River Life

Another week, another long blog post! Normally I like to write my posts during Jack's quiet time around noon, but now that I'm at the point of near-weekly doctor visits, and I try to schedule them for Monday afternoons so Jared can come with me or at least watch Jack while I go, they're going up later in the evenings. I'm so grateful Jared's been able to come with me to most of my appointments though. His parents are in Europe this week (usually they watch Jack while we go to my appointments), so Jared and Jack hung out while I went solo today. It was a pretty short, routine visit, but Jared's presence was missed. He just has such a calming effect during doctor appointments? I feel more comfortable asking questions with him there to ask follow-up medical things, and he and my OB usually talk shop while I'm getting swabbed, or measured, or whatever. Takes the focus off me and I love that. I've been so much happier with my OB experience this time than I was with Jack, which is the only reason I feel ok about delivering at a hospital an hour from our house. There are closer hospitals, but this is the closest one with a NICU and where I wouldn't need to be life-flighted somewhere else if anything goes wrong. I've had too many close friends who have been in those situations to chance it. 

Speaking of delivering at a hospital an hour from our house, mmmmm, not pumped for that. I've been learning about and preparing for childbirth quite a bit more this time than last time (my epidural didn't fully take last time and I wish I'd had some pain-management techniques up my sleeve), and I think I'd actually be feeling excited about the whole thing if it weren't for the fact that the hospital is an hour away and my last labor experience went pretty quick for a first birth (the pushing took 3 hours but the labor was pretty fast). I've been doing a lot of research about eating dates to promote a quicker, smoother delivery. There have been numerous reputable studies finding that consuming 6 dates a day starting at 36 weeks results in fewer inductions, quicker labor times, and less tearing. So I grabbed myself a Costco-sized bag of dates and was getting jazzed to start throwing them in all my smoothies, but now I'm like, "mmmm, maybe a drastically shortened labor time isn't the move when we live an hour from the hospital." Which stinks because in any other scenario, a shortened labor time would absolutely be the move. Dates or no dates, I'm making Jared pack a baby delivery kit in our car just for some peace of mind. 

Alright, enough baby talk. We had a pretty chill week. I think the low-dose antidepressant my OB put me on 2 weeks ago actually is helping some. I'm still tired all the time but my overall mood is for sure improved. I've been trying to take more control over Jack's activities during the day. I can only play so much "dinosaurs" before I feel my soul start to die a little. Building/engineering and time in nature are much more up my alley. We've been making lots of coin drops with magnatiles on our back patio, and I've stumbled upon the absolute magic of daily river time. In Wyoming Jack LOVED to go on walks in the prairie with me multiple times every day. But now that we live in a neighborhood where time in nature requires a car ride to get there, he's gotten more and more resistant (as have I, honestly). This last week I kept at it and we spent a few afternoons at a quiet river beach right in Granite Falls. It's not very accessible during the winter/spring, and it gets crowded on the weekends, so I'd kind of written it off as a place to chill. But I'm finding that on weekday summer afternoons it's quiet and so lovely. The water is very shallow and slow, and if I bring a camp chair and a book I can relax while Jack builds dams and races "boats" for ages. It's like a bonus quiet time out in nature every day. Great for both of us. River time is here to stay, as long as possible.

What else is new . . . Jared and I got called to primary! Neither of us has ever served in primary, but I've been teaching young women and teenager Sunday School for lots of years now, so even though the 7-year-old age group is foreign (and a bit challenging) the lesson prep shouldn't be too out of my wheelhouse. It feels like a good, inspired calling. My load will be about the same as it was in Sunday School, but I'm really looking forward to serving with Jared for a change. Jared already had 3 other callings, but they released him from 2 of them to give him this one. So now he's just Activity Days coordinator and Primary teacher. They said they wanted to lighten our load a bit with new baby coming. Please and thank you. 

^^And here's a picture I snapped when I was feeling slightly jealous that I may never be able to hold Jack like this again (#pregnant), but mostly so happy about the bond these two share. Jack's still a level-ten Mama Clinger, but he adores Jared and truthfully has more fun with him. Jack has started waking up earlier than usual so he can have breakfast with Jared and blow him a goodbye kiss out the playroom window before he runs to wake me up. At first I was annoyed at the earlier wake times and wondered why they were happening when his bedtime hasn't moved at all, but he's been telling me, "I woke up a few minutes early this morning because I haven't been spending much time with Daddy and I wanted to eat breakfast with him." And honestly? Knowing Jack, that's probably a decision he consciously made and has been able to carry out. Couldn't be me. I'd absolutely need an alarm clock. He must've gotten that gene from Jared because Jared can also tell himself he's going to wake up early the next morning and he'll wake himself up before any alarm has the chance to go off. They also play so well together when Jared gets home from work. It probably helps that Jared would honestly be spending his free time running around, making up silly songs, playing Minecraft, and watching Bluey even if we didn't have any kids. (Ok, Bluey really does smack tho.)

That's about all I've got for this week! Baby continues to do acrobatics all day and night. She's currently hiccuping the evening away. Jack is now *knock on wood* night trained and hasn't needed pull-ups or had an accident all week. The timing is *chef's kiss.* I was really pulling for him to be out of pull-ups before baby arrives and we find ourselves neck-deep in diapers again. He's been capable for a while but just needed to decide on his own that he wanted to be done, and I think we're there. Half of it was probably him coming to the realization that it's easier not to have to change from undies to pull-ups during bedtime. We love a lazy efficient king. I feel like we've also finally closed a 4-year-long chapter of Jack's varying sleep issues *knock on wood* just in time for a whole new slew of newborn sleep fun. Anytime we've traveled with Jack and stayed in the same room as him, he's woken up crying multiple times every night. After a bit more digging we tried having him drink less in the evenings and empty his bladder before bed every night. It seems to have done the trick! When we shared a room with him in Utah last month he did great. No night crying since. Such a simple fix that solved two problems at once (night potty training and night crying). Now we r experts, give us another baby! (I'm terrified of babies but we've got this!!)