Very Journal Like (Random and Variagated, like Ice Cream)

As our "vacation" comes to an end, perhaps I will become better at posting. Avram's been home since early December, and still has one week until school starts, although he hasn't been idle the whole time; he has had six schools to apply to, and two large papers to write, but now he's almost done with both tasks. Regardless, life has not felt very hurried in the past month, and so my posting has gone down as well (plus Avram spends a lot more time on the computer when he's home more, go figure). I, sadly, have been more idle than less, much of the time. For one thing, one child and a one bedroom apartment only need so much from two stay-at-home parents.

As I said before, I spent much of the early break knitting. Lydia became very interested in this hobby, and attempted knitting herself on the completed sample I did
When she tired of that, Lydia found other uses for the needles, among them dancing tools.
Speaking of dancing, Lydia received a gift of an iTunes gift certificate from the Reeds for Christmas, for music that makes her dance. Avram has spent much time looking up music and sampling it out on Lydia, and so far we've come to either "No," a children's album by They Might be Giants, and which Lydia can sing along to the title song (she learned the word "no" on Christmas Eve, along with "mine"), or the Fraggles soundtrack, seeing as she got a Gobo doll from her Grandma Shannon, and she loves the Fraggles.

Lydia loved Christmas, albeit she played more with the boxes of the presents than the presents themselves since she's received them, in very toddler-like fashion. Among other greenery, we had our Christmas tree up on a table in our Living Room
Lydia also met Santa at the ward Christmas party
Her posture about expresses what she thought of him, too. Here's us as a family at the party.
I've also been meaning to report on my pregnancy. According to Camilla's request, I have a couple of "belly" pictures.
Me at 17 weeks. I hadn't really started to show yet. Here's another of me at 18 weeks.
As I reached 20 weeks, and the baby has grown up past my navel, I've started to show a lot more, and would venture to say even strangers would probably guess I'm pregnant. Although I'm still telling people I'm pregnant; we've been slow about telling people this time, I think because we don't know people as well here as we did in Utah, and so it's more random to tell them. And because it's winter, I'm always wearing a coat anywhere, so it's really not obvious at all. We found out we're having a girl on December 31, and although I know some want it to be male, even I could see on the ultrasound that she was female (although of course I know it can always be wrong, and until I see the baby myself, I won't be 100% sure). We want to choose a British name, but we're a little stuck beyond that. I like Gwyneth, and we both like Gwynafar, or Guinevere in the English spelling, and not Welsh. Also, we're thinking maybe Lucia, which isn't strictly speaking British, but Lucy is used here a lot so it's kind of British. Avram likes Jane. I like Jane, but more as a middle name. I would love a first name and a middle name that sounded nice together, so we could call our daughter both together, like Lydia's cousin, Lily Jane is. I think short middle names work best for that, like Anne, maybe. And I do love Anne of Green Gables. We'll find something eventually, though.

Here in England they have a cutoff, and if baby's are born under 5 lbs 8 oz, then in a subsequent pregnancy, the mother is considered to be high risk, so I had another appointment at the hospital on Jan. 2nd, because Lydia was only 5 lbs 7 oz. My placenta had an infection, it turned out, when Lydia was born, and so I have to request my medical records from America, and have them sent here, so the doctors here can see if they can do something about it. In the meantime they've prescribed extra ultrasounds and doctor's appointments at the Hospital, in addition to my midwife appointments locally. My next ultrasound is on February 13, but I hope when my records come from America, they can leave me alone, because the Hospital is a pain to get to from here, and thats where the extra appointments and ultrasounds are. Plus I don't think it's something that's preventable, because after Lydia was born I asked my midwives if they was something I could do to prevent the same thing from happening again, and they said there wasn't. Of course, if the extra ultra sounds do help somehow, then it'll be worth it.

Other than all the appointments, my pregnancy is going well. I'm considering possibly having the baby at home (assuming that I do get taking off the high risk list). In America, it's practically illegal nowadays to do that, but here it's very normal, and at my first midwife visit the apprentice was even trying to talk me into it, I think. We've been worried about getting to the hospital in time, what with having to get a ride, and also getting Lydia taken care of too, and then I only had a six hour labor last time, so it'll probably be shorter this time, and I want to do a natural labor again, so being at home wouldn't change not having pain relief. Of course, then we'd still have to have someone come be with Lydia here (we'd send them down to the commons area of the house), because I want Avram with me, much as he wishes he could just take care of Lydia. And then even in the middle of the night, it would be someone else's problem to get here, and not mine to get to them. I haven't discussed it with my midwife, but I have an appointment with her on Wednesday, so we'll see what she thinks.

I'll leave you with Lydia.