Being Lewis’ mom was easy this morning. It was so sweet and special that I’m feeling a bit sentimental.

After Kyle retrieved Lewis, changed his diaper, and got him dressed, Lewis came running into our room where I was still in bed and launched into a monologue:

“Daddy get me. I was wet, wet, wet. He changed my diaper! Now I’m a frog. RIBBIT!”

When he said ribbit, he jumped up on the bed and started hopping around on his hands and knees like a frog. Then he came over to me, gave me a big kiss and hug, and said “I love you a LOT!”

The rest of the morning he was just generally agreeable, ate his breakfast, shared his cars with me and Kyle, and made me do heart-eyes at him all the while.

On the way to school, he waved hello and bye bye to every store and city bus we passed.

He’s so cute I could just die!

Being Lewis’s mom was challenging tonight. 

Being Lewis’s dad looked pretty challenging tonight too.

I want to move past it, so I’m going to count my blessings in the form of a list of things I’m particularly grateful for this evening.

1. Tums
2. My husband, so I don’t have to do this alone 
3. Cooler weather
4. Pillows to support aching joints and a huge belly 
5. My Facebook mommy group and the advice I get there 
6. Being home during this stretch of pregnancy
7. Amazon Prime restaurant delivery
8. Quiet moments

Huzzah. The belly continues to get bigger.

Baby

I took Baby in for her 32 week growth ultrasound today. As a reminder, this was a special ultrasound above and beyond the normal pregnancy procedures by my doctor’s standards. It was ordered by the perinatologist to check to make sure that the compressed vena cava hadn’t slowed baby’s growth through restricted blood flow. She had mentioned that she really didn’t think there would be any issues with size, and that it was just a precaution. I was able to internalize that message up until this morning, when I got very, very nervous.

However, Baby Girl is not small. In fact, she measured big! All the pregnancy emails say that baby should be 3.75-4ish pounds this week, and according to the ultrasound, our sweet girl is measuring around 5 lbs! Of course, it isn’t an exact prediction, but it is definitely an indication that she is either average or above. Doctor said 5 lbs isn’t so big that it is of any concern – just that some babies have to be “above” the average in order to create that average. Phew!

Baby Girl is also still head down, which I knew from her hiccups, and facing towards my left hip. I’m very hopeful that she’ll choose to rotate back towards my spine before delivery, instead of upwards like her brother so I don’t have to do another posterior birth.

Other measurements that were shared with me were: head size is average, but femur length and abdomen were both measuring over 35 weeks. Sounds like she has got daddy’s long legs and perhaps some of mommy’s heft! The ultrasound tech also described the heart as “beautiful”, and my doctor said that there were no red, yellow, purple, or any other color flag other than green green green! Hooray!

In other news, Baby Girl’s room got a bit of a kickstart this week, which is thrilling for me. My mother took me shopping at IKEA, where she got us the dresser as an early shower gift (yaaaaaaaaay!). I also took advantage of the trip out there to pick up the new chair for Lewis’ room (the big rocker is going in Baby Sister’s room), the laundry basket tower, and a few other little things. It was 100 degrees yesterday, so we stayed home and Kyle built everything with the AC blasting.

Kyle is my heeeeeero! He spent 5-6 hours altogether building everything without a complaint, and he wouldn’t let me lift a finger. He built the chair first and then made me sit in it all day with my feet up. All he asked of me was to keep him company, and to occasionally get him a snack or some water.

There are just a few little missing pieces for the baby’s room, which should all arrive this week, and then we have all we need to figure out final furniture arrangements and then start hanging decorations and organizing the nursery. Getting Baby Girl’s room in order makes me feel so much better. And so excited too!

Me

While the IKEA trip with my mom was lovely and fun – because everything with my mom is lovely and fun! – I definitely struggled with the exertion of walking through the whole store. I contracted like crazy the whole time, and when we got downstairs to the part where you actually put things in a cart, I had to lean on the cart to support myself. That helped a lot, since leaning forward through a contraction seems to make them more bearable. My mother commented on how I was walking, and said I definitely looked like a pregnant lady who was carrying low.

