I finally have some photos of the new rooms Noah’s & Abram’s.  Abram’s has a long way to go still but we’re making good progress!

Noah showing Abram's new Canvas print that MEchelle bought him

This is the changing table that’s in Abram’s room now. The canvas print was from Michelle L. and fits perfectly in that room! Love it!

Noah's new Big Boy Bed! & room setup

Noah's big boy dresser!

New-ish shelf & bins

Abram's "new" crib & bed set

 This is Abram’s crib (Noah’s old crib/toddler bed). We got the Migi
Animal Alphabet set of bedding. We have the mobile up now, too and some other things in the room so I’ll have to post more pics when the rest of the room is done.

Mom & I (mostly her) made the Abram sign. The stickers go with the bed set. There are lots of dots on it so we put those sporadically around the room, too. They fit really well on the canvas boards w/ Abram’s letters though! I’m really happy with how they turned out.

coat hanger & closet area

I found the plain little coat hanger at Hobby Lobby & painted it that deep orange color. The letters & dots match the bed set. I really like how that turned out. They’re peel off stickers. We also got a closet organizer (which isn’t quite organized yet!) for all of Abram’s clothes, blankets, etc. 

We now have a valance & curtains up & another couple of little painted pieces around the room. I’ll post more pics later when it’s looking good!

Last night Steve & I were doing a ton of cleaning & going through old stuff to get ready for our yard sale. He found his old Godzilla toy. It’s pretty big and I remember my brother having the exact same one and pretending to eat through my Barbie doll land when we were little.

Noah LOVES it. He keeps saying it looks just like T-Rex. He’s all into dinosaurs right now. I wish we were redoing his room completely- we’d definitely do a dinosaur theme!

Anyway- this morning, he wakes up and runs into the living room to get Godzilla (which we ended up finding in Abram’s room from playing in there last night). Then he jumps on the couch w/ him and I sit down, still groggy and wishing I were back in bed. And Noah proceeds to have a two-sided conversation.. he’s saying what he wants to say, then talking for Godzilla, too.

It took me a sentence or two to figure out what he was doing, but after that- Here’s how the conversation went:

• Noah: “Are you a mean dinosaur?” 
• Godzilla: “No I’m not.” 
• Noah: “Well, that’s good.” 
• Noah: “Are you gonna bite my finger?”
• Godzilla: “No I’m not.”
• Godzilla: “I love you.”
• Noah: “You do?”
• Godzilla: “Yes.”
• Noah: “Aw, I love you, too.”
• -Noah turns to me – “I’m gonna give dinosaur a hug.” -proceeds w/ hug & “aww.”
• …. Then Noah to Godzilla- “I’m gonna give you a kiss.” – proceeds w/ kiss.

Then he hopped off the couch and decided he & Godzilla were going to get in Daddy’s recliner to take a nap together.

Yeah.. that’s how my morning started out. haha..  How fun are boys? And how sweet is my little guy?!

I went to the Dr. last week. We are going every two weeks from now on b/c of my history. We talked briefly about my weight (which, as of right now at 29 weeks I’ve gained 26 lbs!!) and how different it is this time vs. with Noah. My feet are very swollen and I just feel disgusting all over basically. He was trying to be as PC and polite as he could but he definitely told me that he could tell that my “face looks a little different”…. yeah. That’s code for “your face looks FAT!” Here lately I’ve been eating like it’s my job and I just can’t seem to stifle the hunger! It’s like I was describing in my last post- I’m a human food vacuum!

The Dr. told me I need to have “no salt” and “drink lots of water.. even more than usual”.  So I didn’t think much about this until I got out of the appointment and I started looking at the food labels at home… and every freaking thing out there has salt people!! I mean, obviously not everything. But almost. And if it doesn’t have salt, it has plenty of fat to replace it! And it might seem easy to do, right? Eat fruits & vegetables & grilled chicken! Well… I’m not a fan. There are very few fruits or veggies that I like and the ones I do are not the best for me.. plus the fact that they’re not all that filling and always leave me wanting more food. I need carbs!

My other problem is, I am SO not into grilled chicken right now. I saw some plain old chicken that a relative had cooked in a pan with pretty much nothing on it… aka no seasoning, no sauce, no olive oil…. nothing- and I seriously almost had to run to the bathroom & puke. That’s so disgusting.  I had this problem with Noah, too. Grilled chicken or fish sounds gross. If it’s slathered with some kind of sauce or whatever, I can handle it.. but not a very big portion. Even steak has been a little bit of an issue. It’s such a bummer.

