Saturday, January 26, 2013

Catch-up

I don't know that I have anything that warrants a full blog post, but I just realized that it's been over a week since I last posted. Which means that I'm due for a "random thoughts" blog...

Baby Waldo kicked me in the back today. Like, a hand's length away from my spine. And not a single little kick but the kind that you can see and feel from the outside for a good 15 minutes. That was a new one and totally disorienting. Seriously, I assumed that there were other things in this belly besides baby and it blows me away that she's got such range. Where is my stomach in all of this?

We've still got it narrowed down to two names but the middle names have us stumped. We're remarkably unconcerned about this. Guess we'll figure it out.

Speaking of unconcerned, I put all the baby clothes away today (which, BTW, super fun!) I found cute bins for under the changing table and managed to fit everything in. I was laughing because with the last two, I had a huge stockpile of diapers, wipes, soaps, etc. With this one, I have a tiny little pack of diapers that we got for Christmas and that's it. I tried to buy more stuff at Target the other night but I just couldn't. The most prep (supply-wise) I've done for this baby is to not cancel my next shipment of wipes from Amazon, even though we have two brand new packs in the cabinet. I thought to myself, "Eh, we'll steal a bunch of diapers from the hospital anyway." I didn't even wash her clothes in the hippy baby soap. MOTY. Also, poor third baby.

I have, however, decided to obsess over the decor of her non-room. We're finally learning, and so instead of moving Syd so that she and Waldo can share from the gitgo, we're putting Waldo's crib and changing table in our room. Because, really, that's where she's going to be for the next six months anyway. That let's Syd not be too rocked by Waldo's appearance and let's me keep our guest room a little while longer. But I became obsessed with Waldo's crib and "theme." C painted our crib white, and I bought an adorable blanket off Etsy that's full of these bright, vibrant colors. Pictures will come once the crib dries and off-gasses, but let me just tell you that turquoise plays a prominent role :)

I may have solved Eli's knuckle scraping problem. Syd got a new carseat with a smaller seatbase (and that "doesn't hurt my butt Mama!" See, MOTY) and I ordered Eli a BubbleBum booster.  I was a little leery, but from everything I've read it's done well in safety tests and is pretty easy for kids to buckle. It should be here Monday so we'll see how it goes. I'm really trying hard not to shell out $900 for the Radians.

I don't know what's in the water, but Eli and Syd have been playing so awesomely together lately. They were laughing like maniacs today, and then at bedtime they were totally scheming together to get extra time. I secretly love when they scheme together. It gives me such joy and I'm not above playing along, just so they'll keep doing it. I really hope that they like Waldo as much as they like each other.

So that's the catch-up! I'm back to work tomorrow. It's getting harder and harder to get up at the crack of dawn. I had planned on only taking a week off before the baby comes, but I'm considering taking more time if we can afford it. I think it might be nice to sleep in a few more times, and C has been subtly opining that I'm a crazy person for trying to work so late. I'm also working on a post about gestational diabetes and my experience since there seems to be a scarcity of those types of posts out there. However, right now it's more like a novel so I'm taking the rare opportunity to actually edit before I hit "publish." You're welcome. On that note, if there's anything you're curious about or would like added in, definitely let me know in the comments!

Friday, January 18, 2013

OMFG

This is actually happening. In six weeks.

(BTW: Does anyone have a recommendation for a low profile booster seat? Eli's knuckles thank you in advance.)

Saturday, January 12, 2013

8 months

And Baby Waldo's already making herself useful :)



The doctor keeps asking "How do you feel size-wise?" which 1) is a very weird and awkward question to ask a very pregnant woman, and 2) obviously has no right answer. The best I could come up with is "A little smaller than last time?" since a lot of my maternity clothes still don't fit. I didn't want to geek out and pull up my blog during the appointment, but since you all already know I'm a huge, neurotic geek I present for comparison. I finally got her to say something about her "smaller baby" comment, and she says that this one probably won't be another 10 pounder. "More likely another 8 pound baby, definitely not a six pounder." I guess "smaller baby" is all relative. 
I'm feeling a lot more pregnant lately. Very round and awkward, which is awesome. I also count down until I can plop on the couch for the remainder of the evening. The plopping is lovely. Not so lovely is the stupid GD stuff, which now requires a 30 minute walk after lunch and dinner, and a VERY restricted diet. I'm eating an awful lot of broccoli, salads, and eggs. A ham and cheese on a sandwich thin if I'm feeling crazy. I maintain a near inappropriate relationship with peanut butter as my last bastion of normalcy. On the plus side, I gained less than a pound last month and unless something catastrophic happens I won't be walking into the hospital with a 60 pound weight gain this time around. 
And Baby Waldo has a birthday! 3/1/13 (which I totally love for it's symmetry) at the butt-crack of dawn (which C is already complaining about, but whatever.) I've got six weeks left of work, which is more than was recommended, but I figure that if I'm home much longer than that I'll drive C insane with constant lists and nagging. We haven't done ANYTHING to prep for this baby. There's a crib mattress in my Amazon cart, and I have big plans to paint the crib (but haven't started). He'll do much better with a few hours off from me every day. We have come up with a back-up/first choice name, so that's awesome and complicates thing's a little bit. Eli's still voting for Stephanie or Mittens, and Syd insists that we call her Waldo (or Jeffrey or Marcus) but I like the ones that C and I have a bit better :) 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Priorities

