The best laid plans.......

So updates on sweet baby, Laine!

1. She quit napping. Say WHAT? She took a quick transition from sleeping ALL DAY to taking 30 minute catnaps and about killed her mommy (me). At first, I tried to roll with it. If she is only sleeping 30 minutes, it must be all she needs, right? Ugh. No. As the days progressed, she got more and more irritable and cranky and evenings were ALREADY so difficult, even before the catnap debacle. So what could we do to make her naps longer? HOLD HER of course! What a lucky baby! It was our only option! Nightmare! After a few weeks of that misery, we finally gave pacifiers an attempt again. She just couldn't keep them in well and we eventually just kind of quit using/trying them. Well, one desperate afternoon, I asked David to bring home like 10 brands and we found one that she can keep in while napping. Changed our lives overnight. She is now taking 1-2 hour naps in her crib, 4 times per day. Praise the Lord. But dang, that was hard. She still can't keep the pacifier in while sitting upright, only while laying on her back. Eh. Whatever. She is napping again, that's all I really wanted. So now I rock her with the pacifier and put her down asleep with it in her mouth. Yes, the "putting her down awake" plan went right out the window, we'll revisit later. Ha. In the meantime, this baby needs to nap, however we get there. Best laid plans, right?

2. She is 10 weeks old! Currently sleeping 7-7:30pm to 4, 5 or 6AM. Then she eats and goes back to sleep until about 7-8ish. I'm pretty thrilled with this progress since she is just 10 weeks! I feel pretty rested. I am so thankful she is a good bedtime sleeper. Especially when we went through the catnap debacle! I almost lost my bananas just for naps, can you imagine if we combined that with bedtime issues? I'd surely be in a mental institution. The Lord never gives us more than we can handle, right? :)

3. She is still spitting up like CRAZY. We are just trying to roll with it. They say it should resolve itself by 9 months. And she isn't uncomfortable, she is a happy spitter. Ugh. I have burp rags all over my house! And I constantly smell like baby vomit.

4. She seems to be more pleasant in the evenings. But we can't tell for sure because we moved her bedtime up to 7-7:30PM. At this age, she can't really be awake comfortably for more than 1 hour at a time, and with the way her naps were falling, an early bedtime fell into place naturally. Works for me, I enjoy adult only time in the evenings. Aidan has been going to bed at 7:30PM too! He dropped his last nap, just before his 5th birthday, so earlier bedtime it is!

5. She screams bloody murder in the car. Seriously causes me so much anxiety to just KEEP DRIVING while she is flipping out. This is when I wish she would take a paci, while sitting upright. We'll keep trying.

6. She smiles CONSTANTLY. I LOVE THIS! She is starting to show signs of wanting to laugh. Right now, they are just small grunts but I can tell she is making an effort. I'm looking forward to her first laugh!

How about the rest of us? We get so baby consumed lately. There are three others in this household!

For me, I started working out with a personal trainer twice a week. Her name is Melissa, she is an animal. Literally. I go twice a week on the days that David is home in the AM. I usually fed the baby when she wakes (more often lately it has been about 4:30AM), then I put her back to sleep, then I pump, get dressed and head out the door! I could go back to sleep for 30-45 min but that's impossible once I'm up, so I meet Melissa anywhere from 6-6:30AM and we workout for an hour. It is AWESOME. She also has a workout plan for me on the days that I don't work out with her. And I'm eating very, very healthy! So my body is changing already and I'm feeling SO motivated. It is amazing how hard it is to work out with a personal trainer. I would never, ever push myself that hard by myself! I took before photos and plan to put them on this blog once I have AFTER photos to go with them! :) It was harder to lose weight after this second baby. It started coming off quick, then it stalled and since this is our last baby, I decided to get serious about getting this weight off before too much time passes!

David is doing well. Working at the FWFD and then coming home to help me with baby! I SO needed his help during the few weeks when she was napping only 30 min. He is enjoying station 5 and has run on lots of fires lately! Here are a couple shots that were taken on one of the fires he was on lately!

Click Here - click picture 3822, that is David

Click Here - click picture 3821, that is David with a fireman that he works with.

