We're about 7 1/2 weeks away (maximum!) from holding our little girl and I can already tell that life between now and then is going to be very, very different. I'm to the stage in pregnancy where I feel really pregnant and can see why women begin maternity leave a few weeks before their baby is due. Pregnancy is not a disease or an illness, but you have to come to terms that your body is changing and you have to treat it differently than usual. Almost everything is a challenge - sleeping, eating, grocery shopping, bending over to get laundry out of the dryer, remembering all the little details of things that must get done... I'm worn out just thinking about it all! The good news is that I have a fantastic husband who has picked up the slack!!
Poor Arnold is also struggling through my pregnancy. Since I didn't work through the summer, I was home all the time, plus we had Elaine. We had to give Elaine away towards the end of the summer to make room for Maleah and then I also went back to work in mid-August. Arnold has been having a hard time ever since. He started peeing in the house while we were away sometime around late September and it's only gotten worse. He is ridiculously anxious and antsy when we get home (to the point that he is shaking) and he can't seem to tolerate loud noises or even the slightest discipline. We have tried everything under the sun to help him cope with the changes, but nothing has fully relieved him of his anxiety.
So, we finally took him to the vet and were told Arnold has separation anxiety (exactly what we thought) and given a perscription for an anti-depressant commonly used for dogs with such issues. The vet also said we could use a small dose of Benadryl from time to time to help calm him down if he seems particularly anxious. We'll try the medicine on Saturday while we are home so we can watch and make sure he doesn't have any adverse reactions to it.
I'm also feeling a little anxiety as Maleah's due date draws near. I was making a lot of progress in her nursery, and it seems to have stalled!! I can't for the life of me get motivated to finish up in there! But I don't have much left to do and I know it will get done before she arrives. The last things on my to-do list are to get the artwork finished and hung, finish her mobile and hang it, get her rocking chair (it's being reupholstered and it's almost done!!), reorganize the other half of her closet (that's Daddy's job since it's full of boxes of books), and then the other stuff - washing her clothes, packing our bags, making sure we have the necessities so we aren't making a thousand trips to Target after she's born (although I'm sure that will still happen no matter how prepared we are!), and - oh yeah - going to the doctor A LOT! M
Most importantly, I'm trying to stay relaxed, rested, and prayerful about these last several weeks. I don't want the preciousness of these final weeks to be lost on the busy-ness of Christmas and preparing for her arrival, although those things are keeping the time from dragging by! These are the last weeks Blake and I will be alone, the last weeks we can go and do as we please, the last weeks we have to sleep through the night (for a while, at least!), and the last weeks Arnold gets to be our only baby!
It's going to be a fun few weeks as we wait and wait and wait for Maleah to get here... but I know on the flip side, I'll be saying "I can't believe how quickly these first few weeks with her have gone by!" I'll be wishing the time to slow down instead of speed up. Hopefully I can just try to enjoy each moment... no matter how long or short they seem to be!
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