Baby Brother Update--28 Weeks

I had a double whammy doctor appointment today--diabetes test and regular checkup and a sono appointment with the specialist. All is looking GREAT with baby boy! He is estimated to be 2 lbs 8 ounces already, which they said is right on track, but sounds really big to me at this point. They didn't say how long he is, but all I care about is that he is completely perfect and healthy. There are no signs of any problems with the cord thing I have, so my worries with that have pretty much gone away. The specialist told me again today that from where I am, it is rare to see the baby's growth rate slow down. Yea! They will continue to monitor me though every month, and I'll probably start going every other week during my last month.

It's been so great to see baby on the sono every four weeks. He is constantly moving during the sonograms, which is just amazing to watch. And he opens and closes his mouth quite a bit. I don't remember ever seeing Cooper do that. Maybe that's a normal baby thing, but it is so cute to see!

Now that we have a room to get cleaned up and ready for baby, it's hitting me more and more that another little boy will be in this house. We talk about Baby Brother a lot and Cooper is starting to ask more questions about him. The most recent conversation we had went like this...

Cooper: Who Baby Brother's Mommy?
Me: Well, I'm his Mommy.
Cooper: No. You MY Mommy. Who Baby Brother's Mommy be?
Me: (holding back tears) I am your Mommy, but I am also Baby Brother's Mommy. Isn't that neat?
Cooper: But you MY Mommy...

Now that I was officially crying, I tried to explain to Cooper that I will always, always be his Mommy, but I'm also going to be Baby Brother's Mommy. This was a really hard thing to explain, but in the end, I think he understood. I think... It was the first glimpse of how tough it's going to be to share time. I love being home with Cooper. I love our time together. I love, love, love being his Mommy. But there is going to be another little amazing boy in this house that I'll get spend my days with, too. It's going to be an adjustment for all of us. This conversation totally pulled at my heart.
Twelve weeks to go and I can not wait to meet this little guy!!

Big Boy Bed Sticker Chart and Surprise

We decided to make a sticker chart for Cooper about staying in bed. If he stayed in bed for three nights in a row and three naps in a row, he would get a surprise! Each time he woke up from either a nap or overnight, and he had stayed in bed ALL night, he got to pick out a sticker and put it on his chart. This was the first time we made a sticker chart, and Cooper was really excited about it! I had thought about doing sticker charts for other things before, but I just wasn't sure if he would totally grasp the concept. I think he understood it as well as he could at this stage--he knew the consequences of getting out of bed (no sticker) and he knew the reward of getting all six stickers (a big surprise). He wanted that surprise, so he followed the rules to get those stickers. After three days of successfully staying in bed, he earned all six stickers!
When it came to surprise time, Coop climbed up on his bed, closed his eyes and waited for his surprise!Coop loves Toy Story, and I don't typically like buying "themed" things, but Toy Story is different to me for some reason. Coop just loves those characters and he already has Buzz, why not add Woody, right? :) Coop was SO excited!!

Completely on his own, he grabbed Woody's hand and said, "Nice meet you. I Cooper!"

Yee-haw!!

It's been one full week of Cooper sleeping in his big boy bed, and, knock on wood, things really couldn't be going any better. He is staying in bed without constant reminders, he is falling asleep on his own, and his sleeping pattern is right back to normal. He waits for me to come get him after nap time and in the morning. Each morning I wake up to him talking and singing in bed, just like he always did in his crib. It makes me so happy that he loves his room and his new bed so much. And still every morning when he wakes up, he is so proud of himself for sleeping in his big room! Tonight when I was putting him down, I asked him what was his favorite thing about his new room. His answer? "My big boy bed because I big!!"

First Night in Big Boy Bed

So...it happened. Cooper was ready. Philip was ready. Mama was not ready. Even though we weren't completely finished putting together or moving Cooper into his new room, the bed was ready, which meant, to Philip and Cooper, that it was open for sleeping. I was getting ready to put Cooper down when suddenly Philip asked, "Coop, you want to sleep in your big boy room tonight?" The next thing I know Cooper and Philip are emptying out the crib and carrying all of Cooper's sleeping goodies to his new room--blankie, Big Elephant, Gus, Ooh Ooh, cozy blanket, and, yes, a hammer. I was caught in the hallway between both rooms with my mouth open, completely unable to say anything besides, "uh...uh...wait...umm...what?!"

