A Little Ray of Sunshine

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Getting there

Six weeks to go--if he comes on time. Beau was nine days late, Hemi three days early--but physically post-mature, probably a bad EDD in his case. The down-side of having ten pound plus babies is that, at this stage, they're already as big as other folks' newborns. The upside is you really don't worry about having them early--even if this one were early, he'd be a good size.
I'm not holding my breath that he'll come on time, if I expect him late then it's easier mentally. On the other hand, early would be kind of nice.
Hemi is 35 lbs. He tipped the changing table over on himself trying to climb onto it for a diaper change the other day, and even with me holding it, he won't climb it now. So I am changing diapers on the floor. I can't lift him anymore. He cried last night because there wasn't enough room on my lap for him to climb up and snuggle the way he likes to. And Baby kicked him when he tried. (Actually, I think it was an elbow.)
Beau has been helping a lot. He's not the most coordinated assistant, at nearly four, but he's 42" tall so he can reach a lot. I'm wondering if the two of them together could move laundry from the washer to the dryer--Beau would need to get up on a chair to reach down into the washer, since it's a top-loader. We might have to give that a try. Yesterday Beau decided that the front of the fridge needed to be washed. So he did. This is a decided advantage to having big boys: they can do more. My fridge looks really great, too. He 'makes' their bed, too. If you're not picky about the wrinkles and rumples, it's great. It's either he does it or it doesn't get done at this point, I can't get that far into their room, the toys are a disaster and I don't know what to do about them. Nana needs to stop giving them big toys. It's not the blocks or cars that are the issue, it's the slide, the horse, the stuffed animals as big as the boys, the kitchen set, the giant dump truck and bulldozer . . . all wonderful things to play with, but they aren't pregnant-mommy friendly, or toddler-run pickup-time friendly. The blocks can easily be dropped in the block box (unsorted by kind: wood or duplo, but the boys don't care) and the rest of the little things go in the plastic drawers. The big stuff is awkward and catches on other big stuff.
The hallway is not easy, either. The strollers are 'stored' in the hallway by our room. I can barely squeeze past. The vaccuum is there, too. The living room needs vaccuuming badly, but I can't get the vaccuum out (lifting) to do it. We don't have enough storage space.
My hips ache, and I don't remember this from Beau and Henry. I can't find a comfortable position at night to sleep in, even using extra pillows to try to relieve the pressure. Then, of course, there are the back problems, but I'm pretty used to working around those. The boys have nearly knocked me down a couple times by accident--I don't really blame them, they can't tell that I can't feel my left leg from hip to knee, and it's hard to keep my balance when they run into me there. I wish I couldn't feel the hip, either, these days.
Baby has his fist in the hip, and some toes tucked in between my ribs. My mother-in-law called, she is worried that the baby is too big. She had just as big of babies, but she is shorter than I and didn't have the height to carry them as easily as I do. I have a very long torso, so even with all the aches and pains, I can still breathe without trouble. I spent some time reassuring her.
I got out all the boxes of outgrown clothes, or so I thought. There are exactly 3 9 month size onesies. Somewhere, there is another box. We've got about six months to find it. (They are plastic boxes, so ought to be easy to spot, but nope!)
I have only a few things in newborn size--Beau used them for a week, Hemi for a couple days. 3-6 month lasts us until about 2 months old. By 3 months, the boys had both outgrown the rear-facing carrier-style car seat, and had to transition to the convertable-in-rear-position. Both hit the weight limit on the convertable-in-rear-position before they reached the legal age to turn it around. Hemi, at two-and-a-half, has only five pounds to go to reach the forward-facing seat limit (actually, probably less, it's been a couple months since I last weighed him, and he's changed clothing sizes since). We always buy the tallest car seats.
Our boys wear mostly hand-me-downs, which leads to an excess of certain clothing items. For whatever reason, the boys that they got the 2-4 t's from owned an awful lot of t-shirts. More than two weeks worth. (Far more than pants and so on, I could understand if the mom was only washing once every two weeks.)
Now that Beau is in 5s, we ran out of hand-me-downs for the most part. The boys who gave us the other stuff (before we moved here) were in fives and sixes at the time. He has a few t's and church slacks from a garage sale, and a couple pairs of jeans from one of the boys. Nana always likes to have an up-to-date list of what the boys 'need' and in what sizes. So she got one, and then took Great-Grandmother shopping. (Her mother.) They picked out some very nice casual slacks and button-shirts for Beau. I guess Grandmother enjoyed it. I hope she did. Grandmother is in very poor shape--her Alzheimers medicine has stopped working and she had a nasty fall, several bad breaks none of which can be set.
So Beau has, really, a bare minimum of clothes. We still need to get him winter things--a new coat, mittens, and boots. But it is much easier to keep his clothing organized when there is so much less of it. It's really hard for me to get rid of perfectly good children's clothes, but I'm trying to get Hemi's supply down a bit. Unfortunately, the boys decided yesterday to dump all Hemi's clothes off the shelf, and there's no way I'm getting in there to pick them back up.
Some really great news: one of the places my husband has applied to contacted him for an interview! For some unknown reason, even though they insisted that the application had to be mailed, they decided to email in response. Naturally it went to the junk folder, so it's a good thing he checked his junk mail before he hit delete. And it's even a local place; there are not many places hiring here. It'd be nice to not have to move in the middle of winter with a 4yo, a 2yo, and a 2mo. The job interview is Friday afternoon. I've got to go over my husband's clothes and make sure there is something appropriate that fits (he's lost weight--2 waist sizes smaller than when he last bought slacks, before he started back to school) and is pressed (easier said than done, he'll have to pull the ironing board out for me). We don't know how much they're offering for the job, but it is local, so he could accept a little less than some of the out-of-town places he's applied (since I'd be able to keep my studio). I'm not sure about this cutting waists down on slacks thing, but I guess I'll get to see how it goes. He's going to need them soon enough.

1 Comments:

  • At 6:26 PM, September 15, 2006, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You have my sympathy! Sounds like you're having a rougher time than I am. Mine should be arriving any time in the next two weeks, and hopefully will not be as big as 10lb by the time it gets here!

     

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