In response to: Reflections on my last day of being pregnant

Let's take a journey to my last blog post, written the day before Genevieve was born:

Instead of all the uncertainty of unknown labor, child birth, and recovery, I know exactly what's going to happen and how it's going to feel...

Wow.  Did I ever underestimate the existence of unknowns.


This week will forever go down in my family's history not only as the week Genevieve was born, but the week that Pete and I felt the most helpless we've ever felt up to this point.  Having a newborn baby on oxygen, a feeding tube, an I.V., and a bunch of monitors for days on end is something I never thought would happen to us. While I truly do understand that it could've been a lot worse, that doesn't dilute how very, very thankful I am that all has turned out well.  We had so many people rooting for her, asking about her, and praying for her.  I feel truly blessed to have the circle of family and friends that we do.  Being surrounded by love, support, and words of encouragement was exactly what my family needed this week.


So thank you.  Thank you to everyone for everything you did.  It meant more than you know.

Reflections on my last day of being pregnant

Well, the countdown is now in hours instead of days.  23 hours from now, I'll be getting all sewn up after the birth of my second child.  How weird to have childbirth so scheduled, organized, and planned.  How dare I know the exact half hour in which my child will be born?  Feels like I'm trying to play a role that should only be reserved for God, but everyone's intentions are for the good of me and the baby, so I'm sure God is still smiling.

This time around, I feel a lot more unprepared from a "setup" perspective (we still have things to get around, put together, and situated even today, instead of being weeks ahead of the game) but I feel so much more calm about the arrival of a new baby in general.  Instead of all the uncertainty of unknown labor, child birth, and recovery, I know exactly what's going to happen and how it's going to feel, so now I get to focus all my pre-birth thoughts on how wonderful it's going to be to finally meet this beautiful baby face to face.

22.5 hours from now.

I enjoyed being at home during Caroline's last week as an only child.  I was still working, but working with Caroline at my elbow is so much more fun, and at least gives me the illusion of spending quality time with her. I realized this week how much she truly has grown and learned and developed.  Much more than I had previously given her credit for.  Having the opportunity to discover, once again, how truly amazing Caroline is was a real blessing this last week.

Starting tomorrow, our collective world will be turned upside down, but we will roll with the punches, one day at a time.  I'm certain I'll be proud of every single member of this family.  That seems to be the trend anyway, from my limited 2.5 years of experience.  Everyone is going to do great.

22 hours from now.

Loaf o' Gold

Yesterday morning after breakfast, my daughter and I were lounging around, watching a couple episodes of Caillou.  In the last episode we watched, Caillou baked a cake with his mommy.

My daughter had watched this episode before, but this time, the cake really caught her attention.  I don't think I had even heard her say the word 'cake' before ('cookie,' yes, ALL the time... but never 'cake'), but here she was, running to the kitchen and searching through our pantry shelves, saying 'cake' over and over.

Before I continue with this story, here are a few important facts for reference:

1. You will rarely find me in the kitchen
2. I've never baked a cake without a pre-made boxed mix
3. My daughter has me securely wrapped around her pinky finger

Due to fact #3, I obviously had to bake a cake immediately, but that posed a problem with fact #2: we didn't have a boxed cake mix.  Keeping my composure, I turned to the one cookbook that has never failed me: my Betty Crocker cookbook from the 50's that my Mom gave me (who in turn had it given to her from her mother, who I lovingly call Nan).  Since I'm the third generation of women to use this cookbook, it has priceless notes and recommendations written in it that really make this cookbook the treasure that it is.

I turned to the Cakes section and started browsing for a cake that didn't require any ingredients we didn't have readily on hand.  I didn't want to mess with the layered, frosted cakes... I wasn't sure that my daughter would like a chocolate cake... I really wasn't sure what to try.

Then eureka! I saw one of Nan's unmistakable handwritten stars (written in bright pink ink, no less) next to a recipe, which always indicates that Nan really, really liked the recipe.  This was the only cake in the entire Cakes section that had one of Nan's pink stars.  Loaf o' Gold.

