Hoping for an Inauguration Baby :)

We're excited for the Inauguration tomorrow.

I would be even MORE excited if I could have this baby on Inauguration Day. One can hope, right? :)

I am officially tired of being pregnant. My back hurts and I can't sit for very long without feeling uncomfortable. Walking isn't so fun either. Today I was at Target and kept having to stop because I was feeling so gross. Do I think labor is around the corner though? No, not really.

My labor with Eli started on a Friday evening, went through the night and Saturday morning, stopped in the afternoon, then started up again on Saturday night. It turns out that Eli was posterior/facing up and I felt all of the contractions in my back--it was awful. We went to the hospital on Sunday at 7 a.m., I had an epidural a few hours later, then started pushing around 1:30 p.m. Eli had fetal distress every time I pushed, and eventually delivered via emergency c-section at 3:50 p.m.

I'm hoping this time around is much shorter and less complicated. And that I get to watch the Inauguration from the hospital :) But at this rate, it will be more like a week later, darn it! Thanks for your votes on the name - it's been fun watching the results.

Meeting Elmo

Yesterday we had the special treat of meeting Elmo in person! Eli was VERY excited on our way there, but it was a little scary for him at the same time (he's this way with dogs or other animals too - he loves the idea of them, but gets really nervous when they're close). He wouldn't go near Elmo unless I was holding him, and mostly Eli just waved at Elmo, but eventually worked up the courage to give him a high five.

Enjoying Eli

With a short amount of time left before baby #2 arrives, I'm trying to spend lots of quality time with Eli. He loves picking out books to read and we'll go through a huge stack in one sitting. He also loves playing with trains and looking at the pictures of all of the different Thomas trains (we have a paper that came with one of his trains that shows the whole collection).

Today I went to the doctor - I'm still just 1cm dilated (same as last week), but now I'm slightly effaced. So that's all good news! I have plenty of Braxton-Hicks contractions and have had some cramping this week, but there is no indication when this baby will decide to make his appearance. It's fun to wonder what our second little boy is going to look like - will he be just like Eli or totally different? Will they look like siblings? Will he have blue eyes, blonde hair? I think Eli realizes the baby is almost here (we definitely talk about it more).I'm happy to say he has been much better about napping lately, which is a huge relief. But he is getting more bold too - climbing on things more... And finally, the air is so dry in our house that we often shock each other with static electricity (not on purpose). Eli loves to say, "shock" - and I think it's so cute because he says it with a Chicago accent - "shahhk" or however you would write that phonetically. And since I love to complain about the weather - the actual temp right now is -4 degrees. Wind chill is -23. The sun is shining brightly though, which makes it not seem quite as bad. Some parts of our house are pretty cold - the closets, the family room (which was an addition at some point), and our kitchen nook must all have zero insulation, because they are chilly - especially the floors and walls.

I should be writing my article due next week, but I think I'm going to go climb into my warm bed and take a nap instead :)

Icicles

Here are some winter scenes from our house this morning - the main attraction is the massive collection of icicles on our back porch:

There are a few that are HUGE!

Here are our trash/recycling bins outside in the alley
(would you like to drive through all of this snow? My Altima is not a fan)

Here was my snowy path from the garage to the house this morning after some snow last night (no, I did not shovel... it's all waiting for poor Ben tonight when the low is -10 degrees... yuck)

Tomorrow's forecast - SUNNY! Whoo hoo. Too bad it will be practically arctic:

High: -1 degree

Low: -13 degrees

This is officially the coldest winter Chicago's had in eight years.
Thank goodness it's not the norm!

Tomorrow I have another doctor's appointment. Fun times... thanks for voting on the names! Keep your votes coming :)