Mommin' It Up!

October 23, 2007October 23, 2007

T-Minus GINORMO and Counting (One year ago this week!)

(Before you read today’s enthralling post, if you haven’t checked out my post at TopBlogMag yet, pleeeeeaaase head on over and do so! Thanks!)

The following is from a blog I had before Emily and I started Mommin’ It Up. It was kind of just a family and friends thing, but I wanted to share this post with you all. It was written one year ago this week when I was 37 weeks pregnant with Sophia. Enjoy!

Well it’s 4:43 in the a.m. and even though I took a Tylenol PM, I can’t SLEEP! I’m not happy! I’ve been up for about two hours. I went to sleep at ten and fell right asleep but no such luck with staying that way. My belly is so ginormous that I just can’t stay comfortable even with the bed all to myself and my three strategically placed pillows. As a matter of fact, I’m not even GROGGY from the ol’ Tylenol PM so maybe I need to take 2 next time. One for me and one for Sophia. I haven’t taken any in a few weeks but then I took one Wednesday cause I was desperate and it really helped so I thought I’d try again tonight. Oh well.

I’m still behind on my weight gain from my last pregnancy but nevertheless I feel like a giant. I try very hard to walk gracefully but I am officially no longer walking but either “waddling” or “lumbering” at this stage. I am happy to report however that my feet and hands have not really gotten swollen yet which is great cause they were definitely FUGE (that’s how Joshua says “huge” – it’s so cute!) at this point last time. I can even still wear my wedding rings – HOLLA! And my normal shoes! I wore my mom’s shoes, which are a whole size bigger than mine, for about the last two months of my first pregnancy. THAT’S when you’ve REALLY thrown fashion to the wind, my friends.

They say when the last few weeks of pregnancy, the baby gets less active because it runs out of room in there. My girl apparently knows how to make the most of what space she’s got â€˜cause she’s still throwing a kickin’ dance party several times a day. One of my friends says she just likes to hold her belly and smile when she feels her baby move, but Sophia is such a crazy girl that my comments are usually more along the lines of, “This kid is trying to kill me!” or “Oh my GOSH she’s driving me nuts!” But then of course if I don’t feel her move for awhile I get anxious…it’s good to know she’s doing so well. I just wish she was doing so well a teeeeeensy bit more gently.

I think I am in the official “nesting” stage. I’ve been doing laundry like it’s going out of style, and I hate laundry! I cleaned the kitchen really good yesterday, put away all my maternity clothes that were too small or not warm enough, and I’ve vacuumed TWICE since Thursday. I washed all of Sophia’s 0-3 month clothes yesterday which was really fun to fold them all and just imagine that soon she’ll be here and I’ll get to play “dress up” with her every day!! Bobby and I have made a list of things to do before she is born and I got several things crossed off this week. He is working hard on her room. Her bedroom wall now has no holes in it! YESS! Way to go Daddy!

I’m trying to spend some “special time” with Joshua before his sister gets here…it does make me a bit sad to know I’ll never be able to give him 100% of myself again. Today we went to McDonald’s for lunch, and he dipped ALL his chicken nuggets in the caramel sauce that comes with the apple dippers, and it was so funny! But he ate every last bite and usually he eats juuuuuust enough to stay alive so I was pleased. We went shopping for some things for the baby and he was such a good boy at the store, he really made me proud. We had a really nice day. Something that he did this week that just melted my heart (granted, I am emotionally unstable to the max right now!) was when he woke up Thursday morning, I went in to get him and he gave me a big, tight, warm hug. I said “I love you so much!” and he said “I love you TOO so much TOO!” Holy prozac I nearly lost it. He is such a sweetie!!

On that note, I think I’ll wrap it up and attempt to put myself back to sleep. Hope you all are sleeping well and not getting the crap kicked out of your insides.

October 22, 2007October 22, 2007

Help – I need sleep!!

Ok forgive me if this is full of misspellings, grammatical errors and anything else that requires brain power.

I’m running on very little sleep.

Well, “very little” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but definitely less sleep than I need.

Kate’s three-and-a-half (as of today, actually) and she is really a pretty good sleeper, but lately she’s been waking up in the middle of the night a lot and it’s killing me.

