Baby Things

What are some of my favorite gifts I've gotten when I've had a baby?  I'd have to start with Anthony, because that's the last time that I really asked for and picked out things, and that was six long years ago, hmmmm.  I didn't even know what to ask for, now that I think about it.

With Maria, I got the obnoxiously named, but life-saving My Brest Friend nursing pillow.  A blogger that I love to read said that she slept in a chair with her baby, like a recliner, and she put pillows around herself so she was kind of sitting up all night, nursing, but sleeping too.  Because I needed to sleep more with Maria than I did with Anthony - largely because I had to care for *Anthony*, too, when Maria was a baby, I started sleeping in the chair.  But I didn't know what to DO with her, like I was afraid I'd tuck her away with a pillow.  Sometimes I am so tired when I have a newborn that I do crazy things.  Like one night I heard Anthony cry and I went to go and nurse him, but instead of picking HIM up from the crib, I picked up my pillow and sat down in the chair with it.  Luckily my mom was there and she was all, um, that's not the baby!  Ha!  Anyways, this nursing pillow really was great because I could clip it to me and it had a little shelf for her to lie on and she wouldn't roll away.

My mom bought me some size small Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers when I was pregnant with Veronica and that was great, because I had sold my size smalls right after Maria got out of them.  Isn't that funny, that at one point I had Maria, and I must have thought, well I guess I won't have any more kids, I better get rid of their stuff!  Ha!  I only ever use Fuzzi Bunz diapers, they work well for us and I don't like to get too crazy about cloth diapers, or else I'll end up buying every new or cute diaper that I see and that will not have the money-saving effect that I am after.

Oh!  I love sleepers that zip up, NOT the ones that snap.  I don't care what they look like, although I have to say I got some super cute Hanna Andersson sleepers at Costco for Veronica several months ago that were feetless and I kind of liked them better.  It's always warm in our upstairs, I never worry about my kids being too cold.  I like them to be not too hot, it seems like it's always stuffy and warm in our upstairs.  Note:  I would never buy HA stuff that wasn't at Costco or at a garage sale or something.  I don't have it in me to spend $25 on one sleeper.  One that is more than likely going to get pooped on, or spit up on, or something.  Sheesh.

One thing I'd like to try is a Sleepy Wrap, and lucky for me they were on sale today on Zulilly, so I bought on for like $21, which is good.  It's just like a Moby Wrap, which I loved, but apparently it has more spandex so it's tighter, which is good for a newborn, especially now that my hands have to be free-er than ever.

Also, I hear great things about these blankets.  I think Target has a version of them, but I haven't been to Target alone in a long time so I can look for them.  I love to swaddle a newborn and I have always loved the Amazing Miracle Blanket but I have to say Anthony liked it best, and probably needed it most.  The girls were just swaddled for a short time when they were teensy, Anthony was only unswaddled after he was like seven or eight months old.

I like those kimono type shirts on a baby, and little cotton pants.  I like a soft hat but my kids can rarely wear a newborn size.  They have the Big Heads real bad.  :)

I am thinking of doing a combo Christmas card/birth announcement with this one - it's my first October baby, so I think the timing is good.  Maybe I'll send them out right after Thanksgiving?  I always get my cards through Shutterfly, I like them the best.  I also got Veronica's weekly pictures poster done there, I think the quality is great.

What else.  For myself I want to get some nice soft socks and a nice pair of pajamas to wear at the hospital and also as my uniform for the first few weeks.  I used to have a great pair from Target but I seriously wore them out. Pajamas!  Who does that?

I can't believe it's six weeks away.  I am so big - I'm going to the doctor on Friday and I'm scared I'm going to be measuring bigger than ever and they're going to ... I don't know what, make me feel like a circus freak or something.  I have to see a different doctor than my doctor because that's how they're doing things now, which sucks because I am having a scheduled csection and what is the point, really?  Also I am going to declare my unwillingness to have that stupid Strep Test and see how that goes.  I asked Mike what can they do, strap me down and rip off my clothes to swipe my whole underside with a large qtip?  He wasn't really any help, I was hoping as an ATTORNEY, he'd be all, "they cannot take away your rights!", but instead he said "um, I don't think they could strap you down".  Not very reassuring!

Nursery

Here's a lamp in the new baby's nursery. The theme is called Lambs & Ivy and I bought some stuff from a friend of mine, she took exceptionally good care of it. It was literally in the original packaging, which is v. impressive, to me. I could never be so organized. I needed a new lamp because these CHILDREN of mine have broken Anthony's lamp. I am going picture by picture here because I can't find my longer-range lens and I want to get this done while the girls are napping. So anyways, isn't it cute? I love the idea of baby animals for a theme. Baby animals remind me of babies now, in a way that they didn't used to, before I'd had kids. Now I see my babies in all animal babies - well, not mice or bugs or whatever but like gorillas and puppies and kittens.

OK so this is the dresser.  It's kind of a wreck right now, but I am hoping that my Handy brother John can help me with it when he comes to visit here soon. It's three drawers on the left and a little drawer up there on the right and kind of a closet type thing below the small drawer.  It has a changing table, it was Anthony's and I've used it for everyone, I love it.  Anthony, unfortunately, loves it too, he loves to use the drawers for climbing up to the top, so they are kind of a mess.  I think with some wood glue and some screws I can get it working again, at least that's my hope.  

That is our old tv to the right, I am going to put it in a stand and use it to watch late night tv when I am nursing.  With Veronica and Maria I just went downstairs but our stairs are super steep and I am loathe to tromp down them while holding a little baby.  

