It seems I have been slacking over the past two weeks, so I have quite a bit of updating to do.
We haven't had time to work on the baby's room much more, though we plan to dig in again this weekend. My husband was home sick from work yesterday and when I went back to work after lunch, he was headed up for a nap. When I came home four hours later, I got a nice surprise. He had carried most of the store room items that were still sitting in the hallway down to the basement, and had hauled out the old dresser and treadmill from the baby's room. Wow! I definitely was not expecting that. That means all I have left to do this weekend is box up those last few remaining items and we can get to the fun part.
In related news, we have changed our minds on the nursery theme again. I think we both had our hearts set on our turtle, frog, bumblebee theme that we had originally chosen. So we have gone back to that and ordered a crib sheet and some wall hangings so we could match colors. We have also chosen a paint color, called Mango Parfait. It's a light, creamy orange. We had lots to choose from—the set (we are still not buying the whole set because it's dumb to buy a quilt and bumper we're not going to use) has yellow, blue, green, and orange. I think it's really cute. I know some people are into decorating their babies' rooms with non-childish themes these days, but I'm not. I mean, come on ... she's going to be a baby! She can have a room that looks like it belongs to a 40-year-old when she's 40.
While she waits to see her new room, the baby sure seems to be enjoying the room she has now! She's moving more and more all the time, though she still seems to have quiet and active days. One day she'll move pretty much all day long, and the next day she'll be very quiet. Although sometimes I suspect that her quiet days are just my busy days, and I don't notice quite as much. On Sunday, I was reclining on the couch and could actually see her kicking from the outside. This was after what had been a day to a day-and-a-half when she was really mellow.
I've also begun to notice patterns. She's pretty active in the morning, between 8 and 9. Breakfast probably has something to do with that. During that time I generally feel the kicks/punches up high. As the day progresses she seems to move downward. Afternoons are calmer, but when she does decide to kick, it's in the middle. In the evening, she likes to get my left side. Not always, but sometimes when I go to bed she gets a few good crotch shots in. Getting punched in the crotch from the inside is not as fun as it might sound! Last night she gave me some real doozies. Thankfully, she seems to sleep most of the night. The only time I really feel her move is when I roll over. She was a bit more active during the thunderstorm we had last night, though!
I have more to say, mostly about gaining too much weight, but I think I'll save that for another time.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Making room for baby
There seems to be a bit of nesting going on around our house. Over the weekend we started on some projects so we can be ready for the baby.
We don't have the biggest house. Well, it's not small, exactly, it's just not laid out very well. The second floor has two smallish bedrooms, a bathroom, small store room, and two more rooms that we currently use for a family room and my husband's "stuff" room. We had a difficult time deciding where to put the baby's room. Our options were to clean out the extra bedroom, which was full of my clothes, or to move the master bedroom into the family room/husband stuff area and put the baby in our bedroom. There were some major things to consider. One was that my clothes pretty much took up the whole guest room (whoops) and I had nowhere to put them. It's an old house and the closets are small. So in order for me to have a place for my clothes, we'd have to clean out the store room and make it into a walk-in closet. The other consideration was that our house has two sets of stairs—weird!—and the back staircase leads right to what would have become our master bedroom. That meant trying to put in a door (we have cats and don't allow them in our room) which we weren't even sure we could do, and which could be costly.
After lots of thought, we decided to make the store room into my closet and make the guest room into the nursery. I think it was the right choice and I'm thrilled with the result, even if it did mean a weekend of busting our butts.
We started on Saturday, with my husband cleaning out the store room and me working in the guest bedroom. I'll admit, it was a project we needed to do, baby or no baby. We sorted through a lot of stuff, tossing what we needed to. I also went through all my clothes and filled two huge bags for donation.
When my husband finished cleaning out the store room he began working on installing shelves and a hanging rack for my clothes. There are two sets of shelves, one larger that holds three to four stacks of clothes apiece, and one smaller set that holds one stack of clothes. Underneath the larger shelves, he left room for two small dressers. Across from the big shelves, he built a rack for hanging clothes. He even hung up a shoe organizer on the door, and put my necklace holders on the wall. The final result is amazing and I couldn't be happier or more grateful to have a husband who not only is able to do this kind of project, but is willing to do it. We still need to put some sort of window covering up so the clothes don't get faded and I can get dressed/undressed in there, but for the most part we're all done.
I got everything moved in yesterday and it's even better than I could have possibly imagined. I kind of wanted to sleep in the new closet last night, just so when I woke up I'd know it was still there!
