Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is fast approaching and so is the New Year.  Time to do a quick update - and why not at 4am since I am  not sleeping?  It is officially Christmas Eve!!!

Six years ago my husband and I were anxiously awaiting our first (biologically ours!) child together.  My due date:  December 26th.   Our first planned homebirth.  The set up was the same as this year, Christmas Eve on Friday, Christmas Saturday and the due date on Sunday.   My husband, Mark works Sunday through Thursday and kept hoping I would have the baby so he wouldn't have to go back to work on Sunday.... no such luck. 

We spent Christmas Eve with his side of the family and Christmas day with my side.   I took a nice long, relaxing bath that night and went to bed.  I woke up (without looking back at 'notes') a little after 9am (maybe 9:30....)on my due date, and had a couple contractions.  I went down stairs with my *very* attentive 5 year old, Tilor in tow.  I got the big giant clock off our wall and had Ti bring me the phone after I dropped to my knees for a contraction.   While I was on the phone calling Mark he was in charge of getting me some ice water.   I remember very specifically calling Mark and saying:  "I think I want you to come home right now."   His response.......... "Call me back when you know for sure."   Seriously?!?!?!   Do you know how hard it was to call you NOW???

I don't remember anymore who called our midwife, but Mark did come right home from work.  I think our MW arrived about 10:15am.  I was already in the tub and Tilor was sitting on one end of it (it is a garden tub...with the 'counter' around the edge of it) and staring very intently at me and saying:  "I'll let you know if the baby comes out, okay mom?"   Gee, thank you son!   *smile*

Our son Zeyon Christopher was born at 10:50 am.   Our backup midwife didn't make it, but that was fine - everything went very well.   When we finally got out of the tub and snuggled into bed and the midwives had made us breakfast we weighed him - he was a whopping 10lbs 4ozs!!

This is one of my favorite pictures because if you look at his ears you can see that they are folded up.   All his weight in utero pushed his shoulders up to his ears and molded them that way for quite awhile.  In this picture he is 2 days old.   He never was a thumb suckers, so it is interesting that he was in this picture....

So, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, I also look forward to this time of year of celebrating the birth of our son, Zeyon Christopher (pronounced just like "Ian", but with a Z sound) the day after.

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And in other news - I celebrated my birthday 2 weeks ago.  I turned 33!!   To celebrate I decided to kidnap my husband!  I planned a night away for just the TWO of us.   If you recall we took a mini vacation back in February when Mark and I flew to LA for medical screening.  Before that, it had been 6 years since we had ever gone away ALONE!   I figured if I didn't plan something *now* that it would be another 3+ years before we could escape.  My mom helped out again - I dropped them all off at her house on Thursday evening and went home to wait for Mark.  All our stuff was packed in my car - ready to go!  When he got home at 7:30pm or so I literally met him at the door with clean clothes and told him "Go get changed we're going out!"   He was NOT thrilled.   We went back and forth a few times and I think he realized that they kids were gone and I was serious that he had to just suck it up.  *smile*   I allowed him a shower but told him he couldn't shave (I had already packed all that up!).   He assumed we were going out for dinner, so I didn't tell him anything different.   We drove an hour south and went to Lincoln City and stayed in a Junior Suite with an ocean front view.   A few times during the 24 hours he said "Thanks...." so that made me feel good.  I knew what we were doing was important for US!!!    

Here is a picture of us on the morning of my birthday on the balcony of the hotel - looking tired, but thrilled!

When we finally went to pick up the kids my mom and the little ones had  made me a birthday cake and my step-dad made his *wonderful* stroganoff.   It was a GREAT birthday!! 
*I also got a phone call from the surro-Daddy and he wished me a very Happy Birthday!!   He was in New York for work but didn't want me not to hear from them.  See, it is the little things that make me smile!!!

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Ok, so baby update real quick...... I am 34 weeks!!!
I had my checkup on Wednesday and things are looking great.   Baby growth has slowed down a little (totally fine and normal), I was only measuring 36 weeks.  She hasn't said anything about the baby being big at all this time around.... kind of surprised.  Maybe she is just assuming it is big, but 'normal' for me.  My oldest, Tilor got to go to this appointment with me 'cuz he was out of school - he loves them!  He misses not being at all of them...... This time he was able to listen to him/her with the fetoscope and she also showed him how to manipulate my belly so he could feel the back and then all the 'parts' - arms, knees, feet etc.  She also showed him how she could tell the Little Intruder was in a head down position and how to put his hand around the head and move gently.   Makes me SMILE!!!

My last belly shot was at 25 weeks - so here is a new one.   34 weeks - and here I am in all my glory!!

I know I look big to most people but I actually feel smaller this time around......

If you haven't voted on our online baby poll, please feel free!  I love the fact that we had a few brave souls that are 'silent blog stalkers' come and vote!  On the main page of blog on the right side there is a bright orange box that will take you to our voting area.   We are at 56 guesses right now and if I remember correctly we are *very* close in boy/girl ratios!!   I think we'll be closing it around the 15th of January so you have only a couple weeks left!!!

This will probably be my last update for 2010 - wow, what a ride it has been!!!   Thanks for following along and I look forward to 2011!!!   Have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful, safe New Years!!

Ignore the dirty mirror - cleaning day was the next day!!  :)