OK, so I made it to 40 weeks.  Whew!  Now the real waiting begins.  I got checked yesterday, and I’m about the same as last week, but a little closer to 4 cm than 3 this time!  So I’ll take it.  I’m up 33 lbs total, so it looks like I met my goal of staying within 35 lbs. of my pre-pregnancy weight.  I have another appointment set up for next Wednesday in the event that the baby still hasn’t come by then.  I don’t really have any predictions about when labor will happen.  I went 9 days past my due date with H, and looking back on it, there weren’t really any telltale signs on the day that I finally went into labor.  So I guess I’ll know I’m in labor again once transition starts:)

We are continuing to make plans, because why not?  We’re taking H to a friend’s birthday party tomorrow night, and then on Saturday we have brunch plans with friends.  I’m still planning on going to yoga on Sunday morning.  There’s no point in stopping all of these activities—except for work.  I’m really glad that I’ve taken the past 2 weeks to re-group.  I haven’t been sleeping well at night, and I’m uncomfortable all the time, and work was kind of making that discomfort worse.  Plus, having the time off has given me the chance to shift from thinking a lot about work to thinking a lot about our family.  And that is something that I needed to do, I think.

Holden has had his own share of anxieties about the upcoming addition.  His behavior was really pretty bad for most of March.  We attributed this to normal 3.5 year old developmental stuff.  But then the last few days of March he started asking whether March was over yet, and how many more days until April.  We asked him what was happening in April, and he said “My baby brother is going to be here, and I really, REALLY want it to be April NOW!!!”  He then talked about how much he wanted March to be over.  He’s clearly anxious in a good way, not a bad way, but even good anxiety and good stress can affect us negatively.  He then said something surprising—he said that he would be a grown-up in April.  We explained to him that he would still be a kid, and that he did not have to be a grown-up at all in April, or after his brother is born.  I’m sure that all of the innocent questions from other people about whether he’s going to be a big helper with the baby, etc.,  facilitated this view.  The funny part about this is that he didn’t seem stressed about the idea of being a grown-up—in fact, I think he LIKES the idea of being a grown-up.  He even told me that he doesn’t want to be a kid.  Even so, the prospect of that must be stressful to him on some level, which is why I think he was acting up so much last month.  I’m telling you, as soon as that calendar flipped to April 1st, we started seeing enormously improved behavior from him.  I think he was really anxious about getting to his brother’s birth month.  We’ve tried not to make too big of a deal about the new baby (even though it *is* a big deal), so we’d avoid this sort of thing.  But here we are.  I think it will be OK when the baby is here.  I think H will adjust very well.  I just think that the excitement of leading up to the birth (and not knowing what day it’s going to happen) is driving him a little  batty.  But hey, I know plenty of adults who can’t deal with the uncertainty, so it’s not that big a deal for H to be struggling with the ambiguity of it all.

I can’t sleep tonight —I’m completely uncomfortable no matter what I do.  So here I am at 4:15AM, eating a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats and blogging about our awesome day yesterday!  Yesterday was a beautiful spring day—chilly, but sunny outside with blue skies.  We started our day with yummy breakfast—brown rice pancakes, hash browns, and oranges, with lots of coffee of course.  We then walked over to our park for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Everyone in attendance was asked to donate a non-perishable food item as the price of admission (awesome, eh?!), and then all of the kids were divided into large, age-appropriate groups for the egg hunt.  The Pre-K group met out on the baseball field, and after a few minutes of hanging around with hundreds of little plastic eggs in plain sight, the kids were given the signal to start collecting the eggs.  They were given a 10-egg maximum per kid.  Each egg had candy inside, and when we were done, we deposited the plastic egg shells into a cardboard bin for next year.  Here we are waiting for the “hunt” to begin:

Here’s H in action:

And pictured with his loot:

Afterwards, he bonded with the Easter Bunny:

It doesn’t get much cuter than that, does it?  After snuggling with the bunny, we went inside the parks and rec building for donuts and juice.  We walked back home, played outside, played inside, and had a delicious lunch of leftover homemade mac and cheese, fried chicken, and pomegranate-raspberry smoothies (TOTALLY the best beverage I’ve had in a while, hands down).  After lunch, we went out to the store to buy H a bike helmet so that he could come home and practice riding his bike safely:

We topped off our fun spring day with a salmon dinner (complete with quinoa and cucumber relish), and finished up Little House in the Big Woods, which H totally LOVED!!  We read the whole book in less than a week, and now that we’re done, he knows that I mean business when I say I’m going to “tan his hide.”  🙂

Tomorrow:  If I get any sleep between now and 7AM, I’ll probably be in good shape to take a prenatal yoga class in the morning.  How we spend the rest of the day is up in the air!

