Max is here!

Our little man, Maximilian, arrived on Monday afternoon, after a pretty crazy and fast labor, at 3:42pm. He weighed 8lbs7oz and was 21" long. I will write up a more detailed birth story later, but for now, enjoy some pictures of our little man!

We are home now, getting used to having a brand new baby in the house again. Working on breastfeeding and sleeping (ha!) We are so in love with our little Max!

Tomorrow...

We will be a family of four. We will have our son in our arms. We will introduce our sweet (big) girl to her little brother. We will call and text and email with good news.
But today, we're still a little family of three, and while Sasha is mostly oblivious to the big day tomorrow and Z is ridiculously (though characteristically) calm, I'm getting very nervous. And not necessarily about how tomorrow will go or how Sasha will deal with this huge change in her life. I'm freaking out the way you run around the night before going on an overseas trip, making sure all the dishes are clean, plants are watered, bags are packed, floors are vacuumed, and beds are made.
I know it'll be hard in the beginning, hard for us to adjust to no sleeping (after over 3 years of mostly wonderful sleep), hard for Sasha to share us with this new little baby, hard for me to breastfeed (I've been putting that out of my mind, but I'm so nervous about that aspect of a new baby), hard for Z to have to leave us and go to work every day. Ultimately though, I'm so excited. I'm happy I get to meet my little boy tomorrow, I'm so ready for this day to come. Happy to see what he looks like, and what he likes, cute newborn sounds and faces, first smiles, first outfits. I'm just so excited!

Induction scheduled!

I had an appointment with my doctor today and she did a NST, then sent me for a bio-physical, to double check everything was normal. Baby was sleepy, but his heart rate went up when he woke up, plenty of fluid in there, the tech said his legs looked long, he was measuring at about 9lbs (that should be fun, huh?) She also told me his head was so low that she was having trouble getting correct measurements, so that was the best news today! My OB scheduled me for an induction on Monday morning, although I'm still hoping he comes on his own before then.

Due date today!

I've waited so long to get to this day, and guess what, the baby isn't in such a rush it seems. He's still comfy in there and it doesn't look like he has any plans of coming any time soon. I'm walking and trying to stay as active as I can (between breaks to finish reading The Hunger Games), but so far no signs of progress.

 

Let's make this the last weekly photo, shall we, kiddo?

But on the plus side, kiddo now does have a name, so he really should hurry up and get here (yes, I'm aware that my phone might explode by tonight with all the calls from the relatives and friends who are so anxious to know, but we've decided not to share his name).

I have an appointment with my doctor on Friday and will be discussing induction for Monday, I'm definitely nervous and of course would rather go into labor naturally, but I've considerably calmed down about it since a few days ago when this was first brought up (thanks for your reassuring words, Lena and mom)

Cannot wait to meet this little Honeydew!!

Outside (and my silly dad)

The weather has been marvelous around here the past couple of weeks - we've been enjoying as much outside time as possible. It's so easy to get side-tracked with things that "need to" get done, like laundry or dishes or vacuuming (and keep in mind that I'm not some sort of a domestic goddess by any means, in fact on any given day, you're likely to see unfolded laundry, shoes strewn around by the entryway, or shopping bags not yet put away), but getting outside and seeing Sasha chase bubbles and laugh a hearty laugh when one of them rests on a tree by the driveway for just a few seconds before bursting is just so much more rewarding!

And a silly picture of my dad for good measure. The guy's silly, ok? He does silly things. Like carrying a kid (or sometimes two) on his shoulder. See that outstretched arm? That was him asking me (the giant pregnant lady) if I wanted to go on his other shoulder.

Sasha has been at my parents' house the last few days since she was a bit under the weather, but my mom reports and she was eating and sleeping so much better this morning and seems to be doing a ton better! I was talking to her on the phone yesterday and she asked me if we missed her, I said "We miss you so much, sweetie", to which she replied "mama, don't miss me" Melted mama's heart!

Happy first day of spring! I'm going for a walk in a bit, after finishing up some of those chores that really really *should* get done.

I'm so ready!

With less than a week to go, I'm so so ready for this little guy to come! While I'm tired and sore most of the time (and don't even get me started on how difficult getting comfortable at night is at this point), I'm really emotionally ready to meet our son. All of last week, I had a feeling of "it can happen any minute". This week, strangely, I'm a lot more laid-back about when he does arrive. I go from one extreme to another: one minute I'm hoping that a small twinge is a sure sign of impending labor and the next minute I'm terrified of him getting here *right now* and having TWO kids!!
And then my big girl does something like hug my belly and proclaim her love for her brother, and I melt into a giant puddle. For instance, yesterday, we were at Rite Aid picking up some vitamins when she walked past this cutie and said that we just had to get it for her baby brother:

It is now sitting on the windowsill, waiting for the baby brother to arrive!

She's going to make the best big sister!!

Looks like spring came early this year

Not that this winter has been a bad one (on the contrary, it's been so mild, we barely got to play in the snow!) But it looks like spring is here and, (unless I jinx it right now) is here to stay! I love this weather, I love not having to put on a gazillion layers of clothing, I love being able to just run outside for a bit to play, I love the sun shining! I don't love, however, the fact that I have no more clothes to fit properly (but that was bound to happen with my winter maternity wardrobe too, just now I'm looking for things in my summer wardrobe from my pregnancy with Sasha) - but I digress. I'm a little bummed that our little guy (whenever he decides to grace us with his arrival) won't be able to wear some of the super soft warm things we got for him, but I'll take this nice weather instead!

Papa and Sasha decided to check if there's any water in the pool

And this is how kiddo tells us she's three and a half years old - see? Three on one hand and a "half" on the other. She cracks me up!

She likes to play pretend bubbles with random sticks she finds

These last two are just for fun: we made pigs in blankets today after our trip to the store and she was enjoying it so much!

A little while ago, it finally hit me that Sasha's time being an only child is quickly coming to an end. I have to admit, it kind of freaked me out, I mean it's just such a huge change for her! I know she probably won't remember much of this time later on in life, but will remember having fun with her little brother, but still I feel so guilty sometimes. I'm on a mission to do as much fun stuff as I can with her these last few days of her being an only child. Story time, trips to the zoo and the playground, and possibly the botanical gardens are planned for this week.

Mother's day at school

So Women's Day doubles as Mother's Day in Russia (and yay me, I get two Mother's Days a year!) Sasha's school had a performance on Friday afternoon, all the kids did such a wonderful job and I was beyond proud of my little girl, who can be very shy sometimes, but did amazingly. Let's see if blogger will let me upload a video or two.

Only lets me upload one video (I think the rest of them are too big?) Boo! But oh well, it's still better than nothing.

We celebrate half-birthdays

For our babies, anyway. And the way I figure, why not? We had a little "party" and had some ice cream after dinner. And after that, we planted some flowers (we bought a little kit for Sasha at the Flower Show)

Our little collection of house plants. See Sasha's little greenhouse? And gah, please ignore the ugly curtains, we still need to replace them, we just haven't gotten around to them. Sigh, one day...

Happy International Women's Day!

Wishing all the wonderful women in my life a lovely Women's Day. Lots of love, happiness, laughter, and smiles! Z surprised me today by coming home extra early with beautiful roses and Sasha has a big performance at school tomorrow dedicated to moms and grandmas.

Philadelphia Flower Show

Yes, we've been busy this weekend. And yes, I'm the crazy lady who drives to Philly to see the Flower Show at almost 38 weeks pregnant... It was totally worth it!