Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I was listening to Dr. Laura a few days ago when a distraught caller was frustrated by the lack of control she had over her life. If she started a new diet she did great for two days and then she would go off of it. The same thing happened with exercise or getting up early, etc. She felt those things were proof that she could not control anything in her life.

Dr. Laura responded by saying that the woman did in fact have control over all of those things. She decided to start a new diet and two days later she decided to go off of it. How true that is!!! I need to remember that when I'm feeling like I am lacking self control. Every day I do exactly what I decide to do, good or bad!

Habits make those decisions easier but even without habits we get to choose each and every action we make.

June Habit: Meal Plans Again!

I am finally feeling up to some new habits but I know I need to revisit some old habits first. This month it will be meal plans again. It's been weeks since I have taken any responsibility for meals and I know my family is sick of it. It's actually making me sick too because of all the crap we've been eating. We were on such a healthy food binge for a while there and I want to get back to that.

In addition to meals I am trying to get the house back in some kind of order. We're doing a little bit every day. Would you believe me if I said I still haven't unpacked my suitcase that I took to the hospital when I had Sweetness two weeks ago? You know it! Maybe that will be my project for tomorrow. Unless I get distracted by a bag of chocolate chips and spend all morning making cookies instead.

Have a great week!

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

If The Job Fits

Lovely can't control herself with all these boxes of baby clothes that I've been going through. She has to try on every single article of clothing and according to her, they all fit! Until it takes a crow bar to get them off of her and she's screaming her head off and missing a couple ears. You can't tell from the photo but she has six layers of clothes on and she wore that dress when she was one. Today she put on an outfit that was 0-3 months and there was much rejoicing that it fit so well. Uh huh, it did so!!

Lovely and I have a new game we play. Normally Victor does the dishes by himself but on Sunday Persistence helps him since I don't have her doing her jobs. They have cards they pick from that help them decide who is going to rinse, wash, rinse and put away. They would rather fight about it for an hour but I like the cards better. Lovely decided she wanted her own cards so we made her some that she scribbled gobbledygook on.

For the game she picks a card and I tell her what job she gets to do. She loves this game so much that I usually run out of jobs before she gets tired of it so then I'm telling her things like, "Go potty", "Brush your teeth", and "Give your Daddy a kiss".

She's making the big kids crazy because she's old enough to help out around the house when she wants to but good luck getting her to help if she doesn't. I love it when the kids start counting, like she's going to do exactly what they say as soon as they get to "3".

But the game has been working wonderfully for two days. I expect it to work for exactly one more day or until she figures out that I am enjoying the game as much as she is.

After I posted this Lovely ran out in this 6 month outfit. It fits I tell you!!!

Venturing Off the Couch Every Now and Then

I love snuggling up with my laptop and my new blogging companion!

I've been trying to write more about teaching babies to sleep but it's proving to be too difficult for my postpartum brain today so I will have to work on it later.

We spent a couple hours organizing our unfinished basement this afternoon. And by "we" I mean that I sat on a chair and told everyone else what to do. Stranger put together some new shelves a couple months ago for all our valuable junk that we don't use so it needed to be put away on the shelves. I have plans to go through all of it and get rid of at least half of it but for now we can finally see the floor! We have a slide down there and the kids drug the tumbling mat down also. It will be a nice cool place for them to play this summer when it's too hot to go outside.

I also did little straightening in my laundry room this week. Just about every corner of my house has piles of clutter and it's finally time to get it organized. One pile a day is about all I can handle.

Doesn't that look better? It's not a pretty laundry room but at least it's organized. For some reason pretty laundry rooms are not high on my priority list at the moment. The large container is for outgrown or unused clothes to go in and the small one is for socks that are waiting for their mates to come through the wash.

P.S. My sister gave me a great idea once upon a time, to use the old and mateless socks for camping and outdoor activities. Then when you come home you just throw the dirty things away. Love that!

Talk About Tuesday

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

Next week and and the first Tuesday of every month we are going to have Talk About Tuesday Home Tour. I want everyone to post photos of their home. Does that sound fun? It can be an organized closet or room, a beautiful corner or garden or anything else inside or outside your home that you want to share. Inspire us!

I can't think of anything exciting to talk about today so I'm going to share something that's not so exciting. My three year old has cut her hair again! This is about the fourth time now and I'm guessing it won't be the last. We were still trying to grow out the pony tail that she cut off last fall!

