The Latest Happenings

I'm throwing down a new goal for myself to put out two new blog posts a week even if they are only a short paragraph.  Already six months have flown by and I wish I had captured more of life with a growing infant.  I'm also a little discontent with Facebook which has been the much quicker easier way to do short updates and keep up with friends and family across the globe.  But there is so many junk posts to weed through to find the information I really care about that makes it less and less gratifying and more of a time suck.

Caitlyn is ON THE GO.  She has graduated from military crawl to full on hands and knees and yesterday started to attempt pulling herself up on things.  She can't get to a full stand yet but she sure is trying.  In fact, she is so much on the go that she is a little behind sitting up unassisted because, well, that's boring!

In matters of speech she has picked up two new consonants which she strings together - Mah Mah Mum Mah Mummmmm and Bah Bah Buh Buh.  Every once in a while she also gives us a clear Mmbop.  The Mama just melts me even though we don't think she has tied the actual meaning to the sound yet.  But it still is the most beautiful sound I've heard.  She also loves to blow air through her lips like she's playing the trumpet.  Bphhhhhhhh!

Last weekend we bought her an exersaucer.  We took her down to the consignment store and tried out all there different models.  She liked the cheapest one.  Good Girl!  She loved it instantly and bounces like a pogo stick in it with the hugest grin on her face.  That is the one word besides milk that I know she recognizes for sure now.  Anytime I look at her and say "Bounce" she starts bouncing whether she is in her exersaucer, on my lap, or crawling around on the floor.

She is still a night owl and thinks that when she goes to bed at 7:00 and wakes up an hour later that this was a nap and it's time to get up and play again.  She nurses a lot at night too and it gets to be a bit much sometimes in the moment but the next day once I'm up and about I am glad for the time and closeness with her at night and get the sense that we're doing the right thing for our family.   Every once in a while I have a low energy day where I definitely need some catch up sleep, but on a daily basis I do not feel like I'm operating on a huge deficite. I just think of it as my nightly oxytocin recharge.

Routines

Caitlyn is 5 months old tomorrow!  They say this is the time where she really starts responding to routines.  What a coincidence, so does her Mommy who will be 35 years old on Wednesday.  :)  Of course we haven't had time to plan one out yet.  So here is a stab at our late morning sleeper who likes to try to stau up until 10:00 p.m. every night.

6:30 A.M.  Mommy get up, shower, breakfast.
Put Away Dishes and Laundry

8:00 A.M.  Mommy go to work

9:30 A.M. Wake up with Daddy
Diaper Change
Get Dressed
Take Vitamin D
BrushTeeth
Nurse

10:00 A.M.  Playtime with Daddy

12:00 P.M.  Lunchtime with Mommy
Walk if weather is nice
Or Face to Face Play
Nurse to Nap

1:00 P.M.  Playtime with Nanny

3:30 P.M.  Wear baby down for nap

5:00 P.M.  Playtime with Mommy

5:30 P.M.  Make & Eat Dinenr

6:30 P.M.  Pajamas, Turn Lights Down, Brush Teeth, Brush Hair
Story Time
Nurse to Sleep

7:00 P.M.  Evening Chores

8:00 P.M.  Mommy and Daddy Time

Meal Planning

Meal planning is definitely harder with a kid.  Not only is there less time to plan and prepare, but the grocery shopping trip every single weekend is a dreadful imposition on precious family time.  I'm trying to create a swift and simple routine.  Less variety.  More convenience.  And really, really, need to get costs down.

BREAKFAST
Oatmeal
Cereal
Eggs, Bacon, Toast
Yogurt & Granola

LUNCH
Sandwiches
Leftovers

SNACKS
Cliff Bars
Apples & Peanut Butter
Pears and Cheese
Chocolate and Almonds

QUICK DINNERS
Tacos
Spaghetti
TJ's Salmon Burgers
TJ's Chow Mein
TJ's Eggplant Parmesan
TJ's Enchiladas
TJ's Marinated Meats

BEVERAGES
Coffee
Milk
Tea

This will be the recurring list of staple items to have on hand.  The once a month we will also do a big freezer meal cookoff with the Zenovichs to have a variety of nutritious convenience meals on hand.  We also have the produce deliveries coming every other week for a constant stream of side dishes.

