I'd better get ready!

So I found out today that I'm dilated to almost 4 cm.  My hopes of 11/1/12 are dwindling, and I'm getting more use to the idea of an October baby.  I think I've just been egging him on to come out as I continue to plan things for the next 2 weeks.  We've got our dinner theater date in Branson on Friday, a shower on Sunday, visiting my cousins in Chanute, KS on Monday, and multiple Halloween parties that we are suppose to attend before Little Brother arrives.  You know what they say about plans.  I think I need to start getting ready for Little Brother's arrival instead.  Like, maybe I should pack a bag and install the carseat.  Both of those things were done several weeks earlier with Amos' pregnancy.  You all keep praying though!  It may be a couple weeks yet!

My plans for the next???:

- Finish a few minor baby room projects
- Catch up on pictures for our family album 

- Order some additional cloth diapers!
- Finish Amos' first year video.
- Double every dinner I make and freeze the second one.  Still working on this one.  I've got 6 in the freezer.
- Go on a hot date with my hubby!!  We have reservations to a dinner theater down in Branson to see a Murder Mystery. We did get to go on one date already though!
- Keep the baby inside of me.  Any tips on how to do this?
- Hold Amos A LOT.  He wants me to hold him all the time!  I'm loving it, except for the fact that it hurts every time I pick him up.
- Hit up a few consignment sales and garage sales looking for some baby items.
- Decide on a name (yeah right!)
- Get my hair trimmed!  Desperate need of this! Just got it trimmed!  Love it Liz!

Check out some pictures of the baby's room below!  I really like how everything came together.

The Weekend List

Not every weekend has a list.  In fact, most are list free!  But this weekend, we had a "TO DO TOGETHER" list and we made quick work of it.

The major items on the list was cleaning out both cars.  This is about 3 months overdue, so you can imagine how badly it needed cleaning.  I always have good intentions about keeping them in better order, but I feel like having a kid just made it harder.  All hands are full when loading and unloading so the trash gets left behind.

Amos loves to spend time in the garage and he found a new jungle gym in the car.  He wasn't in the greatest mood on Saturday, (hence the Mr. Happy Shirt) so you can't tell from the pictures how much he was enjoying himself.

This is how he honks the horn on his Cozy Coupe, so he thought it would work the same way in the real car!

He helped Dad clean out the Buick too.  The Buick was about 4 years late on getting cleaned out, so it was a mess!

It feels great to have what feels like a brand new car to bring Little Brother home in.  After car cleaning, Amos went down for his nap so we could finish off the rest of our list.

Repair the couch - Jason got to use the staple gun!  He said he forgot how awesome that thing is.
Hang up Nursery stuff!  I'm sure I could probably hang this stuff up, but it is so much more fun with Jason.
Make new lamp shades for old lamps from my Grandma.  Jason got pretty crafty here.  I'll share some pictures once they are finished!

Its so nice to have a Saturday together that we can get some stuff done that's been on the list for a while.  We won't have too many more of those before Little Brother arrives!

Full Term, but not Fully Cooked!

My sister and I.  Dressed up for our dates with our husbands thanks to our wonderful parents! 

We made it to full term.  My doctor now gives me the OK to have this baby.  Most of you already know the game plan, but we are waiting until Nov. 1st (11/1/12... doesn't that look pretty) to have this baby. So he's not fully cooked yet.  And yes, I know things don't always go according to plan and I'm prepared for that, but I also love having a plan.   However, at my doctor's appointment today, I was dilated 2 cm which is more than where I was at when I went to the hospital with Amos (my water had broke)  Also, I went and pre-registered at the hospital and took a little tour of the maternity wing!! Let me just say that I wish I had a bathroom that nice!  We may stay an extra night just so I can use the jetted tub more.

Anticipating Little Brother's arrival, got me thinking about things I want to do the same and differently. So I made a list.

THINGS I WON'T DO AGAIN(or will try not to)
- Rush home from the hospital.  I'm going to take full advantage of my stay and the rest it provides, plus I've already told you about the bathrooms!
- Worry about a schedule until at least 6 weeks.  It was pointless before that with Amos.  But around 6 weeks, things seemed to really start to click.
- Hesitate to put Little Brother in our closet.  I slept so much better once Amos was a little further away from us because I didn't hear every deep breath or head turn.  He was and is quite a noisy sleeper.
- Go 6 hours without feeding early on.  I tried to have Jason give Amos a bottle so I could get a little more sleep and almost lost my milk supply.  Those few extra hours of sleep did not make up for the work it took to get my supply back!
- Start baby food until absolutely necessary!  It seemed like such a fun idea.  Little did I know how much more time it takes to nurse and feed.  And once you start, there is no going back!

