Due Date!

I was hoping to finish out this "31 Days of Baby" thing (or rather, the 17 days I've managed) with an actual baby, but the clock is ticking on that and I'm not sure Claire's going to see October this year! Today, October 30, is my due date, and while there's still time to go into labor and deliver today or tomorrow, I'm not holding my breath.

Claire has cried wolf several nights this week, as my contractions seemed to pick up steam a little bit, even feeling a little bit painful last night, but then they settle down. The doctor I saw on Wednesday said that this is common with second/subsequent pregnancies, but it's really annoying, especially given how the docs got my hopes up that she could be early! At least this time I know what "real" labor feels like, so I don't worry that I'm missing some major sign. With Kate, when these frequent, painless contractions began just a couple days before her birth, I called the doctor to ask, "They're supposed to hurt, right? This can't be it, right?" So now, I'm just waiting for some real pain! (Then again, I know second labors can go really quickly, so a teeny part of me does worry I'll wait too long and end up delivering on the side of the road, but that's highly unlikely.)

Apparently, some women really want to avoid a Halloween birth, but I'm fine with that. (My birthday is July 4, holiday birthdays are fun, and people keep telling me how their friends with Halloween birthdays always had the best parties.) So, feel free to come any time, Claire! We're just so excited to meet you and hold you!

"Me" Week

I can't believe it's Thursday night! The week goes by really fast when you're not at work, I guess. That, and I'm kind of surprised to have not gone into labor yet. Darn those doctors—I had been determined not to expect her to be at all early, and then they go getting my hopes up by saying I might barely make it to the 21st. Bugger.

So, here I am, having enjoyed four days of "me" time this week since starting my pre-baby maternity leave. Pretty much everything on my "To Do Before Baby" list is complete. I went straight to Build-a-Bear upon leaving work on Friday, since the most important thing on that to-do list was getting the sister gift from Claire to Kate. (I went with the pink bear in a different outfit, if you were wondering.) With that taken care of, I enjoyed the weekend like any other, with nice family time, including our visit to the pumpkin patch and the neighborhood Halloween party. After church on Sunday, people showered us with gifts at the church pot-luck (my co-workers gave me a little send-off on Friday too) and so by Sunday night, it felt like the nursery was all ready.

I started off Monday feeling free as a bird, giddy at the novelty of sitting in my kitchen at 10am, making a grocery list. The giddiness subsided briefly when I left the house and was pulled over at a notorious speed trap just a mile from home (45 in a 35), but I just got a warning. (whew!) I went and got a manicure and pedicure, and finished up Your Two-Year Old: Terrible or Tender over a latte at Starbucks, where a random man started telling me about his four grown children, in great detail, including which relatives they resembled and where they were in life now. Some people's obliviousness to social cues amazes me. I went to the grocery, picked up a new Jodi Picoult novel at the library (House Rules, about a young man with Asperger's syndrome, which I don't believe the man at Starbucks has, though it might sound like it), and came home for a nap. (Note: I would have linked both the books I mentioned in this paragraph, but my Amazon widget in Blogger doesn't seem to be working any more—anyone else having this problem?)

Tuesday, I ran a few errands and continued to devour my novel. (I'm really not a fiction reader, but really enjoy Picoult's books.) I went to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card I had, and bought a baby book for Claire and—fittingly for "me week"—The Book of Me: A Do-It Yourself Memoir. I discovered this book by following a link on one of Jessica Turner's 31 Days of Memory-Keeping posts, and figured it was right up my alley, since I love get-to-know-you type questions and have an obsession with recording memories. (I was an obsessive journaler from about age 13-20.) This book is 200 pages of prompts about your childhood and adolescence, family, work, personality, etc., in detail, like "Who babysat you and what were they like?" and "When, if ever, did you spend money unwisely, bounce a check, miss something important because you overslept, or otherwise make unwise moves?" Obviously, some people would see this as a huge waste of time, not care, or not remember these things, but I'm crazy like that.

This was the night we ate spicy nachos and took a walk in hopes of prompting labor, but while the contractions continue and even seem a little more intense sometimes, there were no developments.

Yesterday was a long and crazy day. Matt and I went out for breakfast to fulfill a craving I'd been having, and at the end of the meal, I got sick. As in, suddenly nauseous, run for the bathroom, attentive waitress diverts me out the side door (much closer to our table than the bathroom) with a handful of napkins, and I lose it all in the grass, hopefully out of sight of any still-dining customers. The waitress actually said I was about the 20th pregnant woman they'd had in there since the day before. One woman was even in labor but refused to go to the hospital until she'd had her Reuben.