I think she might be having a lot of dreams or something, because she’ll often cry out in her sleep and say things about her friends/school/etc. that don’t make a lot of sense. She doesn’t always wake herself up when she does this, but she definitely wakes up me and Andy.

That’s another part of the problem – she’s not completely awake, but when we get up and go check on her, we wake her up. She did this at least four times last night, and once when I came back to bed I told Andy that I thought me going in there actually made the situation worse. He said he had thought the same thing the last time he checked on her (which was all of about 30 minutes earlier). Oh, and I should mention that even though she’s not all the way awake, what’s going on now isn’t night terrors – we went through that this summer and fortunately this is different (and not as awful).

So… I need some advice. How can we get her through this stage? How can Andy & I get more sleep??? Should we continue to go in and comfort her, even if it wakes her up? Invest in earplugs?

I’m anxiously awaiting your comments, readers. I have a short (ha, remind me I said that) six months until it’s newborn time!

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By the way, Jenny has the featured post on TopBlogMag this week! It’s called Beautiful Risk. Please do her a favor and head on over to TopBlogMag to check it out and let her know what you think!

October 19, 2007

I Only Bend at the Waist

Each summer, Bobby, the kids and I spend some at his familyâ€™s cabin in the woods about 45 minutes from our house. During this time, I donâ€™t put a lot of effort into my appearance, because there is always a line for the bathroom. I mean, I make sure Iâ€™m clean and I use deodorant but I donâ€™t really mess with makeup and my hair is always in a bandana or a ponytail. You know, Iâ€™m just there to relax with the fam. One evening when we were there last summer, I had to leave the family fun to go to a baby shower in town. When I returned, I was still dressed in my special occasion finery. “Wow, you look nice.” said Bobby’s sister Judy when she saw me. “Oh, thanks,” I responded, “this is Special Occasion Jenny. What you’ve seen this weekend is Family Vacation Jenny.” We both had a good laugh at this and I thought I was pretty clever. But then later I started thinking about it. It kind of weirded me out how different I can be in different situations. (Much like the different versions of Barbie!) I like to dress up, and be girlie and all that, but I also like to just slum around the house sometimes. So in the interest of true openness, I thought I’d share some of the different versions of my schizophrenic self with you all. Enjoy!

Wedding Day Jenny – Unfortunately, this was a limited edition Jenny produced in 2000 to celebrate her nuptials to Bobby. If you’re lucky, you can still find one on Ebay. Wedding Day Jenny features a fabulous up-do, three layer tulle veil, and Oleg Cassini satin wedding dress with train.

Mommy Jenny – Since February 27, 2004, Mommy Jenny has been available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although at some of these hours a day her capri pants and t-shirt are a little more wrinkled and stained that at other hours. Here’s hoping you catch her at a good time!

Family Vacation Jenny – this Jenny is very relaxed and happy, and features a makeup-free face with a stylish bandana-ponytail hairdo. Family dolls are sold separately.

Maternity Jenny – this is also a limited edition Jenny. It was available in late 2003 and early 2004 and again for most of 2006! She has now been discontinued, because she just got too clumsy, cranky, and uncomfortable. Also, the feet on the later-stage Maternity Jenny were known to blow up like balloons.

Professional Jenny – Professional Jenny was available from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, and from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Fridays. She came with a different outfit for each of the three days. Savvy collectors had them all! Professional Jenny was also discontinued in June 2007.

Bridesmaid Jenny – This is also a limited edition Jenny, although it has had many, many runs. It is currently unavailable. The last production run seen here was in June 2005 and featured and Apple Red David’s Bridal bridesmaid’s dress and a crazy hairdo. The next limited edition will run in May 2008 when Megan & Andy get hitched. This Jenny will also feature a red dress by After Six but the hairstyle is yet to be determined!

Beach Vacation Jenny – This Jenny just had a brief run in August 2006 so they are hard to find. She comes with sunglasses, beach chair, and lovely bathing ensemble. She also had a 1st edition in July 2005, and manufacturers are hoping to bring out a new Beach Vacation Jenny each year, however, they did not reach this goal in 2007.

Well, thatâ€™s a look at some of the different Jennyâ€™s!

But hereâ€™s the one you all get the biggest glimpse of. I call her:
Laughing at my Kid While I’m Trying to Write a Blog Jenny!