She's Here!

We are pleased to announce that we have a new addition to our family. Aurora Ellen Masse-Brown, aka baby sharky", was born at 2:26am Saturday December 20. Mommy and baby are doing very well. Carrie's water broke at around 1130, we were at the birth center by around 1245, and Aurora came into the outside world not even 2 hours later! Carrie did a wonderful job bringing Aurora into the world naturally. Aurora has been busy nursing ever since- a stretch, but not much...
Logan was very sweet when he met his baby sister this morning.
Big thanks to Auntie Heather for coming over late last night and taking such good care of the boy today.
Pics will follow soon.

False alarm

Argh! I had (timeable and somewhat painful) contractions from 10 am yesterday morning until 2:30 am last night. And now? Nothing. Well, one, maybe two contractions an hour. Darn it! I think I jinxed it by rolling Sunshine's hair off our hospital bag. That and putting H and our doula on standby. I can console myself with knowing it can't be too long now...

Appointment

I had a midwife appointment yesterday where I was hoping to hear, OMG that baby is coming right now! As you can guess, that wasn't the message I received. Basically she said she was "unimpressed" with my cervix. Crud. I know things can change on a dime, but I doubt there will be a baby this weekend. We shall see...

Can you believe Christmas is in one week? That hardly seems possible. Logan is coming to my office pot luck today, so that should be fun. He goes to many of my work functions and is usually very well behaved. The only bummer is that my boss P won't be there, so he won't get to see her.

So that's that. Don and I are totally amazed that we are in the position of wanting a baby to come out rather than needing it to stay in. Feel free to send *come out baby* energy my way, I certainly won't turn it away!

Logan love

Yesterday at dinner Logan told me he is proud of me. So cute! He couldn't tell me why, but he knows it is something important and good. *swoon* He has also recently been saying to me "Mom, I love you more." Then we get into a "no, I love you more" argument. The best kind to have!

I was hoping for some clairvoyance last night and asked Logan when I am going to have this baby. He told me "Wednesday." So that is either today or next week. Hmmmm...I am not sure he knows when or what Wednesday is.

Rain again today. I am so thankful that Don didn't have to drive in it to his final class last night. You wouldn't believe how freaked out everyone here gets from water on the road. There were over 15 accidents reported on the radio this morning. And I fear I am turning SoCal too. Pathetic!

Flying

Time that is. I can't believe it has been a week since my last post!

No baby yet, and I can't imagine Sharkey will be coming anytime soon. It is just so high and I have no indication that it is ready to make its move. Once we make it through today it can come anytime without causing logistical issues. Don has his last drawing class tonight, and once that is over then we are home free. I do have a holiday party on Thursday that I would like to attend, but I wouldn't be sad to have a baby instead!

In other news, our stove was delivered! The crap under the old stove was truly frightening. I can't even think about it without shivering a bit. Yuck. The people who lived here before must have been purposefully stuffing things underneath. Anyway, the new stove is nice and matches our other appliances, so all is good.

Logan is doing great. He is totally clueless about both Christmas and the upcoming sibling arrival. I mean, he sees the tree and likes the holidays, but I don't think he knows he will be opening presents Christmas morning. Better to keep it that way for now, lest he get too unruly. Especially if Christmas needs to be postponed.

So that is pretty much it. Nothing terribly exciting and we are happy about that. For now. Ask me in a week, and, if I still don't have a baby in my arms, I might just lose my mind.

Well I thought I was being nice

Yeah, it seems I may have hit the crabby stage of this pregnancy. Don may feel that I have been here for a while, but really I don't think it has ever been as bad as this week. The worst is that I feel like a totally reasonable person and I am in complete control. This makes it kind of hard to head it off, and then I don't even apologize immediately. In fact, I kind of feel justified in whatever overly blunt comment I have made. So I should probably limit face time with, um, everyone?

In other news, we got a bill from a collection agency today for Logan's birth . LOGAN'S BIRTH! Seriously we have never seen it before and I am 1000% sure we paid it, oh, almost THREE years ago. Puh-leeze! Let's see them try and mess with me now.

