Two Day- Two doctors appointment

Yesterday I saw a perinatalogist. My cervix is still about 2.8 :). So we are going to try modified bed rest, and go back in two weeks to see how we are doing. The perinatalogist that was there was not my regular doctor. He did not read my full file and was rather fast in my visit, maybe because they were behind schedule by forty minutes... I ended up calling the perinatalogist I regularly see to ask her a few more questions- she was the one that told me try the modified bed rest... She was explaining modified bed rest-saying I could get up a bit more, but I was to do no house work, no cooking- only simple meal prep. no lifting Avi, and no intercourse- when she said no intercourse-I responded that it would not be a problem, she started to explain that it really was important to not have intercourse- I then reminded her that Gunnar was in Afghanistan. It just made me laugh because I wondered what she thought I was thinking when I said it was not a problem...

Yesterday I made an Adorable Bear hat for Avi- I basically followed the pattern http://knitprocro.com/baby-bear-hat/. Seriously so cute! I added a small butterfly that was sweet touch to make it more fitting for Avi. It came together really quickly which was fabulous.
I also started on an owl hat for Avi, but today I found I made it too long, so I took out more than half today. I tried out four different patterns for crocheted roses tonight, as I listened to General conference talks- Here is the link for what I think is my favorite of the four.
I had lab work done today-glucose testing and tests for infection- since we saw the eccobowel. And later I had my OB/GYN appointment. I am now 132 with a 26inch belly. Baby's heart rate is good. The funny thing I had a little sinking feeling when I saw 132- that moment of oh no- I am back in the 130's... But really I am pregnant!! and it was not long ago, that I could not believe I had made it below 140 let alone 135 or... It is healthy regular weight gain so far, I just wish half my weight gain didn't go to my love handles, I don't just pop-I thicken when I am pregnant. Like it matters right now anyway!
The Relief Society presidency came to visit me today- They are so sweet!  I was really impressed how quickly they got me visiting teachers and they have come to visit me- and I don't even go to church... maybe that is why...Well, they have been one of the fastest R.S. presidencies to come in and meet and assign visiting teachers that I have had.
Sonja drove us and helped take care of Avi while I did the labs/break/Dr. appointment. I think it was nice for Erin to have a break! She was able to take Jaxon to Trafalga- and she said it was nice to be able to actually be able to do some of activities.
I have been able to talk to Gunnar on the phone three days in a row now- we are on a roll, but I doubt we get to talk tomorrow- three is the longest stretch of consecutive calls I get. I had a spectrum of feeling for him today. I was really missing him earlier. I longed to just have him here, but then later I was feeling numb towards him. I felt like he was kind of fading from me in a way, he just seemed to be this distant figure that I worry about. I think I need to do better on focusing on his good points- I listened to Elder Holland in "How do I Love Thee?" I need to be a better spouse.
Sonja brought Christmas presents from Gunnar's parents for Avi. She was allowed to open one of them, because she can use them this winter- it was a pair of snow boots. We put them on her feet- and to my surprise, she did not like! She had a really hard time standing and tried to get them off-she is use to the light leather/cloth shoes. She'll get use to them... but it was rather funny to see her try to stand. I love her soo much.

