If pregnancy were a book...

“If pregnancy were a book, they would cut the last two chapters." - Nora Ephron

These days, I'm just lucky to find a shirt that fits before it's time to leave in the morning. There are multiple phases in pregnancy, and the glowy, magical, isn't-this-wonderful stage passed a while ago.  Now I'm in the my-body-feels-like-an-alien phase. I don't hate pregnancy, but the end is uncomfortable, tiring, and I believe I'm going to be asked every day by a colleague when I'm due. They think it's tomorrow.

I'm nearly 34 weeks (Etsy t-shirt find)

I do like that the days are getting longer, randomly warmer, and I spied a little green thing peeking out of the mulch today.

Ugh, the mulch!? Do I need to start thinking about doing yard work already? This worries me. Edie told me there's a river in our backyard, and unfortunately she's right. There's a long, thin pool of where a dead tree was felled, and it needs to be filled with dirt and covered in grass seed. This project feels out of my scope. Today my boss suggested hiring a landscaper to do a spring cleaning, and I embraced this idea wholeheartedly. I need to call my friend Jeff who has a landscaping company. STAT!

About all the yard I can handle (yet another Etsy gem)

I've finally got my hands on our shared Kindle. I first read The Fault in Our Stars, and finished in record time. Now I've got Gone Girl for book club. I am a library enthusiast, but with a Kindle I can have a book in the flick of a wrist, and that is amazingly efficient. I'm all for efficiency, and Amazon makes it way too easy to spend money. Also, I never said I was an early adopter (see Kindle, Gone Girl, The Fault in Our Stars).

Sweet ballet doll (you guessed it- Etsy!)

Tonight we went to a fundraiser at my mom's school for the annual musical, which she produces. The show is "Annie", and we're bringing Edie in a couple weeks. Edie's more of a ballet enthusiast than musical aficionado. She asked me to turn off Manu Chao during dinner the other night and put on "ballet". So I found a classical radio station and she was very into it. She wanted to see ballet dancers on t.v. while I tried to explain we just listen, not watch. I tried to find a ballet class for her, but they start at ages three and up. Who would've thought I'd have a ballerina on my hands? The Nutcracker set her passion on fire.

Everything's gonna be allright

I'm officially 8 months pregnant now and counting down the days.

Although time seems to creep along during the uncomfortable, unsleepable third trimester, lately days are going by fast because we are all so busy. But our collective stress level is sky high. I recognize I'm not my best self right now to those who live with me. We are both working a lot, and working hard. There seems to be little availability of time, patience, and understanding at the end of these intense days.

At work, I'm training the temp who will take over my role while I'm on maternity leave. We have another six weeks of training, and if I do a good job, I'll be able to transfer some of my responsibilities to her while I'm still there. All is going well, as she seems capable and good-natured, but teaching the nuances of my job for the better part of the day, while also making sure all of the work gets done, is exhausting.

Around Christmas, I took on some freelance work for a local planning firm, doing the kind of design and marketing that I love. They're a good client, and have been offering additional projects. On top of that, I've been helping a friend revamp her non-profit's logo in exchange for some free publicity for my t-shirt company. Which reminds me, I need to get my new website developed, and launched since I'm trying to generate publicity! What is wrong with me?? I just can't. say. no.

Dave is going full-force at his job, pursuing leadership and extracurricular opportunities on top of his daily teaching duties. He's writing papers and studying on the weekends for his sixth-year degree, and interning with the high school administration here in town in his, ahem, free time.

Edie's been busy with her own project: potty training! We made decent progress when Grammy was here a couple weeks ago. Grammy and Edie spent a lot of time at home, with constant one-on-one attention. When Edie returned to day care, she'd sit on the potty but never peed. I felt that her diaper was a safety net (literally), and she regressed because she wasn't 100% comfortable outside of home. So last weekend, we pushed the potty hard, complete with undies, stickers, applause, and pull-ups only at bed- and naptime. We had a few accidents but it was largely successful, so on Monday I sent her to school in undies (and an open diaper in the seat of her $250 car seat - no peeing in there, girl!) We've had mixed results, but keep moving forward, and the diapers are only for bed time now. I would LOVE to have her fully trained within the next couple weeks. I hear kids can regress when a new baby arrives and they see parents' changing the babe's diapers. Guess we'll find out soon!

Anyway, it was great having Dave's mom visit, and she got her fill of Edie (the intent of her trip). They played with dolls, baked cookies, and visited the library together. Having a built-in Grammy/nanny was awesome for us too. Who doesn't appreciate someone doing your dinner dishes while you put the girl to bed, or a free sitter to make a Max Burger date reality?

We also had a visit from the Edmands family recently. I got to do a trial run of having an infant and a toddler by babysitting Shane. He is just the cutest little peanut, so mellow. Edie kept saying, "I think he wants his pacifier on" even though he wasn't fussy, and we kept everything under relative control for a couple hours.

Lastly, I found a good blog, CT Working Moms, that I refer to when my intense schedule and responsibilities get me down. Of course my mom, and Dave's mom, and lots of moms have balanced it all before, but I like reading about it in real time, and knowing I'm not in this boat alone.

Now if I could just wrap up some of these side projects...