40 +4

I have now eaten TWO raw, whole ghost peppers. The first one I ate on Tuesday didn't seem to have much affect, so I ate another one this morning. This boy apparently already has his Daddy's tolerance for spicy food. I've been walking every morning with my mom around my neighborhood. Eating pineapple every day. Eating bananas. Dancing, squatting, pumping, doing yoga, bouncing on the yoga ball, stretching. Visualizing birth, breathing, and meditating. I mowed our backyard, went to Costco, and am trying to move him on out! Come on Jax! Going with my official EDD I'm now at 40 +4, and if you go with my unofficial ultrasound dating, I'm at 41 +4. This means I have 10 more days to birth at the birth center (I have until 42 weeks). Jax WILL come this week, he will be a Pisces (yay!), but I'm hoping that I don't have to resort to caster oil to coax him out. Joss is being so great waiting, its hard to be so patient! I'm really proud of her, and she's already such a proud big sister. <3 <3

Finally letting go of some of my household and mom responsibilities and letting Jason and my mom take over helping so I can just concentrate inward, on myself, my body, and get into my lizard brain without thinking of, needing to, and prioritizing taking care of everyone else. Tuesday I thought that I was going into labor, but it was a false alarm (menstrual cramps like when I went into labor with Joss, some contractions 18 minutes apart, mild) and though he would be here by that night. He didn't come,  and by bedtimes the contractions stopped. In any case Jason took off of work and started his paternity leave, but we are still waiting. Luckily he gets 3 weeks, so this time off is good for us, and him to rest up to prepare for baby too and he's already replaced the 2nd fan in our living room that was broken, and helped with a lot of things around the house that he hasn't had time or energy for with so many long working hours. Hoping baby Jackson comes soon, but we continue to be patient, because that's all we can do.

Of course last night our washing machine finally died, its an older machine, the one that came with the house when we bought it 6 years ago and looks like its from the 80s or early 90s. Its worked up until now for the most part, but looks like we will be going on a field trip to home depot today (so I can walk as much as possible up and down the isles) to buy a new washing machine. Jason wants to replace the dryer too, so they are a matching/stackable set, but I only want to get a new washer to save money. We'll see what we end up with, either way a new front loading washer will be excellent! And perfect timing before we start back up with cloth diapering again.

Its supposed to get up to 90 degrees today. So much for winter this year or lack thereof. I don't know if I've already posted this, or just talked about it with friends and my family, but being pregnant in Texas winter isn't what I hoped for or imagined. I much prefer being pregnant in Texas summer. Basically being pregnant in winter here means you never cool off, and you don't get a winter at all. The coldest I was this year, was summer in Northern California (which I'm grateful for). Granted this year we have had an unusually mild/warm winter, but still with my increased body temperature there is just no cooling down part of the year, which I feel like is the only way that I can love to live in such a hot climate, the few months when we get a break. Plus at least in summer there is lots of swimming, and everyone is already hot and miserable so you just do what you do in Texas to enjoy the heat, drink topo chicos, eat spicy tacos, jump in barton springs, and sit in AC. If there is a third, I will try to plan to be pregnant in summer. There is a trade off though, this pregnancy has been much easier in a lot of ways, less discomforts, food aversions, nausea, but the time of year/weather has been the hardest part for me. Not really ready for 90 and 100 degree days again yet, but so it goes. Swimming with babies makes it all worth it.

Yesterday when we went to lunch (at Bouldin Creek! yummmm!) we already started to see some blue bonnets on our drive through Zilker on the side of the road. Since its been unusually warm, they are already starting to show up. Spring is springing! I think this means that before Grandma Jill leaves we will need to have a blue bonnets family portrait with the four of us, and some with Grandma too. I love this time of year in Texas, so beautiful, all the leaves on the trees are starting to come back, and our pomegranate trees are getting ready to bloom again. In a couple months my mom's group will be heading back out to Inks Lake for our annual camping trip with kiddos, i'm so looking forward to it, will be a new adventure with both baby Jax and with Joss, but I'm excited to go and know it will be a blast and lots of wonderful memories.

Time to get dressed, and go for a walk before it gets too hot out. Then wake up Jason and go to home depot to find a new washing machine. More dancing this afternoon, spicy food, and I also read that I should be eating dates and drinking red raspberry leaf tea.