Nothing Much to Report

It has been a very uneventful week around here. Last Saturday we had some friends over. We ended up having 4 little girls running around.

These are the people that we hang out with the most, and although some don't have children yet, it made me realize that baby brother is going to be surrounded by girls. We don't have many nearby friends that have boys. Last fall Clif, Ainsley and I went to a cook out with some of his fraternity brothers and of all the children, I think there were 10 kids there, only 1 was a boy. Everywhere you look, it seems that there is someone pregnant or having a girl. Oh well, I guess our little guy will be very in tune with the female half of the world.

That night, I started feeling a little scratchy in my throat and more stuffy than normal, and wouldn't you know it that Sunday morning I woke up with a full blown head cold. One week later and I'm still battling the remnants of it. So that's my excuse for why I haven't updated the blog, haven't done anything with the nursery and haven't cleaned my house. The doctor put me on antibiotics yesterday and I have to say that I am feeling better today.

Speaking of today, we are getting buried under a foot or so of snow. It is like 20 degrees outside, or something completely ridiculous like that. So of course, the day I start to feel better, I am stuck in the house wishing that I had already bought paint for the nursery or something so I could start getting things done.

I think I've mentioned before that I am not a fan of snow. I am especially not a fan of this snow storm. First of all, as soon as the Holidays are over I am just ready for spring. I can't wait for warmer weather, and this is not warmer weather. Second, I was supposed to have jewelry shows today and tomorrow. Well, today's has rescheduled, and tomorrow's is looking more and more bleak the longer this snow comes down. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Let's see, I'll give you a few updates.

Ainsley's big girl bed is going very well. We still have to lay down with her to get her to go to sleep, but she has slept through the night for the past 4 nights in a row. I really don't know if we'll ever be able to just lay her down and have her go to sleep.

We have been working on potty training, but I feel that we've had a bit of a backslide. I've asked Ainsley over the last few days if she wants to wear big girl underpants and she always says "No. put on diaper." So that's where we stand. I'm really hoping to have her out of diapers before the baby comes, but I guess we'll just see. She was doing really well, so I'm not sure what her change of heart is due to.

We had our 32 week doctor's appointment this past week and everything is still looking good. The doctor even thinks that the baby is head down.

So that's it for now. I have a lot of jewelry shows scheduled in February, so I will be very busy. Plus, Clif is going to his brother's bachelor party and my sister is coming to town to look for wedding dresses. Should be a fun February, and it will probably fly by...which means we'll be even closer to the arrival of baby brother.

Adventures in the Big Girl Bed

Well we are just about a week into the big girl bed and we have had our ups and downs. The best thing is that Ainsley continues to be excited about going to sleep in her big girl bed. The bad news is that she is just a bad sleeper and I really don't know how to fix that. Pretty much if she takes a nap at all, she won't go to sleep at night. So that means we are lying down with her for hours (this is not an exaggeration) and saying "Go to sleep Ainsley, go to sleep, lie down, go to sleep, close your eyes..."

I am getting very close to gating her door so she just has to stay in there.

She has slept all night 3 times in there, which is way more than she ever did in the crib, so that is a positive. Also, it's easier for me to put her to sleep. I could no longer rock her and then get her in the crib. So just lying down with her is much easier. Of course, I usually end up falling asleep. Lucky for me I don't sleep more than an hour or so at a time and I can sneak away to my own bed.

We have had a couple of funny, cute, maybe sad stories about the big girl bed.

The first night, when she woke up, she just cried for us. So I went to lie down with her again. So the next day we told her that if she wakes up she can come get us. So this has been the progression...

Night 1:
-She slept in her bed from 2 AM until 7 AM alone. Good start. Woke up crying.

Night 2:
-She slept in her bed from 8:30 PM until 2 AM alone. Also not bad. We still have a monitor in her room, even though I'm beginning to think it is no longer necessary. Around 2 I hear a distant crying and "Mommy, are you?" It is not coming from the monitor. I jump out of bed (which is no easy feat at 7 1/2 months of pregnancy) and find Ainsley confused and wandering into the kitchen calling for me. I can't even begin to explain how heartbreaking it was. I brought her to bed with me.

The next morning we explained to Ainsley that if she wakes up and needs us, she should come to our room. We also decided that we would leave our door open and put up a gate to the kitchen so Ainsley can't wander out by mistake and Brinkley can't chew anything.

Night 3:
-She slept in her bed from 8:30 PM until 4 AM alone. Getting better. I wake up after hearing a loud crash. Turns out it wasn't really a loud crash, just seemed very loud being that it was 4 AM and I was sound asleep. Ainsley is standing next to my bed and says "Uh oh mommy, my drop my water." I pull her into our bed and she stays there, but does not go back to sleep, until I get up at 6 to get ready for work. It's the first time in a very long time that I've had to juggle her and getting ready at the same time.

