Nursery Pictures

Here are a few pictures of our little nursery. It is a tiny room in the front of the house.

The cute crib and the froggie pictures. I kept a calendar from 2007 to use in the baby's room. I think it looks so good!

My changing table. Am I actually looking forward to changing diapers???

Another view of the room with the new bookshelf and the glider. It all just barely fits!

L&D Tour

M and I must be pretty special. We had a private tour of Labor and Delivery at our hospital on Saturday. The day was insane. We had painters at our house at 7:30, M had a MBA seminar in the morning, our house was torn apart for the window stuff and we had the tour scheduled for 2:30. I was already exhausted from cleaning when we got there, but I was so excited.

The woman giving the tour (Sergeant J) is the same woman who is leading our childbirth class (aka boot camp). We were the only people signed up for the afternoon tour, which was kind of nice. Except that M didn’t really like the personalized service. She started every sentence with M! This is where you will be walking when you arrive! M! Do not attempt to take any other elevators! M! Floor 3! I thought it was funny.

Highlights:
We now know where to park and what door we need to go through. M was worried about after hours, but now we know.
The walk to the elevators is longer than the walk from the parking lot to the front door. I think they do this to help with labor.
The entire hospital smells like Subway
The NICU starts renovation at the end of this month. This means I need some extra prayers that Baby will be fine.
Standard practice is to give me the baby immediately after birth, skin to skin, and to try breastfeeding. I am so happy to know this.
I will get a special lactose-free menu.
I will probably request that they completely remove the huge-ass mirror on wheels from the room. I don’t even want to look at my funky nipples right now. There is NO WAY I want to see myself split in half. I’ll wait a few extra minutes to see the baby.

When we were leaving, the nurses said, “See you soon!” and I almost cried. I cannot wait.

So, in other news, my house has all new windows and all new, freshly painted exterior trim. It looks amazing. I am so proud of our little house. Of course, with the fresh paint, parts of the outside look shabby and now we are going to get the house pressure washed, but that’s a small thing. I am so happy this is done! However – the inside is still insane. We did have the interior trim put back in, but the finish work is pretty expensive and we already burst the budget with everything else. M is caulking and painting all the interior trim by himself. I’m so lucky to be married to a man who can fix anything. The nursery window is already done! He did a great job. I spent all weekend cleaning up the construction mess. I pretended I was nesting, but washing sawdust from the bottom of the toilet doesn’t really strike me as “preparing for baby.” This week I will scrub the nursery from top to bottom and then I FINALLY get to set up the room. I will be in heaven!

Today is April 12th. I am supposed to have a baby in one month.

Steak, furniture and classes

Hi! Did everyone have a good weekend? Things were insane in my house!

First Item!

I DO NOT HAVE DIABETES!!!! WOOOHHHOOOOO!!! Bring on the cookies. But make them cookies with a side of steak because I’m anemic. I have to take iron pills now. I blame that on M for not giving me cheeseburgers every night. My mom wants to know how anemic I am, so I need to call the office and get the actual numbers. I hope these iron pills don’t stop me up too bad. I got the slow release ones. Now I take 5 different pills a day (which, um, is nothing compared to what some of you do).

Next Item!

We spent all day Saturday emptying out the office and making it into a nursery. Poor M made at least 40 trips from our top floor to the basement carrying tons of stuff – mostly books! We got all of the stuff out of the room before noon (which is pretty darn good!). Then the in-laws came over to help with the furniture. We had some trouble getting desks to the basement, but it all worked out in the end.

M and his dad headed out to BRU to pick up the crib and dresser. They were gone forever. They called me once to complain that nothing fit in the Blazer. I told them to go to Home Depot and get some rope and make it work. They did. Then MIL and I watched them carry the fully assembled dresser up the stairs (we thought it would come in pieces… we probably would have picked different stuff if we knew it was fully assembled). The crib box was all busted up. I would have opened it at the store to make sure it was all ok. M did not do this (although he talked to the guy at the store and they assured him that they had opened the box and inspected everything). The crib headboard was split in half. Yippee! So we have a broken crib in our foyer until they deliver the new one. M called on Sunday and talked to a manager until they agreed to send someone to exchange the crib. He’s good at that kind of stuff. I was almost ready to cry when MIL pulled one of my Pollyanna tricks on me – she said “well, at least it’s not the dresser! I don’t think the guys could get that thing back down the stairs!” She was right. At least it was the much lighter crib that was carried up in pieces. At least the furniture will be here within a week or two. A broken crib 10 weeks before the baby is even due is not a big deal.

So now we have a baby room with a dresser and our office is all set up in the basement. It looks good down there. I wasn’t optimistic and I thought we’d be crowded down there. Now I kind of wish we’d always had the office in the basement.

Next Item!

