Oh my goodness, I must have been hit by some kind of estrogen truck because I cannot stop crying. I cry about everything. I woke up at 4:00 this morning and started sobbing, thinking about the tough transition that Jack has coming his way in a few short weeks. And now, as I type this, I'm crying again. It's strange to think it's never going to be "just the three of us" any more. It's never going to be "Jack and Mommy Against the World" again. I wonder if I'm going to miss these days because right now, it sure feels like I will.
And then, I start crying when I think about how excited I am for Baby Storms to finally arrive. I think about those first few days after I had Jack and how in awe I was over this tiny human we had made. I can't wait for her to get here.
But, pretty much anything makes me cry. Television commercials, mostly. Watching Jack and Jeff taking a nap together and having their "boys snuggle" totally sends me over the edge. Most Carrie Underwood songs. Random articles in People magazine or on Facebook. All I can tell you is that I was totally unprepared for this extreme rush of whatever it is and I'm walking around looking like a very pregnant woman with bad allergies. I'd prefer not to be a hysterical mess - I'd much rather be really angry because then I'd feel justified. Yelling is therapeutic, in my book. Tears just make me feel bad and ruin my make-up. And, I can barely work when I'm like this - I can't dictate because my voice cracks, forget about talking on the phone, and I have problems reading anything through tears. At least if I was angry, I could push people around and yell at them for being ridiculous. Now, people want to talk about a case and its all I can do to get them off the phone before I start weeping again.
When I was still in law school, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember talking to my dad about my strategy and he told me that I needed to make sure I saved "something" for the last six miles because, at that point, the race was really only half over - the last six miles were going to be the toughest. And, sure enough, he was right about that. I remember hitting the twenty-mile mark, limping along with a broken foot, and thinking "How the hell am I going to make it six more miles?" Well, I've got roughly six weeks left of this pregnancy and that same mentality is setting in - how am I going to make it six more weeks? But, I finished that marathon and I've made it thirty-four weeks in this pregnancy, so it'll happen. Obviously - as if I really have a choice. I get Braxton-Hicks contractions fairly regularly now and I send people into a panic when one hits because they're a bit intense - I usually have to stop mid-sentence and breathe through them until they pass. The sight of a very pregnant woman doing Lamaze breathing tends to lead people to believe that I'm about to drop a kid right there in the middle of the grocery store or the office.
The nursery is almost done now. My parents are coming over this weekend to help finish everything up and pull all our old baby stuff out of storage, hang stuff, and help me rearrange our house to make room for everything. And then, we'll sit and wait. Nana Sue and Grandma Jersey have started shopping as well, so Baby Girl's closet is filling up quickly. I'll try and remember to take some pictures of the nursery when it's all done. I think it's turning out quite nicely, if not exactly what I had envisioned.
So, I suppose the biggest news of the week was that Jack had his first trip to the dentist. And before you ask, no, it was not prompted by injury. His pediatrician just suggested that we take him to the dentist around this time to establish care and to make sure there were no "lurking" issues. Anyways, it was not fun. He did not like to sit in the chair. He did not like it when the hygienist tried to clean his teeth. He pitched a full out fit when the dentist looked at his teeth. The only thing he liked was when they'd squirt water into his mouth. The good news is that he's got fantastic looking teeth, so at least we don't have to deal with dental issues.
Anyways, this past weekend was one of the laziest I've had in a while. It was kind of nice, but by Sunday I was really feeling like a bum. I think Jack was a bit out of sorts as well, because he was rather subdued for most of the weekend. I picked him up from school on Friday and he had a black eye - no one at school knew how he got it (I call BS on this one), but it didn't really seem to bother him and it's not the last one he'll ever have either. We had the makings of a perfect storm on Friday though - he was really upset about all of his mosquito bites on his ankles, hadn't napped that day, had a huge blowout at school, and somehow had inadvertently gotten punched in the face. So, I took him home and kind of just let him do his thing. I figured the only way to keep the peace was to leave him alone. Well, we had to go to our babysitter's graduation party that night, so Jeff came to pick us up and off we went.
As a side note, can I tell you how old that makes me feel?