The Nest

As soon as I reached full term the thought entered my head that my house was, in my mind at least, a disaster zone.  I absolutely could not stand the idea of going into labor and coming home to a messy house.  So this weekend commenced operation "Prepare the Nest" and it was a huge success.  Katie and Zach even came over and devoted an entire Saturday to helping us put things in order and the house looks amazing.  I feel so much more at peace now and a giant step forward toward feeling ready for the birth.  In addition to general cleaning, we managed to accomplish the following:

Cleaned all the floors
Addressed and Sent Thank you Cards
Washed and dried all the diapers for first time use
Cars cleaned out, Washed & Vacuumed
Car Seats Installed
Finishing touches applied to new patio furnishings
Pulled small bookcase into nursery and rearranged and organized books
Acquired new drains for the kitchen sink
Completed all the laundry in the house
Clean sheets on the beds
Opened and sorted weeks/months of mail & paper work
Finished all the shredding
Final items from the office conversion put in storage
Exercise bike moved back into the spare bedroom
Bassinet moved into the master bedroom
Purchased new summer bathrobe for nursing
Returned a nursing tank to Target that didn't fit
Picked up Baby Shower Gift for a friend
Got 5 inch lifts for the spare bed to increase storage space and access

And in between all of that we still managed to eat some awesome meals, spend some quality time on the porch with the dogs, and have one of the best Sunday Afternoon naps I can remember in a long time.  My heart has been ready for Caitlyn for a while, but now my mind and body are too.  Now I just have some "housekeeping" things to try to accomplish at work over the next couple of days which will help prepare THEM for Caitlyn's arrival.  And then we'll just have to see now that things are in ready mode if I can keep everything in order until she decides to join us.

Full Term

On Thursday I hit the 37 week mark.  It is such a relief!  37 weeks is considered Full Term when the lungs are fully developed and she can survive well outside the womb without needing extra medical attention.  Certainly if she had been born a little earlier it would not likely have been life threatening.  But 37 to 42 weeks is the low risk window that I had to make it into in order to give birth at the birth center.  And we MADE IT!!!!

It was a bumpy ride the last few weeks as Caitlyn fully dropped quite early and my cervix was definitely starting to ripen.  I also have what is apparently an extremely active uterus.  I've been having braxton hicks contractions daily for nearly a month now and a few times they have gotten carried away.    BH contractions by themselves are not an indication of labor but they do prepare your body for labor and if they start to become more rhythmic and close together they can lead into labor.  I learned at the advice of my caregivers that the best way to control these if they feel like they are headed in that direction is to take a warm bath along with having a few ounces of wine.  I had to resort to this a couple of times and happily it worked like a charm.

It's so nice to be able to relax now and not worry about what is going on with the contractions or where they are headed.  Yesterday was my 37 week check up and I had contractions for several hours leading up to the appointment.  I started to think how amusing it would be if I went to my appointment and it turned out I was actually in labor.  Eventually my amusement turned into, "Holy $#!}," there is a remote chance this could actually happen today.  So I started to get some nervous excitement and little waves of anxiety that I could feel physically manifesting in my body.  I told my midwife about it at the appointment and she asked if I was scared about the labor and I said No!  The anxiety was not about the labor, it was the realization that OMG, I could actually have a daughter by the end of the day!  Anyway, lest you worry, blood pressure and everything was fine.

But it is starting to hit home that any day now this thing is really going to happen.  I spend lots of time these days thinking about it.  I imagine that moment right after birth when she is laid on my chest for the first time, and bringing her home, and nursing her, and introducing her to the dogs, trying to figure out how to eat and sleep and bath while still meeting her needs.  Of course it's all highly romanticized in my head but who has time to spend worrying about labor when there are so many more important things to focus on.

