30 weeks

30 weeks down, only 10 to go!

That's beginning to sink in; there's a lot of stuff we need to do before this little guy puts in an appearance: buy a crib (Zach's was recalled - completely), paint the baby's room, unpack and sort through all the baby clothes, unpack all the gear that will take over our house, etc etc. And, in the meantime, try to get some sleep. :)

Lots of doctor's appointments these days; I've reached the point where I'll go in every two weeks now to see my doctor, and also every couple of weeks to see the diabetes folks to make sure my blood sugars are under control. All these appointments have been a breeze - I've been feeling good; baby is active, growing, strong heartbeat; the doctor is happy with my weight gain; blood pressure and all that is good; and I've been keeping my diabetes under control with diet so far. One weird pregnancy symptom I have this time I didn't with Zach is some odd spots of dry skin/exzema, but I guess I can handle that.

When I met with the doctor earlier this week, we went over the most recent ultrasound results (which, as you may recall, was to make sure the baby's legs were growing ok, since they were lagging behind his head and belly size). The radiologist and doctor were both happy with what they saw: the interval growth of the legs - the amount the femur grew in the six weeks between the two ultraounds - was exactly what they would have expected. So our guy is growing appropriately, he just has sorta short legs! We can live with that. :)

So all in all, we're doing well, looking forward to what's coming... faster and faster it seems!

The pillow impact

I never made the connection that it's the pillow that causes bedhead, until Zach started sleeping in his new bed with a pillow and waking up with the craziest hair. This is this morning's display... particularly spectacular since I think his hair was a little damp when he went to bed:

In general, I'd have to say the transition from the crib has gone pretty well. Zach is pretty good about staying in his bed; so far we haven't had to deal with putting him back in his bed over and over again at bedtime. However, no one in our house is getting to sleep through the night most nights, for two Zach-related reasons: his refusal to use covers and his need to go to the bathroom.

Now I know we're supposed to be thrilled he wakes up at night to go to the bathroom. I know. But since our other child likes to wake me up at random times throughout the night, I would prefer to not also be wakened by "Mommy! Daddy! I have to go potty!" It's not every night, he's still sleeping in a diaper for good reason, but it's enough.

And the other reason he wakes up just plain drives me crazy! Zach has always been attached to a blanket he's had since he was a baby - a nice heavy, soft blanket that he's slept with since he stopped sleeping in a sleep sack. So I knew he'd want it in bed with him, I just didn't realize he'd insist it continue to be his only cover. And since he's getting too big for it, he can't keep it on during the night, and when he wakes up he'd rather yell for us to come and cover him up again rather than try to figure out how to do it himself. Sigh. I really thought the Lightning McQueen sheets would be an enticement... but while he likes to sleep on them, he's clearly not planning to sleep under them any time soon.

Four questions

There are four questions we consistently hear throughout the day:

1. Why (fill in the blank)?

This question appears to be an instinctive one, that Zach will utter in response to anything I say. The why can be related to everything from "why can't you turn left even though the light is green?" to "why didn't Wyatt want to share his cars?" I do my best to avoid "because I said so," but I have to admit there's a time and a place when that response is appropriate, especially after I've already been asked why 17 times.

2. How many minutes?

Zach is currently obsessed with minutes. He doesn't really understand the concept of time, he just knows that we often refer to things in terms of minutes, so he is now asking for minute estimates for just about everything. How many minutes until daddy gets home? How many minutes until I am going to read him this book? How many minutes does he have to sleep? (That was a good one I heard him ask Scott... Scott told him 660 minutes, which sounded so absurd I had to laugh.) How many minutes until we go to grandma and grandpa's house? Too many!!! Anyway, we've had basic conversations about telling time and how long a minute is, but I'm starting to think we're going to need to start learning more details about the clock sooner rather than later.