She was not happy that I was taking these pictures of her. It's only a small spot at the crown of her head but still ... there is no hiding it!

Persistence cut her hair three different times. I was so mad the last time that I told her I was going to shave her head bald if she ever did it again. Is that mean or what? I also took her in and got her hair cut very very short. She cried and cried but it worked and she never did it again.

I have finally had it with Lovely too so I threatened the same thing with her. It had better work because I really don't want a bald Lovely.

What do you have to talk about this week? Any baldies at your house?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Teach Your Baby to Sleep

My evil plan of teaching my baby to sleep may just be working. Sweetness only woke up twice to nurse last night and she went right back to sleep both times.

Why is my plan evil? Because a lot of people think that if your baby isn't attached to your breast 24 hours a day you are a bad mother. I personally believe in lots of good healthy sleep. For everyone.

Because this is such a controversial subject and because I want to blog about it anyway I am going to turn the comments off. If you have a question for me you can email me. If you want to tell me I'm abusing my baby or trying to starve her to death, don't bother.

This is my secret for teaching your baby to sleep. Feed your baby. A lot. If they get enough to eat during the day then they won't wake up to eat at night. Really. It works like magic. (See how I just said to FEED your baby?)

For two days I have been waking sweetness up every three hours to nurse during the day. Or at least trying to. (Even my own Mother is mad at me right now. "Don't ever wake a sleeping baby!") I would like to feed her every 2 1/2 hours but she is still so sleepy that she is eating about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours. (This is all about FEEDING your baby people.)

Oh, and no snacking either. I do my best to get Sweetness to nurse until she's full. I usually nurse her on one side and then burp her and change her diaper to get her to wake up enough to nurse on the other side.

Lovely, my three year old, nursed every 2 hours for the first four months of her life but she was sleeping through the night when she was a week old. I was perfectly happy with this compromise. As long as everyone was getting enough sleep at night I was happy to nurse her all day.

I don't expect Sweetness to sleep through the night as quickly as Lovely did because she is a smaller baby but hopefully with my evil plan we will be on our way to nights of sweet dreaming soon.

There is more to my plan that I will blog about later. I hope we can still be friends!

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

May Habit: Sit on the couch every day and do nothing but hold my new baby.

I have a new habit for this last week of May and I'm really excited about it! I am going to take it easy for another week before I start working on habits again. For now I will just be trying to get my house back in order after letting everything go this last month.

I got up and vacuumed this morning and was disgusted by the dirty floors and walls and all the little piles of junk in every corner. It's been a while since I was up and around enough to see or care about any of it but now it's time for some spring cleaning.

Have a great week!

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Sister Sweetness

I don't know if I ever mentioned it or not but I had a pretty miserable pregnancy. I felt better one hour after giving birth than I have felt for the last nine months. I'm not pregnant anymore!!! I just want to keep saying that.

I'm recovering very well but of course I have been taking it easy and letting my family take care of me. I did a load of laundry today and any day now I just may cook something. At least I'm thinking about it real hard. We have had wonderful friends bringing us meals so that is one less thing we have had to worry about. Stranger is enjoying it so much that he thinks we should hire someone to bring our meals in from now on. I'm not sure if it's because he wants to make my life easier or if he thinks he would get better meals that way. We'll pretend it's the first thing.

Stranger has been home most of the week to take care of us but he did go back to work for one day on Monday. After our traumatic homecoming on Saturday (thanks to Lovely) and a very stressful day on Sunday (Lovely again) I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to handle things. Juggling three stressed out kids and a newborn was proving to be a challenge. I was so grateful when my aunt called Sunday night and asked if she could come get the kids the next day to give me a break. Whenever people ask if they can help I always want to say, "Oh, we're doing fine." But this time I burst into tears and said, "Thank you!!!"

Sweetness is a wonderful nurser, by the way. She knew exactly what to do from the moment she was born and she can latch on by herself which is wonderful for nursing in bed at night. Not all babies are that talented you know. She also keeps everything down. My other two daughters could never hold their milk. I couldn't hold either of them without a bath towel under their chins at every moment. Not fun. But they were also fast eaters and Sweetness takes her own sweet time.

Things are going well. So well that Stranger has the kids fighting over who gets to change diapers. I wonder how much longer they are going to fall for that.

