Defying Gravity

Because Darrell and I are cheap lazy, we never installed a guard rail on William's big boy bed, even though we put him into a full-sized bed from the get-go. Instead, we've been using a foam pool noodle tucked under the fitted sheet, and aside from one incident the first night, it seems to be getting the job done. Well, a few days ago we washed his sheets, and realized at bedtime that we had forgotten to put the noodle back under the sheet. Since he thinks the noodles are the greatest toys ever, we really didn't want to pull it out right before bedtime and cause a major disruption, so we decided to forgo the noodle. After all, things had been going just fine and it seemed that he rarely drifted to the edge of the bed (except, of course, when intentionally crawling out during naptime), so what was there to be worried about? Apparently plenty.

How he didn't manage to fall all the way out is beyond us. We also have no idea if he had been trying to intentionally crawl out of bed and fell asleep partway through his efforts, or if he was just moving around in his sleep and managed to slide partway off the bed. Either way, we tucked the pool noodle back in first thing the next morning and haven't had any more gravity-defying stunts since then. Which I think we can all agree is a good thing. 

WEBS is a....

It's only a matter of weeks (hopefully!!) before this little peanut makes his/her arrival, so I figured it was high time for me to revisit so of the old wive's tales and see what gender they are predicting WEBS to be. And for comparison, I'm going to note where things stood with William on the same wive's tales (because you best believe quite a few of them were wrong!)

--Like my pregnancy with William, the gender predictor on everydayfamily.com is predicting another girl. Clearly they were wrong the first time... Second time's a charm?

--The slowest baby's heartbeat has been is 148 bpm (and that was at my most recent appointment when baby was sleeping). Supposedly anything over 140 bpm is indicative of a girl, but William also consistently had heartbeats in the 160s.

--I have had WAY less acne this time around. Like, amazingly so. According to the wive's tales, the presence of acne would indicate a girl, but that was definitely not the case with William and the crazy acne I had during his pregnancy (although he did get wonderfully long and feminine eyelashes). Maybe for me that absence of acne means it is a girl?? Time will tell...

--According to the Mayans, if the mother's age at conception and year of conception are both odd or both even, the baby with be a girl. That was the case during William's pregnancy--and clearly wrong (as the Mayans have been about so many other things). Again, the Mayans would be predicting a girl based on their method; would it really be that surprising if they were wrong yet again?

--Sweet vs salty?? This is a tough one for me. Having a sweet tooth is not a new phenomenon for me, so it's hard to gauge how much of that is pregnancy-induced (although for both pregnancies I've occasionally favored non-chocolate sweets like sour gummy worms and Skittles, which isn't super common for me). The most unusual thing this time around has been that I find myself wanting nuts in my sweets, which is usually a big no-no in my book (Seriously. Brownies with nuts should not be allowed to exist). But my new favorite Blizzard flavors? They have pecans a-plenty. So maybe that's a nod to my craving salty foods? Hard to say. I think with William I said I was craving sweets, which is supposed to mean a girl is on the way. I'd be inclined to say the same this time, although possibly a little more salty than normal, so who knows what that means.

--The Chinese Gender Chart correctly predicted William to be a boy; this time around it is calling for girl. I'd honestly be a little impressed to go two for two on something like this!

--Although I was a little more tired in my first trimester than I was with William, I still never had any actual morning sickness. And since I chalk the tiredness up to the fact that I had a one-year old to chase around, I'm going to say that no morning sickness equals boy, just like it did for William.

--Even though my "shape" is significantly different as compared to my pregnancy with William (hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon to prove it!), I'm still carrying very much out in front--and low, especially as of late. This would seem to indicate another boy is on board.

As far as "mother's instinct" and all that jazz, I really don't think I ever had any strong feelings one way or the other during my first pregnancy. Darrell had himself convinced William was going to be a girl and I was constantly reminding him that it was just as likely that it would be a boy, but there were no gut feelings in play during those conversations. This time, from fairly early on, I've felt like it was going to be a girl, but anytime I've had a dream about the baby it's always been a boy. So who knows what that means. Darrell is pretty certain we're having another boy... So who knows.