3. Do you want to play Geotrax?

If you are not familiar, Geotrax is a train track system with trains that operate primarily through remote control. My dad is known as "Grandpa Geo" to my niece and nephew due to his enthusiasm (addiction?) for these particular toys. So Zach received his first Geotrax train set-up for his 2nd birthday, I've gotten him some extra tracks and construction vehicles I found at a garage sale, and for Christmas G&G Klicka got him the ultimate - a Geotrax system that has some of his favorite Cars characters as the "trains." This video shows his reaction when he was opening it.

I found a way to hook all the tracks together, and this monstrous apparatus now takes up the majority of the floor in Zach's "playroom." It's worth it though, because he loves it and plays with it a lot; we are heading out soon to purchase rechargeable batteries because we were flying through the AAAs!

4. Do you want to play cars?

As the saying goes, if I had a nickel every time I heard this question... But I am happy to say that even though he keeps asking, we generally don't have to play cars with Zach any more! He can entertain himself with his cars for at least an hour, with minimal input from me (just a general "oh really?" in response to statements like "mama, Doc was about to pass the King but then Lightning came up from behind and won!") We don't really even pick the cars up any more to put them "away" - since there really is no point.

There's been an interesting evolution in how he plays with his ever-growing collection of cars; now he'll even play with ones that aren't from the movie! He used to just recreate scenes from the movie; now he incorporates the various Cars books we've read, as well as his own story lines, mixing up who plays what role, etc. It's pretty interesting to observe - well, listen to mostly - since he narrates every scenario as he plays it out. But of course every time we've tried to videotape it, he notices and stops what he's doing. So the following movie is our best effort: the first part is him quoting directly from one of his Cars books; the second is him just making things up as he goes along.

The home stretch

28 weeks this week, so no matter what source you use, we're definitely into the third trimester now. Whew.

We had our optional ultrasound last week - and boy am I glad we chose to do it. Seeing the baby at this size/gestation was very cool! Everything was much more obvious than it is when you have the standard 20-week ultrasound. Even looking at his femur was fascinating - you could see every part of that standard-looking bone. The technician got some good pictures; we've included a couple of the profile ones here, since the straight-on face ones still look too much like the skeletons you see in creepy pirate movies. But the most amazing part of looking at his face? We got to see him blinking!!! Apparently this is a reflex he's just developed, and I was stunned I could tell his eyes were opening and closing on an ultrasound.

Once again, our little guy had both his hands and his feet up by his head; that sure doesn't sound comfortable but I guess real estate is pretty limited in there. We got to see him opening and closing his mouth, and sucking his thumb/with his fingers in his mouth again (see 2nd picture - the hand is labeled).

From what we know at this point, this ultrasound also showed that our peanut's legs measure at an earlier gestation (26 wks) than his head and belly (30 wks). The technician, of course, can't tell us much at the ultrasound itself, so when I meet with my doctor next week we'll learn what the radiologist and my doctor think. We still have no reason to believe there's any concern, and are not worried. With the power this guy has behind his kicks, his legs are just fine!

So with less than 12 weeks to go, I'm feeling pretty good (other than a non-pregnancy related stomach bug). The gestational diabetes diet is going well, although I have to set a timer in order to remember to test my blood sugar after most meals! We're starting to think about the nursery, now that Zach's room is mostly done... time to get moving on that now! :)

PS... If you want to see some recent video of Zach - having fun wrestling with Kasey and playing a guitar - check out the birthday post on Rose family blog under the list of links on the left.

Changing the lyrics

Zach has been a fan of changing the words to songs for a long time. It started with changing the black sheep to a white or red sheep in the classic "Baa-Baa Black Sheep," which at the time he thought was just hilarious. And it's gotten more interesting and creative from there. A few weeks ago he was entertaining himself by singing in the car, a song we learned in music class last summer (and haven't heard or sung much since). Here are the actual lyrics:

Two little kitty cats lying in the sun
One jumps up and says I'd like to run
Then says the other one - I'll run too
Running running running round - I'll play with you

Here were Zach's revised lyrics:

Three little Lightnings sitting on a bench
One got up and said I'd like to race
Then said the other one I'll race too
Racing racing racing around - I'll catch you

What makes me laugh even more is that he does what I think we all do: when he doesn't know the actual words to a song he just makes some up that sound close enough. We've heard quite a bit of this with one of his favorite songs - Life is a Highway, a song from the Cars soundtrack that includes tricky pronunciations like Mozambique and Khyber Pass. He sort of mumbles through those parts.