We took the in-laws to dinner after all their hard work. I spent the dinner with a foot in my rib, so I kind of had to sit sideways to elongate myself. Everyone told me I looked like a fat trucker eating at a diner. I tried to sit better, but then I couldn’t reach the table. I am sitting the same way right now (but leaning to the right instead of the left). The kid will move when I push it down, but then reaches back up in there. Oh boy!

Next Item!

We went to an infant care class on Sunday. We learned how to bathe a baby and how to change diapers and swaddle. She showed us pictures of newborns and all the little things that might scare someone who has never seen a newborn up close. She spent A LOT of time telling us to trust our instincts, to advocate for ourselves and the baby and to not be afraid to ask for help. All the things that girls like me need to hear. I thought that was the best part of the class. The worst part was that our baby doll was ugly. And the clothes we had for him were pink and frilly. We felt bad that we didn’t bond with our ugly baby and then gave him a complex with girl clothes.

Next Item!

Alyssa wrote a few days ago about being on the other side of the fence.

That was a huge thing for me this weekend and last weekend. Normally, I do try to conceal this belly some. I’m usually wearing my huge purple MIL coat that just makes me look like a chubby lady who isn’t used to walking with her fat. I don't want anyone to look at me and feel the sadness that I used to feel.

Right, so we were in Babies R Us registering last weekend and I was sitting at the table getting everything set up. I had my coat on even though I was kind of warm. I didn’t want to bother anyone around me with my belly. Then I realized something. I was in the middle of preggo-land. Although people around me might have suffered from a loss or infertility, they were here because they were preparing for a baby and their dreams were coming true. I didn’t have to hide here!

I had the same feeling this weekend. We walked into the hospital and I kind of guarded my belly. Then I realized I was in a class for infant care. Everyone there was the same size as me. I could rub my belly all I wanted and I could shift uncomfortably when I had that foot in my rib.

It’s a great place to be.

28 Week Appointment

I’m back from my 28 week appointment. It was a quick in and out for the doctor part. The baby’s heart rate is in the 130s, which is lower than before, but baby is getting bigger. I’m measuring exactly on time. Hooray!

Um, weight… not that it’s a big deal but I am now officially heavier than I have ever been in my life. I weigh more than I did my junior year of college when I lived next door to the best on campus dining hall on the east coast and discovered that beer was better than liquor. This is expected and I’m fine with it. But I can feel the heaviness!

The glucose test was fine, I guess. I really didn’t think the drink was that bad. I have a huge sweet tooth… so drinking orange sugar drink is kind of a treat for me. I waited for an hour and had the blood draw. The whole time I was SO hungry and thirsty. I didn’t get my normal morning carb load and that made me cranky. Then I had a headache. Those things didn’t make me feel too excited about the results. I will load up on sugar and carbs for the next few days just in case.

I got McDonalds on my way to work and now I am happy!

We registered this weekend! And we bought our furniture! And then I took a nap!

Shopping!

So, happy 2010! I didn’t do a year in review post… I guess we could all just go back and read my posts from the last year. But I like reading everyone else’s! That kept me busy all morning!

I think I’ve changed. I am actually starting to think this is for real. I might really really have a baby in May. I need to start believing it, because my house is starting to believe it! We’ve cleaned out so much stuff to make room for another person in our townhouse. Not that we have a tiny house, we’ve just expanded to fill the whole thing! We got 7 trash bags from our bedroom (5 goodwill, 2 trash) over Christmas and 5 more (1 recycling, 2 trash, 2 goodwill) from the guest bedroom over New Year’s. I’m still not done in that room. I need to do my yearly purge of books. I only get rid of books I don’t like and I give them to my mom. She works at a hospital and they sell used books in the gift shop. That’s great idea. I apologize, people stuck in the hospital, for giving you the books I don’t like. But you might enjoy them!

We did something drastic on Saturday. We went to Babies R Us. This was the first time M has ever been in a real BRU. He has been shopping for baby gifts at the crappy Toys R Us baby section, but he has never seen the glory that is BRU. He was overwhelmed (surprise!). The car seat/stroller part really blew him away. We walked through the 3 aisles of these things and he was sweating. I told him our plan (we’re going to use his parent’s Consumer Reports account to do some research and narrow it down to a few). He felt better and we moved on. We picked out the nursery furniture we’ll buy. For realz. We’re still kind of looking and I’ve learned that we don’t have many other options. The local places just don’t sell cribs, which makes us sad. I found one store that has one crib/nursery set and we’ll check it out this week. I plan on actually purchasing the furniture sometime after my next appointment (Jan 25th – 24 weeks, 5 days). So sometime in February. M seems to think the only furniture our kid will ever need is a bed and a small dresser. I’m going to push for the bookcase because any kid of mine is going to need a place to keep books. I’ll let you know who wins.

So that’s exciting. We’re getting the house ready. I should take some before pictures of the computer/craft room so you’ll know what a mess this is. I am still happy that we painted the room yellow 4 years ago. One less thing on the list!