In her shoes...

I had to capture this photo Friday of Savannah wearing her cousin, Samantha's, boots. Doesn't she just look cute?

An unexpected trip to the hospital...

Although many of you already know this, I got to test out the nursing staff at Martha Jefferson Hospital a few weeks early.
Savannah and I were visiting our friends Heather, Brooke and Haiden on Tuesday when my heart started beating rapidly... at first I didn't think much about it, but as the evening wore on things didn't get any better.
I called the doctor and he suggested I lay down and drink plenty of fluids (which I'm beginning to think is the standard answer for a whiny pregnant woman).
After an hour with no relief I called the doctor back and he decided to meet me at the hospital... so off Pat and I went once he got off work.
Needless to say, it wasn't a little problem... by the time I got to labor and delivery my heartbeat was almost 200 beats per minute. The average person's heartbeat is between 50 to 80 beats per minute so we had a big problem.
Although they were afraid I had a blood clot in my lungs or legs, a CT scan came back negative for anything like that. They determined that my fast heartbeat was due to my pregnancy and made worse by a Sudifed pill I took for congestion (which is supposed to be safe for pregnant women).
I spent two days in the cardiac unit and had a labor and delivery nurse come in each shift and listen in on Julius... who was a trooper throughout the entire ordeal and his heartbeat never lowered.
I don't want to brag, but Julius and I were celebrities on the floor (and among the minority of patients who were not comatose - according to the nurses). Three nurses came into the room Wednesday night and started dancing when they finally got my heartbeat back to normal.
I got out of the hospital Friday afternoon and have been taking it easy this weekend while everyone else helps get things ready for Julius... who is now scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

Savannah plays dress-up...

Last weekend (before I ended up in the hospital), Aunt Debbie brought a box filled with clothes Mom Fitzgerald made for Erin and Samantha. Savannah loved looking through all of the clothes and I picked out a few that she could wear now... and she put on a little fashion show for me that I wanted to share.

Who does Julius look like?

Here is a picture of Savannah taken just hours after her birth... now who does Julius look like?

Our big butterball...

Well, we found out today that Julius is competing to be one of the biggest babies born in our doctor's office. According to our doctor, the biggest baby he's delivered was 12.4 lbs. at birth... and Julius measured today at 9.5 lbs. ... and he still has three weeks to go before delivery.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I don't think it was news that he was this big already... he'll be much bigger than Savannah was at birth and she was pretty big.
He's healthy and happy in my belly and right now there are no plans to take him early... even though I'm winding down every day.
Here are a few pictures from our ultrasound today... he's going to look just like his big sister!

Just another snowy Tuesday on the hill...

I woke up this morning to another beautiful blanket of white in our yard... but this time it was snow instead of ice!
The big, fat snowflakes started falling Monday evening and continued on and off through the night... Pat and Savannah were even able to sneak out and get a little sledding in by moonlight (what little there was of it).
Pat moved the Scion down to the bottom of the hill and backed my car up the driveway in the hopes we would be able to leave the house this morning... but I don't think there will be any chance of that happening.
I'm sure they'll be out there again once the two sleepyheads wake up... and I hope to capture some video and photos that you can actually see.
In the meantime, please enjoy these photos I took just after daybreak.... I can't get too far out because I worry about slipping.

Savannah after sledding...

You have to love local weathermen... tonight they predicted we would get a "light dusting" of snow in the next 24 hours... and low and behold, we now have at least a half of inch on the ground (and driveway) just a few hours later.
Pat and Savannah have already enjoyed a few sledding trips down our hill and driveway... and although I shot video of one of their trips, it was really too dark to see.
Here are a few pictures of Savannah after her first sledding trip... she kept asking her Daddy to "Go again, go again!"
I bought Savannah a snow suit several weeks ago, but thought we had missed the bad weather and took it back... so Savannah has several layers of clothing under her PJs!