So many unfinished posts

I have more draft posts from the last week than I have had since I started the blog. Z is so adorable that getting by on no sleep has been almost ok. We're planning a big Christmas/New Years dinner on Thursday because our Ritz brunch was a disappointment. They have let so many people RSVP for the brunch that they no longer seem to have room for the tons of food they had a couple of years ago. Food like mashed potatoes, stuffing, non-raw roast beef, and any type of sushi other than California rolls were all missing. At least there was plenty of champagne and the weather was nice.

In other news, I'm flying out 4 days ahead of Liam because every flight from the 3rd-12th is fully booked. This means I'm flying with Z ALONE for over 14 hours. I'm not looking forward to that. It also means that we have 4 fewer days to get her visa put into her passport, so she can leave the country. We applied for and have gotten everything as quickly as possible. Her birth certificate took a week from our date of discharge, the passport took 2 weeks and we have no idea how long the visa will take. If it isn't done by the 3rd we have no idea what we will do. Do I fly and leave Z with Liam for 4 days? Do we just cancel the trip? No idea, but we're hoping for the best! This does mean 4 more days with my family before Liam arrives, so that takes a bit of the rush out of our travels. Z's getting her first passport stamp, which is exciting. Poor kid has some pretty freaky travel paper photos. Between the visa pic and the passport one it's like a freaky face melted baby has replaced Z for all pictures. It's really freaking hard to get a baby to stare into the camera and photoshopping out Liam's hands just makes them look all the freakier. These will certainly come in handy once she gets older!

Getting back to "normal"

Not that I know what that is now. I'm typing this with Z strapped into the baby bjorn. I'm much better at touch typing than I thought I was. After a bit of an overwhelmingly tiring few days culminating in me, laying next to Liam while Z whined in the Pack N Play, crying, Z had a great night. Liam took her for a walk and fed her, which gave me a chance to get more than 1.5 hours of sleep. I got 3 hours and then Z had a nice long sleep at night. She slept for 4 hours straight last night, which was amazing! And then she took a 3 hour nap during the day. Other than waking up soaking through my shirts, pillows and sheets, I can't really complain. I would rather wake up leaking than not wake up because I haven't been able to sleep for 2 days.

With Z safely in the Bjorn I decided to get back to "normal." This included, laundry, washing up a few dishes and baking! I just made brownies from the box, but it's the first baking I've done since she has been born. I think she enjoyed it. Her sleeping while I worked away was my interpretation of her loving it.

On a less exciting note, Z is going to be vaccinated today. I'm not looking forward to it. All of those people against vaccines always seemed crazy to me. I'm not against the vaccines because I think they are going to be harmful to her, it's just that the thought of her getting an injection makes me sad. I know the vaccines will protect her from a lot of horrible diseases, but I have to say I might cry. There is also the scary TB vaccine she has to get, which will leave a scar. Since we live in a TB zone it's one that you don't usually have to get in the States. Liam and I were a little against it at first and then we went to drop my mom and grandmom off at the airport. Walking through the airport and knowing that a huge portion of the people had probably not been vaccinated against many common ailments sent us running. Getting on a plane in a few weeks has hardened our resolve. I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it. At least she won't remember it. :'(

Exams are over!!

I didn't think this day would come, but I finished my exams! So many people didn't know how I could do it and honestly, at times I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. All I have to complete is my final paper. My professor has given me an extension, so it's not due for another month or so. I plan on finishing it earlier, but I'm glad that I don't have to worry about rushing through it.

My exams actually went a lot better than I thought they would. There were a couple of questions that stumped me, but I had pushed through and feel I did well enough on the rest of them to think I might have actually pulled off a halfway decent grade. It might have also just been a sign that I missed every major point and I'll be very upset when I get my grades in Jan.

I still can't believe how much things have changed in just over 2 weeks. I'm sitting in bed, laptop propped up on the Boppy, laying next to my darling little girl and husband. It's really crazy to think that I'm a mom now. It still sounds weird. I'm a MOM!

Can you tell I had a baby?

My posts have certainly been less frequent. I have an exam tomorrow and it's going to be a bloodbath. I mean it's going to be terrible and there isn't much I can do about it at this point. Thankfully I'm doing much better. Hives are long gone, soreness is mostly gone. I only need 4 mortin a day instead of 8. I know I won't mind Z being awake for all but 2 hours at night when I'm not trying to study throughout the day. But she's still so adorable. I can't get over smelling her when she fall asleep on my chest.

I'm looking forward to the weekend when our adjusted sleep schedule is no longer in effect. Liam sleeps upstairs during the week and I'm downstairs on the bed we have down there. He comes down at 4 to give me a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep before he heads off to work at 6. It isn't ideal, but it seems I'm better able to function without as much sleep as Liam.

Christmas is just around the corner and I'm glad we put the tree up early. My mom and gran brought over some presents for us, which are pretty much the only ones under the tree. Liam keeps asking what kind of push present I would like and I keep telling him nothing. It has to be hard to shop for me because I really don't want anything. Maybe some iTunes giftcards. I don't wear jewelry, like shopping, or have any other kinds of likes that are easy to shop for. Liam has a couple of things from me for Christmas as he's a bit easier to read. If it has something to do with photography or cooking, he's all for it. Both of those are checked off. I don't need anything, especially this year. Well maybe a magic pill to get Z to sleep during the night. Other than that, my aversion to clutter keeps me from wanting more things. I'm most looking forward to watching Tron, having a cider, and going to Christmas brunch.

Recovery

Isn't going as well as I hoped. I'm still going to be taking my exams next week, but it's going to be a sh*tshow. I don't know if I'm overdoing it or what, but it seems that what little energy I was running on is slowly falling apart. Covered in hives, unable to sit for long periods or time, nausea and dizziness is the name of the game now. I have been banished to bed by Liam and pumping as much as I can to keep Z happy. At least I don't have a fever or anything like that...yet. I'm planning on not leaving the house except for my exams until Christmas, or at least until I'm feeling at least 95%. Unfortunately my mom and grandmom leave tomorrow, just as I start really heading downhill. Of course! Going to go back to sleep and try to absorb my course information via osmosis. I don't have any hopes for this semester, passing is all that I'm shooting for. Oy.

A picture

(picture self destructed!)

Here is a long awaited pic of the little one on her birthday! If only she slept this peacefully at night. Trying to juggle studying, feeding her, feeding me, changing her and getting in a shower every once in a while. Talk about exhausting, but she's too cute for words!!

She has arrived!

The full birth post will be a bit longer, but she, yes SHE has finally arrived. We're just home from the hospital and it has been a whirlwind past 4 days. Zigs is doing well. She came in at about 6.5 lbs, so the doctor who told us she was going to be HUGE was full of it. She's adorable and so tiny. It's hard to remember how tiny they are in the beginning. I learned a number of things from this experience so far:

1) Nurses who tell you that the contractions you're having aren't really that bad, while you're shaking and trying to concentrate on breathing are a**holes!

2) Anesthesiologists are amazing, amazing, amazing people and any fear of an epidural goes away once you're in the thick of it

3) Functioning on 40 min-1.5 hour chunks of sleep over multiple days is possible and will continue for quite some time.