Night 4:
-Took an early nap (seeing that she was up at 4 AM), but would not go to sleep that night. We started trying around 8:30 PM. She fell asleep about 10 PM or so. She was back up around 11:30PM. Bad night.

Night 5:
-Clif and Ainsley went to visit Nanny and Poppa...no data available.

Night 6:
-Took a very early nap (like 10AM-12PM...Clif and Ainsley were driving back, so this happened in the car). So that night only took 45 minutes to get her to sleep. Slept in her bed from 9 PM-ish until 6 AM. Best night so far.

Night 7:
-Took a very late nap. Would not go to sleep. Clif tried from 8:30 until 10. I tried from 10 until midnight. Ok, let's be honest...I fell asleep. When I woke up just before midnight, she was still awake. Went back to sleep. Woke up at 1 and she was finally asleep. I go back to my bed. Remember that we don't have a railing on the bed. At 4 AM we hear a loud thud, but no crying. I get up to go check on her and here she comes, sleepily into our room. Around 5 AM, Clif and I are both awake for some reason so I whisper "Do you think she fell out of bed earlier?" Clif says "I don't know..." Then Ainsley, who we thought was asleep says "My did. My did fall my big girl bed." So there we were at 5 AM laughing hysterically. I asked her if she was ok and she said "Yes, my fine."

Didn't really think we needed a railing after seeing her sleep for a few nights. Maybe we do.

So that's the breakdown. I would like to say we just stop putting her down for a nap and make bedtime a little easier, but Clif really needs that time for job searching. Right now that's a little more important than a quick bedtime.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. We are having friends over on Saturday night and possibly painting the nursery. We'll see. I'm at least going to try and start it.

Giveaway

No, I'm not giving anything away. There is a blog I like to read called Beneath My Heart. The woman is crazy crafty and it's fun to get ideas even if I never have time to do anything about the ideas. Anyway, she is doing a giveaway and if I post about it on my blog, I get entered an additional 5 times. So if you're interested, click on the link and read all about it.

I'll post more about Ainsley and her big girl bed adventures soon.

Ainsley is a Big Girl

Goodbye Nursery...

Hello Big Girl Room!

Yes it is a little cramped. We decided to leave Ainsley in her room for a few of reasons:

1-We're having a boy this time, and I'm not sure he'd appreciate the purple walls like Ainsley does. I already have to paint the new nursery, I'd rather not paint Ainsley's room too. Plus I found bedding that looked cute with the purple walls.

2-Ainsley is a terrible sleeper and it's probably a bad idea to put her upstairs where she can tumble down the stairs in the middle of the night. The baby will be immobile for awhile. I'm also hoping he sleeps better than she does.

3-The baby will be in our room for the first few months. I am still holding out a sliver of hope that Clif will get a job and we can move into a new house where all our rooms will be on the same floor.

We got her room all set up last night. One thing off my laundry list of things to do before the little man arrives. Ainsley was sooo very excited about her big girl bed. We weren't planning on having her sleep in it last night because we don't have a railing for it yet. However, she kept asking and I thought it was a bad idea to discourage it, so I laid down with her.

As we were going to sleep Ainsley said "Mommy, my have big girl bed, and daddy have big girl bed and daddy so escited for me!" (that word would be excited). She really is just too cute for words.

I got up around 2 AM to go to the bathroom, of course, and went to my bed leaving Ainsley protected by pillows so she wouldn't fall out.

She slept in there by herself until 7 AM this morning. At that point, she did wake up crying and calling for me. So that's 5 hours, sleeping by herself, which has not happened in a long time. Usually she doesn't make it more than an hour or so. We'll see how it goes tonight.

Ainsley-isms

Ainsley makes us laugh every day. She is so cute and so funny just being her. So I thought I'd share some of those things that make us laugh or say awww.

Movies: This girl loves her movies. Especially Tinkerbell and anything Princess related. She is such a girl. The other day we were getting into the car and she kept saying something to me over and over again. All I could make out was "My work sky..." So I said "You work in the sky?" And it was like a light bulb went off for Clif. He said "I work up in the sky, you work down in a ditch. Vidia to Tinkerbell in the Tinkerbell movie." She loves to talk about the movies but I'm pretty sure this is her first official movie quote.

Almost every night at dinner Ainsley will say, "Mommy, my tell you story bout mean keen?" (Mommy, can I tell you a story about the mean queen?) When I say yes, she says "Mommy, what mean keen do?" (Mommy, what does the mean queen do?) So then we have to tell the whole Snow White story together. She tells some and then I tell some.

