My baby girl,

As I put you to bed tonight, I couldn’t help but think that this may be the last night I do so as a mother to just you.  A whirl of emotions, for sure.  For 2000 nights, I’ve been the one to put you to bed.  And to parent you back to sleep throughout the night.  Many nights I’ve dreaded it.  But every night I can stare at your sleeping body and be amazed that I am your mama.

I say that I worry about how you will adjust to your new brother.  And that is true.  You are such a nurturer, I know you will love him.  Things will change though.  Truthfully, I really worry how I will adjust to you having a new sibling.  I know that I won’t be able to do for you all the things I can do now.  And that makes me sad for you.  And for me.  You have changed me to the core.

You & I have gone through a lot.  So many nights I worried that we wouldn’t make it through until Daddy came home from Iraq.  Or that we wouldn’t make if he didn’t come home at all.  Similar feelings while he was away at school.  And many days even when he was home!!  I imagine our “clashes” will continue…we’re too much alike.   But a team we’ve been.  In your littlest form, you taught me a peace I hadn’t known.  And forced me to find strength that I had forgotten was there.  And helped me to find more smiles & laughter than I ever thought possible.  I’ve been forced to learn to handle myself better.  If I do it or say it, I know there’s a good chance it’ll be coming back to me!!

Soon we’ll be adding another person to our team.  I look forward to seeing how he fits into our family.  All the things you’ll teach him.  How Daddy will be with a son.  How I will mother a son.  You will be an amazing sister, of that I’m confident.

Please don’t fear that you’ll be replaced or displaced.  You’re my first born and that can never be changed.

Sleep tight, my baby girl.  Mama loves you.

I think this pregnancy may be quickly nearing its end!!  I woke up today not feeling so hot.  As the day has progressed, that feeling has continued.  Low menstrual-type cramps, nausea, dull backache, contractions that feel a bit different, feeling an extreme need to be naked (I have a feeling I won’t be laboring with much, if anything, on), feeling an extreme need to do laundry/unpack more boxes/other “nesting”-type behavior.

If this labor is anything like Elizabeth’s, it could still be awhile.  24 hours after labor began, I was barely 3cm.

We’ll see!!

Its been awhile since I’ve posted direct picture links. I also haven’t had belly pictures to post b/c I haven’t had a belly…until the last week and then it has suddenly popped out. I have been doing a lot of sewing lately. I don’t have pictures of all my projects, so I’ll try to do those tomorrow.

WDW–Day 1
WDW–Day 2
WDW–Day 3
WDW–Day 4
WDW–Day 5
Go, Go Power Wheels!
Playing @ Grandpa’s
September Photo Shoot
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This entry may be sensitive to some people, so please back out now if baby and/or death is sensitive to you. (No, I haven’t lost the pregnancy or anything like that…)

Heading out of town tomorrow.  Some news to report when I get back, so stay tuned.

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If you like to buy items from the US but have a hard time finding them, here’s a website that details brands made in the US.

Mom gives birth (without pain meds!) to a 15 1/2 pound babe. Impressive. And OUCH.

We’re going to WDW! We’re leaving on the 23rd and coming back on the 28th. I am BEYOND excited. We’re staying at Shades of Green which is a Disney resort they lease to the DoD for military members. We watch a lot of WDW videos on YouTube. Elizabeth is pretty much WDW-obsessed already.

I am going to make a larger effort to both keep up with my blog and read other blogs.

Big Brother 8…I’m absolutely disgusted with CBS, the editing & the producers. To say that the editing for the show was biased is an understatement. This was the first year I followed the feeds pretty closely (I don’t have them, just follow threads on TWoP discussing them). And this is the year that they did the worst biasness in their editing. With the new Grodner & crew as producers, I’m not sure I’ll tune in next year.

I put up some new pictures on our site.

When I picked E up today, I brought two of her babies with me and had them strapped into her seat. When she spotted them, her eyes got so wide and she had a big smile on her face. She leaned over to kiss each of them and said “I so hap(py) to see you. I lo(ve) you.” So sweet.