swimming in the living room

i got my birth pool!  and so, today we bought aquarium hoses and pumps, and filled it up!  i only have thirty days to return it if it were to be defective, so i decided not to wait til a more normal time to test run (36 to 38 weeks).  i hate not having a dang camera, because the girls were so excited to have a swimming pool in the living room.  ok, i’ll be honest- i was pretty excited to have a swimming pool in the living room.  i love swimming, but the sun tends to nauseate me.  not to mention that i am really white,  and completely paranoid about skin cancer.  and all the concentrated chlorine fumes of an indoor pool give me a headache.  so it’s not often i hit the pool.  so to have one in my living room, albeit a blow-up kiddie pool, was pretty freaking sweet.  and it felt SO GOOD!!  until all the splashing started, i was tempted to just stay in there until july.  my pelvis and back and sciatic nerve would so love me if i could do that.  and maybe if this were my first instead of my third, i would.  but two small children+106 gallons of water in my living room=a disaster waiting to happen…a disaster of the mildewy/moldy sort.   so, as soon as it is all dried out, sadly we will be packing it back up for another four weeks or so.  or else i would give in to the temptation to fill it up a couple of times every week, and we would totally have to replace the carpet in here.

nesting instinct

…is defined as the urge to prepare one’s surroundings for the birth of a baby.  in animals, it is literally the drive to create a nest for the actual birthing.  in human mothers though, it involves any number of strange things one would not ordinarily determine are imperative to accomplish before the birth of a baby.  a small  sampling of things deemed urgent by my online groups of july moms:

cleaning the fridge.  as in emptying, scrubbing inside and out, and refilling.

buying a bookcase for the living room.

buying new dining room chairs.

replacing all flooring in the home.

and of course, some stuff actually relating to the baby- washing and folding clothes, buying diapers, things like that.  we did a ton of shopping saturday morning to this end…although, who knew a twenty dollar pad of paper would ever be included in a list of necessary purchases for the birth of a baby?  well, it is here!  luckily, the store had a 50% off coupon, i got it for ten.  anyway, i paid for my nesting spree- i spotted all afternoon and most of sunday as well.

other things on my personal list…i’m having a desire to freecycle and donate at least half of what we own.  i’m not getting a lot of help in this area.  although i did finally manage to get rid of the extra tables cluttering up my living room, and a broken bookshelf in my kitchen!  also got rid of these hideous plastic storage shelves i told my darling husband i didn’t want in the house in the first place…he was supposed to put them in the storage shed for organizing purposes.  pretty sure they are there now, but i really don’t care as they are no longer in my dining room.  i also want to get rid of this awful couch, but am having a hard time convincing the husband.  “but it was free!”  yeah, so was the old one, but the old one was CLEAN.  and had no holes in it.  “but it reclines!  you can put your feet up!”  sorry, i was way more comfy putting my feet up on the old couch, even if it meant i took up all the seating room.  plus, both recliners are actually broken.  yes, i can put my feet up, but one has a tendency to pop out just because, and the other doesn’t stay reclined.  also, having a reclining seat at either end of the couch means my husband actually complains about having to sit next to me.

ok, sorry for the couch rant.  i just really hate it.

i’m also doing large amounts of laundry…i want it all to be clean, all of the time!  this is hard, as we obviously have to wear clothes, therefore, there is always something dirty…a fact which ordinarily does not bother me in the least.  but as of right now, everything except what we are wearing is clean, and i am washing all of the quilts.  they will then be stored, because it is getting way too hot for quilts.

i’m also really wanting to mop the kitchen floor, but am refraining, especially after all the spotting.  likewise refraining from dishes and scrubbing counters with a toothbrush…laundry is good because i only have to be up for a couple of minutes at a time.  then i can come sit with my feet up and work on the baby afghan, or blog.

hm, i wonder if i can get dale to take all the furniture out and steam clean the carpets…

baby names and boyfriends

several months ago, noodle suggested a name for the baby if it’s a girl, and at first, i really didn’t like it.  but she kept on suggesting it, and finally about three or four weeks ago, i told her we’d think about it, because it was starting to grow on  me.  so a couple of nights ago, we were driving somewhere, and noodle says, “hey mom, hey mom!  did you think about naming the baby that yet?  ’cause you said it was growing all over you!”  hehehe!  noodle is happy that her name is currently a front runner if the baby is in fact a girl.  and we’re about 90% sure we know the name if it’s a boy- now let’s hope baby cooperates and looks like it belongs to that name!

bean has a boyfriend.  my friend jess came over yesterday morning (thanks jess!) with her little boy.  bean woke up just as they got here, and she comes running down the hall saying “mama, mama, i waked up mama! oh, that’s a boy!  he’s cute!”  what?!  anyway, there was cuteness and playing, and then there was kissing.  on the lips.  and photographic proof, courtesy of jess’ cell phone.  jess and i thought it was cute.  my husband does not, and i think that’s sweet.  it does mean though, that our girls may not be allowed to date until they are out of the house, and the young men are therefore safe from the dad…at least until it gets serious enough that the young man gets brought home.  a bridge we shall have to cross when we come to it.

28 down, 8 or 12 to go

we are back from my midwife appointment this morning…not much to report.  momma and baby are healthy and just plugging along.  i’m 28 weeks today, 12 more to go until my due date!…or only 8 or 9 to a reasonably expected arrival date!  YIKES!  i’m feeling very unprepared today, even more so because we are now down to visits every two weeks, and my midwife gave me all the procedure accept-or-waive forms…one for the pku, one for eye goo, one for vitamin k, one for gbs testing and treatment… and i have to admit, there was one thing i did not consider when deciding on a home birth-newborn hearing screening.  obviously, my midwives will not be carting the machinery to my house, they don’t have that stuff.  luckily, i can get it done free at the health department, and it will be reported immediately since that is where all the reports for the state go!

i’m off to check on the status of a diaper order now…

self portrait saturday-jelly

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i’m lame, i forgot i was going to do this. so here is a week-old shot of the giant baby belly, 26 weeks pregnant, unretouched.

sleep

so bean has decide she doesn’t need naps anymore.  riiight.  yesterday there was in fact, no nap, and this resulted in a bedtime of seven-thirty.  she just crashed, and stayed out…at least until three-thirty this morning!  that is when i heard her call out to me, “mommy, mommy!”  i got up and went to her, andshe was sitting up in the bed with the blankets over her head.  it being three-thirty in the morning, i figured she must have gotten tangled up somehow, and said, “oh, honey, are you all right?” as i pulled the blanket off of her head.  and that little stink said to me, “boo!  i was hiding, mommy!  you find me!”  and just laughed!  that was the end of sleep for bean.  we nursed for an hour, trying to go back to sleep, but she was having none of that.  then noodle woke up.  then bean needed a drink, so i got her one.  they wanted to listen to scripture scouts, so i left the room to get that.  while i was gone, there was apparently a tussle over the quilt, and the cup of water spilled all over the bed.  crap.  so i herded them to the living room to sleep on the couch, where they decided they just wanted to watch a movie.  and being a tired, 6.5 months pregnant woman…i let them.  and went back to sleep.  sort of.  well, as close to sleep as i’m going to get for a few months.

and where, you might ask, was my sweet husband during all this?  sound asleep, and snoring, in bed.  so not fair.

by the way, no, she hasn’t been back to sleep yet.  it’s now four in the afternoon, and no nap.

free baby carrier!

enter at along for the ride!