Now we're really ready

We have seen lot's of babies over the summer, most of which have a pacifier (which she calls a baba) of some sort, obviously.  So whenever I would bring up something about our baby, Lucy would say "baba? baba?"  She knew that our baby would need some "babas."  Every time we went to the store and passed baby aisles, she would ask about babas and I kept promising her that she could get some for her baby sister.  One day we finally did it and I let her choose which design she wanted for her sister.  Now, whenever we see something of the baby's (i.e. carseat, clothes, etc.) she gets excited about the babas that she got for her sister.  This afternoon I had a few things that I was packing in my hospital bag for the baby and when Lucy saw the babas she begged to wrap them since she knew they were a present.  It was either Christmas wrapping paper or, more appropriately, birthday wrapping paper.  Lucy really did most of it herself... folded the paper over and put the pieces of tape I ripped off where I told her to.  She was pretty proud of herself and had fun doing it.  Now we're really ready for baby sister to get here. :)

A new hiding spot

One day while I was getting ready, Lucy disappeared.  I really thought she was playing with a toy in my room or in her room, but the next thing I knew she popped out from under the sink! haha.  She was pretty excited and proud of herself for figuring that out.  It gave us both a good laugh for a while.

Baby stuff

We've gotten everything out of storage and ready for baby girl to get here.  Lucy is a big "help" and likes to set everything up with me.... and then use it all.  I'm pretty sure the baby swing might get broke before the baby gets here. ha.  But Lucy is starting to get a little possessive of all of the baby's things.  We were given a little blanket and she immediately claimed it as hers and always asks me to wrap her in it like a baby (even though it's too small).  She also wants to ride in the baby's car seat all the time. A funny one to me is how she totally still fits in the Bumbo.  Those skinny legs just slide in and out, no problem.  Right now it's pretty funny and cute, but let's hope it's not too bad when the baby actually gets here!

Homemade noodles

Homemade noodles is a Tibbitts' family recipe that Ryan loves.  You serve the noodles with beef (or other meat) over mashed potatoes.  Although I had never had it until we got married, I must admit it really is good.  The funny thing about the recipe is that there aren't measurements at all... just adding flour until a certain consistency, and boiling the roast in a lot of water but not too much so it's not watered down.  Kind of a guessing game.  Luckily Ryan made it this time so if it got messed up it was his fault. :)  And all I had to make was the mashed potatoes.  Easy peasy and yummy!

Less than two weeks...

I am due in LESS than two weeks!  This feels so crazy to me because this pregnancy has gone so fast!  Or maybe I'm slightly in denial about the lack of sleep I have coming up here soon.  Probably a combination of both.  I am WAY more prepared this time around though, which is probably to be expected since I have a little better idea of what's coming my way.  I have all of our baby stuff out, cleaned, and ready, like the swing, floor play mat, baby tub, clothes, toys, swaddle blankets, crib, pack-n-play, monitor, rcoker, white noise machine, etc.  I have made several lists and crossed them all off and can't think of anything else I have to get ready besides packing hospital bags and doing last-minute cleaning right before she comes.  Oh, and picking out a middle name, which of all things has turned out to be a topic that we can't even begin to agree on. But if that's our only issue right now, I'll take it. :)

If I had it my way, baby girl would come on October 4th for a few reasons... 1) My mom is coming on the 1st, so it gives Lucy a couple of days to really warm up to my mom again, who will be helping to watch her while I'm in the hospital; 2) it's a Friday, which is the day my actual doctor is always the one doing deliveries at the hospital, and I love my doctor, and 3) it's the weekend so Ryan would have a few free days before needing to take any parental and vacation time off (which we are hoping to save most of for Christmas time).  But let's be honest, most babies have their own date in mind, so we will see what happens!

I think my greatest accomplishment this go-around was actually doing freezer meals.  I planned on doing them last pregnancy, but got lazy and really just thought it wouldn't be a big deal... and then for the first couple of months I cringed just thinking about making one meal and we wasted a lot of money on take-out.  So yeah, learned my lesson.  I spent last Thursday night planning out all of my meals and making a grocery list, got all the supplies Friday morning, and spent Lucy's nap time making them.  The best part about them is that they are all crock-pot meals.  Here's where my laziness (although I like to think awesomeness) shines through though- I let myself buy crock-pot liners so that I would have absolutely no clean-up after the meals are cooked!

$90 and 1.5 hours later... I have 20+ (the + refers to leftovers, which hopefully there will be plenty of) dinners ready and waiting to go from freezer to crock pot! 

Visit from Aunt Wanda

A few weeks ago my aunt came and visited.  We did the usual... shop, go out to eat (Panera, Olive Garden), relax at home, play with Lucy, etc.  It's always a fun time.  And of course she showed up with a ton of Malley's chocolate!

She had such a fun bath time with Aunt Wanda and cracked up the whole time!

We went to a children's consignment store here and the first thing we saw when we entered was this scooter, which Lucy refused to part with, so my aunt bought it for her. :)  Our neighbors have a scooter and she begs for it everyday, so I guess it was time she got her own.  And it's a princess one... bonus! It was a million degrees plus humidity outside the day we got it, so she practiced riding in the kitchen the first day.

Only one month away!!

Oh my goodness... I just looked at the date (Sep. 6th) and realized that I am due in exactly ONE month (Oct. 6th)!  I am still feeling okay, but I'm definitely very uncomfortable at this point, too.  And I'm back to feeling slightly nauseous if I don't eat constantly, although I am fine if I do (bad for the weight gain).  Lucy always measured very small but this time my doctor told me that I don't have a very small baby, and I don't have a huge one either, just a very average sized baby.  Perfect!  Considering I'm all about the pain-free epidural method, the bigger the better (well, ya know, to a certain extent...I don't want a 14 pounder or anything) so that she sleeps better (given our last and only experience, I'm very concerned about sleep). Also, I have a pinched nerve in my rib cage that started out as just being really itchy but the more the baby grows, the more painful it becomes!  But the doctor assured me that it would go away when I have the baby.

Well, we've got a crib set up (steal of a deal from Craigslist!), boxes of clothes brought out of storage, two names we're deciding between*, and the car seat ready to go. We're mostly set with baby stuff, minus just a few things, so I'm feeling pretty ready for baby girl to come!

*A couple of stories about the name.  We have had a list of names for a while and easily narrowed them down to a top-two many months ago.  One evening, Ryan and I were just talking about those names and joking around about how to choose and who gets to choose, etc.  Well, my top name (one of our top two) was not one of his top choices at first and so I was trying to think of different ways to inspire us to get a name.  Very jokingly, I told him to go read our new Ensign magazine that was sitting in front of us and the first girl name he read would be the name we would use.  And guess what name that was? My top choice! Haha. So random.

Another story- just this morning I was at the park talking to a random lady who was there with her granddaughter and she was asking me about our new baby and when I was due, etc.  She knew Lucy's name from me calling out to her, and when she found out I was having a girl she just flat out asked me if we were going to name her our top name (she used the actual name!)?!  Isn't that crazy?  I told her that it was one of our top two choices and she said that it just seemed to fit right with the name Lucy.  So, we will just have to wait and see if she is name number 1 or 2 when she arrives! :)