Telling Mama & Papa . . . and all the rest

Yesterday, the girls & I met Mama & Papa for lunch. The girls were wearing their Big Sister shirts again, and proudly showed them to Mama & Papa. Mama & Papa read their shirts, and made appropriate "you did such a good job making those shirts" noises w/o actually figuring out WHAT the shirts were saying LOL. With some additional prompting they finally got it LOL. We had already planned to stop by their office after lunch so the girls could see Mandy (Papa's co-worker who has enjoyed seeing them since they were babies, whenever we stopped by), but with our news, Mama & Papa also found it necessary to take us to various other friends at their office and share their news.

After that the girls & I went to the outlets and L was excited to find that the Plow & Hearth outlet STILL had the "horse-in-a-box" she remembered from several months ago and wanted to get as her "welcome to our family" gift for the baby (A's choice of gift was a doll, and I have an organic knot doll in my gift stash so I told her she could use that). We also poked our heads in the Motherhood outlet, but the one skirt that tempted me, they only had in too small or too big sizes, sigh . . .

Then we went to my friend Kim's house, where the girls not only enjoyed playing w/ Hannah & Yeva (& Sage), but also each took a turn holding baby Ziva :) Ziva is a DREAM baby, content whether held or not, sleeps at night . . . I asked her to PLEASE have a talk with this little one and explain how to behave LOL.

Yesterday evening after supper Mama, the girls, & I walked out to Grandma & Grandpa's house (that would be my grandparents for those getting confused w/ all the granparent-ish names LOL) and Grandma didn't "get" the shirt thing either LOL.

Today was another busy day with the much postponed final class from last spring's Kindermusik class. The girls told Miss Laura about the baby, and the class even sang to the "baby" during their welcome song :) Which effectively told another of my parents' co-workers who'd brought her son to "try out" the class for this fall's session :)

All the running around (today we also let the girls pick berries, tomatoes, etc in Grandpa's garden, and went to visit some other Frederick area friends, then came home and had a picnic supper, and roasted marshmallows for smores. Has made me realize that perhaps the reason I haven't felt as tired this pregnancy as I did last time is because at home if I start getting tired I can sit down and relax for awhile LOL. On the flip-side, w/ all the running aorund this week I've been falling asleep much easier than I had been.

So, now that all the grandparents know, it's "fair game" to tell whoever. And speaking of falling asleep more readily, I should be heading that way now . . .

Telling Grandmom

We went to Grandmom's house today to tell her about the baby. The girls wore their shirts. L was practically bouncing off the walls trying to give Grandmom time to read the shirt. And then both girls babbled on and on and on (and on and on . . . ) about it for the next I don't know how long. MIL was amused that one of them (A, I think) told her that Mommy made "our first midwife appointment" hee hee.

I got this book from the library last week. It was recommended on a homebirth page I was on, as a good book to read w/ kids if you're planning a homebirth. I agree, goes through the experience w/o going into too much technical detail (my girls are going to want more technical detail before it's all said and done LOL, but this was a good start). The only at all "graphic" picture shows the baby's head out, from that picture A has decided that the mommy "poops the baby out" (no amount of explaining will change her mind LOL. Hopefully she doesn't tell TOO MANY people this particular observation LOL).

Also cute annecdote from last week. The girls went up to get the mail & there was a package from a giveaway I won (baby sun hat). The return address label had the company's logo on it which included a picture of a baby, so the girls figured out it was something for the baby. L told me she started to say "It's for the ba . . ." then realized there were men nearby working on the roof of one of the outbuildings here, so she changed it to "barn" LOL. She was so proud of herself for coming up w/ a "save" to keep our secret :)

Now that we've told Grandmom & Aunt Lynette, we just need to tell Mama & Papa on Thursday and then the girls don't have to worry about keeping the secret anymore LOL. When I told the girls I thought we'd be stopping at their friend Hannah's house on our way to Mama & Papa's house, A was quite upset that "but then we won't be able to tell Hannah about the baby!" I told her since we'd be seeing Mama & Papa right after we left Hannah's house that she could go ahead & tell Hannah, so they're happy :) (and actually, talked to Dad tonight, I think we'll meet mom & dad for lunch and THEN go to Hannah's house so that way the girls can tell Mama & Papa first afterall).

