Last hurrah

Well, hey, look at that…almost the end of the year! This happens every year, with the month-long (much-enjoyed, at least for me) lead up to Christmas and then Bam!, it's all over.

Drama for your mama

Both kids have been keeping things interesting, and while I'm not quite ready to ground either of them, it's been a little more high-drama than usual around these parts. Way back at my December 3rd / 28 week OB appointment, the doctor couldn't catch the baby to listen to his heartbeat on the doppler. She tried for a while then gave up, laughing, and asked, "Is he always like this?" My answer was yes, yes, constantly wiggly. I didn't think much of it, but then at my 30 week appointment on the 17th she still couldn't get a good read on his heart. She finally tried pinning him down and got it then, but it sounded funny. My OB is pretty low-key and let-it-ride, but she decided that she was concerned enough to refer me to the high-risk practice for an ultrasound, just to make sure the funny sound was a two-time fluke and not a cardiac arrhythmia.

I tried very hard not to worry about it between then and my ultrasound on the 20th, and I was mostly successful. I stayed off Google and just tried to focus on her telling me that even if it was an actual arrhythmia, they usually correct spontaneously after birth and are not that big a deal. Baby looked great at the ultrasound and was a huge and hilariously cute ham the whole time. I was sent home with two sheets of 3D glamour shots of his fat little cheeks and told that even though everything looked fine, I should come back in a week for another checkup. I went back on Thursday this past week and his ticker got a clean bill of health. Now the high-risk doc wants to see me in another two weeks because my amniotic fluid is "borderline high." Another ultrasound, even though the doctor himself said it's "nothing to write home about." I'm torn between being happy they're paying such close attention and wondering if perhaps they're a little too used to zebras over at that practice. Thank goodness for insurance, either way.

Usually I think those 3D ultrasound photos are decidedly creepy, but this one has killed me dead with cuteness:

Baby Brother is reportedly around 4 lbs already, with feet measuring 7 centimeters long, gangly arms and legs, and a full head of hair. Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, I failed my one-hour glucose test and had to go in for the three-hour version (which I apparently passed, though if my fluid keeps reading high, I'll have to take another one. Dammit.) My OB confirmed my internet-assisted self-diagnosis of pubic symphysis / SPD, which explains why what I thought was a strained crotch-area ligament just wasn't getting better. It hasn't been too terrible, though my hips wake me up several times a night already, which did not happen with Nico until much closer to the end. I'm trying to take it easy and not further exacerbate things. And Nico came down with a spectacular case of pinkeye the Thursday night before Christmas. Luckily his pediatrician is wonderfully accommodating and squeezed us in for a Friday morning appointment and we got him on eye drops right away. Even with those, he looked ridiculously pitiful by the end of the day Friday, his eye all crusted-over and runny and a bruise underneath where he'd rubbed and rubbed it. He was mostly better by Christmas and I'm grateful it wasn't flu or something pukey. I'm hoping we can go into the new year with a reprieve on medical mini-dramas, but with preschool and its associated petri dish of interesting contagions starting on January 3rd, I'm certainly not holding my breath.

Jolly holidays

We had a really nice Christmas, one of the best I can remember. We visited MB's family on the 23rd for most of the day. There was a huge country supper, MB's mamaw broke out the family photo albums after we ate, Nico had a fun time visiting his great-grandparents' chicken coop, and everyone behaved. BoMB and Nie made it up from Memphis and spent the night with us that evening and got to stay and hang out with us and Nico the next morning. The guys cooked this amazing breakfast and it was just nice overall to have time to visit. It was the first significant hang-out time we've been able to have since we went to Memphis back in May. I made the ridiculous rookie mistake of deciding we should rearrange Nico's playroom that day, but in the end MB didn't actually reach the brink of divorce so I guess it worked out. We had my extended family's Christmas gathering the evening of the 24th, and hung out with my parents and sister on the 25th. Nico's gifts were all age-appropriate and either aligned with his current interests (trucks! instruments! more trucks!) or just plain cool (marble run! this tangram-y thing!) We aren't quite done celebrating, as the annual Thanksmas party, always one of my favorite nights of the year, is set for New Year's Eve. I must say, I'm a fan of the slightly drawn-out holiday.

(I washed the shirt in between celebrations, I promise.)

Snow business

We actually got honest-to-God snow for the first time in Nico's life! It started late on Christmas night and snowed well into mid-day on the 26th. Nico noticed it on his own during breakfast and asked to go out and play. I didn't think he'd actually agree to wear the necessary clothing or tolerate the wet / cold, but he surprised me twice. I layered him up ridiculously and he happily stomped around and threw big handfuls of snow onto my clothes and even put a few handfuls of snow onto our small, slightly Muppety snowman. I dragged him inside after about 45 minutes because I was hungry; otherwise I think he would've stayed out for quite a while. It was ridiculously fun to share this with him, and also to realize this might make it into his memory bank. Plus he was so stinking cute in all his snow gear. Also, hilariously, the local paper keeps referring to this as the "blizzard" of 2012 even though the city only averaged 7 inches of snow. The last time we got significant snow it dropped around 22 inches, which I think qualifies as a blizzard by anyone's standards. But seven inches? A blizzard? Oh, lower Midwest…you're so cute!

"It's a snowball!"