I then got my eyebrows waxed (something that fell by the wayside after Kate was born, so I'm trying to get back on the wagon) and arrived at my 11:00 OBGYN appointment at 10:40. (Score! I'm always late when I go from work.) So, we sat down to wait, content with my Picoult book. And we waited. And waited. And waited. At 12:20 (ten minutes before I was supposed to meet my friend Nancy for lunch twenty miles away) Matt spoke to someone at the desk and learned that our doctor had been delayed all morning because of a surgery that ran late, and had another surgery at 12:30. She'd tried to see everyone she could before then, but it wasn't going to happen, so they advised we reschedule, or at least go get lunch and come back in an hour. So, I let Nancy know and Matt and I grabbed lunch in the hospital cafeteria (and took a little walk around the maternity floors :) before returning and being told our doctor would be another hour, but we could see another doctor. So we did. Three hour wait. Three minute exam. Three to four centimeters dilated.

We left frustrated and exhausted. Last night was Trunk or Treat at church. I'll post about that separately, since it will be filled with cute Kate pics, not boring "what I did today" stuff like this one! Today, my only scheduled activity was my rescheduled lunch with Nancy, and otherwise I was just lazy. Did a scrapbook page. Read. Napped. I'm not bored yet, but definitely ready to get this party started. C'mon, Baby Claire!!

Yes, She's Excited

Probably the number one question we get (after the obvious, "when are you due?") is "So, is Kate excited about getting a little sister?" And our usual response is, "kind of, to the extent she understands."

Though I've read that you really shouldn't bother telling a young child about a new baby until a month or so before it's born (since long periods of time are essentially meaningless to them), we told Kate right away and have seen the various stages of her understanding, or lack thereof.

• For a long time, she insisted she had a baby in her belly too. 
• After we got her a Big Sister book, she started to get the big/little, me/baby concept. 
• She went through a time of seeming frustrated when we would talk about Baby too much (watching my belly for movement, or even looking at an album of her baby pictures). 
• A nicer development was naming her baby doll "Sister" and involving the doll in reading stories and such.
• Only in the last month or so has she used Claire's name regularly, praying for "Baby Taire" and using "Baby Sister" and "Baby Claire" interchangeably. 

And now that the time is drawing near, just when I really worried that this long build-up would make the whole thing seem imaginary, like a real baby was never going to actually show up (pregnancy can sometimes feel that way to adults, too, I think!) she actually does seem interested and excited about what's coming.

She'll comment on how big my belly is, and is more willing to kiss or talk to the baby when I suggest it. She seems clear on the fact that Baby won't do much at first, but that, as the big sister, she can talk to Claire and teach her about things, and that Claire will love to watch her and think she's the coolest. Kate seems to understand that Baby is coming out of my belly soon and that then we can see her and hold her. I've explained that when Claire comes out, my boobies will make milk for her, just like they did for her. I even briefly mentioned the difference between nursing and pumping, but figured, "eh, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Tonight in the bathtub, we looked at my big belly and together urged Claire to come out. We told her how much fun it is out here and about all the fun things we'll do together once she's out, like take baths and go to the zoo.

Eager to get this party started, I ate spicy nachos tonight for dinner (the same ones we used to "smoke Kate out" when she was four days overdue) and we took a long walk. Kate played on her swingset when we got home and I walked brisk laps around the swingset, which seemed to annoy Kate.

"Stop, Mommy!" she said.
"I'm trying to get Baby Sister to come out," I said.
"Baby Claire's not coming out," she replied.
"She's not? When is she coming out?" I asked.
"Soon," Kate said.
"Soon like . . . before Trunk or Treat tomorrow night?"
"Yes."

So there you have it. Kate's official prediction is that Claire will be born sometime Wednesday. Good to know. And even better to know that, even if it's not Wednesday, she will be out "soon," whether that's tomorrow or next week sometime.

Claire's Room

I shared the mural I painted on Claire's wall a few weeks ago, when that was all I'd done in the nursery. Now it's pretty much all together, and I feel like we're ready to bring her home!

Before sharing pics, though, I wanted to get back to something I mentioned in an earlier post: decorating/redecorating a nursery on a budget. What's the secret? It all comes down to the sheet.

Complete nursery bedding sets can cost $160-200. (And that's at Babies R Us, not Pottery Barn, etc.) That's crazy, especially when you consider that SIDS-prevention recommendations prohibit use of quilts and say bumpers should be removed once baby is rolling over. All you really need is the sheet, and for decorative purposes perhaps the dustruffle and window valance. So, for both Kate and Claire, once I realized all this, I started my planning by looking at the selection of individually-sold sheets. For Kate, I liked a multicolor polkadot sheet, painted her name letters and some artwork to match, and ended up buying a few pieces from the coordinating collection a la carte.

For Claire, I liked a sheet with birds lined up on branches.

