32 Weeks

Oh boy, still 8 weeks to go? I am afraid I have a slew of complaints at this point. The 3rd trimester exhaustion has hit me with full force. Sooooooo tired! And, my poor body could just fall apart at any moment. Seriously, my pelvis is hanging on by threads at this point. Too much activity makes it hurt, but being stagnant for too long makes it hurt. Sleeping in any position for too long makes it hurt. OUCH! And, generally, I am a whale and all movements are becoming very awkward. Finn wants me to crawl around pushing trucks or jump up and down and pick him up, but then bend down to get toys. It is so hard to tell him I just can't do some things right now! Okay, I guess that will do for the venting for the time being.

Honestly, other than the above, I am doing quite well. I had my 32 week check up on Monday and it was short and sweet as everything is looking great. Peapod was quite active while the midwife was measuring my belly and checking his/her heartrate. My midwife thinks s/he is head down now and although it is possible s/he could turn back at this point, it is most likely that s/he will stay down, which is great news!

Finnbar has two baby books that we read regularly. We purchased one called "What Baby Needs" by the Dr. Sears library and he really likes that one. I like it a lot too because it features breastfeeding, cosleeping, and babywearing, all of which we did with Finn and play to do with Peapod. We also got a book at the library called, "Hello, Baby!" and he loves that one for some reason. I thought it was maybe geared to older children because it shows the baby developing in the womb and talks about the umbilical cord, but he seems to dig it. It also shows a little boy going to the doctor with him mom to listen to the baby's heartbeat and talks about what will happen when the baby comes home. It is really nice.

Finn has been acting out a lot family stuff with his playdough characters. We cut out a Mama, Daddy, Finnbar and Baby. He then likes to make a couch or rocking chair and have Mama hold the baby and Daddy hold Finnbar. He has even talked about the baby having mama milk. It is all really endearing to watch him work this stuff out. Then, of course, he smashes it all and says we should go play trucks :)

He is still convinced the baby is residing in my belly button and tries to peer into it to see.

Yesterday morning, I was changing Finn's diaper and told him he had such a cute bottom, he then pointed and me and told me I had a big bottom. Wonderful for the self esteem right now.

I am starting to get the nesting itch. I want to do one heck of a spring cleaning and then organize the attic and get the baby stuff out. Who knows when we will find the time to do it.

Hormones are raging right now. When ever I need a break from work, I will go find a birth story to read, only to start crying. I also found myself crying because a woman that I know in my mom's group had her dog pass away suddenly. I actually don't know this woman very well and I had never met her dog, but I found myself sobbing to Lily.

My citrus cravings are still in full force. I took a break from oranges and really hit the grapefruits hard for a couple of weeks, but then I got a bag of oranges this week and am really wondering why I didn't get five! I have also gotten a hold of some girl scout cookies that are rocking my world right now! I am starting to get that squished stomach feeling though and my appetite really varies throughout the day.

Hmm, okay, I guess that is all the random pregnancy news I can think of for now.

Even More Ice Fishing

Weekend ice fishing is becoming a bit of a tradition. I haven't actually gone because I am trying to work on that dreaded dissertation which I will update you all on one of these days. But, Sean and Finn meet the whole gang at Jenness Pond and have a good time. And this time, they actually got a bunch of fish! Here is Sean with the big bass:


Lily loves ice fishing:

All the little ones tuckered out after a day on the ice:

Here is some super cute cuddle time after with Finn's littlest cousin, Jackson:

Spiderman Rules

Finn got to spend the morning with his big cousin, Liam. They played a lot of trucks and Liam taught him all about Spiderman. Here is a photo from Carrie:

Are we having fun?

Aunt Carrie took this picture of Finn and Sean yesterday when they all went ice fishing. Finn is getting a bit tuckered out!

Pacifiers, Sickness, and Sleep

I have been meaning to post about a lot of things lately, but there is just never enough hours in the day.

