Latest James Update

Yesterday I had an ultrasound at the maternal fetal specialist's office to double-check all James' measurements and do some in-depth imaging. He is growing like a weed, or more appropriately, like a moose. Third trimester ultrasounds are not incredibly accurate, but they estimate his weight to be about 4 1/2 pounds right now at 30 weeks, which is about a pound and a half larger than normal. Other than being a very big boy (and might I say incredibly active), he is developing normally and is healthy as can be.

According to my OB, there is nothing left to do but just keep an eye on his growth, make sure my blood sugar remains stable and wait. Since full term is considered 37 weeks, he could come any time after Valentine's Day. As long as he is healthy, I'd prefer he come earlier, I am getting mighty uncomfortable!

30 Weeks. And That Belly Is Only Getting Bigger

Please, for the sake of your children, avert their eyes, the following images may be too traumatic!

From the side. And yes, I really do have 10 weeks to go.
For comparison - here I was with Maggie at 30 weeks. I should've worn a fitted shirt for Maggie's belly shots...

Here's the front shot Tyler's mom requested. I know what you are all thinking - what is the deal with the seam of my jeans? I tell you what, 5 years in the hot attic was not kind to these poor maternity jeans. I know I need to get new ones, but now I'm just 10 weeks (or less!) away from delivery, and I keep hoping I can put up with constantly hitching them up.

I Didn't Have to Dream of a White Christmas

We got one! Christmas Eve night it was snowing a little bit before we went to bed, and I hoped it would stay around long enough for Maggie to see it in the morning. It did, and it has been spitting little bits of snow all day now. Our back porch when we woke up:
CHRISTMAS EVE
Christmas Eve we went to church for the candlelit worship service. It was really nice, and Maggie did great holding her candle. Then we went to a friends for a Christmas party - thanks McKays! It was a lot of fun. I neglected to take photos of our fun. Oops!

Then about 8:45 we opened some presents. To lighten the load on Christmas morning. Because when we stay home in Nashville, there are so many wonderful presents to open from everyone that the blessings are a little overwhelming.

Love this rock star outfit for sweet baby James from Gramma Amron.
Bibs and an awesome onesie with applique tie for The Boy.
Modeling her new apron.
Look at that static! That poor child.
Enjoying her new TinkerBell sleeping bag from Gramma Amron and Grampa John.
We always cap of Christmas Even with the account of the birth of Christ from Luke chapter 2. Clearly this child ate too many cookies and sweets at the party at the McKays. Look at that crazy smile -oh, well!
Then "The Night Before Christmas" before bedtime. Maggie goes back and forth about the existence of Santa. We are fine with her believing in Santa as long as the focus at Christmas time is on the birth of Jesus and Santa is just for fun. But she really liked the poem. We forgot to put out milk or cookies, and thankfully she didn't notice.

CHRISTMAS DAY
Maggie told us every day (many times) for 2 weeks that she wanted a Baby Alive for Christmas. Looks like the jolly old man delivered.
Inspecting the long-awaited Baby Alive. We had to get it out of the box and get it ready for her so she could feed her dolly before we continued with the rest of the presents.
One of our family traditions: popcorn while we open presents. Tyler loves the popcorn tins. The one I picked up this year didn't just have the dividers, each flavor came in it's own bag. Not quite the same aesthetic in plastic bowls, but it still worked.
My mom has called Maggie her little peanut since before she was born. And now Maggie's got an ornament to prove it! So sweet.
My mom framed a picture of Tyler and Maggie from last Christmas. Maggie told him he needed to take it to work for his desk!
I love cake pops, and Bakerella. And I really love this cake pops book!!! So excited to make more of these.
Tyler enjoys Maggie's squinkies almost as much as Maggie does!
A glass birdie ornament from my mom. I love it!
Opening yet another gift. We let her open gifts in 2s and 3s so we'd all finish about the same time.
Look at this little man outfit for sweet Baby James from my dad. Love it!
Hammin' it up in the new vest from Poppy & Mimi.
New slippers from Tyler. Love 'em!
Ready to tear into her stocking after brunch. I will spare you a shot of my stocking pile, it was embarrassing. But also a lot of fun!
Playing soccer in the snow.
Posing with the collection of snowballs she and Tyler were making.
I've got a turkey roasting in the oven for dinner, a pie cooling on the counter, and my two favorite people playing on the Wii. We had a wonderful Christmas in Nashville this year, and hope you did, too!

MDO Christmas Program

I can't believe I almost forgot to put these up. Last week (12/16) Maggie was in her last Mother's Day Out Christmas Program. (sniff!) She got to be an angel this year. Here's her Pre-K class before the show. All her partners in crime were also angels. A little ironic to this mommy.

Hammin' it up for Mommy.
A quick picture with Mommy and sweet baby James.
With Daddy after the program and out of her costume.
And the best part EVER. During the program Maggie decided to pull down her tinsel halo and use it as sunglasses. So classic! I am bummed that I forgot to charge the video camera and only have it on my digital camera, so the quality isn't great because she was so far away. And I apologize for my comments during the video, but I just couldn't help myself!

Toof #2

Sunday morning Maggie lost tooth #2. By force (again). At breakfast it was SO crooked she looked like an Appalachian (pronounced: app-al-aCH-an) hillbilly, and I couldn't look at her any more. That crooked tooth freaked me out more than the thought of having to pull it out, so we got out the dental floss once more.

There was significantly more drama with this tooth - I couldn't get the slipknot to stay put. Maggie started to cry because she thought it would hurt, even though the first tooth didn't hurt at all when it came out. And I think 5 tugs later out came the tooth; the first four attempts were foiled when the slipknot came off her tooth. But there was very little bleeding.