SO- now I’m trying my best to drink lots of water! My glass is right here next to me as I type. I’m not a big water drinker either. Water with food is weird to me. I need something that has a taste. I had water with french toast at Cracker Barrel yesterday and I didn’t even drink half the glass b/c it was weird! And then I’m not getting enough fluids! Oh the agony..

We went to the store today and stocked up on Mrs. Dash (thanks for the tip Rachel!) seasonings, lots of bananas, potatoes (both of which are supposed to draw out the salt from my body), broccoli, grapes, low sodium bread & crackers, tuna, corn flakes, apples, and lettuce. Most of it sounds horrible to me right now. I want a corn dog. And cheese fries. The Little Italy Festival is this weekend. I’m going to have to stay away from that. Not going to be good if I end up near the food!!

Finally, I’m planning to also call my Dr. when he’s back in his office on Mon. and see what sodium level (in mg’s) he recommends I try to stay under. Because this whole “no salt” thing is ridiculous. I need a number. I read online that the average person should have no more than 2,500 mg’s per day. So I’m trying my best to stay around 1,000 mg’s. I decided that’s a good round number that I can keep track of and it really doesn’t allow me much wiggle room! I looked up all the fast food restaurants & their sodium levels. Get this: the Arby’s roast beef sandwhich that I normally get, 900 mg’s!!! That is insane! The grilled stuffed chicken burrito that Steve always gets at Taco Bell- over 2,000!!!  I found that my best bet is to get a fish sandwhich at McDonald’s, which is 640 or somewhere around there. Although if you get fries, that’s another 140, plus ONE ketchup packet by itself is 115. The numbers add up so darn quickly! A 5-pc. chicken nugget at Wendy’s is in the 400’s, but let’s be honest- do you think 5 chicken nuggets are going to fill me up right now? I think not.

I guess I’m going to have to have a little of the foods I enjoy with a little of the foods I don’t really enjoy so much.. and I’ll be full and semi-satisfied. For at least 2 hours… til I’m ready for another meal

This pregnancy stuff is so funny sometimes. I am pretty sure I can tell when he’s going through a big growth spurt because I’m absolutely famished every second! It’s like I just can’t seem to get enough food in there!

Yesterday I got up from a nap and it was like, “when do we eat?”. Luckily Steve got home and was starving also so we ended up eating our roast, potatoes & carrots a little before 5! And ohh, was it good! Pork roast w/ a touch of gravy, & the potatoes & carrots had been in the crockpot with the roast all day… it was excellent. So I got finished with a hefty plate of that and noticed we had Italian bread leftover from the previous night’s dinner, so I ate two pieces of that. About an hour later, I had 3 and 1/2 scoops of ice cream w/ chocolate syrup.. and when I finished eating that I felt like I hadn’t eaten a thing. BUT I got distracted with some things and didn’t eat anything else right away. By the time we put Noah to bed I was famished again, but it was already after 9 so I limited myself to one toaster strudel!! And I have to tell you, I desperately wanted to eat at least two more of those, and would have if it hadn’t been the last one in the box!!

I read in my baby book (that I seldom look at b/c obviously I’ve done this before and really don’t need to read about all that stuff Again)- that this month is a big brain building month for the baby and some rapid growth is happening.. so I’m guessing I am just going to need some extra food! But c’mon, I’m already super close to where I was when I gave birth to Noah- as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts! And I really am not into gaining a ton more weight. However, I woke up today and feel like I could eat a truck load of french toast, … or maybe spaghetti,….. or toaster strudels! Can you tell I have a bread/pasta or just carbs in general theme going here?

So…. yes, I’m letting Noah watch Sleeping Beauty. That is one of my all-time Classic Disney favorites and I just wanted to see if he’d like it. Surprisingly, he sat through it and enjoyed it somewhat. And THEN- the dragon part came. The evil Malificent turns herself into a dragon to fight Prince Phillip and for the past several days we’ve been watching that specific part over & over again so that Noah can “fight the dragon!”  He gets out his little plastic bowling pin (b/c he’s destroyed all his other toy swords) and swings it furiously around and jumps all over the living room while he watches the Prince fight off the dragon. Then he says to the random furniture (like the toilet), that he’s going to turn it into a dragon and fight it! He smacks the crap out of Steve’s recliner and the couch, he’s even gone after the little fan we have had out from when our air conditioning wasn’t working. He says “I’m fighting this fan!”, and then he announces that he’s turned it into a dragon. 

