Better Than A Tanning Bed

I did it. I had the baby. Just kidding.

I found a way to lay out while pregnant. A while back I blogged about how I was going to cut a hole in a lawn chair so I could tan the back of my body while pregnant. I stole some really, really old lawn chairs from my mom's house but when I got home to cut them up, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Not because the chairs were too good looking to cut up (they were so ugly they were begging me to take the scissors to them), but because it just seemed too ghetto for even me.

But, today, I finally got bored enough and desperate enough to make it happen. I headed to my sister's house so she could watch the little ones (and her backyard is sunny, mine is shady) and while the boys played:



I cut:



I was really doing that beauty a favor by cutting it up. The only problem was that I guessed my belly would go in the center, but I really should have cut it a little more towards the top; my feet hung off the end a bit. It was still great to lay on my stomach. The baby thought it was fun too, he was going nuts kicking around.



We were laughing pretty hard once I tried it out. This is the only picture I'm posting because it's a close up. The others show too much of my white and whaleish body to be showing off to the general public. I like to keep my scariness for family and friends only.

I have to admit, while extremely white trash, it's a pretty good solution. It also makes for some good laughs. Plus, I now have another place to lay while on bedrest. I may be getting fatter and fatter, but at least it'll be a tan fat, right?

The Big Move

I wish this was a post about us moving to a new house. It's not. But it is about my little guy moving to a new bed. That's just about as exciting, right?

My goal was to have Ben in a big boy bed by the end of May. The planner in me wanted him to get used to a bed before the baby came and stole his crib. May didn't happen so I pushed it back to the end of June. It's how things roll around here. After John caught Ben swinging in and out of the crib like a monkey, we decided the sooner the better. Knowing that tonight was the night, and because I'm abnormally cheesy and sentimental these days, I had to take a picture of Ben's last morning in his crib. Plus, his hair was looking exceptionally good this morning. What can I say, he gets his bedhead from me. (That and he's about two months too late for a haircut. Gotta get on that...)



Ben's been dying to cut open the bed box for weeks (we didn't get the bed put together until June, but it's been sitting in a box in the playroom since May). He was super excited to help dad put it together, but he had even more fun taking the crib apart. The whole time he was helping he kept saying, "I'm a worker guy." He's really going through a manual labor phase right now...



After we got it all set up and the bed made, we did a little reading...



And then it was time for bed. He seemed a little nervous when we tucked him in, but he went right down.



I can't believe my little baby is in a big boy bed. It seems like such a big step to me. Plus, I'm worried that because he's not caged in anymore it'll be the end of naps. I guess we'll see tomorrow. Cross your fingers for me!

My Pity Party

Are you so sick of hearing about this pregnancy? It seems like it's all I blog about. I would say I'm just as sick of actually being pregnant, but given yesterday's news, everyday I continue to be pregnant, I'm happy.

I went to the doctor's a couple weeks ago because I'd been having some contractions. I'm crampy almost daily, which I wasn't too concerned about, but I'd had a few episodes of really distinct contractions that lasted for a couple hours so I thought I'd go in just to be safe. My doctor checked me and assured me I was fine, wasn't dilating and that the progesterone injections were and should do their job. But, because I keep having contractions, and because the injections aren't 100% guaranteed, she wanted to start fetal fibronectin tests (a test that will tell you if you have a chance of going into labor in the next two weeks) at 24 weeks.

Yesterday was my appointment and I got the test done. I haven't been nearly as crampy in the last couple weeks and I haven't had any serious contractions, so I was expecting good results. It came back positive though (which for this test is bad news) and my doctor put me on "moderate" bedrest. When I asked what things I shouldn't be doing, she pretty much named everything: cooking, cleaning, sex, walking, lifting. Sounds just like regular bedrest to me.

I've been having some major mom guilt over this. So far through this pregnancy, Ben has been my first priority. Even with cramps and contractions, I've felt like I need to take care of Ben first. He's real and alive and standing right in front of me, and I need to take care of him. I've just assumed that the baby will be fine and if I can take it, he can take it. I thought we'd just been sucking it up together. So now I'm having mom guilt over not taking better care of myself to ensure nothing would go wrong with the baby. Add to that the guilt of now not being able to take care of Ben like I feel like I should. I'm a big ball of hormonal guilt.

I'm lucky I have family nearby and so many people that love Ben; I know he'll be well taken care of for however long I'm on bedrest. But I'm his mom and I want to be the one taking care of him. Today is the first day he's been gone and I just know he's having the time of his life. And I know he'll have the best summer having playdates every single day, but I miss him. I'm selfish and I hate the thought of just sitting here doing nothing while he's out there having fun. I want to watch him have fun.

I'm sorry this sounds like such pathetic melodrama. I go back in next week and I'm hoping she'll redo the test. I'm not really sure how the test works, but I'm crossing my fingers it'll come back negative. In the meantime, John's rearranged his work schedule so he'll be home in the afternoons and I have family to watch Ben in the mornings. Plus, it's only temporary; it's just one summer. It's really not so bad. I'm just freakishly hormonal right now and I'm gonna miss not having my little buddy around.

I don't know what I'm going to do when he starts preschool. I'll just know I'll have a nervous breakdown.