Bye bye crib

I want to write down the process we are going through as we transition Zoey out of her crib.  It might be interesting to look back on later when we are ready to try with another kid. Zoey is 21 months old now.  We bought a toddler bed that is low enough to the ground that she can climb in all by herself and it has a little railing on each side of her pillow so she doesn't fall of the bed.  It holds a crib size mattress. It is a used one that we found on the ksl classifieds; $40 for the bed and mattress.  We picked it up on Sunday and just let it be in her room for a couple of days.  She would climb onto it and get used to it when I was putting the laundry away or just doing whatever in her room during the day.

I thought we'd start with night time and get that established before I tried naps. She can see better for naps and I don't want her climbing out after a 20 minute snooze. Right now we've got a good thing going with naps where she goes down willingly and sleeps at least an hour and a half. I'm not in a hurry to mess that up. 

On Wednesday, day 1: Tanner put her in the new bed at bedtime. She snuggled in and didn't even act like anything was different.  She slept the whole night till 6:15am,  when she woke up and cried, "daddy, daddy, binky, binky." I think she was scared because she woke up in a new place. Tanner went in to her to try to coax her back to sleep for at least another hour.  She stood up like she would do in her crib and just cried, "get out!  Get out!" meaning that she wanted to get out of bed.  She didn't even realize that she could climb out of this one by herself.  Sadly, we didn't get that extra hour of also we are hoping for.

Day 2: I can't remember all that well. I guess because it was a couple of days ago and apparently nothing that noteworthy happened. I believe she slept like normal till 7ish, climbed out,  and came to cuddle with tanner in the morning.

Day 3: I checked the monitor at 5 and saw that she didn't have her blanket or binky which often means we will have an early morning when she realizes it. So I snuck into her room like a ninja, recovered her, and placed her binky very close to her hand so she could easily put it back in when she wanted. Just as I was closing the door behind me as I left, she saw me and started to cry for me to come sit by her as she fell asleep again. Dang! So I went back and sat on the floor next to her bed forever because I wanted her to be all the way asleep before I attempted to leave again.  This time I made a safe escape. The morning was pretty great tho. When she woke up at 7ish , she looked around and said, "bed, beddy, bed" in her happy, well rested voice.  She climbed out of bed and said, "Yay!" and went straight downstairs. She came back up about 5 or 10 minutes later,  said hi to tanner in bed and went back downstairs to watch a show on the tablet (cus she knows how to turn one on all by herself) for another quiet hour.  Can you believe it?! I didn't have to wake up with her and go entertain her.  She actually let us sleep without causing any trouble or whining or anything.  I felt a little guilty around 8 and went down to be with her anyway.

Day 4: Zoey woke up at 4:15 to realize she didn't have her blanket on anymore and her binky was lost. She screamed, "daddy, daddy!", (notice what a daddy's girl she is) hurried to climb out of bed, and ran to our room.  Tanner took her back to her room and lulled her back to almost - asleep.  But she noticed when he tried to leave the room and tried to climb out of bed again.  He ended up putting her in her crib so he could get away without her following him.  She didn't mind when he left after that.

Day 5: She has been cranky all day.  We had to put her in her crib to sleep tonight because she won't stay in her bed and had to cry for a minute before falling asleep.

Day 6: I tried to put her in her bed, but she stood up and begged for her crib.  I didn't feel the need to fight with her about it, so in the crib she went. She was happy to be there and laid down immediately.
Hmm.. Maybe she's not really ready to grow up in that way yet.  I wonder if the runny noise that started today has anything to do with it. Although I would love to not have to go get her out of her crib every morning, it's not worth it if we have to go in to her at 4am instead.  I'm okay with waiting a little longer. I'll just update as we go.

update: 27 weeks along with baby boy

I have 12 weeks left of being pregnant. I believe that puts me officially into the third trimester. I am feeling anxious to have the baby! Not only because I don't particularly enjoy being pregnant, which I don't, but mostly because I just want him to be here with us. I want our family to be complete. Even tho we know he is real and I can feel him moving inside of me all the time, it's like he's only pretend. He isn't really here. Not yet.

I can't wait for Zoey to finally know her little brother and to start to get used to the life of sisterhood as opposed to only-childhood. I feel like the longer she is here, alone, with only mommy and daddy, the more she thinks that is how things are supposed to be. She is getting awfully familiar with hogging all of our attention.  The longer this baby stays inside my body, the harder it is going to be for her to get used to having another baby in our house. I'm being a little bit dramatic I'm sure. How much of a difference is 3 months going to make anyway? I don't know. I can't do anything about it anyway. But I just want him here with us now.

My sister, Taylor, just had a baby shower this past weekend.  And my mom was smart enough and adamant enough to get a picture of she, my cousin Leisa, and I all together with our baby bellies. We are all having boys. If you include my other cousin, Nicole, who has a one month old baby, and my sister-in-law, Staci, who is 6 weeks behind me, you will count 5 baby boys all born within 6 months of each other. Our little guy is going to have some fun buddies to hang out with when the time comes. Anyway, here are the pictures that my mom took of us. Just for the sake of knowing what I look like this go-round, since I've taken about 0 pictures this whole pregnancy. I am 27 weeks along, Leisa is 41, Taylor is 34, and Taylor's aunt is 24 weeks along with twins. I hope no one minds me putting pictures of them here.

