We were only there for 4 days, and we had plans to spend one day in Seattle but on the drive there Makena threw up in the car. :( She had been sick a few days before our trip but we were hoping she was over it. So instead we went to the zoo.
Grandma Carol, Pam, and Makena looking at a tiger.
After this carousel ride we were looking in the gift shop and Makena threw up again. Apparently whatever bug she had made her completely fine except for some motion sickness. Poor thing.
On Mother's Day I woke up wanting to eat some grits, so I looked on Yelp for some restaurant ideas. Found this awesome Southern Kitchen place, and they had cheese grits and fresh strawberry lemonade with whipped cream!
Then later we went to see the rest of the family for a big get together meal. Makena wore this shirt-
It says "Only Child Expiring November 2013" and was our way of announcing that she's going to be a big sister! When I got pregnant and saw that I'd be 12 weeks along on Mother's Day I knew that's when I wanted to tell everyone. So I made some gifts for my mom to open (a picture of the sonogram and a mouse pad that listed her 4 grandkids and announced grandkid #5 was due in November) and we had Makena wear that shirt for the family we were visiting to see. It took a bit for people to catch on and understand, and then everyone was very happy and excited for us. I got a call from my mom after she opened her gifts, of course she was shocked and elated and crying!
We didn't tell many people that we were trying for another baby, which is so completely different from when we got pregnant with Makena. But everything has felt so different this time around, and I wanted to reach a safer point in the pregnancy before telling Makena and the rest of our world. She's been asking for a long time for a sibling, and she's thrilled! I'm 16 weeks pregnant now and we find out later this month if it's a boy or girl. For a long time Makena talked about having a baby sister, she'd pretend she had a sister and was set on us having two girls. Then we borrowed a library book about being a big sister, and the girl says that she's happy they're having a baby boy because their family already has a girl. And now that's all Makena will say, that she wants a brother because we only have girls in our family. So that makes me almost wish for a boy, just to make her happy!
Here's the photo of Pam sitting on her great-grandma's lap, next to her grandma with her mom behind them.
And here's the photo of Makena sitting on her great-grandma's lap, next to her grandma with her mom behind them!
So anyway, we're having a second baby. It's definitely the most exciting news, but that's not all that's new!
With my pregnancy I noticed an almost immediate drop in my milk supply. Makena was still nursing to sleep every night, and nursing a bit in the morning as we lay in bed. But early on, and especially by week 10, nursing became uncomfortable/painful for me and she started complaining that there wasn't any milk. I was feeling badly that I was forcing her to wean, but I talked to a bunch of people and realized that I wasn't forcing her really, that it was a natural tapering off. She was still free to nurse as she wanted, but eventually she would get frustrated and sad and we ended up one night with her cuddling in bed with me trying to get her to sleep without nursing. And she turned to me and hid her face in my chest and said in a wavering little voice- "It's hard to fall asleep alone." I said "I'm right here, you aren't alone." and she said "I mean without milk." She was holding back tears and it broke my heart. Then she just rolled over and fell asleep. It was May 25th, the third night in a row that I didn't nurse her to sleep. I was equally proud and sad. I've always wondered what weaning would look like logistically, but never really thought about how it would feel. I appreciate the fact that she's old enough to understand and can voice her feelings, and since then she will occasionally ask for milk and I let her try for a bit but she ends up rolling over and going to sleep. She doesn't ask at all in the morning, and she is aware that the new baby will arrive and drink the milk. She suggests that they can each share one side. We'll see...
One change that was unexpected with the weaning was that she's been sleeping much more soundly. Normally she'd wake a couple times during the night because she's just never been a heavy sleeper. But now she doesn't wake when I crawl into bed next to her, and she hasn't woken up in the middle of the night at all! (Yes, I just knocked on wood.) I've been tired lately and Pam gets home so late nowadays, that I've been falling asleep before 10, and sometimes before 9! Meaning I wake up feeling refreshed and awesome after about 10 hours of sleep!
Another change is that Pam has been enrolled in some night classes for film, and since we share a car and had scheduling conflicts, I'm pretty much done with my very part-time babysitting job. I've been able to pick up a couple random hours here and there, and was watching Makena's friend Lyra one morning a week in our home but now the school year has ended so that's done too. Pam's summer schedule is absolutely crazy, it changes week to week and her shifts are all over the place, plus she's going to take more night classes. Having one car is extremely difficult when she needs it so often! Thankfully we live within walking distance to many things, but I'm already anticipating the need of a second car once November rolls around.
Speaking of Fall, Makena is hopefully going to be attending a new preschool that we are very excited about. We're hopeful that we can get a scholarship, because otherwise there's no way we can afford it. But we've visited twice and love it. It'll be a great match for us! It's a co-op and I'll be assigned one day a week (out of the 3 days a week she'll attend) to work in the classroom. But what I love is that they'll let me stay in class with her for as long as we need before she's comfortable separating. Being that she's never really done any sort of class without me, it might be a challenge, and I'm glad I don't need to force her since I get to stay home and not worry about working and needing her to be without me. And hopefully this gives her some time to get used to the new place/teacher before the baby is born, because who knows what'll happen then!!
Another new thing is that my parents got some backyard chickens! They have four and they were tiny days old chicks when they brought them home. Makena really loves visiting them and feeding them treats. I'm looking forward to organic free-range eggs!!
And the only other change I can think of is that recently Makena had an eye infection. At the park one day she got some sand in her eye, and she kept rubbing at it and saying it hurt, and two days later it was swollen and her eyelid was droopy with some excess gunk in it. I was hesitant to bring her to the doctor because I was worried they'd automatically prescribe antibiotics, but I spent a day calling an advice nurse and monitoring her eye and eventually we decided to go have her looked at. I thought there might be a piece of sand stuck under her eyelid, but the doctor put a special dye in her eye then used a black-light and reported there were no scratches or anything, so that was great. But she said it was infected so we went home with the antibiotic eye drops. Getting them in her eyes was a struggle at first, but it cleared up right away and she became a pro at letting us administer them for all 5 days, 4 times a day! She even used water to practice on us, and her dolls. A couple days later I got a pink irritated goopy eye, but it went away after using coconut oil in it twice.
I've been wanting to update for a while, but we got rid of cable and were inadvertently without internet for about a month. And then our computer just wouldn't turn on one day. I'm still not sure what's wrong with it because we can't get it to turn on! Then we got internet set up and a new Chromebook (as a belated Christmas present!) and now our TV isn't working. It's funny but mostly annoying that the second we fix one problem another problem arises! Then again, if lack of tv is my biggest problem, I'm pretty darn lucky.
And with that, I'm going to go snuggle my precious little almost 3.5 year old!!
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