January 7, 2019

Baby Floris #2 – Almost Go Time!

Happy New Year!! I can’t believe that it’s already 2019… or that it’s been 2 months since I last blogged – whoops! Today I’m 39 weeks pregnant and we are officially in the final countdown until baby #2 makes her arrival. I was totally convinced that we were going to have a December baby so I was wayyyy off! Henri’s guess is the 9th so we’ll see if he’s right in a couple of days. Whenever we ask Liv she says “soon”, haha.

Even though we are *hopefully* just days away from welcoming baby I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on this pregnancy one more time before we’re thrown into that newborn haze!

WHAT’S BABY FLORIS UP TO?

At 39 weeks baby girl is the size of a pumpkin and is officially full term. This means that she could arrive at any time – fingers crossed that’s soon!

HOW I’M DOING

Great! Besides just being anxious/excited for her arrival I’m doing really well. Physically, I’m still fairly comfortable and the only thing that’s been an ongoing issue is heartburn. I’ve gotten good at avoiding foods that trigger it (tomatoes _+ spicy foods for the most part) but every once in awhile it flares up for seemingly no reason. I feel prepared for and ready to take on labor and delivery – both mentally and physically – now if only little miss would get this show on the road, lol.

I’m trying to keep myself busy to keep my mind off of the waiting and wondering and the analyzing of every little feeling and symptom but I’m also at the point where I just want to veg and relax.

WORKING OUT/RUNNING

Things have been progressively slowing down on this front for the past two months. Two months ago I was still running 5 days a week and hitting anywhere from 15-20 miles. Since then I’ve slowed to run:walks and now mostly just walks with the occasional run:walk when I’m feeling up for it. I stopped tracking my runs or mileage and am feeling good about that (although it would have been fun to know how many miles this little one and I completed together with her in my belly). In the past two weeks I’ve only completed 3 run:walks but have gotten outside for a walk nearly every day. There’s just something about that feeling of being outside and breathing fresh air that I NEED. I’m looking forward to walks with my girls as I start easing back into things postpartum and am DREAMING about getting out for solo runs – that sounds so glorious and freeing right now!

PREPARATION FOR BABY’S ARRIVAL

We are 100% ready for baby’s arrival. Over the holidays we took advantage of Henri’s time off to get some important tasks accomplished. Baby’s nursery is complete thanks to Henri’s hard work sanding and re-staining her dresser so that I could organize all of her clothes and stuff in the dresser. Our bags are packed for the birth center, we have plenty of frozen meals waiting in our freezer + the car seat is installed.

Come on baby!!! We’re ready for you!

HOW LAVINIA IS DOING

Lavinia is so excited to meet her baby sister! We’ve been doing a lot of work to prepare Liv both for her sister’s birth (we’re planning to bring her to the birth center with us for labor + delivery) and life with a new baby. She seems to understand what is going on and be looking forward to the changes ahead. I’m really looking forward to her taking on her new role and to see her become a big sister.

FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM THE PAST 2 MONTHS

Celebrating the holidays – Christmas was especially exciting this year because it was the first time Lavinia really “got” it and it really brought the magic of the season to life!

My family coming to visit for a week – coming from a big family (I’m one of 5) it’s very rare that we all get together and while we were missing one sibling 4 out of 5 of us and our families all getting together was pretty special!

THINGS I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO

Labor & Delivery – yes, there’s a lot of pain involved but labor and delivery are such a unique experience that you only get to go through a few times in your life. We aren’t sure if this is going to be our last kid or not but it might be and so I want to soak up every minute of the experience of bringing our little one into the world.
Lavinia meeting her little sister! I know she is going to do such a good job and I can’t wait to watch their bond/relationship develop.
Finding our new rhythm as a family of 4 – right now it feels like we’re in this limbo and I’m really looking forward to coming out of that limbo a bit.