Pregnancy commentary 33 weeks and Easter

Why is creating life so exhausting? I don't need to be told "sleep now while you can". I'm on it. We've had three days of spring break, and I'm 3/3 with naps. I have prioritized sleep over literally every other aspect of my life, aside from the absolute non negotiables (aka work and mothering).  Hygiene, cleaning, socializing, exercise, and every other optional activity have all taken a backseat. I refuse to be up at 2am with a crying baby regretting the pregnant sleep I could have had. It's the third trimester so we are solidly into heartburn/insomnia/backache/beached whale territory, but sleep is still an option and I intend to work my hardest for it.



Going in to spring break, I planned it would be a combination of preparing for the new baby, and doing all sorts of fun stuff with Dalton as our last hurrah as a family of 3. But, deep down, I knew that one of those was going to take precedence, and it wasn't the one that was a lot of boring work. Part of me says I should try to pull an all day-er (stay up all day without a nap) and get stuff done while he naps, and part of me says, you're creating life, you're basically God, take a nap.

If you want to have two kids close in age, don't let haters fool you into thinking it will be tough. Dalton has already taken over many of the household responsibilities, including cooking. 

And putting dishes away.

No seriously, everyone says just child proof everything before the baby arrives. Well, this child dragged a chair over to the counter from the dining room,stood on the chair to move all the drying dishes out of his way (carefully though, thanks bud), and climbed onto the counter to get to the cupboard. I don't know how to child proof that. He watches us and plans his moves so carefully. 

Anyway, we are getting closer and closer to being ready for baby. 

Nursery, 8  months pregnant, baby #1

Nursery, 8  months pregnant, baby #1

Nursery, 8  months pregnant, baby #1

Nursery, 8 months pregnant, baby #2

It just hit me that I'll be full term in just 3.5 weeks - that's not much time! My good friend Kristin will be stepping in until my mom arrives to care for Dalton when it's go time. I finally remembered to tell our daycare provider she might be picking him up (but that would be, like, an EXTREME situation, since it's on Eric's way home from work), and she added us to her favorites so we can wake her up in the middle of the night. She's a good friend. We are also going to be doing weekly get togethers so Dalton can really get comfortable with her. 

I'm starting to get really nervous about labor and delivery. Generally my thought process is something like "dang, contractions are really going to suck. I hope I can get the epidural earlier this time. OMG if we have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night Dalton will wake up and we won't be there and he'll be so confused, poor baby, I hope he's ok...". Typical second pregnancy thoughts. I also am realizing I really want the VBAC to work out. I'm trying not to get too attached to it because, as my sister said, emergency c-section moms know birth plans are total BS. But it would be cool to be able to push the baby out and hold him or her right away. 

He really does love me, despite appearances.

I don't really have any hopes for their first "meeting". Dalton isn't really a people person (wonder where he gets that?) and isn't really too excited to meet anyone. His focus is really just on playing and or climbing. He hasn't expressed any jealousy when I've held other babies (or even bigger kids, closer to his own age), so I'm not concerned about that. I think he will only react where it affects him, such as if I can't play with him or pick him up. Luckily Eric and I are pretty interchangeable for all his daily routines, but obviously there will be times he wants me and I will be busy. He'll learn young that life can be cruel, I guess.

I'll admit that, at this point, I truly can't imagine loving another person as much as I love Dalton, but that doesn't mean I'm not super excited to meet this baby. He or she is super active and I can't get enough of it. Some of the kicks are so powerful they actually hurt, which is new for me. I absolutely can't wait for little tiny newborn snuggles, to see what this baby looks like, the new baby smell, and all the teeny tiny baby stuff that's so fleeting. And, of course, I really can't wait to find out if the baby is a boy or girl! I still have NO solid inclination either way. For a second I thought it would be fun to do some sort of display of everyone's guesses, but then I realized it would look like "Girl - literally everyone we know minus one. Boy - my one friend at work and that's it." So probably not worth it and realistically that doesn't sound like something I would do anyway.