Now it's on to an equally exciting project—the baby's room! I've got all of my clothes out of there and just have a few miscellaneous items to box up yet. We have an old dresser and desk that need to be disposed of. There is also a double bed that I think we will leave in the room if possible. That way if one of us crashes in the baby's room during the night or if we have guests, we can put the baby in our room in a portable crib and use it as a guest room.
We're both excited to decorate. I never thought my husband would take such an interest in that part of it, but I'm thrilled that he is. I know I said two weeks ago that I had a theme all picked out. Well, that changed. We're buying a barely used set from a friend. It's girlier than we planned, but still not pink, and we both like it a lot. We've already got tons of ideas for how to paint and decorate. I can't wait to get it done and bring home our little girl!
We don't have the biggest house. Well, it's not small, exactly, it's just not laid out very well. The second floor has two smallish bedrooms, a bathroom, small store room, and two more rooms that we currently use for a family room and my husband's "stuff" room. We had a difficult time deciding where to put the baby's room. Our options were to clean out the extra bedroom, which was full of my clothes, or to move the master bedroom into the family room/husband stuff area and put the baby in our bedroom. There were some major things to consider. One was that my clothes pretty much took up the whole guest room (whoops) and I had nowhere to put them. It's an old house and the closets are small. So in order for me to have a place for my clothes, we'd have to clean out the store room and make it into a walk-in closet. The other consideration was that our house has two sets of stairs—weird!—and the back staircase leads right to what would have become our master bedroom. That meant trying to put in a door (we have cats and don't allow them in our room) which we weren't even sure we could do, and which could be costly.
After lots of thought, we decided to make the store room into my closet and make the guest room into the nursery. I think it was the right choice and I'm thrilled with the result, even if it did mean a weekend of busting our butts.
We started on Saturday, with my husband cleaning out the store room and me working in the guest bedroom. I'll admit, it was a project we needed to do, baby or no baby. We sorted through a lot of stuff, tossing what we needed to. I also went through all my clothes and filled two huge bags for donation.
When my husband finished cleaning out the store room he began working on installing shelves and a hanging rack for my clothes. There are two sets of shelves, one larger that holds three to four stacks of clothes apiece, and one smaller set that holds one stack of clothes. Underneath the larger shelves, he left room for two small dressers. Across from the big shelves, he built a rack for hanging clothes. He even hung up a shoe organizer on the door, and put my necklace holders on the wall. The final result is amazing and I couldn't be happier or more grateful to have a husband who not only is able to do this kind of project, but is willing to do it. We still need to put some sort of window covering up so the clothes don't get faded and I can get dressed/undressed in there, but for the most part we're all done.
I got everything moved in yesterday and it's even better than I could have possibly imagined. I kind of wanted to sleep in the new closet last night, just so when I woke up I'd know it was still there!
Now it's on to an equally exciting project—the baby's room! I've got all of my clothes out of there and just have a few miscellaneous items to box up yet. We have an old dresser and desk that need to be disposed of. There is also a double bed that I think we will leave in the room if possible. That way if one of us crashes in the baby's room during the night or if we have guests, we can put the baby in our room in a portable crib and use it as a guest room.
We're both excited to decorate. I never thought my husband would take such an interest in that part of it, but I'm thrilled that he is. I know I said two weeks ago that I had a theme all picked out. Well, that changed. We're buying a barely used set from a friend. It's girlier than we planned, but still not pink, and we both like it a lot. We've already got tons of ideas for how to paint and decorate. I can't wait to get it done and bring home our little girl!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
It's a girl!
The ultrasound yesterday went very well. I hate to admit it, but both my husband and I actually got kind of bored. It was exciting at first, but it's hard when half the time you don't know what you're looking at. Our techs (we had an intern with another tech supervising her) were very good about telling us what was going on and pointing out, "these are the feet," or "here are baby's legs," but after awhile when you're sitting in a dark room with soft music playing, you get kind of sleepy.
The baby was quite active early on, wiggling her arms and legs. At the end, when it was time for the potty shot, however, she wasn't so cooperative. She curled up into a little ball—facing down with her legs tucked underneath her and her tush sticking up in the air—and fell asleep. I can't blame her. She refused to wake up and open her legs, so the tech had to look from behind, between her little butt cheeks. The tech was kind of wishy washy about telling us what the gender was (the other tech had taken over from the intern at this point because the other one was having trouble getting a good look at the baby's heart). From what I've heard and read about the "three lines" that are indicative of a girl, it was pretty obvious. The three lines were definitely there. I brought the sonograms in to work with me and my co-worker who's expecting a girl any day agreed.
