Bumpdate: 26 weeks

Easter Sunday

(1 day before I "turned" 26 weeks)

Like I said in the last Bumpdate, my joints have loosened up, which means all day I'm dropping things that I then have to bend over (read: pregnant torture) to pick up. It also means that at night my legs just ache, and ache, and ache from collapsing in on each other. Some nights the pillows help, and some nights I just toss and turn. If it was a really achey night, I have a super-cool limp for a while after I wake up.

My back and my belly were both getting really achey and uncomfortable midway through work and by the end of 12 1/2 hour shift, it was pretty painful. I told my doctor and she recommended trying a support band, as my abdominal muscles are pre-stretched from my pregnancy with BB and don't provide the same support to my belly that I had the first time around, and that puts strain on my back. I was a little skeptical, but I bought one and it has made a really big difference, thankfully. I am much more comfortable at work now - still a little achey by the end of the day, but so much better than before.

I am finally eating more than normal amounts - and I have to say, I'm enjoying the extra calories. I'm sure the scales will reflect that at my next appointment, as I am also noticing my thighs becoming more thunderous (just like the did with BB).

The name-search-sabbatical was effective and as a result, I think we have finally named this little man!

The office is in the process of being cleaned out to become a nursery - we've already relocated our books (to above our kitchen cabinets) and our desk (to our bedroom), and yesterday I finally found the perfect dresser for the top of our stairs on Craigslist. Right now it's sitting in our garage waiting to be sanded and restained and painted, and then it will act as our linen closet, and our linen closet will act as more storage (for craft supplies, our printer and mailing supplies, etc.). We worked on that switch yesterday, so until the dresser is refinished, if you are at our house and you need sheets or a towel, you will find them on the floor of our bedroom. All of this, even the linens on the floor, is so, so exciting to me!

The sporadic hormone-fueled emotional outbursts continue...Every once in a while I just feel so anxious about all of the changes to come - changes at work, a new baby, a toddler who is quickly turning more and more into a boy. Who needs a big boy bed. We need to basically take BB's room apart to create the new nursery, because the crib, the changing table, and the glider are all in BB's room. I feel guilty that I'm leaving BB in an empty box...granted, it is a zebra-striped box. And I do have plans for his room too. But still - change. My heads spins. And I cry. Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up. J says I felt this way when I was pregnant with BB too, facing the unknown. I told my boss that I am planning to go per diem and work one day a week after I have the baby. Making it official makes me anxious. All the looming paperwork really makes me anxious. After lots of "therapy" time with J yesterday (where I unloaded all of my insecurities about work, not working, and our childcare choices), I am trying to remind myself that this is not change that we just imagined up ourselves, but rather it is change that God is pointing us towards and is graciously providing financially for, and I just need to trust in that (and not worry about what anyone else might think about it). He has been so faithful to us, and objectively I know that's not going to change anytime soon. He has good plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, a la Jeremiah 29:11. When I remember that, I relax, about all of it really. I just wish I lived there all the time. And that's when I remember that this life is a process of sanctification - I'm learning, and stretching, and growing (both spiritually and physically right now!). And He loves me before and during it all.

"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

Thank the Lord that I don't have to pass some kind of quality control for him to love me.

Okay let's look at (quickly-snapped) in-progress photos of the office clean out!

The office-soon-to-be-nursery as it looks this morning

The books live above the kitchen cabinets now
(I am too short to use that space for kitchen storage, so this works perfectly for us)

The desk is in our bedroom

Neither of us works from home or anything, so we don't need a real office.
Ignore the unmade bed (I am blogging from that unmade bed right now)

And here's where we're going to put the rest of the stuff

Shelves moved from the office closet to the laundry room (okay, laundry closet), and the linen closet, where you can see our infrequently-used-and-so-relegated-to-the-closet printer (it should be easy enough to plug in the printer and laptop once in a while when we actually print something). The stuff next to the printer is our mailing stuff for a newsletter we help print a few times a year. The gift wrap is what's piled on the bottom. More craft stuff to go in here.

Our new linen "closet"

The Craigslist dresser we will refinish/paint (I'm hoping for turquoise drawers with a wood frame!) and put at the top of our stairs to store our linens.

"She's Taking Nesting to a Whole New Level"

*Amendment: J informed me after he read this that it was actually J, not S, who said I was taking nesting to a whole new level. Either way...

That's what J said when our friend S came over to help J paint the living room and hallway* while BB and I were here:

(at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs)

visiting these wonderful people:

seeing this:

(Pike's Peak)

And this:

(Kissing Camels)

And this:

(Garden of the Gods)

and eating this:

(Cinnamon roll french toast - we basically poured syrup all over a cinnamon roll - it was incredible)

here:


And running into these guys:

(Bighorn sheep at Glen Eyrie)

So while BB and I were playing here:

(BB playing at the Focus on the Family center)

J completed this:

Isn't it amazing?