Easter was fantastic this year. I've said this a million times, and I'm sure I'll say it a million more, but this age (18 months WHAT) is so much fun. Saturday morning, Carolyn and I took our boys to an easter egg hunt.

Once they got the hang of it, they had a great time and it was hilarious. They first met when Dalton was only a week old and I love that they are finally starting to interact and play.

Dalton cracking Nathan up running around with an egg over his nose.

After egg hunting, we went to Carolyn's house to dye eggs. Dalton has eaten enough hard boiled eggs to know they are food and was not about to let them go to waste for decoration, so he just demanded to eat all our eggs, and most of our stickers. Nathan discovered you could smash the eggs, so that was his plan. We laughed so hard. Maybe next year. 

Despite the fact that when I went down for my Saturday nap, I had no idea what I was cooking for Easter, I think I pulled it together pretty well. 

Bunny pancakes with a side of baby belly.

Asparagus amandine, potatoes au gratin, orange mustard glazed pork chops, more baby belly

I didn't make a huge deal over the Easter Bunny since Dalton is still young and I could get away with it, but we did get him a little basket with some things he liked.

He just has begun to show an interest in coloring, so the sidewalk chalk was a hit.

And now we have a whole week off work to smoother this adorable little face with love! I mean, uh, prepare the nursery.

Baby's first peep.

Where do you stand on peeps - love or hate? If your answer is hate, and you're local, send them my way. 

Goodbye, running

During your first pregnancy, generally people treat you like a special snowflake and are all "let me carry that loaf of bread for you! Don't exert yourself!". The second...people are still generally really nice, but in my experience, something about seeing me wrangling a 25 pound toddler makes me look not so delicate and in need of assistance.

He's cute but he's STRONG

But good lord the struggle is REAL. I'm not trying to be a d-bag and complain when I've had it really good in the baby growing business. I just wish I had fully appreciated how easy the first pregnancy is. It's freaking exhausting being pregnant with a toddler, and involves constant heavy lifting, and getting up and down, two of the hardest prego tasks. I could pawn everything off on Eric, and I have with most things, but I still want to obviously play and have fun with my kid. And he doesn't enjoy things like laying on the couch reading novels, my current favorite activity. So I should probably just suck it up and quit whining.

At the playground last week, he just decided - nah, I'm done with the baby slide. 

My current biggest challenge is the car seat, and I've only brought it on myself. When I went to put Dalton in recently, he discovered he could jump out before I strapped him down and climb up into the driver's seat. Then when I go around to the driver's side door to get him, he screams and runs away from me. The issue I'm having is that I want to discourage it but it's so freaking cute and funny and I can't help but crack up. Which means he thinks its a game, and wants to do it over and over. I think after spring break, Eric is going to have to do drop off and pick up from daycare.

Telling him no is a challenge

I tried something new that was a little crazy to combat the pregnancy exhaustion, which is back from the first tri in full force. Exercise and eating healthy.

Helping prep stuffed peppers

I actually used to do that stuff all the time, but clearly it's gone by the wayside and I needed to bring it back. I tried prenatal yoga twice last week. I was worried it would be a whole bunch of laying down and OMs and bonding with your fetus crap, but it was actually a good workout where my muscles were shaking at some points.

I also tried Barre (I'm doing a trial at a studio). I was kind of terrified, because it's supposed to be such a hard workout and at 30 weeks pregnant, just being alive takes all my energy. I even went at 6:15am. It was rough. So many tiny little one inch movements that were so painful. 

Wednesday it was 77 degrees after work so I thought it would be a great time to do a stroller run. I made it half a mile before I was having painful cramping in my belly, and walking back didn't help. I always get lots of Braxton Hicks (fake contractions), but I had some that night and into the next day that seemed more intense, more like the early labor contractions I had last time than BH. It freaked me out enough to call my doctor (but let's note that I made to 30 weeks before calling and asking about something that turned out to be nothing). They said I was probably dehydrated and to just rest and drink water (see above - not possible). I did feel better once Dalton went to bed and I chugged some Powerade and laid down. Still, I'm officially done with outdoor running. I'm due in less than 9 weeks, even if the problems are all in my head, it's not worth my peace of mind. There are plenty of other exercise options available to me. 

