39 weeks

Just over 39 weeks here...with one week to go until our due date. I'm a bit surprised we've made it this far. All in all I'm feeling pretty good for as big as I feel. I've been sleeping okay until about 4am...then it is touch and go from there. However, I've been sticking to my daily naps so that has helped. Even Mike has started to go to bed early. If there's anything we learned from Cavin's delivery it is that being up for over 30 hours straight is no fun whatsoever so we are all about trying to prepare and make sure we are in bed early these days with lots of sleep behind us. That being said, I'll probably go into labor at 10pm. :(

The grandmas are slowly trickling into town too! My mom arrived on Wednesday and Mike's mom arrives today! We are so excited to share this time with them and Cavin is very excited to be receiving double the grandma love.



Numero Dos seems to be doing very well too. We have two appointments a week these days to check everything from his heart rate to his position to his movement and fluid levels and all seems to be a-okay. He's still squirming around in there but not as much as a couple weeks ago...probably due to space restrictions....sorry Dos I can only stretch so far!

I will of course keep everyone informed on his arrival...but please don't be surprised if we announce him without a first name...we are having trouble deciding on one!

"Whooooo"se ready for Numero Dos?

We are! ...Meaning he's got a place to sleep...check out the pictures of our completed nursery!

Many thanks to my design consultant (aka sister-in-law Jonna) who endured countless super long emails detailing every little itty-bitty decision regarding this nursery and giving me the confidence to see everything through. Between the gray walls and adding orange into the nursery colors ("but Jonna it isn't in the bedding colors!!"), I'm not sure what this nursery would look like without her insight.

And super big thanks to my wonderful hubby who, without him, this room would be 4 beige walls filled with a bunch of moving boxes, which is not going to win me any "cute nursery!" kudos. He put together the furniture, painted the walls, put up the wall decal, spent way too much time debating how to hang the wall decor ("should it be centered on the furniture or centered on the wall??"), and patiently allowed me to direct him while sitting in the comfy chair and watching him sweat. He also let me make most of the final decisions (he was very unsure about the gray walls) and found the shelving units under the window all by himself!

I'm very pleased with the end product and hope Numero Dos is as well!

Smooth Rider

It's a dude with a 'tude!

Because things he's doing are much more interesting than things we are doing...

Here's more pictures of Cavin at day care!

Once again, the cast of characters. (Notice the message Cavin is sending via his t-shirt to all the ladies...."Single and Loving It".)



Pari is starting her own band!

Ring-around-the-rosey!

Mealtime!

As you can tell, Pari is no slacker when it comes to caring for our kid. She has regular music time, story time, and play time. Recently, Cavin has come home singing songs, playing new games, and even counting!

Last night we were sitting at the dinner table munching on some chicken while Cavin read a book. All of a sudden he yelled out "COW!!! MOOOOO!!!". I knew he was at the page in the book where there are like 10 cows in a row so I said "Cavin, how many cows are there?" (fully expecting silence)....when all of a sudden he busted out "one, tooo, treee, four, five....". You should have seen our faces. With a little help at the number 8, he actually counted to 10!

And over the last couple days we've noticed he has been picking up letters as well. His favorite is "R", followed closely by "O", "E", and "I". I absolutely cannot believe that my less than 2 year old is starting to count and recognizing letters! Up next? World dominance.

Hambone

One of my best friends, Katie, and I have a long-time running joke about a man nick-named 'Hambone'. She once saw a special on this 2000+ pound man who had to be air lifted out of his house because he was so large. She and I became obsessed with how someone could get that large with no one around him to even so much as give a small hint to the fact that maybe he should cut back on the 20 cheeseburgers he was eating in one meal or a friend to coerce the guy into some gentle exercise.

So from that day forward, Katie and I vowed that if one of us was heading towards 'Hambone status', we would take the other for a walk.

I mention this story because as I reach the pregnancy milestone of 37 weeks today (full-term!) I have to say I feel pretty damn large. Not in pounds as somehow I've managed to gain the same amount of weight as my last pregnancy...but I just feel larger than last time. I don't remember my muscles being this sore or tired, random people on the street make comments like "any day now right!?", and a friend / co-worker of mine wrote to me the other day and said "And try not to get too much bigger. I know I always put on weight this time of year. Given your current situation, you run the risk of literally exploding." Very humorous! But you know what? Frankly, I don't think I'd argue if a helicopter showed up at my door to take me to work every day.

So far though, Katie hasn't shown up in California to take me on a walk so I think I'm doing pretty good. You tell me...


