It. Is. Finished!

After what seems like an eternity, our contractor is finally done with the work in our house. And considering we only lived in this house for six weeks before the basement flooded, this waiting game has pretty much been the entirety of our nearly nine months in this house. But it's done. Finished. Complete. And we can finally move forward with the projects on our list. Which is certainly not a short list. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. And bit by bit, this is starting to feel more like OUR house. More like a place we are proud to come home to. Which is good, because in a few short weeks, we will be bringing a sweet little babe home to this place, and he/she will know no different home. So it had better be a good one.

Bump Update!

So finally, at long last, some much overdue pictures of my belly. Not that they are by any means glamorous, but they're interesting to look at from a comparison/look-how-huge-I-am standpoint.

28 weeks

31 weeks

35 weeks

38 weeks

In addition to doing a poor job of documenting my bump progression, I also haven't really shared that much about this pregnancy period. Truthfully, though, there hasn't been much to share. I honestly feel like I could link back to my pregnancy posts with William and everything would be pretty much the same. I have found myself trying to "force" some differences, primarily in my size and the way I'm carrying (maybe because I'm subconsciously hoping that a different pregnancy progression will equal a different sex at birth), but the pictures seem to prove otherwise. So even though I feel like I am massively larger than I ever was with William and even though I feel like my belly is sitting way lower (making things like keeping my legs together while sitting nearly impossible!), in reality, that doesn't seem to be the case. Here's the proof:



38 weeks with WEBS

38 weeks with William

I know the zoom on the pictures isn't quite the same (and I'm too lazy to do anything about it) plus the shirts fit a little differently, but it's pretty evident that pregnant me now and pregnant me then are pretty much the same. Despite the fact that I've tried to convince myself otherwise. And I suppose that's an okay thing--while certainly not enjoyable (although I don't think it ever really could be), labor and delivery with William went just fine and it is certainly an experience I'd be okay with repeating. And I guess in a few short weeks we'll find out whether or not that will be the case!

 

Oh, one kind of fun thing I am curious to hear about during delivery? How much hair this baby has (because yes, my doctor will probably comment on that while I am delivering, like he did with William. Apparently it was supposed to help motivate me to know that baby was on his way with a full head of dark hair. Needless to say, at that point, I didn't really care). According to the wives' tales, lots of heartburn means lots of hair. With William I had pretty much zero heartburn, and he was born with a full head of hair. This pregnancy, especially the past few weeks, I've definitely had a fair amount of heartburn (although nothing terrible, thankfully). So I wonder if that will mean no hair for this babe? (And in my family, it tends to be the girls who are born without hair--my sister was pretty much bald until two. So maybe that's another tally favoring a girl this time around? We shall see!!)

Cruel, Cruel, Fate

So I try really hard not to complain about my pregnancy (Darrell is doubled over in laughter at that statement--I give him the full brunt of my complaining since I avoid doing it publicly), but I've officially decided that one of the cruelest and worst things that can happen to a (VERY) pregnant lady is to get a cold. As if my lungs weren't already running out of room making it difficult for me to take deep breaths, now I can't take deep breaths even if I try because of all this lovely congestion. Plus thanks to dear little parasite in my belly, there isn't a whole lot I can take for said congestion. Joy.

But. At least I was able to get a reasonably decent night's sleep last night. We'll refrain from discussing how many pillows that required. And at least this is all I really have to complain about. I may be mopey and annoyed right now, but I still have the ability to recognize that I am fortunate to have been blessed with two remarkably uneventful pregnancies. And if the least of my worries is getting a cold while 8.5 months pregnant, well, I suppose I can suck it up and deal with it. But only after I throw myself a little pity party first.

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.