Well we are down to the ‘it could happen any day now’ time! I do have to say I am happy that we had a Christmas with no baby. As fun as that would be, we are glad to have her birthday at least be a few days after Christmas (for her sake). As I am writing this we are actually 10 days out from due date, which is so hard to believe!

Christmas has been such a wonderful time to celebrate and be with family and relax a little  before our lives are thrown into a whirlwind of parenthood. Trey & I still can’t wrap our heads around what life will be like as parents, but we will find out soon enough.

Our Rainbow Baby:
I have a very special story that I have debated whether or not to tell, but I believe it is such a hopeful story that I just have to share:

With the holidays already being a time of awe and wonderment as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it makes me that much more thankful and amazed to be blessed with such a miracle in our lives. The end of the year also tends to be a time when we look back at our year and wow! I have to say this year in particular has been such a testament to the fact that you just never know where your life is taking you. This time one year ago was a very different Christmas for us as I experienced a miscarriage with what would have been our first baby. It was a few days before Christmas and was a very difficult time for us. It is amazing to see what a 180 life has done over the year. We are blessed beyond belief and try to appreciate it and give thanks for it every day. As we try to live our lives this way, I hope we can teach baby girl the same. Be thankful for what you have every day, thank God for all the blessings in our life, and enjoy each day to its fullest. Since we found out we were pregnant again, baby girl has been affectionately called our Rainbow Baby because she is the good after something so terrible, the rainbow after the storm. We have a framed rainbow in her room that says “Keep looking up, there may be a rainbow waiting for you”. This little rainbow baby has taught us that among many other things. God has had many lessons for me this year.

An Angel Watching Over Us
God decided he wanted to remind me he is watching over us and with us all the time. My Nanie used to give all the grand kids a Christmas ornament every year. Mine was always an angel (the series actually started the year I turned 1 so I now have all 27 angels in this series of ornaments and I love them!) Every year the young angel is doing something different- playing an instrument, praying, reading a book, etc. My mom has kept up the tradition after my Nanie passed away so we still get our ornaments every year. This year she hands me the angel and when I open it up it there is an angel coloring in a book and amazingly she is drawing a RAINBOW. We were all so shocked that of all years and all the angels I have the rainbow appeared this year.

We can’t wait to meet our rainbow baby and we thank God every day for her!

I am getting slower at posting these! I am 1 day away from being 37 weeks, but the picture was taken at 36 weeks so we’ll go with that.

So many things are coming together
– nursery is done! (hopefully pictures coming soon)
– My dad made an awesome toy box for baby girl- it turned out exactly how I wanted and looks great in her room!
– I THINK we have everything needed for baby’s arrival
– hospital bag is packed- so weird!
– I have 1 week left of work- then off for the holidays and maternity leave. I have NEVER not worked for this long so its going to be so strange! But I am excited to be able to focus on our new little family for a while with little distractions.

Although she has always been such a mover, her movements are definitely feeling different- they feel VERY LOW and bigger more purposeful movements, but less overall. I’m pretty sure she is running out of room in there! We got another sonogram a few weeks ago. I met with another doctor in my doctor’s practice and she was worried I was measuring too small so ordered a sonogram- although I figured it was unnecessary I will never say no to another chance to baby girl. Sonogram showed she was about 5.5 pounds, heartbeat was strong and exactly where it should be and she is in the 42% growth rate. Other than that we didn’t get much else. The sonographer (is that what they are called?) was so surprised by how stubborn baby girl was. She has BOTH hands covering her face and as we tried to have me lay on my side, push my belly and adjust her so we could get better views, she would NOT budge! We saw her move, but it was always on her own time and she would never react to us trying to get her to move. The sonographer asked who she got her stubbornness from. Trey is adamant that trait is from me! No way! 🙂 Out of pity we got a print out of baby girl’s foot because that is literally the only thing she would show us enough of to take a picture. So we’ll just have to wait until she actually arrives to see her. I am perfectly fine with that and just glad to see she is healthy and growing great. Side note: later meeting with MY doctor- she is very happy with my measurements and where everything is- she does believe that sonogram was unnecessary.

This past Saturday we had a FULL day of performances for the studio. We had Christmas performances lots of our classes during the day and then a performance for our competitive teams that night. This was the first day I started feeling… weird. I couldn’t describe it very well, but I just had to sit down more often (which I have not really had to do yet), couldn’t always catch my breath and I swear my belly weight is starting to pull me forward. Not sure if I overdid it that day or I am just so close that this is just what I am going to feel like for the last few weeks. But I am definitely feeling like that cliche pregnant woman- waddling around when I walk, holding my belly or my back when standing around and having to sit down as well as run to the bathroom very frequently!

I am actually 37 weeks tomorrow with only 22 more days on the countdown. Woo hoo!