Fun??! Love those! :)

Aidan is doing well. Growing like a weed, such a sensitive, boy. I am so blessed by his sweet, kind nature. Kindergarden is coming right up. He is growing up too fast! He is writing his name in preschool, can count to 40! Knows his letters and can spell easy words, like TOY! :) He is learning so much every day. He wakes up BEFORE his sweet baby sister and finally started coming out of his room, instead of screaming for us on the baby monitor. Yes! We still have a baby monitor in his room because he would NOT come out on his own in the mornings! It was the only way for us to know he was up or if he needed us, because he would not come out! Well he is finally a big boy and comes out and comes RIGHT to my side of the bed every morning. It scares me. I'm not used to it! He is so funny. We tried to teach him to turn on the TV (pre-set to cartoons the night before) and get some milk out of the fridge. He was not having it. Now he tricks me and says he is hungry for breakfast RIGHT NOW, which means I need to get up and come out. He doesn't like to hang out by himself in the living room. We tried though. Ha! Sweet boy.

Here are some cute recent photos (Aidan is in the cheesy photo smile stage! Ugh!):

Pictures!

David and I got both kids down by 7:30PM last night. We had some ADULT TIME! Man, it felt good to just have David and Jessica time! Life is SLOWLY getting back to normal! And just as I type that, I jinx it. That is what happens in baby land.


Laine's new bouncy seat! Pretend you don't see the pile of laundry and makeshift trash bag hanging on our bathroom door. Gotta have a place for those middle of the night diaper changes! Ha!


Aidan at Anika's birthday party this last Saturday. I thought this was funny, he was one of perhaps 3 boys total. Hilarious.


Laine chillin on my lap! She squinted when the flash went off. I thought it was too cute. DON'T BOTHER ME!


Flowers from David on my birthday! Sweet hubby.


Great photo of Aunt Stacy and Laine! She came to visit after Christmas! It was WONDERFUL to have her here!


Fell asleep on the changing table. This kid sleeps CONSTANTLY. Except when we go to small group. ;)


First smile that we could catch on a camera! So sweet.


Beautiful baby. I know most parents think they have the most beautiful children in the world. :) I'm pretty sure it is true in my case. Ha!


And Aidan, Laine and I on our first walk. We had a couple days of really warm weather, and we took advantage! This picture also means a lot to me because it was the first day that I officially felt like myself again. The crazy was nearly over, the sun was shining, the baby was sleeping better. We were just settling into a routine finally (I mean, as far as routines can go with a newborn) and I just felt BETTER this day. I like to say that I came out of the FOG finally!


Laine will be 6 weeks officially on Wednesday. Here is the latest!

- she is sleeping pretty good! I am somewhat reluctant to post this, because when you PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGE something good that your baby is doing, it is guaranteed to change that day. So let's just say, we're doing better. HA! No seriously, for the past two nights, she has given us a 6-6.5 hour stretch initially, then a 3 hour stretch afterward. Sunday we had small group and we got home late (and keeping her out late was a DISASTER). She slept from 9-3:30am, then from 4-6:45AM. Last night, she slept from 7:30PM (a more regular bedtime) and woke at 1:15AM, then slept from 1:45am to 5AM after eating. So I'll take it. We didn't make it to bed until about 9:30AM last night, so I JIPPED myself of the opportunity to sleep for 6 glorious hours, but it was just nice to hang with David alone for the evening. So worth it! But we're proud of how she is doing. I'm sure there will be a regression soon, but whatever. Just HEADING in the right direction at this point is fine with me. :) Not bad for a 6 week old baby!

- naps. She sleeps CONSTANTLY still. Yesterday it was all day long. She woke from her last nap at 5:30PM and of course was fussy the remainder of the evening. She is SO FUSSY in the PM. SO FUSSY. All hands on deck. Aidan was this way too! This is the reason for the early bedtime. I have NO IDEA how some babies can stay up until 11 on purpose? The PM seems to be the witching hour for us, it is a miracle to just get the bath accomplished during this time! Off to bed, EARLY. I know it would make sense for us to put her down later and get the first stretch of sleep to align with when WE sleep, but we just can't make it. Even with a nap that runs into the PM, no matter how recent the nap, she is still horrendously fussy ANYTIME after 6! I'll be happy when we pass through this stage! Ha!

- smiles! She is starting to smile! We LOVE LOVE LOVE her smile. It isn't very regular or predictable at this point, but when we get one, it is OH SO CUTE!

