Preparing for baby

The babies are coming! My cousin Adam and his wife Meg had their third child this week. They knew they were having a boy, and his name is Hank Robert. He's so cute! I can't wait to meet him and I'm sure his big sister Carolyn and big brother Will are so excited about his arrival. Meg was due July 22 (my original due date!), so maybe I'll go early, too? ...

Speaking of possibly going early, I had a doctor's appointment Monday and I'm already dilated 1.5 centimeters. That, of course, could mean nothing at all, or it could mean something. I have felt the baby dropping, though. I have another appointment next Thursday with a sonogram, just to make sure the baby's weight is tracking normally. So far it's been tracking a bit smaller than average, so we'll see if it's gained a bunch of weight by next week. The doctors still think I'll have a baby around 6.5-7 lbs or so. And, they told me Gus would be around 7 or 7.5 lbs. and he was 8 lbs. 5 oz, so I don't know how accurate the sonograms are. This pregnancy has been all over the map, though. My original due date was July 22, then after a sono they moved it out to August 2. Throughout the pregnancy they've tracked this baby a bit after August 2 (more like August 11) based on its size. So my doctor was surprised I was already dilated so early...who knows what's going to happen! :)

We are going to continue work on the nursery this weekend. It's coming along. We bought a fun lamp that we're going to hang in the room. It's a green lantern that has a wicker cover, so it diffuses the light nicely. It's pretty funky, but we loved it. The whole room has no theme, per say. We're not theme folks. It's definitely a mish mash of stuff. But it's a cute, cozy room, and that's all the matters. I need to clean the breast pump off this weekend (fun!) and wash the Baby Papasan seat cover. Little things to prepare. I think Gus pretty much lived in the Baby Papasan vibrating chair, so we definitely need to get it ready. And the swing! I also need to buy a baby sling. I have a feeling I'll use it quite often since I'll have 2 kids.

Work is insane right now. I'm trying not to stress out, but I didn't realize how much I had to finish before handing it all off. I guess it'll all work out, even if I have the baby super early. My gut feeling is that I might have Fozzy in the next 2 weeks, but now I've jinxed myself, so I'll be two weeks late. I'm not going to lie...that would kinda suck! :)

We're also going to a wedding Saturday night. Our friends Brandon and Megan are getting hitched in Kansas City. Should be a really fun wedding. It's at 7:30, so Gus will stay with a babysitter and we'll make it a date night. I'm excited for the food, of course.

We're also prepping for Gus' birthday...I honestly cannot wrap my mind around the fact that he's going to be two. It's so bittersweet. He's growing up so fast. I want to make sure we can focus on his birthday even if the baby comes around the same day. It will be a crazy month!

ek

4th of July

Gus and his new favorite boots, from Aunt Lindsey. Seriously, he won't take them off...

It's the 4th and we're just hanging out. Gus is watching Thomas the Train, Andy is talking to his Dad on the phone, and I'm updating my blog.

We're going to be busy today and this weekend, getting the baby's room ready to go. I'm excited b/c we got the wall art in the mail this week. We ordered some fun textiles to hang on the walls, so I'll post a photo once the room is set up. We ordered some fun textile art for Gus' room and now we're addicted. They sell all kinds of fun stuff online these days! We ordered Gus' wall art from a Marimekko online store, and Fozzy's stuff came from Dwell.

Gus had a fun week. My mom watched him on Monday, Wed. and Thursday b/c Jen is on vacation. He had a blast with my mom. He was really sad to see her leave. My mom always teaches Gus new words. She watches him pretty much every year during this week b/c Jen usually takes vacation during the week of the 4th. Last year he learned the word "ball" from my mom (his 1st real word!) and this week he learned a few new words and songs, including the beginning to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." My mom the teacher! He also fell off a chair and scratched his nose, and at some point during the week he got about a billion bug bites, one really nasty one on his eyelid (I'm pretty sure he got them when we were in the garden Tuesday...I even covered him in bug spray!). His eye was so swollen this week, I was so nervous. I took him to the doctor but all we could do was give him Benadryl (sp?) and Clartin and wait for it to clear up. It looks so much better today. Before and after photos for your pleasure (the before photo is somewhat scary...his eye really was that swollen and nasty!

Before...Gus giving the "stink eye"

And after...Mr. Happy Pants is back!