That sheet inspired the colors for the room and the mural I painted. I bought plain curtains at Target, and am reusing various things we already had for Kate's nursery and elsewhere in the house. Put them together, and they make a whole new room!

This is the view from the door, as we're walking by toward our bedroom—it makes me smile. I went with light and sheer for the window treatment, and I like it, nice and ethereal. I would love to find a garland of pink flowers and green leaves to drape across the top.

I found this little birdhouse in the dollar bin at Michael's when I was checking out with the paints and other craft supplies, and painted it to match.

To the right of the window is a little bookcase with baby toys and the few books I thought Kate could part with. I got the artwork on Etsy—the white text in the upper left is Psalm 139:1-18.

I hung the shelves myself the other night, kneeling on the dresser with a power drill. It was one of those "don't question a nesting mama" moments. It looks a little plain right now, but I imagine various keepsakes and gifts after she's born will fill the empty spaces.

I'll probably paint the wooden "C" so it stands out more. The marble owl was part of my grandmother's owl collection, and the pink hanky was hers too. They've just been sitting on my dresser for a while, so I thought it would be nice to have them on display.

I still have a few things to hang, like this peg board (which did have trucks on it and was in what is now our guest room when we moved in) and I painted to match the birds on the sheet, and the three-pic frame that still has Kate's newborn pics in it. 

So now we're just waiting around and wondering if she'll get to use this little "Baby's 1st Halloween" bib this year or wait until next year!

Survey Says...

I asked you all for your best guesses as to when Claire would make her appearance, and here's what the survey said:

Soon: Oct. 20 or before	4 (16%)
1 week early: Oct. 21-24	11 (45%)
A few days early: Oct. 25-28	7 (29%)
Right on time: Oct. 29-31	1 (4%)
A little late: Nov. 1-4	1 (4%)
Induced: Nov. 5 or later	0 (0%)

Since it is currently the evening of Oct. 20 and I haven't gone in to labor yet, I'd say four of you have officially lost. The most popular response seemed to be going on my doctor's comment that I might be "cutting it close" on the 21st being my last day at work, with 45% saying I'd go "1 week early." Most of the rest said "a few days early," which was my vote too, mainly because I don't really want to have a whole week of "me time," just a few days. So next Wednesday or so would be just perfect. But because I think about silly things like this, I actually prefer the "sound" of the dates Oct. 30 and 31, and Nov. 1 and 2, but I think I'll be getting pretty antsy by that time.

As to the actual doctor's report from this week, no new light has really been shed on the issue. My doctor is at Disney World this week, so I saw someone else yesterday and was eager for a second opinion. She was genuinely shocked at how low Claire's head is (and when you can surprise someone who does this all day long, that's saying something) and that my cervix is "definitely thin." So, she said that given how low she is and that it's my second child, "probably soon." But she also made certain to emphasize that she never makes predictions because you really never can tell. She told us about two women she saw at 36 weeks—one who seemed to have a bowling ball between her legs and one whose cervix was still  "hard as a rock." The rock-woman went into labor that night, and bowling-ball-lady ended up having to be induced. So, my fear might be grounded that, for all this talk about being early, Claire might be a November baby after all.

Sibling Gifts

It's technically Day 19 of the "31 Days of..." series, and I've managed to do 11 baby-related posts in that time. (This is #12.) You can see them all here.

Today I thought I'd share about the "sister gifts" I have planned. A lot of people arrange for big siblings to bring a gift for the new baby to the hospital, and—surprise!—the new baby has a gift there for the big sib. So, I'd been thinking about what my girls should give each other, and thought it would be nice if they were kind of a set that goes together.

We've never done the whole "Build-a-Bear" thing, and that seemed like a fun way for Kate to be more involved in the selection/creation of her gift for Baby Sister (whom she has finally started calling Baby Claire, by the way, or "Baby Tare," since her Cs often come out as Ts—Tookie Monster, etc.) So, my plan was for Kate to go make a bear for Claire, and then I would go back on my own and make one for Kate from Claire. I was nervous that Kate wouldn't "get" that it wasn't for her but for the baby and try to possess it, but I asked her several times in advance "do you want to go make a present for Baby Sister?" and she seemed enthusiastic, so off we went.

Despite my subtle urgings toward a more classic-looking brown or white bear, she chose the pink one—and as you'll see in the end, topped it off with a sparkly pink t-shirt. A little too girly-girl tweeny-bopper for my taste, but hey, she's two, and it's what she liked.

She picked out a heart for it, and we all pushed the pedal for the stuffing machine (even Claire got in the act, as you see!)

We all kissed the heart and Kate put it inside, then she picked out the little t-shirt for it. Here we are with our finished "ClaireBear," which is all boxed up and waiting to be brought to the hospital when Kate comes to meet her sister!

