State of the Uterus and Other Transitions

Well, I'm over halfway there now. It's odd because most days I almost forget that I'm pregnant until I look down and see the little bump. For awhile I was only feeling a few flutters here and there, but each day the kicks and movements get stronger and stronger. Tom can tell when it's the baby, but the girls still have a hard time feeling it. The girls are desperate to feel the baby move, so I know they'll be thrilled in a couple of weeks once that really ramps up.

Not a whole lot has been happening pregnancy-wise and it feels like it's going by so fast. Probably because I'm chasing after three other kids all the time. Tommy doesn't quite understand what's going on, but if you ask him where the baby is he'll point to my tummy. He is getting quite attached to mommy and really doesn't like when his sisters come up to me if he's sitting on my lap or sitting next to me. "MY MOMMY! NO!" he'll yell. So territorial.

And since we know that about him, we moved him to his new room so he has plenty of time to get used to it and hopefully forget that he used to sleep in the nursery and crib. I love how his room turned out. Initially we were going with a rock-n-roll/industrial theme, but after realizing that we'd have to hang the guitars all the way up to the ceiling we gave up on that vision. I was pretty bummed because I really did love the idea of putting the guitars on display in his room. Plus it was a sneaky way of storing them. So we moved on. I spent a few hours over a weekend thinking about what we could do and finally settled on a farm/rustic theme. I had already ordered his quilt and thankfully it fit in with both themes. We used some old wood to create a couple of signs to personalize his room and hung up a piece of art that's been bouncing around our house with no home. I also painted an old bureau and made a nightstand out of cinderblocks.



The result is the perfect room for our little man.


He loves it and the transition has been so easy...actually the easiest one yet. With the girls we would put them in their big girl beds, say goodnight (after the whole routine) and close their doors and not two seconds later they were out of bed and running around. This little cherub says "goodnight" and "I love you" and then ACTUALLY GOES TO SLEEP. He doesn't even get out of his bed until we come back in the following morning,..even when he's wide awake. Sometimes we come in and find him in some interesting positions, though thankfully he hasn't fallen out of bed yet. We tried a pool noodle guard rail, but he hasn't seemed to really need it (even though this picture says otherwise lol).

Afraid of the dark

All of a sudden Lexi seems to have become afraid of the dark. She transitioned to her big girl room and bed without any problems a few months ago and had been sleeping with a faint night light. Then all of a sudden she started flipping her light switch on after we left her room. We would go in and turn off the light and tell her to go to sleep and she would immediately turn it back on as soon as the door was closed.

At first we through it was a game she was playing and kept going in every time and turning off the light. Eventually she started telling us it was "too dark." So now we leave one of her smaller lamps on when we say goodnight and she still cries. Sometimes for an hour. And that's with us going in there at intervals to soothe her. I hold her sobbing body until she calms down and tell her to try closing her eyes. I mean, one look at her and you can see how completely exhausted she is. Her answer? "No, too dark, mommy." And she keeps insisting that it's too dark when she closes her eyes or if the lights are off.

I've been doing some light research/reading about this and some sources say to make sure the lights stay off and comfort the child in the dark so they know it's okay. Honestly I don't think she would calm down at all if the lights were off. We've tried a few different night lights and none seem to make a difference. I'm wondering if we should try to find a portable or handheld light for her. Maybe something like that would give off enough light so she wouldn't need the brighter lamp on. Or maybe one of those Pillow Pet Dream Lites or other light up thing that displays light patterns on the ceiling.

Any other suggestions?

Bedtime routines

Totally off the subject I intend to blog about, but little Lexi has sooooo many nicknames and you never know which one Stas is going to insist we call her. She's referred to as My Sister, My Lexia, Lexi, Alexi, Lexia, boo-boo, and so many more. Oh and if you ask Stas what Lexi's name is she yells AH-LEX-EEE-AH!

I digress.

Putting Lexi to bed has never been easier. Scratch that. It's never been more fun. It was definitely easier when all I had to do was nurse her to sleep. But now she's a participant in the bedtime routine. And she follows direction so well. After bath and pjs and teeth brushing, I tell her to get a book and her baby. She grabs a book and her baby and heads down the hall to her room and starts climbing into the armchair for story time. We read and then she flips through the book on her own. After that she climbs down, throws her friends in the crib, marches over to turn on her sleep sheep, and then stands under the light switch, waiting for me to lift her up to turn it off. Once the lights are out, baby wants down in her crib. She lays down, waits for her blanket and book and then is ready to be alone.

I mean, could that get any more fun? And easy? I love it.

Bedtime for Stasa is a bit different. She starts out bartering for two or twenty books. Once we finally land on a single book (which is almost always a Berenstain Bears book - why, oh why do those books have so many ever loving words?), we all have to cuddle up in her bed. Usually at this point it's just her and Tom and I join them after I've finished putting Lexi to bed. Is that weird that we do Lexi's bedtime 1-on-1 and Stasa's as a group? Maybe. But I think we do that because that's how her bedtime routine was when she moved to the big girl room and we didn't want things to change once Lexi arrived.

Anyway, by the time I arrive, Tom and Stas are mid-story. After we finish the book, it's lights out, music on, and sayonara daddy. Every single night Stasa asks, "Mommy can you stay with me for a coupla songs?" And every night I do, though most nights it's more like 5 or 8 songs. During that time we lay in her bed and talk about our days. Sometimes we change it up and play shadow puppets with the light cast from her night light. Lately we've been watching short You Tube videos of fireworks displays to prepare her for the big show on July 4th.

After I leave her room (with lots of "No stay! I need you!"), she comes out maybe 5 minutes later to announce that she needs to go potty. Every.single.night. Now we just tell her to go on her own and she does and then trots back to her room.

I think things are definitely going to have to change once Lexi's in a big girl bed, though we have quite a long time before that happens.