It's Almost Go Time...

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In 24 hours I am going to have a new little baby and I am beyond excited but just a little nervous.

I'm not nervous about having a new addition to our family because I know that everything will fall into place in that aspect. I am nervous about the c-section as this is my third one (the first two were due to placenta previa and this one is due to my doctor not wanting to attempt a VBAC after two previous c-sections). Surgery, even a routine c-section, has many risks and I am trying to prevent myself from googling what they are. 

I am also nervous about the recovery as my husband is only taking a week off from work so after me being in the hospital from Thursday to Monday he will only be home two additional days to help out. Yes, my doctor gave me prescriptions for pain medication but that only does so much, plus this time I have a four year old and a two year old to take care of in addition to the baby. Mix all of that with the fact that a baby was ripped out of my abdomen and I'm not sure how I'm going to take care of the kids while also trying to recover from the surgery.

How I wish that I never had to have any c-sections- my life would be so much simpler but that was the hand I was dealt and I just need to roll with the punches. The only thing that matters in the end is that all of my children are happy and healthy. I have gone through two miscarriages, two pregnancies and two c-sections prior to this so whatever it takes to get through this final c-section and recovery I can handle. And then onto breastfeeding for a year!

Freezer Cooking

Between yesterday and today I did some freezer cooking in preparation for the baby's arrival (only one week away!).

I ended up making three pans of lasagna (one was eaten last night for dinner), one pan of stuffed shells, three pans of meatloaf (one will be eaten tonight for dinner) and three pounds of meatballs.

It really doesn't seem like much now that I look at this picture but I was so tired today and yesterday after all of that cooking! For all of you who do those marathon freezer cooking sessions I really look up to you! Hopefully these meals will make my life just a little bit easy once the baby is here and will make it so we won't have to get any last minute take out because I was too tired to make dinner.

I think I may make some pumpkin bread tomorrow to freeze but I'll have to see how I am feeling because right now I just want to lay on the couch with my feet up, but we all know that won't be happening! Too much to do and too little time to do it. I hate being such a total procrastinator...

Patience- What's That?

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Patience is something that I have been completely lacking lately, especially in these last few weeks of my pregnancy.

Between not being able to sleep well at night and just a general lack of energy it seems as if things that would not have bothered me before really get on my nerves now. My kids are a large part of my lack of patience as they are at the ages now where they fight constantly about everything and most of the time about nothing at all. A lot of the time I find myself just letting them beat the crap out of each other because I just don't want to deal with their squabbles and I feel like they need to work things out by themselves. How many times can I intervene when they fight over a toy- it does no good and then they just start fighting over another toy five minutes later. But then there are the times where my head is already throbbing and I am tired beyond belief that the wrath of mommy comes out- I yell a lot and then banish everyone to their rooms.

I know that my patience and energy level will return once I have the baby so we all just need to make through he next week and a half of me being crazy.

Halloween Candy is My BFF...

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I'm not too big on Halloween now that I am an adult. Sure, it is cute when my kids get all dressed up and I like seeing how excited they get when they go trick or treating but for me personally it is quite a bore.

That is until now. I am fat, pregnant and have a hunkering for chocolate.

I already busted open the bags of candy that I bought for trick or treaters and because I have no willpower I am not sure if said candy will still be around on Monday night. Luckily, I just bought two huge bags of candy from Amazon (gotta love Amazon Prime) that will be here by Monday so I'll just have to keep my grubby little hands off of them unless I want my house to get toilet papered due to a lack of candy on Halloween night.

The real best part of Halloween for a pregnant lady (once you get past the having to waddle from house to house with the kids while they trick or treat) is when I get to go through their candy when we get home to check for razor blades and hypodermic needles. At that time I confiscate what I don't think the kids should be eating- or should I say I confiscate what I think I should be eating.

I have been so good my whole pregnancy with not pigging out on junk so with two weeks to go until I have this baby, let the floodgates of sugary, fattening and high fructose corn syrup laden food open up!

Just Call Me Crazy...

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Today marks three weeks until I have the baby and I feel like every time I cross something off of my to-do I add another thing onto it. All day I am doing, doing, doing to get everything done that I feel needs to be done instead of actually doing what really needs to be done- resting.

So, will I rest? Nope. I will continue to go crazy getting random stuff done around the house. I can rest in the hospital after my c-section. And then after that I suppose I can rest when the kids are all adults and have moved out on their own.

Four Weeks and Counting...

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Yesterday I had my 34 week appointment and my doctor decided that it was time to schedule my c-section. My little bundle of joy who for the past eight months has sucked me dry of every ounce of energy I have is going to be making her appearance into the world on November 10th.

