Things That Keep This Pregnant Lady Up at Night...

Sleep is a vain effort these days. Here are a list of things that keep me awake at night:

1. My tiny bladder which is being further compressed by a ~7 pound baby. (I usually have somewhere between 4-8 bathroom breaks a night...usually one an hour).
2. Braxton Hicks which lately are seeming more and more like the real deal.
3. Heartburn.
4. Mackenzie's acrobatics in between aforementioned Braxton Hicks.
5. The Cicadas in my backyard.
6. The tiny little frogs that chirp all night long.
7. My husband snoring...it's gotten worse in the last week. I slept on the couch Tuesday night.
8. The little, yappy dogs that live in the house behind ours and like to bark at our fence line. --Not gonna lie. I've had some pretty terrible thoughts on how to resolve this problem. I wouldn't actually follow through with any of them, but a girl can dream...if she could actually fall asleep over the barking.-- 

Things that will keep me up in the coming weeks:

1. Numbers 5 through 8 in the above list.
2. A sweet, little baby girl who will be adjusting to life outside my tummy. 
3. Possibly a big sister who can't sleep through her new sister adjusting. 

I'm so excited! I have about 18 days to go...

I'm going to go take a nap now. 

Happy Third Birthday, Chloe!

Chloe,

It's May 28, 2013 and you are three years old today! See how much you've changed from one year ago? You are no longer a toddler and are now a pre-schooler. (You don't go to pre-school yet.)

 

 

You have turned into such an entertainer. You sing all the time and have several songs memorized. You even try and sing along with my music when we go on walks with the jogging stroller. If we laugh at anything you do, you will try and repeat whatever it was to keep your dad and I laughing. You also love to get your 'electric guitar' and play for us while you dance. You prefer it if we dance along.

Some of your favorite things are: bubbles, Pepper, flowers (you like to pick dandelions), the next door neighbor boys (Luke and Davis) and riding your tricycle or scooter. You are pretty girly, but you keep your shins bruised from adventures.

 

You know your full name and will tell people, but sometimes you get confused. Occasionally you say, "My name is two." You never confuse where you live. If I ask where you live, you always tell me which city. (If you can't tell, we are working on safety information in case you ever get lost.) You have never met a stranger and are so friendly. While I think that is one of your greatest strengths thus far, it's also potentially problematic at this age. Sometimes, we have to keep a pretty close eye one you.

 

We are working on letters now. You know all the letters and their sounds, so we have moved onto writing them. You don't really have the fine motor skills required to write well yet. But, you can write a few letters (sometimes they are backwards). C, A, X, T, U and O...random letters, I know.

 

You are just now starting to really test your own will-power. There was no doubt since the day you were born that you had a stubborn streak. For the most part, you listen as well as any child your age. Recently though, we've been hearing the word 'no' from you a lot! It's hard not to laugh because the face you make when you tell us 'no' is hilarious. (You scrunch up your nose and furrow your brow.) I think our saving grace for this "miss independent' stage that you are embarking upon will be the fact that you 'just want to make us happy.' You ask us 'Are you mad?" when you do something wrong. If we say 'yes' you get pretty upset.

 

 

We are really enjoying watching you turn into your own person. There are so many things about you that we've learned. In retrospect, many of your qualities were evident early on...I think most of your little personality is the way you were born. We love you and the laughter that you brought into our lives.

You have doctor appointment on Thursday so we will get a weight and height then...

37 Weeks & Full Term

Baby could come safely at any point and my doctor would no longer try to stop labor if it started on its own. Hooray! Of course, I am in no way anticipating that this little lady will come early. Her sister was late and was forcefully evicted for health reasons. The doctor said I'm 30% effaced...I could stay that way for weeks and I DID with Chloe! So I don't put a whole lot of stock in that information. Long story short? G2 is still cooking.

37 weeks w/ G2

37 weeks with G2

I had a final ultrasound last Friday. She is taking her practice breaths which is a good sign her lungs are ready and she is happy. We are walking 3 miles a day to try and get things moving. At best? It might encourage G2 to make her grand entrance a few days sooner. At worst? I'll be in great shape for another 17 hour labor (let's hope it's not that long). I may or may not have mowed the yard last week and I may or may not be dancing with Chloe in the living room on a daily basis. haha. 

Squishy Face...looks a lot like Chloe did. Curious to see how it plays out.

Chloe had a door hanger similar to this one when she was born. It was made by my brother's best friend's wife. (Is that confusing?) I made this one so G2 will have one because I love it so much. Do you see that we have a name now? Finally! 

hospital door announcement

Mark had narrowed his list down to about 3 that he liked (Avery, Harper & Mackenzie). He told me to pick and this is my favorite. We used the traditional spelling. I like that we will have somebody else in the house that has a long name that can be shortened. Mark doesn't understand that reasoning, but his name is only four letters long. Ha. Chloe is already calling her Kenzie and Mark prefers the nickname, MJ.

The middle name, Jewel, is so special to us. I feel compelled to share. My Grandpa was one of my favorite people (really one of everybody's favorite) and his mom (my great grandma, 'PA') had Jewel for a middle name. But wait, there's more!...Mark's Granddad was adopted and his birth surname was Jewell. When he was adopted, an 'L' was removed and 'Jewel' became his middle name. Mark's dad is a 'junior' and carries the same name. So little miss is going to share a middle name with not one, but 3 family members. For such an unusual name, I'm surprised it shows up in both of our families. I would have made it her first name, but Mark wasn't too sure about that and we couldn't really find a middle name that supported Jewel as a first name. 

