18 months

Mariah turned a year and a half last week, which means 18-months will essentially be the small age gap between she and her sister who could show up ‘any day now’.  Mariah continues to fine tune her big sister skills with her ‘baby’ (who a friend mistakenly referred to as a bear the other day and I quickly corrected her, since Mariah hasn’t yet realized that her baby is not the same species as her : )  Mariah sometimes talks in private with this baby and seems to include long frustrated pauses in which she thinks maybe, just maybe, her baby will respond.  Perhaps she’s smarter than that – knowing that the baby is just pretend…or perhaps smarter still – the pauses are timed for her to imagine the dialogue they would have if this bear—I mean baby, could talk. 

Mariah certainly proves her intelligence and maturity in other ways, like helping to keep the house tidy.  Each morning when I make her instant oatmeal, she gestures for the packet and then walks it over to the garbage to throw it out.  Yesterday the house was cold so she stopped along the way to point to the tiles and hug her arms together to report these observations to me.  She refuses to wear a bib, yet doesn’t like dropping food, so she insists that I help her clean off any food drips from her clothes before taking the next bite.  When Mariah finishes her meals, she points at any crumbs she left on the floor to remind Ivan and I to clean them.  And if we don’t get to it fast enough for her liking, little Miss waddles over to get the 5 foot broom and dustpan herself!  (No joke, I didn’t even realize she knew where it was until she started sweeping on her own).  If it’s a liquid mess, like a milk splatter from her sippy cup, Mariah independently finds a dishrag or a facecloth to wipe it up.  And her latest tidy quirk is that the moment I take her shoes off when she returns from her daily trip to the backyard, she immediately runs to the mud room to put her shoes away in a cubby that she knows is hers.  Just when we thought her body language couldn’t get cuter – she’s started tugging at our hearts when she gets ‘in trouble’.  The other day her pen marks managed to get from the paper to the couch and when we gently but firmly reminded her to be more careful, she took two steps in front of us with her back turned toward us, hung her head down in despair, shrugged her shoulders up and down with sad sighs, and made some noticeable sniffles before we realized her eyes were welling up with tears.  She doesn’t cry or say anything when she’s upset like this, but just makes it clear to us that she’s a sad little combination of remorseful and embarrassed, enough for us to feel guilty for scolding her.  Mariah is definitely a brave little girl though too.  When she falls or hurts herself, we’ve taught her to ‘wipe it off’ so she quickly stands up and proudly wipes her hands before running to her next task. 

And incase anyone wanted my usual dose of pregnancy complaints – I’ve got a new one.  My latest symptom is apparently called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD), which is caused by stretching of the pelvic joint.  The best way I can describe this pain to you is the way a friend captured it recently “like someone winds up and kicks you in the groin, without warning”!  Seriously – just imagine what that would feel like…and then what you would look like suddenly grabbing your crotch and keeling over – this is the latest joy I’ve had in the last week.  I looked up triggers, which include stretching movements such as swimming (which was a big relief to me since I’ve spent several weeks feeling guilty for not swimming and now have an excuse not to).  My chiropractor suggested a natural remedy of taking ‘Lecithin’ supplements, which can apparently help control the pain as quickly as Tylenol.  Interestingly, when I looked up food sources of lecithin, the major one was eggs – which I have been craving and eating daily during this pregnancy.  And when I backtracked in my head to the days I had gotten these pains – they were actually the worst on the days I skipped my morning dose of eggs!  So here’s to following your instincts during pregnancy, and otherwise – our bodies really do know what’s best for us.

The End is Near

At nearly 38 weeks, I’m thankful to have officially reached a healthy ‘full-term’ pregnancy.  But since that ranges from 37-42 weeks and due dates are pretty arbitrary, it narrows down my expectations for baby to arrive somewhere between ‘any day now’ up to a month away!  That broad a timeline poses a challenge for control-freaks like myself, but in a way the element of surprise just adds more excitement to the whole experience.  Ivan & I have nested enough to feel generally prepared for a potential early arrival.  The bassinet is assembled, the homebirth supplies are organized, baby’s drawers are filled with plenty of hand-me-downs.  But if she decides to show up fashionably late, that’s okay with me too.  I’m just a few days away from mat leave and am working on the oh-so difficult goal of prioritizing rest and relaxation.  I had initially planned to keep Mariah home with me during my days before the next one arrives.  But then I remembered how extra tiring parenting can be when you’re pregnant.  Luckily Ivan has encouraged me to make the wise decision of continuing to drop Mariah to daycare on my days off so that they can be filled with pre-natal massages, reading, sleeping, or whatever it is I feel like doing.  Obviously, it didn’t take him long to convince me of that plan – but he did rid me of any guilt about losing final one-on-one moments with Mariah by assuring me that he would do the same thing if he were in my shoes.

The last few weeks of pregnancy have become a bit more achy and a bit less blissful.  As with my first pregnancy, my hip joints have gone a bit out of whack so I’ve been getting regular chiropractic adjustments, which really helps.  Although some kind-hearted women assure me that I still look great (while avoiding too much eye-contact), others who find it harder to lie remind me that I’m ‘huge’ or even ask the ever-hilarious joke of whether I’m having twins (yes mother, I’m publicly shaming you!).  I really can’t complain because I find it equally as hard to cover my double chin while I accept the compliments as I do with controlling my eye-rolling and sarcasm when anyone points out the obvious - that I’m as big as a house.  I swear I’m not a body-image victim who thinks I’m fat.  I do realize that gaining weight is normal and healthy during pregnancy.  But, it’s much easier to be comfortable with extra weight when it’s a cute round bump in the second trimester, than when it leaves you waddling and panting during the day and wishing you had a crane to help you roll at night in the third trimester!  Despite this vanity, or maybe because of it…I chose to do a pregnancy photo shoot recently and am actually pretty happy with the results – thanks to the almighty airbrush.  Since this might be my last pregnancy experience, and since motherhood has become such a big part of my identity, I thought it would be neat to capture the physical process with some proof.

 

As the time draws nearer, Mariah is helping to boost my faith in her as a capable big sister.  She’s become very interested in her ‘baby’ (a pink stuffed bear Ivan & I bought when we were dating and I was determined to have my first-born attach to!).  Mariah has started to say this word often and independently includes ‘baby’ in her play.  She sits it up carefully in her tiny chair and pushes it around the house, she brings it to her toys and tries to teach it to play, and yesterday when I jokingly stuffed baby’s feet into shoes, Mariah took it seriously and started walking her baby around.  I have a feeling Mariah will be greatly disappointed when she realizes her little sister will be almost as boring and passive as this bear for the first few months – but nonetheless, I’m sure Mariah will fall in love with her too.