Cranky and fat

I am so cranky and fat. That's why I haven't been blogging. No one wants to hear me bitch. Especially Ben. Who can just go relax in his own damn bedroom if my huge body and giant body pillow ARE TAKING UP TOO MUCH ROOM. He can't sleep because of all my tossing and turning, and neither can I.

Did I mention how bad my back hurts? Oh, but only when I stand or sit. So I have been lounging a lot.

The kids are driving me NUTS. Oddly the only thing I have patience for is playing board games, so we have been enjoying lots of Zingo, Trouble, and my personal favorite Headbandz. I am so crabby that I don't even think they're cute anymore.

Even when they ARE





My nurse practitioner told me today that I will likely have the baby in the next 3 weeks, since H and J were both 37 and 38 week babies. She thinks I am an early ovulator. I hope she's right, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this guy is going to be my 42-weeker. Think how crabby I'll be by THEN. Really, I'd just love to have him by September 1, so he can go to kindergarten when he turns 5.

SO crabby. Going to eat soft garlic cheddar cheese and TJ's everything crackers and take my awesome breath to bed.

Birth plans

Last night, I woke up at 2:30 (also 12:30, 3:46, 4:11, and 6:19) in a total panic about childbirth. The other times I was just rolling over and/or getting up to pee.

I remembered Jack's birth and compared it to Harry's and hoped that I'd be able to go quickly and med-free again this time.

I was not wild about my epidural experience, even though it worked great-- a little too great since I couldn't even feel anything to push. But my baby was so, so, so sleepy and hard to wake to feed, and my recovery was tons harder.

The thing is, I have never been a fan of birth plans because I just didn't want to end up feeling somehow disappointed and less than if my ideal situation didn't work out. So I don't want to pressure myself to be med-free, especially if that's just not in the cards this time. With Harry, I didn't care-- I wanted to try it without the drugs and see if I could handle it Couldn't. With Jack, I didn't realize a med-free birth was possible until I walked into the hospital at 7 centimeters. This time? I really don't want an epidural, but I also don't wan to ruin this experience for myself with unrealistic expectations.

There was something so awesome about walking from my delivery room to my recovery suite carrying my own baby and feeling like my old self less than an hour after birth-- which is when I was able to enjoy a shower. I really want that again, you know?

At least I was up worrying about something legit last night, instead of just being up. Sleep sucks at 34.5 weeks, by the way.

Operation Baby Clothes

I always get slightly huffy when people talk about nesting because I think it is less of a biological phenomenon and more a way to define women by our reproductive capacity and also more than a little patronizing/infantilizing. And then there are days like yesterday when all I want to do is bake cupcakes and buy tiny baby clothes.

I did bake cupcakes, but instead of buying baby clothes, I went through the 7 giant tubs of baby and toddler clothes in our guest room closet (it's a big closet). I decided anything 12 months or smaller (and in this I included the 12-18 month size from Gap and Old Navy, but that was my absolute limit) would come to live upstairs regardless of whether it looked seasonably plausible for a September baby. Anything 18 months-2T would continue to live in the basement. All the 3T stuff resides in Jack's closet, and the 4T stuff is hanging up in the guest closet waiting for him. I finally have a system!

Or I will when Ben cleans out his dresser in the baby's room and I buy about 100 more teeny hangers and do 40 loads of little laundry.

Right now, I have this:


I was hoping it would look less Hoarder-like as a Hipstaprint.

Ben and I are painting the old condo. We are done with the bathrooms and the downstairs. We even finally painted our garish bedroom a lovely buttery yellow: something we should have done while we actually lived there.


The biggest PITA has been the kids' room. We were just going to touch up random scratches, crayon marks, and places where pictures used to hang, but our (my-- I was so proud of myself for spending a day getting paint stirred at Menards and covering some damage- painting a room or two is very zen. Beyond that and it just sucks) touch ups dried terrible, and you could see where the 2 layers of paint were. Instead of just touching up some more, we decided to paint the room a blue that is NOT the color of painter's tape. Let;s just say, this will be a multi-coat job and has already involved some ugly crying.

And we have been spending lots of time at the park. Barefoot.







From now on when I feel like buying baby clothes, I am going to buy stuff for Harry instead. Trickle-down theory may have ruined the economy and destroyed social programs since the Reagan era, but it definitely powers our clothing system here at home.

The key to a house that always looks clean?

Choose all your finishes in dust color.

Seriously. Our floor:

Our blinds:

Our bedroom furniture:


All the color of dust. Score!

Also helpful?

A countertop that always looks dirty anyway.

I found a Subway sandwich black olive tinged with mustard on the island the other day, and we haven't had Subway since before we officially moved in.

When we chose our cooktop oven, a lot of people (parents, friends, realtor, appliance salesman, home builder) seemed shocked that we didn't go with gas. I know that gas cooks better. BUT, you can get a cooktop pristine clean every time you use it. With any other kind of stove, there is AWLAYS some gunk around the burners somewhere. Not a ceramic cooktop though. I love it. And it also has some speckles, making it look already dusty, so there's no point in dusting it! Yes!


Maybe I should only serve Jack pale beige smoothies so Id never have to wipe his face.


Definitely should have painted the house gray like the color of smudgy little fingerprints. Oh well. There's always next time.

Summer Idle

Not a whole lot going on around here. No more summer school for me, but lots of loose ends to tie up before maternity leave. Ben has summer classes through the end of July, and thank goodness the kiddos are at preschool until fall and then in the fall EVEN MORE PRESCHOOL and of course kindergarten.

Lots of pool days.

Some getting the old house ready for my brother to move in.

