siblings.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how Noah is going to feel when a new baby is suddenly in the house and he's no longer the center of attention. Putting myself in his shoes, I can imagine that might be quite a change! Needless to say, I'm concerned for him and just want to make sure he knows that he is still just as much our baby as he's always been and he is not being replaced! Just... complimented. :) I have frequently heard that going from one kids to two is a bigger adjustment than going from no kids to one! I can believe that. I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth transition for all of us! Noah will be such a good big brother.

Also, Noah's upper canines are finally emerging. It was pretty obvious they were bothering him last night. :( I gave him some Tylenol before dinner to help but he kept waking up throughout the night crying. I guess his paci must help soothe his pain or at least take his mind off it because I gave that back to him and he would go right back to sleep. But I know Matt had to go tend to him several times before he went to bed and I got up four times between midnight and 6:00! Poor guy.

On a side note: My body must be used to short intervals of sleep at this point because I don't even feel tired anymore when I have to get up, lol. It has been well over a year of not sleeping through the night for me so it must finally be setting in for my brain that that's just the way it is and I better love it.

Yesterday, Matt and I both had the day off! It was soooo nice. We took Noah with us to my appointment since it was early and I thought maybe it would be nice for him to hear the heartbeat and whatnot. Not that he really grasps what that sound is but... anything helps, lol. Then we took him to daycare after that.

Matt and I went to the Chevy dealership to test-drive a Traverse! Or rather... we wanted to make sure it fit into our garage (luckily, the dealership is just around the corner from our house). Well, guess what? IT FITS! Barely. Like, you better be paying attention when you step out of the house into the garage because if you're not careful, you will end up face-planting yourself into the front of the vehicle. But all that matters is that it fits. We will have a bigger garage someday, lol. So we are going for a silver Traverse... with second row captain seats (one carseat in each!). I'm really excited to get it even though that won't be until May. But we thought yesterday would be a good opportunity to check it out since we both had the day off and Noah was in daycare!

After that we went to Olive Garden for lunch. That was nice because, you know, it's not every day we get to go out to a restaurant by ourselves! Then we came home and took a nap, I got dinner started, ate ice cream in bed, we finished up a couple more errands and then it was back to reality. ;)

toddlerhood.

The toddler stage must be forgotten pretty easily because I can't exactly piece together how one would want to get pregnant again after enduring toddlerhood. Seriously. I am glad I got pregnant while Noah was still an infant because if I wasn't right now, I'm sure I would be reconsidering our family plans.

That's all.

the classic 'last month' wardrobe crisis.

I recently purchased four new shirts to finish me out until the end so, thankfully, I'm good in that department. However, I have two pairs of "nice" pants that I wear to work: (1) Demi panel khakis and (2) full panel black trousers. The black pants are great and I so wish that Gap had a pair of khakis with a full panel available (although, at the time, a demi was fine so I probably would have gotten the demi anyway... bad decision). This little panel around the bottom of my belly has gotten quite snug (in a very uncomfortable way) over the last few weeks and I think it's time for their retirement.

I will definitely only buy full panel pants from now on (if I get pregnant again). So... I have about four weeks left, give or take, so I'm not about to invest another $60+ in nice pants (as much as I'd love to, it's just not practical). I guess I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and start wearing ::gasp:: JEANS to work a couple days a week! Not that my workplace really cares... but you know. This "end of pregnancy" wardrobe crisis never fails me. The same thing happened last time but with shirts instead of pants (at least those are cheaper). It was easier to get away with maxi dresses and gauchos in the summer but being pregnant in the winter is a different story! It's definitely more expensive to be pregnant in the winter than it is in the summer (but I have a preference for winter fashions myself).

the most wonderful dream.

Last night, I had the most peaceful birth dream! It was painless, quick and at home (unplanned, lol). Apparently, I could feel the baby descending and thought it would be smarter to stay at home... that's how it started. How nice would that be to determine I'm in labor when I'm already complete? Hah! Well, baby came right out and I held it to my chest for a minute before even checking to see if it was a boy or a girl. Then I discovered that it was a girl. That's pretty much it! I hope it's that simple. :)

Well, our pictures are done! They turned out so fabulous. I put most of them on Facebook but here is a collage I created and there are two more at the top of the blog. I will create a new page (link will be at the top) to some of my favorites for anyone who isn't friends with me on FB.

