Well, at least I’ve come to terms with the fact that there’s just no freaking way to do everything I used to do and be an effective mom. And it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

So what’s up with the little squirts? Caitlin is doing wonderfully. She’s talking, starting to run, stacks blocks (the small ones) about six to seven high, loves to read along with her favorite books, has her mom’s sense of no nonsense fashion (spring dress with froggy goloshes are best), and is such a little bundle of energy. We’ve been working on bottle feeding and diapering her dolly in preparation for “little brother.” Not sure if she gets it completely, but can’t hurt.

The “baby brother to be” is on his final count down. We had a little scare about a month ago. I’d been seriously over doing it and as a result my braxton-hicks (basically, practice contractions) were getting a little strong. A routine ultrasound showed I was dilating during them. (It also showed he was in fact a boy, no question, so I at least could rest easy on that.) Because of the dilation, I was sent off to spend a few quality hours in triage then a night in the hospital for “observation.” The joke about this was, after about 8 pm, so one “observed” me at all. Guess it was a precaution in case something happened during the night. My ultrasound first thing in the AM concluded all was fine and I was sent home for a week of bedrest. At the end of that the doctor determined I was doing fine, no dilation and all was as it should be (bouncing baby boy cooking away perfectly), I was released to return to work and have just been taking it a little easier ever since. The scare did jolt Ken into action. With the help of family we got the nursery painted right away (the last big chore).
So, since that time we’ve set a tentative date of May 11 for the c-section. That will be officially scheduled on April 13 since the hospital doesn’t allow surgeries to be scheduled longer than 30 days out. Which puts me at a month away from the big day.

We’ve had a couple of really nice baby showers and that have allowed us to get some of the necessities we needed to complete the nursery. Short of hanging a blackout blind (which I believe Ken might have time to do this weekend), doing the “week before arrival” run to Babies R Us for the last of the necessities, hauling down the infant seats and bases and installing them in the cars, and running another load of baby laundry, we’re mostly set there.

To be honest, I’m focusing more attention this last month on preparing Caitlin. We got some books from the library we read about being a big sister. I’m expecting a “life sized” newborn doll to arrive the middle of next week, which I ordered at the advice of Caitlin’s pediatrician. The doctor’s thought was that if I started going through the motions - feeding, changing, holding, talking to, etc. the doll, Caitlin will start to get familiar with the “motions.” I can also use the doll to have her “help,” such as bring diapers, bottles, burp clothes, etc. We’ve been working on our baby vocabulary and she’s really good and bringing me specific baby things I ask for (big thanks to our nanny for keeping that up each day with her too). I’m really hoping this will help her some when her brother does get here. Nothing will fully prepare her at this age (19 months), but I feel like anything I can do to help her adjust will be good. Then, when her real brother does get here, she will be able to have the new doll herself so she can process her thoughts and feeling through play with it. Sounds like I really know what I’m talking about eh? Gosh I hope so.

Her only concern was watching me move the last of her stuff, including her crib, to her new room. She has a penguin mobile that hangs from the ceiling above the crib. She was VERY worried I’d forget it. As I took piece after piece of the crib to her new room, she pointed to the mobile more and more and made louder and louder sounds. The last thing I moved for her was that mobile and it was then that she followed me to the new room, got excited when I held it up and asked her if that spot was a good place, and clapped once it was in place. All was right in the world again.

We’ve sold all the extra furniture and gotten both of our “offices” up and running with everything in its place. Whew. However, the sense of accomplishment goes out the window when you look into the nursery. That place is a mess now. But, alas, after a few weeks to attend to other household things, we’ll get in there and get it painted. We’ve even bought the paint. Rest assured, it will be ready to go by the end of April.

In other news, I hit the third trimester last week. How can that be possible?!? This pregnancy has gone so fast. I remember my first taking so long. I just coulnd’t wait to meet the little girl I’d been dreaming about for 30 years. Now, with that wonderful little being taking up my free time, I haven’t had much down time to really ponder and think about this pregnancy as much, even though I’m just as excited about the baby. However, it’s on my mind a lot these days as not only have I entered the third trimester, but I’ve entered the beginning for the most physically uncomfortable part of this here journey. Oh that wonderful second trimester was too short.

