Thursday, March 28, 2019

Baby #2 Maternity/Family Photos

38 weeks and waiting on Little Miss to join the family!
I'm still hoping to make it to 40 or even 41 weeks, but we'll see! I feel a bit on edge since I never really went into labor with August, so I'm not sure what to expect! I hope it's not quite yet, but more so, I just hope she gets here safely. Feeling very blessed.

Monday, March 25, 2019

Family weekend

We had such a nice weekend.
I'd wanted to do a last family of 3 trip, and we were able to do a one-night getaway to Frankenmuth. Pretty close by, and we stayed at a hotel that had a kiddie pool. We arrived in the afternoon, shared a huge pretzel with cheese dip, then went to the pool. Splashed for an hour or so. Then went into town for dinner. August went straight to bed and Doug & I sat on the balcony for a little bit talking. The next morning, got breakfast, and back to the pool. Then it was time to check out, you couldn't swim after check out- but they had an arcade/slide area that we hung out a bit in.
No actual pool pictures, but he LOVED it. That was Friday and he's still telling us occasionally: "I splashed in the water!", "Mama liked it?", "Daddy liked it?", "August liked it!" the same 4 sentences every time. Lol. So it's got me wondering if we can squeeze in another night there?? Or if I should just look for a pool around here, all I keep finding is just pools for swim lessons :/ He didn't even go to the squirting parts, just the shallow water, so at least the pool requirements are not that much. This summer I'll definitely be taking him to the splash pad, last summer I spent mostly on the couch with my throw-up bucket, so hopefully we can make it out - even though we'll have a new baby.
Anyway, so we came home and got our maternity photos done. Was supposed to do that a couple days ago, but was so cloudy and cold. It was still cold, but at least it was sunny, I was glad he could reschedule. So waiting to see those, hope to get some good ones!
Another thing I'd been looking forward to was the meeting of my cousin's fiance.
Another cousin hosted a dinner/get together yesterday and it was so nice. Catching up with family and meeting him. He was entertaining all the kids and just seemed like such a nice, happy, genuine guy. I could not be happier for her.
A couple family pics:
My cousin's kids are the sweetest
Sisters!
Anyway, it was a very nice weekend, I'm thankful.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

life lately

It's been pretty busy lately without a ton to show for. One huge thing was we started the path towards rental property #2. Our offer was accepted, then we had an inspection, found some problems, Doug spent hours on the phone and emailing contractors to get estimates within the 24-48 hours left of how much it would be to get things fixed. Then the sellers would only come down $1k so we walked away. When you have a rental property you need to stay within a certain limit to make it work and it just seemed too tight. Lessons learned, but pretty frustrating.
I'm 37 weeks now and have got a few things crossed off my 'before baby checklist':
- Buy newborn diapers. - bought one pack!
- Make freezer meals. - made 6 meals
- Natural Birth Workshop class. - took it, learned a couple things, and enjoyed a day of bonding/relaxing/being massaged by Doug :)
- Pack the hospital bag. - started!
- Family of 3 getaway. - going to a hotel with a waterpark this weekened!
I have all the newborn clothes washed, and my brother sent me a HUGE box of hand-me-downs from his 3 girls, so the newborn and 0-3 are all washed and the rest is sorted. It was so sweet to see little outfits from my first baby niece and now my little girl will wear them.
I wish I'd never been introduced to these pretzels. THEY ARE SO GOOD AND ADDICTING!!!
Other news, August has peed on the potty twice now!! I thought for sure poop would be easier since it's such a 'clear feeling' when you have to go and he always tells us, "August pooping". But both times we get his little potty, (usually when mama is going potty), and I help him get on. Then he gets on and off several times to look in it and fake grunts, which is adorable. And then I always think he's just playing around so I go do a bit of laundry or whatever and both times a couple minutes later I get back and there is pee in there! I will say he is very motivated by the M&M he gets if he goes. But hey, whatever works. We really haven't been pushing potty training too much at all. With the new baby coming they say a regression is super likely, our doctor also said boys are more ready closer to 3, and honestly it's almost more work getting out the potty and taking his pants/diaper off multiple extra times. But it's nice to be able to kind of get started.
Haha, mother/son bonding.
Today we are also getting some maternity/family pictures taken. It's not very nice outside, cloudy, but hopefully we can still get some good ones!

Monday, March 4, 2019

Productive Weekend

I was a solo-parent this weekend while Doug flew to Florida to find us a *hopefully* no to low rust new vehicle. He'd been researching all weekend on forums and with Consumer Reports and had a list of 6-8 vehicles to check out, by the time the weekend came and he got down there several had sold and he was down to 2! So that was a bit nerve wracking. Then an entire day was wasted with a flight delay so by the time he got there the dealer was already closed. *note to self- ALWAYS ALWAYS non-stop flight when possible*.
Anyway, me and my boy had a pretty good weekend and I actually got a lot done too.
My last post was all about how I have a bunch to do before baby comes. And I'm either at that point in pregnancy where you just wake up a lot, or it is my dumb "busy brain" that keeps me awake worrying about packing a hospital bag, where to store clothes, etc. So a couple of those things got checked off, or at least worked on this weekend.
This was 1.5 tubs and several bags of Salvation Army clothes that I cut tags off and sorted into newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, and 12 months. It was sweet to unpack things that I had bought, yes in my early 20s for my "hope chest" of being a mother someday and wanting a little girl. I can't believe poor college student Anne spent her money like that (mostly clearance from Target and Kohls) but still I was spending money on a baby that wouldn't end up existing for another 15 years!! Guess it shows that desire was there for a long time.
And I washed all the newborn and size 0-3.
So I've been stressed about where to store it all since August's dressers are full of his stuff. But there is a little space in his closet for some of her stuff to hang (especially when spring comes and I can pack away a good couple inches wide of his snowpants/winter coats!). And I'm going to buy one of those underbed storage drawers and just keep her clothes under the crib. Not ideal to bend down, but hey, better than cluttered over-stuffed drawers.
Another thing I did was make some freezer meals.
We did some grocery shopping
I know you can't read these, but had printed out 6 recipes and then had 6 labeled gallon bags and went through one by one cutting and putting in the ingredients.
Big pile of peelings/scraps
An hour and a half later I had 6 recipes to freeze and be ready for the crockpot. BBQ chicken, no-fuss potato soup, coconut curry chicken, tuscan white bean soup, salsa chicken, and one more I guess I'm forgetting. I also bought a couple packs of ready to bake yeast rolls to go with some of them. And at least I'll have 6 meals for when baby is here.
I also started a hospital packing list and started getting stuff together for that too.
And we did have some fun too. We had his 3 little boy friends over Friday night to play while their parents went out and then Saturday we went over to Liz's for dinner and for another boy play date.
Boys in stripes!
I kept laughing because we have the kid sized car that August loves, and Liz has this little grocery cart version for a doll, and August kept trying to get it. "Help it!!" I just was imagining him like, "hey, who shrunk my car?!?"
The next day was waffles, blueberries, and church.
And pretty soon after we got home and were sitting down to lunch, Daddy was home!
The new car seems pretty low-rust and we are thankful to have Doug back home safe. Hopefully it will be a good vehicle for our family. It's always stressful spending a big chunk of money all in one blow, but I know Doug did a ton of research so that makes it better. No more accidents!