Books

In grad school, I was required to read Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent. It pretty much changed my view of parenting, in a good way. I now send it to all my close friends who are pregnant and expecting. After speaking with a friend of mine who just got the book, I thought about all the other books I've read throughout E's life that I really like. Rather than totally overwhelm her with a list of books, I figured I'd just list them here, and then she and others can access it whenever they feel like it.

So here goes, in no particular order:

The Baby Book

The Vaccine Book

The Happiest Baby on the Block

The Happiest Toddler on the Block

I'll probably add more later, but E is begging for my attention right now.

Naked Baby Party

Tonight I held a naked baby party. Basically, it was a baby clothing exchange, kinda like a naked lady party, where you bring all your old clothes and get new ones. Since a many of my friends working on baby #2 are having opposite gender, it seemed like a good idea. What was great is that I got back some stuff I had given to my neighbor that I didn't realize I'd given her. One was the little ducky hat I'd made. I was thinking about making the ducky socks that go with it, but didn't know what I'd done with the hat. I'm glad I got it back!

I also got a ton of 2T clothes for E. That was nice, since she's kind of lacking in the clothing department lately. She has clothes, but I often find myself digging in the dryer desperately searching for a clean pair of pants.

For L, I got a ridiculous amount of clothing. I don't think I will need any clothes for this kid until he's over a year. That's very nice.

It was an extremely successful clothing exchange, and we have a couple bags of clothes to donate to Community Action, which is nice. On Monday, I'll drop the bags off at the Head Start center where I used to work. Janet took a few bags home to drop off at the main office in Hillsboro.

It's nice to be rid of some clutter, though I now have a giant bag of clothing sitting in the middle of my living room floor. I don't think I actually got rid of anything. I think I just traded the same exact amount of crap. Sigh.

Bodily Fluids

And the nosebleeds have begun. I don't remember having crazy nosebleeds with E, but I probably did. It's pretty annoying, especially when I'm driving in the car, between site visits and I don't have any tissues, so when I get to a school I have to immediately go wash the blood from my hands before I go to a classroom to meet with a teacher.

And then this morning, as I was snuggling with Paul, I felt a drip on my arm. And then I felt another. When I wiped it with my other hand, it was sticky. Yep, I'm leaking colostrum. Of course, today marks week 30, so I have 6 more weeks until I'm considered "term," 10 weeks until my due date, and 12 weeks until they want to slice me open and rip the kid out. While I can't remember when my boobs started leaking with E, I do remember having to pull out the boob pads while I was still pregnant.

The kid is getting big. He's big and strong enough to make my entire belly move when he kicks and moves. E finds it hysterical. She loves to sit on my lap, put cream (she calls it "peam") on my belly and watch L kick. She shrieks with laughter, saying "Baby L-L is kicking!" Of course, she goes a little overboard with the cream. She puts so much on me that even when I take a shower afterwards, I can't get it all off. She also likes to cram it into my belly button. In order to get it out, I have to squeeze all around it and push it out like it's a zit. It's pretty disgusting.

I didn't pass my glucose screening, so I have to take the 3 hour test next Saturday. Ugh. That sucks. However, I have good news, too!

I have insurance through work that will cover my delivery at Meridian Park! I don't have to go to a Providence hospital after all! I'm very happy about that! I guess I can deal with the bloody nose and leaking boobs. That's really nothing compared to some of the stories I've heard from St. V's.