Today I finally accepted how pregnant I am..

I had to put on four separate shirts before I got to one that covered my belly (and yes, it was a Maternity shirt).

I walked into the ladies room at work and caught a glance of myself from the side. Wow.

I took a picture to send to my Mom and Sister (which can be seen to your left). I believe the shock at my reflection is evident in my expression.

And just now, sitting at my desk, I attempted to cross my legs. It wasn’t comfortable. And my left leg would not stay crossed, it just kept sliding back down.

I may only be 28 weeks pregnant and I may only be in the very beginning of my final trimester, but I feel huge.

I feel very, very pregnant.

Lee woke up at about 1:30 this morning and woke me up by leaning in close to my face saying, “Mommy, Mommy….”. I scooted out of bed as one does with an extra 18 pounds sitting atop their diaphragm and scooped up my boy. We went to his bed and snuggled until he fell back asleep. Once he was asleep enough for me to sneak out, I began the untangling process. I was laying on my left side, facing him. He was laying on his stomach with one arm wrapped around my neck and one leg kicked over my hip.

I caught myself smiling in the darkness of his room because I could only imagine what D might be watching if he happened to be awake and looking at the monitor on the bedside table. His heavily pregnant wife trying to wiggle herself out from underneath his lanky, gangly toddler.

I mean… you can’t just scoot sideways out of Lee’s bed. He has one of those side rails that keeps him from rolling out, so you have to untangle yourself, hoist yourself up onto your knees and crawl backwards (yes, on your hands and knees) to the edge of the rail. All while not making any noise or jostling him, because he will grab you if he sees you and pull you back in.

It’s about 2:45 now and I’m finally back to my own bed. I lay down and pull a pillow between my knees right as I realize I have to pee.

“No, no, no..” I’m thinking as I’m squeezing my eyes shut and willing the feeling to go away.

It does not.

Back up and to the potty I go!

The next thing I remember is feeling Lee crawling over the top of me into our bed. I glance over at the clock, 4 A.M. Which is actually normal for Lee. He is almost always up between 4 and 5 in the morning. We’ve tried later bedtimes, different bedtime routines, everything we can think of and Google recommends and still….. the boy is up like a rooster. He lays quietly with us until D’s alarm goes off.

Once he hears D’s alarm, he wiggles out from underneath the covers and shimmies over the top of me, stretching his arms out towards D. “Daddy, get Lee,” he says. D picks him up and heads towards the bathroom. Looking back at me over his Dad’s shoulder, he  says, “Mommy, I go help Daddy”.

I roll over, praying for another half hour of sleep. Nope.

Lee is back to tell me, “Daddy in shower, we go get couch and watch Cars now with ba-ba,” (Translation: D’s in the shower, let’s go get on the couch and watch Cars with a cup of milk) as he’s pulling at my arm.

I get him situated and curl up on the couch beside him. The next thing I remember is D rubbing my back and asking me if I’m going to grab a shower or stay on the couch for a few more hours. Oh how I wanted the latter!

(Luckily, on the weekends, D will usually get up early with Lee and they’ll let me sleep in for a few hours. It’s their “man time” I’m told).

Yesterday morning, I had just stepped out of the shower and twirled my hair up into a towel when Lee appeared in the bathroom to ask me, “All clean, Mommy?” Once I reassured him that I was, he came in and made himself comfy, just chattering away. And then he hopped up and started opening and slamming cabinets. And opening and slamming the toilet lid. And spanking me. All at once.

This morning, I had silence. I can only imagine what D was listening to in the other room! We are in that really fun stage where we are never sure what he is going to say or do and watching him is quite entertaining. And terrifying (especially if you’re in public). All at the same time.

Our current favorites are him telling us that we are “crazies” and his “o-tay, o-tay, o-tay”.

Last night, he had D pinned down in the kitchen and was on top of him tickling him all over (of course, I couldn’t find my phone to record it!), when D turned the tables on him! D sat up and flipped over, putting Lee on his back and tickling him.

At first all I could hear was Lee screaming, “You’re crazies Daddy!! Daddy, you’re crazies!!” between fits of giggles.

Once I got closer I could see Lee trying to wiggle away and yelling, “O-Tay Daddy, O-Tay, O-Tay Daddy!!!”

I do have a video of Lee saying “crazies”, in an unrelated conversation. See below!

 

I can’t help but think about what our lives will be like in May when our little girl joins us. I can only imagine we will be a lot sleepier, but also a lot happier. With all of the joy that Lee brings to our lives, we truly cannot wait to see what having two is like.

My obstetrician jokingly told us at our last appointment that you aren’t a “real parent” until you master having more than one. “One is easy, two is a circus. But, if you can handle two, you can handle a dozen,” he said.

I guess we will see!

 

xxxA