35 weeks and Counting!

My little boy in his Halloween attire at the park

I can’t believe it, but I’m 35 weeks pregnant now, and Friday will mark one month until the due date (if I last that long)!!  This pregnancy has seriously flown by, but I have to admit these last few weeks are starting to really drag.  Then again I feel like I don’t have enough time to get the 100 things done that I still need to do before he gets here.  Wednesday I go to the doctor for my first weekly OBGYN visit and then Friday I'm super excited to have our (hopefully) last ultrasound! I love getting to see BCM. :) A few days ago I started reading my blog from when I was suffering through my last few weeks of Dominic’s pregnancy.  It was so funny to read it and compare this pregnancy to my last.  Some of the things I had forgotten.  It seems like I had more pain when I was pregnant with Dominic (back and tailbone pain specifically), but I wasn’t going to the bathroom as much as I am with this pregnancy and the exhaustion sounds more severe with this one too.  

At this point, I’m waking up hourly to go to the bathroom at night, which is really affecting my sleep and level of tiredness.  I’ve also started having a lot of ligament, tendon, and muscle pains in the last couple of weeks.  I know it’s my body’s way of preparing for the delivery, but I feel like I’m an elderly person or something.  It’s pretty weird and very annoying having these random twinges of pain in my hips and legs.

I know I was stressed out before I had Dominic especially with going on maternity leave and everything, but I feel like my stress level is higher with this pregnancy too and I’m completely overwhelmed by everything I need to do.  I’m so worried about leaving Dominic overnight and just getting everything in order for him, Stephanie, and my mom while they’re taking care of him.  There’s also getting everything ready for the baby, which I’ve left till the last minute for sure.  My friend Caroline generously brought us her bassinet to borrow, and that’s in our bedroom. Brian assembled (and reassembled) both cribs for both boys, so now the nursery is set up for the most part as is Dominic’s bedroom, and he’s sleeping well in there.   Dominic’s closet is still full of computers and other things from when the room was an office, so Brian still has to get all of that out before I can organize his closet.  

Enjoying some quality Dominic-Mommy time at the playgroup...I can't believe it won't be just us in a few weeks

My friend Lindsey from playgroup also let us borrow her “Sit n’ Stand” stroller, where the baby can sit in the front seat, and Dominic can sit on the back toddler seat facing me or stand on the back platform.  I think Dominic will actually like this stroller more than his current one because he can be closer to me and face me (like in the grocery cart, which he loves).  I love borrowing these kind of items rather than buying them, and Brian certainly likes this as he’s been extra worried about expenses lately.  We’re having 2 showers thrown for us in the next couple of weeks - one by Brian’s coworkers and another by my friend Caroline.  Once we have those, hopefully we’ll be better set for the baby’s arrival.

Dominic's 1st pair of shoes which will now be BCM's next to  a pair of Dominic's current shoes. What a difference!

In the meantime, my list of things to do includes washing all of Dominic’s old clothes from the first 3 months of his life and organizing them for BCM in his nursery.  I’m also working on “sub plans” just like I did when I was a teacher going on maternity leave, but this time it’s for my mom and Stephanie, explaining all of Dominic’s schedules, routines, and idiosyncrasies since keeping things as consistent and “normal” as possible for Dominic during this transitional time is vital to keeping him as happy as possible.  On top of all of that, I’m trying to get all of our Christmas-related activities like Santa Claus checked off my list as well as get as much Christmas shopping done as I can before the baby gets here and I’m too busy for that.  I'm also trying to figure out where we're having Dominic's birthday party in February (yes, several months away but apparently we have to get it reserved now). This process has become reminiscent of wedding-planning.

Catch Air Slide - a possibility for Dominic's 2nd birthday party

An inflatable slide at Jeronimo - another possibility for Dominic's 2nd birthday party

Dominic and Daddy love those inflatable places!

As I stress about getting ready for BCM’s arrival, I’m also dealing with the day-to-day ups and downs involved in raising a toddler especially as he’s getting the last of his canines.  His behavior these days varies by the day and the minute between being like a sweet, little angel and tantrums/yelling/terrible twos behavior.  The yelling has gotten out of hand as it seems like Dominic has discovered his “voice” and how the power of how extremely loud it can be.  To combat the yelling, I’ve reverted to my teaching methods of talking very quietly and the nonverbal cue of putting my finger over my lips to signal to be quiet but honestly that doesn’t seem very effective at this point.  With all of these negative behaviors, timeout has become a place where Dominic visits regularly.  It seems to help his behavior, but my biggest challenge is Dominic’s behavior out of the house.  Public tantrums are not only embarrassing, but I honestly am at a loss as to how to provide consequences for his behavior like timeout in a public setting or at someone else’s house.  I can’t put Dominic in a safe “timeout” area outside of our house.  

Another challenge I’m encountering is Dominic’s behavior in structured settings like music, gymnastics, and Gymboree.  The problem is that Dominic just wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it.  So when in music he’s supposed to be participating in a group activity instead of going off by himself, he gets upset and has tantrums.  This is where the public timeout issue also comes into play.  Brian says we should just quit music (and these kind of activities), but I disagree as I think the best way to combat this issue is to get him used to participating in these kinds of activities.  

Music last week actually went better.  I gave Dominic Motrin for his teeth beforehand, and we brought his little “yow” (aka cow) for him to hold during the transitional periods where he had to give up a musical instrument, which is when he seems to have the most trouble.  Dominic still did not participate the entire time, but he did for the first time ever participate in the hello song at the beginning of the lesson where the teacher brings him around to each student.  It worked out well that there were only 2 other students there during the song since everyone else in the class was late, and Dominic did keep trying to come back to me, but this was definitely a step in the right direction and gave me some much-needed assurance that I’m making the right decision to keep him in music.

School is going very well these days, and I am so thankful that I decided to put him in the program especially twice a week.  I don’t always take full advantage of my time off, but these days I’m so exhausted that the break of being able to sit on my blog, watch some of my backed up DVR, and update my long overdue blog is perfect.  Dominic is now successfully walking into the classroom tear-free!!  The thing is that we realized he loves his teacher Ms. Dottie but doesn’t seem to feel that way about the assistant.  When we would walk into school and see Ms. Leslie, he would cry until Ms. Dottie would take him.  Now Ms. Dottie tries to make sure to greet Dominic at the door and goes to her without any problem.  When I pick him up from school, Dominic always has a smile on his face before he sees me but also gets very excited once he does see me, so it’s the best of both worlds.  They’re continuing to learn body parts at school, which he’s doing great with.  Dominic also got an invitation to his first classmate’s birthday party in a couple of weeks, which we’re planning to go to.  

Dominic is continuing to become more and more verbal, which is very fun to hear!  His new favorite word is “doggy.”  He’s also saying “up-pa” (or “up please”) all of the time when he wants me to pick him up...or apparently when he wants to be put down.  We’re still working on “down” at this point. Being able to communicate “up” to us has thankfully helped Dominic not whine as much to us (especially to me) since he would often whine when he wanted to be picked up.  I hope the increase in language will continue to help with the negative behaviors that Dominic exhibits due to the language barrier.  I have to translate a lot of what he says to other people, but his vocabulary is increasing and his pronunciation is improving more and more. 

Silly boy! 

Today is Halloween, so I can’t wait to take Dominic “trick or treating” although I’m guessing it’ll be pretty short-lived.  I’ll try to update the blog again soon with Halloween pictures and let you know how it went.  

Getting ready for Halloween by hanging out with some scarecrows and pumpkins at our church ;)