Today is Steve's first day at his now job, and therefore it is the first day of my actually having a husband around in the evenings and on weekends. I cannot begin to put in words how elated I am about this. It's going to be so wonderful for our family! I can't wait to hear about his first day when he gets home tonight!

I have not been feeling very bloggy lately, so I think I'm going to take a break form here for awhile. Any time spent sitting at the computer seems like it could be better used doing other things, specifically sleeping. So, farewell for now!

I'll leave you with a picture of this handsome little devil, who is now the proud owner of six teeth!

Noah has learned to ham it up and "smile" for the camera, except that his camera smile is really more of a grimace. As a result, all the pictures I've taken of him in the last week look like this. Those probably aren't going to get framed for the hallway, but I think they're pretty funny.Lately I've been craving a little more order in our lives. Right now, there is no telling what time we will accomplish anything, ever. Sometimes we wake up at 7:30 and sometimes we wake up at 10:00, sometimes Emma will nap at 1:00 or she might nap at 5:00 or she might not nap at all, sometimes we eat dinner at 5:00 and sometimes we eat dinner at 9:00. I've always been okay with this, but now, for two reasons, I'm hoping to make some changes. First, tomorrow is Steve's last day at his current job, and I think after that we will actually be able to have more of a routine in the evenings. Knowing he will be home at a reasonable time every night means I can have dinner ready at roughly the same time, and also that he will be here to help me establish and carry out a bedtime routine for the kiddos. Second, Noah absolutely will not sleep by himself for longer than five minutes. Emma wouldn't do that for years, either, and I could continue to muddle through it with Noah like I did with her, but I have to think about the new little one, and I really don't know how I could manage to have two babies at the same time who will not sleep if I am not holding them. So, I'm hoping to have Noah sleeping by himself by the end of the summer, and that will make the transition to three kids that much smoother. I'm reading Sleepless in America, and it's been very informative so far, except I'm still waiting for that magical part where she says, "And now here is what you do to get your baby to sleep all by himself..."

Last night Noah and I stayed in Emma's new bed with her until she fell asleep, then I carried him into our bed and we went to sleep. Steve got home from work at about 2:00, and asked me where Emma was. I told him she was in her own bed, and he said he thought that was sad and for a minute I thought he was going to go get her and carry her into our bed. I told him I wasn't sad about it because I could finally straighten my legs, but at that moment she walked into our room. I guess our talking woke her up, but I am pretty excited that she spent about three hours sleeping all alone in her new bed. Tonight we'll try it again and I'll make a point not to talk so loudly when Steve gets in from work.

I've been feeling decent, but sort of apprehensive, like any day I was going to get completely sick. Saturday night it happened. I couldn't get off the couch, except to run to the bathroom and throw up. I threw up about five times in less than two hours, and I was so sad and miserable. Luckily, someone suggested I take Unisom and B6 together, and in preparation I'd already bought both of those things, so I took them before I went to bed Saturday night. It's like a miracle! Sunday, and then again today, I felt better than I have in weeks! Yesterday I was able to do a bunch of cleaning and laundry that were way overdue, and today I even went to Joann's to get fabric to sew curtains for the kids' room. No clue as to when those curtains might actually be completed, though. Still, I am elated to be feeling like a regular, somewhat energetic person again!

Ever since before Noah was born, we've been planning to set up bunk beds in the kids' room. That whole time, Emma has talked excitedly about sleeping in the bunk beds. Now, in her entire life, she has not spent a single night in a bed by herself, so I was more than a little curious to see how she'd handle it once the beds were actually assembled. We took her to Target and let her pick out some sheets, we set up a night light, and Sunday night we were all ready to give it a go. Steve and I tucked her in, kissed her, and told her that if she needed to she could come back to our bed at anytime. We turned out the light and came and got into our own bed. No more than four seconds later, we heard her crawl out of bed and her little feet plodding across the floor. A moment later she appeared in our doorway and silently crawled into our bed. Steve and I sort of quietly chuckled to each other, and he said to Emma, "So you're sleeping in here tonight?" She just said, "Yep," and went right to sleep.

Last night we gave it another try, except this time Steve told her he'd sleep in there with her. A little while after they'd gone to bed, I heard some noises that sounded suspiciously like someone who was not going to sleep. I went in the room, turned on the light, and saw Emma bouncing around on the top bunk while Steve slept soundly down below.I asked her what she was doing and she said she couldn't sleep without me, so I told her to come on in the big bed with me and Noah. I am not a nice enough person that I was going to let Steve continue to sleep in a bed all alone while I was poked and kicked all night by the young'ns, so I woke him up and had him come to the regular bed too.

At this point I'd probably normally just let it go, but I'm wondering how we can all possibly fit in one bed together once the new baby comes, so I'm going to keep encouraging her to sleep in her new bed. Once Steve starts his new job next week, he will hopefully have a regular enough schedule that we can start to implement a nighttime schedule with Emma that includes my laying with her in her bed until she falls asleep while Steve and Noah kick it in the living room.

I got an ornament in the mail today! It's too late to put it on my tree this year, of course, but it was a nice surprise to get another package in the mail.

We have had a few whirlwind weeks around here what with the holidays, vacations, and remodeling. Today is the first day in awhile that I feel like I can just be free to putter around the house, trying to get caught up with everything. A couple days before Christmas we found out some exciting, although shocking and completely unexpected, news: we're expecting Baby Number Three! Although we've known for a couple weeks now, I feel like I'm still trying to wrap my brain around having another baby so quickly after Noah. We did not want to have another baby until he was three, but in the end I think it will be fine and we will be thrilled to add another member to our family.

I have two concerns about this, although both are luckily pretty short term. When I was pregnant with Noah, my milk dried up almost immediately. It didn't matter much then because Emma was already two years old, but Noah is only nine months and I don't want to cheat him out of breastmilk that he deserves. I was so sad thinking that I would probably have to bottle-feed him formula, but my wise and wonderful friends had some better ideas. My milk seems to be fine for now, but if I notice my supply start to decrease, I'm going to order a Lact-Aid and supplement him with that. I also had some selfless mamas email me and offer to pump milk to give him if necessary, and another mama loaned me her pump so I could start building up a stash of my own while I still have milk. In the end, I may still have to supplement with formula, but at least with the Lact-Aid he will continue to nurse throughout the pregnancy and I won't have to worry about him weaning prematurely. If it all works like I hope it will, Noah will just continue nursing when the new baby comes and he won't even miss a beat.

My other concern is dealing with hyperemesis again. It has not been long enough since the first trimester of my last pregnancy that I have forgotten it at all, and I feel like I am not ready to go through it again. Saturday I threw up everything I ate until about 8:00 at night, but other than that I've been doing well so far. I lost 14 pounds the first trimester with Emma, and over 20 during those first awful months with Noah, and I really don't have that weight to lose right now, especially since Noah is still almost exclusively nursing. So anyway, please send me some good don't-get-sick thoughts!

Tomorrow I will hopefully have some pictures to make up for how boring this blog has been lately!