Finally updated...

Well, I went and changed the template figuring that'd make it more obvious that I'd updated. I removed the "subscribe to this blog" thing since it didn't seem to be working anyway and added a counterbox for the BIG NEWS that anyone who got our Winter Holiday letter now officially knows - Liam will be a big brother sometime in the first half of July (the counter is using an estimated due date of July 7, since it doesn't look like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - aka Book 7, the title was made public a few days ago - will be released that date, sounds like a good day to pop out a piglet instead, tho if JKR and the publishers get their rears in gear and release the book that day I have no problem giving birth at a bookstore instead of missing the midnight sale! Good thing our family doctor - who is also a baby catcher - is about as obsessed with Harry Potter as I am!).

Pregnancy has been going much differently than with Liam. I've had a ton more nausea (and vomiting) than I did with him and the fatigue is much worse. These could also be due to the stress of having my in-laws living in very close quarters with us until a month ago when we all moved into our new house (we bought an up-down double, they live downstairs since my FIL wakes up at 5am and I'm a light sleeper). Still stressed out a bit over home repairs that need doing (nothing terribly serious but it'd be nice to get new windows put in, need to put in a pole to support a failing I-beam, some gutter work including a serious cleaning, and maybe getting the northwest corner of the house lifted in the future - I call it the Leaning Tower of Yeung).

Liam opened his presents this morning and was much impressed with the Duplo train that was a present from Uncle Marvin, he played with it for well over an hour. He's also quite pleased with the stuffed (Disney) Piglet that plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" that I picked up for him, he's been snuggling it pretty consistently and was even having it help him play with the train which was quite adorable. He insisted on sharing the McDonald's custard pie he mooched from Nai-Nai (Garvin's mom) with Piglet, which was slightly less adorable because of the mess it created but I took pictures anyway. I'll try to add them below.

Though Garvin posted that Liam was using the potty back in August, he's had a bit of a relapse of late. I think it's because my milk supply vanished - I can't get anything to hand-express and he keeps doing the let-down suck for extended periods of time (which is annoying as all heck and makes me feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin, especially when I'm tired, so he was mama-lead into night weaning and we're down to just sometimes when he wakes up and sometimes when he's over-stimulated and can't fall asleep for nap or bed time... meaning that some days he's still trying to nurse 4-5x/day and sometimes he only nurses once or twice if Garvin has good luck getting him to sleep). I really don't want to completely wean him as I'm quite enthusiastic about tandem nursing, but I'm just not sure that I'll be able to handle nursing him through this pregnancy if the physical sensations keep up. I want to allow him to suckle at least occasionally so that he doesn't forget HOW - and cause problems if he wants to nurse later when the baby comes - but it's also been making my stomach clench and I'm a little worried about contractions. I know enough other tandem nursing mamas to know it's not dangerous (if you're cleared by your caregiver to have sex during pregnancy, it's safe to breastfeed - both activities release similar hormones and can cause uterine contractions, but they're safe in a normal healthy pregnancy and possibly even beneficial). After the new year (and we've settled into the house more with Garvin being off school until the 8th) I'm hoping to have some playdates with other area tandem-nursing mamas to get some support and give Liam some time to play and see other kids doing this. I think it'll help.

I've spoken to a midwife that I think I'll be going with for this birth (our family practice doctor is a backup, I intend to birth this baby at home especially now that we live about 3 blocks from the hospital I actually feel safer at home). I'm a little concerned about the distance the midwife lives from me (about a 45 minute drive), but one of her two apprentices lives about 5 minutes away and went to high school with me and we reconnected back when Liam was a newborn, so I'm feeling more confident about going with them (of course, I'm actually confident enough to birth the baby by myself if need-be, but it's not my preference - I was worried enough about being one of those rare moms that didn't notice labor after the pain of the disc herniation that I studied up on techniques when I was pregnant with Liam - good thing too because I think I COULD have missed the fact that I was in transition with him if it hadn't been for my water leaking and then having back labor). We're seeing our family practice doctor for "co-care" for all the prenatal appointments and I'm getting SOME of the standard tests (still trying to get my nerves up for the thyroid test she wants me to do, hoping to do that this week or next), and we'll probably have a 20 week ultrasound just to be sure of placenta placement and that development looks normal (I had a 6wk ultrasound to try to determine dates but the tech just punched in the date of my last period so I know the date she gave me was wrong as I don't have a standard 28-day cycle and had been doing ovulation testing so there's no way I'm due on 6/28 - thankfully she'll be out on maternity leave herself when it comes time for my 20wk. I estimate that I had just started my 6th week when I had that US tho she put me somewhere in my 7th week, which I base upon the fact that there were visible limbs and a heartbeat so I couldn't have been much less than 6wks). Anyway, the scan is packed away in some box right now, more unpacking will be done after more rooms are finished painting (so far our bedroom and dining room/office/library is painted, need to paint the living room/play room and back bedroom this week so I can use the back bedroom as unpacking zone and we can lay the play mats on the floor of the playroom.) Hopefully I'll get a chance to scan those in the next 2 weeks.

I'm hoping to get yeungs.us updated during winter break also (I have a "to-do" list that mostly involves not exerting myself too much physically, obviously... Garvin's "to-do" list is significantly more calorie-burning). The gallery software has been installed for ages now but I haven't linked it off the main page and I've not uploaded more pictures in several months due to the househunting and moving, so I'll be remedying those issues first and putting links to this blog and Garvin's. I also really want to write some of the fanfiction stories that have been floating in my head (especially with the title announced for the last book - I"d like to get them done before the book is published and I feel like an idiot for mis-interpreting clues ;) ). Maybe I'll get some time to work on some of my original projects too, especially the Lego ones are calling me!!! LOL