I spent yesterday recovering from the strenuous Saturday, but I’m not sure if Baby has descended even more, or if I’m still recovering from the IKEA outing. Whatever the explanation, the lower part of my belly (kind of in a V at my hip bones) feels very strained, which is a brand new sensation. The contractions continue to hurt sometimes, but not others, and come with varying frequency. So it is basically the same old story, with new little tweaks added on to keep life “interesting”.

The nice thing is that my doctor is still pretty unconcerned about what all of this means, especially after the hospital visit showing no opening in my cervix. She did point out that she could tell I am anxious about all of this and offered me some resources (therapy, medication) to deal with the anxiety if I felt like I was having a hard time coping. I don’t feel like I need the assistance at this point, but what a lovely thing for her to observe and offer. I think it is so nice that she knows me well enough to be able to tell when my anxiety is heightened. And even though I don’t need any help coping right now, I am so happy to know that I can turn to my doctor if that changes.

Lewis

Oooh Lewis. Sweet, clingy Lewis. What a star he is. Navigating his clingy-ness is our continued challenge du jour, but we’re getting better at it. Lewis himself is actually getting better at it too. His tantrums usually end abruptly with him announcing, “Mom! I’m happy again!” So everything is A-OK with kiddo – he’s just as silly and funny as ever!

We started summer swim lessons this weekend, which end the week before my due date. I figured it was a good way to get myself out of the house, plus being in the pool feels really good on a highly pregnant body, and Lewis loves the water. He didn’t ever want to stop moving, not even to listen to the teacher or to sing songs with the class. He just wanted to kick and swim and splash and jump in the pool. It is so fun to see him getting into activities, and I enjoy seeing the difference in his level of engagement and enthusiasm compared to the last time we did lessons.

Finally, I want to document a moment from yesterday so I can look back on it someday – Lewis was keeping me and Kyle company while Kyle built the nursery furniture, and as nap time approached, we went downstairs to get some lunch. Lewis brought a rather long piece of cardboard with him, and on the way down the stairs, he swung it so that it hit the light fixture on the wall. He wasn’t aiming for it, but that’s where it impacted, and SMASH! the glass cover fell off and shattered all over the stairs.

I repeat, Lewis was hungry and tired. And on top of that, he thought he was going to get in trouble, which he finds devastating. So he freaked out. Total meltdown. I retreated back upstairs with him in my arms while Kyle cleaned up the mess and tried to calm Lewis down. He was, of course, not in trouble. It was an accident, and no one got hurt, and everything was fine. But he needed to be talked down from the ledge.

Eventually, he calmed down and Kyle got the mess cleaned up, and we went downstairs for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which Lewis ate every bite of (whoa!) in total silence, almost like a trance. Then he fell asleep for his nap in record time and slept for two hours.

Here is my favorite part – when he woke up, I went in to him and the first thing he did was tell me his version of what had happened with great enthusiasm. And then he repeated it a million times throughout the day (and even a couple times this morning!):

“The light got broke. I felt sad. But there is another one, and that one is okay!”

I wish I had gotten his “story” on camera. It was sooooo sweet the way he told it, with appropriate facial expressions (happy, sad, surprised) at appropriate times. Swoon! So cute!

It may not be done, but wow, what progress was made in Baby Sister’s room today! Just waiting on a bookshelf and some drawer pulls, and then we can finalize furniture arrangement, hang stuff on the walls, and put stuff in the dresser. Very exciting times for this expectant mama. My husband kicked some serious butt today!

There is so much going on right now, that it seems like perhaps a mid-week update is on order. Not necessarily because it is interesting, but because if I write it all out, maybe it will stop swirling in my head so much, getting me all riled up – and dragging me down at the same time. One can always hope, right? It’s going to come off as a bit of a whine-fest, but like I said, I think I need to get this out!

I’d like to start with work. I don’t like to get into too much detail about my work publicly, for obvious reasons, but it is definitely something that is consuming a lot of my thoughts (and time!). So it deserves a mention.