I told Steve last night (when we were on our 3rd rewind of “the dragon part”)- that things could be much worse… he could want me to rewind the “Once Upon a Dream” song/love sequence! Noah is Definitely a boy, through & through and he has a very specific gender identity! lol..  it’s funny how naturally these things come out. He can sit & watch the mushy, girly parts and not complain but when it’s time for the manly part of the movie, he literally jumps out of his seat in preparation! Kids are too funny. I can’t wait to see what will happen when Abram is big enough to “sword fight” with him. That should be interesting.

My feet & toes look like swollen, fat sausages. It’s so depressing. We had a family reunion this past weekend. I was on my feet for a few hours and Steve noticed my swollen tootsies. He insisted we go home ASAP so I could get my feet up (above my heart). He seems to think I’m going to get some kind of blood clotting issue & die if my feet get too swollen. His concern is so annoying, and yet kinda cute. It’s also really weird, but after I’ve been on my feet for a while they seem to hurt less than they do when I first get up. It’s like they get used to it and I feel fine… the thing is, they don’t Look fine! Ugh..  I did not get swollen feet like this until the week or two before I gave birth to Noah. Although, my current weight is the same as it was at that point in that pregnancy, so I guess this is just where my feet can’t handle any more! And I’m only 28 weeks now! I still have a ways to go… and the weight of the baby will really pick up here in the next few weeks so things are only going to go downhill for me body wise. I’m SO ready to run on a treadmill and be able to walk for long periods & oh yeah! Bend OVER!!  The sleeping is getting tougher & tougher, as well. I remember getting to this point with Noah. The point of “Ok, it’s been fun, but enough already”… although I think I was a little further along with him before I felt like this. Having a toddler to chase around, while potty training….. that is not helping my situation- lol! 

I’m pretty pumped that Abram is now head down and ready to come out! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a VBAC. I really want to experience the whole giving birth thing, and I absolutely hated not being able to hold Noah for over an hour after he was born. That was brutal. I’m praying for a good experience and also for strength- whether I do have to give birth or have to end up having a C-section.. I’ll need strength and a good hold on my emotions either way. I have a feeling this time will be more emotional for me. Especially when Noah comes in to see his brother. I could cry right now just thinking about it! Our family will be complete and I just can’t explain how good that makes me feel. We are so blessed! Cankles & all!

Noah had his first poop in public!!! I’m so very excited. This is monumental. He was scared to death to sit on the toilets until now and he had a weird thing about feeling toilet paper or that plastic stuff underneath his butt.. not to mention the fact that it just doesn’t look or feel the way the one at home does.

Well, we went to Cracker Barrel with my mom and Lance to eat breakfast one morning and our food had arrived. We started eating (french toast is what I always get and just share with Noah), but he wasn’t interested in it so much. Then he looked up at me and said “Mommy, I’m pooping.” and I totally panicked and jumped up, trying as fast as I could to get him out of his seat. I was going “try to hold it in please! Don’t poop in your diaper- we’ll go to the potty ok?”.. and my mom was going “ohhh.. it is SO gonna be too late”.. I thought she was right, too. Then we got into the bathroom and I happily saw that there was no poop yet!! So we made a very big deal about this while I discreetly put the toilet paper on the toilet for him. Then I sat him up there just like at home, telling him he could go the same way he does at home and getting the toilet paper ready in case of random sprays that tend to happen in public potties!! And he sat there for a minute, and just did his business!! I was sooo proud and so very excited that it was his first time and he didn’t fuss or freak out when I sat him up there.

I praised him up & down for his great job and as we were heading back to our table, he passed a couple of random strangers and looked right at them and said “I pooped in the potty!”. I think he was proud of himself, too!

Oh my gosh, I have been warned about the two’s… and the three’s and the four’s and so on   But this is ridiculous! As I’m sitting here writing this, Noah is literally jumping up & down on his bed having a huge fit, screaming & saying over & over again “Mommy!!! I Want the duck!”.  Well, you’d think this is a simple solution, right? Give him the darn duck and you’re good! Um, no.

We were in baby Abram’s new room getting some more things ready and he found an old duck toy of his that he used to love. It’s supposed to hang from the carseat. So at 1 o’clock we went in for naptime. Let me preface this also by saying that Steve is here today and for some reason if ANYone is here- including Steve, Noah doesn’t behave nearly as well as he does when it’s just me. That is something I’ll never understand.

