Always be prepared

January and February were spent with me (and Lawson) growing bigger and more uncomfortable each day. I definitely did not wear this pregnancy well! Seriously, my clothes were not fitting and I really believe that if I would have gotten any bigger Brian and Oak would have been rolling me around.

We spent these months preparing for the arrival of our sweet girl. Fortunately our house already had a beautifully painted little girls room so we didn't have to do much to her room. We passed down Oak's crib and glider and used my old dresser from high school for her changing table. We found a bumber and sheet set that matched perfectly. We washed all her sweet little clothes and put them in her drawers! I just couldn't believe that she was going to be that tiny. I had just gotten used to Oak being so big and had forgotten how little they are when they are new. We got diapers, wipes and everything that we needed to have Lawson's room ready for her when she came.

One of my biggest concerns in having a second child was how Oak was going to react and I didn't understand how to split my love. Someone told me though that your love is not divided it doubles. It was a really great way for me to think of loving my kids. I am really thankful for the people who had more than one kid who would always give me wise words to help me to prepare.

We spent a lot of this time really trying to prepare Oak for what it would be like when the baby was here and spent a lot of special time doing things that he loved to do. We took him to the Barnum and Bailey Circus. The circus was really close to my due date, so my goal through the whole pregnancy was to just make it through the circus and she could come whenever!
The last Saturday that we had with just Oak we took him to his favorite park and to Skinny Dip to get some frozen yogurt and just had such a wonderful day with him.

I think God does such a great job preparing people for a new baby. Towards the end of my pregnancy I was already so tired and couldn't play with Oak as much as I normally did, I couldn't pick him up, and just didn't have the energy to really play the games that he loved. I think that just helped him to adjust to having a mommy that wasn't always going to be able to play with him and who would have to take care of another person. God also makes it so easy to adjust to the sleep deprivation from having a baby. Throughout my whole pregnancy I had such a hard time sleeping and would just be awake in the middle of the night for hours (btw...some very interesting tv shows come on in the wee hours of the morning) which made it so much easier to be awake with the baby and not feel the effects of the sleep deprivation.

He loved talking about Lawson and things that he would teach her about, like his ewww toys and police officers and he helped me a ton getting her swing, bouncy seat and other old toys of his put together and ready for her. I am not confident that he truly understood what was happening, but he did recognize that there was a baby, but I am not sure that he could fathom that the baby would soon be out of my belly and living here with us.

We all felt ready and were just waiting for our little girl to make her debut!