hats and poop everywhere

Back to Erin's house. Poor Avi is officially allergic to milk. We had stopped giving it to her for about the last week, and yesterday without thinking I shared my granola with her. About twenty minutes after she was fussy and just wanted to lay with me. For the rest of the day she basically had diarrhea. Poor kid!
While at mom's I finished the fourth book to Work and the Glory, made a bear ear hat for the little guy and for Avi, and had lots of good snuggle time with Avi. Oh! and the excitement of the weekend- Avi's rash is getting better, but it is still a bit there, so I while I was getting her ready for bed one night- I let her air out. She was so cute running around naked! She went over to my mom's door and peeked into her room and was saying "boo". It took mom a minute to see her, when she saw her she told Avi to come in. In pushed the door slightly open. Avi was still standing in the hall, and I saw a little piece of brown starting to come out of her rear end...I panicked! I grabbed a wipe and ran over. A little late- plop on the floor. I wiped her bum and scooped her up- more poop fell- falling onto my pants and the ground. My mom was to be by that time- asking to take Avi- I was so panicked- it suddenly hit me- I am on bed rest! I am not suppose to be up! or picking up Avi! Sweet mom cleaned up and I got back in bed and got Avi ready for bed.
Tonight Erin took Avi with her family to Trafalga. Avi surprisingly did not like the carousel-it was a favorite for her at Disneyland. Avi enjoyed being her in the little umbrella stroller- I was also shocked, she usually get tired of being in a stroller rather quickly.
I made a really really cute owl baby hat for the baby today. It took me all day! but I am really pleased with the results, when I figure out pictures- I will put one on. I combined so many patterns and did my own changes, that I don't think it worth it to link to the patterns I used.
I got to talk to Gunnar today. He asked me what we should name the baby. He shot down my ideas and didn't have any of his own- because he doesn't have any name books over there... I have sent him suggestions in the past too, but he doesn't like any yet. I am honestly thinking I am just going to decide something for myself. But it was great to talk to him. Avi even got to say hi and talked to him a little bit- it was rather adorable... we probably shouldn't tell him when she was saying "dada" she was pointing to an Elmo book...
Last night I watched some Mormon Messages on YouTube. They are so good! I was really hit by "My New Life", it is about a woman who survived an accident, but was disfigured due to burns. It really hit me because I worry that my husband doesn't really find me very attractive... The woman seems like a truly great person. I loved her perspective on the privilege and importance of motherhood.
I am 26 weeks now. I have been through five weeks of bed rest- I have ten to go. It is too bad bed rest is not a linear experience. It is more exponential experience of discomfort. But after this week we are into the single digits of weeks left, and for a how cute this little guy is going to be- it is totally worth it!

I ruined Christmas on Thanksgiving

So I ruined Christmas today. I checked Gunnar's e-mail to see if he had read my e-mail I had sent him the other day, and I noticed an e-mail that said something like Amazon Kindle Fire: now shipped. I was so upset he had bought a $200 dollar Kindle when I had gotten him a Kindle Touch for Christmas. It had just arrived in the mail yesterday! It was a big deal for me to order him the Kindle Touch. I do not buy expensive things. So it was a huge stretch for me to spend that much money on a present. I am also a believer in libraries, but Gunnar thinks they are really cool and it would be useful especially while he is over seas... It was tough for me, but when you are in love you do crazy things. To see the e-mail was like heart break- my great Christmas present now ruined! Plus I have just had a really tough last couple days being really mad at him for choosing to be gone. REALLY MAD. So this was like the straw on the camel's back. I cried. I ranted to Erin, and then he called. I said happy Thanksgiving, and we chatted about his Thanksgiving, and then I told him he had ruined Christmas. He asked how and I told him he had ordered a Kindle Fire when I had already gotten him a Kindle Touch. he said he had not, I responded I had seen the e-mail, he asked if I had read it- I had not- he told me it was just an advertisement. I opened it and it was an advertisement. I so embarrassed. I was the one who had ruined the Christmas surprise for Gunnar.
We went to mom's for Thanksgiving. It was delicious! Avi like the candied yams- yes, I let her eat candied yams, but at least she was eating a vegetable... stuffing, not the creamed peas, not the turkey, not the potatoes, bur once she saw the rolls the she not eat anything else till she had one. She also loved the fruit salad. One of my favorites, was the homemade cranberry sauce my mom made- it was new to this year. We had a brownie pumpkin pie with some ice cream for dessert- quite decadent. (Avi had yogurt with oatmeal for dessert- she loved it- she tried to pick up the bowl to lick it out, but it had a suction cup bottom so she wasn't able to get it off the tray.)
For dinner Aliea and Jaxon were on the piano bench, we had the kitchen table and a card table at the end. Avi was at the card table and Warren put across from her. Warren commented at being at the kid table, we corrected him to say he was not at the kid table, he was at the baby table :).
After dinner and dessert were over and Warren had gone home, everyone but Wayne and I went into the kitchen for a dance party. It was so cute! The kids were so funny. I really wished I could have been the one dancing with Avi, but Erin was good with her. Avi had fun, until she saw the pretzels, after which she just wanted a pretzel.

