Bumpdate 28 Weeks

So, I forgot to have Michael take my picture this weekend like I planned.  Decided to just take one with my cell phone.  Not great quality but better than nothing!

How Far Along:  28 weeks - officially starting the third trimester!

Gender:  It's a boy!

Movement:  He's still a very active little guy.  Always squirming, kicking, pushing...  For awhile I swore he never slept & I got a little worried.  I'd prefer a newborn that likes to sleep!  Maybe he's just an active sleeper...  He sometimes likes to push out on one side.  It's so weird to look down & be lopsided.  He seems to favor my right side.  Alex did the same thing. 

Sleep:  Hit & miss.  Work has been pretty busy & stressful so lately it's been hard to go back to sleep after I wake up to use the bathroom.  Not fun.

Maternity Clothes:  A week after my last post, I found my extra hangers & have been wearing maternity pants since.  I'm still wearing some non-maternity shirts but I don't think that will be an option much longer.  Baby is growing!

Symptoms:  Energy level is ok.  I sometimes get out of breath easily & my hands/feet swell if I get overheated.  I've also had a little more heartburn with this baby.  It might be because I'm bending over more taking care of a toddler.  I carry Tums in my purse now.  I'm still feeling pretty good overall but I swear I've felt a little more uncomfortable with this baby.  I tend to groan a lot when getting up off the couch, bending over or getting in/out of bed.  I asked Michael the other day if I was this "groan-y" this early with Alex.  He said he he didn't think so.  I have a feeling I'll be very ready to have this baby when January rolls around!

Aversions:  Nothing really that I wasn't adverse to before. 

Cravings:  Still lattes (mmm...) but not quite as strongly as when I wrote my last bumpdate.  Desserts in general pretty much always sound good.  Halloween candy is hard to turn down!  Honeycrisp apples are my favorite & are back in season.  I could eat 2-3 of those babies a day!

Best Moment This Week:  Deciding on a color scheme for the baby's room.  And we finally hung some artwork in our house.  Our dining room is now decorated!  We ended up using a lot of our artwork from our old living room & we both really like it.  I love the way the room looks.  Now we just have to decorate the rest of the rooms...  I can't wait until the whole place looks put together like the dining room.  Oh well, one thing at a time.

Nursery

I think we've made a decision on the nursery "theme" for baby #2.  It started when I saw this Skip Hop bedding set online.

I thought the blanket was so cute & I liked the colors.  I didn't want to buy the whole set because we probably won't use a bumper & the rest is pretty easy to duplicate.  I really just wanted the blanket, but apparently you can't buy it separately.  There was no way I was going to spend $200+ just to get the blanket.  Then I found a different blanket that coordinated with the set.

Our glider rocker is green & I was hoping it would match the velour green on the back of the blanket.  This blanket has actually been discontinued in this set for another one that has trees, owls & birds on it but I luckily found this one online.  I got it in the mail & it matches the chair closely enough, so we're going with it.  Yay!

My plan is to keep the room pretty simple.  I'd like to find an orange crib sheet & a tan crib skirt.  I also am going to get this changing pad cover to match the blanket.

Hopefully I can find an orange changing pad cover, too, so I can switch between the two.  Finally, I found this wall decal. 

I'm not 100% sure about it yet (wondering if it will be a huge pain to take down with all the little pieces) but I'm leaning toward it.

It's exciting to make a little progress!  If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have told you I was just planning on throwing a crib in the baby's room & calling it good.  That's probably because I was a little overwhelmed by selling a house, building a house, moving to an apartment & then to a new house.  Now that we've gotten a little more settled, I've gotten more excited to "nest" for this baby.

Now we just have to decide what we're doing about the crib situation.  Alex is still using his crib but may be ready to transition to a toddler bed soon.  Do we buy another crib & not rush into the toddler bed situation?  Alex's crib converts to a toddler bed, so we wouldn't have to buy a separate bed when he's ready (or we're ready - ha).  Or do we buy a toddler bed & move his crib into the baby's room?  I'm torn.  I'm sure either way will be fine.  I just can't make a decision!  But I'm starting to feel pressure to get the room together since I'm only three months away from my due date...

By the way, I'm hoping to post another bumpdate soon.  I don't want to take another self portrait (it's harder with my fancy camera) & Michael usually leaves for work in the morning before I'm ready.  I'll try to remember this weekend!

I want to remember...

I came across this journaling technique by clicking a link on a blog I like, Hollywood Housewife.  Thought I might give it a try because lately I've been too busy to blog about all the things Alex has been doing but I want to remember them later.

I want to remember how Alex's vocabulary started exploding a few weeks ago.  He'll repeat just about anything you say & is soaking up as many words as he can.  It's not always easy to tell what he's saying but I'm learning his little language to help interpret.  I love it when he takes two words that are kind of similar & just repeats the last word.  Example - roast beef is beef beef.  Flips flops are flop flops.  So cute.  He's also starting to string words/sentences together.

I want to remember how he loves labeling items.  He'll point to an object & say the name of the person it belongs to.  He'll point to my car & say "mama" or to Michael's car & say "dada".  Etc, etc with cups, shoes, clothes...

I want to remember he's just now starting to say "daddy" instead of "dada".  He says it so cute, too.  Da-yee.

I want to remember how opinionated he is with his shoes.  Good luck getting him to wear his sandals if he wants to wear his sneakers.  Lately, he has been all about the flip flops (aka flop flops).  He about came undone when I brought his sneakers out (I was packing them in his bag for soccer later that day) because he wanted to wear his flip flops that morning.