Good Checkup

34 Week checkup today was excellent and very calming for my new mommy nerves.  The last week has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions dealing with the fear that Caitlyn is going to come too early and we won't get to have the beautiful natural birth we imagined for her in the comfort of the Birth Center.  The waives of hormone surges that come with all these rapid changes in my body are interesting and new too for both me and Don.  Not something I'm used to dealing with.  "Needy" is a new sensation for me.  And it all gets directed at Don.  Figuring out how to communicate and work through that is interesting.  We're on a learning curve.

But the check up today confirmed that everything is healthy and on track.  No signs or indication at this point that things are getting going.  So I can relax and just focus on keeping things comfortable for Caitlyn so she can enjoy her stay in Casa de Utero at least a few more weeks.  She has dropped so low now, even more than before.  My doula says Caitlyn knows what she likes and has made herself so comfortable; she stays in that one spot and isn't going anywhere.  That's my little offspring, getting her house in order so she can be prepared and relaxed before the journey.  Like mother like daughter.

My instructions for the final six weeks are to get plenty of rest, eat lots of protein, minimize sugar and carbs, and drink water like a fish.  I can continue with light to moderate activity but no running any marathons.  OK, I can do that.

34 Weeks

Tomorrow is the 34 week milestone.  Caitlyn is growing so fast now and I feel like my body is changing by the minute.  Everything feels so immanent now that I keep getting momentary episodes of panic that she is going to arrive early on us.  I finally understand the full meaning of the word "anxious" in a way I never have before.  It's the craziest feeling of total anxiety about it happening too soon and absolutely not being able to wait at the same time. Sheer terror and total excitement.  Huge quantities of both and equal parts of both.  I just have to continue to remind myself that she's going to come however she comes and whatever the circumstances I will just make sure that I do everything I can to make her entry into this world a good one.  In the meantime I'm focusing on getting ready for her arrival and maintaining a healthy pregnancy.

In that fashion the nursery is almost complete and for this I am so excited!  The crib arrives today and Katie is finishing up hemming the bedskirt and then all will be complete.  I also ordered a few final essentials that didn't get picked up from our registry today such as the diaper bag and missing pieces of our breast pump.  That is a huge relief towards feeling prepared.

Other things that still need to be done:

- Pack the hospital bag
- Reorganized some cupboards in the kitchen to make room for bottles and such
- Select a Pediatrician
- Lots and lots and lots of thank you cards
- Sort and store larger size baby clothes
- Launder all the new baby clothes and bedding

I'm sure there's more, but progress is happening and it feels good.

Fun in the sun

This weekend we had the most gorgeous weather we have had yet this year and we took full advantage with lots of outdoor time for us.

We started off Saturday Morning with a work party at our Church's Community Garden.  Katy and Zach came along which made it all the more enjoyable.  Our project primarily consisted of filling five raised beds full of dirt.

We brought the dogs along with us and as soon as we started digging Seumas jumped right in.  The little guy dug for two hours straight and only stopped when we made him take a break to drink some water.  He had the time of his life!

Don and Zach and Katy and Zach did most of the shoveling.  Caitlyn and I raked the dirt to level it out once it went into the boxes.

 On Saturday we decided to head out to Padden for some fresh air.  We did a little off leash hiking in the shaded hills.  Then set up for a lazy afternoon BBQ in the park.

Seumas got to play soccer with Don, Brandon, Noal and Zach.  This is definitely his most favorite game.  See how happy and tired he is?

Don got a new sun hat which he is very excited about.

Full of good food and zapped by the sun, we were all ready for a good nap afterwards.