Although, I'll still have to do some sprints to keep this guy out of danger. He busted his lip Saturday morning while both of us were within arms length. 

Poor little guy.

Two months today till my due date! I feel like I've been pregnant forever.

Moms of 2+: What was your greatest third trimester pregnancy challenge? Yes, I know that the real challenge will be two kids. 

Updates on my kid

Really probably nobody who doesn't share DNA with this child cares, and not even probably  most of those people, but I'm obsessed with him, and I feel like writing about it.

Dalton will be 18 months old this month, so I SHOULD just be telling people he's a year and a half, because no one cares about anything more specific. But I can't bring myself to round up. I feel like he's already growing fast enough without me prematurely aging him. I need to just get my head around it. I want him to stay a baby!

In exciting mom news, which means in actuality incredibly mundane, boring news, we are now a pacifier free household! For the next 2-3 months, anyway. While this violates my "NO CHANGES OF ANY KIND BEFORE BABY" policy, once again, I forgot I'm not in control of things around here.

Dalton kept throwing his pacifier out of his crib (even though we clip it to his pjs, but he's strong enough to rip it off) in the middle of the night then crying for us to rescue it. Aka, for Eric, because if I ever go in in the middle of the night, it's GAME OVER. Forget him ever going back to sleep. It was kind of odd because he's obsessed with that thing. He's always sneaking to his crib during the day time and fishing it out, even though he knows he's not allowed to have it when he's awake. So finally we told him we are not going in to get it for him any more if he threw it out.

The next two nights, he threw it out before he fell asleep for the night, but we held strong and he eventually went to sleep without it. The past two nights we didn't even give it to him, and knock on wood, he seems fine! He still has it at daycare, but we plan to nip that in the bud too. I almost caved and gave him my emergency car pacifier when he threw such a big tantrum about having to leave a slide and go home yesterday. I honestly thought I was not going to be able to get him in his car seat, he was doing the classic toddler "make my body stiff as a board and refuse to sit" thing, and I haven't really been hitting the gym lately. Luckily, I eventually managed to somehow wrestle him down and strap him in, and two minutes later he was happily singing to me like nothing ever happened. Babies be cray.

I just got basically his whole summer wardrobe (from our local mom facebook exchange group, because buying baby clothes new is just insane, unless they are REALLY cute). It's size 2T. He's just so big, I can't stand it. 

Side note, I don't even know if 2T will fit for the summer. Fingers crossed.

He's kind of obsessed with imitating us, in a way that's simultaneously adorable, hilarious, and terrifying.

Always has to wear his dad's shoes.

If he gets a hold of a tissue box, he has to wipe his face, then run over to the nearest trash can to throw the tissue away. While I glanced down at a (work, totes important) text last night, I looked up to see this.

Oh, it's no big deal he's on the table. That's status quo in our house. The funny part (to me) was that he grabbed the bottle of cleaner and napkins and started wiping the table. And that's why we switched over to cleaning exclusively with white vinegar once he became mobile.

He's obsessed with sitting on the counter to help/watch me cook. I had him sitting up there when I was about to grate cheese, and handed him a slice to eat. Instead, he started "grating" it.

Yeah, he could have cut himself, but he didn't, we aren't raising no dummy. 

Dalton is pretty in to reading right now, which I'm thrilled with. He has a million books but only has maybe 5-6 that he chooses for us to read to him at night, including, but not limited to, Where's Spot?, Dear Zoo, and Click Clack Moo. He likes to turn the pages so sometimes "reading" means just flipping through for two seconds. This morning when I got him out he wouldn't let me change his diaper until we'd read two books. He picks up the book in one hand, picks up my hand in the other, thrusts the book into my hand then plops into my lap. It's the cutest. 

Wearing Eric's sweatshirt, because nothing of mine fits. 

He just makes me happy.