reading: I'm in the middle of The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which normally I would be all over because I have all the heart eyes for the Little House on the Prairie, but I seriously lie down in my bed to read at night and get about three pages before my eyes start to close. Some day I won't be tired, but that day is not now.
watching: Jordan and I are obsessed with The Flash. The first few episodes are super nerdy and kind of cheesy, but oh man this show is so good. Plus you can barely find good shows these days that aren't full of swearing and sex!
feeling: Anxious for Baby Bum to join the party on the outside. My due date isn't officially until the 23rd, but I keep hoping he will take after his big sister and come early. The week of R having hand, foot, mouth followed directly by a week of me having the strep totally killed it for me, and I am over everything right now. My hips hurt all the time, I basically can't roll over in bed without a colossal effort, and being at work is dumb. Motivation, where are you?
working on: The crib to toddler bed transition. And by that I mean we going to make this happen because Baby Boy will be using the crib in a few months, and we can't be dealing with this bed madness once he comes. I like to think my mom and Jordan's mom have useful and helpful parenting advice seeing as how they each raised four kids, but in this matter they give us a blank stare and respond with: "Hmmm, I'm not quite sure how we did that." Thanks for nothing, moms! It's just confusing because no one seems to have any specific advice about this. Not even the Internet, which is weird because usually the Internet has a lot to say about everything. Needless to say, we don't know what we are doing, but like everything else involving parenting, I suppose we just move forward and hope for the best! Would anyone like a post about this? I fear it might bore everyone to tears, but if there's interest I might write something up, at least for my own reference later on when we are doing this with Baby Bum #2 down the road.
eating: Let's just say if you cut up a watermelon and want to eat any of it yourself, don't tell me there's watermelon because there might not be any left after I'm done with it.
making: Gifts for our L&D nurses! I didn't do this for R because I didn't know people did things like this, but I saw a printable on Rachel's blog and thought it was so cute and also easy and cheap (important!), so I made some last weekend. I don't have a hospital bag packed, but I do have M&Ms for the nurses so I'm winning at one thing, at least. Also making padsicles for post-delivery because they were the best ever last time. I'm living a glamorous life right now, friends.
organizing: The nursery closet! I mentioned a few posts back that Jordan was going to put a shelf in the closet. I'm thankful it's a walk-in, although it isn't huge, but he did finally add a shelf to one side, and I feel like it gives me more space to work with. My mom stayed for a few days last week and helped clean my house and organize things, and I do think this is an improvement! I totally forgot to take a picture of the before closet, but I have a during and after for you. P.S. That recliner/rocker is from Babies R Us, and I looooooove it.
I don't know how many more posts I'll get up before the baby comes. My motivation and ability to stay away in the evenings after R finally goes down is dwindling quickly. I do have a couple of sponsored posts coming up that I'm excited about, and I also want to do a roundup of baby stuff I've been loving lately from around the Internet! Until then, I hope you all have a great week!
I generally hate to give any kind of advice because, wow, do I feel like we are winging this parenting thing! So I'm going to call this sharing our experience. We just transitioned our 19 month old to a twin bed (mattress + box spring on the floor) from his crib in anticipation of new baby arriving at the end of July. It went a lot more smoothly than anticipated! We were warned not to change anything else in the routine and to expect to need to pat his back/help him wind down a little longer than usual. The big bed definitely seemed more stimulating than his crib for a few nights, but he adjusted quickly. The one thing I should have done differently was to soothe him while sitting by the bed instead of getting into it with him - getting out of the bed seems to be a rougher transition for him than when I just stand up. Alternatively, I could have pulled the pregnancy card and made my husband do it!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that your transition will go as smoothly!
So with the bed transition - is there any chance Jordan can move the crib to somewhere else? Do you have a garage or another bedroom it can "live" for a short time? Then R only has the toddler bed. With my son, we converted his crib to the toddler bed so there was no other option for him to use the crib. He cried that first night because his bed was "broken." (But he also napped fine that first day in the toddler bed.) Sometimes I stress over the craziest things when it comes to my son, and then it's so anti-climatic. But maybe if it's out of sight, she'll realize that there are no other options.
That sounds similar to what's happening over here! Except she's in a toddler-sized bed and ain't no way I'm climbing in there with her ;) LOL. We just sit by the side of the bed and pat her, etc. It does take her longer to wind down, and she definitely knows she can get out so we put one of those doorknob things on the inside of her door so she can't escape and start wandering the house, but all things considered for such a big change she is adjusting pretty well and we're proud of her. I'm glad we are doing it now rather than starting in a few months.
That's a great idea! Doing something like that never occurred to me. The only thing I wonder about is that these two will be sharing a room, so I feel like it would be in this case more disruptive to move the crib out and then back in again. I'd like her to get used to the crib being in the room but her not using it. We started trying to move her a few months or so ago, and she was NOT having it, so we just gave up. We tried again over this past month, and now she's gotten to where she actually doesn't want to be put in her crib; she wants the bed! I feel like that's good improvement anyway.
Thanks for the share, girl! Super simple DIYs forever, amen. Please do a post on the bed transition!! It sounds like the internet is lacking in that area.
That's why I like those superhero shows. They are cleaner then most of the JUNK on now a days.
My mom also couldn't remember how she transitioned us to beds! Does that mean it was super tramatic? Or super easy? Not sure. I'm no help to you, because I didn't move my daughter until she was 3 and that made it super easy. I will pass on some awesome advice a co-worker gave though. She said at 2-3 years old, kids push bedtime boundaries a lot. Make sure they know you are on to them. Her line was "you are playing tricks. It is time to sleep. No more tricks" in a firm tone. Worked like magic.