Holding on to 2

Chloe will be three in less than a month. I'm not sure why (maybe anxiety over a new dynamic with baby 2 or the fact that C will no longer be a 'toddler' but a preschooler) but this birthday is bothering me. I guess I should get used to it. It's going to be happening every year. Twice starting in 2014. It's bittersweet to watch your baby grow older and Mark and I (as parents of young kids) are just hitting the tip of the iceberg in regards to that concept. I can only imagine how difficult it is to watch your children drive off in a car the first time, go to college or get married. Thankfully, I have quite a few years before I need to worry about that emotional roller coaster.

Here is some Chloe randomness in honor of the fact that she's still two for a few more weeks.

This is the "nest" she built using pillows on our couch. She informed me that she was hatching an egg.

At bedtime last week, Chloe hollered to Mark that she was going to sleep on the floor. He told her, "no. go get in bed." When we went to do our final bedtime check before we retired, she was sound asleep on the floor. She wasn't joking about sleeping on the floor. ha. We moved her to her bed and she stayed there until morning.

Chloe went to take your kid to work day with Mark last Thursday. We ate snowcones...

played in the bubble bouncer...

and drove a firetruck! 

Chloe is pretty sure she would rather go to work with dad everyday than stay at home with mom and do laundry. I'm so glad Mark works for a company that values their employees and their families (as exemplified by the event they hosted for take your kids to work day). 

P.S. How much fun does that bubble bouncer look? I want one for my birthday party. 

G2 Nursery Reveal

It's the moment you've all I've been waiting for...

The nursery is complete with the exception of G2 sleeping soundly in the crib. Nope, she still doesn't have a name. Why is this so hard? We still have a theoretical 6 weeks to decide. Still, it's really bothering me.

If you can remember, this is what the room looked like before it became a nursery.

Now...

 

It's a bright cheery yellow with coral and teal accents. I have to confess that my inspiration for the room came from the fabric we used on the valance.

If you can't tell, it's a frog pattern. Of course, Chloe and her sister have to have a frog of some sort in each of their rooms. Mark used to think I was odd for incorporating frogs in Chloe's room. He's learned to appreciate (some of my) peculiarities.

My mom did so much to help with this nursery. She knows how to do everything and has really good ideas when it comes to DIY. She helped me create the valance, sewed the bed skirt and painted the nursery.

The bed skirt is ingenious. It was designed so that as the crib is lowered with each stage of development (laying, sitting, standing) a ruffle from the bottom can be removed and the skirt won't drag on the ground. This was huge for me since I cannot stand it when skirts touch the ground (long story).

 

These bad boys are just fabric wrapped canvas. Well, the middle one is actually paint. I'll be putting the baby's first initial on the middle one if she ever gets named. I wanted to incorporate more of the fabric into the room. Since we won't be using bumpers this time, I felt like the room looked a little stale without added pattern that comes from the bumpers.

This was fun (see above)! I really wanted to reuse all the furniture we used when Chloe was a baby. But, the crib wasn't safe so we purchased a white one. (We buy pretty inexpensive cribs.) I then decided I needed the dresser to match, so I painted the one Chloe used white. If the drawers would have been white, it would have been too much. That was when my mom suggested painting the drawers a color. I decided on two different tones of pink...both of which are in the chevron fabric from the bed skirt. I just loved how this piece turned out. I'm so glad I took the time to do this project.

I really love the way this nursery turned out. I do not think the pictures do it justice. No matter.

Here's to six more weeks. I'm praying for five. :)

Easter 2013

Here is a photo post of our Easter. Better late than never.

(by the way, I hate that Blogger has stopped letting me put captions on my photos. It works on my Mac but not my PC. That just means the comments are under the photos in a sloppy way. )




 Decorating Easter eggs



New Scooter from the Easter Bunny.

Going to hunt eggs. 

She just spotted her first egg. 

She has not stopped talking about hunting eggs since this day. 

 

Just so pretty.

Another one.

Love this photo. She is so happy about her finds.

Family photo.

DonDon (Mark's Dad) and Chloe

Shorty (my mom) and Chloe

32 weeks -8 more to go-

Nothing in particular going on around here. Today is exactly 2 months until G2 is expected to arrive.

Chloe is starting to get excited. She has asked if we are going to get 'sister' on several occasions while we are running errands. She also tells random people that she is going to be a sister. I think that's probably a good sign. I'm not overly concerned about Chloe being 'de-throned.' She is in a stage where she really wants to make mom and dad happy and she loves to help. I'm fairly certain that she will really enjoy helping out with the new baby as long as we make sure she still gets some one-on-one with Mark and I. Nothing revolutionary about that concept...I just hope I'm not being a naive second time mom.

I'm posting from my phone so I'll try and come back with a Chloe comparison bump photo later. But, here is a 32 weeker...we were about to head out on our run/walk hence the reason I look so fabulous.

{edited to add: the Chloe bump picture comparison.} Man, oh, man. It hurts to look at this comparison. haha. Look how puffy I was with Chloe and at two weeks early in the pregnancy. Ugh.


G2 32 weeks

Chloe 30 weeks

Lastly, Chloe is just so much fun these days. It kills me that I don't have the energy to keep up with her like I want nor do I have the ability to lay on the floor with her and play cars and color. I can tell she finds it frustrating. But with the amazing weather we've been having, we have been able to be outside which she seems to be an acceptable substitute for my lack of entertainment.

Pepper photobomb

Working in the yard...it's hereditary.

The wheelbarrow is full of rocks. I'm sure it's pretty heavy for her, thus the tongue protrusion.

First time to eat Nutella! Mark says she reminds him of 'V for Vendetta.' 

Oh and I almost forgot! Chloe had her first haircut. Her hair was staying really matted at the ends so we went for a trim. Her hair looks so much healthier now and it's not getting tangled which is great now that summer and swimming season are quickly approaching.

1st haircut.

A little shorter; a lot prettier.