So we get in his room and he’s being “challenging” from the start- I’m having a hard time getting him to turn on his vaporizer & nightlight (like he always does). Then he doesn’t want to get in the bed, and finally, he wants this duck. I told him he’s perfectly allowed to sleep with the duck if he’ll get in bed. He gets in bed, then stuffs this duck underneath his blanket so that it’s lying on top of his stomach and he’s playing with it.. I hear him in there shuffling it around, etc. so I go in and tell him he needs to put it beside him like his stuffed animals normally are. But he refuses! So I give him a choice, as I always do. Either he puts the duck where I’m asking him to put it, or I’m going to leave the room and close the door behind me. This past week in his new big boy bed, this strategy has worked b/c he does not like to be closed in his room with the door closed. But today of course, he just kept telling me “I don’t want to”.  Whatever I suggested, the answer was “I don’t want to”. “I don’t want to close the door”, “I don’t want the duck there”, “I don’t want the blanket”, “I don’t want to sit down (on the bed)”. 

At this point, I’ve taken the duck away completely and he’s now in his room crying .. still. All of this is super frustrating at this point, too because he’s getting sick again and this is SO not helping his snot situation.

K, I just tried to go back in again and give him the duck. And guess what? He’s been crying for the duck all this time and when I come to the door with the duck, he says “I don’t want the duck”. I ask him what he wants me to do with it. “Throw it out there” he says. So I throw it out into the living room. THEN guess what he says?  You’ll never guess.  “I want that duck!!!”  Now I’m sitting here typing to a lovely “Please Mommy, I want that duck” cry. All I want to know is, how does a mother (or father for that matter) keep her sanity when kids are like this? Why on Earth would he say one minute that he wants something, only to change his mind and then change it back again two seconds later? What is the point of all that?

We have tried completely ignoring him when he’s like this, b/c books have told us to. They say that kids just want attention even if it’s negative attention. Well, that technically works, but he cries for a Very long time before he finally settles down himself.

We’ve tried yelling and spanking and getting all “angry parent” on him so he’ll know we mean business. That makes him literally scream louder and throw his tantrum more vigorously. The thing that works the best, but requires a tremendous amount of patience, is when we talk very softly to him and explain things and ask him to be polite and give him choices… which is what I was trying to do today. But today it’s not working either! What is a parent to do?

I’m convinced after a few more minutes of his crying at the gate (which is where he’s transitioned to crying now), I’ll go over and tell him to get in bed and give him his duck and he’ll fall right asleep. But what a waste of time & energy on both our parts ya know? Geez Louise! It’s not like he’s overtired and cranky.. his nap time is the same as it’s been for quite a while. The only thing I can think is that he’s obviously getting sick so maybe he just isn’t feeling good. In that case I always feel like a bad parent when I’m disciplining him but I can’t stop doing that just b/c he’s sick!! Heck, he’s sick like 1/3 of the time!

*sigh*… oh my, and I have a whole other child to go through this with yet!

I am so excited and relieved about this room change. It was a great undertaking, but worth all the time & stress & hard work!

We decided on a name for baby #2!! It’s going to be Abram. I think we’re probably going to end up going with Joseph for a middle name, but you never know. Steve liked the idea of being able to call him AJ if he wanted.. which, I really don’t mind. I’m going to call him Abram and try my best to keep others from calling him Abe, but other than that – don’t care!

So we (my mom & I) got crafty stuff from Hobby Lobby (which Noah can now pronounce and it’s the cutest) so we could make a name-wallart type of thing for Abram’s room. When it’s all done I’ll have to post a picture of it. It’s mostly done but we need ribbon to hang the letters. Then Steve & Tom painted his room. We went with a blue color, but not baby blue.. it’s more of a very very light teal almost. Hard to explain b/c that doesn’t sound right either! seafoam? no… I don’t know.  Anyway, we went with the blue & white so it’ll match his bedding. They did a fanstastic job painting! It looks wonderful.. i’m so excited!

The furniture switching was also a large undertaking, but we got it done and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Noah’s room is adorable. It’s heart-breaking that it looks like such a “big boy room” now, but as he knows and always tells me, he’s always going to be my baby He now has a twin bed, which Steve rigged up so that it’s not so high and he can get into it easily. And he has a nightstand and a full size dresser. Also his shelves with the storage totes are in a nice spot next to another big huge tote full of toys. It’s a nice little play area. I’m very happy with it!! And we’re still using almost all of his baby stuff as far as room decor, mainly b/c it isn’t too babyish and will work up until he’s in school or even a little beyond that. It’s Alphabet Soup! How does that not fit with little elementary aged kids, right?

Anyway, now I need to go downstairs and upload photos to post on here of the rooms! I might wait on Abram’s until it’s finished. We don’t have anything on the walls yet. I’m going to make a shadow box of some sort for one area.. I just can’t figure out what I will put in it quite yet. We shall see!! I want to make one for Noah, too and take one or two things down in his room & exchange them. I’ve never done the shadow box thing before, so I’ll have to experiment with it. I had no idea how much they were! The ones I liked at Hobby Lobby were like $25.00 for the size I wanted… I’ll have to wait for one of their half price sales!