Bag Update

I have to apologize to all of you who have placed orders for Organizing Bags. All the orders placed before last Wednesday have been shipped. Thursday we went into the hospital to have a baby so I didn't get any more orders out last week.

When we got home our computer monitor (on our desk top) wasn't working so I haven't been able to ship yet. Stranger was out of town yesterday but hopefully he will get it working or have a new monitor up and running today.

For some reason I have no idea what my Paypal password is so I can't get into my account to email everyone personally. Maybe I need to get my passwords organized so I know what they are. You think?

I'm so sorry about the delay!

Talk About a New Baby

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

I can't believe we finally have a baby to talk about!

Baby Girl (no name) Gallagher
Born May 15, 2008
10:46 p.m.
8 pounds 8 ounces
20" long

This was her weight 24 hours after delivery.

The short story is that I labored all night on Wednesday, went to the hospital Thursday afternoon at 2:30 even though my labor had stopped completely because I was determined to have a baby anyway. My labor started up again at 6:30. My midwife broke my water at 7:30. I was dilated fully at 10:30 and our new baby girl was born at 10:46 with no epidural and no stitches. All wonderful and good!

If you want the looooong version keep reading.

Persistence loves her baby.

Last Tuesday I was four days overdue without any sign of going into labor so I made an appointment with my midwife and had her strip my membranes. Gross and painful. I had painful contractions all day and all night for two days but no labor. I didn't get any sleep Wednesday night so I decided I was going to have this baby on Thursday. I was done being pregnant!

I got up and showered and got ready to go and then got everyone else up. I had made Stranger take a couple vacation days so he was home. It's always a fear when I'm having babies, that he will be on a train somewhere in the middle of nowhere when I go into labor.

We all went to my Mom's for breakfast. My sister and niece were there but they didn't end up getting to stay to see the baby come because they had to get back to work on Friday. That made us all very sad!

We had to give Sweetness a couple bottles to help her jaundice.

We left our ten year old boy and three year old girl at Grandma's house but we took our eight year old girl with us. I thought it would be a great experience for her to be there during the entire process and plus I needed someone to keep Stranger busy so he wouldn't do anything crazy. He can get a little out of hand when surrounded with expensive medical devices and equipment and tries to use it all on me. Twittering also gave him something to do. I'm excited that he was able to twitter through the entire thing and happy that some of you followed all the action! It's fun to look back and see exactly what time everything happened.

So then we were off to the hospital but not before stopping at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants first which was a good thing because I wouldn't be eating again for many hours.

Momma and baby Au Naturale.

We got to the hospital at about 2:30. It was very weird pulling up and walking into labor and delivery because at this point I was not in labor in any size shape or form! I was having contractions no less than 30 minutes apart!

You know how lazy I am? Well I am also very stubborn. Once I decided I was having a baby I was determined. Stranger kept telling me we should wait. "Didn't you want this to happen naturally," he asked me? Yes! "Then shouldn't we wait till you go into labor?" NO!

My good friend brought me this beautiful bouquet from her garden!

The nurses at the hospital all thought I was as crazy as he did but they checked me in anyway and put me on the monitors. I was dilated to 3 cm and 70% effaced. I told them to call my midwife and that she was going to come in to break my water. They came back and said they talked to her and she didn't know anything about it. Well, not today! She told me that on Tuesday! Again with the crazy looks. Especially when I informed them that I wasn't going to be having any pitocin. So they had this pregnant woman on their hands who was not in labor, was not going to be induced but thought she would be having a baby today. Mmmm-kay.

Like I said, when you're 6 days over due they don't send you home so after monitoring me to see that in fact I WAS NOT IN LABOR they took us to our own room and said Kathy (my midwife) would be coming to check on me after she was done at the office. Stranger and Persistence went out to wander the hospital and eat dinner while I took a nap.

Lovely picked flowers for us from Grandma's garden.

At 6:30 I woke up and felt so much better after a night with no sleep. I sat up in bed and immediately started having the best contractions ever! Finally! I was so excited! Bring on the pain. But not too much pain please. Kathy got there an hour later and broke my water. At that point I was 5 cm and 90% effaced.

At about 8:00 Stranger called my Mom to have her bring the other kids to the hospital. I wanted them there for the delivery too. They all sat in the room with us until things got too intense. At that point I sent everyone out and ordered the TV off.

