32 Weeks and the Name Game

Hello little one, 32 fast weeks have gone by and there are 8 left until your presence graces our lives. It's hard to imagine life with you here and by our side, I forgot what life with a newborn was like! I can't fathom there being anyone but your brother and I to spend our days with and yet I cannot wait. But never in a million years could I have imagined myself begging you to stay put for each and every one of these last few weeks.

I am a perfectionist. I cannot rest until things are done and done correctly and it's both a blessing and a curse. Once I get started on a project, any project, it has to be finished in that same sitting. When we moved from Idaho to Washington I unpacked our entire home in a 24 hour period.. you heard me. Every box was emptied and every piece of furniture had a place. So it was no surprise to myself that once we conceived our second child, I soon became enthralled with the naming process. I am a person who is not too picky, I can gather a group of names that I enjoy and be settled, and this was our plan. We truly had no intentions of going into birth with only one name for either gender and that seemed like it made the most sense.

I quickly realized this was no easy task.

My husband on the other hand is the pickiest person alive when it comes to names. Somehow he knows someone who did something somewhere who had that name and therefor we cannot use it.. and we are talking "My third cousin twice removed had a goldfish who had babies and one of them happened to be named Stella". And thus.. the name is taken. Our personalities clash hard during this process and it was a god sent miracle that we chose Henry and Penelope after weeks on end of high stress over a situation that should be blissful!

The weeks went on and the names stayed the same, similarly to Carter's pregnancy. We had two names, on for each gender, they stuck and that was that! I was happy and felt good with the choices we had made. As the pregnancy has progressed more and more people around us started naming their little one's Penelope (you have fabulous taste!) and the name slowly started slipping away from me. Calling her Penelope didn't seem right. I wouldn't think of my daughter each time I said her name. It wasn't hers anymore. How could I feel this way about a child I've never met who may not even be a girl (I'll admit I had a good laugh)! But regardless.. we now have a problem.

Back to square one. And square one is hard.

A little less than 8 weeks until I am due and I have a nameless baby. My insides are turning at the thought of it. I've not only looked at the top 1000 names, I've look at the top 1000 names since the year of 1920 and cannot get myself and my husband to agree on one. So from here I guess we walk by faith, knowing that somehow her name will grace our minds and will fit her perfectly. Even if my personality doesn't mesh well with the idea.

So please little one, stay put for as long as you must to give us as much time as we need to sort through the plethora of names we have at our disposal and I promise that one way or another you will not be nameless!

Cheers to the chaos of it all, you are so worth it. I love you to pieces little one.

- T

Chronicles of the Sleeping Pregnant Woman

Welcome to the chronicles of the sleeping pregnant woman. Sleeping while growing a human, while being large, while unable to get comfortable all while having to pee is an art. A fine art. But no matter the circumstance, sleep must go on! If you have never had a child before, read and study up on the many positions you are bound to find yourself in during your child's nine month stay. If you have had little one's bless your life than laugh along with me and my 30 week pregnant self as we reminisce on the days of pregnant sleep!

OMG I LOVE THIS PILLOW

My first pregnancy I created a small pillow fort every night and each time I woke up I had to get my husband to help me move and remake the fort.. every.. single.. time. So with no hesitation I purchased my first "pregnancy pillow" this time around and I cannot tell you this enough, get one. Every time I crawl into bed I wrap myself up in this pregnancy cloud and within minutes I can fall asleep. I love this pillow. A lot.

NEVER MIND...

No matter how much I love this pillow, every night I also curse it's existence. In one way or another it gets uncomfortable and I get frustrated and push it as far away as humanly possible, and may slur a few tired choice words in it's direction. But not to worry, within an hour I am begging for it's forgiveness and we make up and I realize how stupid I was for thinking so poorly of it.

I USED TO BE A STOMACH SLEEPER

Stomach sleepers unite! And also feel free to cry for a moment, going from being a stomach sleeper to being unable to remotely sleep on your stomach at all is a hard transition. The very best you can do is create this super awkward knee by your face - using your arm as support - trying not to squish the baby position that isn't really comfortable at all. I can typically get away with stomach sleeping until about 15 weeks along before it starts to bother me more than anything. Not to worry, the days of stomach sleeping will come back to you!

BRB GOTTA PEE

There's no escape. As pregnancy progresses you will become more and more familiar with the way your bathroom looks pitch black in the middle of the night. At this point we are up every 2-3 hours and that is pushin' it. By the end of pregnancy with my first I was up every 1-1.5 hours just to pee, and you think you have a whole lot stored up and wind up peeing for maybe a few seconds. I feel like this is our bodies way of preparing us for waking up every few hours to feed that newborn we've been working so hard on!

IT'S WAY TOO HOT

It's always too hot. Mid winter, windows open, fan going and possibly even snow falling and some how you are a heater not only to yourself but your husband who is grossed out sleeping next to your sweaty self. Being pregnant I have always been hotter than I am unpregnant, and I am sure there is science behind why this occurs, but none the less I end up basically naked each night trying desperately to cool myself off!

