34 Weeks

Yes, I've skipped a week and am once again combining 2 into one post.  I can honestly say that I am finally feeling a sense of relief and am much more relaxed than I have been in weeks!  The nursery is DONE,  all clothes and bedding are washed and put away, all other major projects that were happening in the house are finished, and I can now really start to focus on other important aspects of my life like my business and ramping up for a busy summer!  I've got to revamp our website, add to the menu, do some more decorating with color in the dining room, and as always - try and stay ahead of the game :)  Not to mention I want to enjoy these last few weeks I have left as a family of three and squeeze in as much Jack and Mommy time as I can.  It still kills me to think that he will never actually remember all of the time we spend together, just hanging out and having fun all day just the two of us.  I guess as long as I do that's all that matters, probably another reason why I take so many pictures, I know one day we will look back at them together.  Anyway, other than that I'm feeling pretty great for being so pregnant.  I'm not nearly as tired as I thought I'd be, my energy level is still pretty high, and I'm not crashing in the afternoon as much as I used to. 

So for now the cookie baking marathon has come to an end, at least in mass quantities....THANK GOD!  Great for business but not for my poor thumbs!  I swear my right thumb was numb for two days post decorating.  I guess it could be worse right?!!!!  Definitely looking forward to the next show, the theater already has us on board to bake for the show Peter Pan in July!  Can't wait, especially since there wasn't a single cookie left over from this one, they SOLD OUT!!! 

In baby news, I actually go to the doctor tomorrow morning but apparently she is about the size of a cantaloup and around 17 or 18 inches long!  It's really hard to believe that I have a little over a month to go before I meet this little bugger that is constantly doing gymnastics in my belly.  It will be interesting to see how Jack reacts to her, he is well aware that there is a baby in my belly (not sure he actually understands what that means), he's always wanting to touch it and give it hugs and kisses and says "baby" constantly.  I think he will be very confused but love his little sister none the less. 

    Suddenly loving (to jump in) the crib again knowing he doesn't have to sleep in it!

This week's TOP 5:

1. Very happy to be done with the nursery and ready to fill it with an actual baby!  Just have to get some stuff like newborn diapers and lotions/baby wash....things like that.
2. We took jack to his first show, Shrek the musical and he LOVED it.  We only made it through the first half but he wouldn't take his eyes off of the stage.  After intermission all he wanted to do was run around and dance in the isles so we left so he wouldn't bother anyone else watching the show.  I was so proud of him though, he did great! 
   
        Watching the performance while   wearing his Shrek ears and eating popcorn
   

   
   
3. Super excited to have packed the high chair away until the next kid needs it!  Jack is now in a booster seat at the table with us.  It got to the point where he hated the high chair and only wanted to stand up and get out of it.  I'm happy to say the booster seat is working out WAY better and he is actually OK with us buckling him in it.
4. Going to schedule my 3D sonogram tomorrow, I never had one with Jack and am excited to get a glimpse of this baby in 3D.  I've seen others and it's amazing how accurate they can be!
5. We are all a little under the weather this week in our house, it seems there is a cold going around and for the first time we've all gotten it!  So looking forward to everyone being healthy again so we can enjoy this 60 degree weather we are supposed to get in a few days!!     
   
                  Play date 
   

        Learned how to use the drinking fountain all by himself
   

   

   
   

   
   

32 weeks and 600 cookies!

I'm a few days late on this week's post but it's been a super busy week here with the business. I never even took a bump pic.  We are mainly a soup/salad/sandwich cafe and we serve a variety of beverages and home made desserts.  I rarely get large (I mean super large) orders for baked goods.  We are located right next door to a theater that does musicals/plays/movies...etc... and this weekend and next they are doing Shrek the musical.  With that said they decided to collaborate with us and asked us if we would make Gingy cookies (a gingerbread man character from Shrek) for them to sell during all performances.  Their first order was 600 decorated gingerbread men for this weekend!  This is A LOT of cookies for a small mom and pop place like us, but I happily took on the challenge.  So needless to say I've been a baking machine all week with little time to do anything else.  Yesterday we delivered all of the cookies and crossed our fingers that people would like them.  I was pretty impressed and super proud of the outcome, they are really cute!  Hopefully they sell out and they order more for next weekend :)

I had a routine doctor's visit yesterday, everything was fine.  Baby is measuring right at 32 weeks as she should be.  Nothing new really in baby world this week.  My hormones are flying high, as I just flipped out on my husband for being gone all morning, coming home, and turning around to leave and go help our neighbor build a bar in his basement.  All while knowing that I have a bunch of running around to do and I was really looking forward to doing it alone and not having to lug a kid around with me.  I guess even if I weren't pregnant I'd still get pretty annoyed (I have been known to have quite a temper) however the fact that I am pregnant takes things to another level.  I get so fired up so much quicker these days.  Anyway, so I grabbed all of my crap, put Jack in the car only for him to fall asleep 60 seconds later.  So I turned around and came back home, put him to bed and am now taking this time to blog about my frustrations  HA HA!! 

