Still Here

Williamsburg, 2014

Nothing to report!

I am making up errands, really, like buying this little present for Axel from the new arrival (we're in a big duck phase right now.) It's sunny and frozen out and, yay, we're expecting another blizzard on Sunday night.

We've been having some delicious Blue Apron meals, watching (more) Friday Night Lights, and chatting about how best to make use of Will's paternity leave, which he can use any time in the first year. Since I'm a freelancer, I get zip, but it's still nice to know we'll have some good time together as a family of four in the next year.

Axel is doing well. I got him a new fuzzy blanket and pillow for his crib from Little Giraffe, which he's loving. These things are insanely soft and trimmed in satin like my baby blankets of yore. If it's good enough for Suri and the Garner-Afflecks, it's good enough for Axel...I might need one of the adult-sized ones.

He's been a little needier and naughtier of late. Instead of waking up at 7:45ish (I know, we got lucky), he's been up at around 6:30 each morning for a few weeks now, moaning a bit at night (teething?), and jumping precariously on the couch for kicks.

He's a little more sensitive lately too, but I think all of this may have more to do with all the developmental strides that happen around this age than with the notion of a new sibling. I don't think it really has anything to do with the new baby concept, since he's been getting just as much attention as usual, though who knows what really goes down in the mind of an 18 month old.

Hibernating

Williamsburg, 2014

I guess this baby is waiting for a spring-ier birthday?

While we've been in limbo, I've been seeing friends, compulsively reading February 2014 birth month message boards (sigh! Could this be a March baby?), and finding my attention span to be totally non-existent.

I was kind of trying to describe the waiting game the other day. It's like being told your alarm might ring at 3 in the morning, or at any time, really, and you'll have to go bungee jumping and then run a marathon you haven't trained for because you've been 9 months pregnant. For seemingly ever. When that's the case, it's kind of hard to know what to do with your day. Sleep, drink Gatorade, stretch, pair socks? Be antisocial so you can prepare yourself for the task ahead, or carry on as usual? Talk about the weather?

I wouldn't like to be induced and doubt it will come to that, but I can certainly see the appeal of knowing "On such and such a day, I will have this baby..."

The funny part is that Will keeps bulk cooking things to save and freeze for when the baby is here, and then we find ourselves waiting around, throwing up our hands, and eating our rations for dinner. Every night I get some contractions, which of course screws with my mind and is apparently typical in second pregnancies? I didn't really have any sort of preamble like that with Axel, I just woke up and knew I was in labor.

Am trying to think of the plusses to being pregnant longer than expected, like the fact that Axel will be closer to 19 months old when his brother arrives and is getting that much more verbal and easier to understand.

Also enjoying these posts about the first few weeks of life with a newborn from Hither and Thither and Style by Emily Henderson.

39 Weeks

Williamsburg, 2014

And still here....this is my "Let this be the last bump photo for...quite some time!" expression.

We walked a few miles to the end of Franklin Avenue in Greenpoint, grabbed coffee at this new Norwegian coffee place, Budin, and then had brunch at Enid's, where we bumped into some of Axel's little friends and their parents. It feels insanely good to be in the sunshine and out walking, even if there are still icebergs on virtually every curb.

I haven't had much to report all week, mainly just frustration, since I am very ready to not be pregnant and getting tired of planning like in tentative 24-hour increments.

People who have more than one child often told me "Doesn't it just race by?" or "You're so distracted by your first child that you barely realize you're pregnant." I'd say this was largely true up until about 32 or 34 weeks along. In the early stages of my pregnancy, I was definitely distracted by day-to-day life and less obsessed with every milestone.

Lately, things have sloooooowed way down and it started to feel like I'd been pregnant since 2011 (the two pregnancies kind of blurring together.) I breastfed for 6 1/2 months and was pregnant again by the time Axel was around 9 months old, so...it feels like a long time since my body has been my own. I'm having a pretty text book pregnancy, but at this stage I feel pretty cranky. It was nice to distract myself this morning with some warmer weather and just hanging out with my two guys.

