Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Which is the bigger Challenge? The Newborn? Or the almost 3 year old?

I saved my personal post for this week.

Being 39 weeks pregnant is quite emotional.  I feel really great, this pregnancy has been an absolutely breeze and look at that...I am so close to the end that I even feel comfortable speaking in the past tense!  The end is so close I can almost touch it!  And I am just itching to hold baby J.

The past few days however have just been incredibly emotional.  I am quite anxious to hold him that it almost brings me to tears to think about it.  My arms are just aching to hold him and snuggle and have those first moments!  My body is going through a lot right now too getting ready for delivery.  I am contracting like nobody's business!!  It is enough to make me incredibly uncomfortable, but not enough to warrant a hospital trip.  It almost seems like my body is playing tricks on me!  Last night was the first time that I honestly thought we might be in business.  I was contracting every 2-5 minutes and they were getting more and more painful.  It was approaching 11 PM, so I decided to go to bed and lay down (maybe sleep even) and I fully expected the contractions to wake me through the night.  Nope!  Again, my body thinks it is funny!  I got a good night of rest and the contractions never woke me!  The sleep was wonderful so I can't complain!

This pregnancy is just so different from Miss A's.  With her, my BP shot up at 32 weeks and I spent the rest of my pregnancy on bedrest and PRAYED to make it to my due date.  My due date was just fixed in my head and I wanted nothing more than to make it to that date.  I never had one contraction and I never dilated prior to my induction...so I never once thought she would come early and I never got to that "any day now" feeling. Plus I was seriously praying for her to stay in there!!!  But this pregnancy has been so different.  I really feel like he could come at ANY time!  It is annoying!!!  LOL

On top of my growing emotions and anxiety...we are having serious nap issues with Miss A.  It is incredibly frustrating.  I keep trying to tell myself that it is ok and that I shouldn't get upset, but hugely pregnant me is getting incredibly angry by the million treks up the stairs to put her back to bed until she FINALLY goes to sleep.  She is tired.  And she needs to sleep.  And the stubborn streak runs a mile long from both my husband and myself.  I have never met such a stubborn and willful child.  I love her so much, and I hate being upset with her.  I hate even more yelling at her.  Most times when I do completely blow my lid and yell at her, I end up bawling.  I just hate it.  I try to let her just play in her room and let her do what she wants...but then she will not sleep.  If I don't go up and put her back to bed, she will just play the entire time and then be a wreck through the evening.  So I find myself making the journey, dragging my pregnant body, up the stairs repeatedly to put her back to bed until she finally goes to sleep.  I wish could get this nap thing worked out before baby J arrives.  I am having serious anxiety about how I am going to balance the needs of the newborn with the almost 3 year old and her bag of tricks.

Ugh.

Seriously.  How do you moms of more than one do it?  Throughout my pregnancy I have gone back and forth with thinking how easy/hard it will be to balance them.  Of course, right before I am slated to deliver, I am wracked with panic and fear about it!!!  Miss A has just been giving us such a hard time with nap and attitude and bossiness that I am seriously concerned about how I am going to balance the two of them!  She is used to getting her way and having my undivided attention 100% of the time.  I don't know how she is going to react to baby brother!  And I am seriously anxious and nervous about how I am going to meet the needs of the newborn AND the toddler while keeping my sanity as well.

I am just an emotional mess.  Any advice or pep talks welcome!!!  And hopefully I will have big news soon!!!  Send happy baby and happy delivery thoughts my way PLEASE!!! :)

2 comments:

  1. My son stopped napping before his 2nd birthday so at least she is napping at all!! lol I am 21 weeks pregnant and my son is 3 now and on some days I REALLY wish he would just magically fall asleep so I could get a few moments of rest! But it never happens unless he falls asleep in the car.

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  2. My son is the same way as your daughter. It can be a real struggle to get him to rest in his bed. I have made it a point that he can take two small toys in his bed with him and play quietly with them but he must be lying down. I also have a CD that we play and he has to stay in there while it plays. If I have to go back up, the music is started over.
    It can be tough balancing the two kids. I do think that going from 1 to 2 kids can be the most difficult transition. From my experience anyway. My son had some adjusting to do, but overall I think it went really well. It sounds like our kids are about spaced the same. It is hard going from all your attention on one to now two, but luckily newborns can sleep alot and that can help with the transition at times.
    Do you let your daughter have one or two little quiet toys in bed at all? Or is she likes to look at books, maybe have some of those in her bed during quiet time.
    I hope this doesn't give you too much stress. I am sure your new LO will be here before you know it. You are not alone with the stressing over naps and newborns. I have found that if I can keep him quiet then he will usually fall asleep at least for a while.

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