Christmas was the usual insanity.

This year N and I were in Regina from Dec. 21st-28th.

Christmas with the Knecht's was early -- December 21st this year.  We had dinner and gift exchange at Kathy's.  Food was good.  Canasta was good -- the ladies did well and the gents managed to make it interesting in the end.  Ashley was super cute opening her gifts.  

We didn't actually meet with any of the extended family this year as everyone had their own travel plans, including us - Cuba!  All six of us Knecht's were spending the New Year in Varadero so the bulk of N's and my time was spent with my family over Christmas.

Knecht Xmas pictures: here!

Maciag family Christmas was busy! Tess, with a bit of help from my mom and I, managed to crank out two big meals: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I think this may have broken her spirit a wee bit -- it is just too much work to do that kind of cooking two days in a row.   Spending two days in the kitchen while others around you are watching movies and playing games is, I'm pretty sure, disheartening.   My guess, is that this is the first and last year of it.  

Christmas Eve we had supper and then some extended family came over for the rest of the evening.  The ladies enjoyed pleasant conversation and the gents played hour after hour of Madden 10 on the Xbox (definitely a theme of this xmas).

Christmas Day I needed to be a grown up and suck it up and not arrive at my mom's at 6:30AM to open presents like all people who LOVE presents.  This year the plan was to meet at noon for Xmas brunch.  This is a funny tale as Tess and Geoff were delayed due to a vehicle malfunction and by the time they got to Mom and Dad's, Harry was ready to open presents... so we did.  Thus we had brunch at 4PM setting back Christmas turkey supper to almost 9PM that night.  Insane, I know -- but hey, that is how we roll.  After supper, we played some Catan: Traders and Barbarians... it was a lot of fun... Catan rules!

Maciag Xmas pictures: here!

Today my sister and I met up with my cousins Shannon and Jessica for lunch @ Earl's.  Poor Jessica, the lone non-pregnant person at the table... the conversation revolved around embryos, amniotic fluid and my personal favourite, the "crotch pain".

The "crotch pain" refers to the chronic pain in my crotch that day that I got from almost experiencing  the wipe out  of the century in the Costco parking lot.  Graceful as I am on my feet, I recovered but not before doing this weird splits-like manoeuvre, thus straining my pelvis or whatever the proper term for that area is called...groin?  Needless to say, it hurt.  Having the opportunity to grill my sister (world class breeder extraordinaire) and cousin (first time mommy but 7 months more experienced than myself), | needed to get to the bottom of whether this was a pregnancy pain that I would have to suffer through or whether this was the result of sheer klutziness. Again, I apologize to Jess for what I can only assume was a horrorific lunch date.

As it turns out, the verdict was that I am a klutz but that the pain was more intense due to the fact I was carrying an extra load of baby in my uterus which was putting extra weight on my crotch area.

All in all, lunch was fun.  It made me realize how much I miss my family back home in Regina.  This is a big year for us -- three 2010 babies!!  Next year's lunch date will be insane (or epic)!!!  Either way, I feel like I have to apologize to Jess a year in advance because there is no way for her to escape more baby-filled conversation.  Sorry Jessie!! Have I mentioned how awesome you are???  You're going to be a great super aunt to that Skolney baby!!! And, you can be a honourary aunt to my demon-child too!!!

Today I went for my first ultrasound.  It was a weird experience. 

For starters, you are supposed to arrive with a full bladder.  Have you ever gone for a medical appointment that was on time??  Well, this one was not and that led to an uncomfortable wait in the waiting room.  Second, technicians are not really very chatty.  In fact, there are signs in the lab that state you are not supposed to talk to the techs and that the techs are not at liberty to tell you anything... apparently, you need to follow-up with your doctor.  This sucked for all of the following reasons:

1. I really just wanted her to immediately confirm that there was indeed something in there.  Would that have been so difficult?  I mean as a first time mom, I went to this appointment with a fairly liberal degree of scepticism.  Is it really so terrible for the tech to immediately tell you, yes there is indeed a baby in your belly?
2. Ok -- so now you know there is a baby in there.  Is it really so difficult to confirm that there is only one baby in there?  I had this fear that there'd be more than one in there.  As much as I like the idea of getting the pain over with all in one shot, there was a part of me that feared I was not ready for the possibility that I could have more than one little creature in my uterus.  The thought of multiples actually kept me awake more than one night. (I mean seriously -- if you are going to have multiples you need to have at least sextuplets to get on Oprah and a TV deal on TLC -- how else can you afford it?)
3. I had always assumed (thanks to TV) that I'd be able to see the ultrasound monitor.  Not so!  All I could do was watch my tech make strange facial expressions at the monitor.  Her brows all furrowed like she was tense about something.
4. No one ever talks about internal ultrasounds.  They only talk about external ones.  I think that is all I will say as I am still scarred from the experience.
5. Finally, my tech spoke!  She said, "Are you here by yourself?"  REAL COMFORTING!

It was at that moment, about 25 minutes in, that my hormones took over and I started to cry.  Like a big sucky baby.  Cry. Her facial expressions were wigging me out and all I could think was that something was wrong.  Then she asks if I'm alone!?!?  All I could think was that she had something horrible to relate and wanted someone I knew to hold my hand.  N was there -- but up until that point they had told him to wait in the waiting room.  So I am panicked and have a mini meltdown and only then does she tell me... yes, there is a baby in there.  Yes, it is alive and kicking.  No, no real problem -- just that the kid is stubborn and won't roll over so she can get a certain measurement. 

I breathed a big sigh of relief.  Was that so hard?? Could that not have been related to me as she looked??  Can we say terrible bedside manner??  Finally, she turns the monitor and lets me get my first glimpse at the little peanut.  Holy crap!  There is a baby in there!!

She did eventually get all the measurements that she needed.  N was then allowed to come in and she showed us both the baby on the monitor and also zoomed in so we could see the baby's heart beating.  I don't know how I thought I'd feel to see my baby for the first time but I can tell you that I found the experience tense.  I left more relieved than anything that things were okay.