Some Avi cuteness and Christmas begins before Thanksgiving

I am feeling behind the times. I found a site which has cute templates for blogs- but I cannot find the "design" button on my blog... to change mine, and on the new ones- which don't require you to find the design button, I keep coming up with an error. Am I doomed to a plain old blog with the basic template??
Avi cuteness:
-She sat in a round floaty and had me throw balls to her, so she sat there with a three balls piled up around her in the floaty.
-She loves to find places that are just the right height for her to sit. The bottom stair is ideal, the front of the treadmill... she even tried the little couch from the doll house, but she found it a bit too small for her.
-She loves the fishy- I think they are vinyls in the play room. She talks about them and loves to touch them. She was climbing over the Fisher Price farm to touch one, and thought it was cool so she was going back and forth (was that yesterday or today?)
-Today she was willing to wear the pilgrims hat from the dress ups. She was so cute! She then put on another hat that covered her whole head, and the silly girl went walking around until she hit into the wall. She is so funny like that, she put clothes over her head, or whatever and walk around until she hits into something, sometimes repeatedly! (maybe once I was laughing too hard to stop her from doing it more than once...)
-Tonight we had pizza and grapes. I had picked off the sun dried tomatoes off of mine. I had a grape on my plate and Avi came and stole the grape. She then grabbed one of the tomatoes that was burnt- it was blackened so I think she thought it was a grape. She took a bite and smiled she turned to Erin and gave her a big charcoal filled smile. We laughed that she like it. She chewed on it for what seemed like a whole minute. Then she took another bite and got to the part that was not burnt. At this point she realized she was not eating a grape. She spit it out- it was so funny!
-She has been such a love to me! She keeps coming up to me and giving me hugs. I LOVE it!
When I cradle her baby doll she comes to me and gets in my arms, so she can hold the baby and be cradled too.
-Her poop is looking better- so it looks like she is dealing with a milk allergy right now. She is still rashed, with a bumpy rash- so we are trying free and gentle huggies and not huggies brand. We put lavendar oil on and gave an oatmeal bath today. The surrounding redness has gone down, now we will see if the bumpy rash part goes away, if not we'll go to the doctor... With the rash looking better, the poop better, and her molar being broken in- she is a much happier baby. She was just so delightful today.
I read A Christmas Carol today. I had remembered it being short, but wow, really that is a fast read. At parts it feels almost funny to read because it is memorized from seeing the movies. It is a wonderful Christmas tale. I told Gunnar, (Ya! after two days of nothing I got to talk to him today!) I was reading it, and he laughed at me for reading it the day before Thanksgiving. But it is our book club book for the month, so I had to get it done before book club... that is in a couple of weeks :).
Erin is set up for Christmas, not that I have seen up stairs, but my tree is decorated. This evening I had the lights off in the room enjoyed the glow of the christmas lights on the tree. I know the Christmas tree upstairs is decorated and she put out her out door decorations. She told me Avi just loved them!
There is a part of me that doesn't want to do holidays. I am in bed and Gunnar is gone. It is funny- most of my life has not included Gunnar, but after only two years of holidays with him, I feel they are so empty without him.

Family Home Evening and complaining

Couldn't sleep till five a.m. the other night. Ugh. I don't understand why pregnancy is has to be so uncomfortable. The baby has found new ways to cause me pain, plus all the general pains I have been dealing with already. Start with morning sickness, then suffer some more... gosh good thing I love my babies, else I think I would really be done.
Last night I taught Family Home Evening. We talked about the first Thanksgiving, read a scripture on gratitude, then wrote down something we were thankful for on a strip of paper. We put it in a container and played pictionary and had to guess who's was who's, then we put them back in the container and played charades with them. Best moments-
1. Jaxon's was a bus driver. He happened to pick his for the pictionary round. He drew a man. We guessed several things- including a bus driver, but that was not it, he said- it was Jack Sparrow.
2. Wayne got the word family- so for his picture he drew a family of turkeys.
3. Erin got the word diaper- she drew Avi- with a diaper and tickling her belly- since that is what Avi loves to do when she is getting her diaper change- she had a word bubble saying "tickle, tickle..." since Ave says that as she tickles her belly. It is so funny- because Avi says it in the funniest voice- it is a throaty nasal voice- if that makes any sense.
4. Because of Erin's drawing, when Aliea got the word diaper for charades, she just tickled her belly.
5. and final- Aliea and Jaxon got together to do the last charade- it was Jaxon's bus driver. So they went off to plan how they were going to act it out. They came out with Jaxon riding on Aliea's back- Aliea was the bus.

I have been working on a crocheted jacket for the baby. The pattern has been the most confusing I have ever worked with. I am almost finished- sewed it together, to find out it is a joke. The body and sleeves are okay, the neck is ridiculously large! I think I am giving up- I think I am just going to take it apart and use the yarn for something else- I just don't like that because then the next item with have a lot of tied together pieces... humph!
It is pathetic how tired and sick I feel after playing with Avi for probably a half hour. How in the world am I going to take care of her and the new baby after three more months of bed rest?

