Progress…

This morning Bo and I kept Baby Maggie because Janice had to take James to the doctor.  When Janice was telling me about needing to take James I told her to let me keep Maggie.  I knew it would help her out, because I dread the day I have to take Bo and a newborn to the doctor at the same time.  Not knowing how baby will act, will they need to eat, etc… and this was an appointment that Janice needed to be able to talk to the doctor and hear everything being said.  I also thought this may be good “practice” for Bo.  Just yesterday I got out our bouncy seat and swing to get them washed and ready for our peanut.  He enjoyed helping me put them together and getting them ready for Maggie to come use while she was here.  Up until now he hasn’t been interested the least little bit in any baby, to be honest he usually completely ignores them!  Well today I was certain I had a different child in my house!  He LOVED having her here.  He was such a big helper!!!! 

One of the first things he did was to go get his sippy cup of milk and put it in her lap!  When I explained she had to have special milk he said “okay mom, baby Maggie is hungry she needs to eat a hotdog”.  I then mentioned I was going to get a blanket for her to lay on.  So he came upstairs with me and said that he wanted to give her his Lightening McQueen blanket!  I almost fell out!!!  He also helped give her, her bottle and pacifier!  She had a little bit of a fussy period and he would come over and say “it’s okay baby” and he even gave her his “night-night” which is his lovie that is HIS and no one else’s. Once I knew what was wrong, she had really bad gas, I remembered a few tricks from Bo and sure enough they worked.  So I swaddled her, put her in the swing and gave her a pacifier, sure enough she was asleep in less than 5 minutes.  Bo “helped” by holding on to the swing and “swinging” it, at least he thought he was doing it.  He was SO proud!  He even ate his snack next to her because he wanted to take care of her.  When it was time for her to go he even said he wanted her to stay. 

I’m HOPING that this eagerness sticks around long enough for us to get our baby home!  I realize it will still be a huge adjustment for him and it isn’t always going to be fun and helping but this gives me a little hope!!!

I realize this looks like he’s trying to smother her, but he’s not I promise!  He’s tucking her in with his Lightening McQueen blanket!   

 

giving her Baby Puppy!

  

I heard him talking and looked in to see him telling her about how he squished the caterpillars, a big story from the weekend!

Things I’ve learned!

So I don’t have a recent picture, maybe we’ll get one this weekend and that is IF I’m willing to put it on here!  So you’ll get my normal pregnancy update a little later.  I will say I’m almost 33 weeks, so 6 weeks til baby’s arrival!  I started thinking last night about just how different things have been this time, good and bad.  How different it is when you have a very active toddler to chase around all day, etc… So here is what I’ve learned so far…

1. Morning sickness can last longer than the first trimester, with Bo it was over around 12 weeks, this go round it lasted til about 16 weeks.  Oh and apparently it can come back!!  What a cruel, cruel thing that is.  It went away for a few months then boom, came back around a month or so ago!   It’s worse when I’m really tired!

2. You learn to tune out the unsolicited advice/thoughts/opinions of others much easier.  The first time around I remember thinking and wondering about everything that everyone told me.  This time I just smile politely and nod my head.  Knowing that we’ve done this before, we know what we’re in for.  Now let me say if I ask someone’s opinion it is because I truly value their thoughts and WANT to know what they think.  But I have a very small, selective group of people for this!

3. Having a toddler with toys all over the place you are required to bend over so much more!!!  I never knew how many times a day I bend over…apparently it’s close to a million!  Enter our house at your own risk…we have hundreds of hot wheels all over our floor!

4. First pregnancy I don’t think I ever drank caffeine…this time it’s a mode of survival!  I have a 3 yr old who doesn’t nap anymore so if I’m going to be alert and make sure he doesn’t burn down the house that may mean some caffeine here and there.

5. Speaking of not napping…we have do have “quiet time” every day.  It used to mean Bo in his room reading books, but that became a disaster of him destroying his room.  So now I will put him in our bed with me and he can watch a show or a movie so mommy can usually get about a 30 minute nap!  I typically don’t like for him to watch a lot of tv, but right now if he watches a full movie PLUS a 30 minute show (or 2) I don’t care and guess what…he’s doing just fine!  It hasn’t diminished his brain development! We do what works!  It’s quite possible I’ve even bribed him with candy or a sucker to get him to sit still and watch a movie :) not my finest mom moment!

6. I’ve learned I depend SO much more on Jarrod!!!  Unloading groceries up a flight of stairs has gotten way too hard on me so I usually have him unload the non perishable things when he gets home, or either I grocery shop when he’s home.  He also bathes Bo every night!!  I can’t bend over and trying to get him in and out of the tub is extremely hard so my sweet husband does it for me!  He also has to help get clothes out of the dryer and into the bedroom so I can fold them (this I do remember).

