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 thanks to everyone for all the comments and congratulations! we really appreciate it. i am sorry that it has taken me longer than i thought to give you all an update, but it is true what they say, two is a lot more work than one, especially the first couple of days when everyone is going through such an adjustment. so it all started on wednesday morning when i woke around 2:00 with contractions. they were manageable, but i felt for sure that they were the real thing. around 9 am i phoned my mom and told her i thought this might be it and asked if she could come in and get cohen. she arrived around 11 am, but by then the contractions had decided to disappear. i felt foolish, thinking for sure that this was it, but my mom tried to help me not feel discouraged and suggested that her and cohen and i go for a walk, which we did. i was hoping they would start again on the walk but we had no such luck. just in case they came back my mom decided to take cohen back home with her sometime around 3 and i decided to get some sleep and went down for a nap. i woke from the nap with a strong contraction at 6 and had hope again, but another didn't come for a long time and so i decided once and for all to ignore them and went to bed for the night around 10.  i woke up again around 2 am with contractions, only this time instead of feeling hope i was feeling frustrated, i needed sleep! i continued to lie in bed to see if they would get closer together, they didn't. they were coming about every ten minutes which would give me just enough time to dose off and then be awakened by what was beginning to be excruciating contractions. this continued for a couple of hours, sometimes i had to get up and walk around, but they still never got closer together, and i was just waiting for them to stop. at around 10 am i decided to call the on call dr. at he hospital just to make sure there was nothing i needed to be worried about and to ask for some advice on how to get things going. the doctor who was on call was one that i quite like and once i had explained my situation she confirmed that she didn't think i was in active labour and suggested that i clean the house or go for another walk and that i should be prepared that this could go on for a couple of days yet. she also said that if anything changed or i felt uncomfortable that i could just come in and i didn't need to call back. to say i felt deflated would be an understatement. i was so exhausted from all the wondering and even though the contractions weren't close together, they were strong and were taking a lot out of me. once again i went and laid down and tried to wait it out.  it was only an hour later when things took a turn. the contractions didn't get closer together, but they changed somehow, the feeling was different and it made me nervous. i told marko that even if i looked foolish i felt a need to go to the hospital, and so we started to get ready. we both had a shower and grabbed the last few things and then called a cab. in the cab there i had a couple of contractions where it seemed like i wanted to push, but i didn't think this was possible, i mean i was concerned that they were just going to send me right back home, how could i have the urge to push? by this point with all the uncertainty i was beginning to think i was crazy anyway. we arrived at the hospital around 12:30, got checked in, and waited for a room, the nurse having decided that i could skip the assessment area. we were finally in our room and i was checked by the doctor around 1:20 pm and she said i was 7cm dilated. phew, i thought, they aren't going to send me home, but i still thought i had a long haul, i mean i hadn't had a ton of terrible contractions and isn't this supposed to take hours and hours?? the nurse encouraged me to get in the shower for a bit at this point and so i did. she came in and said that if i felt the urge to push to come and get her. i couldn't have been in there more than 15 minutes when i felt a terrible urge to push and told marko. he went and got her and i started drying off, i was feeling a little panicky, having had the epidural with cohen i had never experienced that strong desire to push and it was a little unsettling, considering i thought i had so much longer to go.  the doctor came in and checked again and i was fully dilated. what!?! so soon? i was told that the next time i felt the urge to push i should go ahead. every contraction after that i felt the urge and it quickly became obvious that soon i would be having a baby. half an hour later our daughter was born into dad's waiting hands (he said she felt like a fish out of water and nearly dropped her!) and put up on my tummy, my water breaking at the very last moment (the dr. said that this meant she would grow up to be a sailor). a girl! she was born at 3:01. thank goodness i decided to listen to myself and come into the hospital. it was such an amazing birth experience and so much different then what i was expecting. i didn't have that moment where i needed the epidural, or thought i couldn't go on. it was mentioned that because cohen was so big, his birth made it easier for this one and i think that must be true, thank goodness for that. we are all doing well and so far the adjustment has been easier than i expected, but i will save the cohen update for another day. 
she's here! we had a little girl yesterday (april 10th) afternoon at 3:01 pm and she is healthy and doing great. for those that are into stats, she was 8 lbs, 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. we are not certain on a name yet, but we should have one for you very soon. i am in the hospital right now writing on a computer in the library, but we are home this afternoon so i will tell you more and upload some photos tonight, i just didn't want to keep you in suspense anymore. thank you for all of your thoughts and positive energy, it ended up being the perfect birth, but more on that later...
