36 Weeks

How far along: 36 1/2 weeks. Almost full term!

Total weight gain: 131, up 19lbs.

Maternity Clothes: I'm living in comfy maternity dresses thanks to my neighbor dumping her maternity wardrobe on me :)

Movement: my midwife verified that baby girl is in fact nestled right in my ribs. I try to scoot her away but she responds by kicking me harder. Uh oh, we're in for it.

Food Cravings: nothing crazy though I did try Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream last night. So good.

Sleep: I'm still not making it to bed until 11:30pm. I really need to get to bed earlier...I'm only able to sleep on my left side at this point. If I'm on my right side I have trouble breathing--no bueno.

Milestones: baby has a sleep pattern by this point, though if this is true she's basically awake all the time. I feel her move during a big chunk of the day and night.

Best moment of the week: I have two. The best is when I read books to Parker and baby girl wiggles all around in the womb. I love knowing that I'm reading stories to both of my girls :)

The second is that I'm making progress on things! I have art ordered to hang in baby's room. Parker's big girl room is coming along. I finished updating the laundry room and have art ordered to hang there too. I printed out my birth plan, got My Breast Friend in the mail (omg, 10000 times better than the Boppy. Did you know that you can walk AND nurse at the same time with it?!), have the birth announcements picked out, stocked my freezer with meals, washed the Belly Bandit (which will be popped on mere hours after delivery), booked Parker's gymnastic classes (yay yay yay! So pumped for this!), and am almost done updating Parker's baby book (I know, I know...way late on this).

Random:
-Surprise surprise, I'm uncomfortable. Seriously though, I'm really surprised. I never hit that uncomfortable stage with Parker. I was power walking until the day I delivered Parker. Psssshhh, pregnancy was a breeze. Fast forward to now. I have trouble breathing most of the day. A slow walk around the subdivision makes me huff and puff and my Braxton Hicks go out of control. I have to sit with my legs spread open because my belly needs a place to rest (sexy).

-Even though I've felt better, I love this stage of pregnancy. I love the huge belly, the anticipation of locking eyes with her for the first time, the movements I feel letting me know she's okay snuggled in the womb. I'm going to miss this in a month.

-Parker knows something is up. She's become very cuddly with me over the past weeks (which I didn't think was possible--she's the cuddliest thing out there already) and wants to be held a lot. We're experiencing sleep regression. Parker was on a good sleeping streak but now she demands us to lay in bed with her to fall asleep. She clings when I hand her off to Kris to be put down. She wakes up every.single.night between 1:50am and 2am like clockwork and comes into bed with us. She wants to snuggle up right next to me and if I move or get up to use the bathroom, she wakes.

I'm down with bedsharing but I think it might be a bit difficult for Parker when I'm nursing all hours of the night for lord knows how long (12 months with Parker so it might be another long haul). FX for an easy adjustment for all in the sleep department.

While the plan was to potty train Parker before baby's arrival and I'm pretty confident that she's ready to be fully PT'd, with the sleep regression and behavior changes we're going to hold off until after baby arrives. It's going to be tough with a newborn but with Parker moving up to the next toddler preschool class 7 months early I'm sure the big kids going potty will be great motivation for her!

22 Months

I'm (over) a week behind on this post. Better late than never, right?

Lots of cool things have happened once again this month. Parker can sing the entire ABC song and counts from 1 to 10. She reads Brown Bear Brown Bear out loud, loves doing somersaults (with a little push over from me and Kris), and is getting the knack of recognizing colors. Some days she will point out yellow, blue, pink, red, and green, but other days she's obsessed with everything being the color green.

S: Parker, what color popsicle do you want?
P: Green

S: Parker, what color is the dog?
P: Green

"Say cheese," Parker says when I'm snapping pictures. I ask if she can smile for me and not only do I get a smile, but I get full on posing as well.

Parker is a wee bit obsessed with her rain boots (let's not kid ourselves, I'm in love with them too). Yesterday it was slightly sprinkling and she demanded to wear her boots to school. No messing with this strong willed woman first thing in the am over her choice of footwear.

She says "good morning Mommy/Daddy/Sydney" no matter what time the day :) She also says "morning, guys" to Kris and I. If we're doing something that Parker wants to do she says "my turn." Like "my turn pour cereal."

Helloooo, bed head.

Parker now refuses to take medicine. Right before and after she gets a vaccine we give her Vitamin A. It was the impossible feat this time. Thankfully she still loves her strawberry flavored liquid fish oil (gag me).

Cutest little ponytail. I love when Parker's teachers fix her hair :)

Parker's memory surprises me all the time. A couple months ago at the zoo we saw a bear putting on a great show in his swimming pool. Last week we went to the zoo Parker asked "bear swimming?" Seriously, how did she remember that?

We're often requested to turn the radio on and "go dance." We also get to hear songs being sung, like Rock a Bye Baby, the Clean Up song she learned at school, and some made up songs that I hear during bath time.

If you can't tell, she also likes my iPod. Though I think that Usher on the radio is more fun to dance to than my Birth Affirmations.