Baby belly kiss 

St George Spontaneity

Tanner and I have started to feel spring fever because it has been pretty good weather lately,  not freezing, snowing, winter, January weather that we have been expecting.  It has been nice,  but also leaving us wishing for just a little bit warmer,  so when we heard that it was going to get into the 70s in St George, we decided Friday to pack up and go there that evening .  We have been wanting to get away but then we get overwhelmed with the planning of hotels and traveling around nap time and heaven-forbid flying anywhere, so we have put it off. This trip was the most spontaneous thing we have done since Zoey was born. I think it was the lack of planning and worry time that made it possible (and the two bedroom hotel rooms we got so we wouldn't bug the babe while she slept).  We left here at 5pm on Friday and drove 2.5 hours to Beaver so Zoey could be in bed only a half hour late.  On Saturday, we played at the hotel pool and then left to drive the hour to get to St George.  Zoey only napped for 40 minutes in the car, but was a champ the rest of the day considering how tired she must have been. I should mention that she woke up at 5:45 and wouldn't go back to sleep. We didn't do much,  just enjoyed the wonderful, warm, sunny weather.  We played at the park for most of the day.  Then on Sunday, we packed up the car and drove all the way home.  It was nice because we weren't in a hurry to get home.  We stopped for an hour at lunch time in Fillmore and played outside some more.  It still only took us 5 hours to get home. No nap at all on Sunday; Zoey was practically begging for bed when the time came.  All-in-all, the trip was a huge success.  We really needed that warm weather boost. 

Baby again

I guess this as good a time as any to tell the new news in our lives. Baby number two is on his way.  I've been cooking this little bun in my oven for almost 6 months now.  The due date is May 4th,  2015. I haven't been taking pictures like I did the first time around.  These are a couple of quick pics my mom took on her phone two months ago.

 You can see something is happening, but the bump is nothing like it is now.  Maybe I'll get around to getting some up-to-date pictures taken off my family and I before the little guy gets here.  Maybe.

The first three months were annoying with all the queasiness and food aversions. I found it very challenging to feed Zoey because I felt like I was gonna throw up if I looked at any food.  I was always exhausted and my stomach and belly hurt constantly.  It's hard to explain, but it felt like my belly was tired from holding all the extra new stuff inside. It doesn't make sense because there wasn't really anything there yet,  but it felt like it. I'll chalk it up to hormones I guess.  Time pressed on though, and the sickness gradually eased up and went away for good by month four. I was feeling way more energy too.  In fact, month four and five weren't bad.

Now month six is getting annoying again, but for different reasons. Mostly just because of this huge stomach I now have.  I have few shirts that cover it, most of which are special maternity shirts.  None of my regular pants fit.  I have maternity pants that stretch over my belly but squish it so bad, it's hardly worth the pain.  I'm just happy that my current boss (my kid) doesn't care if I wear my husband's pajama pants all day.  I already feel short of breath like my lungs are running out of room.  I can only imagine what is in store for the next 3 and a half months.  I'm being a baby though, I know.  I don't have any real problems like high blood pressure or the many other worse things that often accompany pregnancy.  I actually have it very good compared to a lot of other women.

Zoey is already learning to adapt.  She knows that I will only hold her if I'm sitting, lifting her out of her crib, or giving her a piggy back down the stairs (if I'm feeling nice).  She hardly ever even asks anymore because I anyways tell her "I can't hold you, it hurts my tummy." It makes me a little sad. I want to be able to hold her sometimes too. This is just the first of many changes that are going to be happening in zoey's life. I don't want to take away these sweet pleasures, but that's the way life goes I guess. She will be a great big sister.  (picture taken in August)

Some Things That I Love

ABOUT ZOEY
-The way she says "whoa" or "ooh" or "ahh" when she sees something cool or is surprised by a near fall or something of the sort. It is so adorable in her little voice and body.
-She makes a little "pbht" sound (like blowing raspberries) when she makes a little mess-up like misses her footing or bumps into something. She also does it when she starts to get upset or frustrated.
-She is talking all the time now, not English, just her own language that consists of a lot of "lillerliller" type sounds with her tongue on her teeth.
-When we play "gonna getcha" (one of her favorite games) she runs away for a couple of steps, but inevitably turns around and runs toward the chaser while giggling every time!
- She has loved sneezing ever since she was a tiny baby. She used to get this huge grin after every one when she very first learned to control her smiles. Now those grins have turned into giggles. Sometimes her laughing in between sneezes will actually stop the next one from coming.

MOVIES
-About Time
-7 Pounds
-Slumdog Millionaire
-The Holiday
-The Family Stone
-The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

BOOKS
-Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. By Elizabeth Gilbert
-Tao Te Ching. Translated by Stephen Mitchell
-The Gospel According to Jesus. By Stephen Mitchell

ABOUT LIFE
-Running through the sprinklers, especially at midnight
-The feeling of the grass on my toes, or the cement, or soft carpet anything really. I like being barefoot.
-School and learning
-Teeter totters
-Soft skin
-Waterfalls
-The soothing sound of my bedroom fan
-Ice cream sandwiches
-laughing
-Seeing other people's talents
-Seeing couples that are truly happy