I'm discovering I have "reverse morning sickness" (or something) this time around. I'd marginally noticed that I didn't have any real appetite in the mornings and that waiting till late morning to eat anything wasn't bothering me (whereas in general one of the main times m/s hits is first thing in the morning). Well this weekend w/ getting up & eating earlier (to go to church on Sabbath and to go to Grandmom's this morning) I felt worse than I have up until now in the morning. So I'm thinking the key is to actually NOT eat in teh morning . . . trust me to be weird that way LOL.

Finally Made a Midwife Appointment!!

I'm such a procrastinator LOL. Though in this case a big part of it was knowing they weren't likely to want to see me till 9 wks or later anyway, and I was right. First appointment is Sept 11 (and would've been a week or so later then that (she said they normally do first appointment around 12 weeks, the Birth Center I used last time did first appointment at 9 wks) except that was the first available appointment time (so THAT would be an argument for not procrastinating LOL, but oh well . . .). They also want us to come to an orientation thingy in the evening in a couple weeks since we're a new patient. To tour the birth center & such. She didn't ask if I was planning a homebirth, birth center, or hospital, so I figured I'd discuss that in person (I really hate phones, I'm weird that way) but from what someone on mothering.com said (where I asked or homebirth midwife recommendations in this area when I first found out I was pregnant) this practice does homebirths w/ the caveat that if someone else is already in labor AT the birth center, I'd have to go to the birth center so the midwife didn't have to try to be in 2 places at once, but since the birth center is only a couple miles away I can live with that, so touring the birth center is a good thing. I also confirmed that I could bring the girls with me or all appointments and she said that's fine, which I was assuming . . . in general birth centers encourage including siblings in the whole experience, but you never know. . . from a logistics standpoint it wouldn't be the end of the world to not bring the girls with me for prenatal appointments (the birth center is pretty much halfway between our house & dh's office so would be easy enough for him to come take the girls to the playground (which is also close to the birth center) while I was at my appointment or something) but with them wanting to be at the birth, I want them to be comfortable around the midwives and such.

In other news . . . be careful what you say around 5 yr olds!!! I made the mistake (?) of telling the girls that I was going to try to do at least some of the pilates video every day. Then yesterday there was a crew here painting our roof so I decided I'd skip since me in shorts doing pelvic tilts just isn't an attractive thing to see as you walk by a window (and we don't have blinds on our family room windows) but yesterday afternoon A realized I hadn't done "my exercises" and gave me quite the talking to, culminating in pointing out that the men were gone NOW so why didn't I just do it now! So I did one 10 min segment yesterday evening. Actually same scenario today, so I'm expecting her to get on my case here any minute now LOL. Or maybe I'll save her thinking I should do it at bedtime, and go ahead & do one segment now. I must say, while the exercises don't seem too bad while I'm doing them, I felt them afterwards LOL. . .

Exercise

I got a prenatal pilates video from the library to try. And tried it yesterday. It's from the 10 minutes solutions set, so it contains 5 separate 10 minute segments so you can do one of them or all 5 or somewhere in between. I did the first one yesterday morning and at the end of 10 minutes I was tired enough to stop. But then yesterday afternoon I figured I'd do "one more" and ended up doing the rest of the tape. Granted the arm work (in several of the segments) is meant to be done w/ weights and I didn't have any weights (I may have some packed somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I also sent at least one set of my weights to my parents' house, so I'm hoping mom has them easily accessible and I can get them back from her when we're there in a little over a week). Even so, I'm abit sore (exercise other than just day to day life stuff isn't something I've done much of in oh . . . years LOL). I liked the tape overall, although there's one segment that I think I'd avoid in the 3rd trimester because so much of it is done on your back, but easy enough to just skip that segment. I went ahead & reserved a different tape from the library for this next week, but I'm pretty sure I'll get the 10 min solution one.

The girls were sweet, bringing me water between segments and when I was done.

I'm feeling abit more sick these days and my appetite is low (which was the case last time during first trimester too). I'm trying to make sure the food I do eat is fruit, veggies, or good proteins (limit the empty carbs) but not stressing too much about eating less than I'm "supposed to" (I'm not going to blow away anytime soon).