It is already common knowledge that I’m working from home full time until Baby Girl arrives due to my pregnancy ailments. I’m supposed to be able to lay down when I need to rest and, theoretically, that should help keep my symptoms at bay. However, many of our clients have a fiscal year end of June 30th, which means that, even though I am home, there is often no time to lay down and rest. Everyone has urgent needs, and nothing can wait even one single minute. Phew!

On top of that, we just launched a new project management software that I have been working on customizing and getting ready for 8-ish months. Yes, I’ve had help, but I’m the lead on the movement, and it has been a lot of extra work during the customization stage. And now that we’re “live”, it is even more work. I didn’t think that would even be possible, but it is! The whole team is working so, so hard to get used to it, tweak it to work with our real-life work processes (so different than our theoretical processes), and become equally efficient (and eventually – hopefully – more efficient) using this new system than our old system.

Then, of course, I have my upcoming maternity leave. I don’t know how the rest of soon-to-be mamas think, but I definitely feel that it is my responsibility to set my team up for success in my absence through careful planning and communication about duties coverage. In a company as small as ours, redundancy is not the norm, so I’m the only one who knows how to do what I do in a lot of cases.

Time is ticking away, and with all the “scares” we’ve had recently, getting the team ready and trained for me to disappear at a moment’s notice feels extremely urgent. But this kind of planning is difficult to do when resources are limited and the team is already overworked.

And lastly, the cherry on top, I am expected to longer hours all of a sudden (read: overworked). Actually, that’s not fair. I have always been 24/7 on-call for urgent matters. The difference now is that the definition of “urgent” has been changed to be much more broad in an effort to be more attentive to our customers, set ourselves apart with our service, and hopefully close more deals and grow the business. In theory, this is awesome. I’m completely 100% on board. The timing just sucks for me, personally. I don’t have a lot more to give – as a matter of fact, I feel like I have less to give than normal. But I have to somehow dig deep, because I do generally agree with the philosophy behind the new expectations. It is just exhausting. And stressful.

My work isn’t the only thing taxing this family’s mental resources – Kyle’s job is also ramping up! This always happens in the summertime, which is to be expected in the construction industry, but he is also taking on new responsibilities and feeling the pressure of trying to learn the new tasks and perform them at a high level right out of the gate to prove himself. It is easy to see that his thoughts are frequently on work, even when he is “not working”. I can certainly relate!

Of course, for both of us, there is the continued busy-ness of being parents to our sweet Lewis. He’s wonderful, even if he’s still quite clingy, but even an easy 2 year old is a handful!

And then… the contractions. They’re getting worse. Last night, I was awakened by my contractions several times. This has literally never happened to me before! In general, they stop when I lay down, so they’re a non-issue at night time. But last night, they not only continued, but they hurt, so I was awake throughout the night feeling very grumpy indeed.

The good news is that they’re still irregular, and therefore I am unconcerned at the moment that they mean anything different. But my “new normal” keeps changing, and my little brain is having a hard time keeping up! Every time I wrap my mind around the fact that I’m going to feel this way now, something worsens and I have to mentally adjust to that way instead. Between being tired, working too hard, being a mama, trying to stay pregnant, getting ready for baby, making sure meals happen for the family, and worrying about my husband overworking himself, I don’t really have a lot of brain cells left over to keep mentally adjusting to new “new normals”!

So there it is. My brain is on overload! All I want is to lay down, get the nursery ready, and wait for baby. But I’m doing all that other stuff instead. Mama needs a vacation and a margarita!!!

So happy to be able to share another weekly picture, even if it is of me looking huge, fat, tired, and unkempt. Keep ’em coming, baby! Stay in there!

Baby

Not much to report on growth this week, according to the weekly emails. Baby has fattened up a little more, and should be doing more of that in the coming weeks. The fatter this kiddo gets, the happier I am! Well, I shouldn’t say that. What I really mean is: The longer this incubator keeps baby in, the bigger and stronger she gets, and that thrills me!