J built that with his bare hands - I am so in love with it, and impressed with him.

And it looks just like this:

The piece we used free plans to build ourselves

(We may add those TV concealing bi-fold doors eventually)

We have reclaimed our living room!

Well okay, we've reclaimed it during after hours (aka bedtime). To snap that photo I actually just shoved all the toys to the middle of the room (as you can see in the pictures below).

I still have some accessorizing and storage-basket-buying to do for the media-slash-toy unit (all of that is stuff that we already had on hand), but most of it came out of the Office-Soon-To-Be-Nursery (the exodus of books and furniture begins! I am excited!)

J also decided that, because BB and I and In-Utero Baby Boy were all out of town in Colorado Springs and wouldn't be home to inhale any paint fumes, it was the best time to go ahead and repaint the living room and hallways the cool gray I have been wanting to replace our warm mocha walls with. (Before you all think I'm a total slave driver, I did tell J that painting was a fun idea but was definitely lowest on the priority list but he really thought that it was the best time to do it since we would be out of town.) It was a bigger project than expected, and our friend S and J's mom helped finish the job, which is when J delivered this post's title*. What can I say? Mama bird wanted new twigs and some storage for the nest.

I was initially apprehensive about the new paint color but after a few days of adjusting I absolutely love it. It was a shock to come home to such big changes - it didn't even feel like our house at first! The gray came out a little different than I expected, I think partly because we color-matched the shade of gray I was going for (so we could use VOC-free paint) and because this room has different lighting than our bathroom, where we also have the gray. But now we both love it - we feel like the living room looks a little more modern and now we feel more free to accessorize with other colors, and it's just a nice change after four+ years with our original mocha wall color. And the media unit is just beautiful, both in it's own right and against the gray walls. And the storage...oh, the closed storage. I can't adequately express my love for the closed storage.

Now that we're done with these projects, the office-clean-out-nursery-nesting begins on Wednesday!

Progress, Regress

Progress

J, hard at work

And just a few days later...time for paint and hardware!

I am so thankful that my husband is so handy. And talented. And smart. And artistic. And a lot more stuff too.

Regress

Okay, I don't know if these things are exactly regressions, but they really feel like it.

Here's a list of a few things that have come up in the last 36 hours.....

-the garbage disposal quit working

-BB fell out of the cart at Lowe's, landing flat on his back on the cement floor after an almost full rotation in the air (absolutely terrifying, but God protected him and he is completely himself with not even a bump or bruise to show for it.

-Upon arriving home from that Lowe's trip completely stressed and frazzled, the refrigerator had quit working (which it does every year around this time - it was SUPPOSED to have been completely fixed last year) and we had to toss a bunch of food. J got it temporarily working again (Handy Husband strikes again!)

-the laptop is only working when plugged in - the battery isn't charging for some reason

-And then this morning at playgroup I heard about this:

http://www.aircargoworld.com/News/Southwest-Boeing-737-depressurizes-makes-emergency-landing

and guess what airline BB and I are flying on Wednesday?

J and I both agree that it will probably be the safest time to fly, since all the planes are getting extra-inspected, but still, it's enough to shake me up a little.

Okay, okay, enough whining. I realize these are mostly luxury items (other than BB's safety and health).

I'm tired tonight.

BB just came over and pointed at my nose and earrings and then climbed on my lap to read a book. I feel better.

Post Script: Since posting this, J has already fixed the garbage disposal AND the laptop. And BB has given us no reason to worry, he remains totally himself. Praise God.

Bumpdate: 22 (1/2) weeks and 22 months

Bumpdate

The last few weeks I have started to feel like I'm going to explode after I eat a full meal. It's also gotten very hard to tell when I'm actually hungry, since I feel full all the time, even though I am just full of baby and not nutrition. I feel like I'm eating a normal amount of food, not really any more than that, because really, even a normal amount of food makes me feel like my abdomen may spontaneously burst.

I can also feel that my joints are loosening up - along with the characteristic pregnant clumsiness, I notice it when I'm sleeping because my hips feel like they don't stay lined up when I'm on my side. Sleeping with a pillow to curl up on has helped me feel more stable.

I had a couple of really emotional (hormonal) weeks, one of them falling over J's trip to Stanford for a conference - not the best timing. I had so much nesting energy with nothing to spend it on, since the media unit was (is) still in progress. Thankfully, those weeks passed, I feel more like myself again, and I have found ways to redirect that nesting energy (like by going through BB's clothes, putting away the too-small items, and shopping for some summer clothes. Knowing that I would be pulling all of these clothes back out in a couple of years made this a fun event, rather than a tear-filled one).

