Planning for Baby

Let's think nursery/bedroom for our two littles.

I am keeping the walls grey because I am not going to undertake any big tasks, especially with our basement remodel going on.  I will also keep the curtains and most of the decor which is white, gold, and pink floral.

Farrah keeps saying she wants her keep her bed, although she hardly seems to want to sleep in it.  Otherwise, I thought about us (Keane) building her a bed like this.



If Farrah keeps her bed, I am going to borrow/use/have the crib my parents have and paint it gold - like this.



I will keep the current dresser and chest-of-drawers.  I will consider painting them like I did last time, but ultimately choose not to because that, again, is a big undertaking that isn't quite necessary.

By the time the baby arrives, we will have moved all of, or most of, the play things to the new playroom downstairs so that will clear out some space in order to make room for the new baby's belongings.

The things I currently want for the new baby are:

-a new baby monitor
-a hospital gown/homecoming outfit (purchased this one in the sage "vintage floral")
-sheets (either white or most likely customized from Carousel Designs whenever she gets named)
-considering a Moses basket
-Aden and Anais swaddle blankets (Farrah sleeps with one of hers every day)
-perhaps a rocker glider, something bigger since I will likely be holding both kiddos sometimes, and less noisy
-a sound machine
-animal wall prints in wooden frames

Here is some color and decor inspiration:

Our Wild One

She likes Daddy's rock music.  She has never complimented me on my music but as soon as we get in Keane's truck and he plays some of his style of music, she says, I like this song.  I wish I could spell the way she talks - she almost does so in a sing-song way.  The tone of her voice really fluctuates as she speaks.  She likes to ask Why?  She constantly is asking Hu? What you say?  She uses the word maybe like when we were at the Baskett's for the Superbowl, they brought out their big labradoodle and Farrah said, He maybe get me.  She says actually a lot.  When we were discussing the color of peas and she wanted them to be a different color, she said I like red actually.  I would say her favorite color currently is blue, and her favorite animal is a dog.  She calls us Mom and Dad a lot, but not exclusively.  She likes to chew gum.  She is very choosy with her pajamas at night and has to tell me which ones she wants to wear.  She says she doesn't like my boobies - that they are yucky.  The other night she whispered, Mommy, can you cover up your boobies so that I not have to touch them?  I had a shirt on but I had to cover them in enough covers that she couldn't notice them.  But last night she did tell me, I kind of like your boobies, Momma. But I not like them a lot.  She's learned some things from watching Peppa Pig a lot.  Some things like she wants to jump in muddy puddles and things like saying Ugck!  That's 'gusting!  She can also be so sweet.  She says, I love you soooo much in the whole world!

Keane says she's going to be our wild one.  There's no doubt about that.

She is pretty much completely potty trained.  I still put a diaper on her in long car rides and when she sleeps, but she has been pooping in the potty for about 3 weeks now.  I usually pick her up and dance and spin around the bathroom afterwards singing, "Farrah pooped in the potty!"  She loves the praise, and I love not dealing with poopy diapers -- for the time being of course.

We started a bad, bad thing. She started going through what I'm going to call a sleep regression.  I was spending far too much time trying to get her to go to sleep at night.  I would usually put her jammas on, she would brush her teeth, tell everyone good night, I would read her some books, and then rock her at her request, and she typically fell asleep fairly quickly, after a little chitchatting.  But when I would move her to her bed, she would awaken and ask that I not leave and that I pat her butt.  Then she just would not fall asleep.  She'd lay quietly and ever so often roll over, but when it was time for me to leave the bedroom, she would freak out.  Or she would cry and follow soon after.  And after all the time I just spent trying to do it all the right way, I didn't have a lot more time left in the evening.  No time to relax.  No time to spend with my husband - by this time he would usually be asleep or aggravated.  No time for a relaxing bath or hot shower.  No bedtime snack.

