31 weeks & baby sprinkle

 

somehow i'm 31 weeks pregnant. by looking at me, it probably seems more like 38 weeks...but i really do have a good amount of weeks to go yet. here's the comparison shot from last time. i'm about the same size, and only a few pounds less so i guess i just do pregnancy in a big way ;) but my outfit for the shower is entirely non-maternity and my face, hands, and feet aren't really swollen like last time.

this weekend my girlfriends threw me a lovely baby sprinkle. it was a perfect, small affair and i had a great time. it was nice to spend time with other moms of similar aged children and 5 of the 8 guests were pregnant - we had a lot to chat about! the food was delicious, the lemon cake was exactly what i would have picked myself, and everyone was so very generous in gifting some new goodies for this baby boy. i hadn't registered but they requested some sort of information so i did make a wish list. that's been helpful for me as well, since it's hard to keep track of the things i want or need yet. one thing we won't need - onesies!! this baby has more tiny onesies for summer than he'll be able to wear (except not really, since i recall changing those things a lot). i'm kind of excited for all of that...newborn clothes are the whole point, right?!

 

nesting

i think i can officially say nesting has begun. unfortunately, as my husband so perfectly put it, we're building our nest in the same old tree. we've been house hunting and actively ready to buy since january 2013 and wrongly assumed that we could find something before my june due date. it's april now and we're still looking. the market is bad, nothing is available, and we're stuck in our 2 bedroom condo bursting at the walls. it's a great condo and it's right on lake michigan so it's really hard to complain, but being here doesn't allow for us to really settle in with 2 kids. no nursery, no dedicated baby space, no room for more things. as such, i've been avoiding any nesting tendencies in hopes of using that energy to move and create a new home before baby joins us.

30 weeks forced me to face reality. we'll likely be here when the baby comes. i won't get to design a nursery (or a big boy room) and the baby's things (crib and the smallest amount of clothes/gear possible) will be in our room. to balance this out, i've begun to purge and clean. aka...nesting! lots of time spent sorting and donating clothes, cleaning drawers of clutter, and throwing out as much as i can part with. this weekend we cleaned the car before really cleaning the car so we can add another car seat. we spent spare time scrubbing every kitchen surface just because. i'm not huge into detail cleaning. i pick up toys, i wash counters, i clean bathroom floors, and i routinely vacuum...and then i rest. but suddenly i feel the need to clean all the things!

i guess it's a good thing. spring cleaning coinciding with nesting seems practically normal. and i'm sure my husband enjoys the to-do list immensely. we're trying to get one big thing done each week so it doesn't pile up on us at the end. for me, the hard part is that last time we weren't ready and i'm nervous that we'll be faced with another early birth and a crazy mess of a home. i already feel behind (same gendered children don't need as much new stuff, but there's still a lot to do!) and haven't really spent much time preparing for another baby. hopefully we still have 10 weeks to get caught up!

29 weeks

compare to 29 weeks during my first pregnancy. honestly i feel like i look bigger day to day than in these pictures. i have gained a similar amount of weight to last time but overall i look slightly less rotund.

i have fully crossed into 3rd trimester! this pregnancy is pretty different from last time and while i've continued ot work out, stretch, and maintain a better diet overall i feel so much worse. i am SO tired and my body aches while i am trying to sleep. my restless leg issues are coming back but worse is the constant, debilitating pelvic pain i experience when laying on either side. i had sciatica with my last pregnancy and developed it very early with this one. laying on my back at an incline is painful, but being on my sides is just as bad. i wince in pain at night and it makes me want to put off going to bed and getting rest because it's just more comfortable to be sitting upright.

this week we decided to stop pretending like we might move before baby comes and just get the stuff inside from storage. we moved finn out of the crib (more on that soon) and it's now in our bedroom taking up space and alerting us to the impending new baby every time we go in there. i bought a small dresser from ikea to store essentials but otherwise we won't have a nursery or changing table or any of those things close at hand. but, the baby has a bed and clothes and a car seat...it's progress.