My contractions were strong but still too far apart to do much so we waited. And waited. And everyone kept trying to talk me into have just a TINY bit of pitocin to help things along but I would have none of it. I was already in so much pain that I knew I couldn't take any more and I didn't want to end up with an epidural so I waited it out.

Kathy tried to get me to walk around but there was no way I was going to wander the halls in a hospital gown, laboring in front of the entire world! I spent some time on a birthing ball instead which felt pretty good.

I love how grumpy Lovely is in these photos. She didn't get a nap the day we came home so she was a force to be reckoned with. Somehow we all survived.

At 10:12, almost three hours after my water had been broken I was still only 7 cm and getting very frustrated and exhausted and scared that I couldn't do it anymore. Kathy was still trying to talk me into having a little pitocin and Stranger was siding with them so I finally relented. Just as the nurse was going to give it to me I had a horrible pain and felt something sort of pop inside me. I said, "Wait! Something just happened!" Kathy checked me and I was ready to go!

At 10:22 we brought the kids in and the nurses filed in. We had a full house with three kids, Stranger, my Mom, my midwife and four nurses. I found out later that almost NOBODY goes natural around here so I had the attention of the entire labor and delivery wing. My main nurse had to give up her other patients to take care of me and the rest of my stay in the hospital every staff member that came in my room would say, "Oh, you're the one who went natural!"

I tried pushing with the next contraction but Kathy said my cervix needed to open up just a little bit more so I waited for two more contractions. I kept waiting for that feeling that other women talk about where you feel like you HAVE to push but I never felt that. I finally just started pushing before anyone could tell me not to.

Awwww!

It is the weirdest thing to feel the head coming down the birth canal. I got her head out and then decided that the rest of her was coming out right then too. I was so done. Persistence said she shot out like a rocket and about went flying over Kathy before she could get a good grip on her! I was surprised that I never felt the "ring of fire" that I felt with Lovely when the head came out.

I was so happy and relieved and kissing my baby's head by the time they told me she was a girl. What a shock! We had all decided we were having a boy. Except for Lovely. She knew she was getting a girl baby sister all along.

You would think the worst would be over at that point but you would be wrong! All the sudden Kathy started doing unspeakable things to me and I started screaming and almost jumped through the roof. I also nearly squoze the life out of my newborn baby daughter that I was holding. She started wailing before I came to my senses and realized what I was doing. Hmm, maybe giving the baby to Mom right after delivery isn't such a good idea? (Stranger said I wasn't actually screaming so that part must have been happening in my head.)

Wide awake!

Apparently (as far as I know) the umbilical cord broke off the placenta which started hemorrhaging so she had to shove her arm inside me to stop the bleeding until the placenta was delivered. Maybe someone knows more about that sort of thing and could explain it to me. All I know is that I thought she was trying to kill me!

It all ended well after that and I feel great. I think the labor was a little bit harder than my last one because I had more back labor but I was happy with how things went. I loved having the kids there and Persistence stayed with me the entire two days I was in the hospital, bringing me drinks and bonding with her sister. She is amazing. Stranger was there with us the first night and then I made him take Victor to a Father son camp out that I didn't want them to miss.

In case anyone is wondering about giving birth without an epidural I will say that it is very scary and hard but it is a wonderful experience. I did it with my last two babies and I wish I had done it with my first two. One of the main reasons I did it was because of the complications that are involved with the epidural. Why risk them if you don't have to? But I gained so much more out of the experience than that. I never really felt like I gave birth to my first two babies. They were just medical procedures. But my last two deliveries were real. They were experiences I will cherish forever.

I want to thank all of you for your warm wishes and for all your support during my difficult pregnancy. It's amazing how blogging can brighten my day and make challenges in life a little bit easier because I have people to share them with. Thank you!!!

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

I'm Organizing!

Sorry we missed SHS last week but I promise I had a doctor's note to excuse me! I will be here for Talk About Tuesday so I hope you'll join me. I have a lot to talk about!

I have been so lazy for the last several weeks that my coffee table has been continually covered with all my stuff, books, papers, snacks, projects, etc. Now that I'm feeling more like myself I couldn't take it anymore. I had to organize!


