I am 3 weeks and 2 days away from my due date. Baby is jumping all over the place, and I am so sore that I can hardly walk. I have a really hard time standing up for any period of time, so dinners are pretty ridiculously awful anymore. I am really wearing down, and it was very apparent mentally today. I have trouble winding down to sleep at night, because my legs are sore and need stretching, and then I just can't get comfortable.
Fortunately, I've got a lot going for me. I'm winding up the field work that I've been doing for my job, which has been fun but really, really exhausting. Travis is a really good sport about everything that I can't do, and he's starting to get excited about the arrival of our wee one. Still no name for her yet, but at least we're discussing things more seriously now. It's weird how our choice of name has changed again and again as the weeks go by. And, the girls are really getting to be very independent. Emily helps Audrey wash hands after meals, and they are so self-sufficient at things that I really take it for granted how easy it is to ask them to do something and they do it. Audrey had a bit of potty troubles this weekend, but I think it's that we were starting to overprompt, and she had lost track of it being her responsibility. So we backed off, and she's all proud of herself. Emily is an invaluable helper to me - she even managed to wrestle a basket of laundry to the top of the stairs one day!! And she carried a huge package of toilet paper upstairs, too. I really can't wait until I can move around and play with the girls, because for now my playtime with them consists of mostly puzzles and reading books. I just can't physically do much else. But they're good sports about it, and we get lots of snuggles in this way.
We made a trip to my parents' place last weekend so Travis could get their new computer up and running. The weather was really crummy, but the girls had a fabulous time. Emily and my mom had a little 1-on-1 intensive preschool session on Sunday morning, reading books, singing songs and fingerplays, and talking and talking and talking about all kinds of things. It's amazing how much she can absorb!! She sang "little red wagon" for me on the way home, and she remembered the tune, the words, and all the different tools that can be used to fix a wagon. :) So cute to hear her singing about the "wranch" that Grandpa will use. She also got to work with Grandpa on Saturday afternoon, making birdhouses. She had a little hammer that she used to work on each nail, although she was really only interested in about half of each nail, and then she let my dad finish them up. Then she got tired of the pounding and just decided to sing and dance next to my dad while he pounded nails, but in her mind she was still helping. She showed me her first birdhouse when it was done, beaming with pride, and said, "isn't it beauuutiful?" It was nice, but not nearly as beautiful as her smile.
I submitted an application with a nanny service last week. I'm really hoping that we can find someone who is a good fit. I'm excited, because there are all kinds of benefits to it: won't have to drag the girls out of bed in the morning, or do all that extra driving. The girls won't have to be around dogs or other kids all the time, because I'm truly not seeing that "socializing" as an advantage to our current situation. I'm hopeful that a nanny will keep things going around the house, and give the girls structured learning time without the stress of a group setting. But we've gotta find the right person.
In theory, there should only be 6 more full days of work for me before I have this kid, so that's not too many daycare days for the girls. After the baby is born, well, we'll still see, I guess.
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