 hello! my two days of rest and relaxation are over now, and thank goodness. i know that sounds strange, but parenting is a little like that. on sunday night i was bone tired and craved an entire nights sleep, it was all i could think about. once cohen was gone to grandma's i crawled into bed and cracked open a book, it was heaven. by last night though, after a full day of being lazy and a long nights sleep, i was missing him like crazy. of course i still enjoyed my lazy day today, and i am finally starting to feel a lot better (the cough is hanging on, but barely), but i am also glad to have him back making his choo choo noises and whisking his cars around on the floor. no news on the baby front. i was at the doctor today but it was pretty routine. it sounds like the game plan is an ultrasound and non-stress test at the hospital on monday, if there is no baby yet, and then possibly being put on the induction list for next wednesday. i have a feeling something will happen before then though, although i guess you just never know.
just thought i would check in with a quick update. no baby yet, and as was probably predictable i got cohen's sickness, so right now we are a pretty pathetic sight. my limbs feel weak, my fever has me extremely hot and then shockingly cold in the same 10 minutes and my throat is like sandpaper. the plus side is that i have been eating lots of popsicles, and cohen has shown some serious improvement so hopefully i will be next. i have also decided to ship cohen out to grandma's tomorrow night for a couple of nights, he hasn't been in three weeks and she misses him terribly (and who am i kidding, i need a break). so if you don't hear from me it is simply because i am lying on the couch, or reaching into the freezer for more supplies. if there is any news on the baby front i will let you know.
 today has been an interesting day. i woke up this morning around 4:30 with fairly strong contractions, well strong for the beginning of labour. i tried to ignore them and fall back asleep but i couldn't, it was too uncomfortable, so i came out into the living room and put some tv on the computer to pass the time. i started timing the contractions and they were coming fairly steadily, about 5 minutes apart, so i thought maybe this was it? after an hour and a half i put a heating pad on my back to help with the pain, and laid back down on the couch. i guess the heating pad was doing the trick because the pain lessened and soon the contractions were getting farther and farther apart, and so i fell back asleep. when i woke up i thought maybe things would still be happening, but all day they have been sporadic at best. we went out for a decent walk to see if that would help, so far though, nothing to report. there was talk of having cohen go to grandma's tonight in case they come back in the wee hours, but in the end we decided he should stay here because he is sick, oh so very sick. it is the strangest thing, last night he ate well and seemed in good spirits, no sign of sick at all, but when he woke up this morning he was a droopy mess with a whooping cough and a startlingly scratchy voice to go with it (when he said "mom" he sounded like a ninety year old man who smokes 2 packs a day). he slept a lot today and when he wasn't sleeping he was leaning heavily against one of us on the couch while he moaned. earlier in the afternoon we thought he seemed warmer than your average fever and took his temperature, it was 39.3, which is cause for concern, and so we gave him some medicine. tonight as the medicine was wearing off we took it again, 39.8 (gulp). he just had a luke warmth bath (which he wasn't so crazy about) and some more motrin, hopefully it will have let up come the morning. it got us wondering, if we do have the baby in the next couple of days will it be okay for cohen to see him/her? i guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it. for those that read the blog regularly it may seem like cohen has been sick much more than usual lately, and i think that is true. for his first year i don't even remember him being sick. after some thought on the issue i have come to the conclusion that he is picking up viruses from the playgroup we go to at the community centre. it is like an open gym for toddlers where dozens of little people run around on mats and play with every variety of toy available. it is a great social activity for cohen, which is why we go, but i am wondering now if it is worth it. we hadn't been in a few weeks (last time he got sick) and then we went last monday. oh well, i guess it is all part of being a kid. so will tonight bring more contractions? hard to say, but i guess we will know soon enough.
