33 Weeks

Every time I walk past a mirror, I've got Beyonce playing in my head. I don't think you're ready for this belly. #bellylicious

Although, I really don't think you are ready for this shirtless belly pic. But its coming at you anyway.

I just had to switch doctors. Mine is leaving to open her own practice, but won't be delivering babies right away. My new doctor's name is Thor. How cool is that? (His name was only 40% of my decision). And I almost liked him more than my normal doctor when I saw him once with Olivia.

He thinks this baby will be bigger than Olivia (and she was an 8 pounder at 39 weeks). At this point bigger = healthier. At 40 weeks, bigger = terrifying.

We've hit the point where baby is gaining half a pound a week (and mom's gaining 6 times that). Grow baby grow!

Lastly, my calves no longer fit in any of my tall boots. The calf weight gain struggle is real.

Five - Christmas Edition

1. When Dan and I first decorated the tree, Olivia ran into the room, yelled "ball!" ripped one of the ornaments off and chucked it across the room. Please don't ever buy us nice things.

2. I asked Olivia what we should name baby sister. This is fun, because its a different answer every time. She replied, "baby Jesus." Although I love that she knows the reason for the season, I told her we weren't the Kardashians.

3. We asked her what she asked Santa for Christmas. She said "Baby dolls." "TWO!! Baby dolls!" (still the highest number she knows). "And one orange ball." So we asked, "What kind of orange ball?" She looked at us like we were idiots and replied "...Mine, orange ball." 

The problem with Christmas shopping early, is Santa never knew to get her an orange ball.

4. Olivia helped me make her great, great grandmother's ginger cookies that are a Christmas tradition. She's a great smasher. And she only ate 3 balls of cookie dough (there's no eggs .. so I clearly ate a few balls as well). 

5. Christmas sweets got us both like: 

Olivia's Big Girl Room - And Why We Broke All the Rules

It's been just over a week in her big girl room and she is doing GREAT!

We are still holding our breath, because apparently things can be wonderful for a few weeks, and then they realize they can get out of their bed. And then life sleep is over. But, for now, I'm proud of her.

We painted the room a light pink and started calling it the 'pink room.' We talked about how cool that room was, spent some time playing in there, jumped on the bed and let Olivia know that we loved the pink room. 

We have a book called "big bed for giraffe" about how he doesn't fit in his crib and gets a new big bed. When we would read that Olivia would tell us how she DOES fit in her crib, how she never wants a big bed, and how she was the baby. We were very worried this transition wouldn't go well for her.

We read books in the pink room, hung up her paintings in the pink room, and talked about how it was our favorite room in the house. 

I moved a picture of her from her nursery to the pink room and you would have thought I threw away all her lovies. She freaked. "Mine picture. Mine picture. Back mama." Clearly she wasn't ready for the change.

We didn't convert her crib to a toddler bed, do a little bed, etc. We started with a double bed with bed rails, high off the ground, so it would feel more like a crib. Broken rule #1 that really seemed to work.

Prettier, made-bed pictures to come once the room is finished. Just a needs some finishing touches!

We asked her if she wanted to sleep in the pink room just for fun one night. Broken rule #2. She said yes. We got all her lovies, books, water, etc. piled into the new bed and took a really long time with her bedtime routine. Broken rule #3. It took her awhile to fall asleep, but she eventually did. We slowly cut back on her bedtime routine over the next few days, as Olivia got more used to the room. She'd take awhile to fall asleep, and get up early, but after a few days, got back on schedule.

We didn't take her to pick out a new bed. We didn't make a huge deal about it. We didn't tell her it was her new room, like there was never going back. All her stuff stayed in the nursery. Broken rules #4-7.

For naps, we asked her where she would like to nap. She burst into tears, per usual, "no nite nite!!" We figured, if we were forcing her to sleep somewhere, it was not going to be the pink room. We didn't want any negative associations. So we put her down for nap the first few days in her crib. She slept fine. Broken rule #6.

After a few days she asked to nap in the pink room. No problem! No nap .. but we didn't make a big deal about it, and she stayed in her bed reading, playing with stuffed animals and looking out the window. 

We aren't telling her that she did a great job for staying in bed. Broken rule #7. If she hasn't thought of getting out - we sure aren't going to be the ones to give her that idea!