Our friends Kim and Chris are in town this weekend. We're so excited to see them. They moved to Dallas two years ago and we all miss them terribly. They are expecting their first baby in September, so we're throwing them a baby shower tomorrow night (I should say Hannah and Jim are throwing it! We are contributing). Anyway, it's at Hannah and Jim's lake house and we're going to shoot off some fireworks and whatnot. The kids will have a blast, and it'll be so good to get a Trankowski fix (we call them the "Trankowskis" b/c Kim's maiden name is "Tran" and their married name is "Jankowski" so it's a perfect fit). I can't wait to see Kim's baby belly.

Speaking of babies, we're REALLY in the final countdown now. Andy and I are getting extremely excited about Fozzy's arrival. What will he/she look like? Will Fozzy be a girl or boy? So many fun surprises. Oh, and what to name him/her? We were going back and forth just last night on names. We still haven't decided what name to pick from our list of boys and girls names. We have about 2-3 of each, and it's hard to decide. I guess we'll figure it out when Fozzy arrives. I can't wait to snuggle with a newborn, though. I did get a baby fix at work this week. A student I know brought her new little girl in (just a month old) and I held her. She was gorgeous and so snuggly and smelled so good. Ahhhh, babies. It felt so good to hold her.

I have another doc appointment Monday, and they are every week from now on. I'll be full term in about a week, so we'll see what happens! I'm a little anxious about work b/c there's so much left to do, but I'll get it done. I remember feeling this way with Gus and somehow I got everything done in time. The new interim dean started this week, too (my new boss for a year). He's very nice and is very excited for Fozzy's arrival. He has two grown children himself, so he seems very family-focused, which is great.

I'll end this post with a photo of Gus and Ash swinging at the park. Good times!

Summer, Summer, Summertime...

Good morning, everybody!

It's a rainy Friday. Gus continues to greet us bright and early in the morning (between 6-6:30am usually, but sometimes earlier!!). I think he's still adjusting to his new bed and he's so excited that he has the ability to get out of it himself in the morning. As Andy said, Gus is just so excited to be alive that he can't stand to be in bed for too long. That's a nice way to look at it. It doesn't help that the birds are chirping as early as 5:30am these days, so of course Gus thinks it's time to get up. I'm sure when it gets darker in the morning he'll slowly start sleeping later again. But the adjustment to the toddler bed, overall, hasn't been too bad. He seems to get that he needs to sleep there for bedtime and naptime now, for the most part.

Gus is really into learning letters and numbers right now. If something has letters or numbers on it, he will read them (he knows about 70-75% of the alphabet and a few numbers...number "2" being his fave!). Case in point, the Wall Street Journal...we took these photos because he looked hilarious. Our little child genius reads the Wall Street Journal in the morning with his bowl of fruit and sippy cup nearby.

Gotta read the Journal this morning...

Wow, look at those gas prices...

As of this weekend I will be 35 weeks along in this second pregnancy. About 5+ weeks to go (unless I go early). That totally freaks me out in a way b/c we have so much left to do. I don't function well when procrastinating, so it's difficult for me to wait until the last minute to fix everything up. But it's hard on the second baby, b/c you just don't have time or energy to do all the things you need to. I'm sure it will get done, but I'm nesting right now and it's hitting me hard! Preggo anxiety! I have my pre-admission appointment at Lawrence Memorial on Monday. I need to update my birth plan for the nurses and my doctor. Here are a couple of photos of me at 34 weeks. The baby continues to kick up a storm, especially late at night and in the middle of the night.





Our Lawrence friends are throwing us a "Baby Sprinkle" tomorrow afternoon. It should be really fun. It'll be a potluck at a nearby park. So it's a "sprinkle"...people buy you diapers and wipes and ointment and shampoo and whatnot for the new babe. The stuff will definitely come in handy and it will be a fun excuse to hang with friends and babies. Sunday I think I'm meeting up with some friends and their kids at the downtown pool. Gus and I went to the pool last Saturday and he loved the fountains, so it should be fun. And I love getting sun in the summer. I don't love my preggo swimsuit (doesn't cover up everything!), but that's what cover ups are for, right?! I bought one at Target that does the trick and is still stylish. :) I still look like a beached whale (not looking for sympathy with that comment, I honestly really do look huge!), but I've learned not to care what I look like at the pool, especially when pregnant. It just feels so good to be in the cold water and to get a tan.


Andy has another business trip Sunday through Tuesday but then he's home until around September, which makes me super, super happy!