7. Apparently you can become dehydrated even after drinking almost 80 oz of water a day…just so you know that’s over 2 liters of fluid! I have a water bottle that keeps up with how much I drink.

8.It IS possible to start your day out exhausted with a patience  level of zero when you have a strong-willed, independent, highly energetic 3 yr old!

9.  If you want to come visit us great…if you want to come see our house call first, I think this will stand true between now and next December!!  It’s not the cleanest it has ever been so beware!

10.  Remembering to spend as much quality time as we can with Bo.  This has probably really hit us the last few weeks.  Don’t get me wrong, we are so blessed and excited about out little peanut’s arrival, but for almost 3 1/2 years it’s just been the three of us and Jarrod and I are going to miss that.  We know we aren’t going to have the time to devote 100% to Bo, so we’re doing what we can right now and when baby arrives we’ve already discussed trading off and each of us taking time to go do something just with him and then when baby is old enough to understand the same with him/her. 

11. This is probably the hardest age for discipline, I realize I will probably be saying that for the next 18 yrs, but 3 seems to definitely be a peak age for this.  He is wanting to be extremely independent and pushing the limits every day.  When I am absolutely exhausted sometimes he doesn’t always make it to time out when he should, I’m trying so hard to stay on top of it because I’m scared it’s going to come back to bite me if you know what I mean.  Just the other day he was mad at me and went into his room and slammed the door.  My brain instantly fast forwarded to teenage years and I looked and Jarrod and said…he does this when he’s older and before he can bat an eye that door will be coming off the hinges!!!  It completely reminded me of myself (oh so scary) and I laughed and told Jarrod I can remember slamming my door and it would knock the door handle loose so it would just spin and spin and spin so you couldn’t get out.  Then I started thinking…why in the world would my parents ever come let me out?? 

12.  I also realize that my complaining about one child will soon look like a vacation!  I will be looking back wishing I only had one to deal with!

13. The biggest thing would be…waiting to find out what you are having is much easier than you would think and so worth the surprise!!  I’m so glad we did!

Daddy’s Helper

If you don’t already know this from previous posts Bo is a HUGE daddy’s boy!!!!  When I was pregnant all I heard was how much boys love their moms and he’ll be mine for at least the first 4-5 years, blah, blah, blah!  Well, mine came out of the womb a daddy’s boy.  Honestly I think he just is a guys guy, because even when he’s with my parents he prefers to be with my dad over my mom, sorry Bebe!  But oh how he loooooooves his daddy!!  Even this morning he got up and went in the bathroom while Jarrod was getting ready for work.  Hung out while daddy showered, then anything daddy did…brush teeth, comb hair, etc…Bo pretended to do too!  That was fine with me it bought me 30 more minutes of sleep!  So this past weekend we were finally able to get outside after being cooped up with a stomach virus all week.  Daddy worked in the yard, flower beds, etc…with his little helper!

Oh so eager to help!

Apparently it wasn’t as fun as he thought…

wonder if this is a glimpse into our years as a teenager!

     

Helping daddy with the millions of gumballs under our tree!!!

Little girls have tea parties…little boys eat carrots with daddy outside!

I think we need a bigger table if daddy is going to participate!

Spring Break

Well I was really hoping to have some fun things to share with you from this past week, but I don’t!  Bo has been sick the entire week with a stomach virus!  It’s been the longest, most bizarre stomach virus I have ever seen.  It started Monday and I’m still waiting to see if it’s lingering today.  He has just eaten a few saltine crackers and had pedialyte so we’ll see how he does.  We’ve watched A LOT of tv, movies, played cars, colored, and just rested as much as you can get a 3 yr old to rest!

Most stomach virus attack hard with 12-24 hours of getting sick and then you’re done.  Well this would hit, he’d be fine for a few hours, and then it would hit again.  This has gone on all week.  As soon as you think he’s turned the corner and he’s acting completely normal he’ll eat something (very bland food) and still get sick about 30 minutes later.  He’s basically lived on saltine crackers and pedialyte all week.  We did go to the doctor yesterday to make sure he wasn’t getting dehydrated.  They said they are seeing stomach virus going around so I guess we just have to wait it out.  So unfortunately my little man didn’t have a very fun spring break.  Daddy was also out of town this week, in the height of the virus, so that made us a little nervous because there is no way I can get this.  I absolutely cannot have something that may cause me to get dehydrated again.