This weekend she took a good long nap for the first and second time in the pink room - so it just took some getting used to.

I just moved her paintings and her monogram to the pink room (after letting her know prior) and just told her its her room. She now calls it "mine pink room." I moved her clothes over as well - she sometimes forgets and tries to get pants out of the nursery, but seems to really like "her" pink room.

We've started calling the nursery the "grey room" - not alluding to anything about it not being Olivia's room, being baby sisters room, or baby sister staying there. Just the grey room, that also has some of Olivia's stuff - like the diapers. I don't want her to associate this move with the new baby. I'd rather her get very used to the new room and then have her agree to let baby sister have the grey room once she's here. 

We're not experts at this (lord knows potty training went swimmingly - we quit, by the way), but I thought I'd just share that reading all about how you make a huge deal about it, make sure the crib is gone for good (no turning back) and keeping your same bedtime routine - just wasn't the way to go for us. Not for our baby who really doesn't like change.

She needed a slow transition (one that we are not finished with), a little extra love and a bed that's much harder to climb out of. Do what works for your family, and we'll all pray you get some sleep again. 

And keep holding your breath that Olivia doesn't decide to start getting out of her bed for 2 am dance parties.

32 Weeks

Had been feeling pretty good, but baby must have had a growth spurt this week, because I'm back to feeling pretty large. 

I have a sweet little photo bomber in this picture. One who dresses herself. She usually insists on pink pants. But half way through the day she insisted her pink ones were dirty and switched to a much better matching (with the boots) red pair. As for me, I put on anything elastic waisted and grab a shirt that can make it around this belly.

Christmas Simplified

Every year Christmas seems to sneak up on me. I don't usually get off work until the 23rd and then it's already Christmas and the shopping and wrapping and decorating and grocery shopping and Christmas card sending seems non-stop.

I made a vow this year to have all decorating finished, Christmas presents bought, and Christmas card pictures taken, ordered and sent before 12/1. That way we could have the month of December for enjoying the holidays.

I didn't quite make it - but I knocked out most stuff and actually feel really ahead of the holiday this year.

All Christmas decorating was finished early. Since we weren't hosting Thanksgiving, I wanted to come back to a Christmas filled house so we could enjoy the lights for the entire month. All presents are wrapped and under the tree and the Christmas cards have all been delivered.

My favorite ornament. 2 month Olivia baby hand.

This has left the weekends to teach our little girl about the reason for the holiday and enjoy our time together. We have also decided to simplify many things.

We didn't go to the mall to stand in line for hours to get a cute photo of Olivia with Santa. She's terrified of Santa, I knew it would be another crying picture and a battle to get her to wear what I chose. We saw Santa at her school, and again in the neighborhood. She wouldn't get too close and I didn't push the issue. No battle. Just a good time had by all.

I have this wonderful Christmas cookie recipe for roll out cookies using a buttercream icing that hardens just enough to stack without messing up your wonderful decorations. It makes around 8 dozen cookies and is a two day affair. We skipped it. Found sheets of sugar cookie dough in the grocery store - already rolled out. We cut them, did our best to entertain the toddler for a WHOLE 8 minutes while they baked, used store bought icing and decorated them. It was such a big hit, we did it twice. My 2 year old would have no patience for something that takes hours. Plus she kept licking her fingers and then sticking them back in the sprinkles, so those cookies are shared with no one.

Pinterest worthy pink Christmas cookies ;)

Since this week is the last week of the express grocery store shopping promo, I had the fairies get all of the non-parishables for Christmas dinner (we are having both families to our house this year since its a little too close for me to want to travel). Now, most of our grocery shopping is finished and I didn't have to battle the crowds and the out of stock panics.

Every night we walk over to this house that is completely Griswolded in Christmas lights. The man dresses as Santa on the weekends handing out candy canes and all donations go to St. Jude. Olivia loves it! And he's her favorite Santa. "Santa gave me candy mama!"

I am loving this holiday season. Especially as Olivia is older and gets so excited about Christmas. I thought it would be a little crazy with work, moving Olivia rooms, getting ready for the new baby, hosting both families, and being super giant - but I think this system is working. 

She would only sit still and smile for Grandma. When mom tries, she fails.