Baby Girl has had some really wild moments recently, even disturbing my sleep at times. Normally I am not awakened or kept awake by baby kicks for very long, but there have definitely been a few nights this week where I was bothered by this little girl’s acrobatics. By last check at the hospital on Thursday, she was head-down. With all the moving I’ve been feeling, it will be interesting to see if she still is by my ultrasound next Monday. I’ve still been noticing hiccups down low recently, so I suspect that as of last night at least, she is still head down.

The list of “top contenders” for Baby’s name doubled in length this week from one to two. One of the names doesn’t have an L in it, which we thought was a requirement for us to like a name, but it turns out we may be a little more flexible on that “rule” than we thought! The tricky part now is that neither Kyle nor I can decide which of the top contenders is our favorite. Yikes!

Me

I’m doing ok. I haven’t been dizzy nearly as often this week, but these pesky contractions are really making things difficult. Kyle is very attentive, making sure I’m taking it easy, and being home where I can take it easy definitely helps. It doesn’t take much activity for me to notice an increase in intensity and frequency of my contractions, so it really does feel important to be a couch potato (sigh…). Even sweet Lewis has picked up on what is happening and asks me to sit on the couch if I’m up too long. Smart, observant kid!

On top of the contractions, sleeping at night has remained a bit rough. I’ve turned into quite a good napper, when I can find the time (I slept for over 2 hours yesterday while Lewis napped!), but night time is proving more difficult even when Baby Girl stops wiggling. I can’t even blame it on my bladder, surprisingly. I just still can’t seem to get into a deep sleep. It always feels shallow and like I’m half-aware that I’m sleeping. I’ll keep trying not to complain about this too much though, because I know that this sleep is still better than I’ll be getting after Baby Girl arrives.

Speaking of her arrival, my former L&D mother said that based upon the test results from our hospital visit last week, she thinks I have a minimum of 4-5 weeks left. She also said that there is absolutely no reason why I couldn’t make it to the end. That felt like super comforting news, even if there are no guarantees in pregnancy. I’d really, really like to make it to full-term (39 weeks) just to be absolutely certain Baby Girl has “baked” enough. But 4-5 weeks puts me at about 36 weeks, which is a good minimum goal in my mind. As far as I understand, 36 weeks gives a baby a great chance of survival without deficits, which sounds very appealing. So that’s my goal! Minimum of 36 weeks, but shooting for 39 weeks. Come on, uterus! Behave!

Just in case my uterus doesn’t behave, I have packed the hospital bag (except for a few last-minute things we’ll pack when it is go-time). The superstitious side of me is very satisfied with my decision to do this, because now that I’m prepared to “go” early, surely I won’t “go” early. If you prepare for the worst, then the worst won’t happen!

Lewis

Mr. Lewis seems to be having a growth spurt. Or at least that’s the current working theory. He has been very moody, very tired, and very clingy. And all of that following a few days of intense calorie intake. We weighed him yesterday morning on an empty stomach, and he tipped the scales at 26.5 lbs! And his already-too-short pants and shirts were so bad yesterday that Kyle demanded that we put them away officially in favor of the next size. This does, of course, mean that his pants are now falling off, but they are long enough. And hopefully this little growth spurt helps a bit with his lack of girth!

Our alternative theory to explain kiddo’s moodiness is that he is still recovering from the trauma of last Thursday’s hospital visit and his concern about me. This is a viable theory because his clinginess is really only in regards to me. My lord! He will not leave me in peace and no one – absolutely no one – else is good enough for him. If I want to leave him with Kyle, I have to trick him or bribe him or talk Daddy up for 10 minutes before I can sneak out. And he wakes up at night/in the morning screaming, “I WANT MY MOMMMMMMYYYYYYY”. Phew. It’s exhausting!

But kiddo is still sweet, and kind, and smart, and funny, like always! And Kyle and I are really enjoying this stage of his development despite the weird behavior. I met up with some moms this weekend and one of them, who has a 7 year old, said something that really resonated: “So far, every age is my new favorite age!”

Amen, sister. Amen!

Yesterday we had our scariest pregnancy scare yet, if it is even possible to rank them.