Come Thou Fount... video

I got to Face book chat with Gunnar today. So that makes since last Sunday we have talked three times on the phone and face booked once. - averaging every other day. Not too bad, but my pessimistic side says that it is pathetic- a wife should be able to talk to her husband everyday! But hey at least we live in a time of modern technology!

I found this video on the blog that had ideas from the last Relief Society lesson in the ward. First of all, I love this song, second of all, it has a great shot of Uncle John, on Gunnar's side.
I had my visiting teacher come today!! They are very nice. They each have done bed rest too- well, one did one week and the other two weeks- does that really count?? Yes, it does, but it certainly is not the same as being down for months...
Little Avi's nose is running and she seems just slightly fevered. Goodness this poor kid- diaper rash coming and going like crazy, poop outs all the time, a little rash by her ear- looked better today, either a B12 deficiency or geographic tongue, molar coming in... Yet, she is still a pretty happy little kid. I don't think she'll ever out grow her sensitive skin. Well, I like hypoallergenic soaps and lotions better anyway.
I have a headache that is not really going away it started last night. I took a nap today, it helped, but it is still lingering. Hum, this is the longest I have ever had. I am pretty lucky that I usually have short headaches, so this is perplexing to me.
Erin put up a Christmas tree in my room- it is not decorated- just up. Avi was fascinated! Avi loves to play with balls. I think they and little cars are her favorites right now. Erin was telling me the other day when they were out they went to several different places- Avi loved it. We think Avi has the explorer spirit. She loves being out and going. She gets restless when she is in one place too long.
Did I mention I am 25 weeks now :)

Snowball!

I am moved down to the basement now. I use to be in the on the main floor in the front 'sitting room'. I was up there so I could be close to what was going on. I was, but I was in the corner. So we moved me down here so Avi would be more comfortable to stay and play with me- not as much for her to get into, and it keeps her close.
Most of the day the family was gone, so yes, I did feel a bit isolated, I wanted to know what Avi was up to in the morning, but Erin brought her down for a kiss good bye before they left. Later we had great success in having her down here playing with me!! Ya! We mainly played with the Fisher Price barn and Mr./Mrs. Potato Head- I was so proud of Avi- she has developed the eye/hand coordination to put the pieces in the holes. Yes, her potato head mostly consisted of ears, but it was marvelous she could do it! She also grabbed the hats and would but them on her head :).
I got quite the surprise for Avi and Erin today... it was a snowball! Thankfully it brushed right off the blanket I was on :). Avi got to take it into the tub to play with it while it melted. 
Today I worked on putting pictures of temples around matting the frame a Proclamation to the World. I am getting closer to finishing- I need to put some pictures in place so I can cut the final ones and make sure everything is fitting. While I worked on that I listened to Elder Utchdorf's, Forget Me Not.  
I took a shower today- it is sad that especially this week it is note worthy... do I admit how how many days it has been? I had missed Gunnar yesterday- he had been on line wanting to skype! but I had no way of knowing- we had dinner and moved my room while he was on... he had said he hoped we could talk today- so I was guessing that there might be a chance to skype. So after my shower I was debating- do I put make up on? So I can look nice for Gunnar. I was wondering, got on Facebook, just in case he was on, and he called on the phone, so I ended up glad I had not bothered with the make up (don't get me wrong- I like wearing make up- I just don't see the point of wearing it unless I am going out right now). I was so glad to be able to talk to him, I felt we started off well, but I don't think I handled the rest of conversation well. I was telling him I had looked into stuff for his schooling, and I wanted him to check out the links and this and that... I don't know, maybe I was being too bossy, I just didn't feel right when it came time to say good bye- which was a minute and half earlier than normal...
I watched some of Lost today. Gunnar and I stopped at season five because all the characters just seemed so crazy and immoral, but really I think we stopped just when it was getting good! I am in season six now. Yes, they are still crazy and immoral, but it is not the same as the other seasons... I paused my episode to get Avi ready for bed. Wow, I love that little girl. Earlier while we were playing we got a blanket and rolled her up in it- so she was bundled up. She loved it. So tonight I bundled her up after her diaper change and did the rest of our routine with the cutest little bundle.
I was enjoying watching Lost, but really that enjoyment is nothing compared to getting Avi ready for bed. I cannot believe how much I love her.
** I had a picture to put on, but I can't figure out how to get a picture off my camera on a Mac...