That being said - I don't have too many "instagram worthy" perfect pictures of doing all of the obligatory Christmas to-dos. Sorry about that ;)

31 Weeks

Always late on these. I take the picture on time, but never get around to posting it.

We joke that Olivia is bossy, but baby sister ... If I don't give her enough room, she shoves me harder than Olivia ever did. It'll be interesting to see who rules the roost come February. All I know is that it wont be me or Dan.

One of these days I wont take the picture at 5 am.

I've been destroying some salad. Dan is super nice in pretending that he is loving having the same salad with dinner every single night. I'll keep him.

Cheek to Cheek

Took a sick day from work today. Partly because I need to use the time before it gets deleted on maternity leave, and partly because I have a cold and have not been sleeping and could not get out of bed at 5 am.

When I picked Olivia up from daycare I told her we were going to skip her nap and spend the afternoon together. We could paint with real paint since its her favorite and the weather is great for an outside craft. She wouldn't get in the car. She wouldn't buckle. She wouldn't listen to me. I told her that skipping naps is only for a special treat. That we weren't going to be able to paint if we aren't being good and listening. She told me "no mama" and yet again, disobeyed. The whole way home I debated what to do. Kept thinking about how you can't threaten something and not follow through with it. I took her home and straight to nap. 

Stumbled across this blog (one of those facebook shares that pops up on your feed) and can't stop thinking about it. And being bummed that we aren't outside painting together.

But that post.

It's my whole mantra. 

It's why I always ask Dan if I can put her down to bed.

It's why Dan calls me 'the weak one' for going back in to rock her again, or rub her back one more time. 

It's why we can never stop playing early enough to get her to bed at a reasonable hour.

It's why work will never matter. 

It's why I've told 4 bosses over the past year and half that if my schedule isn't working for them, I'd walk right out the door.

And why I still second guess leaving her until 1 every day.

It's why I drove to Target at 8am to get her Doc McStuffins fruit snacks to share with her class for Show and Tell today.

It's why I'm taking a vacation day for the 30 seconds she's in her school's Christmas program next week. 

It's why we go for a 45 minute walk every single night no matter how much my back hurts. 

She is our entire world. And if anything ever happened to that little girl, I know the last thing I would worry about is spending enough time at work, keeping a perfectly clean house, or the fact that time warner cable broke our sprinkler pipes, sent our yard into a flood, and still wont call us back about refunding the plumber bill. 

The second that little girl wakes up I'm going to kiss those sweet cheeks, and we're playing with real paint outside.

Five on Tuesday?

Five on Tuesday. Catching up.

1. On Monday morning, Olivia looked at me and said "mama, you so cute!" I think I've succeeded as a mother.

2. Kick counts? Dafuq? My dr was called to the hospital in the middle of my appt Monday. The new doctor asked if I was doing kick counts. Spending time each day to make sure I get 10 kicks within 2 hours. Yes. In my free time. I'm spending a few hours a day lying still and counting the number of kicks. Fairies also do our grocery shopping and cleaning while I'm lying down.

3. Fairies DO do our grocery shopping. Not sarcasm. Our grocery store just started the express pickup. You find your products online, choose them, pull up to the store and a bagger boy puts all the bags in your car for you. Its normally $5 a time, but they are doing a promo where it is free AND you get $5 off your order. So for now, I'm basking in the glory that is not taking my goat grocery shopping and not wasting an entire hour buying everything my pregnant self sees and wants. 

4. Did someone give Olivia her own Pinterest account? First of all, she insisted that her thanksgiving pedicure be this grey/purple color with a gold accent toe. I've never done an accent nail - actually, I rare change colors. Where did she come up with this?

THEN on Sunday, Dan brought down our shoes and socks since I like to see how lazy I can be about going up and down the stairs. Olivia grabs my purple socks from me and goes "mine boot socks, mama." Puts them on over her pants, puts on her boots, and makes sure her socks are about an inch higher than the boots. She wore them like that all day. I've never worn boot socks - where does she get this? She's a million times cooler than me.

Ignore Dan's less than thrilled expression. I requested to capture the boot socks prior to his morning coffee.

5. While wearing the boot socks, Olivia went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Out of all the games there, her favorite was the slot machine. I'm concerned for her future.

30 Weeks

This baby is 75% loaded and, for the first time all pregnancy, this belly measured on track instead of way ahead! 

