New Camera

So Santa came early this year and brought me a new SLR camera before baby girl arrives... yay!!! Honestly, I wasn't expecting this - it was a big surprise from my sweet hubby, so I'm really excited.  Here are a few test shots... I read the manual last night and it was pretty darn confusing.  I think I'm going to have to learn through experimentation.  So here goes!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a lovely holiday with your family, friends, and neighbors.  Our holiday will be a quiet one, in preparation/ anticipation of baby girl - we plan to watch football, head out to eat as a family, and spoil Patrick for his last few days as an only child!  The parentals will arrive from Houston on Sunday for the induction on Monday, so we're going to have a big, nice dinner together on Sunday to celebrate Thanksgiving. Mom's bringing all the fixins, minus the sweet potato souffle, which I will put together.  It's just not a holiday without Weezie's sweet potato souffle!!  :)

We have much to be thankful for this year - healthy children, a warm home, good jobs, a great marriage, and wonderful family and friends.  Though it'll be a quiet holiday for us, we won't forget to take time and give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Love, Mer

Dear Santa

I can't believe it's already time to write another letter to Santa - where did 2010 go?!!  Well, I must say... Santa was generous to me all year this year, so I am very grateful.  I got the car I wanted, filled the house with pretty furniture, and got to travel a bit, as well.  So this year, my list is pretty sparse.  I think that at the top of the list is a wish for a very healthy and SLEEPY baby that loves cuddling and hates crying.

So without further adieu, here is my 2010 Christmas list:

1. Clothes that make me feel fashionable and skinny
2. Makeup that makes me feel pretty... and skinny
3. Super fast SLR camera that helps me take gorgeous pictures of my family (and makes me look skinny)
4. Membership to the Wall Street Journal wine club.  :)

That's about it!  See any themes?

Thanks, Santa!!  Love, Mer

Stuff

So while Patrick's down for his morning nap (well, his only nap... but he seems to want to take them in the mornings on weekends), I thought I'd take a few minutes to start decorating for Christmas.  It feels strange doing it this early, since I usually wait until after Thanksgiving!  However, given all the excitement this year, I have decided that the Austin faction of the Halls needs to pretend like Thanksgiving doesn't exist this year, and focus on making Christmas extra special instead.  (I have no energy to cook, host, or travel at 39 weeks pregnant, which I will be on Thursday!)

I've been looking at holiday catalogs all week and have been stealing ideas for decorating the mantle, table, tree, and front patio.  I'm even having thoughts of baking Christmas cookies... and I don't usually do that until like 2 or 3 days before Christmas.  Could it be nesting?  Perhaps. OH and I have a question for my readers - I have an 8 ft front door, so the regular wreath hooks for 7 foot doors are too short... it makes the wreath hang at the wrong height.  I've been looking for special hooks to accommodate a tall door, but can't find them.  A) Have any of you seen those? B) Are there other ways to hang a wreath from the top of the door that don't involve those hooks?  Like ribbons?  HELP please!

Speaking of nesting, I think we're ready for baby girl to arrive - sheesh, we should be... we've been expecting her for weeks.  My very good friend, Shannon, reminded me today that one is *supposed* to be pregnant at 38 weeks along - LOL, touche! - but there are just so many factors that indicated that this one was coming early.  First, due to all the cervical cancer surgeries in 2008, I have half a cervix left, which is why Patrick came so early - what was left finally gave out.  And my doctor has been definitively telling me the entire pregnancy that this baby would come around the same time or earlier than P due to my cervical insufficiency.  And then when I started having contractions and was hospitalized at 33 weeks?  We thought FOR SURE she'd be here around 36 weeks!  Alas, this one has a mind of her own already... and that's cool with me.  I'm just ready for these contractions and early labor symptoms to end... it's been a LONG 6 weeks and I'm ready to meet this baby girl!  I'm just hoping and praying that induction goes as planned next Monday...

