Baby 2 Bumpdate: Week 37

The end of the pregnancy is near folks and I’ve been feeling it! My stomach has grown so much in the last 2-3 weeks, perfect strangers at the store have started commenting about how I’m so close to pop. My sister’s bridal shower is this Saturday and after that it’s full on baby mode. We have no plans for next weekend and we’ve turned down all invitations so we can spend it as a family together and doing last minute errands. I’ll probably take advantage of the free time to pack our bags too.

36 Weeks 3 Days

- We’ve made some progress in the nursery! If you caught Our Weekend Shenanigans post you already know, but Matt was able to paint the room! For the wall color, I picked out a soft white with a gray undertone, but when he started painting the wall it looked white-white. I had a little bit of a worry that the room would look sterile with white walls and white furniture, but once we tore off the painter’s tape and plastic and saw the wall color against our baseboards, you could definitely see the soft white with grey undertone color that I had picked out- it looked exactly like the sample card and sample spot I painted. Thank goodness! Sometimes once you paint an entire wall/room, it looks totally different than just on one spot. It really made the white baseboards pop too. I am so relieved!! He also put the crib back together and it looks so great against the walls. I can’t wait to put up her dresser and décor, it’s really going to look great together.

- I took advantage of Target’s July Bogo sale for clothing and stocked up on some nursing tanks and bras. I’m hoping to nurse our little one for as long or longer as I did Ellie (read about our Breastfeeding Journey here) and I was in some need for some new gear. Two of the tanks I bought have a built in body shaper (like Spanx) underneath, so I was sold! Once I’ve used them, I’ll be sure to review how I liked them and if they worked for me. I love to use a nursing tank since I can nurse without showing my waist/back. Such a must-have if you nurse!

- I’ve really been feeling the aches and pains of pregnancy this week. Some days, I feel like all movement takes so much effort- getting off the couch, getting up from bed, bending down to pick something up, etc. My patience is also at an all time low, the littlest things drive me nuts. My hips have been killing me at night, no matter what tricks I use to help and on top of that I’ve been having to get up to use the restroom 4-5 times every night! Sleep has not come easy this past week.

Kimono (here and here) // Jeans

- I have a doctor appointment this Friday and I can’t wait. Only one last appointment after it before she arrives! I’m getting kind of nervous about having a second c-section and bringing a new baby home. Ellie has been crazy attached to me, I know she knows things are changing and it’s going to be such a huge adjustment for her. I’m so thankful that children are resilient and I’ll be sure pay her extra attention while also letting her know that the rules are still the same as before in our house. It seems like common sense, but I was reading a few Pinterest posts about helping your child adjust and how easy it is to coddle them and let tantrums pass because there’s so much going on, but that it’s important to still be just as strict as you were before because young children will test their boundaries and see what else has changed since the new arrival and still parenting them the same way will help provide structure and reassurance.

Do any of you have any tips for helping your child adjust once a new baby is home? I have all of her big sister gifts ready- I’ll be sure to post about them, we’ve talked at length a hundred times about her baby sister with her (she refers to her now as “her” baby), and we’ve made sure to focus on quality time with her. Any other tips that have helped your families adjust?

Thanks for reading! Have a great week!