Oh, and I suppose one other "fun" comparison--during our first pregnancy, we had a boy's name picked out and solidified pretty early on. However, we never had a girl's name finalized. While we are still working out some naming logistics and combinations for WEBS, I would definitely say we are much more in agreement on our girl's name than our boy's name (ironically--it's a completely different name than the girl names we were considering the first time around). So maybe on some subconscious level we both know the girl's name is more important?

Overall consensus? Don't have a clue. And since so many of the wive's tales were wrong with William, it's impossible to predict whether or not they are more likely to be right this time around. However, once we have two babies in the books, I'll have a better data pool to reference for any future babies that may come our way... Because I'm a science nerd like that.

A Nap is a Nap... Right???

So for the third day in a row, someone crawled out of his bed immediately after being put down for naptime. But, he proceeded to play (mostly) quietly in his room, so I just let him be (and didn't quite have near as much Mom Guilt about it as I did yesterday). After about ninety minutes, though, I noticed that things had fallen suspiciously quiet... So I peaked in and found this:

Can't say that'd be my choice for the best place to nap, but at least he makes it look cute. Maybe he'll learn for next time... Or maybe we'll just progress to taking naps on the floor. Whatever works.

Mom Guilt

So for all intents and purposes, my son has been locked in his room for the past hour. He's supposed to be napping, but is clearly doing anything but. I know that I shouldn't necessarily feel bad about this, especially since I know there is nothing in his room that poses any sort of a threat, and I know that even if he doesn't take a nap he (and I!) need the quiet time, but still. Guilt city. Why? For one, he's probably in a poopy diaper. He almost always poops after his nap, and when he is trying to stall his nap, he'll poop sooner than later to try to get me in there to change it. So chances are, he pooped almost immediately after I put him down because he didn't want to nap, but I'm just not biting and going in there to change it like I have in the past. I also feel guilty because even if he does tire himself out and he decides he wants to nap he can't get back in his bed. He's been in a full-sized bed since sometime in December, and while he can climb out without much issue, it's a little too far off the ground for him to get back into. Which also means that if he left his puppy and blanket on his bed he wouldn't be able to get those even if he did want to lie down. And of course, I feel guilty every time he calls for me--which I can hear clear as day since we still have the monitor in his room. But I know he doesn't actually need anything, which makes it a little easier to ignore his demands. A little.

I'm just afraid that if I start going in there right away (like I did yesterday--three different times--when he was pulling the same stunt), that he'll learn that this is a "trick" he can employ to get out of his nap. And I am--under no circumstances--ready for my twenty-one month old to be nap-free. Especially with a baby on the way. So I guess that might mean he has to spend a little extra time in a poopy diaper (just praying he doesn't figure out how to get the poop OUT of his diaper!). And that might mean he takes an occasional nap on his bedroom floor. And it'll even mean I have to spend part of my afternoons feeling guilty. But I think I can live with that--at least for a little bit.

Love/Hate

I officially have a love/hate relationship with our healthcare system and my OB.

I love that we can now access our patient information via an online health portal. I can see the doctor's notes from recent visits, I can view my vital information that was collected, I can review upcoming appointments, and I can even send messages to my healthcare team (and get pretty prompt responses!). And I'm pretty sure I said this during my pregnancy with William, but I love that my OB is super laid back and doesn't get his (or my!) panties in a bunch over little things. For example, even though he did all the routine cervical checks during the end of my first pregnancy, he never made a point to tell me if (or how much) I was dilated, because he knows from his 30+ years of experience that very rarely is that information indicative on when or how soon labor will begin. My appointments are typically less than ten minutes--get in, get weighed, pee in a cup, check blood pressure, check baby's heart rate, measure the belly, get out. (And yes--I am fully aware that I've been lucky to have two pretty textbook pregnancies which have allowed for quick routine visits.)

