Big, Bigger, Biggest: Beds, Bumps, and Progress

Can anyone think of a synonym for "progress" that starts with B?  It would have made this post title that much more catchy.....

(Esoteric side note - Kathy, do you remember how long it took us to come up with "Rooms and Routes" for the cards in my wedding invitations to match "Reception" and "RSVP?")


Anyway, this weekend saw a lot of BIG things happening.  Primarily, we can thank Justin's mom and her excellent Anna care - Justin and I forgot how much we can accomplish when not simultaneously chasing a toddler!


The first big thing - Anna got a big girl bed!  We were planning to keep her in the crib for a while longer (using the pack & play bassinet for Julia at first) but then she started attempting to c-l-i-m-b out, and I was afraid of her falling.  Our hosts have a toddler bed, and we started talking up how exciting it would be to use that when we moved upstairs.  Then, Gigi (Justin's mom!) found an amazing deal on a toddler bed at a yard sale, and besides the great price, it also matches our crib for future sister room-sharing coordination, so we were pretty excited about that find!  Anna spent a lot of today saying "Gigi brought present!  Big dirl bed!  Anna big dirl bed!  Happy birfday Anna!"

I made her crib sheets (using this tutorial as a starting point and also putting elastic at the bottom of the flat sheet, as per my wise friend Deanne's recommendations).  I will note that Anna picked the fabric entirely on her own.  She was in the stroller at Jo-Anns and when I pulled up to the clearance fabric section she pointed at this one and said "Anna!  blankets!  Anna!"  I had told her we were going to buy sheets on that outing, but I had the pre-made department store type in mind.  I was pretty impressed at her shopping - she not only found fabric that matched her existing quilt perfectly, it was on sale for $4 a yard, and she was smart enough to tell me that homemade would be better :)  In true last-minute fashion, I was still adding the elastic while Justin gave her a bath, and she was already getting her pajamas on when I selected the scrap of fabric for the pillow case (anything for a photo shoot, you know!) and quickly sewed that together in time for her to run in and see the bed all made up.

She was more than a little bit excited.

She's now soundly asleep in her bed.  There were moments during the falling asleep process that made me consider starting Julia in a toddler bed so we never have to do the crib to bed transition (kidding!!) but overall it went pretty well.  Her whole nighttime routine has been pretty inconsistent with the move, so now that we're getting settled upstairs, I'm hopeful that it will be a relatively smooth transition.


On to other big things: let's talk about the belly.  I haven't posted a bump shot in a long time, and finally remembered to get Justin to take one tonight.

I mostly wanted to have a side-by-side comparison because I'm convinced I'm much smaller this time around, but it's hard to tell comparing a picture to me looking in the mirror.

The picture above (from tonight) is 36 weeks, 4 days.  Here's one from the last go-round, at 35 weeks, 0 days:

Maybe it's not visually obvious, but I do feel like the bump is smaller.  Objectively, it is at least a little smaller, as Anna always measured two or three weeks ahead at my appointments, and Julia has been right on.  According to the scale, I'm about the same weight, but I know from the way that certain items fit (or didn't fit in Anna's case) that I'm definitely smaller.  Maybe I have more muscle this time?  Or my brain got bigger?  ;)  Also - I still have my rings on!  I'm super excited about this fact, and hoping that I can keep the swelling down enough to leave them on until the end.  With Anna, I switched to a cheapo Target ring (you know, because of the potential scandal of having a big belly and no ring, haha) which fit my ring finger snugly during my last 6 ish weeks with her and later fit on my thumb after pregnancy.  I COMPLETELY forgot to type it in my last post, but the air conditioning here has been one of the most amazing perks for which I am most grateful, and probably why I'm not the blimp I was at this stage with Anna.

Anyone want to take some guesses on weight and date for the birth?  For comparison sake, Anna was due August 30, born September 3 and weighed 9 lbs 13 oz.  I'm due this time on October 1.  I'm obviously thinking (hoping?) Julia will be smaller - so much so that I went and bought some newborn-sized outfits yesterday.  (Anna came home from the hospital in one that was size 3 months; since we knew in advance she was going to be a big girl, we only had 1 newborn outfit that fit her for about 2 days).  Oh, and people have commented that I'm still carrying pretty high up - don't be fooled.  Without my (life-saving, incredible) belly band on, the belly sags much lower!  Feel free to enter your guesses for weight and date in the comments and enter to win the grand prize of bragging rights if you're the closest :)


Final big news around here:  progress!  I feel like I can now see the light at the end of the home set-up tunnel, and the thought of potentially early labor no longer makes me panic.  I feel like by the end of this week, I can be to the point where my main to-do item can be spending time with Anna and waiting for the big day :)

Things took a while because this happened:

I told you I was a crazy nesting lady.

Every time we saw the room that we're using as our master bedroom, our hosts would apologize profusely for the paint, and I would laugh and reassure them that it was the same color I picked for our old bedroom.  They said that they didn't mind the color (although it was a bit darker than they would have liked) but that the paint itself hadn't been done well by the previous owners.  I didn't really notice until we moved some of the furniture and then I realized that I agreed - the paint must have been the world's cheapest paint possible because everywhere someone had ever looked at it, it had a smudge (not really, but every where someone touched it wouldn't be an exaggeration).  So, off I went to Lowe's and set off on painting that room (a slightly lighter shade of the existing color), the two closets, and the attached bath.  And then, since I was on a roll, I also painted Anna's room - I went with the same color it already was, just a fresh coat to cover all of the natural consequences of walls that house 2 boys!  I finished painting yesterday, and also finished almost of the items on my ridiculous cleaning to-do list (let's blame nesting again....obviously a newborn is going to care if I've dusted each individual slat on all the blinds, right??)  So, yes, big progress!  I'll post some pictures of our rooms soon, once I do a day or two more worth of work to finally put Anna's clothes in drawers, remove some empty cardboard boxes, etc.

So, that's all, folks.  What's big in your lives this weekend?