Obviously I can't do the inside yet, because we don't know all her info (birth date - although we're pretty sure it will be January 11th via c-section, unless she decides to show up early - time, weight, length, etc.) and we don't have a picture. But I really like the way the front turned out! I've been thinking about starting a card shop on Etsy.com; I've been making all kinds of cards lately and I really enjoy it! I'll probably wait until after Maya arrives and things settle down a bit, though.
Noah got his first big boy haircut! It was growing over his ears and was really thick in the back - it was starting to look like a mullet - so we took him in for a trim. He did great! He didn't like the feeling of the scissors on his ears, but he didn't cry and sat still the whole time. We were so proud, and he looks adorable!
Our good friends Julie and Bryan came to visit us for Thanksgiving, along with their 5 month-old son Beau. We had a great time visiting with them and showing them the sights around Franklin and Nashville! We took them to Opryland Hotel to see the lights, to the Ryman, which I hadn't seen before, walked around downtown Nashville and downtown Franklin, and took them to some of our favorite restaurants. We're hoping they'll decide to move up here within the next couple of years!
We recently decided to enroll Noah in a daycare program. It was a tough decision - I stay home, so he didn't really need to be away, but we thought it would be good for him; he doesn't get a lot of opportunity to socialize with kids his own age, and although we do a lot of reading and coloring at home, working on his colors and words, I wasn't sure I was stimulating him enough. He's like a sponge lately; it seems like he learns something new everyday, and I didn't want to hold him back by keeping him home. Also, we thought it was important that once the baby comes he has something to do outside the house, so he's not stuck hanging out with me and the baby all the time. He'll go 2 days a week, from 9 to 3, to a program at a place called Congregation Micah. Ray and I are thrilled with the program - I can't say enough about it! Even though it's technically a daycare and not a school, all the teachers have to submit lesson plans and show that the kids are learning. And Noah's teacher, Miss Carol, is wonderful!
His first day went pretty well in the morning; he played and colored, which he loved. Then it was nap time, which was tough. Miss Carol said he kept asking for Mommy and wouldn't go to sleep. The facility director, Lynn (who is wonderful!), came in and rocked him and sang to him for awhile, which helped. He sure was glad to see me when I picked him up! His second day was much better. The morning was rough, because this time he knew I was going to leave him there; he cried and asked for Mommy for about 5 minutes (I foolishly stood outside the door and listened - and cried because it broke my heart) but once they started music class he was distracted and had a lot of fun. If you want to read more about his first few days at school from his point of view, check out his tab at the top of the page.
Noah loves to read, and Miss Carol gave him a book to bring home called "Moo, Baa, La la la." He asks us to read it about 27 times a day! It's adorable. I'll say, "A cow says..." and he responds, "Moo!" "A sheep says..." "Baa!" "And three singing pigs say..." "La la la!!" He thinks it's so funny. He's getting to be so smart - it snowed a couple of days ago and he keeps pointing outside and saying, "Uh-oh, cold!" Also, whenever he sees something that smokes or steams, he says, "hot!" He's talking up a storm these days, and we can mostly understand what he's trying to tell us.
Maya gave us a little bit of a scare the other day; we thought she was going to come and meet us early! Sunday afternoon I started having contractions that were fairly regular, so I timed them and they were about 5 minutes apart. They weren't super strong, but they were more than just Braxton Hicks contractions (which are practice contractions, essentially). It had been snowing all day and the roads were bad, so I called the on-call doctor at our doctor's office and asked what I should do. She said to go into the hospital to be monitored, just to make sure everything was okay. We normally go to Williamson Medical Center, but on our way there we decided the roads were too bad and that we should go to Vanderbilt instead, which is a little bit closer to our house and we take mostly highways to get there. Once we got there they checked us in and put me on a monitor; I was having fairly strong contractions at regular intervals, so they thought I was going to have the baby that night. They had me drinking lots of fluids and lying on my side to try and slow things down, but they said that since I was almost 35 weeks they wouldn't do anything "artificial" (like injections) to stop the labor.
Thankfully, around midnight the contractions stopped on their own, and we're not sure why. They kept us there overnight, just to be safe, and sent us home early in the morning when I hadn't had any contractions for quite awhile. We were all exhausted (Noah was in the room with us and was very interested in all the new stuff there was to see, so he didn't get to sleep until after 11); I think we're still trying to catch up on sleep. The baby looked great on the monitor (her heart rate fluctuated between the 120's and the 150's, which is perfect), and I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow so we'll see what, if anything, she decides to do. I've been having contractions off and on all day today, so maybe we'll get to meet our little girl earlier than we planned! That's fine with us, as long as she's healthy.
The next few weeks are going to be super busy; we'll be getting everything ready for Maya's arrival (we still need to paint the nursery!) and of course Christmas is coming up! It's going to fly by.
Good luck in school Noah! Make sure you post pics of Maya's nursery. Best of luck & Happy Holiday's!
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