Samuel Craig's Life Blog

We survived another week in the strange land of pregnancy.

Last week was the happiest time of year--Christmas. We headed up to Northbrook on Friday, had a wonderful tenderloin dinner and went to church on Christmas Eve, and then went back to open presents a little early. Santa paid his yearly visit to the Craig house and left some goodies for us (mostly Anika) to open on Christmas morning.

Moon's take this Christmas was largely Sammy related (he even got his first stocking-ful of gifts this year). Lots of clothes and accessories, with still much to come in the future I'm sure.

We then went to Carthage on Christmas morning. Molly was nice enough to drive our car (more info below). It was a great party this year and seemed to go a lot later than normal. I guess that we started later, though. We ate, visited, and then the ladies through Moon a baby shower. She was a little surprised. I hadn't told her that it was going to happen. This was our first introduction to baby showers and it went over quite well. Marcey was even able to join us via Webcam :)

We finished off the weekend at the Double Duce for breakfast Monday morning. It was to celebrate Matt and Becky's 25th anniversary. Time flies when you're having fun :)

Tis' the season to be jolly, but the travel wasn't anything to be jolly about. Due to a slight oversight on my part, I realized that my license had expired just before leaving town last week. This meant that Moon was going to bear the brunt of the driving on this trip.

Let me back up a bit and give you context (especially if you're not in the family). I have a big extented family. Each side has strong Christmas traditions and, thus, their own party. This year we were lucky (somewhat) that they were all bunched together. The Craig Christmas was the weekend before Christmas, my immediate family Christmas was on Christmas Eve (spilling over slightly to Christmas morning), and the Dickinson Christmas was on Christmas Day. This means that we had to drive to Chicago and back last week, then from Indianapolis to Chicago to Carthage, IL (look it up) back to Indianapolis Christmas weekend. Needless to say, a good deal of driving in a few days.

All of this driving made us realize that this is probably the last time that we are going to do any significant travel until after the baby comes. Moon's back was killing her and we had to stop quite often for bathroom breaks. Those confined spaces are just getting more and more confined for her.

Those little, annoying aches and pains are getting to Moon now. She's been waking up with terrible cramps every day. Questioning a few mothers and the doctor, she realized that she's probably low on calcium. This came as a surprise because she has been drinking a lot more milk since she's been pregnant, but it's obviously not enough. She has never been a big fan of dairy products.

However, she does like chocolate when sweets are involved. It hasn't been difficult for her to find those this time of year.

We celebrated the Craig Christmas last weekend. There were plenty of sweets to choose from. Unfortunately, Moon had to leave early for work and didn't get to partake in much of the festivities. About this time you might be asking, "If she left early, how did I get a picture of her with Santa, who came later in the evening"? The answer is, Dan is amazing with photo editing software :)

Merry Christmas

Does there come a time when one week is just every other? I don't think so.

The story is no longer about Moon's growing belly. There's no doubt that she is still growing :) but a couple inches here and there are getting more difficult to notice.

Moon spent a good portion of the week preparing for the La Quinta and Fairfield joint Christmas party. For some reason, she felt the need to give everyone something that she created with her bare hands. She decided that custom Christmas ornaments would be a good idea (see picture). She spent a good amount of time glue glitter on little glass balls.

Moon's beginning to have a few more aches and pains now. All seem to be quite normal, but doesn't make them any easier. Back aches, legs, and so forth. Sounds like a day in the life of Dan Craig, but for Moon, this is not normal :)

Nothing much new to report this week. Moon's adjusting to maternity clothes and exercising her right to have cravings. I just spent the last couple hours making cupcakes after she saw someone eating them on TV :)

We went to the O.B. today. He said that everything is going well. Next month she'll get a couple more tests and in 6 weeks she'll have another ultrasound.

I really wish that I had more. The next section is for Moon's family (feel free to watch if you'd like to hear Korean).

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Ok, not a perfect belly-shot, but that's it for now.

Here's a picture of Moon rubbing her growing belly. Those sweats were the last clothes that she could fit in to before going maternity clothes shopping.

She's probably going to kill me for using this one because it was taken before she showered :) If you don't hear from me next week...you'll know why.

I'm a big fat liar! I promised a picture of Moon's belly this week, but she's been resistant. My sister, Mindy, did get a good shot and she'll be passing that on for week 21's posting.

There is enough to write about this week.

Thanksgiving should be renamed, "time for pregnant women to pack on a lot of pounds." I think Moon grew 50% over a few days. I think that we were all in heaven. We had a lot of good food and company (and good wine for us not with child). I even had to bring down an extra refrigerator (large bar sized) for the overrun. Needless to say, it was a good time.

The whole family came down Wednesday night/Thursday morning (that's 8 for those of you counting at home). We cooked all day and ate at 5:00. That was pretty much it for the day. Eating like that takes a lot out of you. It's really an art form that the Craig family performs like Picasso.

On Friday, Moon, Mom and Mindy went to fill out a baby registry. Moon and I are novices at this stuff, but Mom and Mindy are pros. We didn't realize that we'd have to do this. It was an eye opening experience for Moon. I've never seen her out-shopped by anyone, but she tipped her hat to Mindy. By all accounts she was an absolute dynamo. Moon returned tired and awestruck with the sheer volume of stuff suggested for the baby.

Check out the registry at Amazon.com (most stuff is from Babies R Us). You can also find it with this tiny url http://tinyurl.com/7bbxo.

* http://tinyurl.com is really cool for those really long URLs that you often want to send out like maps and such.

On Saturday, we all went to see the IMAX 3-D version of Polar Express. 3-D has really come a long way since Jaws 3-D! It was remarkable and not a bad movie either. I felt a little strange in a theater full of kids when we only had 1 (Anika) and I suppose you can count 1 on the way. I guess we'll have to start getting used to that kind of crowd :)

On Sunday, we went to the outlet mall south of Indianapolis. It was impressive (they've grown significantly in the past couple years). Moon was able to find a few shirts at the Motherhood store. She was/is really in need of maternity clothes right now. She's outgrown just about everything she owns. The only thing that she can wear is a sweater that I bought her 7 years ago that was 2 sizes too big. Yeah, I was just looking ahead.

Of course we drove 45 miles to get maternity clothes and they didn't have any pants (and very little else) in her size. They directed us to a mall by the Indy airport. Believe it or not, Old Navy has maternity clothes and they seem to be one of the only places they carry Moon's size. They call it XS (extra small). Moon's been wearing them for a few days now and she loves it. She's still not thrilled with the style, but she's comfortable for the first time in weeks.

Next week I really promise to have a picture up. I'll surprise her if necessary :)