I'll celebrate with an exhausted 5am picture and wearing my hair in a ponytail to work for the first time in months. Can someone give me a "topknot" tutorial? So I can wear my hair in a ponytail and call it trendy?

Up 30 pounds at 30 weeks, but Kim K has me beat, so I'm not feeling too bad about it. I didn't get yelled at at the Dr after Thanksgiving because they assumed it was all "salt / swelling" instead of mom's apple pie and ice cream. Free pass this time.

Rings still fit. Rocking the back brace, snoogle, and 3 times larger granny panties. Peeing every hour and not sleeping. Had about 5 minutes of heartburn the other day and boy was that uncomfortable. Seems to be the only symptom I don't get - and I'm now very thankful. 

Overall, I feel like I've been pregnant for 93 weeks and we can't wait to meet this baby girl! After she's fully cooked, of course!

29 Weeks

I asked Olivia what she was thankful for, and she told me "wah wah" (water). I was pretty impressed. Thats a very good thing to be thankful for that we usually take for granted. Then I told her that her dad and I are thankful for her. I asked what else she was thankful for, and she said "baby dolls." I guess she's not going to say us. ;)

I asked her what she thought Santa might bring her for Christmas and her eyes lit up really big and she made this "wow" face with her mouth in an O and said "candy?!?!?" Sure. That's an easy one.

29 Weeks and definitely ate for two yesterday. Mmmm thanksgiving.

From the Depths of Hell..

I wish I had better news for you guys.

I thought I would have a more positive post to write. I thought. 9 days into this journey. That we would be in a different place. 

That we would be able to smile and laugh about everything that we have been going through this past week. And put the past behind us.

I thought Dan and I would be able to survive. 

I was wrong.

The coroner will call it 'death by potty training.'

Dan and I will be found lifeless. Lying on the tarps that currently cover our living room carpet. In a puddle of urine. While our pants-less toddler dances around yelling 'no potty!'

Here's the gist: she has been dying to wear big girl underwear and start using the big potty. She takes her dolls to the potty often. She tells us when she has to go and right when she needs a new diaper. She's totally ready. We did all the research. Pinned all those "3 day potty trainings" (which, shockingly, NO ONE seems to fail at). We cleared 3 full days. We removed all rugs and tarped our living room. We stayed by her side every single second. We knew we'd spend our time running her to the potty every 15 minutes and then cleaning the trail of pee up off the floor. They promised us 3 days of misery. For a potty trained toddler. THEY LIED. We followed this system to a T. We did not give up. For 9 days we've done this. Our little perfectionist had PTSD from her first accident and refused to pee ever. Even after sitting on the potty for hours. We're still at it, but it isn't going well. It isn't going at all. Literally.

Since I'm now an expert, I'd like to share my 8 tips for potty training. I really hope these will help you in your future endeavors.

1) Have a small reward system. M&M, twix, cake pops, brownies, entire buckets of Halloween candy. And then plan to gain 10 pounds. 10 pounds because the bribery didn't work one bit. So you can wallow in self pity and eat all of the bribes yourself.

2) Enjoy the look of the tarps. Get rid of your dream home pinterest boards. Just embrace the feel of sticky tarp on bare feet and the slight glare it gives when the sun shines just right. You wont ever be able to remove them. Not even when they head to college.

3) On day 5, when you've lost all hope, take them to chick-fil-a. Take them to the outside playground. Watch them pee all over the playground 80 seconds after getting your food. Then, learn all about chick-fil-a's wonderful perks, like antibacterial wipes, plastic bags for soiled clothes, and BONUS extra pairs of toddler pants in the back.

4) Get a little potty that plays music when your child pees. That way you can hear the music played approximately 0 times and curse your $30 spend.

5) Always keep an extra pair of pants in the car. For yourself. For when you get peed on in the parking lot, and then have to head to life group. 

6) Get incredibly excited by all the pinterest articles that say it'll work. Pin them all. Read them all. Believe them all. The ones where the children learned by the afternoon of day 1. Then cry in the corner of the bathroom floor eating the potty reward candy because your child is the exception.

7) Pump them full of juice. So much juice. So they really have to pee and you have many opportunities to allow them to go potty  hear them melt down from now on when you give them water, and all they will ever drink again is juice.