I cleaned up the mess and brought out a container that could slide under the table to hold all of our Mom and baby essentials: water, snacks, lotions, tissues, diapers and wipes. (I forgot to mention I also put a garbage can right next to my spot. Why didn't I think of this before!!!) Apparently I don't have plans of giving up my spot on the couch any time soon.

Why should I when I have such a sweet little companion to keep me company? Unfortunately she has to spend most of her days and nights under the bili lights until her jaundice clears up. It's sad to see her lying there when there are so many people who want to hold and love her!

All my babies have had jaundice so this is something we just have to deal with. The daily trips to the hospital for heel pokes and blood tests is the worst part of it. I am grateful though that we can do this at home so we don't have to leave her in the hospital.


It's funny to watch her stretch out so comfortably like that after being squished inside me for so long!

Are you ready for this?

Our big, supposed to be, ten pound baby weighed in at a whimpy 8 pounds 8 ounces!

As you can see she's pretty mad about it. My feelings exactly! I almost made them put her back in so she could cook for another month.

Ok, you know I'm kidding and we love the little runt that she is. In fact, I think that would make a good middle name. Baby Runt Gallagher.

Now let's find out who the winner of the contest was...

Baby girl
born May 15th
8 pounds 8 ounces
20 inches long
10:46 p.m.

Dawn guessed a baby girl born on the 15th, 10 pounds 2 ounces and 22" inches. As far as we could tell she was the only one who guessed a girl on the 15th. If that's right then she is our winner!

Thanks to all of you for participating in my giveaway! It was very entertaining during my hour of need! We might have to have another one to figure out what to name this sweet little thing. I'll post some more photos and her birth story when I get a chance. Hopefully I'll have a few more days of couch time before I have to get back to the grindstone.

We're getting kicked out of the hospital tonight. I don't know what I will do now that the euphoria is wearing off and we'll have no crew of women ready and waiting to take care of us at every moment. Hopefully I will manage. I've done this before right?

Somehow I got kicked out of bed.

Does she look like she's having a good time with her baby, her chips and her movie? We're having a girl's night in while the boys are camping. My ten year old didn't want to miss the father son campout tonight. Stranger was happy to miss it. Not because he didn't want to leave his loving wife and new baby but because he didn't want another crappy night's sleep. I made him take the boy camping anyway!

Lovely is with Grandma and Grandpa so Persistence is here at the hospital partying with me taking care of me. Except for the fighting over who gets to hold the baby we're having a great time!

She's Here!

Baby Girl Gallagher was born last night at 10:46 after 4 hours of labor. I'm not pregnant anymore!!! The Baby Girl is healthy and I am feeling great in spite of the two hours of sleep I got last night. I was so excited that I lay awake going over every detail of the delivery in my mind over and over.

I still can't believe we had a girl! We all thought it was going to be a boy except Lovely. She kept telling everyone she was having a girl baby sister and not a brother. Smart little thing!

Thank you so much for all the well wishes. Stranger did a good job keeping everyone updated, didn't he? I will post all the details later and maybe we'll even get some photos up later today. How cool is a hospital with high speed?

Are you sick of my pregnant self?

Ok, I can have this baby now. My sister is on her way to town so I would like to give birth in about four hours. Can someone arrange that for me?

I invited her to be there with me for my last birth. She lives several hours away so I called her at four in the morning once I was in the hospital in labor and told her to get her butt up here. She arrived at ten and Lovely was born at noon. It worked out perfectly.

This time she is working so we didn't think she could come but she made a doctor's appointment up here for tomorrow so she would have to. I can't disappoint her and not have the baby now can I?

I know it's completely out of character for me but I am going to bed early. Persistence said we both had to so we could get up tonight to go to the hospital and I must obey. She's been worried about what we will eat at the hospital so Stranger clued her in on the cafeteria. Now she has the whole delivery planned around her meals and snacktimes. She also wants to know when she will be able to take a shower while she's there. I hope the hospital staff can make her comfortable during her stay!

If you don't hear from me until tomorrow then you can assume I slept like a baby all night. Dang it!

No Baby!

Persistence was very mad when she got up this morning that nobody woke her up to go to the hospital last night. I have to admit I was mad too! My contractions were ten minutes apart all evening but I finally fell asleep. Only once did a really hard one wake me up but I went right back to sleep and that was it.

The good news is that yesterday my midwife measured the baby to be 9 pounds 12 ounces which I fully expect to be a few ounces off putting this baby over ten pounds. Yay! I guess a few more days can't hurt!

