With the 1st Trimester Behind Me... The Best is Yet to Come!

I'm starting to feel really good about things! I'm 100% over the 1st trimester annoying symptoms (morning sickness, exhaustion, breathlessness, etc.) and summer is just around the corner. More on the happy stuff in a second, I just need a paragraph to vent about the annoying nuisance of a cold I have right now.

So about a little over a month ago on a Monday Aurora woke up with a runny nose. That Wed when I picked her up from Diane's she had taken a turn for the worse and had been feeling crummy all day and had a bit of a fever. The fever got worse that night and I stayed home with Aurora the next day. Her runny nose and cough lingered, and then several weeks later I went to bed with what I thought was allergies. Well I woke up with the congestion from hell, a crazy runny nose and sneezing that didnt go away no matter where I was, keying me in that I had a cold. Here I am 3 weeks later still sick, and having gone through the entire gamut of cold symptoms (congestion, runny nose, nasty sticky green-yellow snot that wont come out, sneezing, sore throat, sinus pressure, coughing, AGH!). This has made it impossible to sleep well, and for several mornings in a row I was waking up at 3:30am not being able to go back to sleep. Well about a week ago, desperate to relieve my sinus's (the congestion was so bad I literally couldn't get an ounce of air through at all, and it was so infected that the mucus I could get out was the nastiest yellow-green sludge you have ever seen) I almost went to the ER to see if they could do something. (This was on a weekend and I had no hope of getting a Dr. apt until earliest Tues). I knew I would just sit there for hours, and eventually see someone who may or may not do anything but give me antibiotics. So I thought I would try my own home remedy, my Netti Pot, which I HATE using but it does seriously work for clearing things out. Well I started using it at night before bed and in the morning when waking up and it started helping SOOOO much. Within a few days the congestion had gone down considerably and the mucus was not as thick, or yellow-green anymore, and I was able to sleep better. That in combo with taking steamy showers before bed and using the humidifier by my bed at night have helped keep my sinuses at bay and I think (cross my fingers hope to God) that Im THIS close to kicking this thing finally!!! Ryan unfortunately has it but he's allowed to take meds for it, and his doesnt seem to be as bad. We all have the lingering cough but that always takes forever to go away anyway.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff! Ryan and I LOVE our phones. Its so easy to take pics on the spot, and immediately upload them to where we want, and everyone gets to see more of Aurora whether they like it or not! Speaking of Aurora, she is getting better at two syllable words and even says two words together sometimes. Ryan and I have decided we will be putting her into preschool once my maternity leave is over. Its sort of scary thinking about all the extra time and coordination we will need to make a second child work! (Mostly with regards to us doing it as two full time working parents) Two different kids at different stages/schedules, with different needs, going to two different day care places, Ahhh!!! Obviously we will make it work; every parent does, but I just know it is going to be a lot. I remember everyone telling us when I was pregnant with Aurora, "enjoy your time together now, rest, etc. because its going to get crazy when the baby comes" and I feel that way now - I'm always thinking how easy it is to just pop to the grocery store with one kid, or take one kid to daycare on the way out to work, or go to a social event and sort of keep an eye on on kid, packing stuff for one kid... soon we will have two and that will all be a thing of the past!

All that being said, I think I'm really enjoying this time we have before the baby comes. I'm so happy to be out of the first trimester and that terrible morning sickness (that was the most awful thing I have EVER had to endure and there is nothing on the planet that could convince me to go through that again). And being through it once and knowing that this time is my last time being pregnant, I'm sort of savoring certain parts of the experience (getting big and round, feeling the baby move in my tummy, feeling famished all of the time and eating so much knowing I'm nurturing the baby growing inside me). And the weather warming up and the sun coming out to play the last few weeks has just warmed me right through my soul and makes me so happy. I think of how close summer is, and how amazing the summer is going to be. There are so many things to look forward to. Easter, Rory's birthday, mother's day, Memorial Day up at the King's River, Abby coming, the long awaited reunion with my cousin Jay and his family moving to San Diego... and those are just the specific events. In general, I'm looking forward to hot summer days at the pool, bbqs with friends and family, having the kids run around in their swimsuits (or better yet, their birthday suits!!!), my maternity leave and enjoying three 3 day weekends per month with Ryan, trips to the Ranch, breastfeeding a newborn and not having to yet go back to work and pump... In a lot of ways I think this just might be the best summer of my life!