My little guy now takes up about half the space between my pelvis and neck now, pushing all my insides up under my rib cage. And I still have 11 weeks to go! I’m out of breath easy as I can’t fill my lungs like I used to. No room. He’s in there bending it like Beckham, which sometimes is fun, but other times gets really uncomfortable, especially when he does the David Flatterly on my bladder. And don’t even get me started on my bladder. As if it wasn’t hard enough to sleep with all the kicking and what not going on, I’m up an average of three times a night to go to the bathroom because, like my lungs above him are experiencing, there isn’t much room.

So, knowing all too well that the lovely third trimester sucks as bad in different ways than the first, we spent a furious second trimester getting the house together. At least the really bad swelling hasn’t started. There is some, but not as bad as I had this far along last time. Probably won’t be long.

Our next ultrasound is in about three weeks. I’m psyched to see him again. My only fear is learning that he’s not a he after all. I sent all Caitlin’s cute little things to a pal expecting twin girls and she sent me her boy’s clothes. Every time I worry about that I go back to the printout they gave me at my December ultrasound. It’s pretty obvious he’s a boy so I have nothing to worry about. I guess I’m doing pretty well if that’s the best I can get worked up over.

I speak of “Operation Make Everything Fit Damn It.”

First, let me set the scene. When we married, we both had a full house of stuff - bedroom, livingroom, kitchen, garage, you name it, we’d each filled our own with our own stuff.

When I moved into the first house I bought in Long Beach, I ditched a lot of stuff. When I got my job in Seattle and needed to move home, I went through what I had and ditched yet more - Goodwill, recycle, etc. When I bought my house in Seattle and started getting settled here, I tossed a little, but moving from a little one-bedroom place with no garage to a three bedroom, one bath place with a garage was a BIG step up. No need to make room. Until….

When we got married and Ken sold his condo, he went through and ditched a bunch of stuff and we compared what we doubled up on and got rid of the least wanted thing. For a while we had a storage unit. But when we added to the house in 2007, pushing out the master bedroom and adding a bathroom, we cleaned out the garage and closed the storage unit, ditching yet more stuff as we were also making room for Caitlin. Despite the severe ditching, we’re back where we started: need to make room.

So shortly after the new year we went through all closets, cabinets and the garage. We took two car loads to Goodwill, two to the recycle station and one to the dump. Alas, we had a new amount of space in the garage. As the last remaining room available to be a bedroom is our office, we needed to move each of our computers elsewhere. Our office is wireless and there is not one place in the house that will handle both work stations. Therefore, a prerequisite was to wire the house for computer networking. Last weekend Dad and my brother came over to help Ken put connections in all three bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen. We then moved Ken’s computer to the kitchen window nook that was not being used for much more than holding cookbooks on an otherwise unused table. We put in a couple of shelves to hold Ken’s stuff and the cookbooks and, voila, an office. It actually works quite well as I can access recipes quickly online right there in the kitchen and all his iTunes music is there for entertainment!

However, only my little desk would fit, so he is using my old desk. His old POS desk is not going to work for the storage I need and in the space we have in the master bedroom for my workstation. So step three was to identify, purchase and install new furnature designed to make more crap fit in less space. Enter Ikea…

So with the help of a gracious neighbor and her truck, we did the Ikea thing (after a month of research). I got a desk/shelving system that has lots of storage. We also got bigger bookshelves to replace the small bookshelf in one part of our bedroom that is a perfect nook for a bookshelf. These shelves are taller and will hold more and the bottom of one side will act as a linen closet of sorts (I got nice glass doors for it).

We also made the executive decision that the huge kitchen table and three chairs (the fourth one has been broken since I bought the house, which included the table and chairs) had to go. We got a smaller table that can expand when we have company, and matching chairs. That will make room in the dining room.

Whew. The desk is set up in our bedroom and my computer has been transferred. Now I have to reloacate all the crap that has built up in the office to the shelving system that goes with the desk. Also, this weekend, we’re putting the little table and chairs that were in the kitchen nook, the smaller bookshelf that was in the bedroom, and the kitchen table and chairs up for sale. Here’s hoping they’re all gone by Monday. While we wait for calls on those things, Ken will get started on painting the old office. I REALLY hope we’ll have it all painted by Sunday night. That way it can dry/air out for a week and we can move Caitlin into it by next weekend. The idea is, we wanted to get her in her new room WAY before little brother arrived so there weren’t so many changes close together for her. By the time he arrives, she’ll be good and settled in the room and feel it is really hers. She’ll be inheriting my childhood dresser, which is in excellent shape, and desk my dad made for me when I was a little girl. The dresser will act as a changing table on top for her and all her stuff should fit in it fine.