THINGS I WILL DO AGAIN
- Establish a routine right off the bat (Eat, Play, Sleep)
- Swaddle (Hallelujah)
- Breastfeed - Amos was so good at this.  I'm glad that I have his experience to fall back on in case its a little more difficult this time.
- Use cloth diapers! Second time around, its like I'm diapering for free! Love that!
- Foster thumb sucking!  Amos' naps and night time sleeping really too off once he learned to suck his thumb.  I also didn't have to worry about a pacifier.  He's 15 months now, and only sucks it occasionally at night.
- Practice sleeping in the pack-n-play during naps.  Amos has always been able to sleep anywhere.  It's nice that having the familiar pnp makes naps easy in a new place.
- Independent playtime!

I'm sure there's more that will make its way onto both lists, but for now that's it.  It was good to think about those things that are so easily forgotten in a year's time!  Hopefully it all comes back fast.
Next week, I'm hoping to show pictures of the FINISHED nursery and my updated list!

Good Morning!

This change in weather has made me so excited.  I love cold weather!  And now I have a new reason to love cold weather - Amos in footie PJs!  Yesterday morning was a great time to just hang out in them for a while!  He worked really hard to climb up into our rocking chair and read his book.  The only sad part about these pictures is that he looks SO OLD!

Oh and yes, his Crocs must be put on him first thing every morning!!!

15 Month Summary

15 Month Summary AKA "Let's Pause Here for the next 6 months"

I love the phase he is in right now!  I've been telling everyone, but I would just like to take a long pause right here before we move on so I can fully appreciate it! I've been ready to move onto to each new phase up until this point.  I just feel like it is going by too fast.  Having another baby isn't going to help things.  

EATING:

Luckily, he isn't as picky with when or if he eats things lately.  Instead he is moving to the phase where he is just too busy to stop and eat.  His favorites right now are anything with cheese in it, carrots, and bananas.  Can't go wrong with those guys.

PLAYING:

He loves to be chased!  Most mornings Amos pretends like Asher is chasing him and runs away screaming.  However, I'm pretty sure Asher has no clue what Amos is doing.  Daddy is the best chaser and Amos wears Daddy out with all his demands for being chased.  He loves anything and everything we do outside.  He'll run for his shoes faster than anything else if I say we are going outside.

I've added a few more homemade toys to help him practice with his fine motor skills.  He seems to love anything new, so I can't go wrong there.  I also found some old remotes for him to play with.  We don't watch TV enough for him to know what they are for.  He thinks they are phones!

He still has independent playtime and does a good job entertaining himself, however, he is enjoying playing with others.  When he wakes up from a nap, he always wants to go wake Asher up.

PERSONALITY:

He almost always gives me a kiss when I ask these days!  As you can imagine, we're pretty excited about that.  But what is even better than that is when he falls down, he lets me pick him up to console him and he puts his head on my shoulder... for a really long time.  And the best of all is that at night, after we finish reading books, he'll lay against my chest and let me rock and sing to him for just a bit before he is ready to be put in bed.  He's turning into a bit of a snuggler!

He's learning to put on the charm a little more, but he's still pretty content figuring out everything around him without worry too much about anyone around him.  I thought this meant we wouldn't have any trouble with jealousy when Little Brother comes.  However, the other evening we were watching a friends 3 month old and anytime I was holding him, Amos also wanted to be in my lap.  Hopefully there's enough lap to go around.

COMMUNICATION:

Last month I said that Amos mainly carried on with himself vocally.  That has really changed.  He now says "stuff" to us all the time.  Most of the time we don't know what he is saying, but he's really trying.  Some of his new favorite things to say are "cheese", "Audrey", "woof", and "shoe."  He is also doing a good job at repeating words like "up", "down", "on", and "more" when he wants things. Last month his favorite word was "ball."  This month, by far, it is "Dada!"

The other fun thing about this month is that I'm pretty sure he understands about everything I say to him.  He pretends like he doesn't sometimes, but I know he does.  Even if he can't fully communicate with us, we can with him.

DISCIPLINE:

He went through a phase this month where when he was doing something he wasn't suppose to do, or he knew we would say "No" to, he would scowl at us and do it anyway.  He still hasn't really picked up on saying no (and its not from our lack of saying it).  I'm sure he'll catch on sometime though.

I read something that suggested discipline goals from 12 months to 18 months should be just to not lose any ground.  We're founding out just how true this is.

SLEEP:

Well, we didn't drop the morning nap this month, but starting next week, we are working on it.  He does a pretty good job on Sunday's without it, so I figure we'll see how the rest of the week goes.  It may be something where he takes it some days and not others!  I guess we will see.  Still a great night time sleeper.  Hope he doesn't have trouble sleeping through a newborn!

