Ethan & Lila's Room

Here are some recent photos of Ethan & Lila's bedroom. It's going to be an interesting challenge putting a boy and a girl into the same room but I figure with neutral colors and separate sides of the room we can make it work. They only sleep there anyways. They are going most likely be roommates for at least another 5 years when we can buy a new house.

6 more days...

We will meet Lila in just 6 days. After speaking with my OB we decided that a scheduled c-section was the best plan. December 6th at 930am I will go in for surgery and walk out with a baby girl. I'm a little nervous, but overall happy to have a good plan. I'm hoping that recovery is much smoother than it was with Ethan's delivery. These last few days are dragging on but hopefully things will go faster next week as we get closer.

We are ready for her. I've been working on getting things washed and put away for about 6 weeks now so mostly everything is done. I finished my Christmas cards about a week ago and they go out on December 1st. Out of the long list I made a month ago (about 50 things) I only have 6 or 7 left. Almost all of my Christmas gifts are wrapped and under the tree too! I'm hoping that we can just focus on the kids once Lila arrives and getting into a new routine and not all the Christmas stuff.

My 30th birthday is on the 14th. Our plan is to celebrate, just me and Ken, around New Year's. It will be our first date after Lila arrives. I'm planning on having Coconut Shrimp and a Wallaby Darned at The Outback. Plus, a steak, mashed potatoes, salad and bread. Yummy!!! I figure on my actual birthday things will be very low key. We'll probably have dinner as a family at home and cuddle up to watch a movie together.

A couple weeks ago I went out to celebrate my 30th birthday early with an old friend from Kindergarten whose 30th birthday was a few weeks ago. We went to Black Angus for dinner and sat there for 4 hours talking. It was so nice to talk without kids and to get out.

Here we are:

Our lives are about to change a lot, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll try to post photos of Lila as soon as she arrives on Thursday. This photo is from a week and a half ago. I'm now 38 weeks and 3 days.

36 weeks...

Lila was breech for about 6 weeks and at my last ultrasound at 34 weeks they told me she had turned head down. Most people would be happy with this, but not me. I was actually hoping that I would need a c-section. I had a horrible delivery and recovery with Ethan and I honestly think that recovering from a c-section will be easier (not easy, but easier) than going through what I did with Ethan. Also, at my last ultrasound at 34 1/2 weeks Lila was already 5 lbs 14 oz and with a half a pound expected to gain every week we are looking at an 8 1/2 to 9 lb baby with a head measuring over the 70%.

I talked with my doctor last Monday and she said that I can choose an elective c-section if that's what I really want. We will meet with her sometime next week or early the following week to go over the pros and cons and to most likely schedule the c-section for a week before my due date which is December 11th. In reality, Lila could be here in a little over 3 weeks (around December 4th).

We've been working hard on getting things ready for her although if she came today we'd have the most important things done. All of her newborn and 0-3 month clothes are washed and put away, blankets, burp clothes, etc are all washed and waiting to put away. We've mostly been working on reorganizing the kids room to make room for her things and to make it more functional. Today we'll be putting up picture frames, including a large photo frame that was in my room as a child, Ethan's Giant jersey photo and a new shelf for Ethan to hang his hats and put his piggy bank & photos on.

Last week Ken put the double stroller together. Ethan loves it! It's hard to get him out of it.

He loved having 2 cupholders and a place to put a snack or toy. That's something his current stroller doesn't have.

Here are some current belly shots of me at about 35 weeks:

 It's scary how big I am, but it's all baby or so I've been told.

 "Whoa Mom! Watch out! You are gonna hit somebody with that thing"

I'm very ready to be done being pregnant. I'm very uncomfortable, have a lot of pain in my back & hips and well, everywhere, and to top it all off I caught a cold 10 days ago and I'm finally starting to get better. I'm hoping to enjoy the last few weeks with only one child, but I'm looking forward meeting Lila and seeing how life changes once she's here.

Ethan's new bed

At the beginning of October we saw a great deal on a twin mattress for Ethan. Although we hadn't intended to move Ethan out of his crib until he was actually climbing out we jumped at the deal. Ethan did very well with the transition for the 1st week. He didn't get out and would sing to himself until we'd come get him in the morning or after nap. After that he started becoming more difficult to get to stay in the bed. For the most part he stays, but nap times have been difficult lately.

We're happy we moved him. I think it's better that we're dealing with him getting out of the bed now than when Lila comes. Once he's asleep he doesn't get up at all and he still mostly stays there until we get him.

Here's some photos of the day we got his mattress delivered:

 Helping daddy take the plastic off.

 Testing it out.

 "I love my bed!"

 Making the bed for the 1st time.

 He wanted to go to bed for the night at 530pm just so he didn't have to leave the bed. We somehow convinced him to come downstairs for dinner.

He now calls the crib "baby's bed" and we've moved the mattress up and added Lila's bedding so he no longer has the option of sleeping in there. I think he's started to realize something is happening soon as Lila's stuff begins to creep into his room. I'll try to take photos of their room once we get the frames and shelves on the wall today.

Halloween

 This year Ethan was Spiderman. He didn't really know who Spiderman was so Ken started playing old videos on YouTube for Ethan to get familiar with the character. I don't know that it really helped. Half the time he hated putting the costume on, but sometimes he'd put it on long enough for us to get some photos of him.

This year we went to a pumpkin carving party at my friend Melissa's house with five other families from our playgroup. It was a blast and we even got photos of the kids all in their Halloween costumes

 Ethan & his buddy Grant.

 8 toddlers between the ages of 15 months and just over 3 years old. It was a crazy night! There were also 3 babies between the ages of 3 months and 7 months.

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This year was a lot of fun because Ethan was able to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". He seemed really into for the first 15 minutes then I could tell he got tired. We trick or treated for an hour around our neighborhood with some of his friends and ended up at Nana & Papa's house last. It's become a tradition at our house that my parents and Ken's parents come over for pizza from Papa Murphy's and then we go trick or treating and Ken's parents hand out candy.

 Ethan & Nana.

 Waiting patiently for his buddies to be done getting candy from a house he'd already been to.

 Ethan, Emily & Addy trick or treating.

 There was a special spider pumpkin so we had to grab a photo of him with it.

 Trick or treating buddies.

Enjoying a piece of candy before bed after all that tiresome trick or treating. No that soda is not his.

It was a great Halloween season this year. We didn't make it up to Apple Hill because I couldn't do that much walking, but we headed over to Goblin Gardens with our playgroup and Fog Willow as a family for the 2nd year in a row. We can't wait for Halloween 2013 when we'll have two trick or treaters :)