Not much to report

I like keeping a blog, but sometimes I just have nothing to say.
Today Ryleigh and I did some more Christmas shopping. It did lead to a mini heart attack when I thought I accidently overdrew on my spending account. I thought I was keeping track of my money, but then I looked at my bank app on my phone and panicked when I saw a transaction that may or may not have gone through. So I rushed home to check online, and realized all was well.
Ryan took us out for dinner at Applebee's thanks to some generous tipping customers today :-)
The rest of my week will be busy with doctor's appointments, MTO, and getting ready for the Ladies' Tea at church.
We have about 4 more people to buy Christmas presents for, so I guess we're doing good about staying on top of things.
And last but not least, I was supposed to work tonight, but the company experienced a big computer glitch, so essentially I just got paid to sit on my butt, blog, and Facebook for an hour. Woohoo!

The Bed Rest Blues

It all started Thursday morning. I started having Braxton-Hicks contractions. I figured they would go away. They didn't. They stuck around for a couple of days.
After experiencing contractions for about a day and a half I decided to call my doctor. She told me the contractions were my body's way of telling me I'm pushing myself too hard, and that I was dehydrated. So, she recommended that I "put my feet up" and rest to make the contractions stop.
That's pretty much impossible to do when you have a toddler, so for much of Friday I tried to relax but it was very hard to do.
Then the fun really began. On Saturday, I had so many contractions I pulled a muscle in my abs, causing horrible pain anytime I sat up, laid down, or moved. And then Alexander decided that Mommy's pulled muscle would be a great punching bag. So all day yesterday I pretty much could not move at all, and even when I sat still I was still getting beat up from the inside! It resulted in lots of pain and lots more tears! I was pretty sure I'd end up in the ER yesterday, until my wonderful hubby came home and ordered me to lay down and not get up!

So I was pretty much helpless, and let him take over.
Can I just tell you how much I absolutely hate not being in control! It drives me crazy!
Plus I hate being told I can't do something. And even more, I hate when people offer me help. It's like the biggest insult to me. I always think that if someone is offering to help me then they think I am incapable, and I hate being thought of as incapable!
So to sit back, "relax", and let Ryan help me all day was very, very tough.
I also let him do everything for me today. I spent much of my day in bed, or on a couch.

Thankfully with all that rest the contractions subsided. And by trying really hard not to use my ab muscles they are starting to feel less sore as well. And, Xander has moved around, so now he's only punching my sore muscles some of the time, instead of constantly. So I am on the mend and plan on going out tomorrow!
The only scary thing is I really didn't think I was pushing myself before. I thought I could still do everything I normally did, even with being 25 weeks pregnant... apparently not :-(
So I have to learn how to slow down, and rest more. I don't how I'm going to accomplish that, but hopefully I won't have any more contractions until the big day!!

A new tradition?

Ryan and I are in search of a new family tradition... which sounds kind of oxymoronic (yes, I made that word up) right? But let me explain....

As the holidays approach, and Ryleigh is older, we would like to find fun things to do as a family to celebrate the holidays, and hopefully we'll enjoy them and continue them in the years to come.

It seems like as long as Ryan is working for R+F we will spend Thanksgiving in NJ because he only gets Thursday off. So this year we're trying to come up with something to do on Thursday as a family. So far all we've come up with is getting to Christmas decorations out of the hideously over-packed storage closet. But that's where our ideas end :-( And Ryan has a rule about not decorating for Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, so going to get a tree is out, as well as putting up other decorations.

So for the next couple of days I will be brainstorming ideas. Cause I know if I don't come up with something much of our holiday will be spent laying on the couch :-(

My Husband doesn't know me at all

Tonight I realized my husband doesn't know me at all.
He had to run to Acme to pick up some milk, and asked if there was anything else we needed. I said we need dishwashing stuff.
20 minutes later he comes back with dishwashing liquid! Liquid!

Anyone who's known me for longer than 5 minutes knows I DO NOT DO DISHES. I have no need for dishwashing liquid.

I am strictly a dishwasher kind of girl. I put everything in the dishwasher!

Ok, so I do have liquid by my sink for those times when the dishwasher just doesn't get my big pots clean... and it's pretty much empty, so it does make sense that Ryan would think I needed more liquid... but around here a little bit of dish washing liquid can last a really long time. Haha.

Needless to say, I will be running to Acme again very soon before my dishwasher fills up because there is no way I am doing an entire dishwasher full of dishes by hand. Gross!

Woah slow down!

So remember all my posts in the summer time about how bored I was? I just wanted something to do... well, I got my prayers answered. This past weekend I had (almost) too much to do. But thankfully everything involved spending time with friends and family.

On Friday I got to go to "All Fired Up". It's a place where you get to paint your own ceramics. You choose a piece, paint it, and then they glaze it for you and you get to pick it up a few days later. I used to go a lot more often before I had Ryleigh, so I was glad to get to go again. I had a fun girl's night out, and painted a cute snowman spoon rest.

On Saturday we headed to our friend's house and had a fun game night with some other couples. Even though I totally suck at Monopoly I enjoyed the company, and had a great time :-)

And Sunday was as busy as it always is. Church, dinner and laundry and Granny's house, and then a soccer game. I have to admit I was not in a good mood at all the entire day. Have you ever tried controlling a toddler for an hour, when both of you didn't get any dinner, and you want to attempt to watch a soccer game? Yeah, not fun. Thank God for Miss Danielle who's always willing to give me a hand!

Then today Ryleigh and I got to enjoy the aquarium with some friends. It was a good day to go, and we enjoyed the animals, and a nice lunch.

I am so thankful to be busy with so many social plans, but tonight I am definitely looking forward to watching House, and then catching up on Grey's Anatomy from last week, finally!

(I also like how being busy makes this pregnancy go by faster!)

Getting ready for baby

Since finding out that we are having a boy I have been busy going through Ryleigh's old clothes to find unisex items, throw out items with stains, and set aside some hand-me-downs. I'm trying to sell somethings on Craigslist, but I am more than willing to give everything away to someone who needs it.
We have been so blessed with so many clothes for Ryleigh! Between hand-me-downs and grandparents who enjoy spoiling their grandkids we have never actually needed to buy anything for Ry... of course there's been several outfits I haven't been able to resist buying, even if she didn't NEED them. :-)

Now my focus is on preparing for a boy.
I registered at Babies R'Us just for the fun of it, and the 10$ gift card they promised me. (why not? right?). While at BRU I told Ryleigh we were shopping for Xander and had to find things he will need. She got so into it! Anytime she spotted an item she'd say, "Xander needs it", and made me scan it with the registry gun. And she was actually pretty accurate with most stuff. She knew he needs sippy cups and a car seat... she may have made me scan one too many cute little pairs of shoes though.

It's really helped her prepare for the baby I think.
Now if you ask her what she'll do with her baby brother she'll tell you she's going to give him hugs and kisses and play with him. And if you ask her what sound a baby makes she'll tell you they say, "woosh woosh", since that's the sound the fetal doppler makes when we listen to his heartbeat. I love that it seems to becoming more real to her now. She keeps asking if Xander is out yet :-)

It's nice that at least for now she's enjoying the thought of having a baby brother. We'll see how long it lasts...