Counting Down...

 This is a picture of Caius holding his swaddled "Yabbit." (It's actually a dog, but he thought it was a rabbit a year ago, so he will probably always be a rabbit to him.) He is still sitting on the couch holding his baby rabbit right now. Our friend just had her baby and Caius has been able to hold her a couple of times. He is so gentle!!! He is rather fascinated by babies and always tells everyone to be quiet because the baby is sleeping. Today I was laying on the couch and Caius saw the baby kick, and he sat with his hand on my belly for a while until he felt the baby kick again. He seemed pretty darn amazed. Caius knows the baby's name now and always thanks Heavenly Father for baby in mommy's tummy during his prayers. I am looking forward to letting Caius help me out with the new baby, and I think he will be very affectionate to his new little brother.

Leland doesn't really understand that I am having a baby soon. But he does like to find my belly button and I always know when it looks different to him because of the face he makes when he sees it. I now have an outie, and he loves to try to push it back in.

I can't believe I am only a few weeks away from having this baby! We still haven't decided on a spelling for the name, so I won't say what it is yet. I just have to get a bouncy seat for the baby, and pump up my birth pool, and then we will be totally prepared for the baby to be born. I am starting to really slow down now. I feel bigger, and I get tired quickly. The baby has "dropped" a little which means he is lower. That's good because I can breathe a little better now, but walking around is pretty uncomfortable. And the bigger this baby gets, the bigger he kicks, so sometimes on days when he is especially active, I feel like I have bruises on the inside of my belly! Only a few more weeks!!!!

Neal is still in St. Cloud. He will be home in less than a week, and we are all giddy with excitement over it! We've been apart for about a month and a half now, and it's been hard. Neal's treatment is going really well! They did x-rays a few days ago and he is already showing improvement! He has been pretty worn out lately and learned that it is common to feel tired when your 3rd vertebrae is being adjusted. They think it is somehow connected to the pineal gland in the brain. The pineal gland regulates melatonin, which regulates sleep- SO, when you mess with that vertebra a lot of people want to sleep more. Neal has been SO tired, he takes naps when he can and goes to bed pretty early. One night he went to bed at 7 and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning. Sounds good, huh?

Well, we have a lot of big stuff coming up! We decided to postpone our Easter celebration until we could be with Neal. Next week when he comes home, we will be celebrating Easter, Mother's day, and our Anniversary, all in one week! I think it will certainly help the time go by faster while we wait for the baby to come. After the baby comes we will finish packing (I've been packing little by little for the past month) and then we'll head for Sioux Falls. It sounds really crazy, but I don't feel too stressed about it. It will be an adventure. Who needs bungee jumping in New Zealand when you could do all this!? ;)