Today was long. And hard. And sucky. It started with the realization that I did not escape the cold that everyone at work seems to have. Then I locked my keys in my car and spend the morning running back and forth to the parking lot trying to get it unlocked (which takes about 20 minutes and a half-mile of walking each way.) I had to beg a diabetic snack from our nursing staff because of my stupid diet, since all my food was locked in my car. The c*ckblocker struck, yet again, and took a job that I'd been offered since "You'll be going out soon and it just makes more sense to train someone who's not going to be leaving in six weeks", taking with him my chance at not having to work weekends. And yes, I know that this is coming very close to discrimination and I'm still deciding what to do about it. By the time I got home, I was sick, and tired, and as soon as I saw C in the driveway I burst into tears. I'd emailed him the cliff notes, and my wonderful husband met me outside so that I would have a chance to recoup before I went in and loved on the babies.

But then I came in the house and cuddled with Sydney. Eli met me wearing his favorite cowboy shirt and talking excitedly about the football game that he and C are going to this weekend. C cooked dinner (tacos!) while I ran to pick up a nightstand he bought to refinish. The lady who sold me the nightstand ended up selling me another six pieces of nice furniture that she'd intended to refinish for WAY below what you'd expect to pay. C is thrilled to have all these new projects. So thrilled that it's 9:15 and he's out in the garage sanding. I'm catching up on blogs, watching girly television, and Baby Waldo is turning backflips. Tomorrow Syd goes to gymnastics class (and hopefully I'm not sick so I can go too!) and Friday is my 32 week appointment and hopefully we'll set Baby Waldo's birthday.

I (mostly) love my job, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded that I work to live, not live to work.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Oops?

I had big plans to pay extra towards one of our credit cards this month, working towards a snowball method of paying off our debts. So C and I have been high-fiveing for a week that we paid almost double the minimum payment. Yay us! Turns out I accidentally paid that amount, PLUS the minimum payment. So YAY, we're a month away from paying that card off. Notso Yay, we may have to feed the kids from the WAY back of the pantry this month. And I just cleaned out the pantry in a nesting frenzy, so the options are limited. Onion soup mix for all!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Uggs, belly, and baby clothes


Maternity skinny jeans! (btw, does anyone know if the Old Navy maternity jeggings shrink?) These make me so happy, and look awesome with my boots (if I do say so myself). It seems silly to buy maternity clothes since there's only a couple months left and there's a good chance this is the last one. And yet...

I'm pretty sure Waldo's had a growth spurt because all of the sudden I'm enormous. It takes herculean effort to get myself off the couch and I have to roll off the bed in the morning. Despite the diet, I'm still steadily gaining, but this go-round it all seems to be in my belly (thank God!). Before you hate me too much, this baby has also come with the grossest acne ever, which is reconfirming my theory that my face breaks out because of sugar (and wonky insulin etc.) At my last appointment the doctor was concerned about the baby's growth because I'd only grown 1cm (or whatever they measure with the tape measure) and sent me for an ultrasound. She said it all looked fine but that she was a "smaller baby." I wanted to tell her that the only six pound babies ever born in my family were twins and that "smaller babies" just don't happen. I go back in next week so we'll see what she looks like then. If my thighs are any indication, she's doubled in size. Can you imagine if we had a nine pounder, a ten pounder, and then a six pounder? I'm afraid we'd lose her in the couch cushions!

This is Waldo's wardrobe for the next two years. I pulled it all out, separated the stuff that screamed "BOY!" and then organized it by size. And I feel so much better! I don't know that I've ever nested like this before. It's actually kind of freaking me out. I'd imagine that this is what OCD feels like. Now I'm deciding between plastic bins and banker boxes. And can I justify a label maker? #firstworldproblems.




Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Could I be more stereotypical?

So apparently I'm pregnant. Every day this week I have obsessively cleaned or organized something random. Today was the pantry, but only because Eli was grounded on his bed so I couldn't clean out his closet like I'd been dreaming of on the drive home. If I don't unpack, reorganize, and repack all of our hand-me-downs this week I'm not sure I'll be able to function. I have a cart full of "essentials" just waiting for me to pull the trigger on Amazon. And tonight when I went to make my stupid-diet-mandated evening snack (which is by far the best thing I eat all day) of a graham cracker with peanut butter and a kiddie cup of milk, and I found that we were out of peanut butter, an actual tear dripped down my cheek. Shit you not. I cried because we were out of peanut butter.

And I just realized that this baby, if my doctor gets her way and we schedule the c-section for 39 weeks, will be here in 8 FREAKING WEEKS. OMG.