Time Outs Take One

Well, we've officially jumped head-first into the realm of time-outs now. I just couldn't stand the whining anymore!

The two things that jumpstarted our time-out sessions were when Jack either 1)had to come inside from playing outside when he didn't want to, or 2) didn't like the fact I wouldn't pull his beloved "boddie" (the vacuum cleaner) out of the hall closet. For some reason he absolutely loves that thing and incessantly points to the closet saying "Boddie, boddie, boddie?" Or heaven forbid I put the thing away after I'm done using it....you'd think his whole world had just imploded!

Anyway, now that his protests have reached a more fevered pitch and tend to last longer, all of the sudden last week I decided it was time for a time-out. I hadn't really thought about a good location until that point, so I was carrying him around downstairs from wall to wall (as he's crying) looking for the perfect spot. I think we've found a good one for now...the wall that runs between our bedroom and the laundry room. There's nothing for him to play with and not much for him to see looking out from that location, so we'll go with it. I was even thinking of looking for a little mat to put down. Now I need to find a spot for the second floor, which will be harder because we have more toys upstairs.

The first time we did it, he sat there for about 3 seconds crying before trying to get up and come out into the family room. After a couple of times of putting him back against the wall, he realized he was not supposed to move and sat there for about a minute and a half. The second time I put him there, he cried, but didn't move (and hasn't since), so I think he's learned it's a no-no to move after mommy or daddy put him there.

I don't think the time-outs are necessarily changing his behaviors just yet, but I'm encouraged that he learned so quickly not to move from his spot and that he seems to be realizing it's not fun to be there. Hopefully he'll start equating that not-so-fun feeling with bad behavior here at some point! And I feel better at least trying to do something to curb the tantrums instead of just listening to them, or trying to redirect him to something else (which doesn't seem to be working too well anymore). I'm guessing we'll be changing discipline tactics pretty often here after age 2 and he really starts to assert more independence...too bad time-outs don't continue to work through the teenage years!

Not so ready for November 10th?

So, I'm changing my tune....a little...

In my last post, I mentioned being ok with little Anna coming a little earlier than her due date since I've been feeling so large and sore lately (and still have over 10 weeks to go). Well, I had a little bout with something last night, maybe food poisoning or an allergic reaction(?), that made me think that perhaps I'm ok with a little more time before baby comes, i.e. LABOR.

I don't really dwell on labor itself. It's just one of those unpleasant things we women have to go through, but in the end is all worth it for a precious baby (or babies). I got a reminder though of what I'm in store for again last night around 11:15. We had gone to sleep about an hour before then, and I woke up with stomach cramps that got progressively worse. You know, those oh-boy-I-ate-something-I-shouldn't-have kind of pains? Actually, these were even worse than the occasional pains I get when something doesn't agree with my stomach...within about 30 minutes I was obviously NOT going to go back to sleep and hunched over holding onto the side of the bed to steady myself. Something clearly wasn't right!

By this time I had decided that maybe some medicine was in order. As a side note, and Bob will confirm this, I rarely take medicine for anything involving the digestive track, but figured this was probably a time where some assistance might be needed. Pepto Bismol was the first thing I saw in the medicine cabinet for an upset stomach, but luckily I had enough sense to check my handy medicine list on the refrigerator for safe medicines during pregnancy, and Pepto wasn't listed (apparently it contains aspirin, which I didn't know).

Then the dizziness and clamminess started setting in. By that time, Bob was awake and scared I was having labor contractions. The bad thing was that the pain I was having was so intense that I couldn't even formulate a short "It's not labor-ate something bad" response to him when he asked what was wrong...I was just trying to breathe through the stomach cramps. And that's why I say it reminded me somewhat of labor, not because of the type of pain I was having, but because it was so intense I couldn't focus on anything else but that pain, and even tried to breathe through it like I learned in my childbirth classes! Poor Anna was kicking me like crazy too, which didn't feel particularly good at that moment...I hope she wasn't too uncomfortable herself!

Anyway, I will spare you the rest of the details, but I'm ok now. I remember having a similar reaction to something I ate back when Bob and I were dating. I had eaten a Caesar salad and within a few hours had horrible stomach cramps, dizziness, and clammy skin. Maybe an allergic reaction to something? I dunno, I'm just a meteorologist! But I have never had pain like that again until last night (and there was no Caesar salad involved).

So perhaps I'm ok with holding off a little while longer for labor since I got a little taste of it last night with the intensity of my stomach cramps :) My hats off to the women who go through childbirth naturally, because I'm looking forward to that epidural again!

