The Big Girl Bed

     So, as I have mentioned before, we have been working towards Laura sleeping in her 'big girl' room in her 'big girl' bed for about 6 months now. Since we started trying to get pregnant. In August. We started by taking the side off her crib. That went okay until she fell out of bed, maybe 8 inches to the floor. She was apparently traumatized by that and refused to sleep in the crib again until we caved and put the side back up. We tried again a few months later and bought a guard rail so she couldn't roll out. (In hindsight, I guess we should have done that first). But she remembered, and still refused to sleep in the crib. I wanted to 'power through', and so for probably a month we would let her get out and sleep on the floor behind her door every night. We thought she might get tired of sleeping on the floor and realize that a) she was safe in the crib now with the guard rail up, and/ or b) her bed was much more comfortable than the floor. But neither of those things happened, and after a terrible, 2-hour long battle in the middle of the night one night, we once again caved and put the side of the crib back on. Josh vowed that he was NOT taking it off again until our second child was ready for a big kid bed. Fair enough.
     After our Christmas guests left, we finished converting the spare room into Laura's Big Girl Room, complete with Big Girl Bed. We gave her a few days of getting used to the new room, playing in there, and reading, etc, and then tried having her sleep in there. The first night didn't go very well. I thought that she might fall asleep more easily if I laid in the bed with her. That was dumb. And wrong. I wanted her to fall asleep in the bed so she wouldn't get out when I left because that room needs a new window and is a bit chilly, and I didn't want her sleeping on the floor with no blankets. But, she just used it as an hour-long stalling tactic, and I ended up putting her back in the crib to finally go to sleep that night, anyway. The next night went pretty much the same way. So we gave it another break for a week or two. I was starting to get a little stressed about it because I also want to start potty training soon, and I don't want to throw too much at her at once. We only have a few more months, and I want all of these new changes to be relatively established before the new baby comes!
      A friend of mine offered for us to borrow her crib since she isn't using it anymore, should worse actually come to worst and we needed two cribs. So that was a relief to have a back-up plan, but I still feel like my almost 2.5 year old shouldn't need to sleep in a crib by then. And maybe she won't. But, if I have learned anything from being Laura's Mom, it is that what I have planned may or may not be how it actually turns out, depending on what Laura has planned.
     So, this past week, we gave the Big Girl Bed yet another go. I asked her to stay in her bed when we were saying goodnight, and, lo and behold, she actually did! I went and checked on her before we went to bed, and she was, indeed, sleeping in her bed. And when I got up in the morning, I poked my head in again, and she was still there! I was so happy I could have danced! When she woke up, I made sure to make a big deal and give her lots of praise for staying in her bed all night. She seemed pleased with herself. I also debated about letting her eat a cupcake for breakfast. The following night, she got out of bed and tried to sleep behind the door, but when I went to bed I moved her and she stayed again for the whole night. The rest of the week has been much the same, so I feel like we might actually finally be making progress! I think one of the nights she woke up and slept on the floor again, but one night out of the whole week isn't too bad. And after I was thinking about it, it will be summer when the baby comes, so her room won't be so cold, and if she chooses to sleep on the floor it won't be such a big deal. So fingers crossed things keep going well!

I found her like this one morning, and thought she had suffocated herself, but she was still breathing, so we just ditched that pillow after that! Yikes. Crazy kid.