- falling asleep on her own. She is doing fantastic at this. David is the baby whisperer for naps and bedtime. Me? Not so much. He can get her down awake without a single fuss. I'm seriously jealous. Tonight I am letting him put her down for bed and I'm going to OBSERVE so that I can learn. Not fair. For me, she fusses and it takes a little bit of time, she resists. And quite frequently, she starts to cry and I go to her and rock her to sleep. It's not ALL bad, sometimes I hit the jackpot and she just lays down and goes to bed without a single peep, but not as often as I would like. But I'm going to take notes from my amazing husband and try to do it this same way! I think I put her down TOO awake, David puts her down just BARELY awake and it could be making the difference. It's ok, no biggie. David is the bomb at putting a baby to sleep. But he doesn't have breasts! So I win. :) HAHAHAHA KIDDING I'm just thankful to have a husband who helps. We can always learn different things from each other!

- she moved to her own room and crib last week. She is a seriously LOUD sleeper sometimes and she seems to LOVE the comfort of her room for her naps (sometimes she konks out in there for 2.5 hours!) and so we took the leap a bit early. And boy are we glad we did! She is doing great, I think the consistency in sleeping locations is helping! And David and I sleep better, not hearing every little peep, although we can hear her when she needs us on the baby monitor! When she wakes in the middle of the night to eat, David gets up and gets her for me and I feed her in our bedroom still. Then after we are finished, I swaddle her back up, rock her for a couple more minutes in her room then put her back down. I think it is working ok so far! After the first night, I wasn't sure if we were going to keep her in there (she didn't sleep very well) but we stuck it out and she is doing beautifully now. FOR NOW. :) I reserve the right to flip flop on you.

That's all I can think of for now! David wants me to upload some pics from his phone this week, so there should be more coming soon. Also, we are doing photos with Jenn at Storyteller Photography on Friday, so I hope to get some great pics of Aidan and Laine soon!

Laine - 4 weeks on December 28th

At her 1 month appt, Laine weighed in at 10 pounds, 6 oz! She is already growing like a weed! I want to try to document our joys/wins and challenges as we go. It has been amazing to be able to go back through Aidan's posts in 2006 and see what kind of challenges we had and at what age! This blog is seriously like a baby book on steriods! I need to get it printed and bound soon, there are over 5 years of posts on this blog!

So Laine was 10 pounds, 6 oz at her 4 week appt. She has grown out of her 0-3 months clothes and is wearing just 3 months currently! She swaddles now exclusively for bedtime and naps. Initially, she could do it either way, but not anymore! She fights the swaddle but can nap much longer (2 hours as opposed to 45 min, which makes for a much happier baby) with the swaddle and we haven't even really tried bedtime without it. Who wants to test anything out at bedtime? ha! She eats every 2 to 3 hours. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. We just go with it! Her latch can be poor sometimes, causing her to get wind while eating and making spitting up a real problem. We are constantly readjusting, trying to improve. Some feeds are awesome, others are more challenging! Aidan was a total champ in this dept, so you can imagine my confusion with this learning process with Laine!

I would say the first 4 weeks of life for our little one have been a complete blur. BLUR. First, you come home and you are in a state of bliss! Then the baby settles in, gets a bit more used to you, starts to show signs of fussiness (especially in the evenings!). Then the job seems to get exponentially harder. And then the days pass and you realize that you've been in your pj's for 4 days straight and maybe only showered twice during that period! It's pretty tough. And it is pretty tough with a toddler to take care of on the side! People with 2+ babies, I am not sure how they do it. Sometimes, when David was at the FWFD, I had problems just getting Aidan his dinner ready! And we've had to skip books on occasion at bedtime. Sweet Aidan has been so flexible and helpful during this time though. He is such a great big brother!

So as of yesterday, Laine is 5 weeks old! Sleeping is going ok. Probably right on track for her current age! Some nights are better than others! Initially, she slept very poorly on her back. We used her Rock N Play sleeper a few nights and she gave us some 5 hour stretches in it. But I decided to kick that to the curb after her sleep went back to the 2 hour waking schedule and she seemed a bit uncomfortable a bit in it around 4AM. I think initially it gave her a secure feeling, but it isn't really a bed so I decided if she is sleeping the same amount of time in the Rock N Play as she is in the crib, I should probably stick with the crib to avoid any bad habits that might be hard to break later! So, we've been sleeping exclusively in the Pac N Play and has gotten better sleep with each passing week! We've gotten a few 5 hour stretches out of her and also had a few nights that were 1.5 hour stretches all night (HARD!)! So, I guess we just go with the flow and allow her to get some more age under her belt and she will do better! We put books under the legs of one side of the PAC n play to keep her elevated with her reflux and I think it helps. This too is temporary!

