35 Weeks and Freaking Out!

This week I will be 35 weeks pregnant. Having an older child that I have to focus all my time and attention on has made this pregnancy fly by. Ryan was born 15 days early so I am a bit nervous about this one showing up early too. As if we don't have enough going on right now, we are moving again. This is the second time we will have moved during this pregnancy. We have only been in our current place for about 6 months. We saw a great opportunity to buy a place and jumped at the chance. Needless to say, escrow closes next week and we are moving the following week. With all the added stress of a move, Ryan in a new preschool that he is having a hard time getting used to, and being pregnant, I really hope this baby can hold off at least for 3 weeks or so. I am having many Braxton Hicks contractions and hoping that they will remain Braxton Hicks contractions and not turn into the real thing.

This baby is much more active then I remember Ryan being, especially at night. That is not a good sign. This one will probably not be a great sleeper. I am trying to prepare myself for the lack of sleep, but really it is impossible. The baby weighs about 4 1/2 pounds as of 2 weeks ago and the dr. says I am looking at a 7- 8 pound baby. Ryan was a tiny 6 pounds 6 ounces so having a much bigger baby scares me a little.

Ryan has been talking to my belly quite a bit. He will put his face right up to it and say, " Hi Baby, I'm your big brother, Ryan. I'm going to help Mommy take care of you. I sing to you" He will then sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to my stomach. It is really cute. He is still convinced that he is having a sister. I think many of our family members are convinced that I am having a girl. I think it may just be that they all want us to have a girl so badly that they feel this way. I have not had any indication either way but think it may be another boy.

Since Sanjay and I cannot agree on any names, we have been asking Ryan if he likes either of our favorite names. He is so funny, he will say," I like that name," when I ask him about my favorite girl name. Sometimes he will say, "No, I do not like that name, that's silly." I think we will both take our favorite girl and boy names to the hospital and choose after the baby is born. After all it did take us a day or so for us to actually call Ryan, Ryan. We were not completely convinced that was the name we wanted, okay, I wanted that name, Sanjay did not. Now he loves the name Ryan and can't imagine him as anything else.

These next five weeks are going to fly by. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that we are so close to having a second child. I think Ryan is going to be a huge help when I come home with the baby. But, what I am really freaking out about is what to do with Ryan while I am giving birth??? I want him at the hospital in the waiting room with our families, Sanjay wants him at a friend's house. Yet another big dilemma. Guess we will decide what to do when the moment comes. Wish us luck, as we have a lot going on in the next few weeks!

Ryan Reading a Library Book

Each week I take Ryan to the library to choose books to bring home. He loves going to the library. He also enjoys being read to or just looking at books by himself. We had the book The Five Little Firefighters for one week. In this time it seems he memorized the words on each page. Although it sounds a bit jumbled, this was the third time he had read this book aloud in one setting. I had him read it again just so I could record it. I was amazed at what he remembered.

Ryan Reading a Library Book from tracy roy on Vimeo.

Preschool

On September 7, Ryan started preschool. Although he still attends his preschool transition class twice a week, this new school is the real deal. He is only going to the new school once a week, but he can be dropped off as early as 7 and picked up as late as 6. I, of course, take him at 8:30 and pick him up promptly at 11:30, right after lunch. He can nap there, they have cute little cots set up for the kids, but I'm not ready to let him sleep at school yet. I'm sure we will try it eventually, but we are not there yet. Ryan's favorite part about his new preschool is that he gets to take his lunch in his new monkey lunch box.

On the first day of school, and every week that he has been there, he cries when I drop him off. It makes me feel really guilty about leaving him, but I know he will get used to it and look forward to going there one day. Ryan loves his other preschool class that he goes to twice a week and is so excited to go. Too bad we will now be cutting that down to just one day a week. He will have one day at the new school and one day at the old school. Our goal is to transition him to two days at the new school.

One of the best things about the new preschool is that the director will send me pictures and video of Ryan in class after I have dropped him off. Most days I am at home feeling terrible about leaving him and hoping he has stopped crying, and then I receive a video of him dancing and singing in class. This is very reassuring for me. I can then go on with my day knowing that he is happy and having a great time.

A Brief Conversation With Ryan

Ryan: Mommy, I'm pretty, my pajamas are pretty!

Me: Ryan, you are a boy. Boys are handsome, and your pajamas are cute.

Ryan: Mommy, I don't want to play this game with you.

Clearly, he is still learning the difference between pretty and handsome!

The Big Boy Bed

We ordered the big boy bed, the mattress and the bedding. It arrived on a Saturday and Sanjay put it together before Ryan's nap time. I assumed it would sit empty while Ryan napped in the crib. Boy was I wrong! Ryan quickly decided he wanted to nap in the big boy bed and took a two hour nap there. For one full week he has happily napped and slept each night in the big boy bed. After naptime and in the morning when Ryan wakes up, he will talk and lay in his bed. He will not get out, he will not come to our room. He waits patiently for me to come and get him up. He can easily climb out of his bed, but he chooses to wait for me. I know it is not supposed to be this easy. I'm not sure why it has been this easy. We have been so lucky! I know we have plenty of challenges ahead of us, but we are so thankful that this was an easy transition and not a battle.

