Thanksgiving Round 1:
We had our first Thanksgiving with my family the weekend before the actual holiday. We headed to IN after Steve got off work on Friday. We stopped for dinner halfway and got to my parents' house around 8 o'clock. At home, Bean is in bed by then, but on a travel day, bedtime routine goes out the window. She was all wound up - especially since two cousins were spending the night! So after lots of giggles and running around, we finally forced her to go to sleep!
On Saturday, my brother and his family along with my sister and the rest of her family came over. We all chipped in with different responsibilities for the meal so that it wasn't all dumped on my mom. The meal was wonderful, but the time with family was the best! Bean had a little meltdown in the morning, and earned herself some alone time (I thought she'd nap, but she wouldn't). After some snuggles and reading a few books alone, she seemed to snap out of it and allowed to partake in the family festivities.
(The only picture I took all weekend -- We were watching White Christmas, much to my brother-in-law's dismay. So my dad tried to make him like the movie by singing along with the music to my brother-in-law. Willises be crazy!)
Bean was a little wound up from all the fun and decided to be up all night. We sleep in the same room with her at my parents, and she has that figured out. She ended up in bed with me. I dozed off and on, but not really sure how much she slept. I'd roll over and see her sitting, or she'd be playing with her legs in the air. Whatever. I was able to somewhat sleep, and that's all I cared about :). We had a lazy morning and packed up our stuff. My sister and her family came back over for lunch and we headed out after we ate.
Thanksgiving Round 2:
We had a couple of days at home before we headed out for Thanksgiving round 2! I was able to get us unpacked, laundry done, repacked, AND put up all the rest of our Christmas decorations. Steve was able to get off work on Wednesday just a little bit early. I had the car packed up and we were ready to go. We hit the road, headed south, and met up with Steve's family in Cincinnati for dinner! Nanny & Poppy (Steve's grandparents), Mommom, Poppop, Scott and Ashley were all there. Bean was a little grouchy at the start of dinner. I've learned she gets very "Hangry" when she needs to eat. With her picky eating, it tends to happen a lot more frequently since she won't eat what I prepare for her to snack on. Mommom brought her some markers and a coloring book and won her over.
We headed Scott and Ashley's after dinner. We set up our room - we got the basement. We were able to put Bean back in the corner so she was shielded from us. We had the option to put her in her own room, but I didn't want to have to walk up 2 flights of stairs if she got up at night! Steve and I slept on an air mattress. I was worried about how that would go since I toss and turn a lot more at night now trying to get comfortable. It ended up being fine, though.
On Thursday morning, Bean and I got up and were ready to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade together, only I was an hour ahead! Ha, oops! Ashley had got stickers for Bean to play with and Bean quickly got involved in that activity. The stickers are reusable ones that you put on scenes in the provided book. However, Bean liked putting them on the big windows more. So she'd point out on the sheet to Poppop or Ashley which sticker she wanted, they'd take it off, and she'd go place it in her collection on the window. Bean was too focused on stickers to watch the parade, maybe next year she'll share in my affinity for it.
(Coloring with Aunt Ashley! Bean remembered where the crayons were located and went straight there asking Ashley to color with her.)
(Pointing out which sticker she wanted Poppop to get for her.)
(She then would put it onto the window and excitedly run back for another sticker! She ended up running out of space and we had to open the shade on the next window. It took help from everyone to get all the stickers off the windows and back onto their appropriate pages.)
There was a lot of activity in the kitchen trying to get the lunch meal ready. Ashley had everything organized and assigned jobs for everyone (mine was the mashed potatoes). We planned to eat at 1, but the turkey took a little longer. Bean was starting to get hangry (plus again, being a picky eater, there was nothing in the meal that she would eat. We gotta work on this food thing!). So she ate spaghetti while we waited for the food. She joined us for the blessing of the meal, then she bid every night-night and I took her down and put her to bed! It made our meal just a little bit easier not trying to convince her to eat and entertain her while we leisurely ate.
(Eating her spaghetti before we had our Thanksgiving lunch!)
(Happy Thanksgiving from Cincinnati! We missed Ian and look forward to seeing him at Christmas!)
The rest of the afternoon was just spent relaxing and enjoying time with the family. There were 2 main rooms to hang out in. 1 room was a "devices free zone" and the other had the tv (devices allowed!). There were a few good football games on in the afternoon, so you can guess where Steve and I spent most of our time ;). Bean happily ran back and forth between the rooms doing stickers or playing with the toys that I had brought from home.
