A Slam Dunk?

Jonas has been sleeping in his big boy bed for a couple weeks and so far so good. There was a bit of a problem when he discovered he could come out of bed of his own free will. He would open his door, give Matt or I a cheeky grin and then run and hop back into his bed. A (mostly) child-proof door knob cover fixed that. Then he tried switching his wake up time to 5 a.m. every morning. We're still dealing with this one but mostly we've been letting him cry and put himself back to sleep before we go in at a more reasonable 5:45 or 6 a.m. 

So we were feeling ready to check another transition off the list: taking away his soother.  I've been suspicious lately that he was getting more attached to soo-soo and that it would keep getting correspondingly harder to take it away. So we made a clean break on Sunday and besides crying for a few minutes before tucking himself into bed sometimes it has been rather uneventful. Slam dunk? (Isn't it adorable he finally gives up and tucks himself carefully into bed like he did yesterday when I took this picture?)

Now I can start thinking about another problem I need to solve before the twins come. How on earth do you get your child to obey you when you tell them to come to you? I spent five highly amusing minutes, for Jonas and spectators, chasing him while he giggled delightedly at the library today. I finally had to hide behind a bookshelf and spring out at him, which he thought was so gut-wrenchly hilarious that he collapsed on the library floor laughing uproariously. Monkey!

Surprise! Surprise!

two boys!

I guess I can't throw around my woman's intuition about knowing the gender of my babies anymore. I was wrong about having a girl, wrong about having a girl and a boy, and now I'm too defeated to wager a guess about whether the boys are fraternal or identical twins. The doctor said even after the boys are born it probably won't be apparent right away whether they share the exact same genes or not. The placenta will be sent away to a pathologist to analyze and give the final word.

I'm so excited to have three boys within two years. There'll be an overlap in nursery and probably in the future with missions too. They are going to have so much fun together camping, playing basketball, snowboarding, and hanging out with the other Harker boys (we've now extended the total count of Harker boy cousins to 8 versus 2 girls and 6 of the boys are born in a row).

The doctor doesn't want to let the twins go past 38 weeks or April 26. Harland Neil and Rhett Roy we'll be seeing you soon (Neil and Roy for their Grandpas).

Is it bad that Matt and I are already picturing Rhett Roy as the instigator of mischief? And Harland Neil as the more level-headed, thoughtful voice of reason? It's weird the power names have in shaping perceptions.

Feeling grateful...

• that there isn't one monstrously huge baby violently moving in my body (I was really starting to wonder)

• it is healthy for me to gain up to 54 pounds with this pregnancy (I'm already past the 25-35 pound gold standard for a single pregnancy)

• for a ridiculously long torso that is ridiculously practical for carrying babies

• I find out the babies' gender(s) today! I'm feeling really confident it's a boy and girl even though there is only one placenta which except in very rare situations indicates identical twins. Matt thinks two girls.

• for all the generous offers of help and support! 

I went for my ultrasound today...

at long last. The baby is measuring 29 weeks and looking healthy. The technician wouldn't tell me the gender even after I hassled her a bit. She was adamant that it go in "the report" and then the doctor could tell me from "the report" at my next appointment on Monday.


She did however tell me one interesting thing I didn't know before...


The baby is in fact two babies and I am having twins!


That kind of explains the violent movements and the fact that I am as big now as I was with Jonas at the end of my last pregnancy. Apparently my Papa had two sisters who each had a set of twins, which I remember my Mom telling me growing up, along with "twins can skip a generation", but that family history always seemed like a bit of a reach to me. Even now I can't process that our family of three is soon to be a family of five!

My mind keeps racing with new thoughts. There is so much to buy, and research, and mentally prepare for, not least of which is the fact the twins come on average 3-4 weeks early, which means my due date of May 8 is probably more like April 10. That is going to come fast!

Concentration

Instead of planning mini-lessons and activities around books, the last week I've been putting together a bunch of little fine motor activity kits I can quickly pull out when I need to keep Jonas occupied and happy for 10-30 minutes. They are so simple and inexpensive but they've been a hit with Jonas and it's hilarious to see his brow furled in concentration. I'm hoping to have a good stock of "busy activities" by the time baby comes!

Sledding in Lethbridge

We got a few inches of snow on Wednesday so Karen and I thought we'd take advantage of it and show the kids the novelty of sledding on snow. They decided sliding down the grass was just as or more fun.

Big Boy Bed

This pregnancy has had my emotions running amok. Sometimes I have the strangest, strongest sensation that it would be a great relief to cry even though I can't rack my brain for a reason to cry. But a few weeks ago my brain latched tenaciously onto a reason to weep. Jonas was growing up, fast. And when a new baby came he would no longer be the baby. Not very logical, I know. But having exhausted any chance of finding something reasonable to cry about I guess my brain decided an unreasonable reason was better than none at all.

Thinking about all those sweet little baby Jonas moments that could never be experienced anew again just broke my heart! I would literally just sob into my pillow at night. And one morning when I woke up still feeling weepy I even held Jonas, wrapped up in a blanket, and proceeded to sob over him for a couple minutes. It was a very self-indulgent and immature thing to do but Jonas sportingly played along. He looked up at me with a solemn face that seemed to say "Yes, I will no longer be a baby and I permit you to mourn for a moment".

That moment had a cathartic effect and I have become more calm and rational about my little boy growing up since. My fear has been replaced by gratitude that I have been richly blessed to stay at home with my strong sensitive boy so I can experience lots of precious, poignant little moments throughout everyday and share in the great adventure of his growing up.

And I'm finally ready to move the crib into the new baby's room.

So last night I read Jonas some books with pictures of little boys sleeping in their beds and I talked about Jonas' new bed. Then Matt and I moved Jonas' bed into his room and went about our bedtime routine as usual except that we put Jonas in his bed instead of his crib. Immediately after tucking Jonas in and kissing him goodnight, Matt and I tiptoed into our room and waited with bated breath for Jonas to come bounding out of his bed. 

But that big boy was so grown up he slept there all night!

 And at this very moment he is snuggled in his bed for a nap as naturally as though he had been sleeping in a bed and not a crib for the last two years of his life!