Happy Birthday EGG!

That's right, this morning my niece Emerson Grey Granzow (EGG/Eggy) was born! I haven't slept a wink since 3:30 this morning, as I was in and out of bed all night trying to get the updates on Kate/baby from Iowa. It was a long, hard labor and delivery for my poor sister, but she handled it like a hero and brought little Emerson into the world and now both are doing well! I'm VERY proud, and just so excited to meet this little one! I can't believe she's already here, to me it feels like the time has gone quickly although I can imagine for Kate it did not feel so quick. In fact, I remember her telling me a week or so ago that she was beginning to think "this pregnancy was all a cruel joke" and wasn't going to be ending any time soon. Turns out that little baby has pretty good timing actually! She was nice enough to come on a Friday/Saturday that Matt wasn't working, Rachel was able to go because Taylor was home with the kiddos, Mom and Den could come up in the morning, and I'm very relieved because we were starting to wonder if maybe I jumped the gun by booking tickets to Iowa only two days after the due date. But nope! That little one came early like we all thought she would. I am now eager to get back to Iowa and visit with FOUR nieces/nephew. It's just so exciting, I love being an Aunt.

I had that strange kind of sleepless energy today, so I bounced out of bed when I decided that I was tired of climbing in and out, with no sleep in there... I had come down at 4 or so and read blogs and looked up pictures on the internet, found things for baby's room that I like, made lists of things we need to get/do... Then I went to the store for breakfast makings and made breakfast. I'm apparently a sub-par breakfast maker, the last few attempts have been a little gross, like the time I tried a recipe for baking powderless pancakes with whatever flour we had on hand (not the right kind) which Eric laughed at... and the time I tried making eggs and hashbrowns but the hashbrowns were slightly underdone and we had ONE egg so I gave Eric this sad little portion of scramble. It ended up being about two pieces of scrambled egg. Well this time, I think my breakfast was delish-- minus having cooled a little more than I had meant for it to by the time I got it upstairs. I think timing is not one of my strong points, it's hard to get everything done at the same time! But I made pancakes, eggs, toast, raspberries, coffee, oj. Yum. Most importantly, I had the energy to do it despite being sleepy, and I tried. So what more can we ask for? :) If that means someone eats my cold breakfast then so be it!

Eric said I was sounding scattered and silly this morning because I was sleepy, but I think we'll all just have to get used to that-- I was just excited to share all of the things I had found and thought of in the middle of the night! Well when everyone was up and ready we did a very exciting errand. We went to pick up our new WASHING MACHINE! Most of you probably don't know the hatred I have had for our washing machine for months. A piece of it broke so it doesn't aggitate like it should. You have to do very small loads, and even then I'm just not convinced of its power, so out it went. Now we have a shiny, larger, quieter, and FUNCTIONAL washing machine. I have been doing load after load since then and loving every minute of it. I feel so much better having that, and now bring on the dirty baby clothes and blowouts in a few months! We are ready. When we got back I thought I should start cleaning before I crashed. So that's exactly what I did, I started cleaning like a mad woman before ever sitting down. I swept and swiffered all of the floors, vacuumed the rugs and the stairs and the carpets upstairs, and then I changed the trash, cleaned our bathroom, did the dishes, crawled on hands and knees (that is getting a little tougher and more like aerobic activity) while I scrubbed the entryway floor so the guys could lay our new flooring down... They did that, and it looks great! A much nicer color, much cleaner, just a big step up, so I'm really happy with that. They will do the laundry room floor one of these days, and then we may go buy more in a lighter color and get some for the upstairs bathrooms. Overall, I would call it a productive day. Tomorrow Eric and I are going to go look at a chair we may get for the nursery. I was in there a minute ago thinking yikes, there is an awful lot to accomplish in there so hopefully this week we'll make some progress! It's a small space to work with and we really want it to be comfy and cozy and peaceful with all the right personality in it... I'm not great at doing that, but I have been begging Rachel for help from a distance. I think when we get a chair and a rug in there, and some shelves we'll be in business. Things should come along after that!

As I was online this morning around 4am I stumbled upon a really neat blog that I like. Some woman who is obviously an etsy.com fanatic like I am, and she posts about different artwork and baby things, and household items and other fun things so I was able to look at those and dream of things I'd like to decorate with or have for the babe. So many fun things to think of :) I also was thinking, I wish I had a home office where I could blog for work during the day. If only I had interesting enough things to say, or a topic to write about. Unfortunately, I don't. So whoever is out there reading this, this may just be as good as it gets on this blog, but that's ok. Some day when I think of something brilliant or find something that MUST be shard, I'll be sure to show you!

I tried taking my monthly belly photos last week when I hit 28 weeks (3rd trimester) but apparently the camera card was full and decided not to notify me, so those are gone. Here is a photo from tonight, at 29 weeks though! Eric says that really is what my belly looks like, but I think this picture makes it look just a tiny bit bigger. I just ate Annies mac and cheese for dinner, so maybe I'm just a little stretched. Or maybe it's time I accept the fact that I'm getting bigger fast! Fine by me, I love feeling this little guy grow. This is about the time for a big growth spurt for us both, and I can definitely feel that he has grown. When he rolls around it's just so noticeable and it's easy to see how much space he takes in there. To think in a few weeks he'll be pounds heavier, I'm excpecting some pretty strong movements to start soon! They're strong now, but I hear they get strong in a very purposeful way. Right now it feels like he's calmly moving most of the time. He's probably 2 pounds and some ounces now, and he is positioned with his back/butt on my left side, his head angled down toward my right hip, and his feet must be up higher but I haven't felt him kicking for a bit so maybe they're sitting at the back. I really feel him flinch and roll more often than kick these days. Sometimes his movements startle me or make me laugh and no matter what they are just plain fun to watch and feel. I cannot believe we'll be full term in EIGHT weeks, to think he'll be with us so soon is just exciting and overwhelming and I can't wait. I'm getting into that stage where I feel like on one hand the pregnancy is just taking off and I'm happy with where I am and feel like there is still so much more to experience, but on the other hand I'm getting anxious to meet him in a couple of months. It feels like there is a long way to go but really, our little love is not far from us.

I think it's time to go watch the laundy machine at work... Yes, welcome to my exciting Saturday nights.

Ciao!