Home Sweet Home: Navigating Through Life as a Stay At Home Mom: Bed Rest

I know I promised photos of our Christmas decorations quite some time ago. But as soon as I finished decorating our home I was put on bed rest for contractions (pretty much every time I do something I have a contraction.) SIX WEEKS OF BED REST! You have no idea how difficult this is for someone like me! I want to be up doing things, running around. Being so pregnant and slow is frustrating enough, but now to be confined to the bed or couch?! UGH! But you do what needs to be done to ensure the health of your unborn child. So no matter how much I complain, I want what is best for Luke. I am just one of those people who can be very type A when it comes to cleaning the house, getting projects accomplished, keeping busy, etc. Therefore, when anything slows me down I find it very annoying. I tend to go stir crazy after a while. Plus poor Todd!!! In addition to working he now cooks, grocery shops, takes Maddie to and from school, and cleans! Bless his heart, he tries so hard! He even buys the organic foods I like. I do have to admit, I have cheated here and there. Todd has taken me on a couple short shopping trips and out for a couple of meals. He knows I just need to get out of the house and breathe in some fresh air. It can get depressing being couped up inside every day with no sunlight or fresh air to breathe. The weather has been too cold to open all the windows, which can be stifling at times.

Other than the contractions my pregnancy is going well and everything seems to be developing just fine. Luke moves all of the time. He is now so big that his movements sometime hurt. I am convinced he thinks my bladder is a punching bag. He is already so different than Maddie. She moved just enough to let me know she was there and doing O.K. She never kicked hard. Very mellow. She was that way as a baby and is still that way (most of the time!) Luke constantly stretches (which leads me to think he is very quickly running out of room) and I often feel a foot, elbow, or knee poking out my side. But all of this movement makes me very excited to finally meet this little person in my belly (only three and a half weeks to go.) Plus the thought of not feeling as if I have to go to the bathroom every five minutes sounds like heaven to me at this point! Maddie keeps asking when her baby brother is coming. Even her patience is beginning to wain.
While camping out on the couch I have done quite a bit of scrapbooking and movie watching.

My mom and Darin have loaned me a stack of movies. So far I have watched:

Becoming Jane

Little Miss Sunshine

Click

Fool's Gold

The Heartbreak Kid

The Holiday

Nanny Diaries

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Juno

So I Married an Axe Murderer

Lucky # Slevin

Juno and Forgetting Sarah Marshall have been my favorites. So I Married an Axe Murderer has always been a favorite. A classic Mike Myer's comedy.

Tilly is now my couch buddy.

She even has her own blanket (to prevent the couch from turning white due to her thick winter coat). She has become a lot calmer since we no longer have Mischa. Although it was sad to send her to a new home (by the way, she has been adopted and we wish her huge success in her new home) it has been a blessing in disguise. I can't imagine how we would have survived two crazy dogs while I am on bed rest. Speaking of dogs, we are dogsitting Liyongo for two weeks while his mom and dad are in Omaha visiting family for the holidays. He is so easy to take care of, just a lazy hound dog. Plus Tilly loves having her "boyfriend" around.

Maddie is now on winter break. She had a blast her last day of school. Her class had Polar Express Day. They wear their PJ's to school, eat junk food, and watch Polar Express. Such a fun day! She was so excited to show off her new jammies and slippers. And I can't believe I did not get any photos this year! She looked so cute and cozy as she skipped off to school with her Toddy.

Speaking of Maddie, we bought her her own Christmas tree this year. After six Christmases she has quite the arsenal of ornaments. Todd thought she would enjoy having her own tree this year. She could not wait to decorate it. I did lend her a few of mine to fill it up. Many of her ornaments are animated and she enjoys listening to their different tunes. We have restricted her to one ornament at a time to maintain our sanity (really, how many different Christmas carols can you hear playing simultaneously before you lose your mind?)

The Santa tree topper is one of my mom's old decorations. She used it as a tree topper when I was Maddie's age. I love that she now has it on her tree. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, bringing out old family treasures from the past and relishing in all of their precious memories. Maddie had me chuckling while she decorated her tree. I had to keep reminding her that she needed to put ornaments on the backside of the tree as well as the front. She kept telling me,"No Mommy! I want them all to go in the front of the tree." She wanted to see all of her ornaments on the front. After some cajoling we compromised. All of her favorites went on the front, while the others went on the backside for people to see from the street. Plus there was no way all of her ornaments would have fit on the front.