The Little Mister is very active, especially after I eat a meal. J has felt him kick many times now, and I can see him kicking as well as feel it now too. Baby Boy is still yet-to-be-named, which is making me feel totally crazy (and a little guilty, since BB was named minutes after finding out he was a boy). But I think J and I have assembled a short list, even though our favorites are not totally lined up yet. A few days ago, J told me that I have been asking him about my favorite every single day (which I initially denied and then realized that I probably do mention the name daily even if I'm not directly asking him about it) and that he can't even tell how he feels about it or if it's growing on him because my obsession with it is making him not want it just because I am so fixated. So he asked me not to bring it up until April 15th, and I agreed. I have decided since then that I am putting the whole name-hunt on hold during that time too, so we have been actually talking about other things at night in bed, which has been nice.

BBUpdate

And BB is 22 months old, just 2 months short of his 2nd birthday, which I can't even believe. His language is developing so quickly right now - he repeats everything we say, adding "please" when he asks for something ("Moe pease"), and saying other two-word phrases. He has been drinking juice (water with about an inch of juice added to the cup) for a couple of weeks now, since a bout of diarrhea when I was worried he was getting dehydrated. (I knew the juice days would come, I just tried to put it off as long as possible.) So the cries we used to hear for "Mok! Mok!" are now "Juice, pease." If we tell him we're giving him milk or water, he corrects us saying "juice" after we tell him milk or water, over and over. At the grocery store he points and announces the items he recognizes as we walk down the aisles, which I love. "Eggs! Juice! Abblesauce!" And he calls all fruit "abbles", even though I know he knows when he sees a real apple. On his changing table, he thinks it's hilarious to say "Poo poo blech!", and for us to repeat it - he starts to say it really fast so it comes out "Pooblah!" During the bout with diarrhea, J went in to get him in the morning, and BB regretfully told him "Bad poopoos. Bad poo poos." He says "Whoa!" when he falls down or trips, and J and I subsequently realized that we say whoa way too much.

He remains totally obsessed with shoes and is actually pretty good on putting them on himself (even though his heels don't always make it into the shoe). He takes showers with both of us and copies our actions, rubbing soap on his legs or his head after watching one of us do it. On mornings when we're both home, he gets in bed with us to cuddle and read a book, and then loves to get the "shlashlight" from Daddy's nightstand and shine it across the room. He still loves Horton Hears A Who, pointing at the TV saying "Ho, Ho" to make his request known. His favorite toys right now are his stacking buckets, his Joey doll (with magnetic wooden clothes he can switch), and books, books, books. His favorite book right now is Curious George Makes Pancakes. One of the first times we read this book was one of those mornings we were all in bed, and when we got to the part about George making pancakes, BB suddenly sat straight up mid-story and announced, "Pampates...Pampates! PAMPATES!" like, People! Why aren't we eating pampates right now? and climbed out of bed and ran towards the stairs. Of course we had a pancake breakfast that morning. And since then, we daily hear requests for "Mumbey, pampates." In fact, yesterday morning J made us a special Mumbey Pampate Breakfast, and BB's monkey doll joined us in his own high chair with his own pancake - BB couldn't have had more fun.

Pushing and Shoving

So yesterday I was at Rock'n Babies, a children's clothing resale shop, looking for some summer clothes for BB. The store has a little play area where BB had been sitting watching two slightly older kids, a boy and a girl, fight over toys. The little girl's dad was refereeing while his wife shopped. When I was ready to pay for my little pair of denim cargo shorts, I rounded up BB and he stood near me while I waited in line at the register, which is right by the front door of the small shop. The little girl and her dad were standing next to us, directly between me and the door.

I told BB, "I just have to pay for these and then we can go," and BB said "Home," and ran right out the front door.

"BB! NO! NO!" I shouted as he took a couple steps onto the sidewalk between the door and the parking lot. And suddenly the Mommy-instincts kicked in in full force - all I could see was my small son two steps away from the parking lot, and the little girl's dad was fumbling, not sure which direction to move out of my path to the door. I just didn't have time to do that polite dance, especially since BB's brother's bump makes me much less quick on my feet, and the mommy-instincts took over - I put my hand on the man's shoulder and firmly pushed him out of my way, separating him from his daughter, and ran through the new space between them. The force of my shove surprised even me. I raced out the door and grabbed BB before he made it any further towards the parking lot.

When I came back in the store I rambled an apology, trying to explain.

"I'm sorry, it's just that he was heading towards the parking lot - I wasn't trying to push you but I needed to get to him, I'm sorry," and the dad just looked taken aback and kind of mumbled an "It's okay." I think he was really surprised by how I (literally) man-handled him - and I can't really blame him, I surprised myself too. I paid for the shorts and left the store, and as I got in the car I realized that my actions had been totally instinctual, not at all thought-out or planned. It's amazing what those Mommy-instincts can make us Mamas capable of in an urgent moment - for me it was super-human strength even in a compromised physical state, and a total disregard for social etiquette. The Mommy-instincts pushed and shoved me into action. And if me and the little girl's dad had to get a little pushed around to spare BB some roughing up, well, I wouldn't change a thing.