The Kids' Room

I am enjoying referring to the "kids' room" rather than the "nursery" or "Josh's room". It's been a fun switch. Being off work has finally given me the time to finish up preparing the kids' room for Emily's arrival.

I wanted to share pictures of the transition but was shocked to find that I didn't have any pictures of the room before we added Josh's toddler bed back in November. So if you want to get an idea of what we did to the room previously, here are links to my prior posts of prepping the room for Josh's arrival:

The First Major Transition Phase

Painting Dressers

Bedding and Decor

Below is a shot of how Josh's name hung on the wall. At least I caught that before we moved it.


I think I've mentioned before that I've had a hard time getting into "girl" mode. Early on, after finding out we were having a girl, the first thing I found for decoration were these wall decals with butterflies and flowers. I've always known that with a girl I wanted to do bugs: butterflies, ladybugs, dragonflies etc. I had hoped these decals would help me get in the mode. But even after their arrival, they sat around for a long time while I was paralyzed from ideas. Decorating is not my forte and I move very slowly, basically one item at a time. I am not one who can visualize the whole thing and just make it happen.

I'm happy to say that I finally found bedding that I loved and, after an exhaustive search, ribbon to hang Emily's name. The decor only has butterflies and flowers, no other bugs, but what I found worked well with the colors we already had for Josh's stuff.

The new crib wall.

Josh's name got moved above his bed.

It feels a little high, but I was concerned that below the window would be too tempting to play with. Now the area below the window looks bare, so I think I have found a train decal that I would like to put there. I just need to pick the colors to order it in. All along I have had a difficult time finding train stuff that I truly like.

A view of both beds.

And now that the table is in the corner, I kinda want to put "A, B, Cs" or something. But worry it will be too much. So in my one step at a time manner, we'll get the train decal up first and then see how it looks.

Dressers

Mama's corner

Everything is ready to go. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.

Word of the Day: Ubiquitous

This word was in my head all night last night. The only reason I can come up with is that my sister is kicking my butt in Scrabble and some of the letters I have are in "ubiquitous". Too bad I can't play that word.

Just Waiting

It doesn't feel right to be bored with waiting. I look so forward to having a good four weeks off of work before the baby comes, but with three weeks passed, I'm getting impatient. I remember feeling this way while waiting for Joshua. I should be enjoying a potential 10 day stretch before our family of three becomes four, but that is not where I am.

All the essentials are ready. The kids room is prepped, the kitchen is reorganized and the last of our ordered baby items have arrived. That's not to say there is nothing to do, but I guess there is nothing left I want to do. Except, of course, have a baby.

I think this just must be the breaking point of dealing with all the physical stuff. My body is tired. Everything seems hard. I'm anxious to be on the up-swing of getting back to a normal body that can reach down to pick up a block without being winded or getting heartburn. And having Josh as an additional ingredient during pregnancy has been quite the challenge. I'm not really meaning to complain, but this is the reality, and I think also just evidence of my state of mind of being done.

I'm also really praying that I don't have to be induced. Because Josh was induced, I felt a little cheated out of some of the birthing experience. Plus, I truly believe that it made my labor harder to deal with. I had visions of walking (or at least being mobile) through contractions and letting my body due it's thing. Instead I was restricted to the bed the entire time.

Jim and I have both felt convinced that our little girl will make her appearance before her February 6 due date, but by how much is where we differ. Jim says January while I still think February. We've wanted to place a bet, but can't decide what the wager should be.

Things do seem to be starting to happen though. At my doctor appointment on Monday I was dilated 1 cm. Tuesday I started to lose my mucous plug and my Braxton Hicks contractions have returned quite a bit. I definitely feel the baby moving lower in my pelvis and she seems more centralized in my abdomen and not just on my right side. So it really could be any time now. Every night I go to bed expecting to wake up to my water breaking. A friend of mine told me a way to try to get things rolling, which seems weird to do, but once we get past Friday, I may try it. (No, I'm not going to share what it is. And no, it's not "that".)

As much as I want to win the non-wagered-February-bet, at this point I'll take her as soon as she will come.

Manners

I continue to be amazed when something just suddenly "clicks" with Joshua.

A couple of the first signs we taught him were "please" and "thank you". So these are not new concepts. But as his language skills advance, we've made a more concentrated effort on teaching when to say these considerate words.

For a while it was a little hard to distinguish "peeees" from "pee". We worked hard on getting that "s" in there. "Thank you" has always been so soft spoken that if you breathe too loud you would miss it.

About two or three weeks ago, Josh suddenly was saying "please, thank you, 'scuse me, and welcome" all the time and in the right context. AND without being prompted much of the time. Can you imagine the pride of his parents??

There are amusing times when he goes overboard with the manners too. We were at the grocery story the other day and Josh said "thank you" to the bagger every time he put a bag in the shopping cart. I'm sure the checker wasn't understanding (or couldn't hear) what Josh was saying and she asked me "who is he talking to?" Once I told her he was being thankful for every bag, she just melted and thought he was the cutest thing.

She was right.

The Countdown

We are officially three weeks out from my predicted due date.

Saturday I had a nice baby shower with a few friends and family. I have had such a hard time getting into "girl" mode, but this shower definitely helped a lot. It was so much fun opening all the pink packages and seeing the darling clothes.

Today Jim and I went to Babies R Us to pick up the rest of the essentials that we need to be ready for our little girl to arrive. Jim was a crack up to watch as he was loving seeing some of the different toys. As Josh is getting older, Jim sees stuff that would be fun to have for him. I've never had the opportunity to see him get excited about that kind of stuff, so it brought a big smile to my face.

We spent the afternoon moving around the wall-hangings in the kids' room so that we could get Emily's name up on the wall. I'm so glad to finally have that piece done. I have one more project to do for the walls and then I'll post pictures. But all of today's prep really has me motivated now .

Josh's bag is packed and ready for his stay with the grandparents while we are in the hospital. I've started packing my bag. But there still is a lot of settling and rearranging of stuff to get done. I'm trying to get rid of unnecessary things, but it's hard when you think you just might need it in the future. Hopefully over the next week I can really get to a place where I feel done and ready so that I can just relax.

Tomorrow I think I'll take Josh shopping to pick a gift for him to give his new baby sister.

Am I Nesting?

This question has been funny to me. I've heard of nesting. I know it exists, I just don't think I have felt it in the sense that I have heard it described.

To me, nesting is this great urge to get things done. The task itself can be normal (setting up the nursery) or bizarre (scrubbing the baseboards...at 2 a.m.). What makes it nesting is the drive to get it done.

Now, I have been getting things done lately, but to me it's because they need to get done. I need to stock up on groceries. I need to get the kids room rearranged. I NEED to polish the baseboards!!! (just kidding).

The problem is that I have been sick. I started getting sick last Wednesday, and Friday was my last day of work. TODAY is the first day I actually have some normal energy. HOORAY!! So guess what? I feel a drive to get things done. But isn't that normal? My new problem is that I probably should still take it easy while I'm actually chomping at the bit to go, go, go. So what do you say? Nesting? I'm not convinced.

I feel conflicted about how much time I have before the baby comes. We're looking at about three weeks and in one regard that seems like a good amount of time, but I'm also a little freaked out about it. I think it's the freak out that makes me want to check off my to-do list. Once the important things are done I can relax. On my nest.

Story Time

A couple days ago Josh and I were sitting down for some book time. He decided he wanted to read to me and climbed into my rocker while I sat on the floor. Here is the book he read:

"Fish fish
Glub glub glub
Mommy, who dis?"

(Mommy says "octopus")

"Octopus
Fish fish
Glub glub"

Best story I've ever heard!