This is what Philip looked like carrying all of Coop's goodies into the new room.

Cooper was so, so excited about this new bed and new room! He instantly jumped into bed and went straight to his train buckets to pick out a book to read. He asked Philip to lay down with him and read and there was Mommy, still standing in the hallway, not sure what just happened. And then came the tears. I kept thinking...but I didn't get one last picture of him sleeping in his crib!

Cooper's nursery suddenly had a different feel. It felt empty. And it was hitting me that another little boy was going to have that room and sleep in that crib, which of course is a blessing and I'm grateful to have it, but it was just hitting me kind of hard.

Coop and Philip settled into the big bed to read books and I tried to dry my tears enough to snap some photos. They were as cozy as they could be.

After Philip finished reading, Coop said he wanted Mommy to lay down with him. Little did he know I probably needed that more than he did, so I was happy to oblige. I told him how proud I was of him for being a big boy and he said he was excited. And then came more tears. After laying down with Cooper for a bit, I told him I was going to do some things in the kitchen and I'd be back to check on him. I reminded him that he needed to stay in bed, otherwise he'd have to go back to his crib. As soon as I shut the door, I heard him crawling out of bed. He opened the door to see me standing there, but I just turned him around, put him back in bed and reminded him about his sticker chart (more on that later). I said good night and left the room again. He got out of bed only one other time, but after I tucked in back in for the second time, he stayed put and soon fell asleep.

I went in to check on him and saw this. He was peacefully sleeping under Big Elephant. I, on the other hand, was still a mess. Tears tears tears. And they just wouldn't stop. Thank you pregnancy hormones...right?

Cooper slept ALL night and woke up happy at 8:00 a.m. I was sure I was going to hear little footsteps coming down the hallway as soon as I heard him through the monitor, so I just laid in bed and waited. I could hear him talking, but didn't hear any signs of him getting out of bed. I wondered if this could possibly be true? At 8:30 a.m. I finally decided to go in there and see what he was doing. I found him completely happy and SO proud of himself for sleeping in his big boy bed. He had just been playing and reading in his bed, waiting for me to come in there.
I went on and on and on about how proud of him I was and what a big boy he was that he stayed in bed and slept all night! He was proud of himself, too. Cheering, clapping and jumping up and down! And then, I started crying. Again. Through my tears I said, "I'm crying because I'm just so proud of you." Cooper responded by saying, "Don't cry, Mama. I big boy!" Sigh.

Neglecting the Blog

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have neglected you recently. We've been busy busy painting, arranging, shopping, hanging, moving, cleaning, and WORKING on a new big boy room for this little monkey.

I promise I'm working on posts and will have lots of updates coming soon! In the meantime., here is a little glimpse of our work in progress...

Step 1--Paint
When Cooper walked into this room and first saw all of the furniture gone, he put his hands on his cheeks and exclaimed, "Oh no! What happen my big boy bed?!" We've really been talking up how this room would be his big boy room and we would make it a fun, new room for him. It's sweet to me that he really thought he might be sleeping in the Anthro-dressed bed. I assured Cooper that his room would be way cooler than how it was before!

Chris volunteered to help paint...yes, please!

"What Daddy doing in there?!"

Cooper entertained himself in the hallway by sweeping and eating a brownie, which he found in the kitchen and helped himself to the bag. I came around the corner just as he was biting into the largest brownie a two-year-old has ever eaten.

Step 2--Check out the bedding
As soon as the paint was dry and the room was cleaned up, Philip moved in Cooper's new mattresses and draped the duvet cover on top. It was starting to take shape! And as soon as Cooper saw this new "bed" he jumped right in and begged Philip to read to him. He didn't have to do much arm twisting.

Step 3--Put the bed frame together
Cooper was so excited to help Philip build the bed frame. He got all of his own tools and would ask Philip, "You need this, Daddy? What we do next?" Or he'd pick up the instructions and say, "Hmm...what this say?" He was loving this!

Sweet love pat for Philip as he said, "Good job, Daddy!".

As we completed each step along the way, Cooper was so positive and encouraging telling us "ooohhh, it looks nice! Good job, Mommy! I like big boy room!" I kept reminding him that it's not finished yet, and it's only going to get better. His excitement has been so sweet and genuine and exactly what keeps me motivated to make the room perfect for him.

So, Blog, I promise to get back on track with my posts. I've got lots of fun stories to share!