SPECIAL EVENTS:
Amos has a new cousin - Priscilla!  His favorite part of that whole process was Josie staying two nights at our house!  They really had fun playing together and I think Grammy enjoyed having them both to herself for a few days! Amos hasn't paid too much attention to Priscilla.  However, there have been a few times that I'm holding her and he will come up and get really excited about a little tiny baby.  We're still working on being gentle.

OUR SCHEDULE:

7:30 - Wake up and eat breakfast

8:15 – Activity with Mommy and Asher

9:45 - Morning nap

11:45 - Lunch

12:15 – Independent playtime

1:45 - Afternoon Nap

4:00 - Daddy Time

5:30 -Dinner

7:30 - Bed time

Less than a month...maybe?

Found out today that baby is head down, and apparently really long.  The doctor commented that I must have trouble breathing.  She is right.  I've got a butt in my rib cage again.  Hopefully the baby will "drop" soon.  Of course, not too soon!

I've marked a couple of things off my list.

My plans for the next 4 weeks:

- Finish a few minor baby room projects  All that's left is hanging out some art.  Pictures to come soon.
- Catch up on pictures for our family album 

- Order some additional cloth diapers!  More on that below!
- Finish Amos' first year video.
- Double every dinner I make and freeze the second one.  Still working on this one.  I've got 4 in the freezer.
- Go on a hot date with my hubby!!  We have reservations to a dinner theater down in Branson to see a Murder Mystery.
- Keep the baby inside of me the entire 5 weeks.  So far so good.  Only dilated to 1 cm.
- Hold Amos A LOT.  Definitely working on this one.  He's become a lot more cuddlier too, so that helps.
- Hit up a few consignment sales and garage sales looking for some baby items. THIS WEEKEND!
- Decide on a name (yeah right!)
- New this week:  Get my hair trimmed!  Desperate need of this!

WARNING:
Don't continue reading if you couldn't care less about cloth diapers!

CLOTH DIAPERS:

So after much deliberation, I decided to order a few more FLIP diapers.  I really could get by with what I already have, but a baby is sure a great excuse to order a few more. 

What I love about the FLIP system:

- slim fit

- two rows of snaps

- great leg gussets

- no leaks

- absorbent inserts

- flexibility (I can also use Best Bottom inserts and flat diapers with the shells)

- good price

I was able to take advantage of a great deal: Buy 2, get one free!  I also ordered 6 more inserts which puts my total number of "diapers" around 50 - more than enough!

So I've learned a lot since starting cloth over a year ago now:
- There's no need to spray out poopy diapers if baby is solely on breast milk! Cha-Ching!  Six months, no spray necessary!
- A diaper sprayer is still a must though, because once they start solids, its to the toilet you go!
- Wet bags do an excellent job at keeping stink in!  The PlanetWise XL bag is the right size for us.
- I need to wash diapers about every 4th day.
- I love Charlie's Soap for my diapers.  I still don't really feel like I need to strip my diapers.  They don't smell and I still don't have leaks.  I'm planning on doing this anyway, to get everything fresh for Little Brother.
- Our washing cycle: One wash in COLD.  One wash in HOT.  Extra Rinse!
- Husbands can master cloth diapers!

NEW THINGS:
- Best method for diapering two with cloth.  I'm thinking I'll keep all the diapers in Amos' room, since he'll be napping the least and just do most diaper changes in there.
- I'm going to experiment with using BAC OUT.  I've read good things about it initially here.
- Maintaining diapers through year two.
- Finding a good solution for using cloth when diaper rashes break out.  We didn't have any problem with this while Amos was being breast fed, but once he really started eating, it seems like he has them pretty frequently.  I've just put him in disposable while he has them, but I would rather use cloth and save money.  The article above mentions CJ BUTTer Spritz, so that might be an option.

Weekend Road Trip

We packed up after school on Friday and headed to Lebanon for a short weekend trip.  Amos did pretty good in the car.  After giving him all the toys I had brought to entertain him, I found this old pacifier.  He was quite entertained by it.

Here's a classic "Jason Driving" shot.  My ever faithful driver.

On the way, we found out that Teigan had an accident during all the move.  It was scary to hear that he was in the ER for serious toe injuries.  We picked up some dinner and headed over there.  He ended up having surgery on the toes, and was a real trooper through it all.  Here he is the next day.

Saturday morning, Amos got to go see the cows with Grandpa.  That was a real treat!

During the rest of the day, we helped move Jeffrey and Megan into their new place.  The kids did a good job of entertaining themselves.

Here's Emma sharing her princess tent.

Amos thought he needed one of these.

They sure had a lot of fun playing together!  There will probably be a new cousin the next time we get everyone together.