January 2012

Trying to catch a snowflake.

So excited!

A snowy walk in our field

Snow angels.....

"I eat it?"

This picture automatically improves my mood.

 Ready for trusses.

Here they are!

Fascinating to watch out the window!

 Halfway there.

Almost done!

Pretending to "sleep"

She made sure he was nice and comfy:)

Daddy is so much fun!!

38 Weeks

January was kind of a rough month in the Skaggs household.  After having contractions and finding out that I was dilating at Christmas I started trying to take it "easy."  Well you all know how that works with a busy 2.5 year old.  It doesn't.  So I continued to struggle with contractions and had to make another trip to the hospital to be monitored at the very beginning of the month.  It was becoming more and more clear that instead of trying to stay off of my feet, I HAD to stay off of my feet if I wanted the little man inside of me to stay there until his due date.  Luckily I have two mom's close by!  Between Jesse's mom and mine, they would take turns coming over in the mornings to help with Sierra until her nap time.  This was exciting and fun for her, but also a change from her usual routine of one on one time with mommy and there were times she lashed out.  She adjusted though and did pretty amazing overall.  She learned that if she wanted to play with me that she had to bring her toys over to the couch or on my bed, she gradually held her hands up less and less for me to hold her, and instead of asking if I could sit on the floor by her she would say, mommy come here with me, I will get you a chair.  All of this broke.my.heart.  There were days that I wanted to feel really sorry for myself but I tried to just be grateful that we have so many people in our lives that love us and come to our rescue.  People from church brought meals, my house got cleaned, and my Sierra was taken care of.  We are blessed!

In the end, I made it through the month still pregnant.  While this is good news for baby boy, my body started to protest all of the pain from the last few months.  I was seeing the OB weekly and each week my blood pressure got higher and higher.  Normally I have really low blood pressure (like 90/65) and I never had high BP during my pregnancy with Sierra.  So when they started to worry about it being high it was pretty shocking.  The major worry about high blood pressure during pregnancy is that it can be a sign of Preeclampsia.  Luckily I have none of the other symptoms that go along with it.  They basically decided that the pain from my back and the constant cramping/contractions for the last couple months has tired out my body and it is starting to wear out.  If it gets too high at any point, or I start having any other Preeclampsia symptoms then I will most likely be induced since we've made it almost full term.  We will see how the next couple of weeks go!

Sierra graduated to a big girl bed this month!  The first couple of nights were tough.  She cried for her old bed.  I laid on the floor beside her for the first two nights, and she went to sleep later than normal.  On the third night Jesse took bedtime duty because my giant pregnant body does not do well lying on the floor.  We all prayed together like we usually do, he put her in bed, sat with her for a bit, then said I love you and left.  I heard this all through the monitor and was expecting major tears.  What did I hear?  Silence.  She fell asleep in her new bed and at her normal time.  Go daddy!  After that bedtime went a lot better.  We left her old mattress on the floor beside her new bed for a couple of weeks in case she fell out.  And she did.  She is a squirmy sleeper.  A couple of times she just got back in by herself and went back to sleep on her own.  A few other times we had to go in and put her back in bed.  But overall the situation was not as scary as we expected.  That is generally the case - the things that you worry and stress over end up being no big deal at all.  And the little things, that you think will be no big deal, end up being the stressful ones.  Tis life with a toddler, and really life in general.

Despite the difficulties of the month, I think January really did end up a good month.  With help, we were successful at keeping my tiny little man from being born too early, we now have Sierra in a big girl bed thus making room in her old crib for her baby brother, we ate a lot of good food and goodies (NOT so good for my stretchmarks and double chin) from the wonderful people that love us, and Sierra had fun in the snow.  So we will spend the next few weeks enjoying our last moments with Sierra sibling-less and my next post will most likely be sharing the details of our new baby's birth!!!