Anyway, here I am at 39 weeks barefoot and pregnant with Axel. And here we were on his due date.

38 Weeks

38 weeks, 3 days

A few days late with the post but am officially huge! Here I am at 38 weeks pregnant with Axel. This time around, I am feeling far more impatient and more uncomfortable...

I think because Axel came a week early (and I'm still convinced I'm a week ahead of my official due date) I wake up every morning kind of puzzled that I am not in labor.

Then again, with Axel, I didn't really have any warning signs, especially. I had a normal week and then woke up in the middle of the night to early labor. So...basically taking it day by day around here.

Weekend

Williamsburg, 2014

We went out for a quiet dinner at D.O.C. on Friday night and took Axel to the Brooklyn Children's Museum yesterday; have been brunching and watching cross country skiing on TV (strangely therapeutic!) today.

Though his serious expressions might suggest otherwise, Axel loved the museum (so much so that he was verrrry focused on the tasks at hand.) Needless to say, he passed out in the car about 30 seconds after we left.

Etc.

Williamsburg, 2014

New York in the snow sounds really romantic, in theory, and when the snow was first falling yesterday morning, being up high in our apartment was a bit like being in a snow globe. In practice, and especially the next day, it looks a lot like this. Axel and I had a snow day home together yesterday, and I keep trying to remind myself that the longer this baby stays put the closer we'll be to warmer temperatures when he arrives. Right?

Will has been working a lot in preparation for his paternity leave, and every weekend we vow to do fun city-ish things like take Axel to the Natural History Museum, only to find our plans seem less than ideal because there's been another epic storm. It's completely boring to moan about it, but I am itching for that first weekend when we can get back to the playground and spend all day outside and appreciate the city once again.

I am so close to my due date and the uncertainty of it all is driving me a little crazy. I don't quite know whether to hunker down and get rest or to carry on as usual...I think I have a week or two more left, but it's impossible for me not to over-analyze theories about whether second babies come sooner or whether the full moon or the next low pressure system could possibly trigger labor. As I was joking to Will, I hate surprises! If I can find some kind of pseudo-science to hang on to, I'll take it.

Hand Me Downs

Williamsburg, 2014

Axel's impossibly tiny baby clothes are all washed and folded and ready for the new guy.  Many of them were hand me downs from cousins in the first place and many of them are now a little careworn but I love how nearly every outfit evokes a fun memory of newborn days past, like this little caterpillar number he wore to an old friend's bachelorette party in Rhode Island at just 6 weeks old:

Axel, 2012

Or this train onesie he wore for our road trip across Washington State (here he is checking out the views over the Columbia River Gorge.) 

Axel, 2012

Let's See...

Williamsburg, 2014

No baby yet!

I've been slightly quiet on the blog (busy weekend) which may have something to do with the flurry of E-mails I've received asking me if the baby is en route. Well....not that I know of.

We just had a lot of activity over the weekend between the Olympics opening ceremony (I am obsessed with the Winter Olympics), the usual Axel wrangling, and a night out on Saturday which included a stop at the very excellent Pies and Thighs. How is it possible that this was our first visit? We then went to a party full of twenty-somethings and I felt very old and very pregnant! There were temporary tattoos and Blow Pops and drinking games. Needless to say, I felt slightly like a fish out of water.

We also took Axel to a trial Kick and Play soccer class which was very cute. He so loves participating in classes, and stares very intently at the instructor while he tries to work out the rules. His expression during the whole thing wavered between "This is the best day of my life!" and "What am I doing here?" He'd then wander off to some corner and forget entirely that we were in a class. It's very cute.

Don't know that we will sign him up as it's hard to know whether a structured weekly appointment will create or relieve stress in the coming months, but it was a good way to pass a Sunday morning.

We also found out that Axel got into our first choice of pre-school for next September. Um, not that I had been worrying obsessively over that or anything. Hahahahaha.