Nursery Update

Don and I awoke Saturday morning (after sleeping in) to find ourselves staring down a whole entire day with no agenda.  That, I have to say, is the best way to start a weekend.  So after brainstorming a few ideas for the day, we decided to take on a project in the nursery.  I attended a friend's daughter's first birthday a few weeks ago and she took me into the nursery and gave me an awesome tip.  She had shelves installed up high around the perimeter of the room and she kept all the toys in small 12" x 12" storage bins on the shelves.  Then she would take one box down at a time for her daughter to play with until she got bored of it.  It was a great system because for one thing, you only ever have one small box of toys making a mess around the house at any given moment.  Plus, every time you pulled a different box down, it was like Christmas for her daughter, discovering new toys all over again.  And even beyond that, the practicality of the idea was perfect for us.  Since we have decided to use the office nook in our Master Suite for the nursery instead of the spare bedroom , the lack of an actual closet in the room and the unusual arrangement of space with the extra wide doorways makes for limited storage options.  So this was a great solution all the way around.  We picked out our shelves and then I discovered the most perfect turquoise storage bins ever that totally went with the theme of the room and matched EXACTLY the beautiful handmade blocks that the Buell family made for Caitlyn with her name on them.  The storage bins cost about as much as the shelves themselves, but after Don frowned at the price tag and asked me the question "how badly do you want them?" I knew my answer right away was REAL BAD.  So we set aside financial responsibility and indulged and I'm so,so  happy with how it turned out that I don't regret the decision one bit.

So it's really starting to look like a real nursery now that's almost ready for Caitlyn's arrival.  We have a  nice glider that I picked up second hand off of craigslist that will go in the back corner by the window and the dresser which we've been using as extra seating in the living room for now.  We still need to pick up a crib mattress and I would like to replace the window valances with something brown and teal and get some blackout blinds.  I have two showers coming up in the next month, one in Seattle and one at Church.  I'm sure those storage bins will fill up fast.

Oh, and Caitlyn, in case you are ever building your own nursery (a long, long, long ways down the road) and find yourself wondering what music daddy listened to while he put your crib and shelves together, the answer is 80's Hair Metal.  I hope you will be proud of this some day.

29 Weeks

Third trimester is off with a bang.  Last Saturday morning I was doing some chores when it felt like I strained a muscle in my lower abdominals.  My first thought was ouch, that can't be good.  My second thought was, crap, I have a lot I wanted to get done today.  So I took a few cautious steps and determined I could keep going and of course spent a good portion of the rest of the day doing projects around the house.  The next morning I noticed that Caitlyn had dropped and was riding a lot lower in my belly.  Like most muscle strains it felt a lot worse after two days, so Monday I decided to check in with my doula and my midwives.  After asking a few questions, particularly considering that I didn't have any other signs of early labor, they all expressed that they were not concerned but that if I wanted to come in they could do a quick check to be extra safe.  So I headed over in the afternoon and got some affirmation that cervix was still nice and closed, blood pressure was excellent, and baby's heart rate was great.  I was advised to take it easy for a few days and that a warm bath or heating pad on a low setting might be soothing.  After a few days of minimizing activity I'm feeling much better and can't wait to get back to water aerobics so I can sleep better.  Hips have been stiffening up at nights and leg cramps are becoming more regular.  Ahhh, the joys of pregnancy.  Unfortunately when I arrived at the pool for my first night back tonight someone had thrown up in the pool and the class was canceled.  Bummer! 

In other news, our good friends Katy and Zach arrived on Monday for their relocation to Bellingham!  Not only are they good people and great friends, but they are Caitlyn's godparents also and we are so happy to have them in our lives again.  They have been staying with us while they get on their feet and look for a place.  It has been a lot of fun reconnecting and catching up and we are taking delight in the possibilities and opportunities before them in this newest adventure.  Cordy and Seumas could not be more excited to have house guests.  Seumas actually has someone to play with!  This morning after Don, Katy and I had already gotten up and started into our daily routine, I caught both Cordy and Seumas sitting outside of the door of the guest bedroom just staring at it and waiting for Zach to wake up too.  He is definitely the life of the party as far as the dogs are concerned.  Won't the pups be so sad when they get their own place.  At least they will be frequent visitors!