Maternity Leave: Day One

Happy Monday to you all!  Today is one of those misc. and random days, but a fun day nonetheless.  I can't tell you how great it felt to get up this morning, knowing that I don't have to work for awhile.  Even though I love my little part time job, it is wonderful to have one less thing on my plate and the ability to just focus on what I want to.  A happy Monday for me indeed.  I think I'll fill you in list style today...

• The picture above is from yesterday, my official 38 week shot.  As you can see, I am growing quickly in one direction-out!  She is so big now and I am too.  I think she's dropped a little, I definitely feel more pressure in lower spots, and I am feeling incredibly top heavy!  According to babycenter.com, she is approximately 6 1/2 pounds now and 19 inches long, but of course that's just an average guess.  Tomorrow I go to the doctor and I'll be asking what she thinks :)  
• After getting the best night of sleep I've had in weeks on Saturday night, last night was less than desirable.  I did great until about 4:30 am, when I got up to go the bathroom and didn't fall asleep again until 6:30am.  I couldn't get comfortable and Ava was clearly awake with me.  So, I ate some cereal, prayed for lots of people who came to mind, and found Ryley sleeping in Ava's room in front of her crib!  It was so sweet.  Eventually I fell asleep for another hour, but I woke up with a sore throat and a headache.  I decided I needed to just get up and move on with my day because soon this will be part of every night!  I planned to nap this afternoon, but never got around to it.  I am not a great napper, but again I know that when Ava is here, I will need to nap when she naps.  That's one of my goals this week :) Getting in the groove of napping.  I know, tough goal, right??
• The first set-back in my maternity leave occurred this morning when I moved my first load of laundry from my washer to my dryer.  For some reason I couldn't get the dryer to turn on and after a moment of panic at the thought of a broken dryer, I realized that the knob was cracked on the inside.  Fortunately the dryer still works, but in a redneck move, I have to turn the dial with a wrench until the new knob gets here.  Oh and I have to figure out where to order that knob from!  But, at least it still works!!  I was about to call Travis and cry at the thought of no dryer with a new baby on the way :)  Those are the kind of repairs I'm praying don't happen in the next 3 months, I don't know if my hormones can take it!
• Thanks to my sweet husband, we got to do something fun over his lunch break today.  We have been wanting to buy a specific thing for awhile now but were unsure about when we could purchase it.  Last week Travis came home and announced that he had decided to sell his mountain bike, which he loved, because he was ready for us to make a purchase and this would be a great way to do it.  I told him he didn't have to sell his bike (one of 3 that he has) if he didn't want to, but he listed it anyway and yesterday it sold!!  So, we met at Best Buy today and bought a the final thing that we've wanted to have before Ava gets here...a video camera!!!  Yay :) Now we can have the first minutes of her life on video and we can sleep better knowing that we did the right "parent" thing.  Oh how the sacrifices have begun...
• I have now moved on from Ava's nursery to our guest bathroom.  I'm washing towels, organizing drawers and cupboards, getting her bath stuff ready and cleaning.  All fun stuff that I've wanted to get crossed off my list.  However, speaking of her nursery, I want to thank you all for the sweet things you wrote about her new room.  You made my day by sharing in our excitement and telling me what you liked about her nursery.  I know it must seem that we threw tons of money in there and went totally overboard, but I do want you to know just how many things in that room were a total gift to us.  We have been so blessed by many generous hearts and I want to be sure to point that out.  It's important to me because it's just another way that the Lord has delighted me because of the way he made me.  My Interior Design background is a huge part of me and the talents God has given me.  I love to put things together and to create spaces or beautiful things.  But, I have a responsibility to stay within our means and to not make idols out of possessions.  It's been a blessing to trust the Lord with what we needed and to see Him provide for us in amazing, detailed ways.  I could tell you story after story about each thing in that room, but the bottom line is that He surprised me over and over and showed me once again that He loves to give good gifts to His children when we trust Him.  So thank you for the compliments, I'm just as thrilled with it as I can be :) 
• I also want to say thank you to all you "lurkers" who keep coming out of hiding to comment!!  I love to hear who is reading my blog.  It's fun for me to see all the places you live and hear about the things that resonate with you too.  I love to write, as  you can obviously tell from the length of every post, but it blesses me to know that God uses my silly attempts to touch some of your hearts.  Blogging has become an outlet for me, a way to express myself and to work through some of the things He is teaching me.  I am such a work in progress and there are many things I struggle with just like you.  So many of you have been a big source of encouragement to me and I just want you to know that I appreciate you.  I usually try to respond to comments as best as I can, but lately I just haven't been able to stay on top of it.  So forgive me if you don't hear back from me, just know that I love hearing from you!  
• Even though I don't have to get up and work tomorrow, I did want to get through a big stack of paperwork tonight, so I need to wrap this up.  I'll let you know if we've made any progress after we go to the doctor tomorrow.  My fingers are crossed, Ava has been more active today than ever!  She is on the move and I'm just hoping that means good things for me!!  I'm getting so excited to meet my baby :)  Happy Monday to you!!!