Two and a Half

Today, Ryan is two and a half years old. I cannot believe how quickly my little boy is growing up. I have to say that 2 is my favorite age, so far. I'm sure I have said this every time we hit another milestone. I love how independent Ryan is, how verbal he is, how kind and sweet he is, and how funny he is. I find myself laughing with him so much these days. Some of the things that come out of his little mouth are comical.

After each night of sleep or after every nap, I always ask Ryan, "How did you sleep?" To which he will always respond, "Very well." What two year old talks like that? It never gets old and since I find it so amusing, I constantly ask. Sanjay and I also ask Ryan if he had a good time on the way home from a playdate or a trip to our parents' houses, or after a visit with friends. It never fails he will always say, "Yes, we do again." Then we will tell him,"Yes," and he will say, "Another day." It is almost like having a conversation with an adult. Lately, Ryan has been saying to both Sanjay and me, "This is the best day ever!" I took him to the library to check out books and he said, "Mommy, this is the best day ever!" It is really cute, but I know he is just repeating what he heard on one of his favorite tv shows. Although I would like to think that he really believes that it is the best day, I have my doubts that he really knows what that means.

Sometimes I forget that he is only two and a half because the things he says sound like what a big kid would say. Just the other day we had to wait around for a plumber to come to the house. With no indication of when they would show up, we were house bound for a good portion of the day. Only four hours into our very long day, Ryan and I were not seeing eye to eye. We both needed to go outside and get some fresh air. He was throwing a major temper tantrum so I told him we would go to my favorite coffee shop and get some coffee for mommy. This cheered him up a bit and once the tears stopped he told me, "Mommy, I'm having a rough day." It was the cutest thing. Of course I told him that I, too was having a rough day. When I got him strapped into his carseat he looked up at me with his large, sad puppy dog eyes and asked, " Mommy, you love me?" I felt really awful that he asked me that because I always want him to know that I do and never to question that. I scooped him up out of his seat, hugged him and told him that I loved him very much. Even when I am having a rough day, I will always love him no matter what.

Since we are approximately 13 short weeks from the birth of Ryan's baby brother or sister, we are spending a lot of time talking with Ryan about having a sibling. He keeps saying what a big helper he is going to be. I know he will be very helpful, but I can't help feeling like he is still the baby and needs so much of our time and attention. It will be a huge adjustment for all of us and even though I feel like we are preparing for it, I just think when reality hits we will all spend many months adjusting to the changes.

With only a short time left with Ryan as an only child I have had the grand freak out about him not being potty trained and still sleeping in a crib. We bought a big boy potty for Ryan a few months ago, but he is showing little to no interest in it. He will sit there occasionally and read books, he will talk about going to the bathroom, but nothing ever happens on the "big boy potty." I have since decided that stressing myself out about it is not helping anyone. It will probably cause Ryan more anxiety so I have backed off. I will ask him if he wants to use it, if he does, great, if not, no big deal. I keep reminding myself that he will not be the child in kindergarten wearing diapers. There will come a day when he will want to do it, so until then we will just follow his lead.

My other struggle is the crib. I am not ready to let Ryan out of the crib. He takes 2-3 hour naps every day and sleeps 10-12 hours peacefully each night in there. My thought: Why ruin a good thing? Eventually the baby will need the crib, but not right away. We have ordered a toddler bed and some very cool fire truck sheets. My hope is by putting the bed in the room, he will want to sleep in it at some point. Yet another thing I have chosen to not get worked up about right now.

I can't believe that we have six months before our little guy turns three. He constantly amazes me with what he knows. I always hear him singing songs that I don't recognize, songs that he picks up from his preschool class. He is now really interested in flash cards and learning the letters of the alphabet. He can recognize 20 of the 26 letters in the alphabet. When we are out running errands he will tell me what letters he sees and then will ask me what a sign says. He has a crazy thirst for knowledge and cannot get enough of books, music, and art. The past two and a half years have gone by so quickly, I wish I could slow down the clock just a bit. Since I cannot, we are just trying to enjoy each moment we have, the good and even the not so good.

Where Has Summer Gone?

I cannot believe summer is almost over. It flew by so quickly. We have been pretty busy! Here are just a couple things that we have done lately.

We finally had a couple days of sun this summer and headed to the beach. Ryan loved the water, but did not like the fact that the sand would not come off of his hands.




On a random Sunday we were out and Ryan wanted to "drive the car." So, I let him. Clearly it made his day!













A few days ago Ryan got another haircut. It is a little shorter than I like it, but who knew how quickly a boy's hair would grow. Hopefully this cut can last him a few months. It definitely makes him look older. Does he look like a big brother yet??? Well, in a few months, hard to believe, my baby will be a big brother.