You all know I LOVE a good birth story, so here is the story of my third birth to our surprise baby.
Rachel
The Year We Were Sick
Well here we are, four days away from my due date. Going for my longest pregnancy here with my third? Wouldn’t have guessed it but, alas, babies always make their own schedule.
As per usual, it’s been chaos. With the arrival of my mom from another province, and BB1 starting school, we’re experiencing our 1656th illness of the year. And again, as usual, the pregnant lady gets hit the hardest. No one warns you about how hard it is to care for sick babies when you’re so sick yourself.
It all started with COVID in October of last year. Just in time for Halloween, my oldest’s favourite holiday. He has been anticipating it for months, running around while the sun was still high and hot in his Sonic costume. Then BOOM, COVID. No trick or treating for us. it was going to be BB2’s first time out. We decorated and left candy in bowls for other kids; went to bed early.
Hospital Bags & Third Baby Essentials
With baby three arriving any time now, I’ve been thinking a lot about what essentials I want to have out and ready to make the transition to three (!!!) babies easier. There are a few things I’ve used with baby boy 1 and baby boy 2 that I will for sure use again with my third. We haven’t bought much (anything?) new, and I think this third time around it’s really easier to narrow down exactly what we need to take out of storage and what can stay away. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far for my top essentials for baby number three –
Turning Two and Starting School
Already a week into September, and got through some of our major milestones! I can’t believe we are in (what is most likely) New Baby Month. I haven’t even had a chance to truly process birthing for a third time, as I have been mentally preparing for having a two year old and a child in school! Now that the first week of September is behind us, I can begin to slow down, and hopefully go full nesting mode in prep for B3. Before we get too far ahead, I wanted to recap our August outdoor time! We had our best month yet, at 99 hours outside.
We have already hit out 500 hours this first week into September. I had no real goals, except to see how close we could make it to 1k. I plan on continuing to track into next year, so at least I will have a year of data to compare. I’m grateful that BB1’s school schedule allows them 2 hours of outside time a day, regardless of weather, so its easy for us to rack up another hour at home, especially since it takes us a good 10 minutes to walk to the bus stop. (It’s very close, I am just very slow). Speaking OF –
Making the Big Boy Bed Transition
We decided to transfer BB2 to a Big Boy Bed, even though he isn’t yet two. He isn’t climbing out of the crib or anything, in fact he isn’t even sleeping in the crib at all. With so much change and disruption during his little life, I never got him in an established schedule, and much like BB1, he didn’t turn out to be a big crib fan.
Making the Big Boy Bed Transition
The transition to “Big Boy Bed” for BB1 came when we moved. New house, new bed. The transition was rough, but I attribute it to the move in general, and not necessarily the bed. But in the case of both boys, the transition really comes from not wanting to buy another crib, and not necessarily any other reason. With B3 coming soon, we thought BB2 should get on with the transition sooner rather than later.
Friday with Friends
We randomly had an eventful Friday yesterday. We started this morning as we usually do – a garden stroll, as I affectionately call our walk to the side of the house where we have small raised garden bed. The boys did their morning pick of the ripest tomatoes and we checked in on our pumpkin vine. We have an abundance of cherry tomatoes so we decided to try our hand at making a cherry tomato jam. We used this recipe. BB2 was excited to help, by picking the stems off the tomatoes before adding them to the pot.
Third Trimester Woes Barbie
Didn’t they discontinue the pregnant Barbie?
Ah, the trifecta of third trimester pregnancy symptoms: restless legs, insomnia, and heartburn. Combine these into a with life with two toddlers and you’ve got a recipe for an exciting time! Been trying to keep my caffeine intake down, and thankfully Matt only worked mornings last week so I have been able to nap, but knowing I still have (fingers crossed at LEAST) four weeks left.. is an exhausting thought it itself. BB2 is still having nighttime sleep troubles, and what used to work – co-sleeping – is becoming harder and harder for me. I remember this happening at this stage with BB1. Eventually it somehow works itself all out but I know the transition for everyone will be tough.
Anyway, we had a great end of the week last week. We impulse bought the kids a swing set / slide and although the purchase hurt initially, it’s already paid for itself in joy for the kids and a bit of relaxation for us. We are spending tons of time outside, racing down the slide and swinging on the swings.
Tackling Outside Time with Toddlers: 1000 Hours Outside Challenge
As if my daily life of raising two toddlers 3 & under while pregnant with a third isn’t challenging enough, I also decided to take it upon myself to attain a nearly impossible goal of spending as much time outside as possible – specifically: spend 1000 hours outside in a single calendar year. This was prompted by the 1000 Hours Outside Instagram page, which I learned about from my sister-in-law. The idea is that you balance screen time with outdoor time. According to the 1000 Hours Outside website, the average American child spends 1,200 hours in front of a screen. That’s over 3 hours a day. Comparitvely, kids spend only 4-7 minutes playing outside a day. Now, we aren’t a screen free family, but I will admit that I fear that some of the wonder of childhood can get lost between all the screens we have access to. This topic is probably almost as dividing as sleep training, and not an issue I wish to debate with other parents. I think we all do what works for us and try to do what’s best for our child(ren). But I personally love the outdoors, and find my children are better behaved outside (and I worry less about messes, things breaking, etc) and want to raise the boys with the same love for camping, hiking, and general exploring that my partner and I have. So, I took upon this rather challenging goal.
A Quick Note
Before I get too far into blogging here – and perhaps I’m thinking too far ahead already – I just want to make note of how I will share. While I will, inevitably, be sharing photos and stories, I have decided to mostly leave my kids faces out of photos, as well as names. This … Read more
#BringBackBlogging
Do people still blog?
I miss it. I really do. I was always a “writer”. I always had a diary as a child. I still carry around an agenda to write down all my appointments and keep track of my day. For three years I consistently updated a blog with photos and paragraphs about my life. Not because I thought anyone would be particularly interested, but just because I enjoyed doing so.
For me, writing is therapeutic. It allowed me to examine my life as I wrote about it. It helped me deal with difficult situations. While in Japan, my friends and I used to say, “this will make a great blog post!” about every situation that didn’t go as planned. That outlook – the mindset that, looking back, this isn’t going to be a big deal – helped me navigate difficult times in my life. And I did always look back and laugh. I reread my posts and remember the feelings of anxiety and fear, but also of adventure and experience.
So, as I navigate now through a new phase of my life – becoming a mother – I turn back to what has always aided me: writing. What this new blog will turn out to be or how it will fit into my life, business, etc, has yet to be decided. But hey, it’s no fun if it’s all predictable right out the gate, eh?