20 weeks

We're officially at the halfway mark so I thought I'd finally post :-)  It's going to be just a lot of random updates because I worked all day and I'm exhausted!

Ali is still wonderful.  She had her first birthday and a big party, which was all amazing.  45 people came to her party!!!  JM's dad and his wife flew in from Texas, my aunt drove all the way from NJ, our nieces and my sister-in-law (and her mom!) drove in from Iowa...it was great.  We had a better percentage turnout than for our wedding!!!  We felt so blessed knowing that our daughter means that much to so many people.  Ali was a little overwhelmed but was the perfect birthday girl, she never even whined when she was overtired.  Her actual birthday was fun, too.  JM was working second shift that day so the 3 of us had breakfast together, then we went to lunch with Dale and Claudia.  My parents came over for dinner and then Uncle Greggy and Auntie Dara joined us for mommy-made cake.  Needless to say, it took us all a few days to recover from all of the festivities.  I said she'll never have that big of a party again, and Uncle Greggy pointed out 'not until she's 17 and you guys are out of town'...ha ha ha!

Ali is sooo close to walking.  I think it will be another bittersweet milestone.  I'm so excited for her, but I love this stage.  Although, I've loved every stage so I'm sure the next one will be great.  She now gives these little hugs where she wraps her arms tightly around your neck, just precious.  Nani gave her a little playground for the yard for her birthday and she'll stand at the backdoor and yell and pound till we go swing.  We're figuring out a date with Jennie to take her one year photos.  We were going to do a 'shoot', but some of the best pictures Jennie captures of her are when her and Cam are playing, so I think we'll just do playdates and see what happens.  I'm much more of a 'candid' photo person instead of the studio pics.

JM is doing well with the new job.  The last couple of weeks have been a tad rough on the family.  Last week he started road jobs which wouldn't have been bad, but he left Monday expecting to be home Tuesday and didn't get in till late Wednesday.  Then he left Friday planning to be back Saturday and it wasn't until Sunday afternoon.  A lot of last minute begging for babysitters and such.  Thank goodness for Nani and Miss Chelsea!  This week it's just one night trips so it should be better, knowing when he'll be home at least. 

My job is the same, nothing new on that front.  Next month I'll be switching to Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays so I can go to a moms group at church which I'm very excited about. 

Baby girl (oh, yes, for anyone who didn't know...it's a girl!) is doing great.  We had been thinking it'd be a boy for a few reasons, but obviously thrilled it's a girl.  We do such a good job with girls, why rock the boat?  ;-)  I must have finally popped a bit, people at work are noticing and Ali keeps trying to push my belly out of her way so she can hug closer.  Honestly, if it weren't for the belly I wouldn't even notice I was pregnant this time.  Not sure if it's an easier pregnancy or if Ali is just that time-consuming! 

Of course, I have just about everything planned out for the arrival already (of course I do, you know me!).  I think we're planning on making it a bit more private this time for a few reasons.  One, it's a surgery so I want time to rest before people come in the room afterwards.  And since it's surgery, although very routine, we'll have a bit more on our minds.  And we'll want time with just Ali in the hospital introducing her to the baby.  With Ali we invited anyone who wanted to be there to be, but this will be a little more low-key.  We don't want it to be any more overwhelming for Ali than it already will be.  JM's parents weren't able to make it out for Ali because there was only a couple of weeks notice to the date, so I'm sure it will be the same here.  I think we had about 5 weeks heads up for Ali on what day she'd be born and this will be less.  Last time our doctor knew what weekend she was on call and scheduled it then, whereas this will be whatever day her schedule looks lightest.  Obviously, still not having anyone stay at our house.  Ali will be with my mom while we're in the hospital.  We want her to be where and with whom she'll be most at ease since she'll be too young to understand what's happening.  It's not the time to have people she's not familiar with taking care of her. 

I think we have it narrowed down name-wise.  We originally had a name picked out then decided to try a few out.  We like a few, but keep going back to the original.  We'll tell when we decide.  I don't think we're going to just publicly announce it.  We had someone make fun of people who pick babies names ahead of time and we obviously aren't comfortable sharing with that person now.  It's not to be negative or vengeful or anything like that, this is just something we enjoy and don't want someone else to bring it down for us.

Ok, really time for bed now.  I have to be up bright and early for Ali's music class!!!  She's hilarious, I'll try to get a video and post it.  She dances the entire time!