I have loads of super cute pictures from today, but instead of binge-posting them, I’ll be spreading them out over the next couple of days.  First, I’d like to introduce you to what the baby’s room looked like just before we moved in (note the hilarious “Pimpin Lane” signage above the twin bed):

Notice the horrible bookshelves on the left.  Also notice the original, single-pane window from 1973.  And the awful wood trim.  Ick.

Here’s where we stand today:

My apologies for the flash artifact on the left—-it’s still prettier than the bookshelf that used to be there:)  The new window does a lot for this little room, I think.  Here’s another view:

The yellow nightstand was an old piece of furniture that was handed down to us—it was originally a dark wood, with lots of gouges in it.  I took some leftover yellow paint and made it look like a new piece of furniture.  The glider (I’ve always wanted one, but never had the $$$ for it), was a CraigsList find for $20.  Score!

The artwork hanging on the wall here was something I did in an afternoon with H.  I bought pieces of styrofoam from the craft store, and with H, painted the edges with the same yellow paint I used on the nightstand below.  I then cut scrapbook paper to fit the rectangular styrofoam pieces and glued them into place. Voila—instant, really cheap art!  I should get a close-up shot of these some day soon so you can see the detail on them.

The biggest purchase for the room was the rug, which we bought new (but discounted) online.  The biggest time investment in the room was fixing/painting the walls and the doors.  You can’t see the doors from the shots I posted, but wow—they went from dark 1970s wood to a crisp white.  Much better!

Not pictured here is the beautiful artwork that Holden made for his brother.  I still need to get a decent shot of H’s creation so I can post it here.  He came up with his own intergalatic-themed painting to go with the rug since he thinks the little circles on the rug look like planets:)

So that’s our little guy’s new bedroom!  We think it turned out really well, although he likely won’t be sleeping in there for a few more months!

I saw the  midwife last night after a whirlwind day of activities with H.  Blood pressure is good, and I haven’t gained any more weight (yippee!)  I’m now 3 cm dilated, 70% effaced, zero station.  Things could go on this way for a couple more weeks (like how they did with H), but who knows.  The only reason I like having this information is so that when labor starts, I know where my baseline is, and know that there are 3 cm that I don’t have to worry about.  It’s more of a mental thing for labor, as I know it doesn’t really provide any useful information about WHEN labor will start.

A couple of nights ago I had some contractions that woke me up pretty early in the morning.  The contractions felt like true labor contractions (they were in my back), but they didn’t last long like “real” contractions.  I stayed in bed, waiting to see what would happen, but nothing did.  I ended up e-mailing my boss and co-worker later that morning to say that I would not be coming in, not because I thought I was in labor, but because I was afraid of working all day, only to go into labor that night and be totally exhausted.  My boss and co-worker thought maybe I’d come in today, but I ended up e-mailing them and saying that I just really need to be home now.  I think I reached my limit with work—sitting in one spot was excruciating for my back, and I’ve been in so much pain at work that I don’t think I’m actually all that productive.  It’s been nice to stay home today while H is in school—I’m getting some light cleaning done (the house has been a disaster for weeks), and I’m polishing up a couple of chores that I’ve been meaning to do for years (like back-up all of my old files from my 10-year old laptop!)  I assure you, this is not nesting behavior, this is just “my-house-is-a-freaking-disaster” type of behavior, and I’d be foolish not to clean it now while I can.  Family will be here soon, and I assume that my parents will come up at some point, so I’ve had to prepare the guest bedroom and guest bathroom, and generally create a more hygienic environment for everyone.  Yes, it’s that bad.  But at the same time, I am AMAZED at what I can get done while H is in school.

