35 Weeks

Feeling a million times better than last week. Some people breeze through the third tri skipping and bouncing around (me when pregnant with Olivia) and others are in a lot of pain and have a hard time (me when pregnant now). Running after O for multiple days, trying to get dinners ready, laundry done, keep the house semi decent, undecorate for Christmas, etc. was just too much on my body last week. 

Her being back in school for half the day means - until 1 - all I have to do is sit, walk, or stand.  And after a few days - I feel SO much better. 

I'm up 40 pounds, which means 1) I currently weigh more than I did when I delivered Olivia and 2) I currently weight more than my husband, but I've got my fingers crossed that 3) this will end up being the cutest 40+ (dare I guess 60?) pounds I will have ever gained, once she's here. 

I'll write more about it after the pregnancy, but I'm eating 1800 calories a day, tracking every bite I put into my mouth (peppermint? logged.) and keeping an eye on proteins and sugars. My body just wants to explode. I'm not too worried about it - just going to be a lot of work to get it off. 

Feeling pretty ready for this baby. The nursery is finished (unlike with Olivia). Surely someone will run to Target to pick up some diapers once I run out of the ones I stole from the hospital. And the attic has the baby items and baby clothes - so, worst case, Dan can drag them out of the attic and wash them after she's here. We'll obviously try to be more prepared come D-Day, but I'm not worried about it at all. Just looking forward to newborn cuddles. 

This belly is back to measuring 2 weeks ahead. And my doctor still suspects that we've got quite the chunk on our hands. We'll have a better idea at my ultrasound next week. Until then, I have doctors orders to make Dan do all the hard work this weekend. ;)

Tuesday

I cook 6 chicken breasts each the size of my face, five batches of orzo with white wine butter sauce with three bags of spinach for freezer meals. Cookie dough for cookies for someones bday tomorrow. All with Olivia's "help" (aka it took cracking 4 eggs to get two useable ones).

At 5:30 when Dan normally walks in the door, I spill boiling orzo all over the floor, burn my hand, and as I'm frantically wiping all the orzo off, I rip open my thumb where I cut it on crab legs Sunday night. Back hurts too much to stand any longer. 

Look at my phone. Dan texts "going to be home late tonight." 

TUESDAY.

Decide to sit. Feed Olivia fruit snacks for dinner and put on Doc mcstuffins on TV. No energy to clean. Know that the orzo will be cemented to the cabinets. Don't care.

Got a bandaid for me. Olivia needed three.

Walk into the kitchen and all the orzo is cleaned up.

It's spotless. No residue. I didn't hear anything.

Thinking it's a miracle. Don't know how, but a miracle has happened.

Then remembered we have a dog.

34 Weeks

Feeling swollen and large and running out of energy to do anything around noon. Loving having this whole week to spend time with Olivia, but wish I were in better shape to keep up with her. Not looking forward to the 5am wake ups, but thinking it might be less tiring going back to work. I'm sure I'll regret saying that ... grass is always greener. 

Now that the Christmas decorations are all put away, we are wrapping up a few projects that we want finished before the baby arrives. I'm sure we still wont have everything finished no matter when she arrives. :)

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.