We have started encouraging her to fall asleep on her own for naps during the day. Now that things are SLOWLY settling down and getting into a routine, we decided to encourage naps in her crib, as opposed to her swing/rock n play all the time, per the recommendation of our pediatrician. Nothing crazy, but we swaddle, rock and cuddle until she is drowsy then put her down awake. She has fussed a few times but is learning to go to sleep on her own. Yesterday, during her afternoon nap she FLIPPPED out and so we aborted that mission quickly. But her morning nap went without a hitch or even a fuss. I imagine some days will be really easy and others will be harder :) But she is just 5 weeks old, which is far too little to have a war of wills, especially when crying is involved. But I think if we keep on keeping on and just continue to encourage, she will eventually get it, without any type of extensive CIO down the road. But I think fussing is ok. There is a big difference between fussing and wailing at nap time. Today, for example, she is napping in her crib as we speak and she fussed on and off for 6 min before falling asleep. I think that is pretty good and not too dramatic. I'm not above aborting though and letting her nap in the swing if need be. After all, we're just beginning. It would be great to report in a few weeks that she has picked up the skill and can nap and go down for bed without a peep! But nothing is predictable at this age, so I may report back that she is now exclusively napping in swing! ha!

She is a sweet joy, starting to smile already and beginning to be more content during wake times. And I feel like I'm slowly getting back to my normal self, bit by bit. I had a few days of feeling just exhausted and crazy and I'm thankful for friends and relatives who are understanding and let me bend their ear OVER AND OVER about how hard it is. I'm sure they are SO SICK OF ME!

Anyway, I'll upload more pictures this week. :) Hope everyone is doing great!

3 weeks old Wednesday, December 22nd

So Laine was 3 weeks yesterday. I've attached some recent photos of her. The last one is a few weeks ago, but is a good one and I must have left it off the last post! So I wanted to include!
We are doing well! Laine decided on her 3 week birthday to go from waking every two hours to giving me a 5 hour stretch, so for that I am thankful! She gave me ANOTHER 5 hour stretch last night too! So she went down at 10, woke at 3 then slept until 8:30AM. I FEEL LIKE A NEW WOMAN! But I certainly don't expect it to continue, but WOW, I needed that!

So some things about Laine currently:

-She spits up constantly. It's pretty bad! She isn't uncomfortable, the doctor says that as long as it isn't projectile and is NOT causing her pain, that it is normal (?) so we're just trying to treat it as best as we can (burping, etc.) but it isn't unusual for us to change clothes 4-5 times per day! Ugh! And sometimes, we can pat her back and/or lean her over for a burp for upwards of 15 minutes and get NOTHING, only to have her spit up immediately after we set her down! It is a challenge, but I know it will improve over time. In addition to this, we have her sleeping in her Rock 'N Play for the incline. We were just getting uncomfortable putting her on her back in the pack 'n play and then hear her spit up all over her own face. And we know they won't DROWN in their own spit up, but it was enough that an incline was obviously needed! I do have anxiety about her getting used to the Rock 'N Play for sleeping, but we are more comfortable with the incline and it really seems to help. I'd rather the spit up end up on her clothes than all over her face. :(
-Her umbilical cord came off, she can now have regular baths! She enjoys them much more than the sponge bath! We are contemplating giving them to her every evening to wash off the baby spit up smell! And it helps get her to sleep a little earlier when we give her one. Her baby skin doesn't need it daily, but it seems to help in other ways!
-She is still napping most of the day away. Sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, and eat. All day long!
-She has taken to the pacifier! She can't really keep it in that long, but it helps calm her down when she is fussy, especially in the car! Anyone have any secrets for teaching a baby to keep the pacifier in better? It usually falls out of her mouth after about 5-10 minutes.
-We've had so many friends come by with meals since we had Laine! Brittany, Brooke, Sarah, Jill, Krista and Shannon so far! It has been such a blessing! Just when I start to feel a little overwhelmed with doing everything and don't think there is enough time in the day to make a real meal for my family, another friend magically appears at my door! We are thankful for dear friends!

Aidan playing with his sister. He is just so sweet with her!


Aidan holding his sister!


Aidan the reindeer, at his school Christmas party!


Sweet baby toes!


Alert!


Sarah and Addison meeting Laine!


Another alert photo! Oh hi there!


Our bedroom! The make shift nursery! I wanted to include this for the memory. Pillows, sheets that have been peed on, diapers, wipes, spit rags, this is our nighttime battleground! Ha!


David rocking Laine this AM for her nap. And Scooter guarding David, like usual. ha! Loyal dog.


Aidan holding his sister again!


Self-portrait!


Nana and her two grandbabies!