Lots of park.

The pool really knocks them out

Little Jack. He still scoots down the stairs.

No matter how many times Jack goes to the bathroom before we leave, he has to exit the park and walk home to poop within minutes of arriving. Weird.

Clearly, we are still having some lawn problems. The landscapers think there is mold in the soil because it has been so hot and humid. So, even if we sod at this point, we'll still have issues. Instead, we are raking and reseeding pretty much all the time. Also weed whacking the tall ones.

Harry always moves the coffee table about 3 inches away from the couch so he can put his big little feet up.

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Ben and his mini-me walking into the splash park today to celebrate our nephew Jacob's 1st birthday.

When people see Jack decked out in his long sleeves, extra long shorts and UPF hat, they probably assume that I am over protective. This might be true. BUT, Jack has NO
PIGMENT. And we go to the pool every sunny day. And he is not tan/burned at all. WIN!


In fact, his legs are blindingly white and despite eating this cupcake in the sun, he still looks like a ghost!

Ben had fun playing with the kids. I was the only adult who didn't wear a swim suit and I almost died of heat stroke. And I made fun of Ben for wearing his swim clothes and then felt dumb when I realized that everyone else was ready for water.

Harry had the best time ever. He was in the water for over 2 hours, and he never stopped moving (he also has slightly more pigment and enjoys 3/4 sleeves, slightly shorter shorts, and time in the sun without his hat.)


I have not been out in the sun without my rash guard all season, and I have been pretty pale. Until today. Even though I had on sunscreen, I got "brown as a berry" in no time. I am the opposite of Jack and have the classy bra strap tan line to prove it.

I am also experiencing horrendous back pain. The other day, I told my OB that I felt amazing-- and I did. Then BAM! Horrible back pain pretty much all the time. Thanks, Baby. But, on the pregnancy is awesome side, I had a huge burger, fries, and a chocolate shake for lunch.

Consumption

To make a long story short, we seem to have gotten rid of a ton of baby stuff. Like most of the stuff we liked. And so, we had to go to Babies R Us today and buy so much stuff that people asked us curiously if this was our first baby even though we had a 3 year-old and a 5 year-old with us. Maybe they thought H and J were just practice kids we were borrowing?

We even had to buy a freaking stroller because we left our Combi outside the gates to see Obama last fall and forgot to go get it ever. OMG. We are so stupid and wasteful sometimes. Also? I didn't even WANT to buy a Combi, but it was the only stroller (including a Snap N Go) that works with our awesome Combi infant seat. Hoping to use it through the winter and get a BOB in the spring. Sigh.

Keep in mind that we STILL need a Bjorn and a bouncy chair (probably our 2 most used items from Jack, which explains why they didn't make the move-- they were BEAT. But still. Ugh. Also I would like one of those baby gym things-- between H and J, ours was seriously discolored from baby vomit. But I wonder if it;s a practical toy for Baby #3-- will he just get killed by his brothers while trying to use it? (But H is gone all day at kindergarten, and J has 3 preschool mornings a week, so maybe he'll get to be on the floor free from harm sometimes?)
We had the crib, toy box, swing, and dresser, and that was pretty much it.

I bought this cute crib bedding set at Target after deciding for the 3rd time that I could not pay Pottery Barn Kids prices.



Why the F did we ditch our old Pack n Play? (I mean, the one we bought for H got recalled, but J had 2 --2!!-- that we didn't keep, making this PnP #4. WTF?)

Some assorted stuff for the nursery wall and a brand! new! diaper genie! because I absolutely could not convince Ben to go cloth.

I think this quilt is so cute, but I don't really know what to do with it. Hang it on the wall? (And yes-- baby has a name and that name might contain a W)

Got a couple of Miracle blankets and enough Aden + Anais muslin swaddling blankets to burrito wrap and army of babies.

We bought Boppy and baby bathtub #3

Oh! Got rid of BOTH my double electric pump and my Avent hand pump. AND all the bottles. Bought the hand pump and a bunch o glass bottles, breastmilk storage bags, nipple cream, breast pads. My HMO gave us a coupon for 1/2 off a double electric pump if we buy it from a sketchy store on the south side as part of their pro-BFing campaign, so I'll definitely pick one up. Ugh.

And we bought this to go on the playroom floor, making our house look like we run a daycare in the basement.

But it's good for wrestling.

Happy 4th!

I know I haven't blogged in awhile when Ben asks me if I am still doing that blogging thing. Yes. Sort of. See, summer school is almost over. I have been doing a couple of projects on the side. Ben and I still don't have a cleaning routine for this house which means we are just sort of always cleaning everything.

Lots of stuff happened since last week.

A freaking adorable preschool 4th of July parade.


We go to the park at least once a day.


My family came in to celebrate the 4th. My dad christened our new cream walls and light basement carpet by gesticulating wildly and knocking a glass of red wine all over the wall and floor. Jon is really good at blotting carpet stains, and it turns out that 1/3 cup bleach mixed with 1/3 cup water takes wine right off the walls.

Our neighborhood hosted a bike parade (which we missed despite living across the street from the lineup spot) and picnic. With face painting.

Pops on the driveway. Note in the background that all of our grass died. The landscaper says our soil is moldy and they're going to reseed. Which means we'll have the annoying sprinklers that seem to burst on the minute we open a window, step onto the patio, or exit a car in the driveway for a little bit longer.

Right now, this is what we see out the living room window, but I bet it will be rows of houses before we know it.


Last day of summer school tomorrow! And then I won't see the inside of a classroom until January.

32 weeks pregnant on Saturday and large.

About to go devour some Oreos.