So what now? Jumping on the trampoline?

I'm not trying castor oil. I did that with my first baby. I drank it when I was three days overdue, went to bed, woke up an hour later and threw it up. I did actually go into labor a couple hours later (I thought) and went to the hospital but my contractions weren't strong enough so I had to have pitocin anyway. I don't want that this time. I'm holding out for the real thing!

Our Bags Are Packed

Are we going to have a baby tomorrow? It's possible.

I had an appointment today. First I was hooked up for a stress test to see if the baby's heart rate was normal because I am four days overdue. It seemed to be doing fine even through my contractions (which I've been having for weeks and weeks so I thought nothing of them). Then I saw my midwife and she did this to me. I can't type it here because the name grosses me out. The whole thing only takes a few seconds but it hurts like heck and causes painful cramping and hopefully labor. I had it done with my last baby and went into labor two days later (seven days overdue).

We spent the evening packing our bags and watching birthing videos with the kids. I really want them there when this baby is born and now they are as prepared as they can be for the whole experience. I wanted my older two kids there when I had Lovely three years ago but it was February and RSV season. The hospital wouldn't even allow them in my room to see me. That made me mad but of course there was nothing I could do about it.

This time we are all clear to have a whole family experience. Even my ten year old boy thinks he can handle it. He only had to close his eyes during a couple parts of the video! I know my girls will love every minute of it although when I started talking about needles in my arm Lovely got a little worried that she would be getting poked too. Once she found out the needles were only for me she was fine with it. Thanks kid.

The kids have their bags packed with books and activities to keep them busy at the hospital and my Mom is going to be there to supervise them so Stranger and I don't have to worry about them. I'm so excited!

Here I lay on the couch, my usual comfy spot, contracting away and wondering if tonight is the night. Stranger is going to bed in case I really am in labor. We want to make sure he has the strength to bring me ice chips and visit with the nurses. I would be going to sleep myself but I passed out for twenty minutes at 6:00 tonight so I'm not tired and the contractions are going to have to die down before I can sleep through them anyway.

So who guessed the 14th? I hope you are right!!!

P.S. Keep your eye on that Twitter box to the left because Stranger will be texting updates from his phone.

Talk About Baby Clothes

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting. Thanks for joining us!

Who was wishing I would have a new baby to Talk About this week? ME!!!!!

My due date has come and gone so you are now welcome to start sending condolences. In the mean time I have absolutely nothing to talk about so instead I will show and tell what I have done so far to get ready for the baby.

I can't believe we are in the market for such tiny clothes again! Well, not so tiny considering I buy 3-6 month size for my newborns. Did I ever tell you the story from when I took my first baby out? An older lady asked me how old he was and I told her three weeks. She replied, "You mean three months honey?" Um, no. I think I know how old my baby is, "I mean three weeks." By the time he was four months old he weighed 20 pounds and we were enrolling him in preschool.

Last week I made Stranger take me to the mall so I could buy some baby clothes. Not that we really need them because Baby Noodle (apparently that's it's name now) could come home from the hospital wrapped in a baby blanket but I bought homecoming outfits for our other babies and I don't think we should start out neglecting this one right away. I would like to wait till it's older for it to feel like the unloved and unwanted fourth child.

I have been looking for outfits for months but everything I've seen in the stores has been hideously ugly. So one day before my due date I finally broke down and stepped inside a Gymboree store. It was a little scary because it was full of crazed sale shopping pregnant women. Maneuvering was difficult and not just because my belly was too big to fit between some of the isles. It was like a demolition stroller derby in there. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate crowds? My hatred of crowds exceeds my love of "The Deal" but I was too pregnant to turn back. I had to go home with baby clothes!

I was busy throwing things in the stroller as fast as I could (all at 30% off the sale prices lucky day) while Lovely followed the other mothers around telling them everything they wanted to know about our new baby and how it would soon make it's way into the world. See why I have to keep secrets from her?

Outside when Stranger asked me how much I had spent I told him he didn't want to know. He will get the pleasure of returning half of it after the baby gets here. That's his favorite part of shopping. If he gets the boy he's hoping for he will save even more money because I bought twice as many girl things as boy things. What can I say? Little girl clothes are irresistible!

