This weekend marks 36 weeks along with baby "Gnocchi" in the belly and Sabrina's first weekend in her new bedroom. She calls it her "big gruul bed" - I wish I could say it exactly like she does, but it's a long "u" in the middle of girl, if that translates at all. She has been wonderful helping us with every project that we had to do to get her into that room. She pounded in some dowels with a rubber mallet, she held the cordless drill while we screwed in the slats on her new bed, and she handed daddy lots of tools while he was hanging up the new curtains. She even congratulated him when the new curtains were hung, "Nice job, Daddy!" She slept in her new bed last night and did great! It was a fairly normal night (albeit a late one since we enjoyed a great Ethiopian dinner with Nana and Poppy that night, followed by a trip to Target) but otherwise it was normal...we read books, sang a song, put her in bed and then she babbled for about 10-15 minutes and fell asleep. We were in shock. Then today at naptime I did the same routine as usual and she was actually laughing when I left her in there...and she had a great 2+ hour nap. What a trooper!! She seems to completely understand that she's a big girl, so she goes in that new room, and the baby will go in the baby room. She's too big for that room now. It's great to hear her refer to the baby so regularly and comfortably these days. She is convinced it's a little sister too, so her vote has been noted.
Other adorable Sabrina-isms of late include her newfound tendency to ask us to talk to her, "Mommy, can you please talk to me?" or the slightly less cute, but funny line where she grabs one of our faces (if close enough) and says "Daddy, stop talking to mommy!" or my personal favorite when she looked at Brent at the dinner table and said "Daddy, please tell Mommy to stop talking!" I guess my rants about work aren't interesting to her either! Point taken, little lady! The other night I was reading her a story and half-way through she looked at me and said "Mommy, will you just talk to me?" and I said, "But I'm reading you a book" and she said "I want to just talk." So down with the book and I asked what she'd like to talk about and her reply was "Ummm...I...would like...to talk....about...the pool." I had to stifle a laugh at that one!
Also, in the car she has a few new habits, like asking what street we are on all the time and then saying it over and over, "We're on Darley street?" "Mommy, is this Darley Street?" And she knows that we live on Drexel St. and Nana and Poppy live on FIFTH St. Also, she constantly asks for more "fresh air" in the back and she prefers her window open at all times. Finally, I asked her if she wanted to listen to Octopus's Garden by the Beatles (her fave for awhile now) and out pops "No, today I just want to listen to NPR" WOWSA. We've raised a bit of a nerd!
Also, in the past month she has figured out exactly how to spell her name "S-A-B-R-I-N-A"...it has had a couple of unique spellings while she's been learning including "S-A-B-R-I-B-O" and she usually puts an "O" instead of the "A" at the beginning, but she's really figured it out now.
At 36 weeks I'm feeling very good, although my body is ready to be done. I have hip issues when sleeping and sitting on the couch - sometimes I get kind of "stuck" getting up! It's not pleasant. But once I'm up and about, I feel very good and not too uncomfortable during the day. The baby still kicks an incredible amount - I think much more than Sabrina - but it's just nice to feel those little reminders that he/she appears to be doing well in there.
With her room mostly set up now, it frees up her old room for the baby room, so we're ready to start getting out clothes and gear for a newborn. Yikes! We'll see if we remember any of this stuff! I bought newborn diapers today and couldn't believe how tiny they are. It'll be a shock for both of us to go back to caring for such a tiny human.
Having the room situation squared away makes us both feel more ready. Next steps are to install the infant carseat back into both of our cars, pack some bags for the hospital, and study up on the actual delivery process! Entering the home stretch...
