childcare – Down Home with the Irrs

30 going on 31…weeks

not my age. although, i am recently (ish) 30. i can’t believe it’s November. i can’t believe i am about to be 31 weeks pregnant. i can’t believe we are about to have another baby SO soon. between the holidays and many tasks left to get done around the house, we are going to blink and baby will be here.

in the last week or so, not a whole lot has happened pregnancy wise. i had two appointments, one with my regular OB and one with my perinatologist. i learned a lot of things from these two appointments – basically for the duration of my pregnancy, i will live at the doctor’s office. ugh.

there is a much greater risk of stillbirths with babies that have chromosomal abnormalities and they want to make sure they catch any signs of distress ASAP. so starting at 34 weeks, i will go to the OB once a week for non-stress tests and the perinatologist once a week for biophysical profiles. that’s two appointments a week until i deliver. at any point in time, they could be telling me i need to go in and have this baby. looks like i have to add packing my hospital bag to my list of to-dos in the coming weeks!

other things related to little bug and momming life – our part-time nanny started last week and it has been life changing. the first day went great! i was able to focus on things i needed to do around the house, get myself dressed without having to chase a toddler around while brushing my teeth and even got some work done (gasp!). the second day, Landon realized i wasn’t home and was overly tired which made for a tearful morning. i am hoping this phase will pass as he gets to know her more and by the time little bug is here, he’ll be excited to play with Ms. Mallory. we also picked a pediatrician and it feels great to have that sorted out. i hope my gut is right with this choice and we come to love him as the medical professional protecting our children.

life updates – our first halloween in the new house was a semi-success. i say “semi” because Landon was in a sour mood and was not at all interested in going house to house (i know he’s still young). instead, he just wanted to wander the street and stare at all the big kids in costumes. we also ran out of candy by 7:30 PM, soooooooooo now we know! our neighborhood closes off the street in front of our house so kids can roam safely. it turns into quite the crowd from neighboring streets and two costco size bags of candy just wasn’t going to cut it.

life lessons i have learned this week – i am not alone in my thoughts and feelings. the support from each of you has been incredible and i find comfort in knowing that we are going through a lot of this together. whether related to a baby/child or something totally different, there is a common thread between the struggles. i also learned that while your child is getting their molars, ALWAYS give Motrin at night even when you think they are doing better. the TWO nights i didn’t give L his Motrin, resulted in a 4 AM wake-up (the night before Halloween, so probably why he was cranky) and 3 AM wake-up just a couple nights ago. i am exhausted and definitely coming down with something from the lack of sleep. my goal, more Motrin and take naps 🙂

PS my friends from Cali are coming to visit this weekend to go to their first ever SEC football game. i couldn’t be more excited to visit with them, but also get back up to Athens to cheer on my Bulldogs!

cutest pumpkin in the patch

happy Friday y’all! we are gearing up for a fun, but wet, weekend with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. i was hoping to hit a few fun fall spots, but looks like we will be playing everything by ear due to the weather.

first, i want to say thank you to everyone who read my last post and reached out to me with recommendations and advice on the special needs trust. we are going to figure out some time we can sit down with an expert and really understand what we need to do. now we just have to find that time….

this past week was a busy one, to say the least. Mike was away all week and weekend, so i had to find some things to keep us busy (read distracted) so we didn’t have time to miss him too much. we kicked it off with a trip to the pumpkin patch with my mom, while the rest of the men in the family celebrated my dad’s big 6-0. per usual, i was so excited to take Landon to the pumpkin patch, complete with farm animals, corn maze and hayride. needless to say, he was less than amused and only smiled when his snack cup went “shake shake shake” and he got to walk in the gravel on the way back to the car. typical. here’s a few pictures for proof

equally unimpressed, but snacks are life

we are still in the midst of molar teething, which has resulted in some very trying and tiring days for me. he’s getting better each day and dealing with the pain a little better too.

other things that happened this week – tours and interviews. i am happy to report we hired a part-time nanny and she starts next week! fingers crossed she’s everything we hoped for and Landon takes to her quickly. mama’s gotta work and get things done! we toured two different preschools (we have a third tour lined up for next week). it feels good to get some of these things checked off my list. i also interviewed one pediatrician and have a second one lined up for next week. truthfully, i loved this first pediatrician and would choose him without interviewing anyone else. BUT i want to make sure i am thorough.

