She comes home today!

As stress-free, productive and well, productive!!! these past 5 days have been, I am very happy to report that our little munchkin is coming home today. I've been specifically avoiding all mention of weather forecasts and reports all week, as I don't know if I could handle her getting snowed in over Christmas.  Needless to say - my avoidance theory has worked, and if all goes well, they will be on the road shortly after lunch (strategically-timed drives during nap time is the only way to drive!).

Happy Ho Ho to you and yours. We will be hosting our annual Christmas Eve buffet of gluttony tonight.  I am attempting something that is supposedly *simple* with phillo pastry and brie. I may bake cookies, but I'm no pastry chef.

Luckily, our bar is stocked well enough that I anticipate no one will really notice, much less taste the food. Except me of course... at least I was smart enough to pick myself up a bottle of sparkling grape juice... le sigh.

Holidays without alcohol? I'm pretty sure the Hubs is going to pay for this at some point...

xxoo.S

Remember those days?

Last night I had dinner, out at a non-kid-friendly restaurant, with the Hubs. Ate $30 entrees. Enjoyed kid-free, tv-free, dinner conversation.

Remember those days? When you could luxuriate over dinner, taking hours to meander your way through appetizers, entrees and coffee/dessert?

We really talked, for the first time in a long time. Mostly gossiping about friends, chatting about work, about the future, about how we planned to spend our holidays. And it's not that Maddie didn't come up - don't get me wrong. We miss her, talked about missing her, how we were looking forward to seeing her on Christmas Eve.

But that was it. To sound like a complete horrible mother... she didn't monopolize the conversation. Instead we just chatted and laughed and poked fun and shared jokes and commiserated about work and, and, and...

It was pretty awesome.

xxoo.S

Happy Ho Ho from Maddie

xxoo.S

Snippits

"Are you in a good mood? I will eat anything you want me to eat if you stay in a good mood!" Said by the Hubs, in response to my email if he was okay w/ leftover-lasagne for dinner.

Pregnancy mood swings are one thing. When you're already known as the bitch in the family, they're something else for sure. I'm sure glad I don't have to live with me...

xxoo.S

So this is what the "twos" are like?

We've all had those weeks, non? Where all you can think of is just how quickly it will be over with? Thankfully that week is behind me now - Hubs away, had a (small) car accident, Maddie got sick, I got sick + lots of fires at work that needed to be put out.

Thank God my mom was in town - if only because she let me vent to her and hummed around the house doing my laundry and cooking meals. In fact, it was almost like I had an ol' fashioned housekeeper for a week. Yeah, that was definitely the highlight.

In other, more interesting news... Maddie has started to give me timeouts. That's right. You heard me.

I've figured out, it's usually a delayed reaction to getting one herself, like she's trying to process it or something.  And for the record, I don't give time outs freely, but you slap me across the face, you're sitting on the 'effing stairs Missy.  Then about a 1/2 hour later she'll come up to me out of the blue, looking cross and shaking her finger at me "Time out Mommy. Go to your room!" 


[Sidebar - I'm not sure where this "go to your room" thing comes from, as I don't send her to her room. Simply because she just plays up there, and I'm like, dude that's not a punishment. Sit on the stairs and look sad. Thanks.]

Regardless, it's difficult not to laugh and try to act serious when I ask why I'm in trouble.

xxoo.S

Letting the cat out of the bag

So the bossman officially knows, which means it's finally safe for posting! Yup, we are expecting another little sprog to our family at the end of June. Woot!

That's probably partly why I've been so quiet as of late. Because you know those early weeks - when everything is shitty and nausous and you're exhausted and all you want to do is complain? Well trust me, it's hard to think of other things to write about when that's the case.

I've always found it so ironic that some of the hardest months of a woman's pregnancy are during that time when she may not want to actually be "out", if you will. Don't get me wrong - if you're one of those subscribers to the "when I know everyone will know" way of announcing, then coolio for you. But if you're not - then you've essentially sentenced yourself to suffer in silence, trying to act normal when really all you want to do with throw up all over someone colleague's desk.

So yes - that's the whinge - it's been a rough couple of months. But I think I'm rounding the corner. Energy levels definitely seem on the uptick, and the nausea is being held off with some timely B6 supps (instead of downing Diclectin like they were tic-tacs, which has been my strategy from wk 6 to now-ish).

And hey! Sidebar! Did you know that Diclectin is essentially B6 with a little antihistamine thrown in? Because I just found this tidbit out yesterday and was kind of bummed that essentially I could've spent $5 on vitamins vs $75 and saved myself a few nosebleeds. (b/c dry winter-heated-air + antihistamine = nosebleeds -- hurrah!)

