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Big news…

Well, I finally let the cat out of the bag at work yesterday, so I feel at liberty to do so in the blog world now.

Kate’s going to be a big sister!!

I’m due on April 14, so I’m like nine weeks right now. I’ve been feeling ok. Actually, make that pretty crappy. Lots of nausea, fatigue, and two days ago, the heartburn kicked in. Awesome. But, like we always say, it’s a small price to pay for a miracle (or something like that….)

Anyway, Kate is super excited. She has written a song called “Mommy’s Going to Have a Baby Soon” and it goes like this… “Mommy’s going to have a baby soon, Mommy’s going to have a baby soon, Mommy’s going to have a baby soon…” pretty creative, eh? She asks me everyday when I get home from work if the baby’s come out yet. Telling her the baby won’t come until April doesn’t mean a thing to her… like when she tells me to pick her up at the sitter’s at 8:11:12. Um, ok. But she’s happy and it’s so cute.

Finding out I was pregnant was quite an ordeal. Because I have soooo much patience, I tested the day my period was due. It was negative. I still didn’t get my period, so I waited four more days and tested again… negative. After a week I tested again and it appeared to be negative at first, but after I got out of the shower and looked again, there was a possibility it was positive, but when I looked at www.peeonastick.com, my hopes were dashed, as it said what I saw was an evaporation line. So, finally, TWO WEEKS passed and I wasn’t going to mess around anymore, so I bought one of those digital things that says “pregnant” or “not pregnant.” Fortunately, it said the former.

By the time I went to the doctor for the ultrasound, I thought I was eight weeks pregnant, and found out I was only six and a half. But, we saw the heartbeat and got a picture of the tiny little dot, and everything was great.

Jenny’s response? “Yes! I’m so glad you’re pregnant. This is going to make great material for the blog.”

Ok, this is Jenny, I am butting into Emily’s post, to tell you the whole truth!!! I have always been quite bossy, so I would like it to be known that during Emily’s two weeks of non-testing, I was constantly nagging her to TEST AGAIN. Cause really, my need to know was more important than hers. Then, when I found out that she was indeed going to pop out another kid, my reaction was as she’s stated above, with the addition of, “It’s about freaking time!!” I tried to convince her to get knocked up when I was pregnant with Sophia, since it was ever so much fun being pregnant together the FIRST time, but she was too scared. She always makes me be her guinea pig! So, I was really hoping she’d have twins, but since they only saw one baby up in that ultrasound I guess I’m out of luck.

All that to say that of course, I am overjoyed!

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WFMW: SnugTuck Pillow

I’m sure this will come as a great surprise to you all, but the idea of transferring Kate from her crib to a regular bed caused me some anxiety. I liked the fact that when I put her in her crib, I knew that she was there to stay. Not to mention that at the time, we lived in a really old house that had really steep stairs (so steep, in fact, that Jenny used to make me carry Joshua down them for fear she’d trip), so the thought of her being able to get out of her bed at will seriously freaked me out.

So I just kept her in her crib… until she was about 28 months old. She looked kinda ridiculous being as big as she was in a crib, but hey, she was safe. Or at least that’s what I thought until one night as I sat at the computer in the room next to hers after having put her to bed and she appeared like some kind of ghost at my side. She could climb out of her crib. Great.

So we bought another house.

Ok, that was only part of the reason. But anyway, when we moved, we decided not to set up her crib and put her in a “big girl” bed. The spare bed we had happened to be a double, so that’s what she got.

As I said, the thought of this freaked me out (surprise), so I scoured books and the internet (surprise) for tricks and tips on making this transition easier.

The best tip I got was about the SnugTuck pillow.

This innovative product is designed to take the place of bed rails… they’re a more comfy, safer alternative. It’s basically a long, tubular pillow that has elastic attached to both ends. The pillow goes over the fitted sheet, and the elastic goes under the mattress. The pillow is firm enough not to be a suffocation hazard, and yet is great for the child to snuggle up next to. The standard one is six inches in diameter (which is what we have), so if the kid decides to crawl over top, she isn’t falling from very high. It also works great for deep or pillowtop mattresses, which I understand can be a problem for traditional bed rails.

We originally bought only one, thinking that we’d put the bed up against the wall on one side and have the SnugTuck pillow on the other side. However, the way Kate’s headboard and bed are made, this left a pretty big gap between the matress and the wall, which seemed pretty unsafe to me. I ordered another pillow and moved her bed, so now she has a SnugTuck pillow on either side of her.

