Nesting

For the last several months I have begun to get things ready for us to become a family of four!  Since Lena arrived so early I am more cautious this time about our timeline of getting ready.  We already transitioned Lena to her big girl bedroom and potty trained her last month.  The nursery is pretty much ready to go because we aren't changing anything in it.  So we don't have any major set up to do before Baby Girl arrives.   I always function better in a clean and organized environment so I have tried to tackle some projects around the house to help things run more smoothly when we have TWO little girls here at home!  So far I have cleaned out the nursery, reorganized and purged our financial files, resorted and stored our supply of girl clothes, deep cleaned and organized the side yard and porch, organized and cleaned out the toys, and pulled all the infant items that were stored in the garage and stored them in the nursery for use.  I still have lots of things that need to get done and I am definitely slowing down now that I am only six weeks away from my due date.  I just try to get a little more done each day.

Both car seats are installed and ready to go!

New and improved organized files with labeled drawers and folders.

Part of the new file system.

The file cleaning aftermath: discarded papers to be shredded.

The next big project...sorting and reorganizing girl clothes. (COMPLETED a few weeks ago!!!)

Lena talking to baby sister.

Giving a hug to her baby sister.

More to do....

• Create a tote with new Lena activities and toys that she can only access while I feed the new baby.
• Pre-make some meals to store in the freezer.
• Pack the hospital bags and finalize plans for who will take care of Lena.
• Do one last declutter of the house and try to keep up with house cleaning and laundry.
• Finish several partially finished blog entries from the last few months.
• Set up last minute baby items like pump station, mini crib in our master bedroom, diaper changing stations, etc.

30 Weeks

30 Weeks!

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant, three-fourths the way to meeting Shack Baby #2.  This pregnancy so far has been much easier on my body.  I don't have any swelling (still wearing my wedding ring and tennis shoes).  I don't have any physical signs of preeclampsia.  My blood pressure has been holding steady.  (I came in at 130/70 at my last appointmnet.)  My glucose test came back normal so I don't have gestational diabetes. Baby Shack is kicking and moving a ton which is great!   I don't have many pregnancy discomforts at this point.  The only thing I deal with is vivid dreams/nightmares and insomnia at times both of which I rarely suffer from outside of pregnancy.  I am so thankful my body has been handling this pregnancy better this time.

At my last appointment I discussed with Dr. C my delivery options.  Since I had a c-section with Lena I can just schedule another c-section after I hit 38 weeks or I can just wait and see what my body does naturally and try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section).  Truthfully, since I have had many surgeries, the scheduled c-section was appealing to me.  However, after talking with Dr. C (who is my age and has had a VBAC herself) I have decided to wait and see what my body does and at any point if I change my mind or if my body isn't handling the pregnancy well I can still do a c-section.  After my four day failed induction with Lena a labor and vaginal birth frightens me a little, okay....a lot.  I also realize that this is very likely the last time I will ever get the chance to experience pregnancy and thus childbirth.  I felt like I missed so much of Lena's birth because of how heavily medicated I was that I want to do my best to be mentally present for this birth.  

While I have gained much more weight than I wanted to at this point (34 pounds) I am still lower than the weight where I started with Lena's pregnancy.  I am so thankful that I made the effort to wait and lose those pounds before we did our 4th and 5th FETs.  I think being 40 pounds lighter for this pregnancy has made  a huge difference.  I know at this point that I will have to work pretty hard again to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight but I know I can do it as I did before.