Belly through the years...

Baby #3 - 36 Weeks

Lucy - 36 weeks

Izzy - 36 weeks

I am horrible at taking belly shots while pregnant but somehow with all three I have ended up taking one at 36 weeks (no planning on my part).
I thought it was fun to look back and compare my HUGE bellies! I think my smallest belly for sure was with Lucy but the graduation gown makes it look like my biggest by far!
Enjoy the laugh!

Clarity

I have a very hard time admitting when I am wrong, it almost never happens and sadley, it's not becasue I am right most of the time, like I like to think. Last night while I was trying to get to sleep, which doesn't really happen easily these days, I had a moment of clarity. I am wrong. I will admit it. This past couple of weeks I have let myself get really annoyed and preoccupied with a few women that I know that do things differently than I do. Last night while I was stewing away at one particular annoying habit I realized that I was the one that was being so crazy! I know what a hard job being a wife, mother, housekeeper, etc. is and as a woman it is my job to be supportive and understanding to all women that are trying their best and leave petty judgments to someone else. I know I would like the same from other women. Hopefully I can remember, even in the face of extreme irritation, that every woman deserves the love and support of other women, that I can help build other women up and not bring them down. I was wrong to judge, wrong to speak unkind words, and wrong to spend so much of my energy worrying about things that I don't have control over. There, I said it. Don't expect me to admit it again anytime soon :)

Getting a bit nervous

You see this darling little girl? This is her on Christmas sneaking leftovers from dinner while she thought no one was watching. This would be filed under the "safe" category of things that Lucy does while she thinks no one is watching. The list of "unsafe" is growing longer and longer every day. I am starting to feel a little panicked about the arrival of the new baby. I have never felt stressed about the birth of a baby, I've never worried about being able to handle the added responsibility, I've known that I am a capable mother and can handle what comes at me. That being said, I am scared this time, not really about the number of kids we are going to have but that Lucy is one of those kids. I'm not sure I can keep her safe and me sane all while tending to the needs of a helpless newborn. Maybe I've just hit my breaking point this week with all the climbing and screaming and disaster that seems to follow her? Maybe I'm just too pregnant and too exhausted to keep up with her? I love her so much and want to be a good mother to her but sometimes I'm just lost. Short of dropping everything and spending every moment at her side I'm not sure what to do to make our days functional. I wish I knew how to harness her energy and spunk into something less destructive. I know at the end of the day I will be able to do this, she will grow out of this someday (she has to, right?), but right now I am feeling a fear that I am not use to and that is making me question all the mothering confidence that I have built-up over the years and that's a scary place to be.

Hotel L&D

Maybe I'm a crazy person but I love to be in the hospital after I have had a baby. Am I the only one? I am looking forward to it like a vacation. What other time in my life do I have zero house cleaning to do, someone that makes all of my meals, asks ME if I would like a snack in the middle of the day, brings me my baby and takes them away so I can sleep with the push of a button, all the time in the world to read/nap/watch tv/do whatever I feel like doing? Granted, it's the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in and the food is certainly not the best I've had but it is two glorious days of nothing but getting taken care. I can't wait :)

What am I supposed to do with this?

My kids have awkward hair until at least 2 years old. There, I said it. Please don't laugh too hard at Lucy when you see her, we are working on it.

I'm Back!

After two months with no computer I'm back to the blogging world! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hopefully more interesting updates will be coming soon!

Terrible Twos

So today I read a post on facebook where someone said they were put out that two year old's were getting a bad rap in regards to being "terrible". I would like to say for the record that they ARE terrible and this person's children are obviously too old for them to remember the stage. Lucy is not even two yet and here are some of the things we have had to deal with in the last week alone...coloring all over the house with pen, marker, crayon, etc., destroying her room every single morning, climbing up on a bookshelf to feed Spot the fish an entire thing of fish food (in the middle of the night I might add) climbing on the bathroom and kitchen counters, the kitchen table and the dresser, getting garbage from the garbage can and putting it around the house, unloading an ENTIRE box of kleenex onto the bathroom floor, climbing into a still damp bathtub as soon as she gets clean pj's on, ect., ect., etc. You may be thinking to yourself, "Wow, doesn't she watch her kid?" The answer is YES! these things are going on right under my nose. So for those of you that don't have children in this stage please do not tell us that we are being unfair to our children, just show us some compassion for what we are going through!