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.

I’m 15 weeks along in my pregnancy now. I’m feeling good: no more nausea and not too tired. I do get shortness of breath sometimes, but it’s dealable. I’m still stuck with the current house, but I think I’m close to talking my husband into moving his big office to the smallest bedroom in the house, so that I can move my daughter into that room, and the future baby will go into my daughter’s current room. We’ll still be seriously short on closet space, but oh well. It could be a lot worse.

Lately, I’ve been wondering how exactly I’m going to manage a newborn with a 23-month old running around. Specifically, nursing. I know with “the Diva,” she nursed for like 45 minutes in the beginning, and then I had to start all over in 30-45 minutes. I was a constant feeding machine. How am I going to run around and chase my daughter and make sure she’s not getting into trouble while trying to nurse the newborn? I’m also trying to figure out the “gear” now. I think I’m going to use my daughter’s current crib for the baby (after a few months in a bassinet), and then I’ll have to move my daughter into a twin bed with rails. I didn’t want to do it at 23 months, but it just makes the most sense. And then potty training will probably have to start around then also. I really hate having all these changes for my daughter at once: new baby, new room, new bed, potty training. I worry that she’s going to feel like she was kicked out into the cold. She has sooo much attention from me now, and she’s definitely a “mama’s girl.”

As for music, my daughter LOVES it. She dances and claps whenever she hears music. Today I was playing a dvd of Jimmy Gnecco’s video “Mystery,” on the computer and she noticed and started swaying back and forth. Speaking of Jimmy/Ours, his new record label, Bright Antenna, has been streaming chat sessions with Jimmy, and they’re awesome! In fact, right now I’m watching a live concert of him playing at the Brooklyn Bowl show. I’m really loving the things this small label has been doing for him. It’s really a shame that the large labels he was with in the past didn’t give him the advertising or backing that he’s worth. At least he’s doing everything on his own terms now. And I mean everything- vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, producing, etc. I’m loving his solo album, “The Heart.” A big portion of the album was dedicated and/or influenced by the passing of his mom from lung cancer last year. I think the reason the album hits me so hard is because my dad was going through lung cancer the same time as his mom was, and they both died in November 2009. In a live recording from a past show, he talks about the meaning of the song “Bring You Home,” and how part of it is about putting his mom in the hospital even though she didn’t want to go. And how he wish he could bring her home, regardless of what the right thing to do is. I understand that struggle 100%. Before my dad was home on hospice, he was in a rehabilitation center for 2 or 3 months where nurses cared for him and tried to get him up and walking because he was so weak from cancer. He hated it there and once said to my mom, “I’m gonna die here aren’t I? They’re never gonna let me go home.” That was so hard to here. So whenever I hear Jimmy’s song, it hits a note. A deep, harmonic minor note.