i am feeling every bit of 29 weeks pregnant lately. i am currently writing this with a heating pad on my low back because i literally cannot move. probably because i have been going 100 mph and cleaned our entire house yesterday, but it feels good to know it’s done and clean! also, i am happy to report i passed my glucose test (WHOOP WHOOP!) so i can continue to have my bowl of ice cream every night 🙂

it’s crazy that i go back to the OB every 2 weeks now. this means, we are close to the end. woah, woah, woah! slow down. we still don’t have a name, but we did add one more option to our list. we still don’t have anything cleaned out of the nursery, but i did order fun wallpaper for an accent wall (sorry, Mike). we still have no idea what we are doing. we are trying though. after a nice little push to spend time reading again, thanks to my beautiful and talented friend Ashley, i have picked back up with two books. one by Jen Jacob with DSDN and the other by a prominent self-help author who also has a son with Down syndrome. feeling like i can do this a little more than i was feeling yesterday.

still on my to-do list: pick a name, tour the hospital and NICU, pick a pediatrician, clean out the nursery, decorate the nursery, house projects.

NEW on my to-do list: connect with the local Down syndrome chapter, look into Gigi’s playhouse.

enjoy your weekend, friends! we will be spending it with all the Tia and Uncle snuggles for L, another Hawks game, and maybe a couple house projects. we should also carve L’s pumpkin too…. i’ll make sure this is top on the list.

third trimester

holy smokes. i am officially 28 weeks pregnant – aka entering my third and final trimester. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? the panic continues with the massive to do list, but i do have some fun updates from this past week.

first, on the pregnancy front. i took a bump picture. i really did it, finally. while we were watching the Dawgs lose on Saturday, we decided it was best to distract ourselves with sweeping leaves off the deck and taking a bump pic. this will not be the last time Landon sits on his little brother, but it is the only time it is allowed… (ps this was technically 27 weeks)

other pregnancy related things – i had my 28 week appointment and glucose test yesterday. i will say, this one was MUCH easier than my last. for some reason in Cali, i had to do the 3 hour test no matter what. there was not a choice for a 1 hour. but here, i get to start with the 1 hour test and see how those results go before doing the longer more invasive 3 hour test. i felt like a pin cushion though. i got both my flu shot and Tdap shot at this visit. my arms are sore! i now go back every two weeks to the regular OB and still on an every 5 week schedule to the perinatologist. i know this will change once we get closer to the due date.

the name, still up for debate. his nursery, still a storage locker and disaster. the house, still in shambles, but we hung curtains in our bedroom and bought new bedside tables! i cannot wait to get those in place and finish our room. oh! and my biggest accomplishment, i found stools for our island!!!!!! i have been down a deep, dark hole of online furniture shopping and couldn’t find anything i liked that was $350+ per stool. that’s insanity. but i am happy to report, the search is over. now i just need to get them and assemble them all.

on the childcare front – i have realized, i need to move my focus from MMO/PMO to finding preschool options for Landon and accept that we will not be getting into anything school related until next year. we are too far down on wait lists and, let’s be honest, not enough people will be moving in the next 6 months to move us up. SO here’s what we are working on, a part-time “nanny” to help me 2 days a week and try to get Landon into a preschool for 2019-2020 (holy cow) school year. i have a lead on a promising nanny option! praying this will work out and we can schedule all the doctors appointments and therapies on these two days. AND now i won’t have worry so much about Landon bringing home bugs and getting little bug sick before heart surgery!

here’s my pregnancy/life checklist to work on: find a pediatrician, tour the hospital and NICU, find Landon a preschool, work on the nursery, continue with home projects/organizing.

also, i need to focus some research on insurance for little bug. i hear we will want to set up a special needs trust to protect him long term and keep his insurance coverage, but man this is all way over my head. sounds like we will be having talks with attorneys and financial planners in our near-ish future. if you have experience with this, please please please let me know! i appreciate any help i can get.

oh, and in case anyone is keeping tabs and wondering, yes, i am still eating ice cream every night. this is not an exaggeration, just ask my husband 🙂