35 weeks.

My countdown says only 33 days to go! :O What?! That's crazy.

We went to Washington, NC to do our family/maternity (famernity) photo shoot. Oh, those pictures turned out so good! I can't wait to share some on here and Facebook. Will does such an awesome job. It was quite windy and a little on the chilly side but at least it was sunny to take the edge off the chill. I would say it was quite a beautiful day, overall. But that was a very tiring venture with an almost 18-month old! Phew! One minute he's crying because he can't stay on the rocking chair and the next minute he's laughing and running down the sidewalk being chased by Daddy. Then he's crying again because he sees a dog and wants to take it home and so on and so forth. But it was well worth the effort! And they were so patient with Noah's mood swings. :P I look forward to having him do our newborn photos, as well.

Oh, Happy Valentine's Day!! :D I just did a little something for Matt this morning. Well, first, I laid out some pairs of tacky Valentine's Day boxers and told him to take his pick. And last night, I snuck some treats in his car so they would be there to greet him this morning. Swedish Fish, candy hearts and a "mini mix" I made on CD for him. I found the #1 song on certain "special" dates like our first dance and some silly ones like our first IM conversation. A little vintage mix to take him down memory lane. Nothing that extravagant but I put some thought into it, darn it.

We both have Presidents' Day off (next Monday) so I'm hoping that we will get to spend some quality time together then! It will be a free date day! I mean, not really considering we pay a pretty penny for daycare but you know what I mean...

Anyway, I can't wait to put up a few pics from our session over the weekend! :D Stay tuned!

Oh, and Noah's sleep has been doing consistently well, I would say. He has been sleeping through the night more often than not lately! So yay for that!

nesting.

Well, I think it finally hit me yesterday. The clutter in our house was making me crazy. It still is making me crazy (because it's by no means eliminated yet) but at least I can feel better knowing that I am in the process of getting rid of it! So... I have a really hard time just cleaning. There is so much to do that it overwhelms me so I just crawl back into my little space on the couch and pretend it's not there. Well... NOT ANYMORE, darn it. I just needed some direction. Baby steps. Literally, a step-by-step guide to cleaning. And I found it at Fly Lady!

I shined that kitchen sink last night and let me tell you... that shiny kitchen sink is a reflection of the love that I have for myself. That was my first step. I even have a designated "sink towel" that I use to dry out the sink after each use. Step two (today's step) was to "get dressed to lace up shoes." I honestly have no idea what that means but I took it to mean that I basically need to make myself look nice and presentable. Well, I do that every day (except on the weekend) anyway so that was no problem.

I'm going to peek at tomorrow's step: "Do what we have already done." See... baby steps! I can do this.

34 week checkup.

So my appointment this morning was great. It made me feel even more confident about everything than I did before! I just can't be in active labor on a Monday or a Wednesday because that's when my midwife is working in the office. :) But she gave me her direct contact numbers so that we could reach her when this baby is ready to go! She is the BEST midwife EVERRRR.

I brought in a rough copy (it was all wrinkled and had some spills on it) of our birth plan just to discuss a couple of changes I made to it from last time...

• I asked about frequency of vaginal exams during labor, mainly because I am hoping to avoid them in abundance after my water has broken. A check every 2-3 hours is what I expect and that is cool with me.
• I asked about delaying a saline lock until later on in labor because it was pretty sore and kind of annoying/distracting last time (I got it right away). But since I plan on laboring at home for as long as possible, I could potentially go without one at all if I get to the hospital complete!
• The last thing I brought up was about how I was doing more of the Hypnobirthing thing this time around (I did Bradley last time) and that active, forced pushing is not a part of the routine in Hypnobirthing. It looks as though that will work out just fine and dandy, especially with this being my second birth. So unless I really feel like pushing, I think I am going to try focusing on just relaxing and "Birth Breathing" the baby down to ensure a "relaxed, gradual descent".

Basically, she said whatever I wanted to do was cool! I'm really looking forward to this experience being a smooth and spontaneous labor. I never got to experience laboring in the comfort of our own home last time!

I also found this great article on the 3rd stage of labor: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/275304-overview

Very informative!