We’ve used them for almost a year now, and I can see her using them for another year or more. She’s never fallen out of bed, and she doesn’t try to crawl over them to get out of bed, she just gets off at the foot of the bed instead.

The pillows come in different sizes and diameters, and you can pick from every color fabric imaginable. Kate has one in cobalt and one in lime, both of which are very fun. Organic cotton is available, as is fabric with characters like Thomas the Train and Strawberry Shortcake. I also discovered yesterday that they will make a pillow from your own fabric, so if you want the pillows to coordinate perfectly with your room, this would be a great option.

The only downside is that they are kind of expensive… however, the nice people at SnugTuck Pillow have created a coupon code just for Mommin’ It Up readers! Just put “MWS” into the coupon code section of the order form and recieve 15% off your pillow!! How cool is that?

So if you’re like me and dreading the crib-to-bed conversion, head on over to the SnugTuck Pillow website and order one (or two) up!

That works for me!

For more fun “Works for Me Wednesday” stories, take a look at Rocks in My Dryer.

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Mom’s Market Mayhem

Saturday morning was the “Mom’s Market” consignment sale in a neighboring town. Jenny and I had gone last year for the first time, not really knowing what we had gotten ourselves into – she was hugely pregnant and I had the mistaken idea that it would be an appropriate place to bring my daughter. It turned out there was room for neither Jenny’s belly or Kate’s stroller. We were also unaware at the time that if the sale starts at 9:00 a.m., one must in fact be in line long before that. However, tons of gently-used, high-quality, low-priced baby gear, toys and clothes were there for the taking. We were in love.

This year, I searched high and low for information on when this Prada sample sale was going to take place so I could mark it on my calendar. Unfortunately, by the time we uncovered the secret time and location, Jenny was already booked for that morning.

So, Saturday finally arrived. I was pumped. Kate had spent the night with Papa and Nana the night before… so on the one day in history that it was actually going to be possible for me to sleep in, I set the alarm for 7:15. I rolled out of bed, threw on some jeans, ran a brush through my hair and hit the road. (The other moms were loving comparing themselves to me that morning).

I arrived at the sale location just before 8:00 – I was an hour early and still the line already contained 50 or more people. Had they camped out? Ugh! For some reason, I thought I should get my Visa out and ready to go at that point… and I couldn’t find my wallet. I thought I had left it in the other car. I dumped everything out of my purse, hoping to find a renegade credit card or at least my checkbook, but to no avail. I called Andy (and woke him up on the one day he could have slept in) and was on the verge of tears telling him what was going on. He told me to calm down that he’d bring me my wallet, bless his heart. But then I thought to check the floor where my purse had been sitting and sure enough, my wallet was laying right there. Crisis averted.

I went to get in line with all the other crazy moms. I was feeling pretty smart because I had thought to bring a book and a half-read magazine as a way to kill time. However, being the genius I am, I picked up Harry Potter number one, when really I am on book two in my quest to become the last person in the universe to have read these books. So much for that. I read the rest of my magazine, but that only bought me about 10 minutes of entertainment.

So instead, I started people-watching. I got a closer look at the moms in the front of the line, with their lawn chairs and three-course breakfast. I was pretty sure I saw remnents of the campfire they had built the night before. I heard the woman behind me saying that her husband was going to join her shortly, and that she purposefully had her in-laws come into town each year the weekend of this sale, so they could watch the kids. Hey, whatever it takes, I guess. Then there was the mother-daughter team in front of me – I think they should try out for “The Amazing Race” because if they can map out a plan to attack that sale the way they did, they can definitely win a million on that show.

Finally, after an hour that seemed like a day, they opened the door. The stampede began. I was getting caught up in the excitement myself, I will admit. I headed straight for the gym (it was at an elementary school), where I thought the strollers would be. Unfortunately, they weren’t in the gym, and by the time I had figured that out, made my way back to the door and asked for directions to the strollers, I was mad that I had wasted at least four precious minutes.

I struck out in the stroller department, so I went to the clothes. The clothes were hung up on long racks that lined the hallway of the school. They were so jammed together that it was hard to see what was there. I was apparently not moving quickly enough, because the mom behind me was all up in my business. I was relieved when she sighed loudly and then finally went around me. I heard one mom say, “I am so mean when I come here!!” Yikes.

I actually found some really great stuff – I bought a lot of Gymboree and Gap stuff that I would have never paid retail for. So it was worth it. But by the time I got in line to pay for my loot, I felt like I had just run a marathon. I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted!

As I headed to my car, I saw a dad emerge from the madness. He looked at me and said, “That is the scariest place I have ever been in my life.”

I had to agree. But you can bet I will be there again next year!

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