The Perfect Baby

When I was pregnant with Alex, Jeremy would laughingly tell our friends "We're going to have the perfect baby". I had the perfect pregnancy- no morning sickness, very few aches and pains, and then the perfect labor - 11 hours of steadily progressing contractions, no drugs (I eventually took a Tylenol the night after Alex was born, since I was a little sore), no shouting at Jeremy during contractions, just a simple easy birth experience. Of course it followed that our baby would be perfect, too. And he is! He came out with a perfectly round little head, not the strange scrunched up face and body of a newborn we were anticipating, and he came out sounding more like he was talking than crying. By 6 weeks he was sleeping through the night in his own crib. And from there he has progressed beautifully, and perfectly.

He has a lot of me in him. I have no doubt that his ability and enthusiasm for talking comes from my side of the family - thanks Dad! And We're often told how much he looks like me (particularly now that I'm pregnant and my face is rounder than ever). But his Perfectness must come from Jeremy's family. Alex is very precise. He already tries very hard to color between the lines. He likes things a certain way, and lets us know exactly what that way is.

Tonight he systematically cleaned up all of his trucks and placed each one in a row on his bookshelf. Considering that I've never seen anyone in my family actually able to park their car in their garage (aren't garages made for holding the overflow items from the house?), and that Jeremy's family tends to have garages you could eat off the floor in, probably even after parking the car in them, I'm sure this comes from his side.

Alex has a potty chart to put stickers on each time he uses the toilet. I just taped a piece of paper to the wall in the bathroom and wrote "Potty Chart" at the top. Nothing too complicated. Then we started letting him pick a sticker and put it wherever he wanted on the paper each time he used the toilet. Without any prompting, he has lined up all of his stickers, making a perfect animal parade across the paper. And now that he's gone through one sheet of stickers, he's started placing matching animals together. So, if he picks another monkey, he places it right next to the monkey that's already in line. He loves things that match. He loves things to have a proper place. He loves to know which street it is we're driving on, and where we're going next.

We had a busy day yesterday. At breakfast Alex wanted to know what our plans were for the day. After I told him he said "OK, Bible Study, then lunch, then the hospital [for a doctor's appointment] then cookies [to eat on the way home from the hospital], then dinner, then the fish hatchery [a boys' night out for dinner and fun]. " Just as we were leaving for the hospital, we received a call that our doctor wasn't available, and could we please come tomorrow, instead. Alex had to adjust his thinking. "OK", he said, "Bible Study, then lunch, but no hospital." He's like a walking day planner.

As we draw near to meeting baby number 2, I have a growing suspicion that he's not going to be The Perfect Baby. At least not in the same sense that Alex is. This pregnancy has gone very well, I have no complaints, but it hasn't been quite as perfect. I did have some morning sickness, and now my hips have given up, but the contractions are what really are making me feel differently about this one. For a couple of months I've been having some strong contractions. One night in Omaha I was having contractions every 5 minutes for over 7 hours. By the next morning they had stopped, and I obviously didn't have the baby that night. Since then I've had random spurts of contractions, that randomly just stop again. By my doctor's appointment last Wednesday, I was already 4 cm dilated, looking like I could have the baby at any time, but, again, here I am, definitely still pregnant. Yesterday I started having fairly regular, intense contractions around 3:30. By 9:00 at night I was wondering if we should call Jeremy's mom to come pick up Alex. By 11:30 they had almost stopped, and I went to bed.

I'm sure this baby will be perfect, in his own way. But for now it's hard to imagine that he will be the perfectionist that his big brother has been since day one.

Breakfeast Cookies

Last night I couldn't sleep, and ended up on the couch in the living room when Alex woke up and came to find me. I was too tired and uncomfortable to bother getting up to make him break feast, so he had to make it himself. I lay on the couch and watched my 2 year old serve himself 2 chocolate chip cookies, some Go Diego Go Yogurt, and a sippy cup of milk I'd filled and put in the fridge the night before. He's growing up so fast.

I then fell back asleep while he ate and woke up an hour later to find him still at the table, systematically picking all the petals off a bouquet in the center of the table. He's a funny boy.

Trouble With Two

We will soon have two kids. We have two cars and two car seats. With two station wagons, we shouldn't have any problem fitting all four of us in one car, right? Wrong. With a couple of weeks left before our due date, Jeremy went out to install the little infant car seat Alex had used as a baby into our WRX. It's the newer of our two Subarus, and the one we generally use around town and always on long trips. We'd used this same car seat, in this same car, when Alex was born, so we didn't think there would be any problem putting it back in. Wrong... We'd missed the important fact that with only the one car seat, we put it right in the middle of the backseat. Now, we need to put it on a side. The problem is leg room. Who would think that a station wagon wouldn't have enough leg room for a newborn infant. With the car seat behind, the front passenger seat has to be moved up so far that there is no leg room in the front of the car. Family road trips are definitely not looking enjoyable with this configuration. I'm not even looking forward to riding around town this way. So, what about moving them over to the larger, older, Subaru? This seemed like a descent option, at least for short trips around town, until yesterday, when its radiator gave out. We're definitely in the market for a new car, perhaps two new cars. Ugh.

In other news, I'm having contractions like crazy. I was sure all day yesterday that baby was going to come at any time. After a good night's rest and a slow down in contractions today, I feel like it could be another couple of weeks.

Waiting for Baby

We're back in Bozeman, again, and waiting for our little one's arrival. We should have at least 3 or 4 weeks left before he comes, but I feel like he could come at any time. I've been nesting like crazy, so maybe we'll actually be ready for him soon. Here's Alex modeling one of the many knitted hats I've made over the last months.

I certainly think I'm looking ready to pop at any moment. I'm now wearing only my largest and stretchiest clothes, so he'd better come soon. Here I am as Jeremy sees me:

And here are Jeremy and I as seen by Alex. I guess I'm all stomach to Alex now.