So, we got to the party, which was in some kind of club room at an apartment building that had an indoor pool. Of course, Jack thought we were going swimming. It upset him greatly to learn that we weren't. Still, he behaved himself for the half-hour we stayed at the party. I tried to appease him by feeding him Skittles and chips and salsa. Now here's a clue as to how my view on parenting has changed - two years ago, I would have scoffed and been absolutely appalled at the fact that I was feeding my kid junk food to keep him quiet. Today, if it keeps the kid happy and prevents a very loud meltdown...well, you know what I would do now. I'd never condone a diet that centers AROUND junk food and candy obviously, but sometimes its a necessity.
So, on Saturday morning, I went and got a prenatal massage. It was heavenly. I thought I'd come home and do some work around the house, but my sister called and asked to bring the boys up. It was raining, and I figured we could all use the play time, so they came up and stayed through lunch. Again, as I put Jack down for a nap, I considered doing some cleaning around the house but sat down to read a book instead. My parents came up for dinner after Jack's nap, so we just hung out with them, watched the Belmont, and let Jack go crazy. So yes, Saturday was a very lazy day for me. I did try and get a picture of Jack's black eye after his bath though - you can't really see it all that well because of the lighting, but it's turned out to be quite the shiner.
On Sunday, I think Jack woke up a bit out of sorts. Typically, we go to church on Sundays but when I asked him if he wanted to go, he said, "No, Mommy" and told me he just wanted to lay down in bed. Which he did for roughly four hours. He also needed a significant amount of snuggle time, which I was happy to provide, of course.
So, I got up and got dressed, did some cleaning around the house and one of my girlfriends came over to visit. We sat outside on the front steps while Jack played in the yard. She commented that he was really good at entertaining himself. Again, I told her that the idea behind parenting Jack is providing containment not entertainment. Just give him an area semi-free of hazard and he can entertain himself for hours. There's no need to provide activity.
Anyways, after nap time, we went over to the neighbors' house for some playtime and trampoline jumping. Jack was into that for a little bit, but he really liked flinging water in the kiddie pool and the kids got into quite a water fight. We came home for some supper and he ran to his sandbox and promptly covered himself with sand. So, instead of eating, we went straight into the bathtub.
And that's pretty much it. Like I said, we had a pretty lazy weekend. Coming up this weekend, we're going to Nana and Boppa's on Friday night for a cook out and to celebrate Father's Day. On Saturday, we've got plans to finish up getting things ready for the baby, and Sunday is Father's Day, obviously. Jeff woke up LAST Sunday, thinking it was Father's Day. I think he's excited for it this year. It's his day, so I told him we (or he) could do whatever he wanted to. He hasn't let me in on his plans yet, so who knows what we'll (or he'll) end up doing.
When I was still in law school, I ran the Twin Cities Marathon. I remember talking to my dad about my strategy and he told me that I needed to make sure I saved "something" for the last six miles because, at that point, the race was really only half over - the last six miles were going to be the toughest. And, sure enough, he was right about that. I remember hitting the twenty-mile mark, limping along with a broken foot, and thinking "How the hell am I going to make it six more miles?" Well, I've got roughly six weeks left of this pregnancy and that same mentality is setting in - how am I going to make it six more weeks? But, I finished that marathon and I've made it thirty-four weeks in this pregnancy, so it'll happen. Obviously - as if I really have a choice. I get Braxton-Hicks contractions fairly regularly now and I send people into a panic when one hits because they're a bit intense - I usually have to stop mid-sentence and breathe through them until they pass. The sight of a very pregnant woman doing Lamaze breathing tends to lead people to believe that I'm about to drop a kid right there in the middle of the grocery store or the office.
The nursery is almost done now. My parents are coming over this weekend to help finish everything up and pull all our old baby stuff out of storage, hang stuff, and help me rearrange our house to make room for everything. And then, we'll sit and wait. Nana Sue and Grandma Jersey have started shopping as well, so Baby Girl's closet is filling up quickly. I'll try and remember to take some pictures of the nursery when it's all done. I think it's turning out quite nicely, if not exactly what I had envisioned.