I went into the office in the afternoon for my meetings, as per the new plan for work. I was contracting, but when am I not… right? So I didn’t really think anything of it. At some point during the afternoon, I mentioned to a colleague that the contractions kind of hurt, but again, I didn’t really think anything of it. I was too busy working to pay it any mind.

Fast forward to 5pm. I should have been home for hours already, but because of a very busy afternoon, I was just leaving the office (oops). As I sat my butt in the car, with nothing to focus on but driving and wherever my mind took me, I started to reflect on how uncomfortable I had really been all afternoon. And as I took stock of what was happening, I realized that I had been having painful contractions every 3-5 minutes all afternoon, along with pressure in my bottom. Yikes! That’s a huge change from the painless contractions I’m used to!

So I called the doctor. But as soon as I described what was happening to the advice nurse, I knew what she was going to tell me to do – go to the hospital, dummy!

There I was, driving down the highway in the pouring rain, panicking trying to get my husband on the phone, get in touch with my mother, and get any willing/available in-law to take Lewis. Did I mention it was rush hour? I have never hated traffic so much.

Anyway, in the end, I did get in touch with my husband, who dutifully packed up a bag for the kid. And I did get in touch with my mom, who dropped everything to meet me at the hospital. And I did get in touch with my sister-in-law, who dealt with my screaming child all evening, got him to sleep, and even decided to empty my dishwasher (say WHAT?! amazing!!!). So Kyle and I got off to the hospital.

Side note – despite my best efforts to play it cool, my eyes were swollen from crying, and sweet, empathetic Lewis noticed. When we were in the car waiting for Kyle to get in and chauffeur us away, Lewis asked me gently from the backseat, “are you okay, mommy?”. I told him I was good, but he saw through it. Pretty sure that’s why he was so sad for Auntie Kim all evening – he was worried. I hear rumors he was hollering for his mama. #hearteyes

Back to the main event – Once at the hospital I was monitored, probed, poked, interviewed, tested, viewed from the inside, measured, etc. and it was determined (after several hours) that I was not in pre-term labor. Hallelujah and thank the Lord!

However, the doctor seemed to think the baby was at -2 station, which (according to my former L&D nurse mother) is lower than a baby “should” be at this gestational age. It is a very likely explanation for why my painless, frequent braxton hicks contractions suddenly turned into painful, frequent braxton hicks contractions. Additionally, the doc mentioned that she thought I was about 50% effaced, which is also unusual for this “early”. But a transvaginal ultrasound showed my cervix length at 4.2, and they were looking for anything above 3.5 to rule out pre-term labor. So the jury is out about if I’m really 50% effaced or not, based upon that ultrasound measurement.

Did I mention that my cervix is completely closed? They could have just told me that and it would have been enough to convince me! That was my favorite bit of news from the whole investigation. If the cervix is closed, that means all these damn contractions aren’t doing anything and they really are braxton hicks, even if they’re getting increasingly uncomfortable.

If the cervix is closed, baby doesn’t have a way out.

And that’s all that matters. I am so uncomfortable, and I have been throwing myself quite a few pity parties, but Baby Girl isn’t on her way out just yet, so I’m good. I’m so good. I’m so grateful. I’d like to be done being scared, yes. But I am so, so grateful.

Even with all this awfulness, I haven’t lost the joy and anticipation of meeting Baby Girl. Sometimes that surprises me, that I am not even a little angry with her for causing me grief and stealing my “normalcy” away. It is embarrassing and almost degrading to suddenly be so incapable of such basic things, and sometimes (often?) I wallow and feel sorry for myself. I even find myself longing for the end of this pregnancy, yes – to end the discomfort – but mostly to meet Baby Girl. Two more months feels like a very, very long time on days like these. But I’m still so happy to be pregnant with a healthy baby and I’ll keep her in there as long as I can.

So what’s the outcome of yesterday’s scare? I’m not going to the office anymore, that’s for sure. My dear, sweet husband would never allow it. And I’m supposed to lay down…even more? I guess? Is that possible? And finally, it sounds like my “new normal” is now replaced by my “new new normal”, which is even more uncomfortable than the original “new normal”.

Only 9.5 more weeks, folks. Yippee.

