Big Brother Present

As I've been getting ready for our baby girl I've been preparing the house and the boys for being taken care of by church family while Colin and I are at the hospital.

One of the ideas I had was to wrap a present for the boys and put it out ahead of time and tell them they can open it when Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I wanted it to be a cool enough present that they would be distracted by it while we were away from them for a very short while.

As you know from my previous post, my boys love GeoTrax. I was able to to find THREE tunnels/bridges for the price of one on ebay the other day. I plan on giving one of them as a future present to their cousin in Iowa who shares the same passion for trains, but these two are wrapped and waiting for the day I go to the hospital to give birth to our little girl.




I really want to celebrate the life of our new little girl, but I also want to celebrate this new phase in the boys' life. Micah becoming a big brother for the very first time and Jackson taking another sibling under his wing.





Colin and I have been stressing the importance of their roles as big brothers to take care of their little sister. They are the princes and she is the princess. I believe they are up for the challenge and I can't wait to see what that looks like in reality.

Transitions

We've had a few transitions in our household over the last couple of months that I wanted to take note of.

Micah Night Lights

After we returned from our vacation to the Midwest, Micah had a rough time going down for naps and bed time. He would cry and cling to me almost as if he was scared. If Colin put him down he seemed to do a little better, but he'd still wake up early or in the night and cry until we settled him down.

Out of pure desperation one night (I think Colin was out of town for work) I put a night light in Micah's room thinking perhaps he was just getting to the age where he was scared of the dark. It didn't solve the problem immediately, but after a couple of days the crying and clinging stopped.

We don't have a timer on it like Jackson's. We'll probably start doing that once he's in a big boy bed which we'll be after we move to wherever we're going next ... that's another blog for another time. However, I do turn off the night light before I get him out of bed and turn it on when it's time to get into bed just so he gets used to the idea.

Jackson Shorter Naps

Lately Jackson has been taking FOREVER to go to sleep at night and it's not without being called into his room a MILLION times for water or a shadow or just one more hug.

Jackson has been a good napper for most of his life. He's 4 and he still takes a 2 hour nap every day. About a month or so ago I tried to cut his nap by an hour and that just made him weepy, so I stuck with the 2 hour nap. UNTIL this past week when he was taking longer to fall asleep.

This week I've cut his nap by 30 minutes by setting his night light to go off that much earlier. The first day he had a playdate and slept right through the night light going off (which is really rare) and woke up at his normal time. I guess he played hard. Today he woke up with the night light. We'll see how bedtime goes tonight.

Me Exercising During Pregnancy
I'm 9 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow. Before I became pregnant I was doing circuit training 4 days a week and doing cardio 1 day a week for about 45 minutes each workout.

Since I've become pregnant I've continued to circuit train for 3 days a week and cardio for 1 day a week for about 30 minutes each workout. I've noticed that my heart rate goes up pretty quickly and I lose my breath just as easily. It's kind of annoying actually, but only in the beginning of the workout.

There have been a few days that I opted to sleep in instead of work out and although it was probably the right choice I did notice a change in my mood and energy level.

I'm still "Shredding" but have taken the intensity down a notch especially during the cardio sections. Around 12 weeks I plan on modifying any abdominal workouts that are done on my back. I'm thinking I may need to find a prenatal workout DVD, so if anyone has any good suggestions let me know.

39 Weeks and Waiting Patiently

No baby yet! Part of me is glad ... the longer he's in the cooker the stronger he'll be! Yet, one of my old co-workers from Omaha and I have the same due date and she delivered her little girl today. I'm in no rush, but I'm VERY excited to finally see this little boy face to face! My sister comes to Santa Maria this weekend ... who knows ... that may open the flood gates! :) It won't be long now!

Wondering

Lately I've been wondering what this little guy inside of me will be like. Even though I have one boy already I have this feeling that they are going to be total opposites. Already my pregnancies have been different.

While pregnant with Jackson I craved fruits and veggies and was almost turned off of sweets (until the very end of the pregnancy). However, I gained around 35 lbs. This time around my cravings have been carbs and junk food (I couldn't get enough pancakes in the middle of my pregnancy) and I've only gained 25 lbs so far. (I guess there's still four weeks to catch up ... YIKES ... let's pray that doesn't happen.)

I think most of my weight gain with Jackson was due to water retention ... I was very swollen especially towards the end of the pregnancy. I'm just starting to have swelling now ... I guess it helps that I don't have to sit at an office desk all day.

Anyway, Jackson is an even tempered boy and pretty predictable. He was never a climber or active baby even when he was inside of me. He's always been early to bed and early to rise even while I was pregnant. He thrives on routine and is extremely rational even during his worst tantrums. He LOVES reading and is very verbose for his age. He's not super strong willed, but when he makes up his mind to do something he'll do it (like potty training at 20 months). He's not super cuddly, but every once in awhile you might catch him saying, "Mommy I need you. I need to cuddle for a little bit." He can play both by himself, but he prefers to be at least in the same room with others. He's so inquisitive and makes connections that I would have never imagined he'd make (I'll have to post those stories some time.).

All this to say ... I'm wondering what this next little boy will be like. Already this one moves A LOT more than Jackson did and it's mostly late at night or in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes when I lay on my right side at night he'll kick or push on me enough to make me roll over. I wonder if that's a bad sign. I wonder how the two boys will balance each other out.

Of course, there's no real way to know what this baby will be like until he's here. Either way I love him. Only a few short weeks and we'll find out if all my wondering was right or if I'm completely surprised.