Some Disjointed Ramblings About Baby #2 and the Ultrasound

      Sunday (yesterday) marked the halfway point of our pregnancy! On Friday we had Baby #2's "big" ultrasound - you know, the one where it takes like half an hour and they check to make sure your baby has two kidneys, ten fingers, and ten toes. And also the one where you can find out the sex of your baby. All along I have said that I didn't want to know this time (since we found out with Laura) because I want to have at least one 'surprise' baby. And Josh says this is my last shot. So, although he wanted to know, I said we weren't finding out if he isn't going to let me do this again. I have also said all along that I want to have a natural birth this time, and if we find out the sex beforehand I feel like we are jinxing it. We found out with Laura, and I ended up having to have a C-section. The two are not directly correlated or anything, but I still feel like knowing the sex beforehand would take away from the natural birth experience that I so badly want.
     I must admit, although I was very excited when we found out I was pregnant this time, I have been notably less excited during the rest of the pregnancy. I feel like I am so busy and preoccupied with Laura, and life in general these days, that I often don't have much time to think about this new baby. I often get a weird feeling in my abdomen and start wondering what is wrong with me, until I remember that, oh yeah, I have another baby in there. So, I feel a bit guilty because I spent so much of my pregnancy with Laura being super excited for things like The Big Ultrasound, whereas this time, not so much. However, for the few days leading up to the ultrasound, I was looking forward to seeing the little thumper again. :)
     Once I got in there, the very first thing I told the tech was that we didn't want to know the sex of the baby. After a few minutes, I was highly tempted to ask her if she had noticed, though. But I refrained. She assured me that any gender reference she made when talking about the baby was not indicative of anything either way. And later on she said she didn't even bother looking. She took all the measurements she needed, and at 19 weeks and 5 days, the baby is measuring 20 weeks and 4 days. At this point in my pregnancy with Laura, she was measuring 4 days behind (and ended up only being 5 pounds 14 ounces at her full-term birth). So, I am hopeful that this baby will be less tiny - maybe somewhere in the 6.5 - 7.5 pound range. :) I also went and scouted out some more newborn cloth diapers before the ultrasound, which are so cute and tiny! It helped ramp up my excitement. Another thing that has helped with my excitement is the fact that Laura is starting into the terrible twos. She throws things and spits on things (enraging!) when she is mad or frustrated, both of which drive me insane. Then I go to my calm place and think about the fact that I soon will have a new baby who won't be so defiant and beligerent for another 2+ years. :)
     The ultrasound tech asked me if there was anything wrong with my pregnancy with Laura, and when I mentioned the few minor things, she specifically checked them for Baby #2 to reassure me, and said everything was looking good. No off-kilter placenta, or anything! :)
     All in all, it was very exciting to see our baby again, and even more reassuring that everything was looking well. I feel a lot more connected to the baby now, and excited, in general. Looking forward to meeting you in a few more months!

     When Josh and Laura were allowed in to see the baby, the tech tried to angle around to get a front shot of the baby's face. She warned us that they weren't very cute at this point since they don't have much fat on their faces, and then this is the shot she showed us:

 

I laughed and said it looked like Jack Skelington. Laura proceeded to say, "Funny baby!" for the next 5 minutes or so. <3 She is also convinced it is a boy. I'm positive she does not know what a 'boy' is.

   

In the News This Week

     I haven't posted in a while, because, well, I haven't really had much of interest to blog about.
We have been laying pretty low since the holidays, not doing much. We are New Year's dieting again (mainly Josh, because I am pregnant) and he has lost about 6 pounds - not too bad. I have gained one. :) Laura has continued to be her crazy self lately - we've had good days and bad, terrible-twos days starting to crop up. She is learning several new words per day most days now, and it's so cute and funny what she comes up with. :) (Except when she throws her toys in the toilet and Josh drops an F-bomb in front of her and she repeats it.)
   Baby #2 (Thumper) has been making his/ her presence well known the last few weeks, and seems to protest when I lie on my stomach, or sit in crunched up, uterus-squishing position. Josh even said he thought he felt a kick this past week. I've also noticed that carrying Laura around is becoming more difficult - she has to be perched up higher now. We have our big anatomy scan ultrasound on Friday afternoon, so if we want to know the sex of the baby, we could theoretically find out then. I still think I want to have a surprise this time, and I think I have convinced Josh, too. We found out with Laura, and Josh says this is our last baby, so this is my last chance to have a surprise. I would be happy with either sex for a variety of reasons, but lately I have been leaning ever so slightly more towards wanting a boy. Laura is set that there is a boy baby in there, and has professed so on a number of occasions (usually without being prompted!) And even when we do ask her, she sticks to her guns and says boy. I am 100% sure that she does not know what a 'boy' is. :)
    

New Year's Organization

My first post of 2012! I have kept up my blogging for a whole year now! I find it a good way to keep track of little things that go on in our life, and as a venting mechanism sometimes. Planning to keep it up in the new year.

     So, Josh and I are back to work today after being off for a week and a half. In that time, I am happy to report, we actually completed every task on our current to do list! For the past many months, our house has been in a state of chaos in one way or another. Okay, chaos might be a strong word, but it definitely wasn't all clean or organized the way I like it to be.
     It all started when we had someone come out to do a quote for us for A/C in the summer. The salesperson also strongly recommended we switch to a tankless water heater instead of our electric. We agreed. And ever since they came to remove the electric water heater from my well-organized utility room, our basement has been a disaster. We had to take down some crucial shelving to make room for the tankless heater on the wall, and everything somehow became an unorganized heap of mess on the floor. For a long time. We finally got around to (affording and) buying some pantry-type cupboards for storage in there a few months ago, and I finally had time to sift through the large pile of things on the floor to be put away. But there was still more stuff. Plus, we had to find new homes for a lot of things we had been storing in the guest room, which was to become Laura's new big girl room. Several shelving and closet rod purchases later, I am happy to say that everything once again has a home, AND we even made room for all of the evicted items from Laura's room. I even had the motivation to clean out and organize our crawl space a few weeks ago (nesting, anyone?). After six months, I am almost in a state of disbelief that my house is all finally organized (and mostly clean) again. Love that!
Happy New Year!