December.....
Once again, I'm just going to do a quick catch-up here because SO much happened during the month of December that it would be basically impossible for me to do justice to it at this point. So, you, dear reader, get a picture-post. You welcome.
Clark and Maggie were playing one morning with a plastic bag stuffed full of plastic bags, when Clark threw it up as high as he could, and it landed perfectly on top of the ceiling fan. Knowing he probably couldn't have done that if he'd tried, I made them take a picture.
Maggie started pre-school!! Our district has a free speech therapy program for pre-school aged children (along with other therapies as needed), and since Clark and Maggie both have pretty strong lisps, they both qualified. Clark started back in November, and although I kept Maggie home with me for the majority of the last semester, I decided to start her in December, as well. She loves going to school on her bus, and she adores her teachers (here she is with Ms. Amy). I love them, too.
Maggie's hair has been getting longer, so I tried sponge curlers on her--and they totally worked! She looks adorable with curlers in her hair, too.
One night during second week of December, on Steve's first night working in the ER (and, coincidentally, the first big snowfall we've had here in northern AZ during this winter), I started having a lot of contractions--I stayed up all night and timed them, and since they were coming regularly every four minutes and I couldn't stop them, I ended up calling my parents, who came over at 2:00 in the morning to drive me up to the hospital.
Because I was still only at 35 weeks in my pregnancy (too early to be considered full term), they admitted me and started some medications to try to stop the labor. The first one they gave me, Tributaline, slowed the contractions a bit but didn't stop them enough, so they gave me another dose. Problem is, a fun side effect of Tributaline is that it causes panic attacks, so after my first medically-induced panic attack ever (super humiliating to have the nurse come in to find me shaking and hiding under my covers as I sobbed hysterically), they gave me two other meds that did manage to slow down the contractions, and after several hours in triage, they sent me home with strict instructions to "take it easy...." basically, bed rest, until I was considered "term," at 36 weeks.
After that fun adventure and the two weeks of lying on my side a lot that followed it, let me tell you--I was happy to be allowed to move again!
Isn't my husband cute?
This was me at 36 weeks exactly--thrilled that we made it to term!
Jack had his Christmas program, and because Steve didn't have to work that day (have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE nurses' schedules?!?), we both got to go. He was thrilled to perform, but you wouldn't have known it at all by how he actually acted on stage....maybe we can teach him that smiling is kind of a big part of performing, haha.
The day that I spent in the hospital was the same day as our ward Christmas party--a breakfast with Santa himself. Our kids had been talking excitedly about getting to see Santa for weeks by that point, and I was heartbroken to be spending the morning in the hospital so they wouldn't get to go...or so I thought.
I didn't count on my amazing dad being willing to not only take them to the party, but also to send me pictures of the results!
My dad sure impressed a lot of the ladies in my ward by showing up solo as Grandpa with his three grandkids so my mom could rest after a night with very little sleep.
Our ward knows how to throw a pretty dang good party, if I do say so myself!
Stockings with goodies!
And, because, as I mentioned, our baby tried to come on the night of the first big snowstorm of the year, my parents also took our kids out to play in the snow, while Steve and I crashed and tried to recover from the sleepless/worried night we'd had.
They even built a snowman!! (and yes, Frozen was sung several times, according to my mom)
Yay for snow!!!
So, this was the first part of December for our family--tune in next time for Christmas pictures!
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