38 Weeks

Thursday I will be 38 weeks pregnant, so this day as I type I am officially 37 weeks along - that is 17 days until the due date - which we all know means nothing.

I am in the bad place that I think every woman gets to toward the end. The non communicating cranky place. Your life is about to change so fundamentally and you have zero control over when it happens. I don't want to be at work anymore, not that having a toddler and an infant isn't work, but I am so over it. If I walk the halls it is one question after another about the baby, when it is due, where he is, when I am going to have him, how I am feeling. I know it is them being sweet and caring, but don't they know it is seriously irritating? I think that I make people nervous.


I don't have any reason to be so cranky, other than the crazy swelling and discomfort. I am surrounded by amazing people. Thanks to my wonderful friends for being so supportive and loving to me.


Two almost 2-year olds.

Happy new parents.

Doesn't this look like the perfect Saturday night? Hint, it was.

I think this may be my favorite photo of Adrienne.

There are babies in there.

The only way we could get Jr. to smile in a family photo.

Jr.'s hat fits Neil!

Grace and Greta showing off their sweetness.

Babysitters Club.

Popsicles mean summertime.

We would only be so lucky to have a baby as sweet as Greta.

Happy Dads Day

Now that the Eds are all sung in their beds I can get to blogging. Happy Fathers' Day!

Ed didn't really get anything for a present, but he didn't have to do anything today. He chilled and golfed - oh and he did have to cook the t-bones on the grill. I am not to be trusted with the grill or the beef. Having a day off is a huge present, we are amid project to get ready for Guido the Monster Baby. Ed and I have been working our asses off to get everything in order.

It is tough to try to fit another person in this house - mostly due to the additional furniture, bringing back in all of those clothes and toys while trying not to squeeze out his big brother.

I am trying to spend as much sweet time with Jr. as I can before he has to share me with his new brother. He knows a baby is coming and is taking it in stride, but we all know things are going to get ugly when Guido shows up. He is already insisting on drinking milk from bottles and found some old pacifiers and wants them at bed and nap time. Ed is not thrilled about the "regression", but I just want him to be happy and if that is acting more like a baby than a big boy, so be it.

Papa Bill is off to NY today so we didn't get to celebrate with him. We'll make it up to him.

I hope Grandpa John had a great Fathers' Day!

Not For The Faint of Heart

We took Jr. to Canyon Ferry last weekend for a pseudo camping fishing trip. Lots of fishing, lots of campfire and hot dogs, but no camping. I insisted on coming home and sleeping in my own bed. I am exhausted lately and I couldn't bear the idea of sleeping on the ground with a toddler wrapped up in my sleeping bag.

He ended up having a night terror that night so we got about 45 minutes of sleep. Camping or not sleep was not on the agenda.

Jr. is "so better" now and is back to normal - eating sleeping pooping everything. You never fully appreciate how wonderful daily life is until it is yanked away from you by a week of shit and puke. When he was feeling better, he helped us finish up the garden. He is a great helper for about 5 minutes then it is back to abusing Selma with the golf club.

As for me, warning this photo is gross or obscene or beautiful and exciting depending on your point of view. For me it doesn't look real, it also doesn't feel real. I am at 35 weeks. Here I was last time at 35 weeks. Quite a difference, I think.

Oh and Jr. has named the baby. Baby Stink. First name Baby. Middle name Stink. Last name Coleman. I like it.

This is your last warning. The belly is so big it makes my butt look small(ish).

Masterpiece Theater

You Make Me Happy

Last night I had a dream about a book called "You Make Me Happy, Ann Harrie" and it was a collection of stories, newspaper articles, artwork and people that made the author happy. It was an oddly detailed dream. Why Ann in the title, I don't know, she wasn't even in the dream, but she does make me happy.

It got me to thinking this morning about being positive. It has been such a total drag around here since Jr. got sick - A WEEK AGO, but there are still so many things that make me happy.