The inverse relationship of hormones and rational thinking

I like to think I'm a pretty rational person, usually driven more by logic than my emotional state, but I honestly don't think I can label myself that way anymore here at almost 29 weeks. There are officially too many hormones cruising around my bloodstream now...

Case in point: I've convinced myself that I'm not going to make it to my original due date of November 10th. Here's my rationale: I look like a tub. And because I, as a pregnant, hormonal woman, think I look like a tub, I must be further along than I really am, right?

Now the logical side of me tries hard to fight this thought. After all, I specifically mentioned to my doctor that I felt I looked about 4 weeks further along than I am and she told me I was measuring right on schedule (27 1/2 inches at 27 weeks). On top of that, she mentioned that it's pretty common to "look pregnant sooner" or "look more pregnant" with a second baby because of the lack of abdominal muscle tension following a first pregnancy (which deep down I know too). And my weight gain has been right on track as well and pretty similar to what I experienced with Jack.

Yet I still have visions of large bathtubs floating through my head. I'm not sure how it's possible (maybe that lack of muscle tension thing), but it seems as if I'm carrying even higher and further out with Anna than I did with Jack, and I definitely had the she-swallowed-a-basketball look by 9 months with him. At the rate I perceive my belly to be growing, I think it may be changed to she-swallowed-a-watermelon by the time November roles around. My body just likes to carry babies way that way I guess, but I'm afraid if we were ever to have a third that my lungs would cease to have room to expand and I would not be able to sit in a booth at a restaurant anymore.

Really I think this is all wishful thinking on my part. The last trimester is where time seems to slow down and you forget what it's like to be able to roll over in bed in under 5 seconds, pick up something you've dropped on the floor without contorting your body to do it, and not wince from lower back/hip pain. Ahhh, the blessings of being pregnant :)

Thanks for letting me vent! On a positive note, I am very excited to meet this little girl, so I'd be quite content if she decided to come a little earlier (but not TOO much earlier) than November 10th!

PT Time

No, I'm not going to make my child run the mile in under 8 minutes, but I do think I should give the ol' Potty Training a go here before baby comes just to see how far we can get. I've been delaying with Jack mainly because I didn't think he was all that ready, but the more moms I talk to about this topic, the more I think I should at least give it a try!!

Ok, so everyone who has been through this before, I need some help. What's your best tip(s)?

A girlfriend of mine suggested putting the big boy underwear on Jack with a diaper over the top of it, that way he could feel the wetness, but I wouldn't have to clean the floor. Anyone tried this?

Thanks!

Third trimester already?

28 weeks is looming large....Time needs to slow down a little bit here for me to finish a few things before the baby comes...

Had my 27 week checkup last Monday where I got to gulp down a "margarita" (as my OB called it) of sugary orange drink in 5 minutes to do the glucose testing an hour later. All in all not too bad. She said no news was good news, and since I haven't heard anything from the doctor's office yet, I assume the test results looked good. I did have a little bit of scare though when it seemed to take forever for her to find the baby's heartbeat. Usually it takes just a few seconds to zero in on it, but this time it probably got closer to a minute or minute and a half, which really isn't that long but just seems that way when it's generally a much faster process! It was also way over on the right side too, I guess baby Anna must have found a comfy spot there at that moment.

My OB did mention that since Jack was a large baby at 9 pounds when he was born that she would consider inducing me early as long as everything looks good in the last 36 week ultrasound I have done. That sounded good to me since those last 4-5 weeks can be pretty miserable, so if I can shorten it without threatening the baby's health, that sounds lovely! Although, I've heard induced labors can be more intense...anyone have any experience with that? Jack came on his own, so I don't know myself.

I got to see my friend Heidi's new baby boy born last week and he is too precious. I can't believe we're about to enter back into the baby stage again here soon. And congrats again on your pregnancy news Kami if you're reading this!

30 minutes of freedom!!

Ok, you moms out there know how precious your free time becomes after having a baby. When I find myself with free time, unless I'm exhausted and need to nap, I try to get as much done as I can! It's amazing how my mood can improve if I can get just a small amount of time to myself to do a few things without interruption. Anyone else second that?

Bob took Jack out for about 30 glorious minutes this morning, and here's what I was able to do:

• Quick shower, iron a shirt and shorts, thrown on some make-up
• Swap loads of laundry
• Clean my bathroom countertops
• Pick up odds and ends off the floor, namely all the pairs of shoes Jack pulled out of our closet to try on
  
• Finished gluing some odds and ends on curtains for the baby's room (pictures coming at a later post...I'm excited!)