We're visiting MIL this weekend to tell here. Were planning to have the girls wear their "Big Sister" bracelets and show them to her as a way of telling her, but L has managed to stretch her bracelet all out and when A was upset when we first told them, she was holding, but not wearing, her bracelet and somhow "lost" it in/under the sofa. I've pulled out all the cushions, felt as far under & in the cracks as I can, all to no avail, so not sure where it ended up. So, I think we'll go today & get plain white t-shirts and I'll write Big Sister on the shirts & let the girls either draw or stamp other designs on them.

Guess that's about it. I was freaking out abit because I'm starting to notice a little "pooch" (although dh says he doesn't notice a difference, I believe his exact wordswere something along the lines of "are you sure it's not just fat?" LOL) actually more noticing that the fat pooch that is always there is feeling abit more solid, so yeah, probably only noticeable to me. ANYWAY . . . that was freaking me out abit from the whole twin perspective (we could certainly "handle" it if we're blessed w/ twins again, but one at a time is my preference thankyouverymuch) but then I was reading on an April 09 due date board and several of the 2nd time mommies were mentioning that they were starting to get a pooch too, so now I don't feel so bad LOL.

We Told the Girls

While dh was home for lunch today we gave the girls the bracelets I'd made that say "Big Sister" took abit of explaining for them to "get it" but now they know LOL. Initial, initial reaction was excitement from both, then while L excitedly asked 1001 questions, A disappeared. When I noticed & went looking she was crying, and saying she didn't want to be a big sister. After much talking, she said she's worried about Mama & Papa not having time for her anymore. I assured her they will. And basically just held her & let her cry while I kept answering L's questions. Eventually L's questions drew A in, and she started asking questions too. She still says she's scared "I never had a baby in my house before", but she's starting to act excited too. She's also concerned about having to do more laundry LOL.

Both girls have "introduced" themselves to the baby (something tells me my stomach's going to get lots of "conversation" over the next 8 months LOL) and talked to it about various things. We've talked about them each getting a special present to give to the new baby. L has wanted a jack-in-the-box (or more specifically a horse one that's been at the Hearthsong outlet (fingers crossed it's still there LOL) for awhile) for quite awhile, and when I told her she was too big for a jack-in-the-box she suggested that if we ever had another baby we could get it for the baby. SO . . . I told her that next time we go to Mama & Papa's we'll stop & see if the horse-in-the-box is still there & if it is, she can get it to give to the baby. A decided she wants to get a doll for the new baby.

A just came downstairs & told me she'd just prayed to Jesus and asked Him to help her not be scared about the new baby (awwwww).

The "how did the baby get in there" question has already come up (I put them off) as well as "how does the baby get out" I told them if everything goes as planned we'll have the baby here at home so they can choose to be in the room while the baby's born or not (they both want to see it LOL). I'll be getting a book about homebirth (for kids) from the library, which should help to answer some of the questions, and raise additional ones LOL.

Not too much to report . . .

Still not really feeling pregnant. Though my energy level is down. At lunch today dh asked how I was feeling & I said I was ok, just really sleepy, and added "and I don't know why" (because I slept fine last night, didn't get up early, etc) to which he poetically said "maybe because you're knocked up!" LOL.

Current plan is that I'm going to go get alphabet beads once dh gets home tonight, and then tonight or tomorrow night I'll make "Big Sister" bracelets for the girls and we'll give them to the girls as our way of telling them. I'm more anxious to tell people this time, not sure why . . .

As of yesterday morning I'd gained 3lbs (to which my lovely, supportive (HONEST) husband said "are you sure that's baby, and not just too many sweets?" and yes, my weight does tend to fluctuate within a 10lb range, so it might be, but what I was actually trying to "prove" with my comment was that at least at this point, my thyroid doesn't appear to be going wacky this time. Healthier for baby, though I'll admit, starting the last pregnancy w/ a 20lb weight loss was kinda nice LOL. But seriously, the thyroid fluctuation IS dangerous for baby, so I'm glad we seem to be avoiding that this time.