So it seems we've got a baby girl on the way! Now, this doesn't mean I'm about to go crazy with pink. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy that we're having a girl. There are so many nice things about girls (boys, too, of course). But I'm not a big fan of pink. Pink T-shirt? Sure. Pink undies? Absolutely! Pink walls? Not so much. I've picked out some items for the baby's room already—not going to waste money on one of those expensive bedding sets with comforters and bumper pads you can't even use, but I found a set that has items that are sold separately. There are sheets, valances, a bed ruffle, wall decorations, a hamper ... you name it. And none of it costs more than $20. It's also yellow, green, and blue. I don't see a problem with that. I don't think boys always have to wear blue or girls always have to wear pink. When she gets older she can choose that if she wants, but for now I prefer yellow.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
As the wedding ring turns ...
Today is the big day. This afternoon I go in for an ultrasound/anatomy scan where they'll check for parts and hopefully we'll get to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.
Last night my husband said, "Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl tonight?" He'd been told about the "ring test" which supposedly can accurately predict your baby's gender. It sounded like fun to me, so we gave it a try.
He took my wedding ring and put it on a string. First he dangled it over my wrist. The ring sat there and then began to move back and forth. He did some searching online and then we decided to try it over my stomach. Again, it began to move back and forth, but it was much stronger this time. He tried it over his own belly (ha) and even over the cat and the ring just sat there. The minute he would put it back over me, it began to move. We agreed that it was pretty weird.
So what does it mean? That's the problem. It seems that this old wives' tale varies. Some say that if it moves in a circle it's a girl and if it swings back and forth like it did for me, it's a boy. Other sources say exactly the opposite. Most that I could find, however, said circle=girl and straight=boy. Very interesting.
There are many ways to supposedly predict gender. The Chinese gender chart says I'll be having a boy. Another site I went to with a guy who supposedly has a 94% accuracy rating, says I'll be having a girl.
I guess we will just have to wait until this afternoon to find out for sure! I just hope baby cooperates and doesn't disappoint us.
Last night my husband said, "Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl tonight?" He'd been told about the "ring test" which supposedly can accurately predict your baby's gender. It sounded like fun to me, so we gave it a try.
He took my wedding ring and put it on a string. First he dangled it over my wrist. The ring sat there and then began to move back and forth. He did some searching online and then we decided to try it over my stomach. Again, it began to move back and forth, but it was much stronger this time. He tried it over his own belly (ha) and even over the cat and the ring just sat there. The minute he would put it back over me, it began to move. We agreed that it was pretty weird.
So what does it mean? That's the problem. It seems that this old wives' tale varies. Some say that if it moves in a circle it's a girl and if it swings back and forth like it did for me, it's a boy. Other sources say exactly the opposite. Most that I could find, however, said circle=girl and straight=boy. Very interesting.
There are many ways to supposedly predict gender. The Chinese gender chart says I'll be having a boy. Another site I went to with a guy who supposedly has a 94% accuracy rating, says I'll be having a girl.
I guess we will just have to wait until this afternoon to find out for sure! I just hope baby cooperates and doesn't disappoint us.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
More garage sale finds, and an emotional roller coaster
I hit garage sales again last weekend, this time with my family. It's tradition for us to have a mother/daughter garage sale outing on Mother's Day weekend, and it's gotten to the point the just about the whole family goes along. It's great fun, and I look forward to it every year. Some of the great finds of the day included a high chair for $15, Bumbo chair for $5, musical crib toy, and some various unisex clothing. Basically I got a ton of nice stuff for not much money. Oh, and my sister and niece bought me a few books, "to start our library." It all started with a book called "What Bounces?" (Spoiler: guinea pigs do NOT bounce.)
One of the worst parts about pregnancy so far has been the hormonally induced emotional breakdowns. One minute I'm fine and the next minute I'm sobbing. I try to hide it as much as I can from others, but sometimes it's hard. That damn Pedigree "Shelter Dogs" commercial can send me into a major tizzy. I especially try to hide it from my husband because I don't want him to think that: A) something is wrong with the baby; or B) that he's done something to upset me. Granted, he's sometimes clueless (find me a man who isn't and I'll give you a bright, shiny quarter), but I try to remember that, unlike me, not everyone in the world has constant baby brain. This weekend my husband is going out of town so we'll see just how many breakdowns I can have while he's gone. In all honestly I'm kind of ticked that I'm home alone all weekend and can't even go out for a couple of beers, so it might not be pretty. Yesterday my husband called to tell me that he'd bought me a "consolation prize" since he was leaving for the weekend. I got two boxes of candy (Dots and Jujyfruits. Warning: stay away from the purple Jujyfruits—they are not grape. I repeat: they are not grape. They taste like black licorice. Ewww!); a box of mini-muffins; a bag of Milano cookies; and a new pair of slippers. So, even though I can't drink, I can send myself into a sugar coma and be 10 pounds heavier when he comes home. It was sweet of him to think of me, and I couldn't possibly feel luckier to be married to a man like him.