how far along? 29 weeks
total weight gain: 30 lb (ugh)
maternity clothes? yes
sleep: as i said above, painful
best moment this week: pulling out all of the baby gear for 0-3 months
movement: he is a slow, pressured roller. kicks only down low and i rarely see his movements across my belly like with finn. he hangs out on the right side only.
gender: boy
labor signs: none
belly button in or out? popped
food cravings: i'm not craving any one thing, but i do love fruit and ice cold drinks. i eat a lot of candy :(
what i miss: a pain-free, 8 hour sleep session (see you in 2014!...)
what i am looking forward to: continuing to prep for baby, finally
milestones: last week in the 20s...then it's 10 weeks or less from here on out (haha, this is from last time and it's still true!)

bowling

 

on a lighter note from the last post, we went bowling! here's the thing about being three: yeah, it's rough behavior-wise, but he's finally old enough to fully participate in so many things and he's actually pretty fun and funny as an individual.

this was his second time bowling but really his first ever sending a ball down the lane. he was in heaven! it was a spur-of-the-moment adventure and being close to bedtime, we only got one game in. he could have bowled for hours, though. 

 

 his bowling technique was to take a running start, pause for a full stop at the lane, and roll the bowl from over his hip down to the pins. this resulted in sloooow motion excitement over which pins might get knocked down (thank goodness for bumpers). but each time a few went down he jumped for joy and danced to the loud music.

he was really good about understanding turns and letting us bowl on our own. he was careful and helpful when the balls came back and cheered us on when we knocked pins down. i caught him rubbing his hands over the air dryer before picking his ball up to bowl. he loved his little toddler bowling shoes (um, yeah, cutest ever) and was thrilled to see the black lights in action. we haven't done a lot of family outings like this and it's exciting to think about his age lending to a new interest in participating and enjoying adventures.

also, bowling + pregnant is funny. and with the number of tweens and teens there, i'm betting my gait and general appearance while bowling provided a bit of a reminder on the realities of pregnancy. it didn't help that i wore a white shirt. it seems black lights paired with a giant white bump protruding from my midsection is really hard to ignore.

terrible threes

this face, terrible? i know it seems impossible but three is so far less rewarding than the years prior. with age comes the desire for independence and autonomy, but much to his dismay, i seem to squash his every free whim.

two was hard, yes. one was also hard. it's all hard. but my patience for three is really thin. his outbursts and disappointments with daily life begin at waking and last until into bedtime. some days he'd prefer to not take his soaked nighttime diaper off in the morning. the battle of wills over this is worth me fighting because his PJs are likely wet and he's day time potty trained, so no more diapers. his insane screams at 7:15am and kicking legs falling over the edge of the changing station? so not the way i want to start my day. does he want puffins and milk? yes. NO! but yes, too. can he watch the same episode of fireman sam three times in a row? when i say no and suggest an alternative it's a meltdown of epic proportion, similar to if he were being burned over coals. this goes on through the day. eating, getting dressed, using the potty. anything he doesn't want to do, he bolts and hides or cries when "forced". the things he wants? "please? but i want to! please! please mommy!" i'm saying no because i mean no, so yeah, NO. it's impossible to decide what's worth fighting, what isn't a big deal, when to ignore, and when to engage.

we've been trying to see if timeouts work better than removing items or activities or vice versa. when we do our 123 magic system, we get to 3 and head for time out. he goes limp, starts sobbing/screaming, and pleads "but i want to be good!". (yeah, i wanted that, too. remember when i warned you at 1 and 2?) when he treats his things poorly we take them away, putting them up for later when he can try again to treat them nicely. when we're out and time outs don't work (he doesn't sit still in a one place, our timeouts at home result in time spent in his room with the door closed but with access to his things), we take activites he enjoys away from him. i hate this. "bad" behavior/poor decision making on his part leads to no afternoon movie or no story time before heading to bed. it feels awful to take these things and i don't even know if it works.

i find myself being very short with him and unable to figure out how to cut him some three year old slack. when he isn't being a terror, he is super cute and lovely. but even then, he is inquisitive and demanding of my time. i am 27 weeks pregnant. i just don't have it in me to answer every why? and what?, color or play exactly this way or that, and watch over every minute detail of his day. that whole "cherish this time, it will pass so quickly" is true but it's impossible to do all day, every day. i'm trying to find it in me. to remind myself that he wants me now, even though he might not need me in the way he did when he was younger, and that's important. i just wish we could both enjoy him being three a little bit more.