Happy Birth Day, Laine! And the first week.......

Well, we are home and adjusting! Life is dramatically different than it once was! If I think too much about this, I get anxiety. But if I just roll with it and not give it too much thought, I can easily remain in a state of bliss for days on end! Laine came into this world on November 30th, 2011. She was a big girl, weighing in at 9 pounds, 1 oz with a full head of black hair. She is extremely TINY though, and I have a hard time believing she was 9 pounds when I am cuddling/holding that sweet baby girl! But you know what they say, bigger babies eat better and sleep better and I have to say that is true. I'm officially on the big baby bandwagon!!

So we had Laine via planned c-section. This was pretty much one of the more scary experiences of my life. I think it was so scary because I was totally alert and oriented throughout the entire process. With Aidan, I was heavily medicated and very tired after 12 hours of labor. The C-section then was just a blur. This time was very, very different. The spinal caused me serious claustrophobia and I was nearing a panic state almost the entire time. But I am so completely blessed by my doctor and staff who did the C-section, they were so compassionate and caring and so ATTENTIVE. The CRNA who administered by spinal was so confident in his ability, kept me calm, reassured me, held my hand. He was AWESOME. My doctor was just the most AMAZING human on the planet and talked to me throughout the entire procedure. I get teary when I think about the teamwork and SINCERELY CARING from the medical professionals I received that day. I was on the verge of a near panic attack the entire time and the only reason why I didn't completely LOSE it is because of those individuals in that OR. I'm BLOWN AWAY. I chose the right doctor, the right hospital and it made such a huge difference for me/us.

So onward with the c-section details! Laine was born at 10:59AM, 9 pounds and 1 oz. Her body temp was a bit low so I didn't get to hold her immediately afterward, so here is a pic of just me after the c-section. Usually, this pic includes a baby, but they were very focused on keeping her on the warmer to get her body temp up! Ha so here I am.





So Laine came into this world with a head full of black hair and screaming her lungs off. What a joyous sound those screams were! We went to recovery following the procedure and all the family who was there got to meet little Laine for the first time. We started breast feeding right away. It was a slow go at first. As you know, there isn't a lot of "milk" right away, only colostrum. And being that she was already 9 pounds, she was HUNGRY. There was initially obvious irritation at the breast. Looking back on how things went, it seems so clear now, how she was showing frustration while breastfeeding. But at the time, we just were doing what we thought was best! As it turns out, it wasn't quite enough for her and she started losing body weight (which is pretty normal for babies anyway, but she ended up losing a lot). On day 3, she had lost over 10% of her body weight and everyone started showing signs of concern, so we scrambled and got the lactation consultant in as soon as we could. She taught us methods for increasing and moving our colostrum down quicker, thereby bringing in our milk quicker. She was EXCELLENT! Anyway, we had a new strategy and plan, Laine was getting more to eat at each feeding and was feeling much more content. However, we had still surpassed the 10% loss mark and while she was indeed getting more, it wasn't enough to turn it around in time for discharge. We were thankful though that my milk came in the night before we left and our pediatrician was pleased with how she was eating and how many wet diapers she was having, that he went ahead and discharged us home. BUT, with strict instructions to come in for a weight check on Sunday (yes, our new pediatrician has weekend hours! IS THIS SO AMAZING!!!). So we made it home, continued to feed frequently and by Sunday (the day after discharge) she had gone back up to 8 pounds 8 oz (from her lowest of 8 pounds). So all is well! But that was pretty stressful and worrisome for us at the time! Anyway, we had few days that CENTERED around pumping, feeding, measuring output. Here is a pic I send David of the colostrum I pumped. I know this may seem gross to some of you, but David is my biggest supporter in the breast feeding arena, only he would get excited to get texts like this! Ha! This isn't milk, it is colostrum. And colostrum for babies is usually nursed in amounts smaller than teaspoons, so you can see that this is like an OCEAN of colostrum! That lactation consultant really knew what she was talking about!



So we made it home. Laine is doing beautifully. She sleeps pretty much non-stop. Sleep, eat and poop. Rinse, lather and repeat! Her night times are great so far (although I am WELL AWARE of how quickly this can change!). So far, we only have to get up twice a night to nurse. And she doesn't even really wake up for this, just kind of fusses a bit from her bed and I get up and feed her. Twice a night is so awesome at this point. I think she would go longer, but newborns are not really SUPPOSED to sleep through the night at 1 week old and given the weight issues we were having, I'll continue to get her up until our doc gives us the green light to just let her sleep. I'm sure once we make it to her 2 week appt and she has a great weight gain, I'll feel more comfortable being more lax at nighttime! David went back to work on Tuesday. My mom is here helping, cooking, just being a pair of extra hands around the house, which has been WONDERFUL! My sister was here through the weekend. But things are now starting to settle into a routine and with David making it back to the FWFD, it seems that life is finally getting back to normal! Friends from church have started bringing us meals which has been nice so far! We have amazing friends, I'm thankful for them and how sweet they are!

