Falling Ahead

When I first got pregnant one of the first thoughts I had was, “What will Emery be like when the baby is born?” She had just turned a year old when we found out I was pregnant and I knew she would be 20 months (21 if I go late) and I wondered what she would be doing (on her own), saying, not doing (on her own), acting like, etc. At my last doctor appointment my doctor said that the average second time mom goes into labor at 39 weeks so that means…. this is what she will be like. Eek… 

She still needs help going up the stairs and always tries to go down the stairs by herself but needs my hand, she loves to get into my things (see picture above), says lots of new words - about one new word a day it seems like, loves to watch anything on the Disney Jr. station (we have been watching a lot of it lately cause of potty training, more on that below), loves to be chased, still goes to bed like a champ but wants to brush her own teeth, loves to kiss the baby (i.e. my belly), says “Hi” and “Buh Bye” to everyone, blows kisses when I tell her to say “I love you”, has found a friend in her “Lovee” doll and always needs her and blankie in the crib, still is in the crib (not for long), can get fiesty when its time to share things with others, and loves frozen yogurt. 

One new development is in the field of potty training. We have been accident free now for two whole days!!! I started a week ago today with the 3 day, intense, don’t leave your house, naked below the waist, boot camp style, potty training. Needless to say, I made it a day and half before we had an unavoidable errand to run and I had to put a diaper back on her. So I had to modify our plan and we pretty much were doing half day potty training boot camp. I would have her pee pee on the potty in the morning, then run our errands in a diaper, and then when we got back she spent the rest of the day either naked or in undies (except for naps and night time). Yesterday though something clicked, I think it helped that I have been having her go naked more than wearing the undies. She has a hard time taking the undwewear off on her own so I think being naked is just easier for her to sit down on the potty and go without my help. Today she went a few times without me even realizing it (allelujah!). We have our portable potty in the living room most of the time and we have a cover on the toilet in the bathroom that she also uses, but she can’t climb up on that on her own so the portable potty is much easier at this point. Today was the first day we left the house without a diaper and she didn’t have an accident!

Some people have warned me about “setbacks” after the baby arrives and I don’t by any means feel like we have got this down pat. She needs to be able to tell me in public when she needs to go, she doesn’t tell me yet without me asking, just goes on her own. And maybe we will have a setback, who knows, but I am glad I gave this a try before he gets here. If there was any chance I wouldn’t have to have two in diapers I was going for it.

Our next big adventure is going to be the big girl bed. I got it all made today, just need to set up the bed rails, and get the monitor up and running in her room before she could sleep in it. Her room isn’t really decorated yet. The walls needs painting, I have a stencil I want to do on the wall behind her headboard, the headboard needs to be attached, and all her clothes need to be moved over to the new closet, but I’m not in any rush with that. She could stay in her crib even after the new baby arrives. And i want to make a big deal out of her big girl room so I may hold off on that for a few more weeks.

Baby boy is 36.5 weeks now. At 35 weeks he was measuring 6.2 oz. (give or take a pound they said) so he has probably put on at least half a pound or more by now. I am going every week for an ultrasound and doctor appointment now, so that is fun to see him each Monday. I tell Emery to watch for him on the tv in the doctor’s office and she does. She’s is funny though, some weeks she hates anytime they touch my belly and other weeks she couldn’t care less. Yet another reason not to have her in the delivery room (not that I was ever considering it). Baby #2 is still nameless. I think we have a name we are leaning towards but neither one of us has said, “Okay, thats the name!” Still chewing on it.

Now I’m wondering what he’ll be like…

Juicing is something I have been thinking about doing for awhile now. Thanks in part to my cousin Amy demystifying it in her attempt at a cleanse after Thanksgiving. And the other day, I find out my brother, Brett, and his girlfriend, Jackie, are juicing. I was a little shocked. My brother, doing a three-day cleanse? And liking it! Okay, I’m in. I need to try this.

It was perfect timing. My birthday was approaching and my mom was asking what to get me, perfect excuse to buy a juicer! So taking Brett and Jackie’s lead I bought  Mom and Dad bought me the Breville Juice Fountain Plus.

All the reviews were practically glowing, price was reasonable, and I knew that Brett had investigated it thoroughly so I didn’t need to (yes, time saved!). I ordered it from Amazon, using our prime membership and had it the next day (only 3.95 in S&H, if your not a prime member, you should be). This was after Best Buy gave me a run around for a week and then delayed it another week. Ugh, my fresh produce was going to go bad, I had to act fast.

This morning was my first attempt. I wanted to make a green juice, to get a lot. of vegetables in early. Which brings me to the reason I am doing this. I know that juicing has a lot of connotations with weight loss, detoxing, and cleansing and believe me AFTER this baby is born I will be trying to do plenty of all that, but for now the purpose is just to try to get more fruits and veggies into my system (and thus the baby’s) and to prevent “excessive” weight gain in the last trimester. Also… after hitting a low point last night, if you read my FB posts you’ll know I am referring to eating some of Emery’s Easter trail mix just to get to the M&Ms, I have decided I need to cut the sugar out. So if I can replace sugary candy with a nutritious juice when a craving hits everybody wins (Baby, Emery, and myself).

Recipe:

5 kale leaves

Handfull of spinach leaves

1 lemon (peeled)

1 cucumber

1 green apple

1 pear

Yield: Somewhere around 15 ounces, I forgot to look before I poured glasses for Emery and myself (I was so excited to try it!).

I found the recipe here. You should also check out this documentary on the benefits of juicing - thanks Amy for referring me to it.

Emery liked it. She didn’t drink the whole thing, but I’m not surprised. The girl hasn’t had anything other than milk and water in her entire 19 month existence, other than a sip or two of lemonade. So to ask her to drink how ever many ounces was in the cup was probably a lot (we saved the rest, juice can be saved for 24 hours but starts to lose its nutritional value as time goes on).

So there you have it folks. My first attempt at juicing. I think it turned out pretty good and I’ll keep it up. Some tips for next time, slow down, the faster you push the food through the less juice and more pulp you get. I honestly think I could have sent some of the pulp through again but I didn’t look in the pulp bin until I had poured our drinks.