Mommin' It Up!

September 13, 2007September 13, 2007

Big news…

Well, I finally let the cat out of the bag at work yesterday, so I feel at liberty to do so in the blog world now.

Kate’s going to be a big sister!!

I’m due on April 14, so I’m like nine weeks right now. I’ve been feeling ok. Actually, make that pretty crappy. Lots of nausea, fatigue, and two days ago, the heartburn kicked in. Awesome. But, like we always say, it’s a small price to pay for a miracle (or something like that….)

Anyway, Kate is super excited. She has written a song called “Mommy’s Going to Have a Baby Soon” and it goes like this… “Mommy’s going to have a baby soon, Mommy’s going to have a baby soon, Mommy’s going to have a baby soon…” pretty creative, eh? She asks me everyday when I get home from work if the baby’s come out yet. Telling her the baby won’t come until April doesn’t mean a thing to her… like when she tells me to pick her up at the sitter’s at 8:11:12. Um, ok. But she’s happy and it’s so cute.

Finding out I was pregnant was quite an ordeal. Because I have soooo much patience, I tested the day my period was due. It was negative. I still didn’t get my period, so I waited four more days and tested again… negative. After a week I tested again and it appeared to be negative at first, but after I got out of the shower and looked again, there was a possibility it was positive, but when I looked at www.peeonastick.com, my hopes were dashed, as it said what I saw was an evaporation line. So, finally, TWO WEEKS passed and I wasn’t going to mess around anymore, so I bought one of those digital things that says “pregnant” or “not pregnant.” Fortunately, it said the former.

By the time I went to the doctor for the ultrasound, I thought I was eight weeks pregnant, and found out I was only six and a half. But, we saw the heartbeat and got a picture of the tiny little dot, and everything was great.

Jenny’s response? “Yes! I’m so glad you’re pregnant. This is going to make great material for the blog.”

Ok, this is Jenny, I am butting into Emily’s post, to tell you the whole truth!!! I have always been quite bossy, so I would like it to be known that during Emily’s two weeks of non-testing, I was constantly nagging her to TEST AGAIN. Cause really, my need to know was more important than hers. Then, when I found out that she was indeed going to pop out another kid, my reaction was as she’s stated above, with the addition of, “It’s about freaking time!!” I tried to convince her to get knocked up when I was pregnant with Sophia, since it was ever so much fun being pregnant together the FIRST time, but she was too scared. She always makes me be her guinea pig! So, I was really hoping she’d have twins, but since they only saw one baby up in that ultrasound I guess I’m out of luck.

All that to say that of course, I am overjoyed!

September 12, 2007September 12, 2007

We’re on TopMomma! Please Vote for Us!

Ok loyal readers, we are once again embroiled in a blog popularity contest and we need your help! To vote for us, please go to TopMomma and click on this adorable picure of my son Joshua on his first trip to the dentist:

(I took this with my camera phone so the quality’s not great but the cuteness is spectacular!)

Then, repeat as many times as you like. There is no limit to how many times you can vote! So please, pretty please go to TopMomma and vote for us!

Now, since you are good loyal readers and are going to vote for us numerous times, I will tell you the story behind the pic. Two months ago, I took Joshua to the dentist for the first time. I was very nervous, because Joshua is a bit of a scaredy cat, and even I hate going to the dentist and I’m not a three-year-old. So, I entered the exam room with much trepidation. But Joshua really exceeded my expectations (which is why I set them so low, ha ha)! The dental hygienist was great and she gave him the silly sunglasses to wear so the exam light wouldn’t blind him. She explained everything she was going to do and took it easy when he started to freak a little. (“I don’t like that!” he told her about a thousand times.) She really was great at her job and finally made him feel comfortable enough to do a fairly decent cleaning. Shew! I was prepared for a mega-fit, but instead of a snotty, tanrtum-throwing boy, what I got at the end of the appointment was the smiling, cheesy, cute, happy little guy in this picture. I was so proud of him!

But I’m still really glad we only have to do that every six months. My nerves can’t take much more than that!

September 12, 2007

WFMW: SnugTuck Pillow

I’m sure this will come as a great surprise to you all, but the idea of transferring Kate from her crib to a regular bed caused me some anxiety. I liked the fact that when I put her in her crib, I knew that she was there to stay. Not to mention that at the time, we lived in a really old house that had really steep stairs (so steep, in fact, that Jenny used to make me carry Joshua down them for fear she’d trip), so the thought of her being able to get out of her bed at will seriously freaked me out.

So I just kept her in her crib… until she was about 28 months old. She looked kinda ridiculous being as big as she was in a crib, but hey, she was safe. Or at least that’s what I thought until one night as I sat at the computer in the room next to hers after having put her to bed and she appeared like some kind of ghost at my side. She could climb out of her crib. Great.

So we bought another house.

Ok, that was only part of the reason. But anyway, when we moved, we decided not to set up her crib and put her in a “big girl” bed. The spare bed we had happened to be a double, so that’s what she got.

As I said, the thought of this freaked me out (surprise), so I scoured books and the internet (surprise) for tricks and tips on making this transition easier.

The best tip I got was about the SnugTuck pillow.

This innovative product is designed to take the place of bed rails… they’re a more comfy, safer alternative. It’s basically a long, tubular pillow that has elastic attached to both ends. The pillow goes over the fitted sheet, and the elastic goes under the mattress. The pillow is firm enough not to be a suffocation hazard, and yet is great for the child to snuggle up next to. The standard one is six inches in diameter (which is what we have), so if the kid decides to crawl over top, she isn’t falling from very high. It also works great for deep or pillowtop mattresses, which I understand can be a problem for traditional bed rails.

We originally bought only one, thinking that we’d put the bed up against the wall on one side and have the SnugTuck pillow on the other side. However, the way Kate’s headboard and bed are made, this left a pretty big gap between the matress and the wall, which seemed pretty unsafe to me. I ordered another pillow and moved her bed, so now she has a SnugTuck pillow on either side of her.

We’ve used them for almost a year now, and I can see her using them for another year or more. She’s never fallen out of bed, and she doesn’t try to crawl over them to get out of bed, she just gets off at the foot of the bed instead.

The pillows come in different sizes and diameters, and you can pick from every color fabric imaginable. Kate has one in cobalt and one in lime, both of which are very fun. Organic cotton is available, as is fabric with characters like Thomas the Train and Strawberry Shortcake. I also discovered yesterday that they will make a pillow from your own fabric, so if you want the pillows to coordinate perfectly with your room, this would be a great option.

The only downside is that they are kind of expensive… however, the nice people at SnugTuck Pillow have created a coupon code just for Mommin’ It Up readers! Just put “MWS” into the coupon code section of the order form and recieve 15% off your pillow!! How cool is that?

So if you’re like me and dreading the crib-to-bed conversion, head on over to the SnugTuck Pillow website and order one (or two) up!

That works for me!

For more fun “Works for Me Wednesday” stories, take a look at Rocks in My Dryer.