This was about ten days ago, and I still haven't gone back to make the "K-Bear" for Kate! I've been busy, but am definitely nervous about going into labor before I have a chance to do it! Also, I'm trying to decide how much to coordinate them. Should Kate's be pink with a different outfit, or maybe the matching blue bear with a pink dress? The brown and white bears weren't quite the same style, so now that Kate has set the tone, I feel like I need to follow it. Leave it to me to obsess over a stuffed bear!

Silhouette II

Of the various ways to photograph and document a pregnant belly, I really like doing a silhouette of my figure by tracing a profile shot in Adobe Illustrator. (Photos of the bare belly with stretch marks and my "second belly button," i.e. my belly button ring scar, are good mementos too, but not so fun to broadcast on the Internet.)

I did a silhouette with Kate too, also at 38 weeks, and just for fun decided to overlay them to see how they compare. Not a huge difference, but you can see how Claire (the white overlay) is hanging out a bit lower than Kate did!

Loving Two

It's definitely starting to sink in that Kate won't be our only child soon, and while I'm very excited about Claire's arrival, of course, it's making me a little sad. I feel like I want to hug Kate and never let go. I love laying next to her as she's going to bed and looking at each other face to face. She'll talk to me about things we did "yesterday" or about how she and I both have brown hair and eyes but Daddy's eyes are blue, and I'll sing our special lullaby or run my finger in a circle around her face like my dad did to me when I was little, and I'll have this irrational feeling wondering if we'll get to have moments like that once we've got two children.

Of course we will, I know. We'll take time to focus on each child and nurture those relationships separately, but there's still some strange feeling of loss as we gain something new and different. I remember in the first few days after bringing Kate home when she wasn't eating well and I was crying a lot, laying in bed by myself and seeing Charlotte, our cat, on the floor next to the bed. I suddenly felt like I hadn't seen her in days and like she'd been forgotten. I picked her up and cried, saying, "I miss you!" Though hormonal postpartum despondency is no reliable baseline for understanding or predicting emotions, I wonder if I'll have moments like that with Kate when I'm in a similar frame of mind a few weeks from now.

Matt has long teased me about being an only child, saying I don't understand how parents can love more than one child. Of course, once he became a parent, he shared that feeling that it seems all parents do--regardless of how many siblings they themselves have--that feeling of "how on earth could I love anyone else as much as I love this child?" I guess parents whose first children are multiples get it right away, but for most of us, I think the feeling is very common. The love one feels for one's child so far surpasses anything one has felt before that it seems impossible for that feeling to be replicated.

But I know it will. I just pray that when that feeling of "missing" Kate (or missing the one-on-one time we had) washes over me, I can channel it into some positive mommy-daughter time rather than a hormonal crying jag that causes her to stare at me uneasily (as happened the other day). Just like all those crazy-in-love parents before me, I have confidence that the love will grow and expand to include this newest member of our family.

Birth Day Poll

I had a noteworthy doctor appointment today. I'm a little more dilated than I was last week (1-2 cm now) but I went from 0 to 70% effaced in one week! (definitions of those terms here, if you need them) That doesn't necessarily mean anything, since a person can stay the same for weeks with no more progress, or have it all happen very quickly. Nonetheless, my doctor seemed to think my little low-rider just might come early. When I asked if I would make it to my planned last day of work next Friday (the 21st), she said, "Mmm, might be cutting it close."

So, while I would have waited a little longer, I thought now might be the time to throw up a fun little "when will Claire be born?" poll. It's in the right sidebar, so if you're reading this in a Reader, you'll need to pop over to the actual blog. The options are:

• Soon: Oct. 20 or before
• 1 week early: Oct. 21-24
• A few days early: Oct. 25-28
• Right on time: Oct. 29-31
• A little late: Nov. 1-4
• Induced: Nov. 5 or later

So that you can make an informed decision, here are all the pertinent facts:

• My due date is Oct. 30
• I've been contracting frequently for over a week now
• Claire's head is very low and I'm definitely waddling
• Kate was five days late
• I was born two weeks early
• Matt was born two weeks late
• With Kate, I was not this dilated or effaced until just before her due date, so within a week of her birth (I was 90% effaced and 3 cm dilated when I went to the hospital)
• There is a full moon going on right now. Won't be another until Nov. 10.

So what do you think?

Getting Less Practical

Even though Kate was in Pampers from birth until we graduated to pull-ups (when I decided I’d rather buy generic, more to avoid Dora and other branded characters than to save money) I still love Luvs’ slogan, “Live and learn and then get Luvs.” The implication, of course, is that new parents buy the pricy diapers like Pampers or Huggies, then realize that Luvs are just as good and decide to be practical and save some money.

