Coming Down To The Wire

Where has the time gone? The newest Lombard is set to arrive no later than this coming Monday (Dec. 1) and I have been busy trying to get everything done before he arrives. I am feeling pretty accomplished since I was able to get all my work done before the Thanksgiving holiday and have just about everything ready to go for the baby. I pulled out all of Jadon’s baby clothes, the swing, car seat, pack n’ play, activity mat, bath tub, etc and bought new bottles, burp clothes, diapers and all that other jazz. Everything has been washed and and the house has been thoroughly cleaned so now I only have to organize the kid’s room, buy a few groceries and get a hospital bag to packed before we are all set. If only things like dishes and laundry could be done once and for all I would be a really happy camper!

Jacques’ mom is flying in this afternoon so I am hoping to have these last few things done by the time she gets here so that I can relax for the rest of the weekend and enjoy our last bit of family time before the baby arrives. Jadon knows something is going on and he has been acting out quite a bit lately. We have told him about the baby coming and being able to play with him, blah, blah, blah but I don’t know how much he understands. I am grateful that I have a support system here – between Jacques, my mom and dad, Jacques’ mom and me, he should have enough attention so that he doesn’t feel like last year’s model that’s been tossed in the closet for a newer edition.

It is now time to start working on a few things with Jadon since he is almost 2 - like getting him moved out of his crib, getting rid of the pacifier and potty training. We had gotten rid of the pacifier for three weeks back in September and Jadon had adjusted pretty well with the exception of naptime. He would cry and cry and cry. At first I thought he would get over it in a week or so but the cries at naptime only increased until he was crying for 4 hours before sleeping, only to sleep for an hour and then cry for another hour after waking up. This made it hard to not only get work done but to keep my sanity in check. So I caved and bought him a new pacifier. All is quiet on the Southern Front again! He never got attached to a blanket or stuffed animal like most kids do so his ‘security blanket’ is the pacifier. I know he will have to give this up soon but I think this will the last thing we work on. I believe he is about ready for potty training – he tells me when he is about to ‘go’ so I hope this won’t be too hard. I gave it a half of a half-hearted attempt a month or so ago but I wasn’t fully committed to it since I didn’t have all the time in the world to watch him sit on the toilet. Plus, I have heard from many moms that when a new baby comes home they regress back so I figured I would wait until Jadon had adjusted to the baby before really trying. I am hoping in the next few months we will be potty trained or almost there. We knew that getting Jadon out of the crib would be the easiest of the three so we tried that a little over a month ago. We bought him a mattress at Sam’s Club and he has really enjoyed his freedom of being able to get out of bed whenever he want – he has enjoyed this freedom a bit too much! We had to put a baby gate up in his room to keep him from running to our room in the middle of the night. He is doing much better now and will sleep through the night in his own bed. The only downside is that we have to fight him to fall asleep on his own. Many times we have caved and will lie next to him to get him to sleep. I am afraid this monster we have created will rear its ugly head once the baby is born; I have no clue how we can do this once the baby comes… I welcome any suggestions!

I hope everything had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day with family and friends. I know this sounds selfish but since it wasn’t at my house and I only had to make pumpkin pie, this was the easiest Thanksgiving I have had since moving out on my own. And just as well, since I have been busy working/ preparing for a baby and my energy level hovers near basement level by the end of the day. Overall it was a nice Thanksgiving – a lot of good food and good company.

Till next time….