Have a great weekend, everyone.

ek


P.S. HOW COULD I FORGET TO MENTION THIS? Blame it on my preggo memory and brain...Leah and Dan announced to us last week that they are expecting baby #2 in January. So exciting! This baby will join big sister Beatrice, who is 5 years old. I'm sure Bea is just so excited! Leah said Bea wants a little brother, but we all know how it goes. No real choice in the matter! They are going to find out the sex, so I can't wait to see if they share with everyone. :) Congrats!

Fozzy update and TGIF!

My sonogram went well yesterday. Fozzy looks to be doing well in utero. He/she has been very active and somewhat stubborn during the sonos I've had, so that's funny. The sono technician wasn't able to do much yesterday b/c Fozzy was having none of it. Fozzy's sign will be Leo, just like Gus, so that's two Leos in a row for us. But they will be natural leaders, and that's what I'll tell myself when they are being very, very stubborn or "independent." :) I'm still tracking pretty much on schedule w/ my due date, but if anything, I'm actually a bit behind, meaning I could go late with this one. But I don't really trust these machines all that much for 100% accuracy, so we'll see. This baby is measuring a bit smaller than Gus was at this point, so that's interesting to know. But all is within the average range, so we're fine. Maybe Fozzy will have some massive growth spurt in the last month? Yikes! Right now Fozzy weighs about 4 1/2 lbs. or so, give or take.

Oh, Gus just woke up from his nap. He's hanging with me as I type this. We are going to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning and then to some garage sales. Andy is painting the baby's room tomorrow. We've decided to go with white/off white as the color. Sounds boring, but the room is rather small-ish so this will work. We'll color the room with accessories. I'm trying to find some fun, bright curtains that match w/ our bedding and a rug, too. Oh, and wall art. We need to figure it out soon!

Our 6th wedding anniversary is Sunday so Andy and I are going out for dinner tonight. Annie is coming over to hang with Gus. I'm not sure where we're going, but it will be nice to go out somewhere.

I think now I'm going to turn the sprinkler on for Gus and watch him have a blast in the backyard!

ek

Busy week

We've had a pretty busy week. Last week we went to Worlds of Fun for Andy's company "family day" and had a nice time. We took Gus to the Snoopy section of the park and he went on a few rides, including this car ride. He wasn't sure what to think of it, but I think he had fun. It was fun to watch him run around.

He was so tired when we got home, but of course, now that he's in his toddler bed, tired or not tired, he parties like a rock star once it's time for bed. :) He's getting better at staying in his bed and he's been reading himself to sleep (or singing himself to sleep), but some nights we still hear him getting all of his toys out. We had to go in his room the other night to tell him to go back to bed, and he had taken all of his balls (he has at least 5 large balls) and put them in his bed. It was funny. I figure, if you want to sleep with your bouncy balls, so be it. We've been more flexible with him these days at bed time. He slept with his sippy cup last night (clutching it while he fell asleep) and two of his books were underneath him. He's also been falling out of his bed about once a night. I go in and put him back in bed and he crashes, but I hope he stops falling out soon. He's such a wiggle worm when he sleeps and the toddler bed just can't contain him right now. Hopefully that will settle down soon.

Friday we had to take our youngest cat, Funny Face, to the vet b/c she was limping and her tail literally stopped working. After x-rays and a full day at the vet she was home with us again. She suffered some type of injury that separated her tail from the rest of her body (awful, I know), but it will heal on its own, according to our vet. We think she may have caught her tail in a door. We are giving her anti-inflammatory pills and they are helping her get around. Her tail is already moving around a bit more, so that's a good sign. I was so worried about her. She's our little sweetie.

Father's Day was great. Gus and I bought Andy Muncher's donuts Sunday morning, then we went to church. After church we just hung out and did some work around the house. We gave Andy a coffee mug that Gus and I had decorated for him (I received a wonderful piece of art from Gus for Mother's Day, so we had to get Andy something awesome, as well!). My Mom and Dad stopped by later in the day, so that was nice.

Fozzy is doing well, I think. We have a sono this Thursday, so I'm excited for that. I've been getting all types of fun name advice and guesses on the sex of the baby...fun times! Ha! My mom even called last night to tell us she couldn't babysit this weekend and had to throw in a name suggestion before she hung up. I hear about one or two suggestions a week from a co-worker...so it's all good. Although I'm ready to stop hearing suggestions at this point. We have our names set, pretty much, we think. Andy thinks we're having a girl (he's been pretty sure of that since I got pregnant) and I've had a boy vibe lately. So one of us will be surprised!