On Friday, there were several options of activities to be done. I decided that Bean and I would only be partaking in 1 activity and that it needed to be the morning one. So we headed with the family to the Krohn Conservatory. They had decorated some of the rooms with different Christmas scenes and trains. Bean enjoyed walking through the plants and looking for trains. She especially liked going through the cave behind the waterfall (we even went twice!). There was a little kids coloring room that was probably her favorite. She got upset when it was time to go. We headed back to Scott and Ashley's for lunch and naptime. Naptime wasn't coordinated well for everyone, so people were all asleep at different times, haha. The afternoon activity ended up being missed. Poppop brought up the idea of getting some Grater's ice cream. He got Bean on his team for ice cream and some of us headed out!
(Coloring with Mommom at the conservatory. Although, I think coloring quickly turned into take all the crayons out of the bucket and put them all over the table.)
Poppop made his famous spaghetti for dinner and we had another quiet evening with the family on Friday. After Bean went to bed, we watched a new Amazon Prime show (The Man in the High Castle) with Poppop & Ashley while Mommom used a dehydrator to make turkey jerkey.
Bean had been sleeping good the first 2 nights we were there. I'm not sure what changed, but the last night was not a good night. She was tossing and turning a lot when we went to bed, and then she caught me going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She started crying and wouldn't lay back down. She kept saying, "lay down with momma." So I put her on the air mattress with us. It was like reliving the bad night at my parents. I'm not sure how much sleeping she did. I would doze off and on between the jabs of her feet in my back and her head on my pillow. I knew we would be in for a loooong Saturday.
I didn't feel the best on Saturday. I was pretty nauseous, which wasn't anything unusual. I hit 11 weeks pregnant while in Cincinnati. Typically, I'd have a few good days and then a few bad days. So I wasn't surprised by the bad day (I had had a couple of good days prior!). I stuck to chewing my gum and drinking water and pushed through. It was great having all the help with Bean while we were there. I was able to rest a lot and not have to be on my feet a lot. Some of the family went out for a mid morning activity. It wasn't going to be very kid friendly, so Steve and I just stayed home with Poppop & Bean. She played with Play-doh (Mommom brought it) and stickers.
After nap, we said bye to Nanny & Poppy (well, Bean wasn't up in time to say goodbye). Ashley and Mommom took them to the airport. I got us all packed up and Steve loaded up the car. When they got back, we went to Bass Prop Shop so that Bean could meet Santa. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but she ended up sitting on his lap with no problem! We even got a little smile out of her! From there, we headed over to Dewey's for some pizza! We had to wait a half hour, but it is always worth the wait. I was starting to feel more sick by the time food came. I just chalked it up to being hungry. I ate a slice and had to quickly swallow a couple of bites because my gag reflex was kicking in. I thought maybe it had to do with the flavor (bbq chicken) and tried a smaller piece with plain sauce. I was able to eat that small slice, but called it quits on the pizza.
(Picture with Santa! They had little coloring stations set up as you waited in line. She was very adamant that she wanted to hold her picture as she sat on Santa's lap. It drove the photographer crazy, but I said let her have it. She's still holding it in this photo.)
We said bye to everyone after we ate and headed back to our house. Steve's parents stuck around Ashley & Scott's for another day, but we had some church responsibilities and Steve had to get some stuff done on Sunday before work on Monday. I felt miserable in the car. Bean just sat and watched Dora all the way home while I just wallowed in self pity. I couldn't entertain myself with my phone because it made me car sick. And I was already fighting a lot of nausea. We got home a little after 9:30. I went straight to work getting Bean to bed. Once she was down, I crashed on our bed continuing to wallow in self pity.
Steve came in and tried to comfort me and get me whatever I needed. I was tired, and felt super sick, and was tired of feeling sick and tired. He calmed down and he went to shower to get ready for bed. As I laid there, I felt worse and worse, and finally realized I couldn't fight it anymore. I went to the other bathroom and lost my dinner. I felt so much better after throwing up. I got ready for bed and quickly fell asleep. But that didn't last long, I woke up a few hours later feeling super sick again. I knew the fight wasn't going to end well and went to the bathroom. Steve heard me and came into the bathroom. It took our relationship to a whole new level. He rubbed my back and held my hair as I continued to throw up (only time he has ever seen me puke was at the beginning of labor, but my mom and nurse was there to help!). We went back to bed and I again fell asleep. I repeated the process a few hours later, only I told Steve to just stay in bed. Finally around 4am, the puking stop and I just slept.
I felt awful the next day. I was achy, I was tired, and still nauseous. I nibbled on bland foods all day. I'm super thankful it was a Sunday and that Steve was able to take on full Bean duty. Bean didn't fully understand and wanted me to play with her. We told her that "Momma's sick" and it stuck with her. To this day, if I'm laying and tell her I need a minute before doing something, she'll respond with, "Momma's sick" and go about her play. By Monday morning, I was back to my old self. I even ran a mile for the first time in a few months! As quickly as puke fest came on, it went away. No one else got sick, so it somehow had to be some weird pregnancy thing!
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