A Growing Belly and Shrinking Time

I am 32 weeks pregnant now which means we have less than 8 weeks before we meet Molly! I'm feeling good, just get tired easily and have lots of nasty heartburn. I will definitely not miss that once she's born. We are starting to get her room ready with painting and moving furniture around. I've gone through Lucy's 0-6 month clothes to see what Molly can use. It was fun going through Lucy's clothes - I loved some of them so much and will be fun to use again! I do need to get some size 0-3 month long-sleeve clothes, though. Here's my belly!

Week 23

Week 24

Week 25

Week 26

Week 27

Week 28

Week 29

Week 30

Week 31

Week 32

Christmas Potpourri...Again

I posted this last year but it's too good not to share again!

Last year I came across a stovetop potpourri recipe on Pinterest that is just perfect for the Christmas season. You can find the original blog post here.

Here's the recipe:

1 whole orange

1/2 c cranberries

1 Tbsp whole cloves

3 cinnamon sticks

 

Quarter the orange and place the orange (or just the orange peel) along with the other ingredients in a small saucepan. Fill the pan with water. Place the pan on the smallest burner on the lowest setting. Refill with water as needed. Enjoy!

 

This is a really great recipe that smells up the house so nicely. It makes a great gift, too. Last year and this year I got all the ingredients together, along with a recipe card, and put them in a little bag to give as gifts. I've enjoyed having this burning in my house the past week. It smells so yummy! Hope you can enjoy it, too.

Molly

Last week I had a "level 2" ultrasound that would take a more in-depth look at Molly's kidneys. At my 19-week ultrasound, the doctor found her kidneys to be a little larger than normal for that age. He ordered a second ultrasound at week 27 to check the kidneys again and this one still showed them being larger than normal. He wasn't too concerned about it because the amniotic fluid and everything else about the baby and my pregnancy was normal. But, he wanted to make sure so ordered the level 2 ultrasound for us.

 

I was a bit worried about this, especially after I googled it and found all sorts of possible answers to what was wrong with her kidneys. (Note to self: NEVER google anything like that! Just wait to hear the results from the professionals!) I was very nervous about the ultrasound and what it might result in, but was also excited about it, thinking we might get a 3-d look at our little baby. As you can see by the picture below, we did get a 3-d look at her. Isn't she just the cutest! It is so neat to see her face like this before she's born.

 

The doctor reviewed the ultrasound results and found that there is nothing wrong with her kidneys, they're just larger than other babies at this age. So thankful for that answer! She did tell me that my problem is I'm too thin, making everything about the baby easily seen. I guess that's an okay problem to have during pregnancy!

 

Nativity

I've wanted a nativity set for the past few years but haven't found one I liked enough to buy. I have lots of Christmas decorations but have realized I don't have a nativity set and really wanted one, since, you know, it is the whole reason for the season!

I've looked at some places online and Hobby Lobby, but just couldn't find any I liked. They all looked too fancy or old for me. I have always loved the Willow Tree brand nativity set, but it was a bit pricey and I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on it...until this year! I splurged and used birthday money and babysitting money I've received this semester and bought my very own Willow Tree nativity set. I love it! I have it on our mantel along with two candles and have used burlap as the background.

Parenting Fail

I've blogged about my Mommy Fail before (which as I type out the word Fail as a singular word I laugh to myself, realizing it should definitely be a plural word with several posts of that title), but  today I have a parenting fail to blog about.

Our second baby, Molly Mae, is due February 19, 2015. Our plan has been to have Molly sleep in a bassinet next to my bed for at least the first month. After that we would move her to a crib, which would be the crib that Lucy is currently sleeping in. By the time Molly is to be born, our plan was to have Lucy sleeping in a "big girl" twin size bed. We'd planned on moving Lucy into the twin size bed at the first of January, but after talking with Lucy's doctor about this at her 18-month checkup, the doctor said we should start transitioning her now. She said it's not good to make big changes like that two months before or two months after a new baby is born.

I came up with the idea to take the front side of Lucy's crib off so it would be kind of like a big girl a bed to help her get ready for the twin size bed. We never really set a specific date for this change, but a few weeks ago I tweaked my back a bit and it was very hard for me to get Lucy in and out of the crib. We took the crib front off that night so it would be easier for me to put her in bed and also because we needed to do it sometime.

If we only knew then what we know now.............

