Making rounds a christmas....

I have a feeling this was the last no pressure holiday round up. Next year, I do believe that we will be busier and crazier than ever....and I am not sure how I feel about it. I know that there will be lots of expectation next year being our baby's first christmas. Our holidays always are a little hectic, just because both our families have their parties and gatherings around the same time every year. It was nice however to get waited on by everyone, even though I told them I could do things myself.
We spent Christmas Eve starting at Josh's grandpas house for wonton soup and party trays. After an eventful opening of the gifts, in which my dear niece decided to blast me in the face at point blank range with a wad of wrapping paper,(and yes I did cry because I wasn't paying attention and she really hit me hard in the face...but you cannot yell at a 5 year old on Christmas when everyone is throwing paper at each other) we left to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Since this was the first real Christmas without my Grandma, and because my mom so generously hosted Thanksgiving for the family, they had a wonderful party for us all. We had a blast, stayed really late, and decided that even though it is never going to be the same it was good to have a new holiday tradition with our family.
On Christmas day we woke up relatively early, after having put out gifts the night before for my MIL, and waited for them to arrive to open gifts. As usual, they were late, but thankfully no paper was thrown during this gift exchange. After all the fun we left to visit with my mom, and to take our gifts over to exchange at her house. It was a pretty relaxing day, but we have decided that next year because of the addition to our family, we will be hosting Christmas day for all of our family. It is a lot of work for my mother, and as it will be our first christmas with our baby, as well as our first christmas alone in our house, we thought it would be fun.
On Saturday, we had our final Holiday party. The other side of Josh's family had a large gathering at the retirement complex where his grandma lives. It was quite fun, despite my aching back (more on that in the coming days) but as usual there was a little bit of drama.
We are now relaxing as my Sister in law and niece go back to Virginia with my in-laws...definitely time for a long winters nap. As this post is being written at 4 AM, I am beginning to suspect that there might be very little actual napping going on for me.
This was however a bittersweet Christmas for me as my last grandparent passed away on Saturday afternoon, having spent a couple of months in Hospice care. I knew that she was ill, however I did not think that she would pass for a little while. It really threw me off guard. This now means that my sisters and I are the last of our immediate family from my father's side. Grandma V., you will be missed greatly, but I know that Dad and Grandpa and Uncle Mark were all there to greet you home! We love you.

Pregnancy insomnia and dry skin

I have come to believe that pregnancy insomnia is a work of the Devil himself. Why in all that is holy in this world would someone torment a very tired and hormonally imbalanced woman with insomnia? I was wide awake last night, unable to sleep a wink. So I sat for hours in the dark on the interwebs, trying to bore myself into a deep deep slumber. I eventually did get to sleep, but it didn't last long. I spent a long long night tossing, turning, and unfortunately waking up my husband one too many times.

I also never realized that pregnancy would zap my body of all moisture. I am constantly applying lotion and cream, I have insanely itchy skin, and no matter how much I drink, no matter how cool the water I shower in is, or how infrequently I do shower, I am in misery. If I make it through this winter and have any skin left, I will dance a freaking jig. On a positive note, my hair and nails look fabulous!! So that I can be thankful for!

I have an appointment on New Years Eve, early early in the morning. Just a check up. Then in January we go in for the Big U/S. Don't get your hopes up though, we are keeping things a secret!

Another doctor appointment today!

Today I had another appointment with the OB. I was seeing another doctor in the practice because my doctor was on vacation. I was a little nervous...I had never seen any other doctor besides my own, but she was awesomely wonderful. She answered all my questions and gave me some ideas to help with my sinus congestion. She tried to find le bebe's heartbeat with a doppler, but it was a no go....which means another u/s for me!! I lie down on the table and the tech starts the u/s. Every time she would move the wand over my tummy and press down to get a good picture of the baby, s/he would kick and wiggle and spin away. It was like there was a "no pictures please" sign in there. The little one is becoming more like me all the time, definitely camera shy. I was doing all I could not to crack up...and now I am counting down the time to where I can feel those kicks and moves. I got my next appointment scheduled, and the big u/s scheduled....I cannot wait for January!! Going to be sooo exciting!