Aidan loves his new little sister. He calls her Baby Laine and loves to kiss, touch and talk about her! We've been pretty focused on keeping life as normal as possible for Aidan and giving him special attention from each of us, so that he doesn't feel like he is being lost in the shuffle. So far, so good. He seems to really be adjusting well! He is very sweet to his little sister and I know he is going to make a GREAT big brother!

So that is the scoop on our new little bundle of joy. Here are some quick facts about her so that I can remember what she was like and how she was different than Aidan at this age!

1. She can sleep swaddled or unswaddled. She seems to have more control over her arms than Aidan did. We always swaddle at night time (not my preferred time to test the unswaddled theory) but afternoon napping she does unswaddled. It is amazing!
2. She spits up constantly. Aidan never had this problem. It is an adjustment for me. Burping, burping and more burping after every feed!
3. She hates diaper changes and usually screams through each one.
4. She hates her bath. And usually screams through each one (we've only done two sponge baths at this point!)
5. She only eats from one breast during feeding so far. We've given her both and she seems to over eat a little, and spit up more. I think 1 breast is the perfect size meal for her and makes her the most content. She can do 2, but I only do it if she is really showing signs of wanting to eat more. But it usually ends with massive spitting up so for now, just eating on one side!
6. We are pumping regularly and getting ready to introduce the bottle! No rush there though. I just want to be able to leave the house in the future sometime! Ha. For personal reasons. Maybe a pedicure in my future? Or dinner with girlfriends? Sounds like fun to me! :)
7. She has blue eyes like mommy but we are wondering if they will turn brown like Aidan's did. I hope not! I'd like to match one of my babies. David and Aidan each have brown eyes!

Here are some recent pics of our new little bundle of joy!











We are feeling so blessed and thankful that God gave us the opportunity be parents to this little baby girl. Our family is now complete, the four of us and we could not be happier!

Halloween Pics 2011

Pictures from Trunk of Treats at our church!




And then on Halloween, David was on shift, so it was just me and Aidan! So we invited ourselves over to the Logan's so that Aidan could walk around with his friends. The Randall's came too, and I stayed behind to hand out candy on behalf of the home owner. HA! Anything to get out of a 1.5 hour walk around the neighborhood at 35 weeks pregnant. :) I had to throw in this cute picture of Carissa dressed as a mouse! So sweet!






It sure is nice to have such a great friends. :) Have I mentioned this lately?? Love them.

35 weeks pregnant TODAY! YIKES!

4 weeks left, we are having our c-section at week 39 on December 1. Wow. It is nearly here. Freaking out! Aidan has been sleeping in his bed that was converted FROM his baby crib. It has been working good for us this entire time. But, we decided to get him some big boy furniture finally, and reassemble the baby furniture for little Laine. We SO waited until the last minute! But that's ok. Like I've said before, baby #2 preparations definitely seem more chill than preparations for baby #1! ha! Anyway, here is the latest cliche photo I took of myself to document my belly at week 35. I also happened to go to work today, so that's why you received the luxury of regular clothes and makeup! Ha! I feel like a MONSTER. Huge.



Baby Laine at 32 weeks. The sonographer (sp?) said, "look at those gorgeous lips!" Ha!


New bunk beds for Aidan. Christmas came early for this kid. He was so excited. We still need to rearrange his name on the wall!



And turning Aidan's furniture BACK into baby furniture and moving it into the next room for baby Laine! Still have some work to do! But it is progress!


I'm NOT getting around good at all. My sciatic nerve pain in my left hip is almost unbearable. The chiropractor has helped for many, many weeks, but I think I'm at the point now where there is just a big baby sitting on that nerve and there isn't much that can be done about it! I'm sleeping ok. Some nights are better than others. I'm just ready to be able to function normally on a physical level. I'm FINE AND READY for the things that come with having a new born (sleepless nights, etc), but if I could just WALK again, sleep on my tummy again, get up off the couch on my own, all would be right in the world! Ha! I'll be better soon, just gotta hang in for a few more weeks.