Yes, that is right- about one month from now I will be having my stomach sliced open for the third time (of which I am totally freaking out about) and will go from being the mother of two adorable little monsters to the mother of three adorable little monsters.

My nesting has really started to kick into high gear and I suddenly feel the need to clean the house form top to bottom, stockpile tons of food and household items and pull out and clean every baby item we own.

Four weeks and counting...

Invasion of the Body Snatcher...

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Why is it that pregnancy is such a natural thing but it is so darn uncomfortable?

Not only do I feel fat, gross and unattractive but my feet swell, I have to pee all of the time, when I bend over the baby pushes all of my internal organs up into my lungs, I have heartburn and I have just enough energy during the day to get the absolute bare minimum done around the house (though I do push myself to do more and regret at the end of the day when my body feels like it is going to self-destruct).

I know that it is all worth it in the end when I have my beautiful little daughter but it still stinks.

Pity party is now over (until my next occurrence of heartburn).

Operation: Decorate the Girls' Room

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I am really starting to freak out a bit about how close to my due date I am which is good because I am starting to get stuff done.

Right now my focus is on the girls' bedroom. My daughter's bed is all set- I bought her a new comforter set and made her bed skirt. The bed skirt matches the window valances I made and if I do say so myself, it all looks very cute. I made the crib skirt for the baby's bed last night which matches my daughter's bedspread (I used the fabric from the bed skirt the comforter set came with) and put the crib back together from it's previous form as a toddler bed. We bought a new mattress which was desperately needed considering the old one was on it's last leg. We also bought a new rug from Ikea a few weeks ago that goes with the new room decor and the room was painted from a light blue to a pretty purple.

With all of that done I still need to do the following:

-make the teething rail covers for the crib- I am going to use the same fabric that I used to make the bed skirt and window valances
-revamp a lamp with ribbon
-make some throw pillow covers using the same fabric as the teething rail covers
-paint unfinished bookcase (I am leaning towards white but who knows)
-put up shelf over the rocking chair
-make some sort of name sign to hang over each bed (leaning towards this)
-put up new white faux wood blinds (got an awesome deal on them at Home Depot.com)
-put up mirrored wall decals above both beds (bought from Target on clearance)

I'm sure there are a million and one other things I want to do to the room but I'll just try to keep myself focused on what I have listed here. Pregnancy makes me crazy...

Baby Names

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I have decided that it would be a good time to choose a name for the baby considering she is due to enter this world in November.

Choosing the name that your child will have for the rest of their lives is a lot of pressure to put on a parent. There are a lot of cutesy names that are great for a toddler but what adult woman wants a name that sounds like she could be a Disney Princess? And don't even get me started on the names that would fit right in at an establishment with a stripper pole.

After reading through my baby names book and eliminating weird names, cutesy names, names on the most popular list and names that would go well with dancing naked I have a short list of ones that I consider normal.

It may take me until November to choose a name from my list but at least now I have a list which is more than I had and hour ago.

Mattress Shopping Bites...

Next week my kids will officially be switching rooms. My son gets the smaller bedroom and my daughter gets to larger bedroom which she will share with the baby.

Along with the moving of everything and decorating of the rooms I need to buy my daughter a twin sized mattress because we are kicking her out of the crib-turned- toddler-bed.

The last time we bought a new mattress was when my son was around two years old. We went to the furniture store that we bought most of our furniture from and after looking at all of the options we plunked down $700 for my son's mattress and the protection plan. Shopping with a toddler brings out the lazy in me, and my husband and I were in no way willing to shop around at other stores. We got what we wanted- a mattress that was good quality and a toddler who did not have a meltdown while shopping.

Now that I am looking for a mattress for my daughter I feel like my head is swimming. I would prefer to just buy one online and avoid the dreaded trip a store, having to deal with annoying sales people but there are just so many options! I want to buy the same quality mattress that we did for my son but parting with $700 now seems harder for me to do than it was over two years ago- plus, unlike two years ago I want to pay cash instead of charging it or financing it (though I can be a sucker for the 0% financing ploy).

What is really annoying is the fact that unlike before when we just went to one store, this time I would like to compare prices between stores which is nearly impossible considering that each store has different names for the mattresses they sell. And I suppose what is most annoying is most likely after all of my research I'll just end up buying the same exact mattress that we bought for my son, basically wasting my time and stressing myself out about nothing.

Am I just being a crazy pregnant lady obsessing over a mattress? Yes, yes I am... and please don't even get me started on the fact that we also need a new crib mattress.

Just Get the Damn Porsche and Be Quiet...