I’ve actually never tried Luvs, mainly because I just love how soft Pampers feel, compared to the stiffness of Huggies and store-brand diapers. Maybe I’ll give generics a try this time . . . after the newborn stage, at least. Who knows. But overall, so far at least, I admit I am getting less practical this time around.

With Kate, I was determined to go unisex on the nursery décor, so we could use it again for subsequent children of either gender. Her nursery was sage green with chocolate brown, and her bedding had green, brown, red, orange, and blue--no pink. It was polka dots and stripes, with some jungle animals in the mobile, lamp, and wall art.

If this one had been a boy, I really wanted to paint the nursery red to highlight the red polka dots and stripes more, and we’d reuse pretty much everything. (Matt hated the idea of a red nursery, so I guess we’re lucky it’s a girl.)

Anyway, when we found out this one was another girl, I kind of felt like, “well, bugger. I could have reused something a little more feminine too.” So, I decided, given my fairly frugal approach to nursery décor (ok, not as frugal as reusing things, but comparatively, and I’ll blog about that soon) I would take a stab at redecorating. So, Claire’s room is yellow, pink, green, and chocolate brown, with a little bit of a birdie/nature theme. I’m reusing some things, but admittedly, buying anything new (when I already have perfectly good stuff) is not the most practical decision.

And I’ve bought Claire a few new clothing items as well, despite all the hand-me-downs I told Matt would save us so much money if we had another girl! “New,” of course, typically means “new to us,” as I love shopping eBay and consignment stores for kids clothes. That matter of practicality will certainly continue, even when I get the itch to dress my girls in matching outfits (which I promise will be a rare occurrence, lest you think I’m crazy). I recently bought on eBay for Kate a 3T version of a jumper she had when she was 6-9 months old, so it is possible to do the matchy thing used.

Ever since finding out Claire was a girl, though, I’ve been dreaming of matching Christmas dresses, and even started way back in June looking for those dresses on eBay. However, it’s very hard to find (and even harder to win) two listings of identical items in two different sizes from two different sellers. So, I’ve resigned myself to buying those dreamed-of dresses new. (I did ask a Gymboree clerk the other day when their Christmas stuff will go on sale. She said discounts will start in just a couple weeks because they’re getting yet another line of Christmas stuff in—so I can get these beauties on sale!)

Finally, a principle of practicality I have not yet violated but probably will at some point… monogramming. Kate hasn’t had any monogrammed clothes because, of course, we wouldn’t be able to reuse them! (I love blogger Kelly Stamps, who actually gave her daughters the same initials so she could reuse the gazillion monogrammed things they had, but no way could I do that.) I have saved searches for “monogram K” and “monogram C” on eBay, but have never seen anything I like in a size the child would use in the next year or so. We’ll see how long I hold out, but these bloomers are definitely calling my name…

Well, Claire's name, but you know :0) 

Maternity Leave Thoughts

I've slacked off a bit on the 31 Days of Baby, though I managed to do 6 out of 7 days last week before taking a three day hiatus:
1. 8 Months (1 to Go)
2. Breastfeeding, Take Two
3. the Cherry Blossom Tree Mural I painted in Claire's room
4. Baby Shower themes
5. Baby's Eating and Sleeping (an approximate point of reference)
6. Packing the Hospital Bag (thanks for the great additional suggestions!)


I've officially hit the 37 week mark, so theoretically (while every day in utero is helpful for development) Claire could be born now without much concern. This could be known as the "any day now" phase, but since I cried wolf throughout January 2009 only to have Kate be born five days late, on the 28th, I am not saying "any day now" this time around. It got really awkward last time to keep showing up for work when, every day, I would leave things perfectly prepared and passed off in case I didn't return the next day. But I was determined to work right up until going into labor because I didn't want to "waste" a single day of maternity leave. Turned out, I sort of had one day to rest just as a fluke because it was icy on Tuesday the 27th and my boss told me to stay home if the roads were sketchy, so that I wouldn't have to drive an hour back to Clarksville in bad conditions if I went into labor. I had mild contractions all that day and went into labor "for real" that night.

This time, I've planned my official last day at work to be Oct. 21 (a week from this Friday!) so that, assuming Claire doesn't come too early, I will have a week or so (theoretically longer if I go way overdue) to rest before her arrival. I'm looking forward to having some "me time" to take naps, get a pedicure, stock up on some good library books, enjoy evenings with Kate without being exhausted, etc.

I hope Claire's not too late, because that sense of "wasting" maternity leave time might set in if I have too much time on my hands, but overall, I'm more comfortable with that "waste" this time because I know it's going to be okay when I go back to work. The first time around, I had this sense of a time bomb ticking down, like I would never see Kate again after returning to work. I cried and cried when I came home after my first day back, having just two precious hours between coming home and her bedtime. Matt was worried that this working mom thing wasn't going to work out. After that one breakdown, though, it got better, and we found our groove as two working parents, day care, etc.