8) Remember how hard this is for them. How simple things seem when you are older, like sitting up, walking, making sounds, and, yes, learning to pee. And how hard they are to learn. Love them through it. Tell them, regardless of the outcome, that you are so proud of them for trying. Laugh when telling your neighbor to avoid the no-longer-sanitary chick-fil-a playground. 
I hope these tips helped. I can guarantee if you follow them your kid will be potty trained within 3 days (or 3 years, somewhere in there). 

Send wine cheesecake!

28 Weeks

The third and final trimester is here, and boy do I feel it. You know when you eat too much cheese dip and cookie cake at a girls weekend and spend the following week feeling swollen, large, and just want to wear a moo moo and sit on your couch because the thought of pants is uncomfortable? I think its going to be like that from here on out.

I had to order my favorite bra in large because the mediums aren't cutting it, its time to bust out the giant underwear I bought way too late when pregnant with Olivia, and the back brace I am wearing super accentuates the love handles. #sexyandiknowit

Still anemic, apparently, so I have to take even more iron. Since I have found that more iron = feeling even better, I'll take it. 

We are just so excited for this sweet little girl to get here (after she cooks longer, please!), to know her name, see what she looks like, introduce her to Olivia, etc. I think I'm even more impatient this second time around because I know how much more fun they are on the outside. But, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years will fly by and then we'll just be a few weeks away. 

27 Weeks

27 weeks and I have officially hit the 'Dan will you take off my boots for me' phase. 

Craving salad again, like with Olivia. Up 22 pounds. If you take the exponential weight gain from here on out, add in the Thanksgiving and Christmas factor, I'll be up approximately a million pounds by the end of this. Trust me, I'm good at math.

Olivia's most recent name suggestion is 'hot baby.' Dan and I haven't discussed it at all. PTSD from trying to name the last one. But we have got to start - Olivia's suggestions are getting worse.

Olivia is so cute with this baby. She asked if baby sister could come out of my belly to play for a few minutes today. She constantly comes to kiss the belly and says "love you baby sister" and "hi baby sister." When she goes to bed, she has to say "ni ni daddy" "ni ni mommy" and "ni ni baby sister." 

Olivia was sitting in my lap and the baby kicked. Olivia goes "woah!" and I said "that was baby sister. Baby sister just kicked you." And Olivia gets this "wow" look on her face, and then roundhouse kicks me back in the stomach and goes "haha, I kick baby sister back." Couldn't stop laughing.

I passed my glucose test with flying colors. Bring on all the pies for Thanksgiving!

Five on Friday

1. I love when her school sends me pictures. Look at that coordination :)

2. We went on a walk (in her jammies with a bow) after dinner. We each got a lolly pop. She asked to taste mine and ran away with it. This is her 'I've got two pops' face.

3. She's going to be the best big sister. I'm sure we'll find baby sister with a few stickers on her face.

4. This is a 12 month dress from last year. I wanted to grab a few pictures to compare. I'll have to dig up the older ones.

But the main point in documenting this day - we had used this bucket as an ice bucket for drinks. The next morning, after the ice melted, she decided to use it as a pool. Freezing water, but she didn't care.

5. I asked her to say cheese for a picture for her dad. Still keeps her eyes closed. Should have never laughed at that.

So I said "say cheese but keep your eyes open" - she tried so hard, but it was almost impossible for her. Those eyes just wouldn't stay open.

Happy weekend! We have a lot on tap for this weekend. Including finishing Olivia's big girl room!

Throwback Thursday

Found these photos on my computer from the spring and summer and realized I never shared them. 

I had a work call, and miss. no nap wouldn't stop fussing for attention. I panicked, handed her oreos and walked into the other room. She ate just the middle of each one and LOVED THEM! #momoftheyear

Sweet face in her Lilly for Target romper. If I had known we were having another girl, I would have bought all the matching Lilly I could get my hands on.

And this little one in her strawberry romper, seeweas and painted toenails. I wish she had worn this every single day.

Stopping to smell the flowers.

I tried to take fathers day pictures with the "DAD" letters like last year. Got a few cute shots but she would.not. hold up the letters. Dan got a painted mug a week after father's day instead. #wifeoftheyear

And a quick one of these cuties at the pool.