All in all, I’m EXTREMELY relieved to have that huge task finished! Lots of little things still left to do, but the main things are done and I’m not nearly as stressed out as I was this time last week!

I literally am losing sleep b/c I’m constantly thinking about the boys’ rooms and how I want to decorate/redecorate them. Aside from the pregnancy itself, this preparation & room switching has been the biggest stressor.

Basically, here’s what we’re doing: Noah is staying in his actual room w/ his original room decor. However, he’s getting Steve’s old bedroom furniture (which is a dark wood, compared to the light stuff he has in there now). That includes Steve’s old twin bed, his dresser, and his nightstand. Therefore, the crib/toddler bed that Noah’s been using will go in the new baby’s room along with the changing table/dresser combo. Now, because of the light/dark differences, we’re going to switch a few other things around, as well. For example, my mom made Noah a bookcase that’s very light wood. That is now going in the new baby’s room and Mom is going to make Noah a new, darker bookcase to replace it. She had also made him a little 6-unit shelf that holds some square storage totes- and now That is going in the new baby’s room, as well.

So Noah will end up with his new “big boy bed”, new taller dresser (which means I have to move some stuff from the walls b/c it’s low and is currently over a changing table), a nighstand, a bookcase, and this third shelving unit Mom made him for his 2nd birthday this year that also holds storage totes, which we’ll have to stain to match the darker stuff now… (he needed more places for his toys!).

In the new baby’s room we will then have the crib, the changer/dresser combo, the old bookcase, the old 6 shelf unit, and the rocker/glider. Whew!

We really considered leaving Noah’s room totally alone b/c his crib/toddler bed turns into a normal sized bed, but then we’d have to buy another crib & changing table. Ugh.. so that was out. So now we’ll have Noah’s old crib bedding (Alphabet Soup) in storage for when we’re done with the rest of his room decor. He has all the stuff that matches the Alphabet Soup stuff.. lamp, trash can, hamper, wall art, nightlight, etc.. and I think I’d rather sell the whole thing as a set. His bedding is in perfect condition.  He’s only 2, so we’re planning to use his current decor for at least a couple more years. It’s ABC’s and animals- not like he’s outgrown it ya know? Although I do desperately just want to change his entire room!! But I’m holding back- mainly b/c we don’t have the money to do all that. It’s enough that we’re having to get him new bedding for his new big boy bed, and we got new room darkening curtains. I also made him a little picture that I’m going to frame and hang up somewhere.. so that’ll be enough change for a while I think!

The new baby’s room is going to be so cute, too. I’m really excited! The bedding set we chose is Migi Alphabet – yes, I know, it’s Alphabet & Animals again but hey, I’m a teacher and at least I’m consistent! It has a lot of blue in it and is more cool colors rather than warm colors like Noah’s room. So it feels very very different to me. Plus we didn’t want to go with something super boyish when Noah’s room is fairly neutral. Michelle Lunger got us a canvas print from Gordman’s that has the ABC’s with an animal in each square for each letter- it’s super cute and it’s going to go above his changing table. Then, the BIG stressor for me has been what to do above the crib. This bedding set doesn’t have much of anything that goes with it- it’s a newer set and doesn’t have all the stuff that Noah’s did.. i.e. trash can, wall art, nightlight, hamper, etc….  SO- we’re just matching all that stuff with the colors in the quilt. There Are some wall appliques though- those sticker type things that peel easily on & off the wall. They include all the ABC’s & all the animals that are in the quilt. So I was going to try & do a modern type of thing with a blue wall and a couple of thick wide stripes and put the wall appliques around sort of like an alphabet in a classroom. But I just wasn’t too pumped about that idea and couldn’t think of anything else. Then I looked on Etsy! I just discovered that website and was extremely inspired by it! The first time I looked at it I found something that I’ll post about next- b/c I want to post up the picture when I’m done with it.. I saw it and basically copied it immediately! It’ll go in Noah’s room though- lol. But for the new baby’s room, I saw canvas board with the letters of the baby’s name stuck on them so they’re more 3D, and they had painted an animal behind or in front of or coming out of those letters. So I figure I can go to Hobby Lobby, get canvas boards, get the letters to spell the baby’s name, then paint them both, put them up and put the wall appliques (the animals) on/around each letter! I’m hoping it’ll look really cute, but we’ll see how it goes!

I’ll post more about my little projects here soon. Going to Hobby Lobby this weekend!!