HERE I AM AT ALMOST 34 WEEKS...

I'll end this (long, sorry!) post with a photo of one of my fave birthday gifts...from Leah. I love my new Obama mug!

Toddler bed update and other things

We moved Gus to his toddler bed a week ago. The first two nights were pretty hard, but I think that's mostly because Andy and I hadn't really formulated a plan. We kinda made things up as we went along, and it made for a couple of hard nights getting Gus to stay put in his bed.

But...the light at the end of the tunnel is that after a couple of nights we figured out what worked best for all of us. Initially we were staying in the room with Gus until he fell asleep, but we found that we were just distracting him (he's not used to having us in his room until he falls asleep, so of course he thought it was party time). So now we basically do what we were doing when he was in his crib. We read books, put him to bed and leave. He'll play a little with his books or toys and knock on the door, but usually within 15-30 minutes he will fall asleep on his bed. He's been doing really well and sleeping through the night (knock on wood). We are still figuring out nap time as he doesn't want to stay in his bed when it's light out. But we had success with him during yesterday's nap, so I'm optimistic it'll work out. In the meantime, our backup plan for nap time is his playpen/pack n' play. He sleeps well in that and can't move around the room.

The weekend flew by. Andy got home super late (actually early) from his business trip Friday night/Saturday morning b/c of flight delays. Saturday we just worked around the yard and whatnot. I paid a visit to Jessica and Nick and baby Logan. He's a snuggle bear and so cute. Andy did more yard work Sunday and hung out with Gus while Leah and I went to lunch and to see Sex and the City. It was fun to hang out and have some girlfriend time. Andy left super early this morning for another trip (3:45am!) only to have his flight cancelled. He came home from the airport this morning around 7:30am and plans to fly out tonight around 5:30pm...we'll see. I guess all the rain has really hurt some of the airlines, so I don't even know that he'll get out tonight.

Thursday we're going to Worlds of Fun as a family. Andy's company sponsors a WOF day every summer. It's fun, and Gus will love the baby rides this year.

Pregnancy is going well. I can't believe we're in the "final countdown" mode. I'm 32 going on 33 weeks and feeling very sluggish lately. I feel good otherwise, just really tired. I guess that comes with the 3rd trimester (and this hot, humid weather). But I have some time left, so I need to save my complaints for the last couple of weeks, especially if I'm overdue this time. I hope not! I have a sonogram next week so I'm anxious to see the babe again...make sure everything looks good. I'm so anxious to know the sex of the baby, but we've made it this far...we'll hold out for 8 more weeks. We have no idea what to paint the nursery...we were going to paint it a mocha brown, but now we're thinking of "stem green"--it's a nice spring green color, but not TOO bright. I think it'll work...hopefully!

Oh, funny Gus update. When I want to get Andy's attention (for dinner, or whatever), I tend to call him by saying, "Annndddddyyy"--b/c Andy is usually in another room. Well, Gus has started to do it, and it's hilarious. When I tell Gus it's dinner time, he will say, "Annnndddddyyyy!" to call Andy into the room. He does it quite often, actually, and it is one of the funniest things. I don't think he means to mock me, but it absolutely cracks me up b/c it sounds like he is mocking me. It's amazing. Oh, and he said "thank you" for the first time the other day. Now we need to get "please" down!

ek

Happy June 1st

It's June 1 and I can't believe how fast May flew by.

The weekend has been nice. Friday night after Andy got home from Michigan, we pigged out on La Familia (I love their shrimp tacos so much) and watched a great movie, The Savages. Saturday we ran some errands and had an afternoon bbq at our place. It was really fun. The kids (Ash, Ollie and Gus) had a blast running around outside. Today Gus got us up bright and early at 6am and I feel like it should be 3pm or something (it's only 11:30am). Andy is finishing the assembly of Gus' new toddler bed. Tonight will be his first night in the toddler bed. Wish us luck! Oh, later today we are going to a co-worker's wedding here in Lawrence. Should be nice...the wedding is at Danforth on campus and the reception is at the Eldridge Hotel.

Here's a cute photo that I lifted from Andy's sister, Jenny. It's too cute and pretty much sums up our Iowa trip--bubbles! The boys wanted to do nothing all weekend but play with bubbles on the porch. So fun and exhausting! :)

More photos have been posted to our flickr account. Until later...

ek