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!

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!

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~

So baby clothes are hard to fold.

I washed the clothes we received at our first baby shower last weekend, and just finished folding a whole stack of them. I kind of stuck with folding them in half, because they're so tiny. Also, clothes sizes seem to widely vary. I have a stack of onesies already for the 0-3 month size, but they themselves are all different sizes....huh. And if our child is as big as many of our friends' newborns - the 0-3 months will only fit for a few days, maybe weeks, anyway!

I've begun to feel the poor kid have hiccups regularly - usually about twice each day, I think. Sometimes I don't really pay attention. I'm curious as to how tiny infants even get the hiccups - I thought it had something to do with the diaphram in tandem with either the lungs or digestive tract - neither of which are functioning in the womb, as far as I understand it. I feel bad - I HATE having the hiccups and wish I could help the little guy with them.

In the ongoing saga of our baby's room, its....still in progress. Closer, but still in progress. I am happy to report that one of the three walls is completely finished. the other three are...mostly done. We discovered a glitch in the baseboard we bought months ago - namely, that today's baseboard sizes (2" by 8") is actually almost an inch shorter than standard baseboard sizes of, say, 50 years ago. There's not much you can do about that - problem is, we ripped some old baseboard off to do some wiring and throw up a new adjacent to the two older walls on either side, and didn't even think about joint compounding and painting the old walls lower than the old baseboard used to go. So after 11 hours yesterday of painting, painting, painting, and, oh yes, painting (all the trim, attached and unattached, two coats to each, all the stripes we're putting from the chair-rail down, the ceiling, etc.), we realized upon completion of all of our painting that yes, there is literally a 3/4 inch section at the bottom of two of the walls where our new baseboard does not go up to the level of paint on the wall. So frustrating to now have to go through the whole joint compounding several layers, sanding, priming, painting, and striping all over again for what will literally be a 2" section around the very bottom of the wall. So quick, you say, much quicker than joint compounding an entire room! Why yes, I'll reply, thinking how I'd like to throw my glass-half-empty at you.
However, my wonderful father-in-law came for about three hours tonight and helped, along with my brother-in-law, to install about half of the trim in the baby's room. Hence one wall being complete. Check back next week to see if I've retained my sanity and the room is done...


So I tend to buy encyclopedia-like books when I'm researching something. My nursing book is turning out to be a load more than I originally thought - hugely useful, but it takes some focus to get through.

Speaking of reading, I'm having a blast picking up board books for baby boy. Most recent purchase (to get free shipping on Amazon by spending another $4) - Caps for Sale, a Flint family favorite for quite a long time, as I recall. if you one day think to yourself, oh yes, Holly and Tim are having a baby, I wonder what they'd like me to get them? There are only two answers: something off the registry OR a book (look how I held off from my rant about clothes!). I love books, I read voraciously until I turned 22 and entered the real world of 7-day work weeks, home improvement projects and continuing education in the hopes of finding a job that fits my interests. I figure about 25 years from now I'll be able to read for myself again, but until then, I shall do everything I can to inspire our children to!!!

Speaking of things you want your kids to be great at, here's a short list:
1. Making toast. Both my dad and husband are phenomenal at making the best toast, which should be a staple of anyone's diet. I do not possess this happy talent, but have benefited my entire life from theirs.
2. To cook. Clearly a skill I do not have, though I can bake up a storm and follow very simple meal recipes with some practice (see, shiskabobs, spaghetti and pancakes). This, however, is something Tim does with creativity and with always spectacular results, and our children, regardless of gender, will be required to help him regularly and catch the cooking bug.
3. To clean. well. This was a rule in my own parent's house - as soon as you were about 4 years old, you leaned to clean and do it perfectly, and not complain a bit about having to do so. Your chores obviously gradually increased in magnitude, but by golly, my three siblings and I could clean a large house top to bottom in a short period of time given the right tools.
4. To get dirty. yep - one of the reasons I wanted a boy first - I spent 90 percent of my childhood outdoors and I think it's a lost art today.
5. To like roller coasters. Okay, that one was for Tim. I tolerate roller coasters - generally only riding them if they strap you in entirely (feet dangling kind). But I want our kids to have a sense of abandonment, instead of my inherent tension when something is new or different.
6. The Dewey Decimal system. Just kidding, but MAN, I feel like I just barely figured that out before everything went via computers. It took me so long to learn it!!

There's about a million other things to add to this list, including being okay with who they are and not caring what other people think (a big order with today's teens especially, I know), liking a variety of foods and international flavors, swimming like a fish, and so on and so forth. I feel like toast should be first on that list though :)

The superman of a husband - sexy voice, project tackler and supporter extraordinaire

So this baby boy has now discovered what I believe is called the pelvic floor. My doc said it's hard to tell how he's positioned in the womb unless you're an expert like she is - especially because even if you think you know where the feet are, they could be tucked underneath him, in front of his face, etc. etc.

However, yesterday, I can tell you how he was positioned - smack in between my hip bones, and I don't mean the ones that poke out a teensy bit at the top of your thighs. I mean down. in. there. very awkward feeling. It wasn't painful at all, but since I don't often feel my internal organs bopping in and around inside my torso, certainly a new experience.

