Productive Day

For Valentine's Day, I told my husband I wanted a maid. He decided to clean the house himself. I have to say I am SO glad he did! Not only did he clean, but he organized and we threw a TON of things away and I got my kitchen back. I no longer have books in the kitchen, but they are in their rightful place. We moved the bookshelf to the desk area and I was able to move everything there. It's so nice having the extra room in my kitchen.

I guess you can say all the cleaning he's done has got me in a cleaning mood as well. Today, I cleaned both bathrooms (including the baseboards and behind the toilets), vacuumed my son's ceiling fan and floor, vacuumed my daughter's floor as well as did two loads of laundry and the baseboards in the hallway. All while my kids played and I did tax stuff. Now, I need to go clean out my closet and start putting away old maternity clothes. With only 4 weeks left (at the most) until we get to meet our newest blessing, there are a lot of clothes I can't wear anymore so I need to box them up while I'm in the mood and have all this energy.

Oh, and I also bought tickets to the circus, which is on my son's 5th birthday! I'm really excited about that, but that's going to be another post for another day.
Time to clean some more

Week 35

The countdown has begun and my weekly "fun" Dr. visits have started. I have to say, this time wasn't nearly as unpleasant as the past two first weekly visits that I've had. When looking back at my kid's baby books I realized it was because my first two kids were so high that the check was very uncomfortable. Although having a baby sit on my pelvis and almost feel as though it's going to drop out when I walk sometimes is uncomfortable, it made for a much easier and painless doctor visit.
With my son, I didn't start dilating until I was 36 weeks, but was still induced 3 days before my due date. With my daughter, I didn't do anything - NOTHING - until I was 39.5 weeks and I had only dilated to 1 cm at that point and was induced 2 days after my due date. Her delivery was easier than my sons, maybe because I took an epidural sooner. AHHH, drugs! With this pregnancy, the baby is low, which the doctor said is almost as good as dilating and I was dilated to 1 cm at the appointment. My contractions have been pretty consistent throughout the day and I had a hard time sleeping last night. I'm interested to see if my body will actually go into labor on it's own of if I will have another induction. Either way, my bags are packed and I'm ready to meet our newest blessing, whenever that time comes.

Aprons

I know I've posted a picture of the apron I got for Christmas, but I wanted to post it again to show off the one they surprised me with for L. It's a little big, but she'll have plenty of room to grow into it. Here's a picture of my apron.
L's apron.

Wake Up, Daddy!

This is what happens when you send a 5 year old and 2 year old to wake up their daddy.

Ant Farm - Week 2

It looks like they're dead, but I think they were just sleeping because they started moving around after I took this picture. They're only expected to live for 2-4 weeks and we are on week 2.

Kids

My Helpers

M rearranged our temporary office and did some major cleaning. Here are some pictures of K helping.
While K likes to vacuum, L likes to help with dishes.

Chuck E Cheese

After L was officially potty trained we took the kids to celebrate at Chuck E Cheese's. In truth it was more of a thank you to K for being such a big brother and helping his sister learn how to use the potty. He was such a big help. He always, and still does, let me know when she had to potty and he even showed her how he sits on the potty a few times. It was really endearing to see.

While we were at Chuck E Cheese's, one of the workers went around throwing tickets on the floor. Since we were one of the only two families there and K was the oldest, he ended up picking up most of the tickets. When we went to the ticket counter to cash in, he had over 300 tickets. With his tickets, he bought a piece of candy and face crayons.

After we left the restaurant, it was time for a meeting at church and K was so anxious to color his face that he didn't want to wait. He wanted to color his face right then. I warned him that people might laugh or point. Although no one laughed or pointed, some did ask him about it and he never got upset or embarrassed. On our way home from church, he was so tired that he fell asleep in the van and I didn't want to wake him so he ended up sleeping in his clothes and a colored face.

As soon as he woke up the next morning, he wanted to put more on.

Painting

I let L paint the other day for the very first time. I was a little nervous about her making a mess, but realized it wouldn't have been anything I couldn't clean up and there was NO way it could have been worse than cleaning up poop on the floor from her potty training. Needless to say, she did great and every time she got paint on her arm she made sure I knew about it and had me clean it off immediately. They had a good time.

The final products. The first two are K's and the one on the far right is L's.

Growth Spurt

I just got K some new clothes and was really excited about him wearing them this summer. I bought the next size up giving him room to grow. Well, when I put one of his new shirts on him the other day, I realized he had grown. His torso was longer! His dad didn't really notice, but his shirts were significantly shorter on him than they had been. In order to make sure my eyes nor my imagination was deceiving me, I got my measuring tape out. Sure enough, he had grown and was taller. I wasn't sure the time frame in which it happened, so I pulled out his baby book and realized he had grown 3 inches in 18 months. No wonder his shirts were noticeably shorter. He is now 40 inches tall. Although he's still in the lower half of the percentile chart, my baby boy is getting bigger. I don't know if I'm ready to start buying clothes for him in the big boy section yet.

It's So Different!

