Moving On

"Go ahead, David, you can stand up and tell her," said the nurse anesthetist. David was able to pop his head over the curtain they put up while doing my c-section and end our nine months of speculation: boy or girl? "She's a girl!". Neither of us was very surprised, but we were very happy. I remember saying to D right when we found out we were expecting, "Well, here is our girl!". It was just the first thing that popped into my head. I didn't want one over the other. I hadn't even given it any thought. Anyway, it turns out she is a girl and she has D's laidback personality and we are thoroughly enjoying our newest little blessing. A bit about the names we chose:

Lylah: many groups claim origin for this name, but I like the Persian meaning best - "dark-haired beauty" - because it describes her perfectly :)

Kathren: is a combination of my mom's and my aunt's names (the twins). "Kath" is the beginning of Kathy and "ren" is the ending of Karen to make Kathren.

More to come...

This the THE week. Baby will be here by Thursday whether s/he likes it or not! We're excited to meet this new little person(ality) and only have to wait four short days :) In light of that fact, Mom surprised me with a Day Out Before Baby last Wednesday. Yana and Dad tag teamed Little Man while we had a fun-filled few hours!!!

Mom came with me to my last OB appointment before Baby comes and, after finding out that of course I wasn't in labor and didn't need to go to the hospital immediately (one could hope...), we were on our way to...Whole Foods! It was across the street and one of the stops I usually made after my appointments. After getting some necessities, Mom told me that we would be getting our nails and toes done and to pick out a nail polish color. They sell the natural kind there and had quite the selection, so I picked out a dark red since I knew Mom would like it too. Mom also said to pick out dessert (which I did right away: a raspberry almond bar) to have after lunch. We could have stopped there and I would have been a happy girl.

But no. We went on to Panera Bread (YUM!) where we each got our favorite lunch choice and chatted about whatever we constantly chat about. When we were finished eating, Mom said we had enough time to make one more stop before our nail appointment and she pulled back in to the same parking lot my OB is in because it happens to share space with Marshalls. Mom said she remembered me saying I needed a winter robe and wanted to see their selection. The first aisle we went to, we happened upon a really nice, warm, fuzzy, red robe with a zipper! I was searching all summer for one, which was my problem. Nice, warm, fuzzy, red robes aren't sold during the summer months! And we also found long-sleeved cotton pajamas that will be perfect for nursing and for lounging around in. I really appreciated Dad and Mom getting them for me/us :)!

After Marshalls, (kind of interesting to note that these four stops where all within viewing distance of each other!) we made our way out to a different part of town where a much-needed and greatly appreciated manicure and pedicure were awaiting us. I was thoroughly enjoying everything that they entailed until Mom comes up to inspect my eyebrows. She declared they needed waxing and from then on, I imagined hot wax dripping in my eye or sticking to my eyelashes and gluing them shut. Well, maybe I wasn't that dramatic, but I never get my eyebrows waxed and didn't feel the need to then. But Mom said I should, so I went with it and they do look nice.

On our way home, we stopped at Mom's favorite coffee place where she got a coffee and I got a hot chocolate. And Mom also got donut holes for M because one time she said she had a surprise for him, it happened to be a donut, so now every time she says she has a surprise for him, he says, "Nonut?!" Which of course meant she had to get donuts... M was still sleeping when we got back, so I had even more relaxation time coming my way! It was so nice spending that time with Mom and I am very thankful to both Mom and Dad for again blessing me (because the shower wasn't enough?!) and making me feel loved and special before a very fun, but very tiring time of life. And of course it wouldn't have been the same if M had to tag along, so a BIG thank you to Dad and Yana for their part in a fun and enjoyable day!

To wrap up the day, Dad gave me a much-needed haircut while Mom made all of us dinner before we headed out to church. There couldn't have been a better Day Out Before Baby day!!

And now, while we wait, I'm drinking my cups and cups of Red Raspberry Leaf Tea and mixing it with a little Nettle (I ordered about ten pounds of dried herbs last week and have been mixing and match them to make different teas) to prepare for Baby's entrance. I've also been on a cooking and baking and cleaning spree which definitely has me puzzled and D, too, but he won't say anything because he's like the results. I've made a few freezer meals, cleaned house top to bottom, organized the house top to bottom, started packing for our six-week stay at Mom's, packed for the hospital, and lots of other things I'm too tired to remember, but am pleased to have all done.