And how did Lewis fare after all of this? Well, he woke up in the middle of the night screaming for mama. Kyle tried to calm him down, but kiddo ended up in our bed. That brought immediate calm, kiddo went back to sleep, and proceeded to talk in his sleep and keep me up all night (adorable and annoying!). Although the simple fact that he was physically glued to me would have been enough to keep me awake on its own! I do have to admit that it was pretty touching that he needed me so badly, though. He was worried about his mama, and I was so happy to see him, too.

As the cherry on top, for a little chuckle, I’ll leave you with Kyle’s last words before he kissed me goodnight last night – “Quit scaring me!”

Holy smokes! 30 weeks! That means we’re 3/4 of the way done!

Baby

The weekly pregnancy emails are telling me Baby is anywhere from 3 to 3.5 lbs this week, and that she should be gaining about .5 lbs a week until the end, give or take. I am pretty sure I’m just going to be astonished by how big she’s getting every week until we meet her and I go, “whoa, she’s actually tiny!” when I see her in comparison to big brother Lewis.

My addiction to baby clothes continues. In the absence of other preparation, I find myself buying baby clothes, which I suppose satisfies my need to “nest” and get ready for Baby in a very minor way. I’d really prefer to be getting the nursery ready, but I think the rest of that has to wait until after my “sprinkle” in July. That is still plenty of time before Baby arrives, but it does leave me with about a month of having to scratch the nesting itch a different way.

The hunt for the perfect name continues. We have a definite front runner, but lots of other names keep coming up to try on for size. Nothing has beat the latest front runner yet, but just like with Lewis, we’ll keep open minds until the ink hits the birth certificate! I must admit though, that our shared front runner is not the same thing as my personal front runner. I’m still having a hard time letting go of my own personal faves that Kyle has nixed!

Baby Girl has been on the move a lot lately. I keep locating her head by using her hiccups, but even within the space of one day I can feel those hiccups in several different places, so she’s still swimming around in there. Now that we’re getting closer to the birthday, I find myself getting pretty excited every time the hiccups are down low. I guess I’m starting to feel a little anxious that she’s going to end up facing the right way, even though it is way too early for that to become finalized.

Me

I’m doing about the same – ups and downs. This past week was a little heavier on the dizziness, but a little lighter on the contractions. Although I had one day that was just rotten all around for most of the day, and I still can’t think of why it was worse than the others.

Working from home has been going great. When I have “bad” days, it helps me to feel more sure that being at home is the right thing. With Lewis in school all 5 days now, it is working out perfectly – I can get my work done and rest as-needed. Well, mostly as needed – work is busy and demanding so I sometimes don’t get to lay down when I should, but it is certainly better than being at the office.

I have been having some increased difficulty sleeping lately. The new reasons are two-fold: 1) Lewis keeps doing things in his sleep like falling off the bed, or yelling, or kicking off his blankets causing me to worry he is cold (we have a new video monitor in his room, so I can see this now!), or bonking his head on the wall. 2) I have been having very vivid dreams which my brain is so actively involved in that I don’t feel like I am getting quality rest even when I’m asleep. It’s like I’m aware I’m dreaming, but I don’t wake up – almost like a half-sleep state.

The dreams are usually silly and uninteresting, but last night I had one that I think tells a bit about what my subconscious is thinking. I dreamed that my water had broken and I went to the hospital (which was actually a mall), and I couldn’t find the labor and delivery department. It wasn’t a panic situation because my contractions hadn’t started yet, but it became urgent when I ran across another pregnant lady who was having actual contractions and also couldn’t find L&D. She asked me for help and we wandered all over the hospital (mall) and couldn’t find the place. Eventually we did, and my labor room was right next to a restaurant (we were at a mall, remember?!), so I excitedly bought croissants and soup because I didn’t want to be hungry like last time. And I could overhear the other lady two rooms away talking to her in-laws who were concerned about her fitting into an evening gown right after she was done giving birth, and she wasn’t worried about it because she had been so careful with her eating during pregnancy that she’d just bounce right back.