This is just a view of the changing table part and the lamp.  Also, my tassel from my high school graduation.  What do people do with these things?  Ugh.  

These shelves were in the house when we moved in and they will be nice, I figure, for all these stuffed animals - there is a baby elephant and a baby giraffe up there on the left that came with the Lambs & Ivy set.  I have some work to do on these shelves, obviously.  I'm going to put a noise machine up there, and a L&I picture frame once I have the baby and a picture to put in it.  Also, there are the girls' jewelry boxes that I can't keep in their room right now because they are TOO BAD.  It is incredibly frustrating to have a four bedroom house, I was telling my sister today, but only be able to keep things in TWO of the bedrooms.  Anthony has a bed, a beanbag chair and that's it in his room, otherwise he will use them all to throw around.  We can't even hang clothes in his closet because of his hanger thing.  Now the girls have started to mess with everything so I had to take everything out of their room, too.  It's v. annoying.  

Click Clack Couch/Futon.  I figure I can either nurse on here or sleep on here or whatever.  Maria is my best sleeper and when she was wee, I used to nurse her and then lay her down right after.  I'd lie on the futon in her room and as often as not, she'd just go to sleep.  I'm hopeful (ha ha ha boo hoo because I will never learn) that it will be the same with this baby.  

This is just funny.  I love this bench, it has storage in it, and because of the aforementioned storage problems that I have, I figure I'll keep it upstairs and the baby's room is as good a place as any.  In my old house, it was in the kitchen and I could always pull it up for extra seating.  Anyways.  Maria brought all of these stuffed animals and dolls in this morning when she was looking at the room and she named them all, she said "this is Sleepy, and Happy, and Sneezy, and Dopey and Bashful, and Doc and ... um....Sneaky".  Ha!  

Cute valance, right?  I am going to get some window shade film stuff to make it shadier, and then I'm just going to leave the blinds and the valance.  I used to have long, long curtains in here and it's too much.  The people that lived here before us were crazy about the long curtains and while I appreciate a dark room as much as the next person, they are too long and dreary for us, certainly for a nursery.  

.  I bought this glider when Anthony was a few months old.  My mom and dad gave us a beautiful white rocking chair which I used for a few months, but then I rocked it across the room one too many times (Anthony required a lot of movement), and it broke.  This glider has been through a lot, I've slept a LOT in it with the girls but it is hanging in there.  The bouncy seat there on the left will probably end up downstairs after I have the baby, but for now I am hiding it because Veronica keeps playing the music on it and then leaving the room and they all like to lie down in it.  

The crib.  This is a mini crib I bought for Veronica back when she was in the closet.  I love it, she was in it forever, and it's not a drop side so it's safer than the one I had with Anthony and Maria.  I still have that one and I might use it in the future but right now it's up in our attic.  The rug is from the collection and I have two mattresses in there - on from our other mini crib that I used to keep at my parents' house.  Then I put the bed skirt underneath the hard piece that holds the crib sides out, and then I put the fitted sheet over both mattresses and tuck them all underneath and I think it's a little more comfortable.  I know we're not supposed to use sheets or whatever the hell for safety but come on, man!  We have to give these babies some comfort without risking their lives right?  

Wall hangings.  Cute, right?  I can't decide if I'm going to leave them like this, or make a circle, or put them straight across.  But I wanted to get them up.  They are such sweet little pictures.  There's a mobile in the crib, it's got lights and music and it makes a picture on the ceiling.  Maria liked it, Veevsy Voo not so much, so we'll see about this next one.

OK this has literally taken me all day, it's now almost bedtime for the kids so I SUPPOSE I should spend some QUALITY time with them.  Tomorrow I'm going to take some pictures of clothes and stuff that I like.  It's very exciting, look out!  .

Ass/Elbow

"You are never without an ass or an elbow!", my Dad always says whenever any of us complain about anything. But man.  I am DYING here lately with the pregnancy symptoms.  And my friend Chrissy has morning sickness, all day every day for nine months, and she is pregnant with her fourth too so I hate to complain but man.

The other morning, I was waking up and I stretched and got a charlie horse in my thigh.  It's really hard to ROLL anything and make it better so I just have to wait it out, walk around, and try and relax.  It's so hard to do because it hurts so much.  So anyways, it passed and I went to the bathroom because I always have to pee like a crazy racehorse when I wake up.  So (this is gross but whatever) I was PEEING and that damned charlie horse came back!  It was a real conundrum, deciding whether or not it was better to PEE DOWN MY LEG and try and relieve the charlie horse or just sit there in such pain.  For the record, I chose NOT to pee down my leg and suffer through.

I have charlie horses a lot.  Like a LOT a LOT.  Today I worked out, in an effort to feel better mentally and physically and it was a good workout but I got a charlie horse in my foot right after, which sucked.  Also I have a burning hot pain in my little toe sometimes.  Also I have carpel tunnel in both hands and they go to sleep all the time, I wake up with them pins and needles almost every day.  Also I've had such bad heartburn and indigestion recently I think it's going to cause me to have a heart attack. Also I have nine weeks left.  NINE WEEKS.

I can't sleep until I'm so tired that I can't move.  I wake up really early.  I'm super emotional and crazy.  Today I was reading I'll Love You Forever to Maria and I was almost choking on the hidden sobs.  I don't want her to have a memory of this crazy pregnant lady crying and crying all the time.

So I'm going to try to drink more water, try and go to bed earlier, try and wear my braces on my hands, and try to have a better attitude.  I am grateful and happy about this baby, I'm excited to meet him or her, I am grateful.  I am.  But I am also heartburny and sick and tired and probably my hands are asleep and I have a charlie horse in my leg.