Okay, I was kind of obsessing. It's somewhat true what they say about pre-school in New York. Even in our relatively low key neighborhood, people line up on the day applications come out (a year in advance of the date you want to enroll.) I applied on day one or two, but as the days went past without hearing from the school, I started to hear more and more from parents who had gotten their acceptances and thought, Eeeeek....I have failed my first challenge.

Will of course has been very rational, talking me down from the pre-school precipice, and pointing out that even if he didn't get in, he's after all just a baby. But then I'd have to go through the whole nail biting process again in September for a 2015 start, all the while fretting that there'd be 100 parents more neurotic than I am lined up at dawn, pistols drawn!

So, that's what we've been up to lately. Waiting on bambino and riding out the last of winter. Please say it's nearly the last of winter...

Check Ups

Axel, 2014

Cute boys!

I had a 37 week scan yesterday and the little fellow is weighing in at around 6 lbs 15 ounces, while Axel had his 18 month check up today, and is 25 lbs and 6 ounces and 32.5". He was shuffling around the exam room in his diaper with a lollipop which was very cute.

Every time Axel looks at this page of the book (which has confetti on it), he says "Snow!" And we are apparently getting a few more inches tomorrow night, sigh.

Lately

Williamsburg, 2014

Yesterday was one of those days. Holed up in a snow storm with tons of freelance work to get done and nothing but crackers, cheese, and grapes for lunch. And tea and toast. Needless to say, I had crashed by the time Will came home and made fish tacos.

The snow was very pretty and it was lovely to wake up and see it on all of the roof tops...but we're supposed to get a few more storms before the week is through. In New York, business seems to carry on as usual, even with 8 inches falling in a day. How much longer is this season supposed to last?

Eighteen Months

Axel, 2014

Back when Axel was in the single digit months, eighteen months seemed so....old! But this week, he'll be a year and a half old! I know I'm a few days early, but we're definitely toddler territory.

In the last month or so his comprehension and ability to communicate has completely exploded. It would be a real stretch to say we have proper conversations, but he has so many words and seems to understand nearly everything we say to him so it really feels that way to me.

New Words: Please, Choo Choo, Book, Nana (Banana), Stop, Stuck, Tanktoo (Thankyou), DiDoor (Dinosaur), Fish, Tati (Taxi), Me-ball (Meatball), Light, Mine, Caw-Caw, Penguin, Ap-Sauce (Applesauce), Happy, Sea-face (Sealface, our cat.) He can also say his name but it sounds more like Ack-el than Axel at the moment! All the talking definitely feels like a breakthrough and also a new phase in our relationship. We've been talking a bit more about babies, and today he gave my belly a kiss, which was so sweet.

Favorite activities: Jumping (it's a bit uncoordinated at this point, but he certainly gives it his all.) Books! Finally, our squirmy fellow will happily sit through books at bedtime and will bring us books throughout the day. Sometimes I'll leave a board book in his crib and he'll wake up in the morning and "read" to himself. It's so cute. Overall, he really seems to have a plan and relish playing. Playing is serious business around here. He follows Will around like a little duckling, and loves going with him to put the recycling in the trash room or helping to unload the dishwasher (helping being a relative term.)

Basically...we're smitten.

Here's a look back at Seventeen Months Old, Sixteen Months Old, Fifteen Months Old, (we skipped fourteen), Thirteen Months Old, Twelve Months Old, Eleven Months Old, and more:


Nine Months Old

Eight Months Old

Seven Months Old


The first six months:



Six Months Old

Five Months Old

Four Months Old

Three Months Old

Two Months Old

One Month Old

36 Weeks

Williamsburg, 2014

36 weeks, and there was a bit of a thaw this morning that let us get outside. We attempted to head to the playground but realized we had left Axel's shoes at home (ooops), so watched some kids playing soccer and checked out the geese along the East River instead.

Here I am at 36 weeks with Axel two summers ago! I went into labor less than three weeks after that picture was taken, so it's hard not to feel like we're in count down mode.