I started going through baby clothes that have been given to me.  I have a TON.....both my sister-n-law and my neighbor gave me a butt load of baby girl clothes that are in great shape, they've just been in bags and boxes and I really had no idea what was actually in there.  So I sorted through everything and started washing everything.  I have to say we're pretty set and it feels good not to have to really worry about that.  So super thankful to both of you girls!!

This Week's TOP 5:

1. The nursery is finally coming together and is no longer being used as a storage room 
2. Baking gingerbread men - I can honestly say I never want to eat another gingerbread cookie for a very long time, and I'm pretty sure I may have carpal tunnel in my thumbs from all of the decorating :)
3. The weather - we had 50 degrees one day then got dumped on with 12-18 inches of snow, then had almost 60 degree weather the next day!!!  My sinuses are all over the place which means a lot of headaches for this girl!
4. Scripts Cafe made the Buffalo News again!  It was overall a great article and I'm very thankful to get the exposure.  Also thankful for such a great staff who help us to keep doing what we do best!
   
5. We finally started to talk baby names!  I think we may have it narrowed down but we're not telling because I don't think we will know for sure until we see her for ourselves :)

31 Weeks.....Single digit countdown has begun!!

That's right, we are officially counting down in the single digits with 9 more weeks to go, possibly 8 if she follows in her big brother's footsteps and comes a week early.  

Jack is doing a bit better in the sleeping department.  He is still waking up during the night but has been (knock on wood!) going longer stretches.  I've been putting him to bed earlier than normal which I think is helping.  He has started taking naps again, but more so than not it's been in the morning for some reason.  I know it's most common for kids to drop the morning nap first but my kid seems to like to do things a bit backwards.  I don't really care I'll take it,  I have more energy in the morning anyway.

Having said this I think back to my last post which now seems like more of a rant than anything else.  I think that a weeks worth of sleepless nights and no naps during the day all while 7.5 months pregnant will take its toll for sure!  Pregnant or not, i think that would put anyone over the edge!! Now that things have gotten back to being somewhat normal around here I can't help but think back to last week and see the good despite all of my stressing.  I mean, if my biggest problem with my one year old is that he wants to snuggle and fall asleep with his mama all the time then I consider myself pretty damn lucky.  I know one day he isn't going to want this from me, he's not going to be so innocent and loving towards me (which will totally break my heart!!!) so why not soak every last second of it up now and enjoy it for what it is.  Bedtime is our time to snuggle and my time to soak up that sweet freshly bathed baby smell while he drifts off to sleep, I'm not going to lie, I look forward to this time :) and I guess if he ends up in our bed by morning then it is what it is.  As a parent sometimes you've just  got to do what you need to in order to get some sleep yourself.  Luckily this week he hasn't come in earlier than 3AM.  The other day he even made it to 5AM!! So we're making progress!

    Gotta love looking at my phone and finding a plethora of selfies that all look like this!

                   Selfie kinda day

This Week's TOP 5:

1.  Can finally say i can see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as projects around the house go.....hallelujah! 

2.  The whole sleeping a bit better thing is def a highlight of my week!  

3.  Looking forward to getting things put back in the rooms they belong and not feeling like we're living out of suitcases in our own home!

4.  Looking forward to the fun part, the decorating of the nursery!! 

5.  Glad to welcome March and eager to change the clocks agead this weekend!  A sure sign of Spring, hoping nicer weather isn't too far off!  Not sure how much more of this constant snow and absurdly cold temps I can take!

         Thanks Aunt Betty for the super cool monkey plates (which Jack calls bowls)! Always fun to get packages in the mail :)

30 weeks and feeling stressed!!