The last step, and we can take our time on this now, is to repaint Caitlin’s old room as it’s currently pink. I’ve chosen a nice soft green. The decor will stay the same (animal pattern) for the boy. It’s my sincere hope that by the time he outgrows his cradle (or if he’s like his sister - swing) and is ready for full time crib sleeping, Caitlin will be ready for a toddler bed and we can just give him her crib. We’ll see…

So, if you’re still with me, that’s what we’re up to now. I need a rest just thinking about this all.

Lots has happened in the last two months. We did Thanksgiving at Ken’s family’s place in Oregon. That was a nice trip and freed me up to spend Christmas at home. Which ended up being a very good thing as at 9:30 pm Christmas Eve, Caitlin fell victim to her first stomach flu. I honestly didn’t think such a little girl had the ability to have so much in her stomach. But, alas, I was surprised. Poor little thing threw up every 15 minutes for about three hours then slowed down to every 45 minutes until about 4 am when she passed out for four hours. We slept in shifts, basically cared for her wearing nothing but our underwear since anything we did wear was puked on in short order, did four loads of laundry, and I got the stuffing made and in the turkey as well as the table set and all things ready for the 2 pm Christmas dinner by 6 am! She was a little better by 9 am and opened a few presents, played a bit, drank a little Pedialyte and then went down for a nap. She napped on and off all day, opening a few gifts each time she was up. We just took it slow. We shared the day with my brother, mom and mom’s new boyfriend. Caitlin shared the only thing she had to share - her stomach flu - with mom’s boyfriend and her daddy. Both came down with it big time by Friday. So, on Saturday, when I was to make a nice ham dinner and have a Christmas gathering with my dad, Ken was in bed all day with a fever and the other pleasantries of the stomach flu, Caitlin was down to diarrhea and I still pulled it all off. Luckily I didn’t get the flu. Unfortunately, Caitlin lost enough weight that she started waking every four hours in the night again to drink a full sippy cup of milk. Just as she was starting to sleep through the night one of her buddies in preschool shared a cold with her and we were back to night wakings and fussy kid. That one I did catch and then we were both miserable. Nothing quite like a bad cold that stuffs up your head and sinuses and due to your pregnancy you can’t take a blasted thing.

However, we’ve both pulled out of it and are doing better now.

So there is my excuse for being out of the loop for a while.

The pregnancy is going well. Nothing major to report. He kicks a lot and is always squirming around, which is a great sign and is a certain comfort because I know he’s doing fine when I can feel him. I’ve reached 24 months, which is what the medical community considers viability. That basically means if something should happen and the baby needs to be born, he has a good chance of survival. Of course, we’re just planning to let him bake for another 15 weeks if that’s OK with fate.
So, we’ve now turned our attention to our New Years Resolution, if in fact we had one. This is the closest: get the house ready for a new baby. I’ll save that for another post…

On this day we learned that we’re having a boy! It was quite a shock to me as I was sure we were having a girl. Absolutely sure. Just like I was 100 percent certain we were having a boy when I was pregnant with Caitlin.

It’s sunk in and we’re excited about the fact that we get one of each. I remember being a little girl and deciding I wanted to have kids the same way my brother and I were - girl first, then boy. When I’ve now realized is I not only got that wish, but I REALLY got it. Caitlin was born three days after my birthday and our boy’s due date is four days after my brother’s birthday. Since I’m going for a repeat c-section, chances are good he’ll arrive just before my brother’s big day. Weird, but COOL!

So in a frenzy of tears I packed up all of Caitlin’s adorable little clothes (save a few extra special things like the outfit she wore home from the hospital and a certain pink dog sleeper I was so in love with) and sent them to a friend who’s pregnant with twin girls. She’s sending me her son’s clothes. He’s a few months older than Caitlin. I feel better that her stuff is going to a mommy I know. Damn these hormones.