So… my subconscious is concerned about finding L&D in time, being hungry during labor, and getting back to my normal size after birth. Cool. Good to know.

I also had my 30 week appointment today and my subconscious’s concerns about my weight were proven to be justified through another colossal weight gain. My conscious self is continuing to just surrender to the fact that pregnancy means a total loss of control over my appetite and will-power, and to trust that I will lose the weight again after birth. Probably not so I can fit into an evening gown the day after Baby comes, but that’s not really my goal anyway. hehe.

Even with the scale being so cruel, everything checked out great. Baby has a good heart beat still, my uterus measures the right size, and I got my TDAP shot, which I was supposed to get last time, but which we all forgot. Doctor is happy with me, so I’m happy with me.

The final big news for me this week is that our bill arrived for the ER visit in May. Oh boy, is it a doozy. We had gotten one bill already from a different provider, but The Big One showed up this week. And just like that, we’ve doubled our medical debt again. We’ve been working so hard to get it all paid down, and we made excellent progress, only to have this hit like a ton of bricks. The only silver lining I can see is that we’re getting closer to reaching the out-of-pocket maximum for the year, so when Baby Girl comes, we won’t get hit with the whole out-of-pocket maximum at once. Because let’s be real, we’re going to hit that this year one way or another. Part of the amount just came sooner than we thought. Yikes. Being an adult is no joke, and growing/raising tiny humans is very expensive.

Lewis

I mentioned above that Lewis has fallen out of his bed a few more times. When we initially upgraded to the big boy bed, I had purchased a fold-down bed rail to help prevent falls. Kyle didn’t think it would be necessary, so I returned it. But even if kiddo doesn’t fall out of bed most days, it is happening often enough to be a problem. So I re-ordered a bed rail and it should be here tomorrow. I’m hoping that will mean consistent sleep for all.

Kiddo stepped on the scale yesterday (albeit after a huge meal), and he weighed in at 27 lbs! This is a huge milestone because it means his weight is finally in the 18-24 month size clothes category. Of course, his height puts him in the 2T category, which means that his pants and shirts either fit girth-wise, or length-wise, but never both. Of course, the 12-18 month size is also still a good fit in the waist for my skinny dude, but if he stays at 27 lbs even without a full belly, that won’t be the case for long!

Cutie patootie got a summer haircut last night. Kyle buzzed his head (that makes it sound like I didn’t know it was coming, but I assure you I did!), and the result is both adorable and totally shocking – he looks so grown up! I can hardly stand it! But it is actually a very good look on him, and I’m a big fan.

We had a roaring start to the day around here!

First, Lewis fell out of bed just before 6 and bonked his nose. I swear I was the fastest pregnant lady on earth when I heard the splat. I was out of bed and in his room before he even started crying. 

Then we spent about 30 minutes in our bed with Lewis plastered on top of me recovering (and waking up!). 

Once he was awake, he asked if daddy needed to go potty. When I told him no, he said, “I want to go potty”.

So I took him to his potty, stripped off his diaper, which was completely dry after the whole night, and he sat on the potty and emptied his whole bladder!

Wow! Dry diaper at night, asked to go potty, and actually went. That feels like a big, big deal!

What up, 29 week bump? How you doin’? Also, Lewis was in every single picture this week, so there he is too!

Baby

I hear rumors that the baby is somewhere between 2.5 and 3 lbs this week. So like 4-6 ish more pounds to go until this little nugget is a fully cooked nugget! I realize that that means Baby Girl still has to more than double her weight in the next 2.5 months, but this week’s supposed size sounds so close to full-sized that I can hardly believe it. There is some real substance to this girl now!

No wonder her movements are intensifying in my belly. It only makes sense, given how massive she is! My peripheral vision is frequently filled with my jumping belly, and I often have to push protruding baby bits back inside. My mother felt Baby (after a contraction subsided) through my belly and thought she had located a head and a butt and some little feeties, but Baby was rolling around as my mom was squishing me, so I’m pretty sure Baby has moved on and even perhaps completely flipped, since now I’m feeling hiccups where my mom found a butt and feet before.

Who knows. We can’t actually see in there. But there are definitely baby bits, and they’re on the move!

