Homestretch

As I near the homestretch of my pregnancy (5 weeks left- give or take), I wanted to document a few things, so that I won’t forget when my daughter is older and asks me about this time.

What I’m feeling (physically) - I love feeling my baby girl move and kick all the time. Sometimes it hurts a little bit, but it’s mostly good. I think it’s funny when I can look down at my stomach and actually see my her moving around. I’m definitely tired, but I feel like it could be worse. Even though some things like bending over are harder than normal to do, I feel pretty lucky to not have any major complaints with such little time left.

What I’m feeling (emotionally) - Scared, nervous, excited, unprepared, surreal. I think that about sums it up. The main thing that I constantly think about is that I can’t believe that I’m going to be a mother of 2 in a matter of weeks. I still look at Cole all the time and say “wow, he’s ours” so having a little girl around all the time is a crazy concept to me. I also feel like we haven’t done anything to prepare for this new arrival in our lives and that she is going to show up, and we won’t know what to do with ourselves. Rationally, I know that’s not really the case and that we will get everything done, but the next few weeks seem daunting with thoughts of washing baby clothes, setting up the bassinet and swing, packing our bags, getting car seat bases in place, etc. I’d like to take a week off to get ready… but I’d probably use the time to nap.

Other stuff-

We finally decided on a name for our little girl, but we are keeping it a secret.

Even if he won’t admit it, I think Kevin likes buying baby girl clothes as much as I do (if not more).

Cole is so good about hugging, kissing and talking to his sister… which warms my heart more than words can say.

I’m really trying to soak up all the one-on-one time with Cole that I can right now. One of my biggest concerns is splitting attention and “mommy time” so I’m enjoying not having to worry about that for now.

Most importantly, all 3 of us are excited about our growing family and meeting our newest member!

Sincerest Form of Flattery

If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery, then Kevin and I should be feeling beyond flattered these days. Cole has been copying things that we do for awhile now, but it is getting to be even more of a regular occurrence.

One of the first blogs that I ever wrote was about how Kevin and Cole have a morning routine that they go through together- hair, teeth, deodorant, all that. They still do that, and heaven forbid Kevin brushes his teeth without Cole… well, let’s just say my son is not a happy camper. It’s actually come in handy with things like getting Cole to take his vitamin every morning because Daddy is taking his.

But now Cole has taken things to another level. Sometimes when I talk, he repeats everything that I say. Well, not necessarily the entire sentence, but the last word of every sentence. Yeah, that gets annoying pretty fast. And he definitely knows what he is doing, because he laughs and makes faces at me when he does it… like he knows he is up to something bad.

One day as we were leaving for daycare, I said to Cole, “let’s rock and roll.” It isn’t even something that I say very often, but now we are stuck with it. He says it to me all the time. Now he even opens the fridge and sees the bag of rolls and asks to have a “rock and roll.” I’ve tried to explain the difference, but he either doesn’t get it or chooses not to. Another favorite thing to repeat is “knock it off.” When he is acting up, I tell Cole to knock it off, and he says it right back. Hard to maintain any ounce of respect when that happens.

Last weekend, we had the moment that I had been waiting for. As a parent, you do your best to avoid it, but you know that inevitably you will slip up, and it will happen. The three of us were going food shopping, and Kevin was rearranging things in his trunk to make room for the bags. I don’t remember if he hurt his hand or what happened, but he said, “oh, fudge.” Only he didn’t use the word fudge. (Use your imagination.) I looked back at him quickly, as I was getting Cole into his car seat, and just said “language.”  Well, my 2 year old looked right at me and said, “oh, fudge.” (Again, a euphemism here.) I tried my best to do the right thing and correct him, but I started laughing so hard that I had to walk away so he couldn’t see my face. I mean, what do you do in this situation? I composed myself as much as I could, walked back over to him and explained that we don’t use that word. Now let’s just hope that doesn’t happen in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because not everyone would be so flattered by my son’s imitations.

Things We Do

I was thinking today about the things that we do for our kids. Not the run them to soccer practice or cut the crust off the bread types of things. Not the stay up until 2am working on a science fair project or watch the same episode of their favorite cartoon for the 100^th time type of things. But those not-so-often-thought-of, but just as important things. I really experienced that this weekend.

I’m finding more and more that just being able to bring a child into this world is truly a miracle. It’s not what I thought it was when I was younger- you get married, decide to have a baby and 9 months later, out comes your little bundle of joy, no consequences to speak of. It seems that infertility is so common these days (I have a good friend going through it right now), and I can’t say enough about the courage and strength of the women who endure this. Then there are the numerous complications that can occur. I know someone else who is playing the waiting game to find out if there is something wrong with her baby’s heart.... and it breaks mine.

What I went through this weekend wasn’t nearly as bad as what other people endure, but it was still a reminder. I wasn’t feeling well most of the day on Friday, but when I ended up with a fever and chills that night, I decided to call the doctor. Never too cautious when you’re pregnant, they told me to come in. After getting checked out, it was determined that I had a kidney infection. (And later said to possibly be a kidney stone, too.) Not a huge deal, right? Unless you’re pregnant. Well, I was told that I was being admitted for an unknown amount of time. That became 3 days. (I was in the same amount of time as when my son was born.) During this time, I was poked and prodded, tested and re-tested. I had to get IV antibiotics for the injection and IV fluids to keep me hydrated. They monitored me. They monitored the baby. My heart rate was high, so they did an EKG. What wasn’t high? My potassium, my iron, my platelets. All low. Along with my amount of sleep. I was happy if I got 2 hours straight during my entire stay.

The good news is that the baby is okay. She is better than me. But because I am pregnant, I get to be on antibiotics for the next 3 ½ months, with the first 10 days taking it 4 times a day. I’m still wondering when I’m going to catch up on sleep. (I guess I have about 2 months before the answer will be never.) But all of the tests and medicine and lack of sleep in the world are worth it… as long as my baby girl is okay.