JUST KIDDING...

And as soon as you thought that you couldn't possibly get ANY hotter.. you wake up frozen and need all of your clothes back on, maybe a pair of socks, some mittens, a winter jacket and all of your blankets. But as soon as you grab all of these items and snuggle back in you start right back on the fast track to overheating. There is no middle ground.. 

SECOND CHILD SYNDROME

If this isn't your first, be prepared to learn how to sleep effectively with a child and a belly all at once. If you have toddlers accept the fact that they don't want to sleep next to you, the have to sleep on top of you and their growing sibling which is a great start to sibling rivalry as your unborn child kicks back in frustration. My best advice? Learn to tune out those nighttime kicks quickly and prepare to sweat even more alongside your toddler!

MY CHILD STEALS MY PILLOW

That wonderful pregnancy blessing of a pillow we talked about.. it doesn't just belong to you. It also belongs to your toddler! More often than not I wake up having switched sides with my son as he reaps the benefits of the pillow all for himself. But what can you do, you love them far too much to say anything and chances are you are way too tired to attempt to wake them up just to get the pillow back. So I will share. 

WHO AM I KIDDING

Sleep is hard during pregnancy. The first trimester your sick, the last trimester you're large and in charge and in between you find yourself with second trimester insomnia. Pshhhhh, we aren't sleeping! But that's okay. Because no amount of sleep is more important to me than my growing family. Pains, discomforts and all I bet you will laugh it all off once your little blessing it here. No matter how many times during my first pregnancy I swore that I would never do this again, here I am! I would do it all over yet again too. So as uncomfortable as we all may be lets laugh it off (and take 20 minute snoozes on the couch during the day to keep us sane). This too shall pass!

-T

Why your Husbands Dig your Mom Bod

Pregnancy and postpartum can be a dark time for mothers in regards to body image, I for one am not the tiny little teenager that I used to be and that was difficult for me to swallow. I am no pregnancy unicorn, I won't ever look as fabulous as my peers. I swell, I get stretch marks, my butt becomes a planet and I'm not lucky enough to shrink back to size within a week after birth. In fact I don't shrink 2.. or 3.. or even 4 weeks later.

I remember crying and my husband walking in and asking me what was wrong. I responded with "I just wish that I was still the woman that you married" and this cut him deeply. I am the woman he married, but he loves me even more than the woman he loved on that day. Truth is ladies, our husbands dig our mom bods. They may not actively walk past you and say "Dayyyyyyummmm, look at those stretch marks!" or wake up each morning and say "I can't imagine you without your beautiful belly flab darling", but if you married a great man with any heart and soul I can promise you that he loves the new you.

Here are seven reasons why your husband digs your mom bod!

1. He loves your Kids
Easy as that. He loves the children that you made together, and he gets that you made them within your body, there for he loves you and that baby making body more than he is able to describe. He may not be able to find the words to use but he is forever grateful for for the sacrifices you made in order to bring them into the world.

2. Men love Boobs
No way? Yes way! Face it, they are into them. During pregnancy and after birth they are playboy sized squeezable cushions that they didn't have to pay for! It's a free token into the world of big bosoms at least for a moment and I can promise you.. they are into it.

3. Womanhood
Before pregnancy some of us may have bodies that resemble our 12 year old female self (cough cough, right here!) and in nine short months I graduated from prepubescent Taylor to Taylor with a rockin' woman body. I grew curves! Curves come in all shapes and sizes, thin or thick, but you can't evade pregnancy without them and that's okay because men dig curves.

4. Mom Jeans
... okay this one is a joke. I don't think anyone truly loves mom jeans.

5. Confidence
Whether you have had children or not men are always attracted to a confident woman. If you can hold composure and show a certain level of confidence over 100 other women in a bar chances are you were talked to, because it is super attractive. And let's face it, there is nothing more confident than a mother! I am myself when I am with my children and no one in their right mind would dare step between us. The "momma bear" is real and it is really admirable.

6. Strength 
Those babies didn't come out on their own! There is no man on earth who is willing to say that the act of childbirth is not super hero status. It is something they cannot (and never want to) relate to and they know that without that body of yours doing what it does best that they would be left next in line to preform the task. They are ever thankful that their bodies aren't designed to preform such a task, and forever grateful for your body being able to do so!

7. Unachievable
Every man knows someone who has struggled with fertility issues. Maybe a friend of his can't start a family, other friends or family of his were blessed with children through adoption, and others have spent time and money on procedures in order to bring their children into the world. Like I said earlier, there is no better vision of pride in a man than his children and there isn't a respectable man on earth who wouldn't see your mom bod and realize that he is blessed.

Our husbands dig our mom bods more than we know, but because they are men they sometimes lack the words that you desire to hear to make you feel better about yourself. Pregnancy/Postpartum unicorn or not, you are beautiful and you are loved. So rest easy knowing that somewhere in that man you married lies a pride for your new found curves and marks and stop beating up on yourself. Ever doubt in your ability? Look into your kiddos eye's, I bet all those insecurities wash away.

-T