I think there is some rule somewhere that you should automatically assume it will take twice the time to get things done after kids as it did before them. Now that I think about it though, before kids I probably wouldn't have gotten all of those things done in 30 minutes anyway, mainly because I moved at a slower pace and didn't fully understand how valuable free time is! I tend to work better under deadlines I guess :)

It's great to have that rare feeling of accomplishing tasks with a young child in the house! Here's wishing all my mom friends out there some time of your own to get some things done around the house...

The joys of Toddlerhood

I think I've got a Daddy's boy on my hands now, at least in this stage of his life. Seems like ever since we got back from vacation, any time Bob leaves the house/room/general proximity of Jack, a chorus of elevated "Daddy....Daddy....Daddy" inevitably ensues. It's not so much the daddy thing that bothers me, it's the whiny pitch that goes along with it.

Now I love my child dearly of course, but this whining thing is TOUGH. I guess we're just at the stage for awhile now where any time something doesn't go Jack's way, the next 5 minutes (or sometimes longer) are spent in a mixture of high-pitched rambling sounds with some tears added in for good measure (or to make mommy feel guilty). The guilt thing doesn't work because he still gets told "no", but it sure does grate on my nerves to the point that I sometimes develop a knot on my back left shoulder, which often requires some assistance from Bob that evening to get loose.

That being said, it sure is fun at this stage to watch his personality continue to develop. He'll do things now and I look at him and think "When did you learn how to do that?" The other day for example I was heating some lunch up for him in the microwave, and when he got the plate in front of him, he proceeded to say "hot, hot" and then try to blow on the food to cool it down. Nothing earth-shattering of course, but it's little things like that which make me realize he's growing up pretty fast. I guess he's seen us blow on our food at some point, but I don't specifically remember teaching him to do that! I've got to be on my best behavior because he's apparently watching me closer than I realized :)

A new perspective on the master bedroom closet

Baby Anna now has some furniture for her room as of this evening. We found a great deal on a white convertible crib, changing table, and nightstand through the Woodlands Online (a nicer alternative to Craig's List in my opinion) and went to pick them up this afternoon. They look brand new, but for a fraction of the price. Can't beat that! I haven't been in a rush to find furniture though because of our sleeping arrangement "plan" for the first few months the baby is home. Of course the word plan is in quotations because all parents know the best laid plans are highly subject to change with kids.....

Let me preface by saying the one rule I will ALWAYS stick to no matter how many children we have is that I refuse to have a baby sleep in the same room with me. I know a lot of moms do this and the arrangement works out just fine for them, but I have not been blessed with the ability to sleep soundly at any point in my life, and there is absolutely no way I could catch even a wink of sleep with a new baby within 5 feet of me.

With Jack, I resolved to pull myself out of the bed and walk down to his room (which wasn't very far in our first house) for late night nursing or diaper changing sessions. On a handful of occasions I was so exhausted that Bob got up, brought him to bed so I could nurse him, and then put him back in the crib in his own room, but never has he slept in the same room with us. Plus there was no transition time as he got older from sleeping in mom and dad's room to his own room, which was nice.

Ok, so that works fine and dandy when you're in a one-tory house and the baby's room is just a few steps away. We're now in a two-story house though, and suddenly climbing up and down stairs multiple times a night to nurse baby Anna has become a dreadful thought when I remember how tired I was those first few months. I considered moving up into our guest room and sleeping there for a few months until she gets on a more regular feeding schedule, but I think we've come up with another idea: the master bedroom closet!

I admit the idea of putting my child in a closet to sleep for the first few months sounds a little odd at first, but I wish you could see the size of this space. The homebuilder obviously got the people-want-large-master-closets idea loud and clear (thanks HGTV) because I think ours borders on overkill. Seriously, I would be embarrassed if I ever had enough clothes to fill this thing out! I've seen "bedrooms" in cramped New York City apartments that are about the same size...

Bob and I plan to move all our clothes and shoes to one end and put a glider and bassinet on the other end. That way when the baby needs something, I can walk through our bathroom just a few steps to get to her, but still have the luxury of closing a door in between us so I don't hear all the little noises she's going to make. Plus, then I won't have to use a monitor (I'm not a fan of them during the night...a subject for another post). The room is ventilated and has a nice large window, so it's not some confined, musty old closet by any means.

After a few months, we'll move her up to the crib upstairs after she can go a little longer between feeding sessions. Now, to decide on a paint color for her room...