Currently: February

Woo hoo, February is over half over. I'm so ready for this month to be over as that means the pregnancy will be over! I haven't scheduled my induction yet but it will be in late Feb/early March, so not far off at all! 

Reading: The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce. This was my January Book of the Month Club selection. It's a novel about a quirky music shop owner that will only sell vinyl records even though CDs have come on the market and are becoming more popular. He meets a mysterious girl who wants him to teach her about music. I'm about half way through it and enjoying it so far.

Loving:  the warmer weather we are having right now. It was 40F yesterday which felt terrific after a long stretch of single digit/low double digit temps with windchills below zero. I hope this mild weather sticks around! 

Feeling: excited for the birth of our baby. I'm a bit anxious about how the induction will go because I know induced labors can be longer and harder than going into labor on your own. But I know it will all be worth it when we are holding our sweet baby in our arms!

Wondering: about how Oscar is going to adjust to being a big sister. She's pretty terrified of kids but hopefully she won't be terrified of our baby since she'll meet him or her when they aren't intimidating/threatening. In the mean time, she is getting lots of cuddles from Phil and me.

Sitting on me at the end of my work day, waiting for daddy to come home.

Phil is still BY FAR her favorite. She never stretches out on me like this!

Cuddling on my tummy

Frustrated: that I have had a flare for over 2 weeks now. I've increased my steroid dose, per my doctor's recommenation, twice now but the dose I"m taking now is as high as I can take while pregnant. Fingers crossed it takes care of this flare for good. It would be really nice to be flare-free when I go into labor. I've been told that the pain of labor will distract me from any other pain I am having but it would still be nice to not have any joint pain. Especially when the baby arrives and we are caring for a newborn! My flares tend to impact my hand/finger joints, making it tough/painful to do much with my hands so it would make caring for a baby a bit extra hard.

Anticipating: my maternity leave. My company has a generous 16 week policy but I am tacking on 4 extra weeks (using PTO) so I can have 20 weeks at home with our little one. I had to get an exception to extend it but my boss has been great about it. Plus the old policy was 20 weeks long - 2 weeks before your due date and 18 weeks after the baby was born (but only 12 weeks were paid). So I am taking the same amount of time as I would have received under the old policy. We would have been happy to have a baby any month of the year but it worked out well that I'll be on maternity leave from early March until mid-July! I can't wait to go for lots of stroller walks and eventually runs with baby S!

Watching: Call the Midwife when Phil isn't around (I don't think many men would enjoy that show!). It's probably not a good time to watch a show about child birth, some of which are traumatic, but the show has totally sucked me in! We also watched a documentary series called "Dirty Money" on Netflix which we both loved. It's a series of shows about people who have done questionable things in pursuit of making money. Some/many of them will leave you enraged, especially the one about a pay-day loan company with super unethical practices.

Grateful:  to work for a compnay/boss who have been incredibly accommodating through this pregnancy. I'm so lucky that I am able to work from home for the last 5 weeks of my pregnancy as it would be really taxing to go into the office every day as I get tired very easily and still have pain if I sit up for too long or am out and about for too long. 

Working: on getting our house a bit more organized before the baby arrives. Since I have had so much pain in my hands, I haven't been able to do the deep clean I was hoping to do before the baby arrives so I am trying to accept that tidying up will be sufficient. 

Listening: to very few podcasts these days. Now that I'm not commuting or doing much cooking and cleaning, I don't get a chance to listen to as many podcasts as I used to! 

Wishing: for an early spring!  Our winter hasn't been as bad as past winters have been, but it's been plenty cold. So I am hoping that warmer, spring-like temperatures arrive in March. March can be a cold and snowy month, though, so I don't expect to have this wish granted.

What are you loving, anticipating and grateful for?