Sounds/looks like you have plenty of things to keep you busy until your due date! That is so cute that you made gifts for your labor and delivery nurses. Working in health care, I know they will appreciate it and it will make their days! Best of luck! Excited for you!
Good luck with the crib to bed transition! It sounds like R is receptive to it which is an excellent step in the right direction.
That printable is cute. I did boxes of Kind bars for the L&D nurses when I had Ava ("Thanks for being so KIND.") and I think I'll do the same thing this time. In my first child ignorance though, I didn't realize that there were two departments: labor and delivery AND mom and baby. So this time I plan to do two baskets since there are separate nurses in each area.
GAAAAHH...only ten days until your due date! That's bonkers! It's gone by so fast (for us as readers, that is, probably not for you). I'm so excited for you!
Also, we're going to be transitioning Raven to a big girl bed when we move into our new house in a week and a half, so I'll be right there along with you. My sister gave me her old guard rail so we won't have to worry about Raven falling out of the bed at least, but I'm sure we'll have lots of training that will need to happen about how she actually needs to STAY in the bed once we put her there, and not bounce on it instead (because that's what she thinks beds are for is for bouncing since that's all she's ever done on ours). Yeah, it could be an interesting go of it...and I would love a post (or at least an update) on how it went/how you did it for my own use, too!
I so agree about tv shows these days! We spent a good 45 minutes last night just trying to find something new to watch. Have you seen Crossing Lines on Netflix? It's pretty good if you like cop/detective type shows.
10 days!! I agonized for literally months over when my last day should be at work and finally settled on last Friday. I'm so glad I left when I did, I can't imagine being at work this week. I hope this week flies by for you! Maybe leave early a few days. It's probably medically necessary...for your sanity if nothing else ;)
I LOVE Laura Ingalls Wilder. I purchased the Annotated Autobiography and haven't cracked it open yet. It's not a book you can easily read in bed, but it does look cute on our coffee table. I've always said that Almanzo was my first crush <3
In the before photo of the nursery, upon first glance, I thought the doll was R. It freaked me out. That closet, though! I'm so jealous of the storage! Shelves make all things better.
Padsicles? Nurse thank you treats? Oh gosh, I have no clue what I'm doing and feel so behind.
I would definitely be interested in hearing how the bed transition goes! I hope it goes smoothly for you. :)
I hope Baby Bum arrives soon! I hear the very end of pregnancy gets SUPER uncomfortable!
Also, Christopher put shelves in Baby Girl's closet this weekend! It has made a huge difference in the amount we can store in there. :)
I hope you're enjoying having some time off before the baby comes! The longer I work, the more time I have with baby before I have to go back to work, so that's why I'm not planning on leaving any earlier than I have to, but if I haven't had him by my due date I will definitely be starting leave then :)
I will be curious what works for R in terms of adjusting to a crib-free sleep. Please do write a post on it! Personally, I'm scared to death to transition our daughter to a toddler bed. We have cement walls, so we can't really bolt her IKEA dresser to the wall like we're supposed to, and I'm freaked out she'd somehow tip it if we left her alone in there for the night without the safety of her crib. Maybe we'll just remove the dresser...
Also, the Hand-Foot-Mouth freaks me out--My GP's best guess as to how I ended up with Bell's Palsy right before giving birth was from the HFM virus, passed to me via an adult family member who was exposed to it but never showed the symptoms. As my facial paralysis diminished, I got a tell-tale rash on my hands, so it may be the particular virus that triggered it in my case. I wish people would take that disease more seriously and isolate themselves appropriately. I'm so sorry your daughter had to deal with that painful condition. Ugh.
Glad you're all healthier now, and I want to wish you all the best as you welcome a new little one into the family. So exciting!
For the crib to toddler bed thing, what we did (though I don't know if your crib will allow for it?) is we took the one side off the crib. Same bed, but kiddo needs to learn to deal with the freedom of being able to get in and out. We also put a bunch of blankets next to the bed in case of tumbles and to give the kid somewhere to crash if he or she didn't make it back to the bed. Once the kid got used to having the freedom to get out of bed, it was easy to just switch to the other bed in the room. Good luck!!
Also, hand, foot, and mouth is SO not fun! I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Yuck. :(
Congrats on the new bundle of joy!!
Thank you so much! That's great advice. I am not sure if our crib works where you can take off one side. I'll have to see!
That IKEA dresser would scare me too, honestly. I understand how you feel. There isn't anything (that I am aware of) that she can really hurt herself on if she were to wander around at night in her room, so I feel okay about that part at least. We put one of those child door handles on the inside because she can open the doors now on her own (ah!), so she can't wander the house, which is good but also I feel a bit like a prison warden or something locking her in like that. It's for her own good, right? ;)
We made sure to not take her back to daycare until she was definitely not contagious from the HFM. It was so sad to see her go through that! I didn't think much about it until she had it, but I agree we need to be more careful! That thing is nasty.
I can't believe you are so close to meeting your little guy! It's such an exciting time for you. :) I hope you all are feeling much better!
At first in that picture I thought that was R laying on the ground amongst the mess. LOL! Good luck with the transition to the toddler bed! I know I posted about it but I didn't have much advice! We basically decided we were going to do it, I ordered a foam roll rail off amazon and then we did the swap. We never mentioned anything to her until that moment. Once she realized she could crawl in her bed on her own, and put her babies in her bed, she was all about going in there. At first Michael said "now you can get in and out of bed without Mama!" and I gave him the death stare and said No, you don't EVER get out of bed unless Mama comes to get you. Lol. So far, it's worked! There were only 3 times we ever caught her out of bed. We kept the bedtime/naptime routines the same otherwise. Long story short, good luck! ;) I'll pass the watermelon by the way! ;)
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