Baby still doesn’t have a name. We had a little false alarm when Kyle shed some tears over a really good one… but he had a change of heart a week later and we were back to the drawing board. We now have a new front runner, but still nothing set in stone. Kyle believes that he wants a name that starts with an E, and the requirement to have an L in it somewhere hasn’t changed, so that narrows things down quite a lot. BUT – and it’s a big BUT – even with a narrowed down list and a front runner, we’re still looking at about 10 different names that we “don’t hate”. Tricky tricky!

Mama

Biggest news: No gestational diabetes for me!

Other than that, things are basically unchanged for me. I have “episodes” here and there, and I contract all the time. I have so many contractions that I basically feel like I have taken all the contractions in the world for myself, and there are none left for any other pregnant ladies. The world’s quota for contractions is met through my uterus’ work alone!

Because of the lack of change in my physical state, I’m becoming increasingly more comfortable with the house arrest sentence given to me by my doctor. It really, truly does make sense. I try not to talk about what is going on with me all the time because I don’t want to be annoying, but my condition really is chronic and constantly distracting me.

Every single moment of my day I am taking note of what is happening in my body and I’m usually either contracting, dizzy, or both. I may be having a conversation about the weather, but I’m thinking to myself, “oh. there’s another contraction” or “I really wish I could lay down right now”. I try to maintain appearances and stay “normal” on the surface so people don’t worry or get annoyed because I won’t shut up, but it is really hard to think about anything else most of the time.

To me, it is completely embarrassing to require such special treatment and attention just because I’m pregnant. I’ve never thought of my pregnancies as debilitating or disabling – I always just thought of myself as the same, but a little more tired and a lot more fat. My brain still works, I’m still a strong, capable, independent woman. So why should I get special treatment?

But Baby Girl is giving me a reality check. I do need special accommodations this time. I just do.

Besides the (now normal) madness, I’m kind of just cruising along. I eat all the time, cravings haven’t changed much, I’m tired and squeak in naps as much as possible (usually while Kyle and I are watching House of Cards together – much to my sweet husband’s dismay), and my belly keeps getting bigger. Pretty standard stuff, thank goodness!

Lewis

Man, the kid has been grooving lately! Here’s a little list of highlights for ya:

• He peed on the potty for the first time ever last night.
• He figured out how to unlock and open the exterior doors. Luckily he isn’t super interested in making a run for it yet, but OMG are we watching him like a hawk!
• He noticed that mommy and daddy have different private parts (“mommy! Where’s your penis?”), and when I explained that mommy has a vagina and daddy and Lewis have penises, he retained that information and now yells about it all the time. (“Mommy! You have a vagina!” and “Mommy! I have a peeeeeeeeeeeenis!“) I am very excited for all the looks we will get when he decides to chat about that at the top of his lungs in public.
• Bedtime and naptime have been getting increasingly easy as Lewis gets to know the routine better. He now frequently falls asleep without a parent in the room in significantly less time than before. We have also adjusted bedtime to be about 45-60 minutes later, which seems to have helped as well. We’ve ended up settling into about 10-11 hours of sleep for kiddo a night, which is really pretty great!
• Talking talking talking! The kid won’t shut up. His sentences are getting longer, his vocabulary surprises me on the daily, and I don’t have to act as interpreter for him quite as often. Okay…still pretty often – Things he says that are crystal clear to me and Kyle do not register for a lot of other listeners. But it’s adorable, and he’s learning, and I love it!
• He will be in daycare 5 days a week starting this week. We’ve worked it out with the daycare provider and I feel really positive about it. I remember back when he was really little how desperately I wanted to take him out of daycare completely. It’s amazing how that has changed simply because he’s older and gets so much out of it now. Will I miss him on Fridays? Yes, of course. But it makes so much sense to have him there 5 days a week for his sake and mine. I don’t think I can handle him on my own while working anymore, due to my “episodes”. It is just too much. So it all works out!

Kiddo just peed on the potty for the first time! Kyle sat him on there before his bath and he tried and succeeded.

Proud mama right here!