Hudson's Room

Big Belly - almost 36.6 weeks

Double-wide!

Our new double stroller arrived today! My Grandmother sent it to us! Thanks Great-Grandma! Our kids are going to love it and so will we!!!

Getting ready for my brother

All the baby equipment is out and ready and awaiting its occupant. In the mean time, Hannah is taking full advantage of being the baby. She relaxes in the bouncer, climbs and bounces on her feet in the bouncer, climbs in and out of the swing, turns the music on and off, eats her snacks in the swing, you name it! Lets just hope she shares when her brother comes. (I think I pushed Susie out of swing when she came along????)

Also, on Hannah's hand is an "Old McDonald" puppet/book thing. She loves it! She calls it E-I-O! She can almost sing all of Old McDonald Had a Farm too. I sing "Old McDonald had a farm" and she sings E-I-O, E-I-O" and I sing "and on his farm he had a..." and she fills in the animal name and does the sounds! Its so cute! She even sang to Aunt Susie's voicemail last week!

Like Mommy, Like Daughter

I have had my stethoscope sitting out here on my desk to let my sweet friend Laura borrow. Laura is also an A&M graduate and she and her husband Tyler moved here last summer. She taught a year and was recently accepted into the fast track BSN program at Tech. It is extremely hard to get into so I am so proud of her! Because I only use a pedi stethoscope at work, she gets to borrow this one.

Hannah likes to take it and she wears it around her neck (like Mommy does at work) and likes to "listen" to herself!

Target

I don't have much to blog about... I am still pregnant and probably will be for a least a couple more weeks. I have felt little progression this time. I am pretty sure by this time with Hannah I had felt her drop and she did arrive nearly 3 weeks early. We are rapidly approaching 37 weeks with no end in sight. Thats ok... My pediatrician is going to be gone all next week and I would really prefer that this baby come while he is here. I am still working and have actually worked a couple of extra days over the last few weeks. I plan on working right up until the baby comes. Our new pediatrician started today and the office expansion is coming along great! I can't wait to come back from maternity leave to our new office! I love my job and truly thankful for it everyday! I am feeling relatively good. Last week I hit a rough spot and was kind of whiny and kind of over being pregnant. This week is much better. I really sleep pretty well most nights, am not having any pain, the heartburn isn't quite as bad, and am enjoying the last of my diet free chocolate cake eating days. Truthfully, this pregnancy has flown by and I am trying to patiently wait out the next few weeks.

This weekend was pretty much uneventful as well. I worked and took call all weekend and it wasn't too busy. Saturday, due to our little separation anxiety problem, Hannah decided she wouldn't take a nap! I tried to lay her down next to me in my bed (so I could take a nap!) and as soon as she fell asleep the pager went off. So, we headed off to Target. As you can see in the picture, poor Hannah is exhausted! She is sucking her thumb and resting on a big pack of Maxi pads, hehehe! We also had to bring "dog" with us. But, if you look closely, you will notice my little girl that LOVES shoes is wearing a now purchased pair of black patent leather shoes! As we are cruising the aisles Hannah keeps saying "shoes, shoes" so we head over to the shoe section. I am excited to be able to buy size 5 (which we can't quite fit into yet) because there are so many more options! I choose these precious black dress ones and put them in the cart. Hannah immediately starts asking for them and reaching back for them. I hand them to her, she takes off her sandals, and puts on both black shoes and puts her feet back down through the holes with the elastic string hanging in the middle. Didn't seem to bother her and the guy at the check out thankfully scanned them from her feet so we didn't have to take them off! Where did this girl get this love for shoes???

Separation Anxiety

Hannah must know that something is about to change because she is so so clingy! She will hardly go to anyone else and the other day I walked out while she was sitting in her highchair in front of Stuart and she had a melt down! I LOVE her Mothers Day Out program. I absolutely, whole heartedly know that she really enjoys it, likes her teachers, will have a wonderful day, and is in great hands... But every morning I leave her there, major melt down! When I pick her up, she is great! Playing and doesn't want to leave. But even today, I went to pick her up, she saw me through the window, I walked to the door, she couldn't see me anymore, went hysterical! She has been having a rough time going down for her naps and bed, she cries and cries for a few minutes and wakes up crying if I am not there right away. Not just a cry but a hysterical screaming cry! Eventually she is fine and goes to bed but it just breaks my heart! Today, I took a nap too and for some reason the monitor in our room wasn't on. So when I woke up, I heard her screaming! I ran in there, just screaming, crying, saying Mama, Mama! Poor thing! (She also took her diaper off!... another paragraph!) I am having a little separation anxiety too I guess. Hannah has never been apart from us and when I have the baby, she will probably spend the night at her Mimi and Pop's. I totally trust that she will be fine there. She naps there regularly and loves it there, I just can't imagine her not being under the same roof as me or Stuart. I am really struggling with what do those days I am in the hospital. I do not want to jilt her routine in any way. I want everything to be normal, I want her home when the baby is here, I want her sleeping in her own bed, as little change as possible. Totally illogical, I know. So, for the next few weeks I am relishing in the fact that I can give all my love to my only child! She is getting lots of extra loving and attention from her Mommy! I know she will do fine when the baby comes, she will love her new brother, and because she is so young, she won't be jealous, but she knows that things are about to change. Yesterday she ate a fortune cookie at lunch, the fortune read... "You will soon meet a new acquaintance that will change your life for good." How fitting.

So, on to the diaper and potty training. Initially I had thought that it would be a great idea to have one out of diapers before the other came. I bought potty chairs, Hannah sat on them. We watched Elmo potty time, we were really "into" the potty (and toliet paper!). She wasn't talking as much then and wasn't really telling me that she was dirty or needed to potty. She was only about 15 months... So now, this little 18 month old brings me diapers, says diaper change, tells me "stinky" when she is poopy, doesn't like to be poopy where it used to not bother her, and now takes off her own wet diaper! Do I try it before the baby comes? Will she regress once he gets here? I had just decided that it would actually be easier to have her still in diapers (makes traveling a lot easier!). I want to be able to devote that time to potty training and was afraid that as soon as I sat down (every 2 hours!) to feed the baby, she would want me to take her potty... I just figured that she would wait. Now what do I do?