Oh my goodness, I'm not going to lie.....this pregnancy feels like it has simply flown by compared to my first with Lou. Maybe it's because I'm considered a 'veteran' mom now and have gone through the process already or maybe it's because I'm constantly on the go between work and my VERY active toddler's social life that has made it feel like I literally just found out I was pregnant compared to being nearly 2 weeks away from my due date!
It's wild to think that I'm going to be a mom of two, rambunctious little boys soon and I can hardly wait! I can't wait to see what color of hair he has(if any), his little personality and how my boys' relationship will develop throughout the years. It's going to be a bit of an adjustment for ALL of us, after all we've been a family of 3 for nearly five years, but I just know that he was the missing piece to our family dynamic.
I'm officially now at weekly appointments and things have been going fairly well on the GDM front. My sugars have been well maintained through diet, which makes me happy, and I have gotten permission from my care team to be able to drop down to two readings a day. I take my first morning, 'fasting' sugar to make sure that while I was sleeping my liver didn't glucose dump me(I've so far never had a high reading on this and only a handful of 'lows') and then I spot check between lunch or dinner two hours past meals. I usually opt to test the sugar where I eat something a little more 'risky' than I normally would have or if the meal is more 'carb' heavy. Since I'm all about accountability my spike number has gone up to an 8, but I kind of figured some of those spikes due to not drinking enough water, lack of movement and eating more 'junky' foods during those meals. Still though, they aren't awful spikes and my care team so far is very happy with my numbers, especially since little man looked perfect at our growth scan at 36 weeks.
I did go ahead and opt for a cervical check at my 36 week appointment(this is a total preference) and my OBGYN said that my cervix is very low and I was already 1 cm dilated. Which, I know can or cannot mean anything being as you can walk around dilated for weeks before you go into actual labor. I was just happy that little man is head down and in position to start making his entry into the world and we are VERY ready to meet him. As for induction, as of right now(obviously this could change by the time I go to my 37 week appointment on Friday, June 16th) since my ultrasound looked great, they see no need to induce me and I can go up to 41 weeks(Hopefully it wont take that long!).
Now, without further ado, let's hop into what I'm sure most of you are really interested in....the nursery.
We ended up purchasing a gently used crib from one of my friends(her son ended up being more of a cosleeper and never used it) and I think it tied in perfectly with the sagey green and cream colored accent wall. Above his bed(don't worry it's really anchored in there) we have his name sign mounted. For privacy, I'm opting to keep his name off of the blog and will have a little nickname like I do for big brother once his little personality peaks out.
We do have a Halo basinet we intend to use in our bedroom for at least the first month; however, if he's anything like his brother he will want to be in his own space/bed quickly. We'll just have to see.
I found his dresser on Facebook market place for $100 and completely fell in love with it. It fits perfectly in his woodland/boho/whimsical room and the detail on it is absolutely perfect. Above I hung a little magnet board and just wrote one of my favorite sayings on it: Not all those who wander are lost and hung a little 3 hook piece to hold hats, swaddles or anything else I might opt to put there. I have his wipe holder next to the changing pad and a whole stack of Newborn clothes that I still need to wash, but admittedly I'm waiting to see how big he'll actually be before I commit to keeping those items since his big brother BARELY fit into newborn when he was born at a whopping 8 lbs 14 oz.
I honestly probably need to organize his drawers a little bit better since I've simply crammed a bunch of items into the drawers between socks, swaddles, etc. However, I do have ONE drawer organized. I've opted to primarily do cloth diapers this go around and have a mixture between AIO(All in One) diapers by Bumgenius and AI2(All in 2) diapers by Best Bottom/ a couple of Texas Tushie covers. I'm hoping to be able to start cloth diapering once her meconium is out of his system or whenever he can fit into my covers. The plan is that we will do about a 80/20 format between cloth diapers and disposable.
When he goes to daycare, he'll be in disposable diapers since that'll be the easiest to coordinate, but when he is home he will be in cloth diapers. Obviously if we're on vacation, our washer breaks or I just need a mental break from it, we will do disposable, but I primarily plan to put him in cloth.
During the height of the pandemic, we actually had to use cloth diapers with Lou due to not being able to find diapers and that was when I slowly started to fall in love with the idea. I always had the misconception that they were 'gross' and hard to do; however, it is safe to say I have been converted. Now the hardest part is not to get carried away with all of the cute prints! I'll be sure to share some cute, fluff-butt pictures on Instagram once he's in them.
One of my biggest regrets with Lou's nursery was not having a reclining rocker in his nursery. Between the late night diaper changes, feeding sessions and just being in that room frequently, I struggled being comfortable in the standard glider we had found on Facebook Marketplace for his nursery. This time around we ordered this super comfortable reclining rocker in Beige from Walmart. It rocks back and forth flawlessly and reclines like a dream. My husband joked that we might be fighting over the recliner when little man gets here.
Right next to the recliner I have my pumping/ nursing cart where I have everything that I may need pump wise or nursing. I also have my nursing pillow(Mybreastfriend) hanging on some hooks I have attached to the cart. If you would like, I can go into more detail on what is on the cart, especially after I've utilized it once he's here.
On the back of the rocker I have his little circle quilt I found on Kate Quinn that fits his nursery perfectly. For whatever reason, I have an obsession with toadstools/ mushrooms(I had bison on my mind with Lou's), so that was the main 'theme' for little man's set up was woodland/mushrooms/whimsical.
The best part about having a carpenter husband is that when you have an idea, he can typically build it. He had some left over wood from a project, so he built me these little floating book shelves for all of his storybooks he received at his shower. I love the raw wood look in this room, so we chose not to stain them. You can also get this look by using a couple of the IKEA spice racks(jealous of those who have an IKEA in their state!).
We had a little side table just hanging around the house and in a basket I put extra swaddles on the floor, a little mushroom toy he received at his sprinkle and a set of books that are actually SLP endorsed. On top I have a little basket caddy with extra pacifiers, burp rags and bits & bobbles he or I may need throughout the night. There are also a couple lovevery toys we were handed down as well as his Hatch Sound machine.
His closet is a little messy and I probably need to work on it a bit more between now and then. On the top shelf is extra pumping parts from my last time, some boxes of the big, ticket items we have received either via hand-me-down or gifted and of course some unwashed clothes/ bottles we aren't quite sure if he'll take to or not.
I'm planning on primarily nursing, but we'll see if he latches better than his brother did. I'm HOPING I wont have to exclusively pump like I did last time; however, I've done this rodeo before and know that I have a good support system/ method to be able to exclusively pump if I desired to do so.
His room is basically finished aside from the few loads of laundry that I need to do and a couple of other house keeping things. We may or may not put a rug down on the floor in the big area space between the crib/rocker; however, I haven't quite found anything that screams 'THIS WILL BE PERFECT!".
For now, my main focus is just keeping it neat & tidy, which is hard since big brother loves to go into his room and play with all of the new toys.
At the end of the day, we are ready(for the most part...we still need to get our hospital bags in order)....now all we need is little man.