We let her take her tooth to church to show her friends in Sunday School.

And then that night the Tooth Mouse struck again.

3D Ultrasound of James

At my last ultrasound I did get to have a 3d ultrasound of Sweet Baby James. I kept it to myself so I could surprise the grandparents with his first real picture, and included it on my Christmas card pictures. So here he is. I love him so much!

It's Toof Time

Maggie lost her first tooth tonight. Her bottom middle teeth have been loose for some time. I noticed today that the tooth on my left was sitting just about completely behind her other tooth. So, I tied it up with some floss, and let her yank it out herself. She did it on the first try!
I quickly sewed a little pillow for her tooth to put under her own pillow. Don't look at the stitching, it was already past her bedtime, and I was not about to rip out stitches in felt.
My happy girl with her little pillow.
And, by the way, the Tooth Fairy will not be visiting the Spaid household. The Tooth Mouse will be visiting. She came to me one day last month and declared that the Tooth Fairy was not real, but that the Tooth Mouse would come get her teeth and leave her a quarter. And, get this, the Tooth Mouse is a MAN. Not like a tiny fairy-sized man, but a big man like Daddy. What an imagination!

Baby James Update

Here I am at 27 weeks. Taken last night. Feeling enormous, the ground seems so far away already!
And baby James. Taken on Wednesday.
First, let's just admire this beautiful boy. His profile is very similar to Maggie's.

Wednesday I had an additional ultrasound as James measured big at the 20 week ultrasound (upper end of the weight scale, but his long bones were much longer than normal). Again yesterday, he was measuring large for his gestation: the OB said 75th-95th percentiles for weight, head, arms, and 95th PLUS for his leg bones. On an unrelated note, he did NOT like the ultrasound wand - he would kick and hit at it so hard it would almost bounce off my tummy.

I have taken both the regular gestational diabetes 1-hour test (came back elevated) and the 3-hour test which came back normal. The OB is now making me check my blood sugar 4x a day, and in the past week I have not been over the limits without changing my diet. Even after consuming moderate quantities of homemade fudge!!!

Personally I think I'm just growing a long baby! My dad is 6'5", his brother is 6'7". My brother Zach is 6'4", Brian is 6'1ish". Tyler is 6'2" and the shortest man in the Spaid family. His dad is 6'4/5", Uncle Ken is similar. Cousin Josh is 6'10", cousin Jason is 6'7". My cousin Tom on my mom's side is a tall order, too! But, the OB is not convinced, and I am going in for a high-level ultrasound at the end of the month to double-check all the measurements of the baby and go over my "dates."

The up side of all this is I get to see him on ultrasound again at the end of the month. It is just amazing what medical science can do, and I love seeing my little boy!

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent this Thanksgiving at my Dad's house in Spokane. It was a lot of food and fun! And snow. A lot of snow.

Maggie helped me make the pumpkin pies.
And here are the beauties! They were delicious!!!
Our feast. Delicious!
By far the bestest turkey I've ever eaten. My Dad brined it first, and then roasted it upside down. The white meat was amazingly tender from the first bite. Reheated in the micro it was STILL moist and perfect.
This is the gravy boat, a puking turkey. It was hysterical!
Tyler spent much of his weekend with us covered in Tilly and Maggie.
Thanksgiving day. Maggie would play outside until she was pink all over. Living in Nashville there just isn't a real reason to buy waterproof gloves or snowpants or any of that. We had to live with multiple layers.
Black Friday we did head out to the mall after breakfast. We found a great distraction for Maggie - a $5 moose at Build-A-bear. She named her moose Lily.
Less than 24 hours later, she left Lily unattended on a couch. Tilly took that as a sign that the moose was her chew toy. Sylvia found Tilly still with the moose but not until after Tilly chewed off the ears, tuft of hair by the bow, made a big rip in her cheek and chewed up the tail real good. It was so hard not to laugh when we were describing what happened. Maggie did really well, though. Sad faces, but no crying, and she was concerned about Tilly's tummy after eating the ears.

We are VERY THANKFUL that Build-A-Bear has a "hospital" that you can send them to. So we took her back to the mall and in 6-8 weeks we'll get a rehabilitated Lily!

I think just about every night she had hot chocolate before bed. Until she peed in her sleep in the bed next to me. She loved sharing her marshmallows with Poppy.
There's a hill on the edge of town that is PERFECT for sledding. I haven't been in years, so we made it out there to go down the bunny hill portion. In consideration of baby James, I didn't go to the big hill.
My turn! It was so fun!
Making their way up the bunny hill.
Mimie started to slide away half-way through getting on the sled. It was pretty funny!
Sledding is hard work. We were all tuckered out after that adventure.
All the thinner tree branches were covered in frozen fog instead of snow. I've never seen it in person, but it was beautiful!
Poppy doesn't mess around when it comes to clearing snow. The attachment for his tractor was pretty awesome.
I had Maggie pose in one of the paths made by the snow blower. It was about a foot high, and that was before we had a second round of snow the next day.
Maggie sat with Mimie the whole time we were there, whether it was watching a movie or when it was time to eat. It was very sweet.
A little person Maggie drew for Poppy.
Posing with her first-ever playdough person. She said it was baby James. I will be concerned if he is born with blue hair.
Posing on top of the fridge. Poppy put her up to it.
In the airport on the way home she played with this little boy for 45 minutes before we boarded. She was very glad to have another kid to play with, and not just her momma.