I want to remember his giggles when I tickle or kiss him on his neck under his chin.  Sometimes he'll tilt his head up for me to tickle him.  He starts to giggle even before I get close to him because he knows what's coming.

I want to remember how he played with his friend Hagan the other day, running from the back porch to the fence.  He'd yell "GO" & run as fast as he could & then yell "STOP" & stop while holding his hand out in front of him.  They kept this up for a few laps.  They play Red Light, Green Light at soccer but Alex never wants to participate - he's too interested in the soccer balls.  I guess he's paid attention, though.

I want to remember how I put him in the corner for the first time the other day & sat him in an open corner in his room before realizing I put him right in front of an uncovered electrical outlet.  Spent the time out trying to keep him from touching the outlet.  Parenting fail.  He didn't seem upset by the corner time at all, but he did correct his behavior & do what I told him to do. 

I want to remember that he's entering the stage where he likes to try to do things himself.  If I start to help him & he doesn't want help, he'll say "mama!!" with this tone that is too funny.  With one word, he immediately conveys that he is not interested in his mama's help.  He's starting to say it a lot more often - when he tries to use a fork to pick up his food, when buckling his car seat strap, when taking off his shoes.  The tone really makes me laugh.  But he's also willing to ask for help when he can't quite get it.  I'm glad he still needs me sometimes.  J

I want to remember he LOVES trucks.  In the car, he's always looking for big trucks.  He'll see one & say "big truck!"  In fact, if too much time goes by & he doesn't see a big truck, he sometimes gets upset.  Luckily, there are quite a few houses under construction in our neighborhood, so we see a lot of big trucks. 

I want to remember when he leaves a place & we tell him to say bye bye, he goes around & not only tells the people bye bye but often says it to inantimate objects.  Every day we leave the daycare provider's house, he likes to say bye to the toys, the entry table, the candle on the table, the door, etc.  He's such a cute little goofball.

I want to remember his current bedtime routine.  We read books (he's always asking for one more), then I sing a few songs.  Lately's he likes to "sing along".  This means he loudly sings gibberish while I sing.  Love it.  We say our prayers & then I tell him how much I love him.  Then he asks "dada?" & I say "yes, Daddy loves you too."  He then proceeds to go through all the people he knows - Sadie (our dog), DeeDee & Grandpa (my parents), Mo & PaPaw (Michael's parents), Aunt Amanda, etc.  I reassure him that they all love him.  I'll say "oh yes, so-and-so loves you so much."  He'll say "yeah" like he knows it's the truth.  So, so cute.

Of course, these are only a few of the many things I want to file away in my brain forever.  But that's all that comes to mind at this minute.  Which is why I should do this more often, so I don't forget these wonderful memories!

Birthday Card

Ok, this post is about a month & a half late but the pictures were too cute not to share.  I decided to take a Friday off to have a long weekend & came up with the idea of making Michael a card for his birthday, which was a few days later.  A quick trip to Target & we were ready.

I couldn't find finger paint but at least this was washable paint.

I also got some washable markers, which I think Alex liked more than the paint!

 He wanted to hold all the markers at once.

"Hmm...  What should I draw next?"

I asked him what was on his hand.  He wasn't quite sure.

 Our little artist.

 He also had a lot of fun putting the caps back on the markers.

The finished product (sorry for the poor picture quality - I took this on my phone after the fact since I was too busy cleaning up the little guy & hiding the card after craft time was over.)

I let the card dry & hid it in Alex's closet (we were living at the apartment & his room had a huge closet).  I knew Michael wouldn't see it among all the other stuff we were storing in there.  The next morning, Michael got up with Alex.  Michael got Alex dressed & forgot to close the closet door all the way.  Michael was in the other room & Alex came out holding the card (the right way even) very triumphantly.  While we made the card, I kept telling Alex it was for Daddy's birthday.  I guess he didn't want to wait to give it to him - ha.  Michael thought it was so cute but I missed the whole thing.  Oh well, I still love the story!

Another cute story with Michael's birthday...  I told Alex that Daddy's birthday was in a few days & asked him if he wanted to give him a birthday cake.  Alex was very interested when I mentioned cake, which I thought was a little odd since he's only had cake a few times & none recently.  I also said we were going to give Daddy presents.  Alex walked into the other room & came out carrying a book.  I thought he was wanting to give his daddy a book for a birthday present.  Then Alex flipped over the book & it was "Where is Baby's Birthday Cake?"  He loves the "Where is Baby's..." series.  I couldn't believe he made the connection between the book & me mentioning a birthday cake for Daddy.

It's so fun watching your child learn & surprise you with something you didn't realize they knew!

Anyway happy late birthday, Michael/Daddy!

Emergency Car Bag

I've been meaning to put together an emergency car bag for awhile.  I even bought a bag recently thinking it would work well for this purpose.  But we were in the apartment at the time & I couldn't get motivated to put it together & haul it down three flights of stairs.  Then we moved & our extra time was spent unpacking.

My friend Tishey recently posted about putting a bag together & I thought it was time to stop procrastinating.  I took a few minutes today & made it happen.

Here's what I grabbed:

• Diapers/wipes
• Wet Ones
• Snacks
• Sippy cup
• Blanket & burp cloth
• Extra change of clothes
• Water
• Small first aid kit
• Old towel

I'd like to get a car kit with flares, etc, to add to the bag.  Also, I plan to add some packaged crackers & maybe some other snacks (I just grabbed what I had on hand).  I also think I'm going to add cardboard around the bag to make it more sturdy.  Luckily, we have no shortage of boxes around here lately!

Now we'll be set even if we forget the diaper bag!