'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

And all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse (which isn't much smaller than my baby daughter, by the way).

Not a creature was stirring, except for me, of course. As a new mom, I'm paranoid to sleep. It's 5 am and I'm on the night shift. Mr. Brice watched the baby and did some work from 8:30 pm to 2 am while I slept. Now it's my turn.

I can't believe it's actually Christmas Eve. CRAZINESS! Seriously, where did this month go? Oh wait...I know exactly where it went. Sadly, Mr. Brice's grandma passed away the day after Thanksgiving, so we went out of town for the funeral the first weekend of December, which meant a long car trip down to Tennessee.

Then when we got back, it was off to work the first two days of the week like normal. But what came after that was anything but normal.

I left work that Tuesday afternoon (December 8) around 4 pm so that I could meet my friend (and frequent Fictionista blog reader) Jennifer up at the Capitol Building. She was visiting from Atlanta, and was staying with her cousin, and even though being 8 months pregnant was keeping me from doing all the sightseeing and whatnot with her that I would have liked, I had tickets for the Capitol Tree Lighting Reception at the Botanic Gardens after the lighting, so we met up for that.

I was feeling completely fine. I ran into smoe people I knew and they asked me how I was feeling, and so of course I gave the standard throwaway answers that any 8-month preggers lady gives:
"I feel like I'm about to pop any second"
AND
"I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore."

Which wasn't exactly true. I didn't literally mean I was about to pop, and I had way too many things still to do to get ready for the baby first. But, well, those answers are pretty much expected. I don't know. Whatever.

Except, it ended up being true. When I got home from the reception, I went with Mr. Brice to walk the dog, then I sat down to get some writing done. Did significantly more writing in one session than I'd done in months. I was feeling pretty good about myself, when all of a sudden it hit me that I hadn't felt the baby move in hours.

I drank some juice and laid down. Several hours later, at about 3 am, I got up to walk around, drank some more juice, ate some string cheese, and came back to bed. In tears. Because I couldn't feel anything.

Mr. Brice told me it was time for me to call the hospital. The midwife on call told me to come in for observation.

I was admitted around 4 am, and they immediately got a heartbeat. Yay! What a relief. I figured they would send me home with the typical giggles they reserve for any other clueless first time mom who panics over the slightest thing.

They ended up sending me home 4 days later, and lo and behold, I was no longer pregnant. My baby, who was 5 1/2 weeks premature had to stay behind in the NICU.

But Merry Christmas to me! Baby Amber came home yesterday!!!!!!!! Santa brought us a very special early Christmas present this year.



It's our first Christmas as a little family, and I couldn't be more thrilled. so my wish for all our readers is that you and your family have as joyous a holiday season as I am.

Happy holidays!