Monday, monday

Here I am at work for another week. Today we meet my potential replacement (potential, but also the only one in the running, so you can guess how potential he actually is). I really hope we like him and he can do the minimal admin/data entry type stuff we need him to provide. I am sure it will all work out fine. Right?

We had a really nice weekend. We went to the zoo on Saturday and Don hung up our outdoor xmas lights. They look so much better than last year because we replaced the crazy flashing icicle-type lights that were seizure inducing. This year things look much more peaceful and Don said he only swore once when putting them up. That is the same as my xmas tree swearing, so overall we did really well with the potty mouths this year.

Yesterday we just hung around watching football. Poor Logan could have really used some outdoor time, but he was deprived. He did get a haircut, which was desperately needed. I thought he looked like Rob R.einer's Meathead from All in the Family. It is much better now, though Don hates that any hair gets cut at all. *eye roll*

So that is that. Nothing is going on here, other than last minute xmas wrapping and such. Oh, and we have to buy a stove tonight. Ours is officially not something I want in my house any more. So merry xmas to us. Woo hoo.

Is it really December?

Because really, I have seen two butterflies in the last week. Butterflies! Very pretty yellow ones. We also have hibiscus (a mother's day present that has been wonderful), purple sage, iris, and jade blooming. Oh, and I am looking out my office window and there is the most gorgeous fuchsia rose blossoming right now. I also see barbed wire fence, so don't get too jealous. That is not to say it hasn't cooled off some, I actually need a sweatshirt in the mornings and evenings.

So clearly, I am still here. I will check in on the blog often, so you all know the latest and greatest news. Lucky you! I have a midwife appointment this afternoon, but I don't expect anything new to come out of it. I have asked Logan a bunch of times if this new babe is a boy or a girl and he always says girl. Hmmmm... I am having very strong boy feelings, so who knows. Don has no intuition either way (surprise surprise). Even though Logan says it is a girl, he also insists he wants a brother. I tried to tell him both was a bit of a stretch, but he wouldn't listen. Hee hee!

A few Logan-isms for fun...

• He happily tells anyone when out and about he is wearing his "new super fast brown shoes." Ah new shoes, they are wonderful, aren't they?
• When he wakes up from sleeping and I go in to get him from his room he always tells me "I can't sleep anymore" and will not believe me that he just woke up from a long nap. Uh, ok.
• My lovely boss P gave him some new cars, one of which is a tar covered L!ghtening Mc.Queen. He makes up elaborate scenes with these new cars including a dramatic fall into a cactus patch like the movie. So cute!
• I am no longer Mommy. Yes, my not-even-3-yr-old is calling me Mom. Don is Dad. Wha? I thought I had years before he would make the switch. Though yesterday he would only call me Mama, I think this was just a fluke. I am still no where near ready for Mom.

Made it!

Whew! 37 weeks today. Such a huge milestone for us, as it means I can actually give birth in the place I want with the people that have been caring for me since my first 6 week appointment. Hooray!!! That said, I don't think this little one is coming any time soon. Still up high, and no contractions at all. Fine with me! I'll take a couple more weeks. I know how much easier it is to have them inside. Though I would like to get my body back so I can, you know, put on socks without it being a major production.

This experience is just so much different than what we had with Logan. I was cuddling him last night (he actually let me), telling him that he gave us a run for our money when he was first born. His underwhelmed response was "Yeah." Someday he will like to hear the story of how he was born, but for now building tunnels for his cars and driving pretend delivery trucks is more interesting.

Still here

We are still hanging in, not much new to report. Had a good weekend looking at boats and walking by the waterfront. Tried to replace our area rug, but found out it is going to cost a lot more than we were expecting. Put up the xmas decorations and tree (whee!).

One thing L has been doing lately is asking "What's that?" A LOT. And not pointing to or elaborating on what he is talking about. It is frustrating to say the least, especially when he can answer his own question 98% of the time.

He also calls construction vehicles "constructions." Don and I agree that we won't be able to pass a group of backhoes, payloaders, and cherry pickers without referring to them as constructions for a long long time.

26 hours to go and I am 37 weeks. Eeeek!