First, two weeks ago, we decided to go for a pacifier-free household. We had weaned Finn down to pacifier use at naptime and bedtime only for almost a year, but at Finn's two year dentist checkup they strongly advised us to wean off the paci to prevent any teeth movement. We decided to do it sooner rather than later in hopes that Finn would adjust to this change before Peapod arrived. I was really nervous about it. Just when we were getting to a good place in sleep, we had to do this. I researched a lot of theories on how to make the transition an easy one. Everyone recommended a slow weaning, but we were already down to nap and bedtime only, so we had to just go cold turkey from there. I got a book from the library, "pacifiers aren't forever" and we read that for a week before, the big "bye-bye paci" day. We talked to Finn about the day we were going to put the pacifiers in the mail. Then on that day, we went and picked out a monster truck that Finn wanted and a pillow pet to cuddle in bed. We put all the pacifiers in and envelope and put them in the mail to say bye-bye. Finn seemed totally cool with it. I expected a lot of crying at bedtime that night, but he really didn't fuss. The problem was, he didn't sleep either. Poor Sean took the brunt of bedtimes and sat in there with him for up to 2 hours as he tossed and turned and chatted and jumped around. As Sean put it, it was like he was a junky going through withdrawal and couldn't calm down. Luckily, he still stuck with one wake up a night and he was actually easily soothed at that time. It took a good week for Finn to get better at going to sleep quickly at night. Naptimes have been hit or miss ever since. Some days, he will sleep, others he won't. And it seems to have affected length of naps too. For about a week, he would also ask for a paci in the morning and then promptly say, "paci's all gone." I guess in retrospect, it wasn't too bad, but at the time it felt pretty rough.

Then, just as we were adjusting to our paci-free life, Finn got really sick last week. One night out of nowhere, he would not sleep. I mean, he literally did not go to sleep until 5 am. Then, he slept til 11am. It was so weird. Sean and I were trying to figure out what was going on. I was a little frustrating after all of our napping issues. And, lo and behold, Finn spiked a crazy fever of 104.4 F! He was so lethargic and just fell right asleep on the couch (unheard of in this house):
Luckily, we were able to get the fever down to 102F with motrin and we just rode it out for a little over three days. The nurse warned us that a fever typically last for three days and then we would see other symptoms of the cold. On Wednesday, we saw the last of the fever and Finn now has a bit of a cough, but nothing much to speak of. It was a strange illness. He is still more tired and easily cranky, but he has his appetite back and a good amount of energy to play during the day. So, with the sickness, he was up a lot at night again and he still is going through that, but he goes to bed earlier and actually sleeps in a little, which has been nice. He has also been a bit more reliable in nap taking. We will see what happens when he is fully recovered. One thing I know, is you just never know!

30 Weeks

I am not really a fan of this pic, but here it is for belly purposes at 30 weeks:

I feel ginormous and it is a bit daunting knowing I still have 10 weeks of good growth to go. Finn informed me the other day that my belly button was broken. Boy, is it ever! Finn has also taken to peering into my belly button to look for the baby! He is flip-flopping now as to whether the baby is going to be a boy or a girl. Typically, he says boy, but the other day he confidently said girl and that he would have a sister. I am still convinced Peapod is a boy, but I seem to be in the minority. It is such a fun guessing game, but still 10 weeks until all is revealed!

I had my 30 week check up with my favorite midwife yesterday. She said repeatedly that she thinks Peapod is a girl. Peapod gave her some good kicks while she was listening with the doppler and you could see the bump in my belly each time. The heart rate was a good 155. I was measuring at 29cm (average for this week is 30cm). My blood pressure is great and my glucose test and blood screen came back all very normal. All in all, just cruising right through.

We talked a bit about birth plans. I am lucky in that generally, anything I would put into a birth plan is standard practice at Concord Hospital, but I do have a few requests based on my experience with Finn that she thought would be worth writing down and having attached to my file. These include:

- no artificial rupture of membranes
- no iv fluids unless medically necessary
- no continuous fetal monitoring unless medically necessary
- the cord is not to be clamped until it has stopped pulsating

Overall, I just want a very natural, peaceful birth with no medical interventions. The midwife assured me that overall second births tend to be much "easier" and I don't have some of the concerning complications with Finn so it will be easier to do without a lot of the monitoring that occurred with him. It was crazy to start talking about birth plans as it really it home how soon this is going to happen. I am getting excited.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Finn and I went to a Valentine's party yesterday. There were 14 kiddos total, so it was quite chaotic. Finn did a lot of playing:

Then, it was time to decorate cookies:



Finn quickly lost interest in the frosting and decided to just eat it:



Another mom at the group had a super fancy DSL camera so you can tell the difference in quality of photos from mine to hers.

All of the kids exchanged valentines and Finn was so proud to look at all of them when we got home.