Abit of an update

I'm really not "feeling" at all pregnant. Which I guess isn't too terribly surprising considering how mild the m/s was with twins! (I'm choosing to not entertain the possibility of twins again LOL). Last week was super busy with VBS each evening. Not sure how I feel about attending that VBS next year with a 4 mo old in tow. As long as it's a baby content to hang out in the sling the whole time, we'll be fine. I'm the wierdo that dreads a baby that doesn't want to co-sleep or stay in the sling all day LOL. But still not ideal . . . we'll play it by ear. I might work out a "tag team" arrangement with dh where I take the girls & then he meets us there after work & stays w/ the girls the rest of the time, or we alternate evenings or something. Which I'd have pushed for this year except his back was bothering him too much to spend 2+ hours alternating between sitting on hard floors & standing around.

I did have a couple nights at VBS where it struck me that it was a good thing snack time was next on the agenda because I was feeling abit queasy (and thankfully they gave the adults all a snack too, so I didn't have to steal food from my kids to ease the queasiness LOL).

Had a tad big of spotting (not really even spotting, just a tad pink when I wiped - TMI, I know, but this IS a pregnancy journal thankyouverymuch) last night which has had me abit freaked out all day today (just lots of trips to the bathroom "just to check") and I've used it as an excuse to take it pretty easy today (which is a bummer since I had planned to catch up on the housework that I let slide last week w/ VBS), and A was in "helper girl mode" so it would've been an ideal day to at least get the clutter back under control, but such is life . . .

I think dh & I have decided that I'll make the girls "big sister" bracelets and give them to them as our way of telling them. I had planned to go out today to get alphabet beads (thought I had some, but can't find them, just alphabet charms, and not enough s's to make 2) but dh ended up having to go help his mom, who's sick, so I couldn't go alone. Not sure if I'll attempt it w/ the kids or try to go some evening this week after dh gets home or what . . .

Current plan is to visit my parents the weekend of the 22nd so I think we'll tell them that weekend and plan a trip to MIL's the weekend before or after that to tell her. Once the girls know I'll let them decide if they want to use their bracelets to tell the grandparents or if they want to make big sister shirts to wear.

I've found a way to actually enjoy drinking red raspberry leaf tea. I had great intentions last pregnancy but just couldn't get into it. This time around I figured out to make ice tea with honey to sweeten it. Yummy and healthy!!! Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year also recommends regularly drinking nettle infusions, so I need to get through my herbs in the basement and see if I still have nettles and if not, get some when I order from Frontier next. Hopefully honey (or something) will make it edible too LOL.

I found a site that makes modest dresses and jumpers that has really reasonable prices (& cotton fabrics, not just poly/cotton blends!!!) and will modify for maternity &/or nursing at no extra cost! So I ordered a maternity dress & a maternity jumper today (haven't heard back on the fabric choices yet though). Beyond that I want to go through what I already have (need to get most of it back from Kim when I'm in MD next time), check the motherhood outlet (when I'm in MD next, it's going to be a busy weekend LOL) and then decide if I need anything else & see if I can con my mom into making me a skirt or dress or two :)

Also REALLY need to call the midwife practice this week, never got a chance to do it last week with VBS and bloggy giveaways (so far I've won a sun hat for the new baby, woo-hoo!) and all.

Last night we went to dh's boss's house for dinner, along w/ the department secretary & her family (who is also our neighbor & they have a 7 yr old dd, that is friends w/ our girls). Mike (secretary's dh) asked us if we were planning on more kids. I just used my stock answer that I've used for the past 3 years "depends who you ask" LOL.

DH has at least accepted w/o argument that we'll have a homebirth. He rolls his eyes abit at it all, but doesn't seem opposed. He's currently saying he doesn't want to come to any of the mw appointments, but DOES want to find out the gender, those 2 things don't go together because I can guarantee if they ask just me, if I want to know gender, I'm going to say no LOL. So we shall see . . . not sure what this practice's policy on u/s is anyway, though considering they do mostly hospital births (per someone on mdc) I'm guessing they'll at least do the 20 wk u/s, possibly others if asked (the one at 20 wks is the only one I'll agree to).

He HAS already vetoed my first choice of baby names, sigh . . . need to discuss it more when the girls aren't around, they came in the house just as we were starting to talk about it, so it was an abbreviated discussion.

Guess that gets us pretty much up to date. I don't think I'm having the thyroid issues I was having last time (losing weight) but maybe that didn't start till later? I need to weight myself again to see if I'm gaining/losing/holding steady. I'm fascinated with the little ticker thing I have on this blog & being able to see what baby is up to :)