Hopefully next week things will go back to normal.  Still working on getting things ready for baby…I pulled out some of Bo’s baby clothes to get a few things washed.  A big thank you to my sister in law, Emily, who sent some of Vivienne’s newborn clothes just in case we’re having a girl.  Also need to pull out swings, bouncy seats, car seat, etc...to see what we may possibly need.  I didn’t get to do any of this with Bo because I was in the hospital the entire time towards the end so I’m looking forward to getting things ready.  I want to be ready to go by the end of April because I have a feeling the month of May I just won’t have the energy!  We have a few things going on this month, but for the most part just plan on getting things done around the house and spending time as a family.  I can’t travel anywhere past next weekend, I’ll be 33 weeks which is when I was admitted to the hospital with Bo so they want me to stay close by just to be safe.  We’ll have our last Easter just the three of us.  A little bittersweet to be honest.  I believe Jarrod has Good Friday off so we’re looking forward to spending the long weekend just the three of us and really spending quality time with Bo!  This will be our last holiday and long weekend before peanut arrives so we want to enjoy every minute of it. 

Since I don’t have any spring break pictures to post I thought I’d share a picture from last weekend.  Words cannot even express how much Bo LOVES his daddy!!!  He wants to do everything just like him.  Last Sunday after church Jarrod was reading the paper and Bo wanted to read just like daddy was.  Here’s how poor daddy had to read most of the paper.  Bo grabbed one of my Southern Living magazines to “read”!

Getting there…

So we are slowly but surely getting ready for baby.  A few months ago I came across some gender neutral bedding that I actually liked so after seeing it I decided let’s go ahead with the nursery instead of waiting.  We had the room painted about a month ago, but last weekend we learned we were going to have to buy a new crib.  Basically the crib we had for Bo…all of the bolts were stripped and we couldn’t find any replacements.  We actually bought his nursery furniture from some friends in Austin when we moved there.  Got it all for a steal!  But with all of the taking apart, putting it back up, having movers move it, etc…they were just worn out.  We tried all kinds of options but nothing worked.  I was frustrated because honestly I had no desire to spend money on a crib for what is probably our last baby.  Then to top it off the rest of our nursery furniture is kind of an antique/distressed white color so I was concerned about not finding something that matched.  Saturday afternoon we headed to Pottery Barn Kids because they had a “white” crib on sale, but I was scared it was going to be bright white, but it was worth a look.  Turns out it is more of a cream white and matched almost perfectly!  It wouldn’t have been my first pick it’s very simple, but in trying to save money I went with it.  The ones I really liked were much more, however they did convert to a toddler and full size bed.  If we knew this was a girl then I would have been fine paying the extra money because we’d get more mileage out of it, but if it’s a boy we wouldn’t do white “big boy” furniture.  This one does convert to a toddler bed which will be nice regardless.  A lot of friends and family have been asking what we need for peanut too bad I couldn’t have said “a crib” haha!

There is still a lot to do in the room…have drapes to hang and the decorative touches which will have to come later all depending on boy or girl.  The bedding is from Restoration Hardware and it so sweet and simple.  I’m very happy with the way it’s all turning out.  Just to tell my ideas…I'm planning on ordering one of the wall decals that look like they’ve been painted on.  If it’s a girl I’m going to go with a white tree with birds and if it’s a boy I’m thinking elephants!  So one of those will go on the wall over/beside the crib.  Here are a few pics of the bed and bedding.

   It’s a little hard to see but the bottom of the skirt has the same polka dots as the sheet.

Weekend Recap!

So Friday night turned out to be a little more exciting than I would have preferred!  While I was hoping for a quiet night of watching a movie with Bo & Jarrod, things took a different turn starting around 7:00pm.  We had gone to dinner and while we were there I started having back pains, which I didn’t think too much about because what pregnant person doesn’t have back pains.  I got up to go to the restroom and felt some cramping and a pretty strong Braxton Hicks contraction.  When we got home around 7:30 it happened again.  Then I noticed pretty much any time I moved, walked, changed positions, etc…it would start up.  So I decided to get in the bed and drink a lot of water.  At that point it seemed like the back pain and contractions were happening about every 10-15 minutes, so at that point I decided to go take a warm bath.  That helped some, but once I got out it all started again and they were even happening while laying down.  I noticed they were starting to get more painful so I decided to go ahead and call the doctor.  I tried to hold out as long as I could because I knew they would make me come in.  It’s funny how with your second child you’re not near as eager to go in!!!  All I could think was…Bo is asleep, it’s 10:00, we’re going to have to find someone to come over, I’m pretty sure everything is fine, I’ll go in and they’ll send me right back home.  My dear friend, Janice came over so Jarrod and I could go ahead and leave and then my uncle David came over so she could go back home and he stayed til we got home.  SOOOO thankful we are close to family!!!

