Christmas Eve

This year, we decided to switch things up a little bit, and went to the five o'clock service on Christmas Eve. It's the "family" service, so when your kids is misbehaving, it's no big deal. This meant we'd have to eat dinner with mine and Andy's parents as soon as we could after we all made it to our house from church. This posed a meat-making problem for me! Not like it was really an issue, but it meant I had to do something new :) I stuck a ham in the oven when we left the house, and it was perfectly done when we got home! Fun times. Service at my church is typically an hour long, at Andy's parent's it's 45 minutes. This time, ours was 45 minutes, and their's was an hour 15 minutes! We ended up sitting down for dinner at 7:30. Andrew behaved pretty well... always showing off for the grandparents! I made a buche de noel for dessert, I love that thing. Not my best, but still so tasty.

Andrew got to open one present before bed, and it was a pair of Elmo pajamas! He was so happy with them. He changed and modeled for his grandparents before they left, and he headed to bed. He went into bed, and Andy and I did some quick arranging before I ran back to church to play at the 11 o'clock service.
I was in the RCW Christmas play this year, and in my scene, we were unpacking Christmas things in the attic, and needed a nativity. I offered up my nativity set, since I wasn't planning to put it up with Andrew and his clumsy hands around. I offered it up as a prop, and the church thought the size of it was so great, the borrowed it to display in front of the pulpit all season. I hadn't noticed it during the Family Service, but when I was up in the balcony for the 11 o'clock, I could see how there was a spotlight on the stable the entire service, and the sanctuary lights dimmed most of the time. It was absolutely beautiful, and i felt so honored that it was my family's nativity!

and fun fact: My Granny bought that nativity in CA, before they moved back to MS after my grandfather died, so early-mid 1960's. She passed it on to my parents when they got married, and my mom passed it on to me after we got married and didn't have one! Third generation, isn't that cool?

Early pregnancy visits

I went to the dr for the first time on Dec 1. The nurse was suprised I hadn't had it confirmed in anyway other than the test at home, and I was that far. I said, I dunno, I just did what they told me on the phone! She made me pee in a cup, then dropped it on a test, and pretty much immediately exclaimed, yep, you're pregnant! I weighed in only 4lbs heavier than my regular weight on my home scale. And was wearing jeans, and a heavy sweater. totally haven't gained weight, right? I met with the dr in her office. Where I noticed she was wearing a pair of my favorite slacks. And in the corner, had an orange tote bag I also have. I like her :) She asked why I was switching practices, and responded appropriately when I told her the ways I was unhappy with my previous birth. And she played with Andrew. And she asked questions about my thryoid nodule, and was rather dismissive of it. Which, really, its not like it does anything. Then we went to get and exam. She checks my heart and breathing, then feels my neck. Oh, wow! You really do have a good size nodule! Lol, I told you so! My uterus was properly swollen, my boobies good. All normal, healthy, and apparently pregnant.

I scheduled the nuchal translucency ultrasound for Dec 23, and another appt for Dec 29. They called me this Tuesday morning, and asked if I could come in at 12:30. They hadn't done an acual intake appt, where they get history and such, and preferred to do it sooner, rather than wait until I was 14 weeks. In I went! My mom was able to meet me and corral Andrew. I gave a million vials of blood, incl some to test my TSH levels, which haven't been done since 2005. Seems weird with a growing nodule, right? Otherwise, I just talked to the NP, went over history, how I am doing, blahblah. I was declared the easiest patient ever.

I got a giant bag of "goodies," all stuff from Similac. A planner, and travel bag with a can of formula, and the bag the give in the hospital, with samples, and another formula sample. Ugh. Can maybe they wait to attempt to sabotage a mother's nursing relationship? And at a midwife too. She is supposed to be helping me have a natural birth, wouldn't she also advocate the natural way to feed babies? I want to complain, but um. really like the practice so far. I don't want to cause shit! Plus, there is a pretty handy toiletry bag, AND a sample of aquaphor, which I do keep meaning to buy for Mr. Chappy Cheeks.