Master Bedroom - Newborn Days

This is our third preparing for new babies. We obviously get the nursery ready, but usually, a super important part is also preparing our master bedroom! I thought I'd take a moment to share some of the things we make sure we have prepared in our room for newborns.

First up - our bed. When things in my life are especially hectic, it helps me to have tidy spaces. In the newborn time I find there is a chunk of time that I am in my bedroom and if it's out of order, I find it hard to feel calm. I try to put my clothes away each day, and I like making the bed so that the room feels pulled together. The problem with the bedmaking is that to make our bed "properly" there are throws and pillows involved - by the time it's made it's pretty but you definitely don't want to mess it up until bedtime. The other truth about the newborn time is to try to get as much sleep as you can - napping, as they say, "when the baby naps". If my bed is made up fully I don't want to mess it up by napping. So during the final months of pregnancy (when I also need to nap a lot) and the first months of newborn life, I implement a half made bed plan. It keeps the room looking and feeling tidy, but is basically no effort to take apart for a nap.

You can see our monitor on the nightstand - linked up to all four! cameras.

Second up - baby/babies bassinet. We start for the first 1-2 months with the baby in our room in a bassinet. Since we have middle of the night feedings to contend with we like having them nice and close. We were given this bassinet and I upgraded it a bit to help it match our room. We like to leave it at the foot of our bed so it's somewhat equally between us :) Paul mostly gets up in the night to grab babies and bring them to me in bed - though who knows what it will be like with twins!

We also keep stuff under the bassinet - pump stuff on the right in the black bag. On the right, we have extra burp clothes, muslin blankets and woombies (great little sleep sacks). I'll add sleepers for the babies once we know their sizes.

As babies grow (and sleep longer and are more aware of what's around them) we move them to a pack n play in our closet. Right now Bailey naps in here since it's dark, and with the sound machine, it's a perfect nap place. Also, hey there baby belly in the mirror. 

I also like having chairs in the room - either to breastfeed in or just to have a place to sit and chat with Paul away from the rest of the house. It's also where I pump - private and comfortable. 

And lastly, probably one of the most used spots is our change station. We use the same change pad and change cover we have in both kids rooms (that way they are all interchangeable). We also lay a waterproof pad over top so that we get to change it less often in case of accidents. In our room, we use an Ikea Kallax System with inserts from Target. In the top left, we have diapers (newborn size, Bailey Size & nighttime for Avie & B), bum cream and wipes. Top right is random baby stuff for newborns. The two bottom inserts are both books and toys for the older girls. We also have a playmat for babies under the bed as they get older. 

And with that, I think we are 100% complete all baby prep! These were the types of things we could put off but all this baby waiting means we can get it done. Thankful for the extra time. 

Twin Preggo Life, 37 Weeks

As this pregnancy draws to a close, it only feels appropriate that yet again I'm blogging in the middle of the night. Mostly my pregnancy insomnia lately had given way to physical exhaustion, so though I wake every 1-3 hours (to pee and roll my bulky self to a different side) I have been able to go back to sleep. Tonight it just wasn't happening - so here I am again - at my computer filling in child passports (in preparation for the twins), creating email addresses for my kids (for their Nexus applications), and now blogging while Diagnosis Murder plays in the background. Considering I can go back to sleep whenever I feel tired, and don't have to get up with kids in the morning, it's really not that bad. Just shifts when I get stuff done. 

I'm 37+4 weeks pregnant (the +4 is for how many days into the week I am). My weight hasn't changed much in the last month or more, but my belly does keep growing (as do the babies!) - it's currently measuring in at 46 weeks pregnant! The skin on my belly is very sensitive now - I can tell it's stretching quite a bit. We got to see the babies on an ultrasound early last week and they are doing great - Baby A (the girl) is 5.5lbs and Baby B (the boy) is 6.3lbs. That's over 11 pounds of baby! Coupled with each of their placentas and sacs (usually each placenta is about 1.5lbs and each sac with fluid is about 1.8lbs), that's about 18 and a half pounds. Dang. I've gained about 30 pounds total, which is fairly shocking - I expected to gain more. My belly certainly feels like it's an extra 30 pounds or so though! Even breathing is getting more and more tiring. It's quite something when simply existing is a workout. 

Belly Shots! Just keeps growing (also, look, friends!)

Twin Preggo Life, 35 Weeks

3 years (and 5 days) ago was Avelynn's Due Date - April 5th, 2015, Easter Sunday. It took her another 2 weeks (almost) to make her way into the world. Currently, I'm 35.2 weeks pregnant with the twins and therefore about 1-3 weeks away from baby time. It's eerily similar to my pregnancy with Avie in some ways (very pregnant at Easter Dinner, enjoying the spring transition from winter and wearing the same sorts of maternity clothes, same nursery preparation timeline, similar timing off work), though mostly it's very different! With Avie, I didn't have kids yet so that was drastically different right off the bat.  I finished work officially at the end of February and had March off, which was excellent. I got to putter around, beautifying the nursery, buying pretty things for the baby, visiting friends and resting, lots. 

April 5th, 2015 - My first pregnancy (with Avie)

An Easter Sunday walk with on my due date, then pics of me during week 40.

This time we have kids - so the workload is just so different. I finished some big projects as of the end of February but was still working through March to train my Mat leave replacement and even now am doing a little bit of catch up work to clean up the year (I can do this from the couch). While I did set up the nursery, it was more about getting the basics in there, rather than any beautification. I would love to start decorating and making it extra special but life happens and so that won't be happening. I'm also on a year of no spending so I'm not buying pretty things for the room (though I am sure I have more than enough pretty things around the house to make their room special if I had the time and energy). I am getting a chance to rest - but that has been greatly hampered by first the flu, then a cold, and now a new cold. So the rest is hard to come by - though there is not much activity either. 

Easter weekend - I sat on the couch but our family made Easter awesome for the kids

The biggest difference is probably the toll this pregnancy is taking on my body, versus the relative ease with which I swanned through my first pregnancy. I never got to the "get this baby out of me" stage with Avie in my pregnancy (aside from the 4 long days of labour - I definitely felt it then). Pregnancy was easy - I could still sleep, I could still take walks, I could do most of life. In fact, once I was on Mat leave in the final months of my pregnancy I started weekly walks with my parents (and my Dad walks to lose weight, so it's not leisurely).