It’s snowing here now but not sticking to the ground.  The grass has begun to turn green, and there are buds on the trees.  Our flowers are starting to poke through the ground.  My hospital bag is packed and in the car.  We’re feeling ready for this little guy to get here, but I’m not sure he’s quite ready yet.  Technically, I’m not due until April, yet the e-mails started coming last week, with people wondering if I’d had the baby.  It’s annoying, even though they do this to settle their own curiosity and anxiety about things.  So, it might be time to unplug soon, for my own sanity.

So, I’ve been slacking on the updates.  I’ve had 2 midwife appointments since my last post, and I’ve failed to give you the lowdown.  Shame on me.

There’s really not much to report.  One week I had lost a pound.  The next week I had gained 3.  I’m up 32 pounds total.  Blood pressure is good.  I haven’t asked for any more cervical checks, but I might actually ask for one this week out of curiosity.  I’m still doing weekly yoga, still working part-time, still having back pain and heartburn.  Baby boy is still crazy active.

Holden is going through a bit of a rough patch with his behavior.  I don’t think it has  anything to do with the impending baby, I just think it’s normal 3.5 year old stuff.  It’s been challenging to drag a kicking and screaming boy into time out, when he weighs FORTY POUNDS, and my pelvis feels like it’s going to crack from the pressure.  It’s challenging, but the discipline must go on.  We had an especially rough day on Friday, when my neighbor gave him a friendly reminder about his behavior (totally fine with me, I actually like when other adults chime in).  In response, Holden told her “You can’t tell me what to do.”  Um, woah.  So I made him apologize right away, then left with him to put him in an immediate time out at our house.  I had to DRAG him up the stairs.  I locked him in his room, and after some yelling, crying, throwing things, and having an all-out tantrum, I told him he’d be getting an X for the day.  He’s been working on earning an outer space placemat for the past 2.5 weeks, and at the end of each day, he earns either a check or an X.  He doesn’t have to be perfect to get a check mark, but telling off the neighbor was definite grounds for getting an X. When he learned he’d be getting an X, he started sobbing and after a few minutes alone in his room, he grew quiet.  After a little while, I went into his room so we could talk about the situation together.  Later that same night while tucking him in, he told me that he didn’t know he couldn’t say such a thing to a grown-up.  I believe him (he’s not nearly sophisticated enough to lie about something like that).  And when I started thinking about it, I realized where he may have gotten the idea to say such a thing to a neighbor.  Recently, H was watching another kid play and started to be a little bossy with the kid, and I told H, “You shouldn’t be bossy with him, you shouldn’t be telling other kids what to do, or how to play.”  Of course, it seemed perfectly natural for H to generalize this and say to our neighbor, “You can’t tell me what to do.”  Sigh.  Being three is all about learning exceptions to rules—it’s about revealing all of the many social qualifiers that guide acceptable human interaction.  It’s tough stuff:

Listen to grown-ups

• But not strangers, because they might be sketchy

Don’t be bossy

• Unless another kid is doing something dangerous
• Or they are trying to hurt/annoy you, and you need to tell them to stop
• Or they are hurting someone else

Don’t let other people touch your private areas

• Unless he or she is your doctor
• Or your mom or dad
• Or your teacher is helping you go potty
• And you have granted these people permission to do so

Ugh, so many rules!  In my opinion, this is what makes the age of three WAY harder than any previous age.  Learning how to navigate these social situations is difficult; explaining how these social situations work is exhausting.  Once H gets the words, unless, except, if, but, and, & or fully incorporated into his vocabulary, he’ll have mastered this form of social kung fu.

In other news, my boss was recently diagnosed with cancer.  She had surgery a couple of weeks ago and has started a 6-month course of chemotherapy.  It’s horrible news, and we are all hoping for a positive outcome.  That said, I don’t know about the future of my job, and whether I’ll have one to return to after maternity leave.  Weird, because I lost my job after H was born, but for completely different reasons.  Is the universe trying to tell me something?  For now, I’m going to stay positive and assume that I’ll be able to go back.

Hey, you want to see a picture?  People have been bugging me because I have basically taken no maternity photos during this pregnancy.  So here’s one of the four of us last week (38 weeks) enjoying our unseasonably warm weather down by the lake: