Category: Tired Mommy’s Tales

25 Weeks – Just Chugging Along

So…25 weeks this week. In produce terms, Baby Girl is the size of cauliflower or a rutabaga, whichever you prefer.

25 weeks ( 1 day) edit

I had a midwife appointment last week and everything looked and sounded good. I’m at 5lbs of weight gain at this point and I’m satisfied with that. She suggested a support band to help with my round ligament pains and I ordered one that afternoon. I’ve worn it a couple times and it seems to help. I’ll be doing the ever-so-loved glucose test next time which will now be 4 weeks apart instead of 6. It’s also time to start scheduling any classes I/we’ll be taking to prepare. We have to take a First Time Birth Center class and I’m considering doing another Natural Childbirth Preparedness class. We also made a stop at the Resource Area and grabbed every doula’s business card that was there so we can start the process of choosing one.

I also had a call with a registered nurse to enroll in the Maternity Support Program through my employer. The first call is basically a run-down of questions so she can get an idea of my health before pregnancy and now and if there are any red-flags that they should be aware of. I came away from that call with a few takeaways…schedule a dentist appointment (so important for preggos – hoping to write about that soon), find a source of DHA to supplement my prenatal and look for an infant/child CPR class. I also found out I need to call my benefits department to get info on the breast pump benefit and to do it soon because they are back-logged due to high demand.

As far as baby preparation, we’re making slow steady progess. After I thought we’d finished sorting, washing and putting away all Brooke’s old clothes, we found another tub of clothes as well as a big bunch of blankets. So we got all of that taken care of and I’m pretty sure that now we’ve got everything put washed and put away.

Keith and I toured a daycare center near my office. Since the place Brooke attends only accepts kiddos 12 months and up, we need to find another spot for Baby Girl. So we took a morning to drop in to one of the places we’d considered for Brooke when we first moved to Knoxville. I was very impressed…close enough that I can go for a mid-day nursing session if we want/need, they accept cloth diapers, very accomodating to family schedules/requests for the babies. They even take the babies outside for fresh air!! So we put our names on the waiting list and hopefully things will work in our favor and Baby Girl will be there this fall.

This past weekend, Brooke and I had a girls’ weekend while Keith was away at the SEC Women’s Basketball Championships and got some more shopping crossed off the list. First we hit up a cloth diaper consignment sale and got some good deals!!

My haul from the consignment sale...not bad for $60!
Got all these for $60!!

Then, armed with a 20% off coupon (!), we headed to Babies R Us to order the crib that coordinates with our crib. Although the crib is in our room, this will actually live in the playroom and act as dresser/changing table combo. I think that finishes up the “major” purchases and we’ll just need to fill in things here and there.
Dresser
So we’re just chugging along…if you look at my ticker on the sidebar, you can see I’m almost to single-digit days until my due date! Whoa!!  Don’t forget you can still put in guesses for Baby Girl’s birth stats at ExpectNet.  Just click on the button under the ticker on my sidebar to link to the game.

Until next time!!

Oh the 4 of it All

So in addition to preparing ourselves for the reintroduction of a newborn to the household, Keith and I are also wading through the unfamiliar waters of 4-year-old-hood. In talking with some online mommy friends, its seems we are not the only ones dealing with this crazy, confusing, frustrating stage. While that carries some level of comfort that just maybe we aren’t doing EVERYTHING wrong, in the moment its just all kinds of aggravating.

Some of the phrases that can be heard at various times in our house lately:

“It’s Not Fair!”

I’m pretty sure Brooke doesn’t really understand the concept of what is fair or not because more times than not, she uses this in a context that makes absolutely no sense. Whether I’ve told her its time to put the iPod away or that her favorite purple shirt cannot be worn today because she wore it two days ago and its in the wash, I have committed an injustice that just cannot be tolerated and she will let me know.

Miss Sassy Pants

“You’re Not My Best Friend” / “You Can’t Come to my Birthday”

One of the “joys” of having a child in a daycare/preschool setting I’ve discovered is that they learn the art of emotional warfare early on. It becomes instinct to cut right to the emotions of those who you feel have wronged you. So if I’ve particularly offended her or said something she did not want to hear, I can expect a “You’re Not My Best Friend!!” in response.

Imagine her frustration when I tell her that I’m not supposed to be her best friend, I’m her mommy.

And when Brooke feels the need to change things up, there is always the withdrawn invitiation to her birthday party. This one has been around since about the day after her last birthday party but has been used less frequently as time goes on. I’m not sure if that’s because she forgets about it or if it’s because of my reminders that without Mommy running the show, there really isn’t much of a birthday party.

“How ‘Bout….”

Ever the little negotiator, Brooke is rarely satisifed with the first response. I say she can have a cookie, she tries to get two out of me. Keith tells her we have time for 2 books, she asks for a third. While there are times when her request is perfectly reasonable and we’re willing to accomodate, I think Keith and I have both found a need to establish that not everything is up for negotiation and sometimes what we say is the Final Answer. If you’re curious how that goes, see #1 above!

All joking aside, while this phase has brought its challenges and frustratons, there are so many moments when I look at my little girl and wonder where my baby went. Whether its watching her work at writing her letters correctly, concentrate on clearing her dishes from the table without dropping anything or sort through laundry for her Baby Sister, I can help but smile and be proud of the little person she’s becoming.

She loves this dry erase board! Practicing letters...Taking her job as Big Sister very seriously while she hangs baby clothes.

Week 23 Update: Getting Productive

We’ve made it to the 23 week mark!  Time is starting to move a little quicker now.  I’m not sure if its because I finally made it past the ickiness of early pregnancy or just cuz’ we seem to be so busy lately!!  I’m gonna say a combo of both.

23 weeks

I still feel like Baby Girl is much more active that I remember Brooke to be. I love when I finally settle into bed at night to relax with Keith and watch TV and I am still enough to feel every little bubble and somersault. I haven’t had any crazy cravings and my heartburn seems to have tamed down a bit.

Now that we know that we’re having a girl, we’ve gone full steam ahead in getting prepared. Although we have anywhere from 14 to 17 weeks before she’s here, that time will go fast, I’ll be getting bigger and less efficient and Keith’s looking at more travel and busier schedule with basketball post-season and softball season coming up.

So with Keith having his first full free weekend in a long time, we got to work!! First things first, Keith picked up the crib at Babies R Us that we ordered a few weeks ago. While he was out, he also picked up bins and hangers so we could start going through Brooke’s old clothes and get them organized.

Getting ready to go through her old clothes for Baby Sister

By the end of the weekend, we had the crib assembled, Brooke’s outgrown clothes from NB to 4Ts sorted in bins and NB-6 months clothes hung up and folded.

Baby clothes hanging again!

We felt pretty proud of ourselves by the time we crashed Sunday night. But there’s still so much to do!!
*Come up with a name for this little girl
*Build up a diaper stash
*Come up with a daycare gameplan
*Start researching doulas
*I don’t even know what I’m forgetting!

For past updates:
*20 weeks
*21 weeks
*Gender Reveal