Moot Thoughts & Musings

You SURE you have 10 more weeks left to go?!!! Let's hope that the last 10 weeks was just a belly growth spurt and the rest of the time will be more gradual! ;)

Some baby/vaccine books you may be interested in, if you haven't read them:

Mind Over Labor by Carl Jones
Birthing From Within by Pam England and Rob Horowitz
Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent's Guide by Aviva Jill Romm

Enjoy nesting! =D

P.S. We plan to go to Ocean City again this summer so we can stop by for a quick visit to say hello and meet the new baby, if you like. =)

Thumbs-up on the swaddle blanket!! We use the swaddle-me's, but I've heard great things about the miracle blankets, too. And having one as a back-up is a great idea (I got back-ups when I realized I'd do a whole load of laundry just to have the swaddler for the night).

I'm so excited for you. You are such a beautiful pregnant woman!

Jeanette,
I love reading your blog entries because they remind me of what I was going through just 7 short months ago! Thankfully son #2 was 3 weeks earlier than we thought. I was so sick of being pregnant and chasing a 2 year old!
We got a bassinet for #2 that was small enough to go beside the bed but could also be wheeled into different rooms. Loved it! Nathaniel would sleep in his bassinet right in the middle of all the comotion in the living room.
Also, I highly recommend dr. sears Vaccine Book. I use his delayed vaccine schedule for Nathaniel and am glad I do because his reactions are always so bad. I love how the book gives good, easy to understand, information and then trusts the parent to make the right choice for their child and family without feeling guilty.
Hang in there! Your baby will be here before you know it!

Yes, it is a relief to not have to start from scratch. If you remind me after we move I will take you out and buy you the nursing bras. I think it is kinda funny there is this picture of your big belly at the bottom your post and right underneath it is the title of the next post "Life is like a submarine". Couldn't resist checking up on you. I put the garge sale on craigslist. Seeya

Jeannette -- is that the same "Starry Night" mug I got you when you left Cono?

I don't think you can grow 10 more weeks either. That tummy is looking ready!

So exciting, Jeannette! We use the Arm's Reach Original Co-sleeper and love it, though admittedly- Will still ends up IN bed with us more often than not. He does start the night in it though which is usually 4 or so hours. :) I love it! We keep our babies in our bed/in the co-sleeper until almost a year (or this is our tradition so far anyway) so that's why we chose the original as opposed to the mini though the size of the mini would be less obtrusive in our room. Oh well. :)

I also second the recommendation for "Birthing from Within" by Pam England. I loved that book in preparation for Claire's birth.

You'll have to give reviews of those vaccination books! I've been very interested in reading them myself, but it seems like I'll never get the chance.

I loved being pregnant the first time and HATED it the second time around. Thank goodness for tubals. I do miss the convenient place to sit things, like my plate while eating dinner. I see you make good use of it for your coffee. you look cute!

J-
Your To Do list looks unbelievably ambitious to me, considering you're hoping for six weeks from now. :) But you constantly amaze me with what you are able to accompish! Your belly is adoreable! :)
Love ya!
Janna

I can't wait to hear how you like the blanket. I had three colicky boys (I told the doc not to say the c-word and she said she didn't care what I called or didn't call it, it wasn't going to change the fact). Each time after the first several months I'd think, "Doh! I wish I'd tried one of those blankets!"

And I'm just going to rub it in now instead of waiting (just cause it's fun to rub something in on another pregnant woman besides myself). Good luck on the to-do list. Get some things done while you still can!

Sounds like you are ready! (And getting ready!) You've got a beautiful baby belly. . . (Oh, and I love the pics from the new camera.)

Hi J
I loved reading your entry. You are adorable....and so is your tummy. We have been very happy with delayed vaccinations. All five children were vaccinated after age 2 (shhhh, don't tell anyone) It significantly reduced the number of total injections they needed, but we did it for different reasons than most. That's a phone discussion for another day when you are done meeting your preparation goals. Happy sewing!

You've got the cutest pregnant belly! I bet Ellis is getting excited! And good for you being able to relax and do a little nesting this time around.

I looked at the Ikea highchair and loved it for its simplicity. What a price! I love that place. The town we are moving to is just about to open one, so I have a feeling I'll become intimately familiar with their products after the move.

I have friends who have very successfully used the hypnobirthing technique. I actually used it for the first 10 hours of labor with great success (and no eppy) but then Ethan's stats dropped and they did a c-section. But I'm a believer. People who were in and out of the room all day thought that I was actually asleep.

Whatever you use you'll do great, this I'm convinced of.

Jeanette, thanks so much for the Hyland's teething products recommendation -- I am really glad to have found them! And in the interest of sharing ideas, I thought I'd tell you that we've gotten around having to get a high chair at all by getting one of those little portable booster seats that straps into a dining room chair for Kate. Now I'm not sure how it will work when she gets older, but for now, it has a tray and keeps her in one place, and we don't have to have a bulky high chair in the kitchen, where space is always an issue. Congratulations on getting down to the home stretch of this pregnancy. Can't wait to read about the new little guy!

Great post!!! and pics. I LOVE your new coffee table, did you get that at IKEA too? ;) The most important thing I can tell you to do right now is SLEEP if at all possible whenever, where ever! oh yeah and the whole nesting thing...it's quite helpful when you start a few weeks before you actually give birth...don't forget to RELAX too! and smile!

And... don't forget... I have TONS of nursing clothes waiting for you!!!

Now, I don't know how your crib is, but ours is one of those that will be stable even with one of the sides down. What I'd recommmend, REALLY because I waited until Kelvin was 18 months and sleeping in our tiny full bed with us to do it, but then I did it with Linton from DAY ONE and LOVED IT was:

taking one side of the crib down and putting it by your bed. Most cribs can be adjusted as to height and ours was exactly the same height as the bed. the only thing I had to do was to add some older blankets to the other side of the baby mattress so it would be really fitting really tightly against out mattress. It was WONDERFUL, let me tell you. I didn't worry about the baby being on an unsafe surface and I only leaned over and nursed him. Then... later on, when he was around 18 months and we started to work on night weaning him, we lowered the crib mattress so he couldn't roll onto our bed anymore and was contained in his. Oh, another good thing about this arrangement is that you can still use the crib bumper, you just fold one side over the other before tying it up. Co-sleepers are MUCH smaller than a crib and babies grow REALLY quickly. Having the baby close to you but still 'contained" in the crib would certainly help you sleep better, that I can assure you.

OK, enough of all this preaching..,. and I should be in bed already since tomorrow we're traveling back home, but I just could NOT not add a comment to this post! :-)

I LOVE the miracle blanket. I don't know what I would do without it!

I wish I could come help you sew! I could help you make curtains like we did in NOLA, and help you with a quilt! That would be so much fun. Anything I can do to help? Or are they all just projects you want to do yourself? I still want to come visit some time, maybe before Babe is born. Or would you prefer after? I can't remember.

Cosleeper looks cool! I've never seen one of those. I've seen the little curvy cushion things for tiny babies to sleep in the bed with you (and it protects them from getting smushed by you). But that could make the bed crowded for mom 'n dad.