The good thing about her lasting so long is that she's going to be a Sagittarius and not a Scorpio... whew - I was a little worried about that.  ;)  Some of my most favorite ladies are fellow Sagitarriuses (and I'm one too) so I'm hoping that baby girl and I will be close buddies.  I'm SO looking forward to getting to know my daughter!

In other news, today is Patrick's 22 month birthday.  He's growing and changing so much every day... He's very verbal these days and is learning more words, even though they're hard to understand.  He's quite the athlete and never ceases to amaze us with his physical strength and agility.  Think he might be a gymnast someday?

OK, rest time is over... time to get back to Christmas decorating.  I might need to make a little trip to Michael's and/ or Target today... I really need some garland, snowflake lights, and decorative stocking hangers STAT to complete my Crate and Barrell knockoff display (not the one above, but a different one).  LOL

Love, Mer

Baby Pool

Well folks... the time is drawing near!  Our little baby girl's due date is 12/3, and every doctor's appointment shows the same thing - 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. It's becoming apparent that these contractions are empty threats and that baby has found a comfy little spot to stay for a while.  With that, doc and I have decided to induce at 39 weeks.  It's such a HUGE relief that we have a light at the end of the tunnel now - 13 more days. I can DO that!  Whew - I was beginning to think that we were going to be siamese twins in a few years that would have to be surgically separated! 

Meanwhile, do you think I'm going to make it that long?  I mean, after all, I've been having contractions for 4.5 weeks straight now!  But then again, if the contractions haven't caused my water to pop yet... do you think they ever will?? 

Let's create a baby pool.  When do you think she's going to arrive?  Today is 11/16 and induction day is 11/29 around 7:00 a.m.  The winner will receive a special prize that baby girl and I will pick out on a shopping excursion together, once she arrives.  :)

Please post your answer as a comment to this post.

Love, Mer

Yep, Still Pregnant

As of yesterday, I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes!!  Today?  Nada.

PRAYING, PRAYING, PRAYING that my water breaks soon, soon, soon!!!

That's it. Love, Mer

Pregnancy Snaps - 36 Weeks

Still Pregnant

So tomorrow is 36 weeks and I'm still pregnant!  YAY!  I never, ever would have guessed that I would have held out this long, given that I was in the hospital trying to avert labor at 33 weeks.  Go figure!  This baby girl is going to be quite the princess, I can tell already...  ;)

Doc has been telling me that if/ when I make it to 36 weeks, I'll be off bedrest orders, so I asked her if I could go bungee jumping...  she didn't seem to get my sense of humor, but when I started laughing hysterically, she finally figured out that I was KIDDING.  (Do I seem *that* crazy?!)  I guess she feels that anytime after 36 weeks is fine for baby girl to arrive, so that makes me feel a lot less uneasy about the prospect of The Princess arriving soon... I'm finally more excited and less freaked out.  Yay!

I took off this week from work, thinking that I could get some rest before baby girl arrived, because I figured I was going to pop any second.  My appointment on Monday revealed that I'm now 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced (which means that I only have 40% of my cervix holding this baby in place); however, contractions have slowed down considerably and I'm beginning to think that maybe she'll go full term just to prove everyone wrong!  LOL

It's been an interesting week - Sheridan and P both had colds and pinkeye and stayed at home, so it's been quite a zoo around here.  Meanwhile, they both got back to school and work today.  My plan was to eat ice cream in my PJs while watching Lifetime all day, but it turns out that I have a problem sitting still.  Anyway, it's been nice to have some Mer Time before life really changes again.

I can't believe I'm going to have TWO CHILDREN SOON!!!!  Whoa.

Otherwise, I'm glad the elections are over.  We all saw the big Republican win coming, so no surprise there.  Since they seem to have all the answers... ahem... I look forward to their saving the world.  Go forth and deliver, elephants!  And could you please do so in the next 2 years?  Thanks.

OK, I'll keep everyone posted on baby news.  I'm a lot better about updating Facebook than I am this blog, but I'll do my best to keep my faithful Mer Show readers apprised of the latest baby goings on.  Thanks for reading!!!

Love, Mer