She will go into the kitchen and just start spinning and dancing. If I ask her to do something or to come to me she'll say "Jus a minud, my dance wit pince." (Just a minute, I'm dancing with the prince.)

She has also started putting beads and headbands on Brinkley and saying that "Now Bink-Bink danc wit pince!" (Now Brinkley can dance with the prince!) Gatsby does not allow such things, but Brinkley just lays there.

Funny Sayings: Ainsley does not have her prepositions and pronouns down at all yet. Of course, as I type this I'm wondering if I'm using the correct terminology. I was never a grammar whizz.

Ainsley does not use "I" or "Mine," everything is "My." "My have dink?" "My pway game?"

Also she never uses the word "to", only "for." This is very cute and funny. She will say "Mommy, you go work for day?" or "No daddy, you not talk for mommy, my talk for mommy." Remember to replace all for's with to's. Then it makes perfect sense.

Potty Training: We have been really pushing the potty training because I am bound and determined that I won't have two kids in diapers. We'll see how it goes. It's actually going really well. She's had no wet accidents...only the dirty kind. Which is not fun, but I think she's got the peeing down. Anyway, she gets MM's when she goes pee and if she ever goes poo on the potty she gets chocolate.

So now when she sits down and pees she says in a very sing songy voice "Now my det tochlat!" (Now I get chocolate) and she has to wave her fingers at me. So then I say, "No you get MM's." So she replies, in the same sing songy voice, "Now my det neminems!" (Now I get MM's) and waves her little fingers.

Also, if she happens to be in the bathroom while I am using the potty, she says "Oh mommy, dat a dood durl. Now you det neminems!" (Oh mommy, that's a good girl. Now you get MM's.)

Pure Sweetness: Ainsley is such a sweet, loving, cuddly little girl. When people hear that I'm having a boy they always say "Oh boys are so sweet and cuddly and they love their mommas." Well, I hope they're right, but I have to say I have a very sweet, cuddly little girl at home and she definitely loves her mommy.

Every day when I get home, my favorite moment is walking in the door and Ainsley saying as excited as can be "Mommy, you home for work for day!!!!!!" (Mommy, you're home from work today!!!!) then she runs up and gives my legs a huge bear hug.

When we are riding in the car, she will say "Mommy?" and I'll reply "Yes Ainsley?" and she'll say "Tome dive me big hug and tiss!" (Come give me a big hug and kiss.) Then she holds her little hands out towards me.

But probably my favorite sweet moments are when she climbs up on the couch with me and gives me a big squeeze and says "Mommy, I yuve you soooo mutch." (Mommy, I love you soooo much.)

It really doesn't get much better than that.

Baby Brother Update

Yesterday we had our 28 week appointment. We are officially in the third trimester. I can't believe he'll be here in just 11 weeks or so. Basically, I get very nervous before every appointment because I had some health issues with Ainsley, I just expect something to be wrong I guess. That's the worrier in me...no matter what I do or how hard I try I will always be a worrier.

Anyway, we got all good news. The doctor measured my stomach and I am measuring perfectly between 28 and 29 weeks...that means that so far no crazy big baby. With Ainsley I always measured about 3 weeks ahead, now in hindsight, we think that's because she never made it to my pelvis. Instead she tried to push out over my pelvis. So even though she was a normal sized baby, she measured larger because her head was in the wrong spot.

We are also in wait and see mode for scheduling a c-section. The doctor would prefer that I not go past my due date (April 1), but is willing to wait and see if I show signs of labor before scheduling anything. If I do show signs of labor, then she'll let me go and see what happens. If not, it's probably very likely that he is not dropping into my pelvis either. But she's very supportive about me trying to have a pregnancy/delivery that I'm happy with. I am so thankful for such a wonderful doctor. Clif and I met a young girl this past weekend who is so unhappy with her doctor and because she lives in such a small town she just doesn't really have any other option.

When I was pregnant with Ainsley I was so dead set against a c-section. I cried when the doctor mentioned it. This time, I know it's a possibility, but I'm glad she'll let me try the other way and if it doesn't work out, then I know we did everything possible to make it work out. Just life sometimes.

Life is pretty busy these days. We are trying to get the playroom cleaned out to move the nursery into. But that means we have to clean the office out and Ainsley's room out to make room for all the stuff that's in the playroom. My house is in utter chaos right now. We got Ainsley her big girl bed, but have not picked it up yet since the house is not really ready. My goal is to get it all done this week. I made some good progress last night, so hopefully I can keep the momentum going.

I'm also trying to book as many jewelry shows as possible to save money for maternity leave, so that is filling up my weekends. Not many of those left before we have two little munchkins in the house. Sometimes it all just seems really surreal.

Hope you all are having a good week, and the weekend gets here quickly.