The Twilight Zone of Pregnancy

I'm pretty sure that the final weeks of pregnancy turn into a sort of twilight zone experience. You feel like time is moving slowly, yet fast at the same time. You have no idea when this whole labor thing will happen, so you just sit around and wait while feeling nervous, yet excited, yet impatient. For many women, you're also pushing through a fog of exhaustion and hormones and the strangest symptoms that could be straight out of the twilight zone itself. And if you're like me, then you already have everything prepared for the baby and feel like you're just twiddling your thumbs, waiting for this big moment that will change your life, and there's nothing you can do but wonder when it will happen!

Patience, Ashley. Patience.

^^^(Nicole's room. No decorations yet, but right now I'm just breathing a sigh of relief that the big things are done before baby arrives.)

Speaking of the twilight zone, Doug and I are convinced that Nicole has a 6th sense or something. When we first put her in her new bed, to ward off having a toddler who started waking up too early out of the excitement of having the freedom to get out of her own bed, I told her: "Nicole, mommy and daddy sleep until 7 o'clock. That means if you wake up before 7, I will come in and tell you to play for a bit until it's time for mommy and daddy to wake up. Okay?" (It's a technique I'm trying.) So for the past week and a half, Nicole has woken up at 7 each day, almost on the dot. Sometimes slightly earlier, sometimes a bit later, but always right about at 7. Impressive body clock, right? Well... then this morning she woke up at 6:35. I lay in bed, expecting her tiny hand to come knocking at any moment and preparing myself to have to get up and tell her it was still too early. I listened to her sing, play, and talk to herself for nearly HALF AN HOUR and then, shortly after 7 (7:03 to be exact) she finally started knocking on the door. How did she know?!?!?! I'm telling you, it's ESP or something. Haha!

I'm glad I have a daughter like Nicole. Her sweet, easy-going nature makes me a bit less nervous about being a mom of "two under two" (I'll be the proud owner of that title for a month and a half until Nicole's birthday haha). I can't wait to see her be a big sister! I am seriously SO excited!

Meanwhile, I'll just spend my time continuing to deep clean the house and check things off my fall bucket list. Last night we got the opportunity to go through Nightmare on 13th up in SLC (sans Nicole, of course) and I was SO glad I got to do something haunted this year. Anyone who really knows me can testify that I don't get scared in haunted houses, but I LOVE going through to see all the special effects and tiny details, and Nightmare on 13th never disappoints. I can only imagine all the time and planning that goes into creating the attraction (they switch themes every year to change it up). There's a reason it's one of the most popular haunted attractions in the state! Thanks, Nightmare on 13th, for the fun little date night! I guarantee that Doug jumped more times than I did. And he was a gentleman who let me go into every room first. ;)

I was very pregnant last time I went through this place, too. I guess I need to make it a tradition to get a picture here with each of my baby bumps ;)

Now it really feels like Halloween season! Eeeeeeeee, I love this month so much!

Already Nesting

^^^^^Getting closer and closer to the due date = satiating the baby hunger by looking through old pictures of Nicole's first year of life. Where did my little baby girl go?!

I'm still a little more than 2 months away from my due date, but nesting is 100% real for this mama. I have nearly all of the clothes I need for baby boy's first 9 months of life (thank you, KSL), we got a car seat for him (the one we used for Nicole expired), there are little boy swaddles and bath towels to spare, I even began packing my hospital bag! Never too soon, right? Haha!

Nesting extends beyond preparing for the baby, of course. I felt like super mom yesterday. I ran 3 loads of laundry, a dishwasher load, spent an hour doing my favorite Barre workout class at the rec center, got Nicole to eat broccoli at dinner (more than one piece!), started sorting through one of my "odds-and-ends" boxes left over from when we moved, Nicole and I read lots of books and had lots of tickle wars, I even did some yard work!

Tonight I made chicken parm, and then we had a good 40 people come through our house to munch on Italian bruschetta for an "Eating Around the World" activity. Nicole was in bed without argument at 7:30 despite all the noise and excitement, the kitchen was all cleaned up by 8:45, and now we're sitting and watching Netflix. Evenings like this make me feel like I get so much done.

^^^^^Gah, baby feet!

And yet, despite the nesting...

I feel like there's so much left to do.

Pregnancy insomnia doesn't get any easier when your mind keeps thinking about all the things you want/need to do. We've got to buy a bed for Nicole so we can transfer her out of the crib. There's an embarrassing amount of weeds taking over our yard and lawn. We have some painting and re-carpeting to do in the upstairs bedrooms, I want to finish my decluttering project (more info on that in an upcoming post) so that our spare rooms are empty and ready for guests to use, our bare walls need some decoration... the list goes on and on.

It gets overwhelming. Preggo hormones are on the rise again, so that doesn't help. Thank you, third trimester.

So...

Sometimes I just sit on the couch and read. Or nap. Or count how many times the baby kicks. Or I sit here on a Tuesday evening and watch Netflix. I do anything except think about my to-do list. And it's great.