I can see the big picture a little better now, and know that some rest will be good for me before Claire arrives. We'll have the whole holiday season at home together (could that timing be more perfect? I'm so excited about it.) and I'll return to work in January with some sadness but also confidence that everything will be okay.

And in the meantime, I can't wait to go Christmas shopping during the day (not fighting the evening and weekend crowds!), have a long Thanksgiving visit in Louisville, enjoy quiet days around the house just me and Claire, have rowdy family evenings when Kate and Daddy get home, and just get used to being a family of four.

Packing the Hospital Bag

Since Kate was late when I was so certain she'd be early, I have refused to think that Claire might be at all early. But even though at our appointment yesterday (36.5 weeks) I was still just one centimeter dilated and not at all effaced, given how low she's riding and the fairly frequent (though painless) contractions I've been having for the last several days, I feel the need to be . . . prepared.

So, I started getting stuff together for my hospital bag the other night. I can't do anything without a list, though, so let me share that here and see if there's anything I'm forgetting!

• Pajamas--my mom got me some great maternity/nursing jammies for my birthday that include a matching cardigan that will be perfect for covering up in the days following the birth. So, I'm going this month without wearing them so I can be certain they'll be clean and in the bag when we need to go!
• Slipper socks and flip flops.
• Nursing bra, underwear, toiletries.
• Knit pants and top to come home in. 
• Books and things to do--Right now I'm reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter and Your Two-Year Old: Terrible or Tender, but I will probably be done with those before going into labor. I'll probably pick up a Jodi Picoult novel at the library, and I'll take the iPad so I can download a new Kindle book if I need to. I'll also take some Sudoku and crosswords.
• Snacks! This is the one major thing I didn't think about last time, and while I will typically eat anything, the hospital food was quite unappetizing and I really needed something else to eat. 
• Clothes for Claire--a couple sleepers and onesies, and some cute hats and headbands (including one with a Halloween bow, just in case :)
• A gift for Kate from the baby. I still need to get this, and take Kate to get her gift for Claire. 
• My maternity leave paperwork for the doctor to sign. Can't forget that! 
• Camera and video camera. (And Matt will have his laptop so we can blog and update on Facebook!) 
• My own pillow--I remember them telling us in our childbirth class with Kate to put a colored pillowcase on your pillow so the hospital staff won't accidentally take it. Good tip. 
• The infant car seat for Claire to go home in. 

Is there anything I'm forgetting? What's the smartest thing you took to the hospital when giving birth?

How Much Do Babies Eat and Sleep?

These are two questions I think a lot of first time parents ask--and since my brain has since been filled with toddler stuff to the point I worry I've forgotten all about newborn-care, maybe second-time parents too. When Kate was born, I found a couple charts that were extremely helpful as guides regarding those two issues, and I'm posting them inside a kitchen cabinet for my reference this time around too. I think the sleeping chart was in a book, which I photocopied, and the eating chart was in a formula ad I tore out. (It makes sense that any feeding chart listing ounces would be referring to formula, but since I pumped and bottle-fed breastmilk, it was definitely helpful to know how much and how often was typical.) I'll admit I feel guilty for not being able to credit sources here, but not guilty enough not to share these very helpful guides.


Average Hours of Sleep

Newborn: 16-18 hours per day, distributed evenly over 6-7 sleep periods.
1 month: 3 naps totaling 6-7 hours and 8.5-10 hours at night (not uninterrupted)
3 months: 3 naps totaling 5-6 hours and 10-11 hours at night (not uninterrupted unless you're really lucky)
6 months: 2 naps totaling 3-4 hours and 10-11 hours at night
9 months: 2 naps totaling 2.5-4 hours and 11-12 hours at night
12 months: 1-2 naps totaling 2-3 hours and 11.5-12 hours at night
2 years: 1 nap of 1-2 hours and 11-12 hours at night
3 years: 1 nap of 1-1.5 hours and 11 hours at night
4 years: no naps and 11.5 hours at night
5 years: no naps and 11 hours at night

Clearly, this is an approximation and reality may be more or less, but it's nice to have some idea what is "normal" when you're navigating life with an infant. Kate was fairly close to this as an infant, I think. Now at 2.5, she only sleeps about 10 hours at night, but is generally still napping once a day for 1.5-3 hours (this napless weekend notwithstanding!)

Average Bottle Consumption (breastmilk or formula, I'll add!)