I wouldn't trade being a mom to Jack for absolutely anything in the world, I love that little guy more than anything....BUT at the same time I'm not afraid to admit that sometimes I just need a break!  I'm not sure whether it's my hormones from being pregnant or the stress of all of the home renovations we've decided to do within the last few weeks, or what but I'm finding myself more irritable lately than ever before.  A big part of it, I know, is that I'm becoming more and more frustrated with the fact that Jack is STILL NOT sleeping through the night in his own bed.  I don't know how other parents do it!  I swear, I could get up 5 times a night and put him back down in his own bed, and he still doesn't seem to catch on.  Almost all of my friends with babies/toddlers have no problem putting their kids down and being done for the night.  The other day I found myself at my wits end because he tests me on every little thing now,  he knows the word "no' but does NOT listen to it, and after the 3rd time of getting a hold of the scissors (which I moved and hid from him several times....kid is sneaky!) I kind of lost it and put him in his room and shut the door.  I've never done anything like that before and immediately felt like the worst mother on earth, I made my bed which took all of 2 minutes and then went to let my hysterically screaming toddler out of his room.  Oh I forgot to mention that on top of not sleeping through the night he has also chosen to refuse going down for a nap for the past 3 days straight!!!  I NEED him to take a nap still, I'm not ready for the no nap thing to happen yet, and from everything I read he is still pretty young for that to happen anyway.  Almost every day this week I find myself looking at the clock at 2, 3, 4:00pm and think to myself "is this kid ever going to nap??"  It's not like I don't try to get him to go down, I try several times throughout the afternoon, he just doesn't want to sleep and would rather play peek-a-boo with the bed pillows.  Today I finally put him in the car at 3:40 and went to Starbucks for a coffee in hopes that he would fall asleep.  We didn't even get to the stop sign at the end of our street before he was out!  Seriously, why can't he just pass out like that at home?!  He's usually a pretty good napper.  I was able to transfer him still sleeping to his bed, he woke up 3 times and i had to go in and soothe him back to sleep, then finally bringing him in my bed where he continued to sleep for 3 hours!!!  So at 6:30pm he finally wakes up and I'm thinking "great, so much for trying to get him down earlier tonight!!"  My conclusion at this point is that for starters he is going through some major separation anxiety issues (again) with me right now.  He's even resisting Johnny's help on things like taking a bath, for whatever reason he screams bloody murder if his own father tries to give him a bath!!  All I know is that I need to figure something out before this baby comes or else both Johnny and I are in trouble! 
I bought a couple books, one being all about how to get your kid to sleep through both naps and the night.  All great advice but most of the "real life" stories told throughout involve letting your kid scream it out and get hysterical for as long as it takes for them to realize you mean business.  I've tried this to an extent and it just seems too cruel....to both myself and to Jack.  I feel as though no baby being described in the stories I read can possibly get as upset and panicked as my child does!  Tonight I seriously HAD IT!  I started to get him to go down at 7:30 and after about 45 minutes he FINALLY fell asleep so I asked Johnny to move him into his own bed.  As soon as he picked him up Jack woke right up and cried for me who was trying my hardest to roll off of the bed as comfortably as possible at that point.  I took him to his room, we laid down, and he just laid their with his eyes wide open staring at me for another 30 minutes!  I was done at that point, my evening was shot, I had no energy left for anything else, no patience, and Jack was STILL awake.  So I kissed him goodnight and left the room.  He became hysterical and immediately crawled out of bed after me.  He followed me into my room where I picked him up and put him right back in his bed.  This continued 14 more times after that with him only getting more and more upset and then afraid of me even picking him up in fear that I'll take him back to his room.  So I laid down in his bed with him and by 9:08pm I was finally able to leave the room.  I don't know what to do.  I keep thinking things will "work themselves out" and maybe they will, but I'm growing more and more fearful of how this will play out when the new baby arrives. 

     Playing with Knuckles which he     pronounces "nung nung" 

The bottom line.......having a Toddler is HARD work!  But like I said I wouldn't trade having the privilege of being a mom for anything, and one look at that little guy makes it all worth it :) even when I'm running on no sleep and my last nerve!

Baby Girl update:
30 Weeks and apparently the baby is about 15 inches long, the size of a cabbage, and is now giving me some serious jabs.  And some serious heartburn!   I'm definitely looking forward to next week and being able to start counting down in single digits!

This Week's Top 5:

1. Grateful that I'm able to see the good in a bad situation (more times than not I guess).....this week has definitely tested my patience on so many levels. 
2.  I'm super grateful for my momma friends who are there to offer up advice and share their experiences with me.  It's crazy how just talking to a friend can put your mind at ease a bit once you hear you're not the only one out there having toddler issues. 
3. The floors are done in our bedroom....THANK GOD.....what a mess and definitely didn't help an already stressed out Momma. Now just finishing up the molding this weekend and then we can start putting things back to normal. 
4. I ordered my new dressers for our bedroom.....yes this is super exciting for me considering we are giving the two we currently use to the kids.  I painted one already and it's been moved into Jack's room.  So now I've got a week to paint the other and get that in the nursery before the new ones come :)
5. I don't really ever talk about the business on here but we did a little makeover of our dining room which is pretty dining as far as cafe seating areas go.  I'm super excited for that to be well on it's way to being done,  it was a LONG time coming and looks so much better!