Another more adult song he likes to sing is Born to Be My Baby by Bon Jovi. Why does he know and like a song from an 80's hair band? Well, one night when Scott was petting Koskie, he used the dog's sides as a drum, pounding out the strong beat at the beginning of the song and singing along. Zach, of course, got a huge kick out of it, and has requested that his dad "bang on the pooch" often. So he's learning the words to this song, only his version goes something like this:

2 3 4! Nah nah nah nah nah (etc) - close the door leave the cold outside, we've got something that'll never dive - par-lor, par-live!

And here is a short performance for your entertainment:

An interesting week

After 5 days of living on plywood, I'm happy to say we once again have carpet on our second floor. After we were informed our preferred special-order carpet was on back-order and might be ready at the end of the month at the earliest, we took the deal Home Depot was offering and had them install the "wrong" carpet. This color is actually one we had settled on originally, until I found one I liked better and needed a few days to convince Scott. And it looks great - we're very happy with how it has turned out; it seems so plush and clean compared to what we had before! And obviously a big improvement to the plywood...! And now our home is beginning to look like a home again, now that we are no longer dodging large pieces of furniture in our bathrooms (Zach's bathroom at left) and piles of stuff in every corner downstairs. Whew.

To keep things exciting, Zach developed a cold this week, and then an extreme and long-lasting (2+ days!) case of gas. I'll spare you the details, but I could not believe a person that small could create that much and that horrific an odor (a dog yes, a human being - no). There must have been all sorts of stuff working in that little stomach, since he then had his first experience vomiting Thursday night. To keep things interesting, he missed christening our new carpet with puke by less than 2 seconds on Friday. He seemed much better by then, and was upstairs with me checking out the carpet while the installers loaded up outside. I heard an odd sound, so I grabbed him and ran as fast as I could down the stairs; the upstairs bathrooms weren't an option since they were filled with dressers, filing cabinets, and mattresses at that point. While I know our carpet isn't going to remain stain-free for long, I wanted it to last more than 3 minutes! We made it as far as the entrance hallway, outside the bathroom, right as the poor carpet installer walked back in the front door. Sigh. He could not wait to escape this particular job!

^ Zach's room "before"

So it's been an interesting week. I think any child development expert would tell us we were nuts, that we went about making a major change to Zach's routine (introduction to a real bed) in the worst way possible. We put him to bed on a mattress on the plywood floor when the house was in physical upheaval, he had just become potty-trained, and he could barely breathe with his plugged up nose. But, Zach being Zach, he did pretty darn well. I always worry about these types of changes, only to discover whatever it may be is harder on the dog than it is on Zach (you should have seen Koskie following us around nervously as we tore out the carpet, and then pacing around trying to figure out where he should sleep).

^ Zach's room "during"

Don't get me wrong, the transition has certainly not been seamless. The first night he fell out of bed (well, rolled off the mattress) in the middle of the night, but fortunately landed on the rug we had next to the bed. He actually thought it was funny when I went in and he told me what happened. The next night, not so funny, when he somehow rolled off the head of the bed and landed on pure plywood. Never occurred to me that could happen... oops. Fortunately, after we blocked both sides of the mattress, we didn't have any more falling incidents. We just had odd wakings in the middle of the night, and less sleep, both at night and during his nap, than is normal for him. But it's hard to tell if it's the change in bed or the fact that he doesn't feel well - who sleeps well when their nose is stuffed??