i talked to my girlfriends today about wanting to miss finn. being at home with him almost 100% of the time means i have no chance to really feel a longing for him. i experience his hourly tantrums and i don't get time off. of course, i am lucky to see him all of the time and to help shape his life (by his current account, "crushing his dreams"). but that "distance makes the heart grow fonder" stuff has an appeal. and i'm not talking about a trip to target for errands. that helps, but an hour of picking up toilet paper rolls, kid toothpaste, and other random household goods does not make me miss finn much. i don't know what works, but i feel like i need some away time to remember how wonderful he is and maybe forget just a tiny bit of all of the current drama he exudes. people don't call and tell you what a terror your kid is while you are away. they point out the cute things and gloss over everything else and then you remember all of those good things, want to experience them first-hand again, and await the reunion with excitement. with another baby on the way, i don't see this away time happening all that soon, but a mom can dream, right? in the mean time, i'll stick to figuring out what i can do to ease the pressures of being three (for me and for finn).

finn's 3rd birthday

we celebrated finley's third birthday a few weekends ago and his party was so much fun. because he's three and his preferences change on a whim, i didn't ask him what he might want for a theme. i picked construction because i knew he'd like it and it was easy!

we decorated the night before while he was asleep and when he woke up he toured the house and said "i'm so impressed by this place!". sometimes i think i'm just doing this stuff for me, but he loved it.

 

i designed the invites trying to bridge the gap between "all boy" and my own style. all of the printables had the same theme (favor tags, flag banners, cake toppers, food labels) and the color scheme of yellow and orange was easy to carry throughout the party.  i bought large disposable roasting pans and filled them with sand and construction trucks for a little indoor digging station and provided each child with a construction hat. we didn't have any games or activities outside of "play in the dirt" and "take out all of finn's toys", but toddlers and preschoolers don't need more than that to have a good time!

 

the food was simple - basically what a construction worker might bring in their old fashioned metal lunch pail (they still do that, right?!). we had sandwich triangles, carrots sticks/dips, orange wedges, bunny cracker mix, cheese balls and pirate booty. water and lemonade (plus beer, because what 11 am kids party doesn't require cold brews?) were the drink choices and i was happy when my mom already had the sport drink dispenser to balance out the glass pitcher. at the dessert table, the main event was chocolate cake but it might have been out shined by the dirt cups. this was a must for me (and maaaybe why i picked the theme in the first place). i LOVE dirt "cake" so much and i haven't met very many people who disagree. we also had a selection of orange and yellow candies.

the kids had a great time playing and helped finn during present opening by bringing gifts to him. it was chaotic and hilarious and really sweet. we sang him happy birthday as we watched him blow out three candles and i didn't even cry! 

he still asks about his party and is ready for the next one. he's planned it for next week (every week, it's always next week). too bad birthdays only come once a year :)

end of 2nd tri

i'm almost finished with my second trimester already! today i am 27 weeks pregnant and just finished up my glucose test. miraculously, i did not make a scene (faint, vomit, cry...) so i feel like i might be getting better at the whole blood draw experience. it's kind of blowing my mind that i could be this far along with the my second pregnancy. being that we are on the house hunt and currently live in a condo with NO extra space for a baby, we have done nothing (and i mean nothing) to prepare for this new baby. i haven't sorted through clothes, haven't thought about getting the infant seat ready to go, haven't prepped in any way. in fact, finn is still sleeping in the crib and i don't even know where the pack n play is, so this baby will have to find a comfy drawer or something.

we are hoping to get finn out of the crib and onto a floor mattress to transition him (he's slept this way on trips and will be fine in his big boy bed, as well) but we have no storage for the crib so we can't take it apart or move it elsewhere! last time i was planning a nursery, organizing baby goodies, buying my stroller...this time? ugh. when i think about it all i start to panic and sweat, so i'm pretending that i'm hardly pregnant and have plenty of time.