man offered us his unused sticks and marshmallows. Morghan LOVED this part. We had so much fun.

After all of that we went and waited in line (for almost an hour in the 36 degrees!) to give Morghan one last shot to talk to Santa until next year. She toughed out the cold and Santa's 20 minute break until she was able to get up there to see him. She followed suit, asking again to get Grace out of mommy's tummy. I just smiled it off as Chase got his phone ready to snap a picture of her. I glance up to catch her asking Santa if he likes CheezIts. He tells her that he does and she continues on and asks him if he would like her to leave him CheezIts instead of cookies when he comes. We all got a good laugh out of that, even the jolly old guy. She is truly something else.


Even though it was bitterly cold out, we had a great time. I'm so glad we decided to go. Seeing how happy she was made us happy (even if she did have a melt down when it was time to leave!) She slept the whole way home, and was so tired that Chase had to carry her to bed and he had to convince her to at least take off her scarf, jacket and shoes before she laid down. :)

Ready, Set... Stay

It's no secret that I am an uncomfortable pregnant person. I will not pretend to be that person who is overjoyed with the experience and nothing ever happens out of the ordinary. I'm not going to sugar coat anything. For some people pregnancy is hard on them, and I am one of those people. I know that I am not alone as I've met several others who feel the same way that I do. I simply try to look forward to the end result. I will even admit that despite the fact that I was in hard labor with Morghan for almost 48 hours I would prefer to go through labor than 9 months of pregnancy. As the end grows closer, I find my self more and more anxious to get this precious one out of me. I realize I still have a little over 4 weeks left, and I will continue to wait as needed.

That being said... on Saturday I began having contractions. They started around 4:30pm and did not stop until around 2:00-2:30am. Considering that they were 8-10 minutes apart and not getting any closer together we decided to just stay home and wait. Eventually around 1:00AM they were becoming incredibly painful, but within the hour the pain subsided and the mysterious contractions ended as quickly as they began. Chase let me sleep in until 11:00am Sunday and even gave me a back massage. I felt like I had done 1000 crunches and my back was terribly sore from the contractions all night. After speaking with the nurse yesterday morning it was determined that it was just false labor (duh) If it happens again for more than 2 hours however, I am to call immediately to be monitored. Apparently I was supposed to go to L and D anyways, I was just being stubborn. For now I just get to take it easy and to stay off my feet as much as possible as that only seems to further aggravate the situation. As much as I can't wait for her to arrive, it would be nice if she could at least hold out until next Monday at which time she can com whenever she wants.

Eviction Notice

Oh how I would love to send one to this little girl inside of me! I'll give her two more weeks before she is notified, I suppose! She feels so much bigger than Morghan was. I carried Morghan wide and center, but Grace is all out in front and extremely low. After about 15 minutes of walking I want to sit down because its so painful. I definitely do not remember Morghan moving this often, let alone being this strong. Sometimes I wonder if this kid is short on room. There are nights when she squirms and kicks so hard its actually painful! Morghan loves to feel her move around. She will sit next to me on the couch with the biggest grin every time she gets "poked". Chase finds humor in me constantly watching my belly, but I can't help it. It makes me realize what a miracle a child really is. To know that there is a life inside of me is amazing.

I've been horribly sick all week long. Doc thinks I had the flu and apparently being pregnant means it takes longer to get over! Hopefully it resides soon as I've started with this horrible cough and I'm sure Grace doesn't appreciate it very much.

My test results finally floated in. Other than being borderline anemic, the blood work looked good. I had to do another 24 hour test for protein though. My next appt is on Thursday and he is supposed to check how big this lil munchkin is.

Other than that, life isn't very exciting in the Lillard household these days. All our Christmas shopping has been done for a couple weeks so I finally managed to wrap and ship everything. I can not wait until Christmas morning, just to watch Morghan open all her gifts!

8 days until Christmas
15 days until 2011
25 days until my birthday

...and 38 days until Grace is here!

At work, no one seems to think I will make it to the 24th. Everyone has her somewhere between the 10th-18th. We shall see...

Dear Santa

It took 4 years to get this picture! Is it the perfect picture? She waited and waited in line to see him and willingly climbed in to his lap without any coaxing. Finally! The best part was yet to come...

As she took her place, perched on top of his leg, he began talking to her. He asked if she had been good this year and if she had sent him a letter yet. She informed him that we would be doing that later that night. Next he asked her what she wanted most for Christmas. I was ready for her to say something along the line of "my little pony" or "toy story movie"...

This is what I hear -- "I want my baby sister to come out of my mommy's tummy."

Santa, if you can read this. Can you please give her that one wish at the very least? Thanks...

Moving on...
Recently several of Morghan's toys have had the batteries die or are malfunctioning in some way, and I just haven't got around to fixing them. She has a bird flashlight that tweets but the light bulb doesn't work. A toy CD player and blow dryer that need replacement batteries.

She was walking around the house one day and she came to me, very angry and told me she needed to talk to Santa Claus right away. I asked her why and this was her reply... "Nothing works anymore and it makes me upset! I'm going to ask him for a working BeBe (what she calls her bird flashlight), a working blow dryer, a working CD player and a TV. At least maybe he can bring me batteries!"

Will I make it?!

Week 33 and my oh my...

The past 2 weeks have been filled with handfuls of symptoms ranging from massive migraines that won't go away, blurred vision/seeing spots, sharp stabbing pains just under my bra line on my ribs (that aren't from Grace), dizzy spells, extreme fatigue, and intense pelvic pain among other things. I kept shrugging things off and decided at my Dr appt today I would bring them up. I warned my OB that I would be his psycho patient for the day, but he just laughed at me.

SO! That intense pelvic pain? For starters (and this may or may not be TMI for you) my pubic bone has separated with a considerable gap. This happened with Morghan but was never this painful. In the middle of the night when I have to get up to use the bathroom it can be down right debilitating. Further more, the extra pressure I feel probably has to do with the fact that she is measuring in 2 weeks ahead of schedule and has dropped rather low, though not engaged... crap.

As for all the other symptoms? Apparently when you take all those things and add them to my slowly increasing blood pressure you get a patient presenting as early preeclampsia or even another situation called HELLP Syndrome. I had to have 6 more viles of my precious blood drawn today to check all sorts of things including my platelets and liver enzymes and a million other things. I won't get any results back until Monday/Tuesday. Should I come back with results indicating Preeclampsia I will be put on bed rest immeadiately. Should my results indicate HELLP Syndrome, then the baby has to be delivered ASAP.

And so I will leave you with one of Morghan's Christmas Pictures... Her last Christmas by herself! She could not be more excited for this baby though. All she talks about everyday is how much she is going to help out. She has even made up a song to sing to the baby so she will go to sleep. Bless her heart! :)