As of Friday, he is now sleeping in a real bed - the top bunk of his new bunk bed (don't worry... it's on the ground). We decided to try this first since it has a built-in guard rail; it's amazingly similar to a crib! The first time he woke up (on the mattress) he asked me if he could get out of bed or if he should still call for us when he's ready to get up. I managed to avoid answering, and fortunately he still isn't getting out on his own, which is important right now, since he has not wanted to go to sleep lately. This desire doesn't seem to have anything to do with the bed, it started a few weeks ago when he was still in his crib. Apparently he's just reached the age that he realizes he's missing things when he goes to bed, and he'd much rather stay up and play cars or geotrax. So he has discovered stalling... yippee. A good one was when he called me in the first night because he couldn't tell which car was Lightning and which was the King on his pillowcase in the dark. Usually he just wants to know how long he has to sleep.

^ Zach's room "after" - altho with some bare walls

But my favorite so far was yesterday when Scott put him down for his nap, and sure enough, a few minutes after Scott left the room Zach started yelling for daddy. Scott went back in and Zach reminded him he forgot to put lotion on his hands - something we often do before he goes to sleep; all the hand-washing, thumb-sucking, and cold weather results in chapped hands. Then he said "see Daddy, wasn't it good I screamed for you?"

^ Always comfy in his bed

A festival and a debacle

15 more days... until pitchers and catchers report to spring training! To kick off the upcoming baseball season, on Sunday we went to Twinsfest for the first time. Yep, even Scott was a rookie.

It was an interesting mix of fun for the kids and serious baseball memorabilia-type stuff for the die-hard fans. We saw a few players as they sat at their autograph tables, but that's not really our thing, especially when it requires a long wait in line, and maybe even some money if you want one of the big names. I got a mild kick out of seeing a Brewer I remember well from my childhood - Rollie Fingers. He still had a mustache, but it wasn't quite the same. We also saw a former Twin who has special meaning to our family - Corey Koskie! Zach was rather confused when we tried to explain that's who we named our dog after.

Zach had a great time, shockingly enough, in the bounce houses! Normally he won't go near those, since he wants to be the only one jumping. No such concerns this time, although he insisted he wanted to stand in line for the one shaped like TC (the Twins mascot), and then ended up with three kids who were almost twice his size. Poor kid couldn't even stand up... that didn't last long. He was willing to get his picture taken with TC as long as his dad sat with him, and got to stretch his arm throwing some pitches too.

^ See if you can find Zach in the team picture! :)

And the debacle... sadly enough, I'm referring to our carpet installation. I have been pretty darn excited to get new carpet in our upstairs and on the stairs; besides the simple fact that I hated the existing carpet and its oddly-colored stains (see Zach helpfully pointing out but one of the stains), I was looking forward to taking yet another step in making this house ours.

We had the installation scheduled for Monday intentionally, since Zach was at school and would be able to nap and not be disturbed by the commotion. So for the last couple weeks I've been slowly packing things up and finding places to put them throughout the house, and yesterday Scott spent hours moving furniture and tearing up the carpet and pad. (See below - Zach enjoying the room to run in our empty guest room.) We were shocked by the amount of dirt under the carpet - the dust and general grime was amazing. Apparently when they built this house they just put the carpet down without worrying about the mud and plaster on the plywood. 10 years later... yuck.

I'll try to speed this up a little: after all our prep work, the installers showed up with... the wrong color carpet. No, it's not a significant difference, but it's not what we wanted!!! While we wait for the correct carpet to be ordered, shipped, and cut, we now have at least a week to live on plywood floors with carpet tacks running alongside the walls. Not exactly ideal with an active three-year old. We pulled the bigger rugs from our old house out of the basement and put those down, along with some random throw rugs, to try to make the floor a little softer and the rooms a little less echo-y. We've moved back the minimum of furniture, and are dodging the remaining furniture stacked in our bathrooms. Sound fun?

And sadly enough, since our plan was to debut Zach's big boy bed last night (so Scott would have to disassemble the crib and assemble the new bed once), he is now sleeping on his big-boy mattress... on the plywood floor. Less than ideal, but hopefully a good transition from crib to actual bed! More on that later...