It was perfect.  Made in a bread pan, it was an easy, very straightforward pound cake.  Eggs, sugar, flour -- the usual stuff, and everything we had on hand.  My daughter and I rolled up our sleeves, put it all together, and stuck it in the oven for an hour.  As she ate her lunch, the cake was done, and both her and my husband had a couple slices for dessert.  They loved it, and I felt like a real mom, baking a cake with my daughter.

So to Nan, thank you for showing me the cake to make for my daughter, I know you saw us.  And to Mom, thank you for passing down this priceless cookbook.  I don't know what I'd do without it.

In response to: The power of routine

Remember that thing I said a few days ago?  It went something like this:

Now, before I tell the rest of this story, let me give a brief history on Caroline's bedtime habits: She never gets up out of bed at night after I put her down.  Never.  Never has once.

Well, little did I know, but that was about to become one of the biggest, fattest lies I've ever told.

Ever since that night, if she isn't sleepy, Caroline does indeed get back up out of bed.  Because now, she can work the doorknob to leave her room and join us in the family room.  Now she knows our secret.  We hang out in the family room after she goes to bed and do fun stuff like work on the laptop, read a book, or watch a movie.  Now she knows and she wants in.

Not that I blame her.  And not like she isn't completely precious and a darling when she comes back out here.  She sits quietly and reads books of her own.  And she's so very snuggly in her footy pajamas.

This is simply making us reevaluate her napping habits and make the cutoff earlier and shorter.  It's just another gradual transition as she continues to become a big girl (no matter how much I beg her to please stop growing older for a little while).  Life is full of these little transition points, and it keeps us on our toes.

"Teaching" manners

It struck me this past week or so how well Caroline is doing with basic good manners: Please, Thank you, and You're welcome.  With a cheery disposition and completely unprompted, she will say "Thank you" after being given something she wants, or even after receiving a verbal compliment.  If Pete or I thank her for giving us something, she says "You're welcome," and she is now finally saying "Yes, please" on a more regular basis.

Watching Caroline grow up and begin demonstrating traits of a well-mannered little girl made me wonder about how she even got there.  Pete or I never said to her "Say thank you" or "Say please."  We never made a conscious effort at teaching these manners, the way we typically think about teaching or instructing someone to do something.

But, as I thought about it, I realized we've always said please, thank you, and you're welcome to her whenever the occasion arose.  We speak to Caroline the way we want her to speak back to us, and I guess it's actually working.

That's kinda fun.

Caroline the Builder

Can she fix it?  Yes, she can!

Due to the massive snowstorm that hit the midwest last night, I had a snow day of sorts today and worked from home.  I used to work from home one day every week, but ever since I began my newest role at work, I just haven't had the opportunity to do that as much.  It was definitely a con of the job, but there were just too many pros, so I couldn't pass it up.

Anyway, during my lunch break today, I noticed Caroline building with blocks.  She's had several sets of blocks for over a year now, but the most fun she's typically had with them is dumping them out on the floor and spreading them around.  But today, I noticed her really focusing -- and longer than five minutes -- on building towers with the blocks.

Boy, did I ever scoop up that golden opportunity!  Since I was due for a break, I sat down with her and we built with blocks for quite some time.  Caroline was really concentrating hard on these blocks and how she was arranging them as the tower grew higher and higher.  Then we'd have fun knocking them down and starting over again.

It was definitely the most fun lunch break I've had in a long time.

Saturday snow day

Though Caroline isn't yet in school, and I certainly never get work cancelled due to weather, we had a nice Saturday snow day yesterday.  There were a couple things we had planned on doing, like getting some grocery shopping done and maybe putting snow gear on and playing outside, but it was snowing too hard for the former and was way too cold for the latter.

And you know what?  It was kind of nice.  We were forced to stay inside, relax, and find indoor things to do while big, fluffy snowflakes fell to the ground all day.  Pete and Caroline had an indoor soccer game, there was definitely hot tea drinking and movie watching going on, and Caroline took a nice long nap in the afternoon.

Winter in Michigan isn't so bad when you don't have to go anywhere.