"Guy Guy". That is what Jr. calls men he doesn't know. You know men walking down the street or in the grocery store. "Guy Guy goin?" means where is that guy going? I asked Ed how on earth in a lifetime of Jr.'s accomplishments are we going to remember guy guy when he is older? It never fails to crack me up and I don't want to forget about it. Ed gave me the ??? crazy lady look, but I don't ever want to forget it, it makes me so happy. Along with so many other things he says. "Iceboarding" "hi dad" "whats goin on over dere" "cribby" "love you baby sister" just to name a few. Every day he says at least 100 things that make me happy.

Jr. sleeping makes me happy. For as much as that kid didn't sleep when he was a baby, he is making up for it now. As I type he is after a 3.5 hour afternoon snooze. Honestly, I think we might let him nap too long because he is a BEAR when we wake him up. Until we give him a jelly bean to make him happy.

Plus it is so easy to put him to bed these days. He comes into my bed, I can't hold him on my lap anymore in that chair, we read a couple of books and he sings songs with me, then when we are done I ask him if he wants to go say goodnight to Baby Sister, Baby Brother, Seaturd and Doggy then I put him in his crib, we mooch each of them good night and then he goes to sleep easily and on his own. Sometimes he lays in his crib and sings songs to them for a while before going to sleep, but every night we tell them "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite, see you in the morning." It makes me so happy that he is a good sleeper now, I feel like we have really succeeded as parents.



For the last week he has been sleeping with me because I want to be there for him immediately in the middle of the night if he gets sick and I kind of love sleeping with him, it makes me so happy to wake up in the middle of the night, roll over and touch his head or give him a soft mooch and know he is alright. Although, I really miss sleeping with his daddy and the minute he is better, he is getting the boot, for now, while he is sick, I don't mind one bit, it makes me feel like a good mom, which makes me happy.




How Ed has really stepped up to be a great dad and take really good care of us makes me really happy. Being a parent is losing every ounce of selfishness you once had, realizing that giving up your supposed freedom you had before is worth it when the rewards seem few and far between. He has done a really good job and even though it is hard not to bark at each other lately due to the stresses of coping with an ill baby, he makes me really really happy.


Oh and the baby dropped, just a little, so that makes me pretty happy. Today I am 33 weeks along, but tomorrow, I will be 34 weeks. In two more weeks I will be at term which means in the clear for this thing to come out without many major medical complications - please please please. . . Dropping means he is less up in my business in my lungs and ribs, but more in my business on my pelvic floor. I remember this feeling so clearly from last time. Sometimes when I would walk (and I did some serious walking at this point in the pregnancy) it felt like my hips were going to break open and Jr. was going to fall out. Same feeling now with less walking and more chasing after Jr.

Our garden makes me happy. Ed expanded our little veggie garden to approximately 2.2 acres (kidding) we need to get some compost in there and do some planting, but it is all ready for a nice summer of fresh tomatoes and zucchinis. Oh and pumpkins, Jr. and I are going to have a pumpkin patch. That makes me pretty happy. In my planter boxes, the tomatoes are in, joined by the strawberries, basil, mint (it came back from last year), lavender, and some cosmos. Oh and a blueberry which has a snowballs chance in hell here in Montana, but it was $6 and it made both Jr. and I happy to think about the prospect of him having his absolute favorite fruit in the whole world back there. The raspberries are coming back and Ed is nervous about their vigor. They are confined by concrete, but you can see it in their eyes that they would take over the entire yard if left to their own volition.

Lastly, my family makes me happy. While Jr. has been sick they have really stepped up to help us out by taking care of Jr. Thank you. It has made me realize once again, why I live so close to them. Sometimes I forget. . .

I really hope he gets better soon. That would make me so very happy.

Oh and P.S. a few other things that make me really happy: the new ice cream store downtown (FIL you are going to LOVE IT!), the front fence, the fact that it is pretty much summer even with the rain, the fact that we are not in the middle of moving right now, even though I thought a new house would be good, I am glad we are spending another summer here.