Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Major productivity in the small things makes me happy.

For example, this past weekend we purchased all of the items that are technically "for" the baby, but not items that we registered for. Like a curtain rod for the nursery, a humidifier, a bucket to store away the bathroom cleaning supplies, etc. This was both good and bad: good because I LOVE checking things off of my to-do list. Bad because I HATE shopping with a passion.

One of our stops was at Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase our stroller, which some family members said they'd provide the funding for, and I had a 20% off coupon that the marvelous chain store said they'd accept even though our brand was listed on the coupon as not applying to. We arrived at the store at 5:58, because I refused to have to come out again for more errands at a later date. They let us right in the store, and we even picked up a hand-held massager for labor as well!

Speaking of our stroller, it's amazing. It's orange, which is odd, but we liked it better than the red one or black one they had in the store (and refused to pay shipping for getting a green or tan one). Tim came home and put it together straight away. This baby turns on a dime, is light as air (well, almost), folds up in literally one quick handle pull, tucks away neatly, has marvelous grippy handles and, if I wanted to, I could jog with it, as it is a baby jogger stroller. I will be doing no such thing, but it's nice to know I have the option :)

Tim finished a couple of minor home improvement projects, which I greatly appreciated, including a new sliding shelf in one of our cabinets, an adjusted table top for the changing table, and now a small corner shelf for the wall next to the changing table (okay, not a corner shelf, b/c our walls are nowhere near square, but along the wall). They're all quite marvelous, and so much smaller than all of the regular projects we always do!! Now we just need to put up the decorations on the walls in baby's room!

I also organized the storage in most of our kitchen - mainly because I put new contact paper in our pantry cabinet. I never did it when we moved in, though I can't recall why. But that involved rearranging of much space and several drawers and other cabinets. Which made me very, very happy!

We've also started receiving some random gifts (still stuff on the registry folks, and no, I'm not ashamed to ask!) from various people, which is fun. On Saturday, the folks Tim serves with in his kids ministry at church "showered" us for about two minutes with a.....(drum roll) diaper cake. Yes. You heard that right. Along with a Moby Wrap, which I've been thinking about getting but didn't want to spend the money for, it's perfect!! Kudos to Becky at church who put this marvelous "cake" together for us - it was full of both diapers and a handful of super useful items like a baby towel, washcloths and cotton balls!



List of all the items in the diaper cake
We've also made a template of our will, which we'll instate after baby is born with his official, legal name, etc.and have been continuing our childbirth classes online. We learned all about the stages of labor this weekend, and all the technical, medical terminology for what'll be happening.

Not much else is happening pregnancy-wise for me, other than I'm starting to feel like a whale. I still wear heels every day, and still work out regularly (Denise Austin has good workouts but her voice is hilarious!) - either walking, light step aerobics, biking for as long as its comfortable on stationary bike, dance aerobics or just some prenatal cardio and yoga. I'm looking for good postnatal workout DVDs, feel free to recommend any you know of!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Swaddling, not waddling

I can't wear my wedding and engagement ring anymore.


This saddens me greatly. I haven't put them on a chain around  my neck,  just because I like to wear different jewelry every day (one of my trademarks at my extremely traditional dress-coded office, I wear 4" heels and big jewelry to make the point that they can't force me to be frumpy even with the severe dress requirements from 1950).

I don't think there's swelling anywhere else, though I certainly have a bit more "padding" than before. Apparently being pregnant does that to you :)

We spent another 9-hour day on Sunday finishing up a few projects, with Shawn Darling's help, including moving the furniture into the nursery. Not only should I not be moving furniture to keep risk of hurtng my back in particular low, I can't really get close enough to a piece of furniture to use my legs to pick it up because of the basketball I'm carrying around in front of me.  We also finished the bathroom trim (yay yay yay!) and re-caulked the tub - it had congealed from getting wet too soon a couple of years ago when Tim caulked it the first time.


Close-up of our striped walls
 I admit, we did move the furniture in the nursery around several times before we figured out how to fit. Having two doors and a window in a very small room, plus the wardrobe, which effectively cuts off the rest of the room when it's in your line of sight because of its depth, made rearranging a bit tricky. You may note the lack of a crib - the one thing you'd think I would already have! It's actually being spectacularly built by Tim's dad, who loves (and does a phenomenal job) woodworking. He'll be making a next-to-our-bed co-sleeper (three-sided crib) which converts into a crib later, and should be marvelous for those first few weeks while baby and I get used to each other's schedules.


The tiny chair Tim HAD to buy at Ikea
 Tim and I have been taking an online childbirth class, and yesterday we learned all about the symptoms of pregnancy - complete with interactive tools like "find the sliver of yellow that represents the bladder being crushed by a baby the size of a watermelon." Tim's favorite part wat the monotonous narrator admonishing ladies to practice kegels so as not to (pause for emphasis and then suddenly switch to the mom voice) wet. your. pants.

This was a little funny as it directly followed the chapter on techniques to relax during labor, and comes right before the stages of labor...maybe they felt like reminder you of all of your pregnancy symptoms was like a calm breath of how easy you've had it before diving into the 24+ hours that labor will be? Who knows.

