Greetings from the land of Still Pregnant.
I'm sure many of you assumed my absence meant baby had arrived but really it just meant I was trying to keep my crabby out of the blogosphere.
I had a mini breakdown on Sunday when every one in our family was dressed so pretty for morning mass. I had pulled together one of the last cute maternity outfits that still looks halfway decent on me only to realize I had no shoes that fit. Yeah. That's one of the things "they" forget to tell you about pregnancy. In the last few weeks your feet swell so bad many of your normal shoes leave you feeling like one of the ugly step-sisters in Cinderella. Tennis shoes and sandals are pretty much all that work. And being that temps are currently in the 40s and 50s, the latter is out of the question.
On the way out the door I glanced at myself in the dining room mirror and realized my hair looked GORG-eous. All shiny and flowy and tons of body. So there's that up side to pregnancy. And then there's my chest. My normal negative A cup is now a generous B making shirts and dresses fit like they're supposed to and making my husband eye me up like it's the first time. So it's not ALL bad.
The other day we were laughing that William knew almost all the lyrics to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream." Well, I was laughing. Brian, being the real musician in the house, couldn't help but wonder what songs he would have memorized if he were the stay-at-home parent. But he's not. So inappropriate lyrics it is.
So anyway there Brian and I were in the kitchen finishing up the dinner dishes singing "Teenage Dream" when Brian grabbed me from behind and sang "Let you put your hands on me in your MA-TER-NITY jeans be your teenage dream tonight..."
I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. I chose to laugh.
After the dishes were done we had ourselves a little family dance party in the living room and it made me so happy to see every one having so much silly fun together. Brian was dancing with Lucy and I was dancing with William and suddenly I realized these last few days are really a treasure to behold. Soon they will outnumber us. Soon we will have to take turns doing one-on-one activities.
I think a sibling is one of the most blessed gifts you can give your older children. But initially that change comes with a lot of growing pains. And as much as you can prepare yourself and your other children for those changes, you really can't. You kind of just have to plow through it head first. And there's a part of me that's really sentimental about the loss of our one-parent-to-one-child ratio.
This week two of my sisters-in-law called and graciously offered to take William and Lucy for a four-day weekend as schools in Minnesota are on break. There's no doubt William and Lucy would be ecstatic to spend that much time with their seven cousins. And there's no doubt it would be much easier for Brian and me, especially if I went into labor during that time and didn't have to worry about finding child care.
But after thinking it over and discussing it with Brian, we both decided to decline their generous offer.
I just didn't know if I could bear to see their empty beds every night wondering if this would be my last opportunity to really devote myself to the bedtime routine. And I wasn't sure it was fair to them to leave their house for a few days only to return to drastic changes. Having a new baby is an event for the whole family and my heart just feels better with them here.
And now here I am sounding like I'm going to have this baby in the next four days. My midwife appointment yesterday left me feeling like that's a very real possibility. So real that it had Brian considering a call to the hospital to ensure they had access to the right television channels for both the Notre Dame and Wisconsin football games on Saturday. And it had me, as much a die-hard college football fan as he, questioning if that was enough. Should we request a second television so we can watch both games at once? Should we check the hospital's wireless Internet speed so we could stream one of the games? Should we look into reserving a conference room? Should we just scrap the hospital idea and consider giving birth in a sports bar?
All very good questions at the very top of our priority list.
I'm sure many of you assumed my absence meant baby had arrived but really it just meant I was trying to keep my crabby out of the blogosphere.
I had a mini breakdown on Sunday when every one in our family was dressed so pretty for morning mass. I had pulled together one of the last cute maternity outfits that still looks halfway decent on me only to realize I had no shoes that fit. Yeah. That's one of the things "they" forget to tell you about pregnancy. In the last few weeks your feet swell so bad many of your normal shoes leave you feeling like one of the ugly step-sisters in Cinderella. Tennis shoes and sandals are pretty much all that work. And being that temps are currently in the 40s and 50s, the latter is out of the question.
On the way out the door I glanced at myself in the dining room mirror and realized my hair looked GORG-eous. All shiny and flowy and tons of body. So there's that up side to pregnancy. And then there's my chest. My normal negative A cup is now a generous B making shirts and dresses fit like they're supposed to and making my husband eye me up like it's the first time. So it's not ALL bad.
The other day we were laughing that William knew almost all the lyrics to Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream." Well, I was laughing. Brian, being the real musician in the house, couldn't help but wonder what songs he would have memorized if he were the stay-at-home parent. But he's not. So inappropriate lyrics it is.
So anyway there Brian and I were in the kitchen finishing up the dinner dishes singing "Teenage Dream" when Brian grabbed me from behind and sang "Let you put your hands on me in your MA-TER-NITY jeans be your teenage dream tonight..."
I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. I chose to laugh.
After the dishes were done we had ourselves a little family dance party in the living room and it made me so happy to see every one having so much silly fun together. Brian was dancing with Lucy and I was dancing with William and suddenly I realized these last few days are really a treasure to behold. Soon they will outnumber us. Soon we will have to take turns doing one-on-one activities.
I think a sibling is one of the most blessed gifts you can give your older children. But initially that change comes with a lot of growing pains. And as much as you can prepare yourself and your other children for those changes, you really can't. You kind of just have to plow through it head first. And there's a part of me that's really sentimental about the loss of our one-parent-to-one-child ratio.
This week two of my sisters-in-law called and graciously offered to take William and Lucy for a four-day weekend as schools in Minnesota are on break. There's no doubt William and Lucy would be ecstatic to spend that much time with their seven cousins. And there's no doubt it would be much easier for Brian and me, especially if I went into labor during that time and didn't have to worry about finding child care.
But after thinking it over and discussing it with Brian, we both decided to decline their generous offer.
I just didn't know if I could bear to see their empty beds every night wondering if this would be my last opportunity to really devote myself to the bedtime routine. And I wasn't sure it was fair to them to leave their house for a few days only to return to drastic changes. Having a new baby is an event for the whole family and my heart just feels better with them here.
And now here I am sounding like I'm going to have this baby in the next four days. My midwife appointment yesterday left me feeling like that's a very real possibility. So real that it had Brian considering a call to the hospital to ensure they had access to the right television channels for both the Notre Dame and Wisconsin football games on Saturday. And it had me, as much a die-hard college football fan as he, questioning if that was enough. Should we request a second television so we can watch both games at once? Should we check the hospital's wireless Internet speed so we could stream one of the games? Should we look into reserving a conference room? Should we just scrap the hospital idea and consider giving birth in a sports bar?
All very good questions at the very top of our priority list.
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