99 Days

I have 99 days left!! Actually, 99 days until my due date. Who knows when the little one will actually show up. I'm so excited that I hit the double digits. Obviously I still have a long way to go, but two digits seems so much smaller than three :-) Tomorrow I'll be 26 weeks pregnant and next Friday I'll officially start my third trimester. Oh, how the time fly's!

Last night Christina was kicking up a storm. She seems to do that a lot when I sit down on the couch to watch a movie. Oh, and cold water really gets her going. It's funny because I've heard of other pregnant women who drink Orange Juice to get the baby kicking, but my little girl gets excited over water. She's like her mommy already.

According to what I read, Christina should be about 9 to 10 inches long by now, although that doesn't include the length of the legs. It's very weird, but "they" only measure based on head to butt. I have no idea why.

She is now weighing in about 2 pounds, which is double what she was when I got my last ultrasound. From this point on, she is going to be growing very quick (or so I've heard).

Also, at this stage, my little girl now has her eyes open. That means that if I shine a flashlight onto my belly, she might react by moving away or kicking. I haven't tried this little experiement yet, but I'm sure I will at some point.

Cry me a river

I guess the hormones are really starting to get to me, because I'm having trouble holding my tears back on a regular basis.

I was watching the movie P.S. I Love You yesterday and I cried through the entire movie. I seriously don't think my eyes were dry at all. And then, when it was over, I downloaded five songs from the movie and played them over and over again, still feeling weepy.

Today I found out that a girl I know from a message board I'm on, lost a coworker in a motorcycle accident, and she left behind a three year old daughter.

Nik has said to me recently that he wants to get a motorcycle to save on gas (since the prices are through the roof). Of course I had to send him a long, sappy email about how he would break my heart if he ever got one. I couldn't handle losing my husband like the woman in P.S. I Love You. It makes me even more sad thinking that I don't think Nik will ever take these concerns seriously. When it comes to worrying, he is practically the exact opposite as me. My only saving grace is that I don't think he is serious about getting a motorcycle.

As if it isn't bad enough getting all upset over sad stuff like that, I am getting teary-eyed over happy things as well. Thinking about my daughter, the fact that I'm actually going to have a daughter, feeling her move around and kick, it's all too much to handle without shedding at least a few tears. And I am sad to think that she can't be here with me right now. Yet, I feel so guilty for even thinking that, because if she were to come early, that would mean very hard times for my little girl.

I was reading a blog this morning about family size. The blogger asked how do we know what size family is right for us. While I was reading all of the replies about parents who know they want to have big families, I started to get choked up again. Nik and I want to have a big family and thinking about all of the good times we have ahead of us is so sad in a happy way. Sad because we have to wait for that, but happy because it is going to be so amazing when it finally comes. I'm having a hard enough time waiting for this little one to come, and still it will be so many years before our family is actually complete.

I'm sure once Christina makes her big arrival though I'll be kept busy for awhile. I am so much looking forward to that.

More Pictures

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. I definitely did. Here are some pictures of me over the last week or so.

Patience is not one of my virtues

Last night I went to visit my friend Marissa, her husband, and their 3 month old baby. Marissa ended up sending me home with a huge bag full of clothes that her daughter has already grown out of, as well as a baby swing! Her daughter didn't like the swing, so she passed it on to me.

When I got home I set the swing up in the living room right away and ever since then I've just been so happy. It's very weird, but having the swing out there, for me to see whenever I am home, just makes this so much more real.

Honestly I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait another 3 months (lol, as if I have a choice!!). But, I really am excited for Christina to come and I can't wait for the whole house to be filled with baby stuff. And I know it will!

Thanks Marissa and Tom!!

Daycare

Officially, Nik and I are dragging our feet on the whole pick-a-daycare thing. It is looking like we are going to have to send Christina to daycare three days a week once I start going back to work full time. This is not something we are looking forward to. In fact, we have always talked about me staying home with our children (even before we were married). But, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be a possibility due to our finances.

I did come up with a possible way that we can avoid daycare though. It is a tentative game plan that would require a lot of flexibility from both of our work schedules. I don't know if it's possible. I don't know if our companies will go for it. I don't even know if, realistically, we will try to implement this plan. But, it's out there for us as an option. At least to make us feel better about the whole thing I guess.

In the meantime, we really need to be visiting and choosing a daycare - just in case. Because I'd say that the odds of us actually being able to keep Christina out of daycare altogether is slim to none. We are lucky that we are able to figure out a way to only send her for three days a week I guess. That is what I keep telling myself.

Yet, I am still not motivated to go look at daycares. Plus, the whole idea is weird to me. There are like fifteen of them in our little town and I don't know how to differentiate one from the other without going to visit. That is going to be hard work, especially when daycares are really only open during regular working hours.