Newborn: 2-3 oz. every 2-3 hours, about 8-12 feedings per day
2 months: 2-4 oz. every 3-4 hours, about 6-8 feedings per day
3 months: 3-5 oz. every 4-5 hours, about 5-6 feedings per day
4 months: 4-6 oz. every 4-5 hours, about 5 feedings per day
5 months: 5-7 oz. every 4-6 hours, about 5 feedings per day
6 months: 6-8 oz. every 4-6 hours, about 5 feedings per day

Around six months, you've started solids, so liquid feedings might go down some. (Note that the AAP recommends not introducing solids before four months, including putting cereal in a bottle. They're linking early solids to childhood obesity, apparently.) I think Kate's eating was pretty much in line with this chart, though again, these are clearly approximations.

Baby Showers

Thought I'd do a little run down of baby shower ideas and pics that I've featured previously on The Parsonage Family. If you're looking for inspiration for the next shower you're throwing, maybe you'll find something here! (The original posts with more pics are linked in each description.)

Most recently was my sister-in-law's shower with a bird's nest theme. I never would have thought of it (I guess my mother-in-law did; we co-hosted it but I can't remember how the theme came up!) but a bird on the nest is a really cute metaphor for pregnancy and "nesting" to prepare for baby. We had a gorgeous cake, adorable favors, and a cute game all related to the theme.

For our cousin that was expecting twins, my mother-in-law and I threw a "Twice the Love" shower. The cake and invitations featured that slogan, and I made my first diaper cake for the occasion.

I hosted a shower for a girl at our previous church with a rubber ducky theme: rubber ducks "swimming" in the punch bowl, little ducks on sticks stuck into each cheese on the cheese tray, etc. 

Another shower I attended had a bird theme to correspond with the baby's birdie/owl nursery. The centerpiece was a very modern, creative diaper cake. There were also handcrafted paper birds hanging from ribbon in the doorway. Very cute.

I went to a shower for two cousins born close to one another whose names were Ruby and Scarlett--so what could the theme be other than the color red? They had all the guests wear red, and the decor was red, I think we ate red velvet cake, etc. This is a neat idea that I could imagine being cute for a wedding shower for a last name Brown or Black, or maybe a baby Goldie or Kelly? 

I'm just now realizing I never blogged about the baby showers that were thrown for me when I was pregnant with Kate, and I only have pics from one of them! (I know I scrapbooked all of them, so I guess people gave me prints from their pics.) Guess I was a little preoccupied at that time in my life! 

What are some fun baby shower themes and ideas you've seen or used?

Cherry Blossom Tree Mural

When brainstorming decor for Claire's nursery, I felt inspired as soon as I saw this beautiful cherry blossom tree in a Pottery Barn Kids catalog. It's actually a decal that costs $174. Um, no thanks. "I can do that!" I thought. And so I did. I kept the catalog page close at hand, though; mainly because I knew my temptation would be to overdo it--probably twice as many branches and twice as many leaves, and I really liked the sparse look of this one. I started by sketching out the branches in chalk.

I then painted in the trunk and branches with latex paint. (I bought a quart of brown latex paint at Lowes, thinking it would take a lot. It definitely did not. Two little bottles of acrylic probably would have done it. Anyway...) I thought I would do a second coat, adding some highlights to make it more realistic, but the one coat over the yellow walls actually gave it a nice, textured-look better than I could replicate, I think. Before I added the leaves, the tree had a cool, Halloween/Winter vibe. 

Next step: leaves, again with my PBK page in hand to avoid spoiling the sparse look. And again, I overestimated the amount of paint that would be necessary. I bought two little bottles of acrylic, and it only took half of one. I did do two coats on the leaves, since any spot overlapping branch showed the brown through it.

 And, last step, adding the flowers in pink and white acrylic. (I turned the flash off for these photos since the walls looked so stark with the flash on. The actual yellow of the walls is somewhere between the pics above and below!)

So that's the finished product! I'll share a more complete version of the nursery when it's all done!

And to anyone visiting from the "31 days" link-up, welcome! I'm Jessica, and this is The Parsonage Family. My husband is a pastor and I work in Christian publishing. We recently moved and were able to purchase our own house, so we no longer technically live in a parsonage, but eh, details. We have a 2 1/2 year old daughter, Kate, and Baby Claire is due on October 30, thus the 31 Days of Baby!

Breastfeeding, Take 2

As we approach Claire's birth, I've been thinking and wondering how breastfeeding will go this time around. You can read all the details here, but the short version of my previous breastfeeding experience is that Kate just didn't take to the breast very well, she was a "lazy sucker," and after losing a bunch of weight in her first five days or so, I started pumping for her and never looked back. I was an "exclusive pumper" for a whole year, and while I would do it again in a second, I still hope Claire will nurse. I'd like that experience, and it would definitely be cleaner and less time consuming than pumping, cleaning all the pump parts, and then giving a bottle--all up to eight times a day.

