Around the Internets and Still Pregnant

4:15 a.m.

It seems that all the sudden last week my body decided to announce, “Yo, I’m super pregnant! Let’s do it!” and so I have started to waddle, roll, itch and tire at every moment though my days. I don’t mind, but lawdy, lawdy, I am not going to lie when I say that I’m looking forward to the end. I’ve reached the point where some/most of my maternity clothes awkwardly fit. Just tonight I put on some lounge pants and a long sleeve shirt and announced to Barry just to ignore my outfit…which is like ignoring an elephant in the room.   I clearly recall at the end of my pregnancy with Maggie buying a shirt that I wore for exactly one day before she was born. It was huge, billowy and it was also the first shirt that I wanted to burn when I came home from the hospital – I was so uncomfortable in it, yet it was a huge piece of fabric that covered me. 

Here I sit at 4 in the morning sipping on a cup of herbal tea wrapped in Barry’s robe (the robe that I SWORE I’d never wear again after Maggie was born…yeah, that robe) all warmed up from a middle of the night shower. Not to sound too complain-filled, but I’ve acquired my first pregnancy cold from Maggie and have been blowing my nose the last few days.  So between the waddling, the not sleeping, the nose-blowing and the heart-burn, I’m feeling like one pile of awesome. Poor Barry, I think he’s worried that I’m going to have this baby sooner than later, which I probably will, but I feel bad with my inability to get comfortable and constant adjustments. 

Maggie has been hilarious lately. Lots of people ask her about the baby in my belly and she’s pretty good about sharing the name and saying that she’s excited. I sense that she too is gearing up for some changes – we’ve set up a couple little changing stations, pulled out the bins of clothes and talked and read about this transition. We’ve also had a bout of  “I don’t want to do ______” and “Yes, I want to_____” decision making difficulties with The Little Miss.  When I get some distance from her instant “no” to eventual “yes” and watch it unfold, it is really actually funny.  We’re trying to let her make choices where she can, but some days it is exhausting. She can go from extremely compliant, sweet-natured and agreeable to stubborn, upset and down-right-grumpy in flip of a switch. The payoff, however, is awesome when we see her becoming more aware of the world around her and how she is so sweet and compassionate towards others, not sharing her grumpy side with anyone but a select few. 

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7:47 pm. 

Ahhh, perspective. Since my 4 a.m. writing, I have: done a number of errands, gotten my haircut by a woman with purple hair, watched a puppet show performed by Mags & Barry, talked to my mom twice, texted my peeps, washed all the sheets in the house, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, taken out the garbage twice….and the day goes on and on. No matter what things keep on ticking around here and today I decided to make a very conscious effort to be as present as I could with Maggie. 

This meant that I actually built a pretty bad-ass lego house and car with her and withstood the the longest game of Candyland in the world instead of trying to slip away to do laundry or whatever other tasks nagged at my brain. We had a shared lunch where we talked the ins and outs of ice in cups vs. ice out of cups.  Every single time that I re-align myself with the way that I parent, I feel that I do a better job and we’re all happier for it. For example, Maggie tends to have one huge tantrum a day. It’s typically over something small and no matter what I do to avoid it, the tantrum arrives and passes like a massive tidal wave. Yesterday’s tantrum nearly did me in. If I’m being totally honest, I ended up having  ‘to go sit by myself’ for a few minutes, which shocked Maggie because she was in the middle of melting and her audience disappeared. 

But today’s tantrum. It came a bit earlier than expected – directly after snuggles and snack – and I approached it with a zen attitude. It lasted longer, but I held my ground and was clear with my expectations. In the end, after Maggie calmed down, we were able to talk about it (this was after many, many “I’m not ready to talk!!!” screams from her bedroom) and were on the same page about following directions, blah, blah, blah.  Today I totally kicked that tantrum to the curb and tomorrow I hope to do the same. 

We also read a ton of books today, which isn’t too different from any other day, but today we busted out some newbies, which included a couple Berenstain Bear books. By the way, what in the world is Mama Bear wearing???? Looking at her outfit reminds me of what I WANT to be wearing right now. In fact, it looks like Barry’s robe that I was rocking at 4 a.m.  I’m not one to judge what people choose to wear, but Mama Bear needs a little help in the frump department. Which leads me to my next photo….Mama Bear in pearls.

8:08

I’m calling an end to this random writing of a blog post, but dang it feels good to bang away on the keyboard. I miss it so. I miss my pictures, the anecdotes and everything else that comes with this little slice of my life. So, I’ll take this horribly written blurb about nothing and publish it because it is what it is. 

And since I’m not totally against linking up to things that I think are funny or cool I’ll leave you with a few gems: 

1. My older brother, Phil rockin’ it out in an absurd type of way. 

2. Ten things never to say to a pregnant woman. I pretty much have had all these things said to me and this is what I want to say back….sometimes. 

3. Miley Cyrus’ cover of Dolly’s “Jolene”.  I really like this version. Check it out