New Layout

Morghan is asleep and the house is clean so I have nothing to do. I decided to give my blog a "face lift". It took me a while, but I'm finally happy with the one I made,at least for now... A bit premature with putting Grace's name on there, but I know that I won't have time later on! I've even started on Grace's birth announcement so that all I have to do is add pictures/information! :)

Baby Girl

She is really keeping my on my toes these days! My poor right side gets abused daily, especially my ribs! Clearly she is running out of room in there. Dr estimates she is around 7-7.5 pounds right now, which is fine as long as she stays that big. Naive, I know :) Had Morghan made it to full term she would have been over 9 pounds. As of last week I was at 2cm and 75%, so we are just playing a waiting game these days.

My friends Julie surprised me with a baby shower yesterday. She said we were going to lunch, but when we got there I happened to notice familiar vehicles. Then we we went inside the host blew her surprise by saying "Are you here for the baby shower?" haha it was so nice to see everyone from my work. I had a nice time and got some more great stuff for the little one.

We have 99% of everything we need for this baby! We are still waiting on the baby tub to arrive, but other than that we are ready to go. I finally packed my bag for the hospital (after Chase nagged me for a week). My nesting is starting to annoy him I think :) Mostly because I need his help with a lot of things. I kept insisting the garage was a mess so he broke down and helped me go through boxes. We went to Lowe's and bought some shelving and plastic containers, all of which was far too exciting for me. After all was said and done the garage looks a million times better! We also went and got some shelving for Morghan's room, and some fabric bins to separate all her toys in to. She has been doing a really great job at keeping things where they go. Today I cleaned the bathrooms as best as I could using hot water and soap. I refuse to use any chemicals right now since I'm pregnant and there isn't good enough air flow in those small places. All that's left is putting a few boxes in the storage and getting the carpet cleaned!

New Years

Nothing too special about New Years other than its now 2011.

Morghan's friend Adrianna spent the night and surprisingly there was almost NO drama between the two! They behaved and listened very well. Normally bedtime is a hassle with these girls, but it wasn't so bad that night. They went down VERY easily... it was the 2 hours after wards that I was going crazy. By midnight they were passed out (compared to usually going to sleep around 2am!) They were up before 7 I think, but not too sure on that one!

No New Year's Resolutions here... all I care about at this point is having this baby! Everything else is in God's hands.

Christmas

Christmas was great, Morghan has been playing non stop with her new dollhouse. I feel as though she spends more time in her room playing than with us! Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning.
It even managed to snow the very next day. Of course, it didn't stick to the ground but Morghan was thrilled. She's normally very slow to wake up, but when I went to tell her that it was snowing she popped right up and ran to the window! I got her dressed (as it was 28 degrees!) and she wandered out to the front yard to see the snow.

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...