So, I suppose the biggest news of the week was that Jack had his first trip to the dentist. And before you ask, no, it was not prompted by injury. His pediatrician just suggested that we take him to the dentist around this time to establish care and to make sure there were no "lurking" issues. Anyways, it was not fun. He did not like to sit in the chair. He did not like it when the hygienist tried to clean his teeth. He pitched a full out fit when the dentist looked at his teeth. The only thing he liked was when they'd squirt water into his mouth. The good news is that he's got fantastic looking teeth, so at least we don't have to deal with dental issues.
Anyways, this past weekend was one of the laziest I've had in a while. It was kind of nice, but by Sunday I was really feeling like a bum. I think Jack was a bit out of sorts as well, because he was rather subdued for most of the weekend. I picked him up from school on Friday and he had a black eye - no one at school knew how he got it (I call BS on this one), but it didn't really seem to bother him and it's not the last one he'll ever have either. We had the makings of a perfect storm on Friday though - he was really upset about all of his mosquito bites on his ankles, hadn't napped that day, had a huge blowout at school, and somehow had inadvertently gotten punched in the face. So, I took him home and kind of just let him do his thing. I figured the only way to keep the peace was to leave him alone. Well, we had to go to our babysitter's graduation party that night, so Jeff came to pick us up and off we went.
As a side note, can I tell you how old that makes me feel?
So, we got to the party, which was in some kind of club room at an apartment building that had an indoor pool. Of course, Jack thought we were going swimming. It upset him greatly to learn that we weren't. Still, he behaved himself for the half-hour we stayed at the party. I tried to appease him by feeding him Skittles and chips and salsa. Now here's a clue as to how my view on parenting has changed - two years ago, I would have scoffed and been absolutely appalled at the fact that I was feeding my kid junk food to keep him quiet. Today, if it keeps the kid happy and prevents a very loud meltdown...well, you know what I would do now. I'd never condone a diet that centers AROUND junk food and candy obviously, but sometimes its a necessity.
So, on Saturday morning, I went and got a prenatal massage. It was heavenly. I thought I'd come home and do some work around the house, but my sister called and asked to bring the boys up. It was raining, and I figured we could all use the play time, so they came up and stayed through lunch. Again, as I put Jack down for a nap, I considered doing some cleaning around the house but sat down to read a book instead. My parents came up for dinner after Jack's nap, so we just hung out with them, watched the Belmont, and let Jack go crazy. So yes, Saturday was a very lazy day for me. I did try and get a picture of Jack's black eye after his bath though - you can't really see it all that well because of the lighting, but it's turned out to be quite the shiner.
On Sunday, I think Jack woke up a bit out of sorts. Typically, we go to church on Sundays but when I asked him if he wanted to go, he said, "No, Mommy" and told me he just wanted to lay down in bed. Which he did for roughly four hours. He also needed a significant amount of snuggle time, which I was happy to provide, of course.
So, I got up and got dressed, did some cleaning around the house and one of my girlfriends came over to visit. We sat outside on the front steps while Jack played in the yard. She commented that he was really good at entertaining himself. Again, I told her that the idea behind parenting Jack is providing containment not entertainment. Just give him an area semi-free of hazard and he can entertain himself for hours. There's no need to provide activity.
Anyways, after nap time, we went over to the neighbors' house for some playtime and trampoline jumping. Jack was into that for a little bit, but he really liked flinging water in the kiddie pool and the kids got into quite a water fight. We came home for some supper and he ran to his sandbox and promptly covered himself with sand. So, instead of eating, we went straight into the bathtub.
And that's pretty much it. Like I said, we had a pretty lazy weekend. Coming up this weekend, we're going to Nana and Boppa's on Friday night for a cook out and to celebrate Father's Day. On Saturday, we've got plans to finish up getting things ready for the baby, and Sunday is Father's Day, obviously. Jeff woke up LAST Sunday, thinking it was Father's Day. I think he's excited for it this year. It's his day, so I told him we (or he) could do whatever he wanted to. He hasn't let me in on his plans yet, so who knows what we'll (or he'll) end up doing.
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