The wife of one of my authors had been through the same thing with her first child, and was a big inspiration to me in the marathon of pumping for that whole year. She has since had two more kids, and both of them have nursed. I asked her recently what the secret was, and she basically said "perseverance." That makes me feel a little stinky, like she/I could have made it work the first time if we'd just tried a little harder. (Regret stinks, so I don't want to think that. I don't know if she thinks that or not, though.) But nonetheless, with one or both of the latter babies, she did have some trouble again, but went back to the lactation consultant as many times as it took to teach that baby to nurse. And it worked!

If Claire has similar nursing troubles to Kate, there are several things I'll do differently.

1. Recognize it sooner. I feel so guilty for not realizing just how little milk she was getting during those frustrating, start-and-stop nursing attempts during her first five days. 
2. In light of that, I'd start pumping sooner just to make sure she was getting enough to eat...
3. ...but I'd also seek more help to try to make nursing work. Kate and I had a couple sessions with the lactation consultant while still in the hospital, and we went back one more time after going home, but I could have done more. 

And if, after all that, she still won't nurse well, I'll gladly pump again, and I'll do it the whole year. There are a couple benefits of exclusive pumping, so it's not a total hardship:

1. Other people can feed her, and I get a little alone time while pumping. 
2. I made enough milk for two babies, so had a huge frozen stash that lasted until Kate was about 15 months old, and was able to give some to babies whose mommies couldn't nurse or pump. 
3. Making so much milk is an excellent calorie-burner. The baby weight--and then some--just melted away. (That's enough to make me want to pump on the side this time, even if she does nurse!)
4. One I just realized after reading blogs from other working moms who stressed over the transition back to work, having to teach their babies to take a bottle and get themselves in the groove of pumping. We were already doing that even on maternity leave, so feeding/pumping was a non-issue when I went back to work. (Excerpt for finding a good, private place to pump at work, which is indeed a challenge.)

What has your breastfeeding experience been?

8 Months (One to Go!)

For the most recent "31 Days of Baby" posts, click here!

I hit the eight-month mark yesterday, and am so excited that it is now October and we have just one month  to go until little Claire's arrival! And... since it's October 1, a new blog-carnival is starting today that some pretty cool people are participating in. It's called "31 Days of..." whatever. Every day in October, bloggers will be posting about whatever they decided merited 31 days of blogging about. When I heard about it, I immediately thought, "31 Days of Baby!" since that's what will obviously be big on my brain this month. Then again, I'm exhausted and have a lot to do before Baby's arrival... but I may try to participate as much as possible, sharing the wall art I'm doing in the nursery, sister gifts for/from Kate, and other baby-related things!

Now, on to my 8-month update!

We had our 36-week appointment yesterday--the last of our biweeklies before going every week now! I seemed to be measuring small on uterine height, which the doctor suspected could be because Claire's head is so low that she really couldn't feel the very bottom of my uterus. Still, at three centimeters short, she thought we should do an ultrasound just to check on things, so that was a nice surprise!

The ultrasound confirmed that Claire's head is indeed extremely low, and all her bones and head and all that measured right on target. The tech estimated her weight at 5 lbs, 15 oz. right now. She also checked my fluid level, since that can make one measure small too, but that was normal as well. We also confirmed the gender, since at our big ultrasound in June, the technician seemed to barely pause when checking and announcing that it was a girl. (On one hand, that showed confidence in what she'd seen so briefly, but also made us a little nervous. Remember the whole "It's a boy... no, wait, it's a girl" thing with Kate?) So, we got a good look for ourselves today and it is indeed a girl.

I have been pretty tired and uncomfortable this month, which I don't remember being with Kate. Matt says he thinks I was at the very end, but the truth is, it was all so different just not having another child to worry about already! If I was tired after work, I could rest on the couch all evening and it was no problem. Now, it's constant up-and-about, fetching sippies and snacks, carrying, crouching, and all manner of exertions that leave me feeling wiped out. Plus, 2 1/2 is seeming to be a rather trying age, so I'm mentally/emotionally wiped out too some evenings. (It's just a phase... It's just a phase...) I've been much less patient with Kate lately, and I feel really bad about it.

Also, I had a sinus thing for a while this month, which just compounded all that. For a couple weeks, I was back to throwing up every day. I thought I got sick a lot with Kate. I think Claire has officially passed her in that tally. 

But enough of that. One month to go (due date Oct. 30), and so much to do, both at work and at home. I'm refusing to expect her to be early (after saying "any day now" with Kate for the whole month of January, only to have her be born on the 28th, five days late) but I do wonder, with her riding so low, if she's banging at the gates! The ultrasound tech said that really has no bearing on when one goes into labor, but then again, I was already one centimeter dilated, so who knows?!