As hoped, before the end of March, I became a new mom!  William James was born on the 16th, just 3 days early. It appears Kevin was the closest with his guess of the 17th.  Congrats Kevin, you win…a reason to post on your blog!  Technically, I had guessed the date right on months ago without even realizing it when I setup my maternity leave on my work calendar to start on March 16th.  Go me!

It is all the overwhelmingness that people tell you it is.  But even with all the emotions and the exhaustion, it’s still the most amazing thing ever.  I’m laying on the floor right now next to my son (!) and he’s snoozing away perfectly happy.

I probably won’t get to post as often as I used to (cause I was so good about posting you know…), but I hope to keep this somewhat up to date with non-trivial posts.

It is now March and, God willing, I will be a Mom by the end of it.  (I do realize that this pregnancy could linger into April, but I’m sure praying it doesn’t.)  I’m not really sure what else to say.  I could explain how excited I am (duh of course I am).  Or I could explain how uncomfortable I am, but you don’t want to hear that.  So yes, I will just stick to the slightly overwhelming, but very exciting fact that it is March and I hope to be a Mom by the end of it.

Mark and I never really followed up on the cat situation.  I wouldn’t say the situation is “fixed” per se, but at the persistant advice of a wonderful veterinarian we know, we have learned how to handle it.  We were getting a bit down because it seemed like Hera was never going to stop having fits.  Mark has even suggested that she’s bi-polar (not that you could diagnose that in a cat).  The vet we know insisted that if we just relax and let them do their thing, it will get better.  As we started to do this and got used to how to do this, the difference was amazing!  It was so obvious that they were feeding off of our nervous energy then.  Hera’s fits have gotten fewer, but when it does happen we can keep it to 5 minutes max instead of 4 hours or days!  If it turns out that she is just reacting to my hormones and stops after Will is born, all the better.

My favorite part – its a lifelong lesson that will help us be better parents too.  A crying baby is going to feed off of our energy.  If we relax, we can help Will chill out faster too.  This is what my dad tells me at least.  We’ll find out for ourselves soon enough!

Under 3 months (whoa!) and if you haven’t heard, we are pretty sure that we’re having a boy!  I have to say pretty sure because the ultrasound is never a perfect indication.  This does mean that we have just as certain of a name: William James.  William is Mark’s Dad’s middle name, while James is my dad’s first name. There have been quite a few ‘nicknames’ so far.

1. Baby Beluga
2. Cantaloupe
3. Lizzy Bill or Billy Liz (we knew it would be William or Elizabeth)
4. Billy Jim
5. BJ
6. Big Willy Style
7. Silly Willy (courtesy of one cute 4 year old niece of ours)

And if Will is anything like his mother, you’ll get your foot stomped on for calling him any of these names!

We have a crib setup now and the cats are getting used to NOT sleeping in it.  I took sticky paper and put it sticky side up.  They hate it!  Purrball jumped in once when I was around.  I didn’t scold him.  I let him figure out on his own that he didn’t like the stickiness.  I was really amazed when he couldn’t figure out how to get out.  I’ve never seen the sad look in his eyes when he turned to me to help him out.  We have a bassinet in our bedroom now too.  I’ve read that it’s good to get them used to the furniture early so they only have to adjust to baby later.  We’re using the sticky paper in the bassinet as well and it is having equal success.  They love sleeping in the under carriage where we’re supposed to store diapers and such.  I suppose I’m okay with indulging them a little bit though since they’re lives (and ours) are about to go topsy turvy.

I can feel Will kick more and more lately.  I like it best when Mark feels it (or sees it) because he reminds me how amazing it is every time.

That’s all the baby news I can think of right now!  I’m sure there will be more and more news as we get closer to March.  Leave any questions or fantastic advice in the comments (or email me if it’s the private kind of advice).

It’s hard to believe we’re almost half done with the pregnancy!  Part of me thinks that there is so much to do in so little time, but the other part feels like 20 some more weeks is a long time to go.  We’ve been keeping busy though!

Last weekend Mark painted the baby room.  This weekend he painted a small sheep as well.  The plan is to sponge over the sheep with cream paint (making sure to get the hooves and face as well – keeping with Corriedales here).  We have bedding for the crib too (more corriedale sheep), but we don’t exactly have a crib yet.  We do have curtains though that we just picked up today.

One of the questions we get asked a lot is if I’m having cravings.  We’re not sure how to answer.  First off, I refuse to send Mark out to get me a root beer float at 10 o’clock at night – even if it does sound delicious.  On the other hand, I want to eat all day long.  If there’s no food in the house to munch on…Mark might be going to the store to get us (me) something.  It’s better if he goes though!  If I go…I buy the whole store.  So while I don’t necessarily crave specific food, I do want lots of food and I don’t like to share.

Now I do have foods that sound good almost all the time.  Oddly enough chocolate alone is not on the list.

1. Taco dip – cream cheese, sour cream, and taco seasoning topped with cheese, tomatoes and green onions
2. Grandma’s food – carrots (not your average carrots), fruit salad, some pea salad that I need to get the recipe for
3. Milk – chocolate milk fits in here great too

Well, now I’m hungry.