The start of 2012

We are just waiting for Baby Boy Smith to make his appearance. It has been a long 9 months and I am happy that it is almost over with and we will get to hold him soon. 

On this last Friday, a couple of friends, Sara Jennings and Sara Krause, threw me a small little baby shower at Olive Garden. I have a few pictures from it, but since they are on my camera still, you will just have to wait to see them. Or maybe I can just put pictures of Russell wearing all the things he got instead. My big sister, Nicole, and her husband and baby boy (Cameron and Hudson) are in town so Nicole and Hudson got to come too. It was so fun and I am glad that I have so many friends and family to support me and my little family. Plus, the food was amazing. I don't know if I have ever NOT had leftovers from Olive Garden before, but Russell dropped sometime last week, leaving me with lots more room to breath and to stuff my face, apparently. Which I did very well. 

After the shower, I had to run to get to my now weekly doctor visit on time.  My doctor "weighed" him using the ultra-sound and said he was about 6 pounds 1 ounce. And the extra good news is that his head doesn't look terribly big. Then she checked to see if I was dilating and that is where the really good news is: I have already begun to dilate. Sure, I'm only a 1+ and still have 9 more centimeters to go, but with Keldrie I wasn't a 1+ until I had been on the Pitocin for a half hour, oh and was 7 days over due. My doctor also has a policy that says if you are dilated before your 39 weeks, you can be induced at 39 weeks. So we got to schedule an induction date and that date is January 19th! Not only is that a week ahead of my due date, it is also my mom's birthday. She is extremely excited! 

Well, I haven't had much energy for picture taking lately, but we've also finished Russell's nursery. His furniture is built, he crib is waiting and his drawers are starting to fill up. I hooked up the monitor to make sure it works and now everyday Keldrie wants to play with it. Maybe for her birthday she can get a set of actual walkie-talkies. That would be much more fun than the one way monitor, plus, she would probably leave the monitor alone. She also keeps getting in his room and turning his swing on. She is still excited to be a big sister, but I think she can also feel some changed coming on that have made her a bit touchy and cranky. Especially since my sister is in town with her baby and Grandma Keller has not been solely devoted to her. She does love Hudson though and wants to help him and do things with him, but she just doesn't understand why Hudson can't do all the stuff she can. I wanted to have my baby while Nicole was in town so she could be here, but she is going home Wednesday, so we are running out of time. I guess I will just have to be patient and wait for him a bit longer. 

I finally took my Christmas stuff down yesterday. I knew if I didn't get to it before the baby comes, it just won't happen until around Easter. But I boxed it all away and now all that needs done is for Matt to carry it down to the basement for me. Matt has been more than helpful these last few weeks. While he was on break from school, he made sure to help me with the housework every day and helped me tackle all those big cleaning projects that only need done once every few months, like dusting the floorboards and vacuuming under the furniture. 

That's our January thus far! I am thinking the second half is going to be quite exciting, but until then, I will just have to be content.