37 Weeks

Here we are at 37 weeks and wondering how long we will have to finish getting baby materials ready. We have the mini van with Xander in his new booster seat and Josie in her 5-point harness but still need to put in the base for the baby carrier. The new table that sits more people arrived in September so there will be room for us plus the high chair. Josie's bed has been moved to Xander's room and the crib set up in her room so that midnight feeding, changing and crying are less likely to bother the kids and Chris. The swing, bassinet, bouncy chair and baby mat are all cleaned and ready to go. The baby clothes have been picked through to find anything appropriate for a girl born in February and some clothes have been bought to help keep the baby warm (since Josie was born in June and wore little outfits).


So far the doctor says there is no progress. I'm definitely having daily contractions but they are very sporadic so I haven't worried about calling the doctor or heading to the hospital. In fact, everyday I think "I should pack my hospital bag" but nothing actually gets packed. I am a little stressed about maternity leave which starts next week. There is a sub lined up who is ready to go but that doesn't make it easier to turn over my class to someone else.



Xander and Josie are very excited for the baby to get here. They are the only ones I let talk to my belly because they are so cute. "Hello, baby, this is Xander." "Shhhh, baby, it's time to sleep." Hopefully they will keep up the good attitudes once the baby is here.

While this hasn't been a difficult pregnancy, there have been more hiccups than with Xander or Josie. There was the time I fell and had to go to the hospital for observation. Then Josie might have had Fifth Disease. Then Chris might have had shingles. Then I did get his rash, scratched it and developed impetigo. So currently I have a contagious rash on my left forearm and am taking antibiotics. Hopefully it clears up before the baby arrives because it will hard to nurse a baby without touching her.

Fever Time and Potty Training

Josie, like me, has had a cold for about a month now. It is nothing serious, just snot galore. And she definitely does not have it as bad as I do. Chris is disgusted when I blow my nose because it goes on for about five minutes and a half dozen tissues. Josie doesn't do great with tissues yet and is refusing to let me use the Snot Sucker (as I call it) on her.

But she did have a weird period two weeks ago where she would randomly develop a fever. She'd wake up and be fine. She would eat her breakfast. Then within thirty minutes she would be shivering and huddling on the couch. This happened at home a couple times and a couple time at the sitter's house after she woke up from a nap. Tylenol helped and she slept fine at night. Her appetite diminished a little but not enough to worry. After the fourth round of this I caved and made an appointment with the doctor.

Surprisingly, Josie did have a fever at the appointment. Usually she is fine once I bring her in, making me feel like I'm an overprotective helicopter parent. Initially the doctor said Fifth Disease because along with the fever and cold symptoms, she also had a light rash on her tummy and a red area on her cheek (Fifth Disease is also called Slapped Cheek Syndrome). He started telling me to just wait it out and continue with Tylenol if needed.

Then the doctor looked at me, remembered I was 33 weeks pregnant and Fifth Disease is a problem for the baby. So he backtracked a little and left the room to get more information. When he returned he brought two other doctors to look at Josie to get their opinion. Josie was a little freaked by having three doctors huddling over her but at least she didn't break down crying. The one doctor said the rash looked more like a strep rash, so Josie was tested for strep throat but that came back negative. While all of the symptoms added up to Fifth Disease, they also didn't make sense in the order that they appeared. So we left with the original orders of keeping an eye on her and Tylenol when needed and the additional order for me to tell my Ob/Gyn about the possible exposure to Fifth Disease.

Now for the really weird part of Josie's sickness. She pretty much became potty trained. Usually when kids are sick they get worse and have accidents galore. Not Josie, she actually advanced to the point of yelling "Have to go pee!" as she streaked past me to the bathroom. She wanted to wear her big girl panties and started refusing to wear Pull-Ups. She insists on using the restrooms whenever we go out, especially at church. Sure, there have been a few accidents.

Granted we have been attempting to potty train Josie since she turned two. However, that was in California so at the time I figured that moving back to Ohio would just make her regress. So I encouraged sitting on the potty but didn't stress about it.

Once we were back in Ohio, I gave her some time to adjust. At random times in October, November and December I would put her in training pants and break out a sticker chart. The raisin rewards were (and still are) a big motivational hit. Then I'd have a rough day and not feel like cleaning up any messes and would revert to Pull-Ups.

More recently, the sitter had begun talking up wearing big girl panties. And then Josie received some princess panties for Christmas. I think those two things were all that she needed. I still put her in Pull-Ups at night, but half of the time she doesn't even need them then.

I do expect there will be some trouble once the baby arrives. I could be wrong though and she will just spend the time learning to write instead of having accidents. Any way about it, potty training Josie has been much easier and faster than it was with Xander.

Christmas

Ah, Christmastime. It was just busy enough to make me exhausted this year. The kids loved, loved, loved it. Even now, three weeks later, Josie will ask where the Christmas tree went and Xander will ask what Santa is doing now.

Before sending out the Christmas cards, I attempted to take some fun holiday pictures of the kids by the tree to include. Unfortunately, I don't fully understand how to use my fancy camera and the kids were extra squirmy. So most of the pictures turned out blurry.


Some of the pictures featured someone stealing the spotlight.

And some of the pictures were a bit too goofy.


Once Christmas arrived it was visiting, visiting, visiting. We went to Chris's uncle's for Christmas Eve where Josie cried and ran away from Santa Claus while Xander ran up to give Santa big hugs.

Christmas day arrived with a guitar for Xander. That was what he really, really wanted from Santa.
Ok, funny story time. Chris and I woke up before the kids and were downstairs getting breakfast when we heard Xander get up. Chris walks to the back door and slides it open and yells out "It was good to see you, Santa, see you next year!" Then he walked over to the stairs and told Xander he just missed seeing Santa Claus and he might see him out the window. Xander raced back into his room and looked out the blinds and then burst into tears that he missed Santa Claus.

That's right, Chris started Christmas Day by making Xander cry.

It did get better once we coaxed him downstairs. He was excited that Josie was getting a bike and then realized that he also received a bike. Josie had fun ripping off all of the paper of her gifts. It was fun.



We did visit my family that day and the bikes were brought along and ridden in the basement. Xander immediately ripped the bows off of his handlebars but Josie refused to take her bows off.


Over the next few days we had several different visitors and I know at some point we Skyped with Chris's mom. The kids love doing that, especially Xander because he could stop talking.