Lucy is a really good sleeper and she's also really good at just playing in her bed. Our bedtime routine is to take a bath, play a little in her room, I'll sit with her and read books while she drinks milk, and then after about 15-20 minutes she gets a bit restless and I put her in the crib. She will usually play in her crib for about 20-30 minutes - playing with her animals, talking to herself, and lately jumping up and down in her crib. We hear all of this through the baby monitor and it is quite entertaining at times!

With the front of the crib off, Lucy had no problem going in her crib, but she did have a problem staying in her crib! I'll spare you the details of the last few nights and nap times, but perhaps you can see why we were frustrated, worried, confused, clueless, etc., on how to make her stay in bed by the following pictures:

There's no Lucy in this picture because this was from Saturday after her "nap." She never fell asleep for a nap that afternoon and when we decided to just "get her up" she met us at the door and scurried out. It was funny, but frustrating and disappointing because she tore apart her whole room!

 

 

These pictures were taken between Wednesday night before Ross and I went to bed through Monday morning when we woke up. Some were from nap time and some were from bed time. They are quite funny just looking at them, but I felt so bad when I saw her sleeping on the floor! There were two nights when she came into our room and we had to bring her back into hers. And putting Lucy to bed Sunday night was awful! Ross and I decided to just sit with her in front of her bed, trying to keep her in bed, until she fell asleep. We did this together from 8-9:20pm, and then Ross left to study for a test and I sat with her from 9:20-10pm when she finally fell asleep! I was a bit deflated by this, wondering how we were going to ever get her to stay in her bed alone!

 

That Monday morning I was telling some friends about our experience with the front of the crib off and why we were doing this. I'm so glad I told this story because one of the girls gave me some great advice on what to do: keep her in the crib! She said Lucy is too young to understand she has to stay in her crib and to not grow her up too fast. What she said really sank into me and I totally agreed. Especially the part about growing her up too fast! I called Ross and told him about this and that perhaps we should just buy a new crib instead of a new twin size bed and he totally agreed. I was so thankful for that and felt SO relieved that we had a new plan of keeping her in a crib for now.

 

So now our plan is to buy a second crib instead of a twin size bed and I'm just fine with that. I had planned on doing white furniture in Lucy's room, so I plan on buying a white crib. I'm using a white dresser that my Dad made years ago for Stephanie and I. I'm really excited to get Lucy's "new room" decorated and all ready for her!

2014 Christmas Pictures

I might be biased, but I think we have the cutest little girl ever!

Our "First" Thanksgiving

This year Ross and I celebrated our fifth Thanksgiving together, but in some ways it was like our first Thanksgiving because we hosted my family and made the turkey! Since we've been married, we've gone to Kanas City to have dinner with Ross' family for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to stay home and we invited my family to our house for dinner. My parents had planned on coming and my sister and her family decided to come that day, too, so we had eight people for dinner. Well, nine if you include Lucy. :)

Neither of us had ever made a turkey before and I was excited to do so, but a bit intimidated by it. I've always thought it to be a long process and was afraid something might go wrong...the turkey wouldn't have been thawed completely when it came time to bake, it would have been over- or under-baked, making it take forever to be done or be completely dry that it did not taste good at all. I'm happy to report that none of those worries came true and we served a very delicious and juicy turkey!

I bought our 10-pound turkey Monday afternoon and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. I probably should have bought it Sunday to have more thawing time, but it turned out okay. We decided to put it in a brine and I used the Pioneer Woman's turkey brine recipe. It consisted of water, apple cider, brown sugar, salt, orange peel, pepper, and a few other seasonings. The turkey was still a tiny bit frozen Wednesday night when we put it in the brine, but figured it would be okay and continue thawing overnight while in the brine.

We got the turkey out Thursday around 12:30, washed it off and let it soak a bit, and put it in the oven. We followed the Pioneer Woman's Roasted Turkey recipe for baking it and were very pleased with the outcome. We had to keep an eye on the turkey, checking the temperature and smearing it with a butter mixture every half hour after the first hour and a half, and before we knew it, the turkey was ready to come out of the oven. We let it set for a bit and then Ross carved it while my Mom, sister, and I were getting all of the sides ready. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, and rolls for dinner. It was all so good! Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I think this turkey was the best I've ever had. I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving turkey because it usually seems to be a bit dry, but our turkey was so good and juicy. I am very proud of Ross and I for the excellent Thanksgiving dinner we made!