Week 117

No baby yet!  My pelvis has tilted, causing me extreme back pain.  It is very difficult to get up out of bed, rise from a seated position, sit for too long, and just move around in general.  Something similar happened when I was pregnant with Julia, however when my pelvis tilted, it also separated and I was placed on pain killers for two weeks prior to being induced a couple of weeks early.  Xrays after Julia was born showed that the pelvis did fuse back together, but crooked, and I knew getting into this that I would again run into complications during the last couple months of the pregnancy. The fact that my pelvis has not separated yet, at 38.5 weeks pregnant, in my eyes, is short of a miracle.  Not that having it tilted, pressing up into my lower back is pleasant, but I know all too well how much worse this can get.

My parents have been watching Ryan and Julia the past four days.  I miss them tremendously but I know that  they are having much more fun running around and going in the pool than they would have had being stuck at home, indoors, with a mom who is waddling around in pain.  This is their summer vacation too, and they deserve to enjoy it.  It is amazing that my mom has used her four days off in a row, something that happens rarely, to take on the challenges of watching my children.  My dad is a trooper too.  It is he who patiently includes Julia in everything he does outside since she is our little farmer girl, and gets up early with the kids to prepare them breakfast, taking extra care to follow Ryan's diet.

On the day they left I asked Ryan if he was going to miss me.  He immediately replied, "No", and after thinking about it for a second said, "There are pictures of you up there that I can look at."  He was obviously saying it to convince himself of this rather than for my benefit, because halfway through the sentence is lips started to quiver and his eyes welled up with tears.  He brought his arm up to his eyes so that I wouldn't see him cry.  I hugged him tightly and told him I would call him everyday.  "Mama, can you call me four times a day?"  I love how he still often calls me "Mama".  So precious!

One of Julia's favorite activities up at nonna's and papa's house is to go outside on their swing.  Here is a picture of her at Easter time during one of her many visits to the swing:

 Knowing how much Julia loves the swing, my dad spent all of last week building another one from scratch!  Amazing!!!  Now we just have to figure out how to get it transported to our house.  Julia can't wait to help paint it and she is so excited that she has her very own swing now.

Our new swing!

Earlier in the week Ryan was playing with his trains and while doing so put on a video about trains.  At the beginning of the video there was a phone number that you can call to request a catalog of videos and train toys from the company out in Michigan.  Ryan repeatedly asked me if we could call, so I dialed the number and asked the person who answered if she could mail us a catalog.  I gave her Ryan's name and address and his face was beaming the entire time.  However, after I got off the phone, waiting for a catalog did not seem to be enough for Ryan.  He wanted to know if we could go visit the place.  I explained to him that it is far away and we have to take an airplane there and would need to save our money for the tickets.  He said, "Money, no problem, I will share from my wallet."  About 10 minutes later I hear him pick up the phone and press redial to get the lady back on the phone.  Normally I would make him hang up the phone, but I was curious as to what he would say.  When the lady answered the phone I hear him say, "Hi, this is Ryan again.  When we come visit there, will you show me around?"  He then tells her a quick story, which I couldn't understand half of what he was saying.  I then hear him thank the lady and say bye.  When he gets off the phone I asked him what her response to his question was and she said, "Sure, of course".   I've noticed that Ryan has been a lot less shy talking to strangers.  Phil and I couldn't believe how many conversations he started with our server at a restaurant last week, I was shocked that he would pick up the phone and call a stranger, and my mom says that he was telling all sorts of stories to a nurse in the hospital where she works.  I'm glad he is becoming less shy, and also more confident in his speech.  I think there were times where he would shy away from conversations because not everyone would understand what he was trying to say.  Sometimes that still happens when he gets overly excited and tries to tell a story too fast, but for the most part you can carry on a conversation with him and he really enjoys it!


DC