Other things that are different this time round (besides me being almost 3 years older and clearly worse for wear on the whole, how your body handles pregnancy thing). What's been different:

• I could eat more cheese and butter and bread and other grease-saturated, carb-infused food than all of Paris. 
• Fruit and green vegetables? Can mostly suck it. Last time I prided myself on eating fruit salads for breakfast and snacking on frozen raspberries at night. I literally could not get enough of various types of fruit. This time? I can force myself to eat *some* fruits (i.e. really having to force down those usually yummy and well-loved pomegranates) - and vegetables? Unless you're a potato, we don't have much to talk about.
• Weight gain - hilariously I haven't actually GAINED a lot of physical pounds. Like, a total of 3 pounds I believe. (With Maddie I started gaining weight almost immediately). But WOW have I pouched out. Like full-on 5 month preggo looking by 6pm. Which brings me to the...

What has been the same (or similar) to last time:

• Gas. Not stinky, embarrasing styles. Just, you know... buildup. In the form of above said pouchy tummy. Looking like I swallowed a pumpkin or small watermelon by about dinner time. I had that last time too - but I guess since I was tinier then, the actually "pooch-y-ness" of it all was also smaller. From what I remember - this never went away... hello Gas-x.
• Nausea - again, it's just worse this time. Or was. I do think I'm almost over it (don't you DARE come back and jinx me because I said that out loud).
• Exhaustion - how can you tell if this is worse or the same this time? I don't think you can. Last time I had the luxury of resting when I needed to. Nowadays I have to resist the urge to drug Maddie with Tylenol at nap time in hopes of extending it to a solid 3+ hours. Resist the urge, I said. I don't actually do this. Just thought about doing it, once or a hundred times...
• Sleep (lack of it) - already happening. Damn you freaky realistic nightmare-y vivid dreams + ridiculously small bladder. My total sleep has probably suffered by about 2 hours a night. I know this happened last time, I just can't remember if it started so early?

So yeah - things are different, things are the same. I think week 9 was the pinnacle of shitty-ness, and we've reached that peak and heading downward into the realm of normality again. Goals for second trimester include: exercising regularly again (with all that added energy!), eating as many vegetables as I can possibly stomach, starting to potty train Miss M.

Say it with me: hahahhahahhahahahahha!

Whatever. I like goals...

xxoo.S

It's the miracle of sleep

Sleep begets sleep.

You read that line on every parenting blog, website, and book you come across in the early days of a newborn. How in fact, the more sleep and rested the child is, the easier they will be to get to sleep and sleep for a longer period of time.

As a true type-A rule-follower, I took this theory to heart.  Spending hours of my life trying to get Maddie to sleep the minute she looked the least bit sleepy.  Trying to predict schedules, cycles, any kind of pattern.

If you've read this blog over any period of time, you'll know that I was a failure (CAPITAL F!) at getting any kind of solid sleep for the first 1.3 years of Maddie's life. Sometimes she'd sleep thru the night. Usually when my mom would be visiting (I called her my sleep charm during the 6-12 month stage).

And then all of a sudden, she started to actually sleep through the night, consistently (oh, the allusive c-word). It was bliss. It IS bliss. I love not waking up several times throughout the night. And when molars or a fever or a random coughing cold interrupt that status quo, I go a teeny bit mental.

But you know what is one step beyond that bliss? (What is one step beyond bliss? Rapture? Euphoria? Yeah, I like euphoria)...

That one step - is called learning the "Magic Window".

What is the Magic Window you ask? Well, I'm sure any seasoned mother will roll her eyes at this post, as really, in many eyes' what I've figured out (and lovingly named) is no less obvious to them than 2+2=4. But for me? It's like finding shangrila.

The Magic Window is that special period of time in the evening in which we start and end the bedtime routine. For us - it's no later a start than 7:10pm and no later an end than 7:45pm.

Bedtime routine consists of bath (preceeded by fight to get clothes off, chasing naked baby down hallway, pleading for her to get in the bath, avoiding splish-splashy-wetness of tub-play and then pleading for her to actually get out of the bath); pj's; books; bottle (yes, judgy-mc-judgers - she still gets a bottle - I've found my shangrila, you think I'm messing with it now?) + bed.

This entire routine used to take much closer to an hour or more. My talented Hubs has whittled that down to a solid 30-minute window. Just one of his many talents...

And what happens if we get her to bed between 7:30-7:45pm? She sleeps for 12 hours.

12 HOURS.

In fact - we're having to wake her up at 7:30am most days, so she gets to daycare on time... looking back at a year (or 6 months) from now ... that's more than a little ironic.

Although, as always when I post any kind of comment about enjoying the good sleep, it only means she'll revert her ways and start awakening at 6am on the dot again...

xxoo.S