I’m almost 7 months pregnant now, and I’m feeling pretty good. My belly is bigger than it was with my 1st daughter at 7 months- I was actually just starting to really show with my first daughter at this point. Because I’m bigger sooner, I’m already getting that wonderful lower back pain you get when you stand too long. It’s not a big deal though. My bigger issue is grasping the fact that I’m going to have a newborn here in January- 2 months. I feel guilty because I haven’t given this baby any of my “mental time,” since I’m so busy chasing around my 20-mth old. With the first I used to rub my belly and talk to her every night, I would play her tons of music on my ipod with the earbuds right on my belly, and my husband would play guitar and sing to my belly. This new baby actually has to remind me that I’m pregnant by kicking me in the middle of the night; otherwise, I forget. Panic is staring to set in though since we haven’t done ANYTHING to prepare for the baby. We have to switch rooms/furniture around, I have to decide which room my older daughter is going to be in, and I wanted to have her switched BEFORE the baby gets here since that will be enough of a change for her. Plus, I have to get her in a twin bed since the new baby is getting her crib. I found a used bed rail, but the bed still looks too tall to be safe for her (she’s not a good climber), so I think I’ll just put the box spring & mattress right on the floor. I’m nervous about how she’s going to adjust to a new bed and possibly new room. I’d love to have the room painted (which is now my husband’s office), but he’s being stubborn and won’t do it. If I wasn’t pregnant I’d paint it myself, but obviously I can’t do that. I don’t mind the color too much- it’s a dark gray-blue, but the walls themselves are in bad shape since you can see spackle marks and uneven bumps in the wall from when we first painted the room 5 years ago and had no clue what we’re doing. Oh well. We want to move a few months after the baby is here anyway.

As for music, my daughter LOVES it. Whenever I bring her to those free baby/toddler classes at the library, she dances and runs around the room like crazy whenever they sing or play music. As for my kind of music, my friend is attempting to get our favorite musician ever to play at my house- 2 weeks before my due date. Haha. The date is crazy, but it’s the only one that works out for us. The musician told her that he’ll play a private show for her since she helped him out on the past few tours, so she’s going to see if he can play at my house right after Christmas. The reason she wants my house is because she now lives out of state, and around Christmas she’ll be back in Jersey, and so will our other friend who’s a big fan and who also moved out of state. Plus, I can’t go too far in case I go into labor, so this was our idea. I don’t want to say who the artist is, just in case it doesn’t work out— or just in case it DOES work out and I’ll have strangers lined up at my house to see him. Haha. I’m not getting my hopes up, but it would be a REALLY cool thing to experience. Plus, my husband is dying to jam with him. If it actually happened, can you imagine how him coming to my house, along with my Nesting instinct (cleaning) from the new baby will make me a CRAZY woman? I won’t even want to be around myself! haha.

Once things finally started to slow down a little bit and my baby was actually taking a few naps, I had time to reflect on what was going on around me and in my life. My daughter was almost 7 months old already, I became a stay-at-home mom when she was born, and my past life was history. And I missed it. I had a B.A. and was very successful in college, I finally had a career going at a great company, and I was a concert loving girl who would go out and party with friends at shows throughout most of the North East part of the country…and Ohio once. (I once road-tripped from NJ to Cleveland to see a Live concert, and went back to NJ that same night because I had to go to a housewarming party by 4pm the next day.) I loved the adrenaline I would get from live rock shows and the feeling of truly living life and having fun. Now, I haven’t been to a show since I was around 8 months pregnant, and I miss it. Instead, I sneak in a few moments on the computer where I can catch someone’s YouTube video of clips of a show here and there. I try to pretend I’m there, but it doesn’t really work–especially when my baby starts crying to let me know she’s up from her nap. And -SNAP- back to reality I come. I do love and appreciate my new life, and I’ve also accepted it. It’s just every now and then I’ll hear something about a band or artist I love and then it makes me wish I could just go to a show. The reason I can’t is because I’m breastfeeding so I’m literally connected on a chain to my daughter who wants to eat like every 3 hours. I could pump a few days before and leave a bottle for my husband, but I am not bringing a breast pump to a show for when I get “full” from missing a feeding. I don’t think so. Can you picture me going to a show at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ or the North Star Bar in Philly and trying to use their single-person bathroom for 20 minutes trying to pump? Oh and then carrying around a bag of breast milk during the show? Now that’s classy. haha. Plus, my husband would freak out if I left him with “the Diva” for that long, and unfortunately no one we know would babysit and stay overnight for it.

Since I can’t go to shows for the time being, I fill that void by singing to my daughter the songs I’d like to hear at a show again. Of course I don’t do them justice, but she doesn’t know that. She laughs and “sings” along with her deep sounding, off-key “ahhhhhhhh.” She always does that every time my husband or I sing. Our little harmonizer. As for milestones, she’s finally starting to sit up on her own a little bit, but we have to do the pillow thing where there’s a sea of pillows 360 degrees around her, for when she falls back or does a face plant. She is no where near crawling yet, but I read that only 50% of babies can crawl at 6 months and by 11 months 90% of babies can crawl, if they do at all. She’s a really big baby (95th percentile in height & weight) so I think she needs a lot more muscle to carry around all that extra weight. The one issue I can’t seem to find a solution for is her eczema and cradle cap. The eczema is really bad behind her knees and it looks painful and red, but the doctor says it’s not bad enough to give her medicine for it yet and to continue using the Eucerin Aquaphor ointment. As for the cradle cap, I keep putting the Aquaphor on her head, combing out the flakes, and washing her hair with gentle shampoo, but it’s still there. I’d love some suggestions if anyone knows of how to combat the cradle cap. I thought cradle cap was only a newborn baby issue, but apparently not since my daughter is just about 7 months old.

To think that about 9 months ago I was at an Ours show dancing and rocking out to “Live Again” and now I’m talking about combing out cradle cap flakes. Times do change, huh?