So we started to let her lay in Mommy-Daddy's bed while we wind down for the evening.  That way we could watch our show (Shameless), and she started falling asleep rather quickly.  I was to the point of wanting or needing more rest and sleep and sanity and time with my husband, so this was the better of the two options.

I typically take her back to her bed once I wake up after falling asleep, but around 4:00 a.m. give or take an hour, we hear her bedroom door open and slam shut, and soon thereafter she appears by my bedside, holding Lambie, Piggy, and blanket, and she waits for me to pick her up and lay her again by my side, and maybe after a few whispers, we're all back to sleep again.

This is getting us nowhere.  It is making me uncomfortable, squished, and sometimes irritable, especially being pregnant.  But I don't know how to reverse it.  I don't know how to get her to fall asleep in her bed again.  Do I rearrange her room again?  Do I force her and let her cry herself to sleep which I am currently refusing to do?  Do I spend an hour each evening working to get her to sleep?  Will she decide to sleep in her own bed on her own one day?

25 Weeks - 105 days to go

I don't think my belly can get any bigger.  Keane asked how I still possibly have 16 weeks left.  He said I look like I could "calve" any day.  I totally agree.  I had my 24 week appointment yesterday (technically I was 24 weeks, 5 days) and my doctor said I'm measuring perfectly.  I weighed in at 134.2 lbs. (weight gain of 14.2 lbs).  I gained 6.8 since my previous appointment.  My blood pressure was 118/56 and the baby's heart rate was 138 and sounded healthy.  Nighttime leg cramps and heartburn are here and I'm trying to ignore the recent urges to move my legs...that RLS is no fun, and I'm still experiencing quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions.  In four weeks I go back and do my glucose test!

 (24 weeks)
 (25 weeks)



The messy belly syndrome has begun.  I didn't even realize this happened.  I think it's was my hot chocolate!

Farrah always wants to buy things for "new baby" and talks about her a lot.  She says she doesn't want me to hold the new baby, though -- wish me luck.  She had a confirmed case (without the actual test) of influenza last week.  Wednesday night she came down with a really high fever (103 on the forehead and 102 in the ear).  I was able to get her right in to see her pediatrician Thursday morning and was told she's the perfect poster child for influenza.  They are seeing it so much they aren't even testing for it at this point, so we don't know if it was the A or B strand.  They gave her the off-brand of Tamiflu and sent her on her way.  I kept giving her Ibuprofen and Tylenol every 3 hours until her fever left Friday evening.  I was exhausted and she was crabby, but we made it through.  And I have finally overcame my three-week long miserable cold as well - hallelujah!

We still do not have a name decided on.  My top favorites have been Nova, Birdie, and Scarlet.  Some others that have been moved to the rejected-by-Keane list are Indie, Georgia, Jorgie, Noelle, and Maisie.  The only name we both like currently is Ely (pronounced Ee-Lee).  It is Keane's maternal grandmother's maiden name.  A middle name is yet another thing.  Ely Kaye?  Ely Joy?  Ely Rae?  Ely something-entirely-different?

I don't know if I could love Farrah any more than I do right now.  If it just keeps getting better from here then I'm in for a real lucky treat.  She is such a talker right now.  She talks nonstop, has so much to say, so many ideas, and so many requests.  Last night she was laying next to me in bed (the new normal for our bedtime routine), and she whispers, "Momma, last time...I saw Santa Clause, at your work, and he gave me a wittle Santa Clause."  She loves playing with her Peppa Pig house and characters, in her kitchen preparing food for all of us and her babies (all named Baby Lunden or Baby Alexandah), with play-dough, and playing beeper aka store with her cash register -- but if you play, you have to be the mommy and you have to bring your baby in the stroller, and sometimes she'll ask to hold your baby while she's beeping your items.

Our basement...downstairs now has all the electric and lights ran and all of the drywall up and it is currently in the process of being taped and mudded!  It's pretty exciting (except the cost and spending, of course).