Big Sister Class!

Saturday Marin and I went to Big Sister (and Brother) class at the hospital where I'll deliver the baby. When we arrived, the nurse checking us in asked Marin, "What is your name?" And she replied, "I Big Sister! I go Big Sister class!" The nurse very sweetly responded, "That's right! What's your name, sweetie?"

We went through the rest of the class with the same enthusiasm. Marin learned all about babies and like the other children, shared a baby picture with the class. They read a book about a baby coming home, and watched a puppet show. They learned what babies eat, and what might be some safe toys for them to play with, and how they are special because they get to eat big sister and brother things and play with big children toys. When it came time to holding a pretend baby, Marin was first in line. When she learned that they were going to get to see a REAL baby, Marin bolted to the front of the line so fast, I literally had to run after her through the hospital. The real baby part was for sure the highlight for Marin. She was obsessed. She pointed out everything she recognized in their bassinets- pacis, the nose aspirator. We had to stay after a little bit and look at every single baby in the nursery while Marin said, "Look Mommy, a 'lil baby!" Marin also got to see the room where she will visit Mommy and Daddy after the baby arrives. When the nurse showed her where Daddy would sleep Marin told me, "Daddy like this!" I didn't want to burst her sweet optimism, but I can almost guarantee her, that her Daddy will not be as thrilled by the twin pull out sleeper/couch.

We got to take home a coloring book that talked all about how special it is to be a big sister and how exciting it will be to meet the new baby. I am really nervous about Marin feeling like we don't love her as much once the new baby comes, so I hope that the class was another way that helped her feel like becoming a big sister is special. It was a fun morning together, until I asked her to hold my hand on the way out (instead of running the halls of the hospital at top speed) and she threw herself on the ground and threw a complete fit. And then I pictured two of them...

Marin's Big Girl Room!

Big Girl Marin has been sleeping in her new big girl bed for about a month now. I didn't intend for her to start sleeping in it so soon, but after Jason emptied and painted the room, we decided to set up her new bed to get it out of the basement where it was waiting to be assembled. Once it was assembled, it looked so bare, so I decided to put the bedding on and Marin immediately said, "I sleep! I sleep! My bed!" So, we decided to try it out for a night. We packed her in with pillows surrounding her and expected her to get up 45 times and be back in the crib the next night. Not so. She's been sleeping there through the night ever since. She loves that bed and her new room.

I will admit, her naps are shorter by about an hour since she's been in the big girl bed, and she does wake up earlier and come into our room. However, the earliest she usually wakes up is at 7:00am, so we really can't complain.

So, about the room: I searched and searched and can't believe I don't have a "before" picture from when this room was our guest bedroom, except this one after we had already moved all of the furniture to the middle of the room and taken all of the window treatments down. Guess it just wasn't that exciting. I do have before pictures from when we first moved in, and had to take down the dreaded wall paper in this room. Katy and I labored on that for an entire day, until we were literally pealing pieces off in the dark. We estimated the wallpaper that was in this room to have been over 50 years old, and it came off in pieces about an inch long at a time, if we were lucky. Jake tried to help, but he HATED this with a passion, and quickly was dubbed "errand boy" running back and forth fetching us supplies that we were sure would work to get bigger pieces off. The walls needed major repair, so even when we moved in, they looked really rough. I did take a picture of our first overnight guests, Ross and Emilie, sleeping on an air mattress in the room the first weekend we moved in.

When it was time to convert it to Marin's room, I was overjoyed to finally give her a true "girls room". Since she'd been sleeping in the nursery, and we didn't know what her gender would be, everything was yellow and green and unisex. Marin is definitely girly, so the shoe definitely fits in her new pink room. I decided that I wanted to add a chair rail to the room, paint stripes in two colors of pink on the top, and paint a solid bold pink on the bottom. After I found the bedding, I matched the colors and wiggled my magic wand and told Jason to get to work. :) After Marin's big bold horizontal stripes in her old nursery in Chicago, Jason wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of painting the stripes again, but lucky for me, he obliged and even admitted that he thinks it's a perfect little girls room.

I knew that I wanted to have built in floating bookshelves in the already recessed space in the wall to display Marin's treasures and some books and things. But the dimensions of the space were too big for the pre-made shelves I had seen. So, Jason the worker bee came to the rescue again, and made them himself, so that they would fit exactly right.

We moved Marin's bookshelf that my dad made for her when she was born, in from the nursery and repurposed an old side table as a bedside table. We are awaiting a dresser, and a few final touches, like pictures on the walls, but otherwise it's basically complete. Marin gave some of her books that are really babyish to the baby and now points those out in the nursery as "baby's books".

Marin's new room is fun and bright and I'm sure some day she'll be dying for a more grown up sophisticated look, but for today, I'm seizing her girly, sweet personality and love of pink... and holding on for dear life.

Add one more...And now we're FOUR!

Someone pinch me.

Marin is going to be a big sister!

No lie. I'm 12 weeks pregnant; due May 9th. Can you handle the excitement? You probably can; because it's not your baby. But we definitely cannot.

I'll tell you what else I can't do: Keep food down. Can't even keep water down. It's ugly. My diet consists of white rice with a side of saltine crackers. Dry white toast on good days. And, since we try to eat all whole grains, we had none of this in our house, so we had to go out and stock up on it all. Now that I'm nearing the end of the first trimester, it is getting better... slowly.

And speaking of slow. I move at a snails pace. Literally. I have zero- and I mean z-e-r-o energy. I am completely debilitated. For a girl that hates naps, and literally never sits down, I am living on the couch and saying things like "I just have to shut my eyes for a few hours". I live for the minute Jason gets home so I can just go to sleep. I go days without showering, because I can't bare the thought of all the energy it would exert.

The house is a disaster. Bless Jason's heart; I think he's ready to trade me in for the updated model (and one who preferably showers and bushes her hair on a consistent basis) He works all day and then comes home to clean up after Marin and me, make dinner for everyone, give Marin a bath and put her to bed. Totally single dad'n it, but I am a big giant waste of baby brewing space. However, in the spirit of total honesty, as helpful as Jas is, he's no nurse. It doesn't seem that taking care of another grown adult who is otherwise totally capable, is high on his list of strengths. Point being: we all want me to be back to normal.

All that aside: We feel incredibly blessed and excited and just about everything else that you can feel. We decided to stick with the clearblue easy like last time and as soon as that puppy read "pregnant" we ran upstairs to wake Marin up and were sure she was the first we told that we would soon become four. She said, "Big Sis" when we told her she was going to be a big sister! I'm SURE she hasn't a clue what is in store for her next Spring, but I am certain she will quickly assert herself as boss as soon as the baby has one little bonnet in the door.