Author: Elizabeth Johnson

Here is some of Sydney’s recent work:

I’m thirty weeks pregnant right now; the final countdown officially began yesterday. After a wonderful physical therapy appointment and wearing a maternity girdle for a couple of weeks I am able to walk again without feeling like a cripple. Hopefully this will continue as my belly pokes further out.

Today I packed the diaper bag and made a list of things I need to pack quickly when I go into labor. I pulled out the new boxes with the bassinet and the car seat/stroller and put them together. They are sitting in the living room and will probably sit there tomorrow until I decide where to put them. I have to remind myself I am huge and pregnant sometimes. I overdid it a little with moving heavy boxes around.

Despite the fact that I have been taking a hormone supplement for the last 14 weeks I have been doing pretty well. Thankfully the mood swings have faded quite a bit. And the break outs – I almost felt like I was thirteen-years-old again for a few weeks… The progesterone treatments are supposed to help me stay pregnant longer this time. As of now I have no faith in it; I don’t have a good reason why I don’t, but I don’t. I just hope this little guy decides to wait until at LEAST Valentine’s Day because then Peter will be back from a conference he has to attend in Florida for a week. I don’t plan on doing ANYTHING that week (it matches up with week 34 of my pregnancy).

I have officially kicked Peter out of the bed and so he is sleeping in the basement on the futon (this arrangement helps us both sleep better). As long as I do my stretches and read until I get tired I seem to sleep pretty well and am able to wake up and walk on the treadmill before breakfast. I just have to keep the schedule going just so or else I sleep terribly for a couple of nights. Not that my sleep is going to improve once our little eskimo arrives…

I have finished making flannel blankets and bibs. The other night I cut out material for a blessing outfit. Now I just need to sew it up.

I have to admit that I am only blogging right now out of sheer boredom. Today was declared pajama day in the Johnson residence and I am still sporting my very flattering grey polka-dot maternity sleepwear along with my ultra-comfy new house slippers. Most of the afternoon I have spent sewing bathrobes for the kids to open on Christmas Eve; it won’t be a surprise for them because I kept having Syd and Isaac try them on. When choosing the sizes of bathrobe patterns to sew for them I totally skipped the step of measuring my children – these bathrobes are going to fit them for about five years each! I ended up taking up the hem about four inches on each one, explaining to the kids that it could be let out as they get taller (getting taller is not something that happens much in this family). Isaac let me know that the correct phrase for the extra hem length was an adjustable hem. Thank you Isaac. I love it when the kids use power words.

Last week I pulled out a scarf I began knitting while still in Florida. After a few minutes of some practice I realized that knitting and purling were still in my fingers. I am trying to finish a red, white and blue scarf for Isaac’s Christmas stocking; I have found that while I sit and help Isaac practice the piano is a great time to pull out the knitting – that way I am multi-tasking! Now I just have to learn how to end a project or “knit off.” Thankfully there are some excellent web sites with demos AND we have some fabulous knitters in our ward. I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out with some help.

The next two weeks we are taking a break from school and I have a quilt to finish. Sydney helped pick out the material (hot pink and brown – it’s for her bed) and she also sewed all of the strips together and then I sewed them into blocks and finished the quilt front. Now I need to add the borders and then put the fleece backing on it and machine quilt it together and bind it. I need to convince the dog to not lay on the floor for a few hours while I am laying it out to pin it together…

Right now I am just over 26 weeks pregnant – almost ready to enter the *twilight zone* of the third trimester. My hip flexor at the top of my left leg was bothering me for a few weeks but thankfully it has eased off a little but I’m sure that the third trimester will bring all that “fun” back in no time. It was a minor problem during Sydney’s pregnancy but quite a bit more painful when I was pregnant with Isaac.