 cohen with his grandma and his cousin jonah (more on their visit soon) i was sitting here pretending to look at blogs, but really just staring into space enjoying a moment of quiet as marko put cohen to bed, when i heard some rustling in the kitchen. i could tell it was galena and assumed she was simply chasing her shadow again, either that or one of the dozens of matchbox cars that seem to litter our apartment these days, and so i gave it no mind. after ten minutes the clanging hadn't let up though and so i decided to pick myself up from the chair (not an easy task) and go have a look thinking that maybe the frog escaped from our freshwater tank and was now dinner. turns out i wasn't far from the truth, there it lay in the middle of the floor with one of galena's paws on it's back, a mouse. who knew we had mice? but more importantly who knew galena had it in her to catch one? way to go my lazy fat cat, i am impressed indeed. she is now sitting by the front door with an intense look on her face, i wonder if that is where she saw this one in the first place?  in other less macabre news, cohen has taken to climbing. i don't just mean your run of the mill climbing onto the couch or bed, more the variety where we find him sitting in the middle of the kitchen table sipping his cup of milk that mom had accidentally left up there out of his reach, or on top of the tv table holding a bottle of tums (there are a few around here in places i thought were out of his reach, cause you never know when you are going to have a heartburn emergency). it all happened so fast. the first time i saw him on the kitchen table (and yes i said first time) i had no idea he could even climb onto a kitchen chair? things like fish tanks and bookshelves become a little trickier when climbing enters into the equation, (and don't even get me started on some of the stunts he tries to pull off at the playground these days!). i am starting to wonder if the months of calling him monkey have finally gone to his head. in new baby news, i had an internal at my appointment yesterday to see if all the braxton hicks contractions i have been having have been productive or just plain annoying, and it turns out i am just shy of 3cm dilated. i would say woo hoo, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything really, still with cohen i was closed tight until the night i went into labour, so i will take anything i can get. jokingly i told marko today that i want a baby by sunday, we both chuckled for a moment and then fell silent, because wow, i really could have a baby by sunday. exciting and incredibly overwhelming, mixed in with a little bit of questioning, can i really do this? if you haven't yet entered a guess as to who this little one is and when they are going to get here then what are you waiting for?
 some of you may have seen these photos on my flickr page. the reason i did the bare belly shots again was to compare with the shots i did of the same almost 2 years ago now when i was 38 weeks pregnant with cohen. in my mind i thought i was much smaller this time. i am not sure why that is, probably because last time i had a much tougher time physically at the end of my pregnancy, or at least that is how i remember it. thoughts of not believing i could possibly get bigger come to mind, but this time i don't feel that way at all. i still sleep ok at night (although i take up much more room) and for the most part have been able to stay mobile. i guess it comes with experience though as these pictures clearly show that i am not only not smaller this time, but possibly a little larger (what do you think?). still, it fills me with wonder at just how similar these two bellies look, does this mean that it is going to be a boy then? i guess we will soon see if all the wives tales are true. as for nearing the end, i don't feel the same way at all that i did with cohen. there hasn't been any obsessive paying attention to movement (mostly because i have someone else whose movements keep me on my toes instead), nor has there been anxiety about when i am going to meet him/her and what is it going to be like. the truth is that i might not ever be pregnant again and that moment passing isn't lost on me. it is because of this that i feel a need to savour these last moments, the way it feels to have someone inside you kicking, the fullness, for soon it won't be here anymore and i will miss it. now that i have said that you wait, i will end up with an easter baby! (there is that power of positive thinking again) 
 this is my 32 week belly. i can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. with maia and cohen i remember being very aware of the time and it's passing, all the anticipation and excitement, but now with cohen keeping me on my toes all day (when i am not at work) i haven't spent much time at all contemplating this new arrival or worrying about "what if's". as i approach the end i am starting to become more aware of it though. pulling out old clothes and cleaning them, making sure i have enough diapers (and being amazed at just how small they are...was cohen really that small once?) and of course the ever present (but never decided) question about names. the other thing i am noticing now that the end is in site is my serious decline in mobility. i find myself in awe of those women who still go for long leisurely walks right up until the end of their pregnancy, the ones who can run to the grocery store for milk with ease or clean the bathroom without feeling like they just ran a marathon. i am not one of those women. i was doing fantastic until a couple of weeks ago, but now everything is at a snails pace as i waddle my way through my day. i suppose it is the loosening of ligaments and the considerable increase in girth that is tying me tighter to the earth. the frustrating thing is that my mind is still in agile mode, it thinks "let's go get cat food" as if it is no big deal, but once my body gets going and after 4 blocks i feel like i need a seat my mind starts to apologize. this may be overstating it, but not by much. the truth is i am a young woman in an old woman's body these days and it is only going to get worse. i only have eleven more days of work. my last day is on the 28th, the day before silvija goes back to serbia. i am thankful that soon i will be back home with cohen full time which is really where my heart is these days anyway. it will be nice to take naps and cuddle and paint the day away together, the last few weeks of just us three.
i realized tonight that i don't yet have any belly pictures, not good. the poor kid isn't even born yet and they are already suffering from the second kid no pictures or videos syndrome. to make up for it i took this, the halfway point picture. 20 down, 20 (or 22?) more to go... 
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