This week is turning out to be a busy one with a luncheon with friends tomorrow, breakfast with Grams and Gramps the next day as well as dinner out (last one for a long while!), and then there's Wednesday with all the craziness I'm sure it'll bring preparing for the big day. So I'm sure Thursday will get here before we know it and then we'll finally get to see what this baby looks like!! I'm just excited to get to hold him/her in my arms and not in my belly anymore :)

We went to a local pumpkin patch on Saturday to pick out a pumpkin for tonight's Pumpkin Carving Party at Ryan and Yana's. And I was secretly hoping the hayride would do something to spur on labor. It didn't. But M did pick out a very nice carving pumpkin, along with two little pumpkins and he also really enjoyed the hayride. We checked out a few books about pumpkins and how they grow from the library earlier in the week, so we had fun learning about what goes on in a pumpkin patch. His big joke was to point to some of the green ones there and said, "Pick?" with a mischievous grin because we talked about how we can't pick the green ones since they weren't ripe yet. Little stinker. At least he was paying attention!

The hayride was the least bumpy hayride I've ever been on and the weather was absolutely beautiful, which made our time at the pumpkin patch all the more enjoyable. The highlight of the whole trip for David was when a woman told me that it looked like I was smuggling a pumpkin out of the patch and that she'd cover it with no problem. During the summer, I swallowed a watermelon and now that it's fall, I guess it makes sense that I've now swallowed a pumpkin. She meant well and we all had a good laugh. After the pumpkin patch, we went down the road and got some apple cider donuts. Yum!

Serious business

Our second day on the farm started out early with Micah calling out for the cows. We let him crawl into bed with us for a few minutes while we woke up, otherwise we would have had to been out the door in minutes. I don’t mind telling you that mornings in the Vermont mountains are quite cool. I loved it. Everyone else was bundled up, but I was in my short sleeves enjoying the 50-degree weather! After visiting and greeting every.single.cow, we managed to get M inside and washed up for our 8am breakfast call. There were some new faces around the table and we enjoyed the company before heading out for the day. I think D had to take Micah on another round of hi-ing and bye-ing all the farm animals, but I was getting some stuff packed up, so I’m not sure exactly what they did. We all met at the van (M had pedaled the little green tractor over to the parking area) and headed down the road to the local river.

M had a lot of fun playing in the water, throwing rocks, catching a frog, and just being outside in the great outdoors. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, too, as the day was perfect, weatherwise. D had the honor of taking M in the river. He wouldn’t let me go past my ankles because the current and the rocks didn’t make for steady ground. I tried anyway because the water felt so refreshing, but he was right, I didn’t have good balance at all. So Baby and I hung out on shore, took pictures, and cheered Micah on. After a bit, we loaded ourselves back up to head into town - first to find lunch and second to find an ATM machine. Can you believe that the bed and breakfast didn’t accept credit cards?! How quaint!

We had lunch outdoors by the main road. The food was great and the view offered so many distractions that I’m sure M would have stayed there the entire afternoon looking at all the trucks and tractors and people going by. I would have liked to walk around the town more, but you can only do so much with a belly like this (you know it’s bad when your maternity clothes aren’t fitting you anymore!). So we contented ourselves with a drive up the road to an organic berry-picking farm. I was craving blackberries, but of course they were just going out of season and had been mostly picked. I managed to pick and eat a few though : ). My second request was for raspberries, but of course they were out of season, too. However, we did manage to pick and eat a few of those, too : ). M, meanwhile, was picking up the cut grass and stuffing it into a bag, declaring, “Hay, cows! Cows eat hay!” He was obsessed with those beasts. While we were on our own adventures, D managed to pick quite a few blueberries (the berry that WAS in season!) and they were beyond delicious. Some even lasted until we got home and made their way into blueberry pancakes…




That night, there were all new people on the farm. We met another doctor (orthopedics, I think) and his wife (a pediatrician) and their seven-year old son. They were from New York City. She was pregnant and due in November, so we chatted a lot while the guys did the same and followed the kids around. We corralled the kids inside when it got dark and I got M’s bedtime routine started. He was so excited to be on the farm that he didn’t go to bed until after 9pm. D and I went to sit out in the living room again and he studied physics for his big test in the beginning of September (which he passed, by the way!!!!) and I read the book we picked up at a library on the way up (no library near us had it, and this library was right off the highway, so D swung into the parking lot, I got out and got the book, and we headed back to the highway. Well worth the stop, it was a great book; true story about a spy in the Iranian army).

We had such a good time on the farm that we were sad to leave that next day. We ate another delicious breakfast, walked around the farm, let M play with some of the kids, packed up, and headed south. We stopped at a pizza place and the Yankee Candle Factory (crazy place!) along the way and made it home in time for another yummy meal, this time made by Mom. She had called while we were driving and invited us over for chicken parmesan. I’m so glad we were able to go on this vacation and that the Lord provided safe traveling mercies for us. M is still watching the Farm DVD we made from the pictures we took and he will always sit for a book about the farm. For his birthday, I made him a book about our farm adventure complete with pictures of him on the farm and text to go along with it. I’m not sure he’ll ever forget it! D and I were happy to get away, too, even if it wasn’t by ourselves. D had been working crazy hours, so he didn’t want to leave M during his time off, for which I’m glad, because we had such a fun family adventure together!