In all honesty, I have felt pretty good...until the last 3 days. I blame that almost entirely on this big deadline we had at work this week, making for long nights and intense days at the office. That has passed by for the most part so I think my body just needs some R&R.

Numero Dos is chugging right along. His heart rate is great, he's moving a lot (making me a bit worried that we have another active one on our hands), he's head down, and he's growing at a bit of a faster rate than Cavin did at this point (judging from my doctor's measurements of my belly size)...so I'm curious how his stats compare after delivery!

Aside from that, we have been busy organizing the house, cleaning out the guest room to get ready for grandma's arrival, setting up secondary child care and pet care should I go into labor earlier than anticipated, and packing our hospital bags (gulp). It is getting pretty exciting around the Spruiell house!

A day in the life of Cavin

I just got a big surprise in my email inbox...pictures from Pari! Pari is Cavin's day care provider. She is fabulous! I cannot say enough great things about how she cares for my child every day. There are so many times she has taught us something that Cavin is doing that ends up helping us out at home. I find myself very fascinated by her. She is older, raised many kids of her own, many grand kids of her own, and runs a day care out of her home...so now she's helping to raise my kid! Where she get the energy, I will never know. I mean, I'm exhausted taking care of my child after the weekend...and that's ONE kid!

Mike and I talk about how we wish we were a fly on the wall at day care. We wish we could see what Cavin is up to day in and day out. He comes home with artwork, hats, and yesterday came home with two bracelets on his wrists that they had made that day. Sometimes he sports new 'tricks', like running around in circles around an object on the floor or spinning himself in circles until he is dizzy and giggling. Or he finds new words, phrases, or has figured certain things out all of a sudden. We find ourselves asking 'did he learn that at day care?' a lot.

I get jealous of Mike because he catches small glimpses of Cavin's day since, due to my long commute, he does both drop and pick up on a daily basis. Last week, he walked in to find Cavin and his best friend (at day care) Liam playing chase and running in circles around a toy in the house. We thought 'aha! that's why he runs in circles around us in the living room!'

Anyways, on to the pictures that Pari sent.

Here's a couple of the playroom. That's Cavin in the striped sweater and his friend Liam in the green shirt. Liam and Cavin are like two peas in a pod. They are basically the same size (although Liam is quite a bit older), have blond hair, like to play ring-around-the-rosey together, and both tend to run to the front door together during the pick-up window. They are also both about to be BIG brothers soon so I am sure they chat about that a lot.

The kid to the right with his hand up is Brody. Brody just turned one and is sorta Cavin and Liam's younger side-kick. You can tell Brody wants to be in the 'cool crowd' as he kinda hangs with Cavin and Liam a bit, tries to play chase with them, etc. He's a cute kid.

The girl in the back left is Danika. I think that's her name. She's the out-going, 'I'm friends with everyone', flirty girl. She always has an enormous smile on and chats your ear off when you get there. She's adorable. I kinda think she either is just a really nice, outgoing girl OR she has a major crush on Cavin.

Anyways, those are the main players.





And here's Pari playing with Cavin:



Clearly, that younger kid is the brainiac of the group...look at the structure he built compared to Cavin! Either that or Cavin built it and let him pose next to it for the picture. Yep, that's the story I'll stick to. I mean, Cavin has civil engineering in his blood!



Cavin playing with the camera...following in his mom's footsteps...

...And pretending to be a highway patrol officer...that could come in very handy one day since my husband seems to be ticket-prone.

Clearly Cavin has a lot more fun than Mike and I do during our day.

31 days

One month until Numero Dos' due date!


And I've had a revelation: the more pregnant I've become, the more I have in common with my toddler. Hear me out:

1. The bigger our bellys get, the cuter we become (do not argue with me on this).
2. We like to show our bellys off to Mike and to one another.
3. Sometimes we have emotional outbursts and this just has to be accepted.
4. Too much information for some...but...a lack of control over bodily functions.
5. We have Mike wrapped around our pretty little (or in my case - quickly becoming swollen) fingers.
6. Naptime! When the toddler goes down, so does the pregnant wife. And you can be sure that Mike insists this happens...otherwise, it is an afternoon of hell for him.
7. Snacktime all the time!
8. People rejoice when we put on weight.
9. When we walk (or run, or waddle), everyone around is just a little more nervous - not quite sure where we'll end up, what we'll run into, or if we'll fall.
10. Our bodies literally grow right before others' eyes.