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.