With only 5 weeks left (or less) until we get to meet the newest member of our family, I find myself getting giddy with anticipation and excitement. I'm really looking forward to holding a new baby and seeing how L interacts with him/her. I know K is going to do great because he's already a great big brother and he is already insisting that the baby sleeps in his room with him. He wanted to share his bed with him, but when I told him why he wouldn't be able to, he was O.K. with it, but still wants the crib in his room. L is already so nurturing (when she wants to be). She is very much a mother hen. She has changed diapers on almost everyone of her dolls and rocks and hushes them to sleep almost every night. It's so cute watching her walking around with them in her arms as she rocks them.
I've mentioned once before that I really don't like comparing our kids because I know they are both unique and since they were created by God, they both have the personality and charm they are supposed to have. With that being said, I don't want to compare kids, but pregnancies. Since we chose not to find out what the gender of our newest blessing is until his/her birthday, I've had several people ask me if the pregnancy feels more like my first one that was a boy or my second one that was girl. My only response is that it doesn't compare. AT ALL! I've heard that every pregnancy can and is different, but this is COMPLETELY different.
With my first two pregnancies my hormones were very in tune with the gender that I was having. With this one, I just get moody when I eat a lot of chocolate.
Although my weight gain has caught up with the other two, I feel as though and have been told that I'm smaller with this one that I was with the others. In regards to how I'm carrying, I carried L so high that the nurse literally had to push her out of my ribs during delivery. With this one, I can almost feel the baby sitting on my pelvis waiting for it's time to pass through the birth canal. This baby is LOW! I do understand that everything is stretched out, but this baby is really LOW!
I am blessed that I did NOT get sick with this one like I did the other two. I got bronchitis so bad with L that I practically stayed in bed for 3 weeks at the beginning of the pregnancy. With this baby, I've had a few allergic reactions to some things, but nothing I wasn't able to figure out and fix.
My cravings are different too. With K, I craved fruit. With L, I craved chocolate. With this one, I haven't really had any cravings. I went through a very short stage that I craved salads, but that didn't last long. K still loves fruit and L really likes chocolate.
This baby doesn't seem to be as active as the other two were either and he/she twitches in their sleep occasionally. I told the Dr. it feels like it's boxing in my belly. It's the funniest feeling. I probably wouldn't have realized what it actually was doing until I held someone else's newborn the other day and he did it in his sleep. She said he also did it in the womb.
Even my hair growth has changed. I don't have to shave as often. With K, my hair growth stayed normal. With L, it increased and I even lost hair on my head and got a small bald spot after I had her. With this one, the hair growth on my legs has actually slowed down. I hope it stays that way. I kind of like not having to shave every day.
Contractions. I can't forget about those. With K, I think I felt one Braxton Hicks. With L, I started getting a few light ones toward the end. With this one, it happens often enough that K and L have been able to feel my belly get hard on several occasions.
I'm really looking forward to seeing if the pregnancy becomes a reflection of the baby's personality.

Ant Farm

We finally got some more pets, if you want to call them that. I sent off for our Harvester ants a couple of weeks ago and K and L have really enjoyed watching them tunnel. Getting ants in the mail was a lot easier than trying to catch them and not get bitten.

Ants are really low maintenance but have a short life expectancy. They only need to be fed a small piece of fruit and a couple of drops of water every 3-4 days.

As long as I keep them up on a shelf high enough where L can't reach them than there's no concern about them escaping. The other day I pulled the farm down so K could look at them with his magnifying glass and I forgot to put it back. It wasn't until L came running into the living room with the ant farm that I had realized what I had done. LOL! Luckily, she didn't drop the farm or open the lid.

Day 1Day 3

Habits?

L has one of the strangest habits I've yet to see a kid have so far. While we were potty training, I always had toys in the bathroom to keep her occupied. While she sat on the potty, we played with Legos and/or her Noah's ark as well as read books. When she was done using the bathroom, she would usually put them in the cabinet under the sink to keep the bathroom clean. Needless to say, things have changed a little now. Now, when she keeps her toys in the living room and she needs to go the bathroom, she takes the time to take every toy she's playing with to the bathroom one at a time. Sometimes that means she makes 5 or 6 trips to the bathroom before she actually goes potty. Then, when she's done going to the potty she moves all of her toys back into the living room where she wants to play until the next time she needs to go to the bathroom. At least I know she can control it. ;-)

6 Weeks To Go!

Providing God has the same schedule in mind as the doctors, I only have 6 weeks left until I get to hold our newest blessing and introduce him/her to his/her brother and sister and to the rest of the world. As the date approaches, I find myself getting a little more anxious and more excited. It seems as though there is SO much more to do to prepare for this one than there was with the other two. Although I have a feeling of what K and L's sibling is going to be, I don't have as much confidence as I did with K and L. Whether we have a boy or a girl, I won't be disappointed, although one gender in particular would be more convenient than the other, but I don't think God is too concerned about my convenience, but more about His plan. I love that God is taking care of that for me and for our family.

With only 6 weeks (or less) left here's a list of what I need to do before the baby is born as well as shortly thereafter.

Already Done:

* bags are packed (for baby)

* bedding or L is picked out for either room

* bedding for baby (if it's a boy) has been picked out

* pack-n-play is set up

Before Baby:

* sanitize baby bottles - DONE!

* prime the bunk beds so we can repaint them to match K's room - DONE! - now just need to paint

* find and order L a backpack

* order sling - DONE!

* put car seat cover on car seat & hide car seat from L (she thinks it's hers) - DONE!

* start cooking and freezing meals - got 2 meals done

After Baby:

* order bedding for the baby (if it's a boy)

* order bedding for L, no matter the gender of the newest addition

* reorganize closets and dressers (depending on where the baby is going to sleep (will be based on gender)

* buy gauze (have some already) and vaseline (if it's a boy)

* decide on first meal while in hospital