However. I am learning that this combination of laid-back OB and online patient information creates a little problem that I hate. Because you see--all of the stuff that my doctor doesn't bring up in our appointments still gets recorded in my chart. So even though he may not tell me the unremarkable and/or unimportant information, he'll still record it, which means it will show up online for my viewing pleasure. Which is how I will discover that at my 33 week appointment baby was presenting in a breech position. Ummm.... What?!? That's a little too close to my due date for me to be comfortable with baby being in a breech position. As Darrell has assured me, though, if my OB were concerned about it and thought that it would present an issue for labor and delivery, he would have said something. Because he didn't, it means that he has confidence that the problem has plenty of time to work itself out and there is no reason to get worked up about it at this point. But still. Breech?!? Not a fan. Good thing I have my next appointment later this week. You'd better believe that if my doctor doesn't say anything about the baby's position during the appointment that I'm going to be (very) impatiently waiting for him to upload his record of my visit so I can see what he put in his notes--good bad or otherwise. You'd better also believe that if I start to freak out about this just a little bit more that Darrell will probably try to lock me out of my online patient portal for the remainder of this pregnancy. Because I'm sure the amount of speculation and concern will only increase as my doctor begins his cervical checks.


For the record, I have nothing but respect for my OB and I trust his judgment 100%. If he chooses not to tell me that my blood pressure is slightly low (which it has been throughout both pregnancies), that baby is presenting breech, that I'm already dilated, etc, I can (rationally) trust that they are not concerns at the given time. I also feel perfectly comfortable around my OB and would have no issue asking him for the information directly, even though I (rationally) know that if it were medically relevant he would tell me up front--and the fact that he isn't telling me means that it isn't an issue. However, I am pregnant, I am hormonal, and I am prone to bouts of irrationality. So I am going to be just a little bit freaked out that baby was breech ten days ago--and that if that trend continues it may mean that we'd be meeting baby a little sooner than we'd anticipated. Gulp.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

1 Down, 11 to Go!!

While this post title could easily be referring to the number of posts that I need to catch up on (hello pregnancy that I haven't posted about in, oh, twelve weeks!), it's actually referring to the number of rooms in our house that are (finally!) completed. Not just functional, but actually organized, decorated, and something that I can be proud of!

And of course, what better room to start with than a bathroom? Small space, minimal effort, and the ability to reuse pretty much all décor items that we had in our previous house. Win win.

So, for fun, here's a picture of the bathroom when we moved in (or, more accurately, the picture from the real estate listing. Because let's be honest--no way did I remember to take "before" pictures of pretty much any of the rooms):

Super boring (pretty par for the course when we moved in. Everything was either super boring or super obnoxious. Have I shared any pictures of the neon pick and green room yet? No? Just you wait). And, if you look closely in the mirror, you can see that the tub had doors. No way was that happening in my house, especially since this bathroom is the one we primarily use to wash babies. While I'm sure William would have loved sliding the doors back and forth, I certainly appreciate all the space I have to wash a squirmy toddler with the shower curtain pushed all the way back.

So, to fix it up, we added a fresh (and colorful!) coat of paint, then decorated it with the same subtle beach theme we had in our previous house. And I totally talked Darrell into letting me get a (pretty large) quote for one of the walls--I pretty much love it.



Darrell has pretty well taken over bath time responsibilities with William because it's getting a little difficult for me to lean into the tub, but sometimes I still go hang out with them just because the room makes me happy. Which makes me super excited to get the rest of this house all fixed up--and believe it or not, we're actually making pretty good progress (we've only been living here for eight months, after all). Considering pretty much every room needed fresh paint (as I mentioned, the previous owners had really weird taste in colors, plus they did not care for the walls well, so there are all sorts of screw and nail holes that need major patching) and the fact that pretty much the entire basement had to be gutted five short weeks after we moved in thanks to a broken sump pump (but--Christmas miracle--our contractor was here last week getting started and he may actually be done with stuff by the new year!), I consider any progress to be good progress. And besides, we kind of have a deadline on getting the nursery done--baby could be here in just six short weeks!