Ridiculously huge flowers were a must with Parker this day.

Parker loves helping. When I vacuum she gets her own vacuum and cleans right along side of me. On Sunday she wanted to help get the newspaper, though she had to do it all by herself. "Mommy. Stay." All this with holding her hand up to signal me to stay back. Since we live on the end of a cul-de-sac I let her have her independence.

We're on the fast track to a second birthday!

35 Weeks

No bump picture because this week has been insane but just imagine me with a watermelon stuffed under my shirt and you'll get the idea.

How far along: 35 weeks this past Tuesday.

Total weight gain: still at 130lbs, up 18lbs.

Maternity Clothes: the only clothes I'm thinking about now are those I can wear post-preg. I'm going to stock up on some cute yoga wear so that I can look decent-ish when really I'm just wearing the stuff because it's so comfy.

Movement: having a non-anterior placenta is no joke. I feel every single roll and I'm pretty sure that baby has tried to escape 12 times already today.

Food Cravings: pretzels. The salt is oh so delicious.

Sleep: Last night I was up until 1130pm getting a crockpot meal ready. The night before I was up until 1130pm doing laundry. My get-to-bed-at-10pm-every-night pact is supposed to start on Tuesday when I'm 36 weeks. I will try my hardest...

Milestones: my uterus used to be the size of my first...now it's the size of a watermelon! Baby is basically ready for life outside the womb at this point and will focus on packing on the pounds from now until the big day. My money is on September 30th.

Best moment of the week: meeting another natural birthing mama while stocking up on wine at Trader Joe's (two pregnant chics both in the wine aisle. Go figure). Other than in my Hynobirthing classes and my midwives I've never met anyone IRL who shares the same ideas I do about the birthing process. Talking to her was so very refreshing.

Random:
-I'm confident in saying that my hormones are completely out of wack. I'm crabby and people are annoying me.
-my Braxton Hicks contractions were so crazy at the zoo on Wednesday that I was borderline concerned that I would give birth next to the camel exhibit.
-I'm having a baby in one month. Holy hell.
-we have loads of fun things planned for our remaining month as a family of three. And actually, loads of stuff right after baby girl arrives. I hope she doesn't mind being at her first gymnastics lessons at two weeks old :)
-my last day of work will be the Thursday before my Tuesday due date, then it's sayonara to stocks and bonds and annuities for 17 to 18 weeks.
-I'm happy to finally have figured out Parker's daycare schedule while I'm on mat leave. She will be out the week the baby is born and the following week. Then will start back up to school two days a week. She will love seeing her friends, especially her boyfriend who she pushes in a corner and tries to kiss (more to come on that lol), and it will give me cuddle time with the new little one :)

We're ready to meet you, baby girl!

Wordless Wednesday

Milestones

Today marks 35 weeks pregnant and 35 days until my due date. In honor of such a milestone I forced asked Kris to take photos of the bump-a-lump.

K: I thought we were coming to the cider mill to enjoy ourselves
S: Taking pictures is enjoyable
K: ::grumble grumble grumble:: This is your hobby, not mine
S: Pregnant lady says take some damn pictures

Kris did good :) I love the pictures.

After the photo session we did enjoy ourselves. Cider mill season is in full force. The first couple hours of the day are cool and crisp which go hand in hand with apple cider and fresh donuts.

Mama has been getting a lot of extra love lately. And not just during the day but at somewhere between 1am and 4am as well. I'll take as many cuddles as I can get though I'm pretty sure in one month we're going to have a bed full. Not exactly my plan but eh, forcing Parker to say in her bed when she doesn't want to is one battle I've never wanted to pick. Plus snuggle buddies are fun.

Back to the cider mill talk. The cider was delicious, though a measly 1/2 gallon of cider won't cut it this weekend. I didn't think we would drink it all by the 5 day expiration date. It was gone the next day.

Kris gave me this necklace in the hospital after Parker was born. Wearing the pea in a pod around my neck always takes me back to seeing Parker for the first time.

35 week post coming soon!

Stace of Cakes

Every year for Kris' birthday I bake him a cake. This year was no different except for the fact that Parker was my right hand (wo)man.

I was known to attempt to eat sticks of butter back in my day. Parker has tried one too many times to do the same.

"No, no, no, mommy. I cut this." A toddler knife only does so much.

Perhaps the greatest thing about baking is tasting your treat before the final product comes out of the oven.

Nothing is going on behind this bag.

Busted.

Even better than trying plain chocolate for the first time is licking the beater.

Parker trying to figure out how to get me to make more cakes and less dishes with "hidden" veggies.

Someone is less than thrilled that chocolate time is over.

The majority of our cooking involves Parker. Last night she lended a hand in our sausage beef burgers and parmesan/chive/garlic/olive oil mashed potatoes which we enjoyed picnic style in the backyard. For breakfast she cracked all eggs in the bowl and whisked them up. When Parker's in a mood, we cook. A couple weeks ago this mood wasn't going away so we made a bunch of freezer goodies--pancakes, waffles, and granola bars. Making memories one meal at a time :)