One of the worst parts about pregnancy so far has been the hormonally induced emotional breakdowns. One minute I'm fine and the next minute I'm sobbing. I try to hide it as much as I can from others, but sometimes it's hard. That damn Pedigree "Shelter Dogs" commercial can send me into a major tizzy. I especially try to hide it from my husband because I don't want him to think that: A) something is wrong with the baby; or B) that he's done something to upset me. Granted, he's sometimes clueless (find me a man who isn't and I'll give you a bright, shiny quarter), but I try to remember that, unlike me, not everyone in the world has constant baby brain. This weekend my husband is going out of town so we'll see just how many breakdowns I can have while he's gone. In all honestly I'm kind of ticked that I'm home alone all weekend and can't even go out for a couple of beers, so it might not be pretty. Yesterday my husband called to tell me that he'd bought me a "consolation prize" since he was leaving for the weekend. I got two boxes of candy (Dots and Jujyfruits. Warning: stay away from the purple Jujyfruits—they are not grape. I repeat: they are not grape. They taste like black licorice. Ewww!); a box of mini-muffins; a bag of Milano cookies; and a new pair of slippers. So, even though I can't drink, I can send myself into a sugar coma and be 10 pounds heavier when he comes home. It was sweet of him to think of me, and I couldn't possibly feel luckier to be married to a man like him.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
The months are flying by!
Unbelievably, it's already been a month since my last appointment. I had my most recent check-up yesterday. The monthly check-ups are pretty dull. I did get to hear the heartbeat again which is reassuring. It's amazing how, as the days go by between appointments, it's so easy to become paranoid that something is wrong. Even though there's obviously SOMETHING growing down there and I can feel movement. It's just one of those things. The doctor also did my first measurement. He said I'm measuring right on track—not too big and not too small. The heartbeat was 148, which he said was not too fast and not too slow. This leads me to the obvious conclusion that my baby is perfect. Naturally. I also got to schedule my 20-week ultrasound. In just two loooooong weeks, we should be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Garage sale finds
One great part about having a fall baby is that I have all summer to hit garage sales for deals. I've always been a bargain hunter and love garage sales (or yard sales or rummage sales, depending on where you're from). There's always a ton of baby and kid stuff at these sales, and often it's in really good shape and cheap. So why buy new when I can get really nice baby stuff for really cheap? The baby won't notice anyway. In fact, I believe babies actually require very little. A hundred years ago babies survived just fine without expensive swings, play yards, and all that jazz. We just live in a society that sees that there's a lot of emphasis on children and takes advantage of that by coming out with products that we really don't need and charge us a bunch of money for them. So that's me on my soapbox.
Summer is a huge time for garage sales in Minnesota. Every weekend there's a garage sale somewhere. This past weekend alone three different communities had city-wide garage sales. Those are the best because there's one on almost every block. My husband and I headed out early Saturday morning to find some deals.The previous day his mom had already found a swing and a johnny-jump-up for us. On Saturday we bought an activity gym for the floor, a diaper pail, and a mobile that matches the theme we're thinking of using (turtles; the mobile has a turtle, frog, lady bug, and bumble bee). We also got two baby books, one on baby sign language and another on keeping your baby from crying or some such thing. We saw lots of clothes but since we don't know what we're having yet, we couldn't really buy any of that. (Whatever happened to unisex clothing, by the way? It's hard to come by these days.) There were a few other things we passed on as well. We have all summer to shop so we can afford to be picky. It's pretty exciting to finally get some baby items in the house, though!
I have my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I should be able to schedule my 20-week ultrasound so we can find out the sex. Just a couple more weeks to wait!
Summer is a huge time for garage sales in Minnesota. Every weekend there's a garage sale somewhere. This past weekend alone three different communities had city-wide garage sales. Those are the best because there's one on almost every block. My husband and I headed out early Saturday morning to find some deals.The previous day his mom had already found a swing and a johnny-jump-up for us. On Saturday we bought an activity gym for the floor, a diaper pail, and a mobile that matches the theme we're thinking of using (turtles; the mobile has a turtle, frog, lady bug, and bumble bee). We also got two baby books, one on baby sign language and another on keeping your baby from crying or some such thing. We saw lots of clothes but since we don't know what we're having yet, we couldn't really buy any of that. (Whatever happened to unisex clothing, by the way? It's hard to come by these days.) There were a few other things we passed on as well. We have all summer to shop so we can afford to be picky. It's pretty exciting to finally get some baby items in the house, though!
I have my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I should be able to schedule my 20-week ultrasound so we can find out the sex. Just a couple more weeks to wait!
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