Now all we need to do is buy a car seat, unpack and wash the baby clothes from the basement, find somewhere in the house for the baby to sleep, set up the crib, pack the hospital bag, clean the house and maybe start discussing what we'll be naming it but what's the rush?

If you want to be updated on my delivery you can follow my progress (or lack of it) in my sidebar or by visiting me at twitter.com/lazyorganizer.

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

May Habit: Sit on the couch every day and do nothing until I have this baby.

I hope all of your new habits are going well. Mine is going as well as can be expected. My kids and husband are sure tired of my helplessness and so I am. It's good for them though don't you think?


Congratulations to all of you who are hanging in there with SHS while I am temporarily out of it. I can't tell you how excited I am to have this baby so I can get into some new habits myself. I'm sure you can imagine! I have grand plans of getting my schedule organized. I know it may sound impossible with four homeschooled kids at home but I think it's especially vital when I'm trying to juggle as many things as I am. I know my kids love having a schedule so they can know what to expect. In fact they like to know down to the minute what I have planned every day or they go crazy. We we've doing crazy a lot these days.

Crazy or not, have a great week!

If you are new and you want to catch up on last year - Smart Habit Saturday 2007

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Organizing Bag Giveaway Winner

The random winner from this weeks giveaway is Debbie at Virtually Organized! Congratulations Debbie!!! I will be sending her a package of my Organizing Bags to try out, one in each size.

Thank you to everyone who has participated so far! Of course I can't pick the other winner until this baby decides to show up. I will keep you posted!

If you missed the giveaway but you still want to make a guess at our new baby stats you won't be eligable for the prize but you are welcome to do it here in the comments. I can't wait to find out who wins!

1. Will our upcoming arrival be a boy or a girl?
2. What day will it be born?
3. How much will it weigh?
4. How long will it be?
5. What time will it be born?

Here is some information on my other kids to give you a head start.

1. Boy - Induced 5 days overdue. Born at 4:50 a.m. Weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces.
   24 Inches long.
2. Girl - Induced 7 days early. Born at 4:18 p.m. Weighed a disappointing 9 pounds 5 ounces. 21 Inches long.
3. Girl - Natural labor 7 days overdue. Born at 12:04 p.m. Weighed 10 pounds 3 ounces. 22 Inches long.

I am due this Friday, May 9th. I have no plans of being induced this time but you never know what a crazy pregnant woman will do when she is desperate to give birth. At my last ultrasound on April 29th the baby measured 8 1/2 pounds.

By the way, is anyone else out there Twittering? I guess all the popular people are doing it and I don't want to be left out especially considering I need one more thing to do, right? Actually I'm pretty much doing nothing but waiting for this baby to get here so I have lots of time to Twitter. I thought it might be a fun and easy way to keep all of you updated on my upcoming delivery.

You can follow my updates in my sidebar or visit me at twitter.com/lazyorganizer

Can You Keep a Secret Baby?

Whenever my three year old Lovely can see that I'm in pain from this pregnancy she tells me she will take me to the doctor so he can lift my shirt up and take the baby out. Wouldn't that be nice?

Tonight as we were snuggling in our usual hangout, the couch, she confided in me her secret fears. "I don't want the doctor to cut your tummy Mommy," she said, "I don't want a big, big hole in your tummy." I almost cried! I had no idea she had thought things through that far!

I reassured her that the doctor wasn't going to cut my tummy but I didn't explain exactly how the baby would be coming out. Not because I didn't think she could handle the information but because I don't want her announcing it to everyone we meet. As it is every friend and stranger we talk to finds out more about this baby we are having than they really need to know. Really.

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In other news...

Is it ever ok for a husband to come home with a snow mobile without discussing it with his wife first?

And if he does discuss it with his wife and she says no, they don't need a snow mobile, then does that make it ok for him to go buy one anyway?

And if he makes an embarrassing call to your midwife for you and then a special trip into town to pick up the prescription after he worked all night does that make him some kind of knight in shining armor so you can't be mad about the snowmobile that he's hiding in the back of his truck? The one the kids have seen but no one is saying a word to you about?

Just checking.

Remember that new van I wanted?

I've heard of women who go out and make big purchases, like new cars, without talking to their husbands about it first. I wonder what drives them to it?

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Don't forget to submit your guess on our baby stats for a chance to win some free Organizing Bags. Click here to enter.

Organizing Bag Giveaway!