I have been giving in a lot lately.

When my kids pitch a total fit, sometimes (maybe more than sometimes) instead of sticking to my guns I give in and give them what they want. Goldfish Crackers at the checkout at Target- sure! You want to watch the Hot Wheels movie again- hey, why not? You don't want to go to time out- you know what, how about you can skip it this time but the next time you misbehave you're definitely going (empty threats are my thing now). As far as potty training my daughter- well she doesn't feel like peeing in the potty and I don't feel like making her.

And my husband has been taking advantage of my mental laziness also. Our laptop broke and you want to buy me a mac book- ok. Best Buy has a great package deal on a new 3-D tv- just get it and stop bugging me about it. He said he was going to the Porsche dealership next- I really hope he was kidding.

I cannot wait until November when I have this baby so I can go from being mentally and physically tired to my old self where I say no and don't give in. If only my bank account can hold out until then...

Maybe in the meantime I'll change the name of my blog from "Just Call Me Cheap" to "Just Call Me Do What Ever You Want As Long As You Leave Me Alone".

Twenty-Six Weeks Down...

Today I am twenty-six weeks pregnant and I feel like I am forty weeks pregnant.

I have succumbed to sleeping on my couch because like with my two previous pregnancies, my usually very comfortable bed has become like sleeping on concrete. The last straw was when I wok up one morning and had such bad cramps in my hip that I could barely walk.

My clothing options have been vastly whittled down due to my ever growing stomach (and butt, and thighs... sigh). I only need to make it to when the weather starts to cool down a bit and I will have many more things to choose from to wear (I have never been pregnant in the summer so I had to buy things to wear but I didn't want to go too crazy).

I have about fourteen weeks to get everything ready for the baby. It seems like a lot of time but it really isn't when all of your time is taken up with raising two children and attempting to keep your house in somewhat order. I went through and donated/sold all of my son's baby clothing so that is all set but I now have to pull out all of my daughter's baby clothing to see what will work for the baby considering that my daughter was born in June and this baby will be born in November. Once I see what holes I have in her wardrobe I can start buying things to round everything out. I have a feeling I will be utilizing a lot of layering of short sleeved summer shirt over long sleeved onesies...

We are having the kids' bedrooms painted over the next two Saturdays so I really need to get on the ball about decorating the rooms. First up is finding my daughter a solid colored comforter for her bed (she is moving from her crib turned toddler bed to a twin sized bed). Once I find that I can go buy fabric to make a bed skirt, curtains, pillow covers, crib skirt and crib teething rail covers (I am pretty sure I am going to forgo a bumper this time around but we'll see). I have a sewing machine in my bedroom closet that I will be dusting off soon and hopefully I can figure out how to use it.

My son's room will be pretty easy compared to the girls' room. He will need new curtains and he really wants a new comforter and even though he doesn't really need one I want his room to all coordinate with his wall color (grass green- it was either that or black so I guess I can live with it). We also want to buy him a nice chair so he can have a little reading nook in his room.

As far as baby gear and diapers I am pretty much set. I'll be breastfeeding so we don't need to buy any formula and already have bottles, nursing pads, nursing bras and a breast pump. The only real cost associated with the new baby will be some clothing (don't you love how each baby you have gets cheaper and cheaper?).

You know what- if I weren't so crazy and didn't have to have everything just so I wouldn't be so stressed out right now. Darn my crazy self!

Please Hold the Chicken (and Pork)

I have not been posting menu plans lately but it is not because I have been lazy. It is because I have a severe aversion to chicken and pork due to the baby growing in my belly and my menus as of late have been pretty boring. My main issue with chicken and pork is that no matter how much it is cooked I feel like it is raw when I eat it- it could literally be burnt to a crisp and I would look at my husband and say "does this taste like it's cooked all the way?" So crazy, I know but pregnant women are super crazy (just ask my husband).

No chicken means lots of red meat. We eat a lot of steak tips, tacos, American chop suey, hamburgers, pasta with meatballs and anything else that is easy to make and doesn't have chicken and pork in it. But, the one chicken dish I can eat is buffalo chicken wraps because the buffalo sauce just drowns out any of the chicken flavor (and I absolutely love buffalo sauce).

My husband doesn't seem to mind the simple menu so far but talk to me again in a couple of months. A big downside to this aversion thing is that I have a lot of chicken that is stocked in my deep freezer that I feel like is going to be bad by the time I pop out this baby in November. I know that meat in the freezer never technically spoils but eating a whole chicken that has been frozen for a year kind of creeps me out.

Maybe when I feel more up to it I will think of better and more creative ways to cook beef but for now I am content with out boring menus.