Only two more months

So when I started this blog, I thought it would a good place to record my life so I could look back someday and try to remember what is was like at this point in time. So the end of September is here and the baby's due date is is December 5...that's just over two months away. I don't have a blog to look back on to see what life was like 2 months before Nate arrived but I think I remember pretty well.

Two months before Nate was born I had read probably 3 or 4 different books on pregnancy and started reading about what the expect during the first year of life. I had researched all the baby gear and carefully chosen the best while keeping a handle on price. I'd debated and returned at least one bedding set and most likely had the nursery all set with the final choice. We'd decided on a name and everyone knew "who" would be making the grand entrance at the beginning of November. We had finished our childbirth class and taken and class on breastfeeding. I had worried and fretted about labor and exactly how I would feed the new baby. Ken and I ate out as often as possible and saw lots of movies figuring that it was our "last chance" to get out as just the two of us.

Two months before Bug is expected to make and appearance I have reread about 5 chapters of one of my old pregnancy books. (And I think they were all prior to twenty weeks.) I'm haven't researched any baby gear because we still have all of Nate's from three years ago and that was researched thoroughly. (Although at some point I'm going to get new bottles most likely because Nate's Avent bottles are not BPA free and - bad mommy- they were sometimes microwaved to get breast milk up to room temp.) No new bedding for the baby. The nursery will pretty much stay the same and Nate will move into his new big boy room...eventually. His bed was here two weekends ago but it wasn't quite right. The loft couldn't be "unlofted" so they came back this past Saturday to take it back and fix it and it will be back this Saturday along with the dresser we originally ordered too. As for names, we got nada right now and since we don't know the gender, we got double nada. No classes this time but since we will be delivering at a different hospital this time, I think we'll probably try to do a tour sometime before delivery. I have thought about this delivery alot because I am trying to decide if I really want to attempt a VBAC this time or have a repeat C-section. But since I really want to see where I am closer to delivery, I guess I haven't thought about it that much. Ken and I have been able to eat out alone a couple of times this past summer thanks to our generous families watching Nate and we even saw one movie. (Maybe we can get one more movie in during the next two months?)

What's the same between my life now and my life three years ago? I was so thankful for the opportunity to be spending 24 hours a day with the little life that was/is growing inside me. I love you Nate for who you were then and who you have grown to be already. I love you Bug (as you give me a couple of little kicks right this minute) and I can't wait to find out who you will be.

Nate sings! Baby Bug kicks!

Okay, just a quick update. (Life has been busy lately.) As much as love hearing little kids sing, my son just does not like to....until the last week. He'll now sing "Rain rain go away, come back some udder day" pretty much upon request. It is the sweetest song my ears have ever heard. e(I've also caught him secretly singing the opening song to the Backyardigans a couple of times and was laughing until I cried. Maybe there is a reason Nate tells me he can't sing...it really was pretty off key but adorable anyway.)

As for Baby Bug, he/she is definitely getting stronger. Those cute little movements I started feeling just a few weeks ago have given way to kicks and jabs. I keep telling myself to savor every minute because I really do love being pregnant and this may be my last baby but how cow some of those pushes really catch me off guard! I had an OB appointment yesterday and everything is still looking good and I'm measuring just a little bit big. Dr. L said I most likely wouldn't be having a six pound baby and I totally agreed.

Labor Day 2008

Growing up, Labor Day was always a major holiday at our house. I lived in a small town and like many small mid-western towns, we have one "major" festival each year. In my hometown, that festival is Labor Day weekend. Covering both blocks of our downtown, there are rides, games, food, and a stage where local musicians, dancers, and entertainers of all sorts perform. The high school marching band plays at an ice cream social at the old train depot. The local scholarship/beauty pageant is held in the high school auditorium. (No, I never competed but I did go to watch several years.) On Labor Day, there is a long parade filled with antique cars, politicians and trucks hauling local sports teams and classes that were having reunions that year. The best part of the parade was a majority of the participants throw candy to the crowds. I'd come away with just as much candy from the parade as I would on Halloween. As I got older, I remember spending HOURS each day hanging out downtown with my friends, some of which I was just catching up with since school had just started the week before. Labor Day weekend holds a lot of memories for me.

This past weekend, I took Nate back to my hometown to experience another Labor Day with my son. On Saturday evening, we met up with my best friend and her two little girls and walked downtown. Somehow, the festival seems so much smaller than I remembered. Nate wasn't too interested in the rides (even though he really liked them at the two fairs we went to over the summer) but he did play two games where he won a shark and a dolphin. I bought him some french fries and I had my fried cheese on a stick. (The same fried cheese stand has come for as long as I can remember and sets up on the same corner every year. I will truly mourn the year that it does not show up.) We were only at the festival for around an hour and had covered it all. Was this really the place where I had spent so much time as a child?

On Monday, we went to my parents' house for a cookout and then a short walk up the street to watch the parade. I ate too much, watched Nate play with water balloons for the first time, and sweated through the parade. I loved every minute of it. Seeing Nate wave at the people in the parade and happily munch on a sucker instead of diving all over the street to grab even more candy. (I know that day will soon come because I watched his older cousins racing to grab as much as they could.) Nate finally decided that he could pedal his bike so I walked behind him as he rode his bike around the block that I circled so many times when I was growing up. Even though not much has actually changed in my home town during the Labor Day festival, Labor Day isn't the same as I remember growing up. I thought I might miss the way it was, but really I loved it just as much.