Crib going where tiny chair is now
I would like you all to know that I don't waddle yet. I would like to think it's because of my good posture, the fact that I still wear heels (flats make me slouch more, somehow, probably because they hurt my feet) and a strong core. I do, however, sit like a man - I literally can't cross my legs anymore. People tell me the baby dropped, but hopefully not into the actual early stages of labor, seeing as I'm at 34 weeks and not the official, no longer premature 36 weeks spot. He has dropped lower than he was before, which my underwire thanks him for :)

We've slowly been accumulating more baby items. Yesterday's purchase (with a 20% off coupon) was our diaper bag - which looks very much like a black briefcase or laptop bag, to Tim's delight. I couldn't bring myself to opt for a pink, green, or even silver purse-looking bag. Not carrying a purse right now probably has something to do with my aversion.


Wooden animals hand-made by my
inlaws for baby boy :)
 We also toured the maternity ward at our local hospital, which especially caters to Women and Infants. I really appreciated knowing the whole process (check in, triage, delivery room, where surgery is located if its needed, nursery, private patient rooms, and of course, where the cafe is located). I've also put together a "Holly's in labor" book for Tim with explicit instructions on what to do, when, who to call, things he needs to know about labor, etc. etc. Phone numbers are even printed in red! The only bad thing about the tour (other than the slight fear of the delivery room that I have) was that the other couple touring with us was a week further along in her pregnancy and looked to be about only half-way! I mean, you could tell she was preggers, there was a curve to her belly, but when you see me, it's like BAM. she's pregnant. I don't even have a basketball in front of me anymore - its a larger ball size than that (beach ball I guess?). I'm fine with it, but it does make me want to smack other people who are hardly showing with only a few days or weeks left to go.

That's all for now. Onto a newborn care tips class tonight!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The room. is finis.

I have come to say:
The room. is finished.

I think this room literally took longer than any other room in the house, with the ONE exception of the kitchen. Since we entirely gutted the kitchen, that's understandable. However, I think the room is 7 feet by 9 feet, give or take. Which means it should entirely not be that much trouble. I'm thinking its a message of what trouble-making is to come in our tiny little package :)

The room is absolutely stunning, by the way - exactly as I pictured it, which is always nice. It was too dark outside and the little light in our room is not so bright - it's a peachy hue, not too bright, with ivory trim freshly installed. The complementary colors of decor will be greens, browns and off-white, as can be seen in most of the baby items we registered for!

We have no idea where the furniture is going as yet - I'm thinking the changing table by the window just b/c often babies like to look out the window.

In other news: stretch marks have appeared. Still drinking loads of water every day, but I've been gaining weight mostly slowly, with two chunky growth spurts, and those resulted in stretch marks. Which resulted in crazy itchiness!!! I didn't know stretch marks could sometimes be itchy, jeez.

Speaking of chunkiness, some of you might have heard Tim refer to me with endearing names such as "chubbs," "fatso," and the like. I'm sure there are more that are less appropriate. Funny story about that:
At work a few days ago, one of the sales reps for Tim's construction company dropped off a bunch of bright red sweatshirts. as in sweatshirts that you would never wear. They're not even hoodies, they're old man sweatshirts (yes Dad, I mean you). And they were also size XL - which no one Tim works with could even begin to fill out.
Tim, automatically said, "Hey, my wife is huge and preggers, I'll bring one home to her."
He was greeted by that awkward, bated breath silence.
The two bosses he works with most closely (one of whom just had a baby boy two months ago and the other who has three sons under the age of 10) admonished him, saying that he should most definitely NOT say that to me. To which he started laughing and said no, she wouldn't care!
Which is true, I wouldn't. It's not just that I'm insensitive to other people, I'm not a very emotional or sensitive person myself. I know Tim thinks my baby belly is beautiful, and he's comfortable when I threaten to sit on him with my extra weight and I'm comfortable when he refers to me as chubbs. See photo at right for me trying on the sweatshirt!

Tim and I had another conversation last night which may not have gone so well, however.

After greeting me with "fatso," I laughed and said he should be careful or I'll start shoving him around bumper-car style with my belly. He clarified that he doesn't actually think I'm fat, particularly because it's entirely baby belly, no chubby face, arms, legs, or anything else (yet I suppose). My legs aren't a bit swollen and I feel great. He then went on to say that when/if I do actually begin to look a little bigger in other areas, he'd immediately stop calling me funny names because they might actually be true....digging himself a hole in which he could not get out of. So folks, if you notice that he only refers to me by "beautiful," "sweetheart," or other such normal, romantic things, I warn you: I'm looking swollen and uncomfortable.

If you're on the lookout for some nicer, baby-bump photos of me, we had professional photos taken near where we live.

See the link below for a full slideshow of the images: Go to http://www.juliedavisphotography.com/site/#/proofing/ (or proofing from the pull-down menu on my site) and enter "holly" (without quotes) in the password field. 

I think they are QUITE lovely - we purchased a couple to frame!

We have now begun our child birthing classes. So far, we've learned that we should discuss our fears and concerns with each other. Since we are really so poor at communicating in the first place, you can see how this makes us giggle. Also, Tim is now known as the "support person." It's good though, we're discussing the possibilities of options and what can or will happen during childbirth (for example, do I want a mirror to see what's going on? NO WAY).

Tonight? breast feeding class. While I'm excited about bonding with our little one and nourishing him, not sure I'm so pumped about a room full of women discussing our boobs for two hours.

More updates, I'm sure, will be coming soon!

 ~Holly~