Once we got there and I had been on the monitors for a little while I realized the contractions were for real and not just something in my head.  Ever do that?  Second guess things thinking maybe it’s just in your head?  Well after blood work and a urine test it showed I was dehydrated.  Which I  will say was shocking to me because I had been drinking water ALL day!  I had the joy of getting stuck numerous times trying to get an IV in and I will say I am a BIG BABY when it comes to IVs…they NEVER go well for me.  The only time in my entire life I was okay with an IV was when I had my kidney stone and was so desperate for pain meds I would have done anything!   Anyway, two bags of fluid later the contractions were better, but apparently not good enough.  I was feeling better so I thought she was going to come in and send me home. Nope, not so lucky!  Contractions were still happening so the doctor ordered a shot to help relax my uterus.  Not sure what the shot was but I got it in my arm and it made my heart race and beat SO hard!!  After that things were better and we got home around 3:45am!  It was a long, long night!!

Saturday was a much better day, other than being exhausted!!!  We had to leave the house at 10:00am for a 3D ultrasound appointment, as tired as we were it was worth getting out of bed!  Baby is just precious!  We saw some similarities between peanut and Bo, but it was hard to tell for sure because with Bo’s ultrasound we were able to see his entire face from the front where peanut’s is more of a profile shot!  The noses definitely look the same to me, but the rest is hard to tell.  I remember with Bo’s ultrasound I could tell immediately he had Jarrod’s eyes, this time I’m not so sure…baby may have my eyes!  And in case you’re wondering…we still don’t know what we’re having!  To be honest it wasn’t hard at all we told the tech just to focus on the face.  We also kept it short and sweet, we were only in there about 15 minutes so that kept things less tempting.  Oh and if you’re wondering about Bo…he didn’t want anything to do with it.  We tried to get him to watch the screen but he had no desire, he just played with the toys in the room.  I’d say he’s in complete denial!

   

Giving us a yawn!

All snuggled in!  Baby pretty much slept through the entire thing, which actually helped good pictures.

   Looks like we may have a finger sucker…had it’s index finger in it’s mouth a lot!

Crawfish

So the longer I’m away from my home state of Mississippi the more I am beginning to realize some of the vast differences even within the southern region.  Last weekend my uncle had a crawfish boil!  One of my absolute favorite things about spring time!!  Crawfish season is HUGE in Louisiana and MS…it runs from March til about June.  I will say, they aren’t quite as fun when you are pregnant and can’t enjoy a nice, cold adult beverage with your crawfish, but I still survived!

So in talking to a lot of my friends here in Atlanta many of them have never even had crawfish, this blew me away.  Not eating crawfish is like being from the south and never eaten grits.  It just baffles me!!  And not only that I’ve also gotten a lot of “ewww, yuck”!!  Clearly they haven’t been to some of the crawfish boils that I’ve been too!  So I was curious to see how things were going to go.  It was interesting!

Rule #1-when preparing your crawfish you hose them down to get all the dirt off, they’re not called mudbugs for nothing!  This can be as simple as throwing them all on in a cooler with the drain open, turning on a hose and spraying them down til the water runs clear.  There is no need to use 3-4 different containers/coolers to “dunk” them in water to clean them off…half way through it you’re just going to end up with dirty water that you are trying to clean the rest of the crawfish with.  Oh and be sure to take out any dead crawfish you do NOT want these in your pot!

Rule #2- You must, must, must have corn & potatoes, along with your crawfish.  Don’t ever serve just crawfish, that’s just rude!

Rule #3- You eat crawfish with your hands, don’t ever ask for utensils or you will be laughed at!!  And you’ll really be laughed at if you “clean” the crawfish meat before you eat it.  The “goo” that comes out is NOT going to hurt you!  I can assure you not every shrimp you’ve ever eaten has been deveined either!

Now here is where things got interesting last weekend!  Things were going good, the crawfish was out on the table ready to eat, so I dove in!  You don’t have to ask me twice to start eating!!   So as I start to eat the crawfish the only way I know how…the only way I’ve ever seen, I look around at everyone else, including my husband, God love him, and I see everyone shelling the crab as if it were a lobster or something and then “cleaning” off the meat before eating it!??!  I said “what on earth are y’all doing”???  Completely baffled by this I sat and watched them spend 5 minutes on one crawfish.  I would be down 5, while they were still working on one!!  So I had to give crawfish eating lessons to my ENTIRE family!!! 

In case you’re wondering here ya go…

First, break off the head and discard it. A true Cajun will suck the heads at this point!! 

After you break the head off, place your thumb on the “ejection button” near the tail of the crawfish on the underside and mash firmly to break the meat loose.

With the shell still partially intact, bring the tail meat to your mouth and sink your teeth into the exposed meat.

Chomp down on it, and it will pop into your mouth as you leave the tail behind.

Very Important--**When eating crawfish, there's no need to remove the peel from the tail. While you are laboring over the shell, your Cajun friends will eat five times as many crawfish as you do.

So here’s to happy crawfish boiling for the rest of the season!!  This also got me thinking of some other “southern things” that Jarrod and I often discuss, I may just have to write about those later!