I've decided that the baby responds to Tim's voice. Though he's usually active when I'm first lying down in bed at night, sometimes he'll have stopped moving too much, but as soon as Tim starts talking he's rolling around in there again. Tim has a great voice, but sometimes I wish he'd just be quiet :)

Over the weekend, we had an awesome baby shower back in Massachusetts at my 'rents home church in Uxbridge. I had a great time, and a lot of different people from my past showed up, which was hugely supportive. I hope everyone had a lot of fun - and we received some very much-needed items, from a pack n' play to a changing table pad (thanks Auntie Kara!) to some fun items like penguin booties for the little dude and a Red Sox Fan jersey onesie from Katie Kap.

We've got everything sorted in the living room right now, ready to go to various places - the newly finished furniture, the washing machine, the bathroom/closet (yes I'm serious) for future use.

The reason everything is still in the living room, other than I haven't been home for more than ten minutes late at night before bed, is because our nursery is still....going....

But for good reason. We'll be painting the trim in the room as well to make it nice and fresh, but it's old, peeling paint so Tim is working at scraping and sanding it down to an even layer for slapping on some fresh paint. I can't be anywhere near the area because there's the possibility that one of the two coats of paint is lead-based, as our house is nearly 100 years old, and that's just not safe. So until he finishes his stripping and sanding of that area, not much else will happen. He's been working for hours every evening, which I hugely appreciate!!! Once he's finished though, we'll just have to do a final coat of paint on the trim/walls and then stripe the walls before his dad arrives on Sunday to help us install the new baseboard and chair rail, hurrah!

On a very fun note, I helped my friend, Megan (cupo fisher, cupo fisher, cupo fisher, cupo-) make baby shower invites for my shower here in Pa. last night. it was a) super fun, because i love being crafty but have neither the time or supplies for it usually, and b) productive and with a very CUTE card at the end. I have a photo I'll have to add to this post later.

On the list to do in preparation for baby in the coming days? Breastfeeding class sign-up; childbirth class sign-up; research options for writing a will (software? hire a lawyer? crayon on wall?); and get final approval from my work for my specific maternity leave. I'm 90 percent done with that process, thank goodness.

A Squishy Squash

So February has become a whirlwind that I'm incapable of slowing down! Mostly work or school-related things, but some baby stuff as well!

This weekend we will be heading back to Massachusetts/Rhode Island for a delightful baby shower my mom/sister/church ladies are throwing me up north. It will be SO GOOD to see so many people we haven't had a chance to catch up with in awhile, not to mention spend time with family, and of course, open presents! Very much looking forward to that. I believe Tim is looking forward to a baby-free afternoon with my brother as well :)

This weekend we had a maternity photo shoot. But first, a funny conversation recently with my dad:
D: A what?
H: A maternity photo shoot. Like, photos of me and my belly and me and Tim.
D: Aaaand....are you paying for this??!
H: Yes! But, in my normal style, I found a ridiculous deal with a photographer whose work I absolutely adored and she's bulking up her maternity portfolio, so she gave me two sessions for the price of one session fee, and her session fee is pretty affordable, especially in comparison with some of the big names around here. And her quality of photography is top-notch, so I'm not losing any quality in the price! (takes a breath.)
D: Oh. okay. so....will you eventually get pictures of, you know, your baby?
H: YES. yes. We have a six-month photo session to schedule with her as well.
D: Oh. okay.

Anyway, our photographer, Julie Davis (http://juliedavisphotography.com/) has beautiful techniques with lighting, and she was very open to me suggesting several poses and ideas for the photo shoot. I particularly love fun, textured backgrounds (brick, stone, rustic wood, and snow!) and we did about half of the session outdoors to accommodate that. We also had just a lot of fun with her - she was flexible, but still directed us to move or sit a certain way. We felt like she knew what she was doing but was allowing our personalities to shine through. My favorite part? The kissing photos :) For our engagement photos, our photographer kept saying from yards and yards away, "okay, kiss NOW" and I kept not really hearing him and it was awkward, etc. Julie had a handy little count down option, of 3, 2, 1, and Tim kept making hilarious faces at me so I only kissed him about half the time, and the other half I busted out laughing. Anyway, I've asked if there's ways I can link to or post some samples of our photo shoot online to share, and she was all for that. I should be receiving a preview soon, and options for prints in 2 to 3 weeks.

While we were taking photos, I realized that the vertical line on my belly has started to materialize. Only - this is a bit weird - it's not straight! From my ribcage to my belly button, it curves in an arc to the left, and then straight down from there. Very. weird.

We also finished painting the nursery this weekend...and then realized that although we are old pros at painting, we are NOT pros at joint compounding. So. We decided to layer on another couple of coats of joint compound (making five total) to smooth everything out, which we are in the process of completing now, and then re-painting the one new wall next week. You know, along with scraping down old trim, priming and painting the new ceiling, painting all the trim and chair rail, installing the ceiling light, finishing building a couple of items of furniture, installing a dimmer switch, etc. There are two pieces of good news about this: 1) the hardwood floor has already been refinished, which we did a couple of years ago, and it still looks beautiful, so technically the hardest part of the room was already complete before we started. 2) I LOVE love love love the color of paint. Love. it. It's a pastel orange, bright enough to be a very fun color, pale enough to not be terribly shocking, and with no traces of pink in it (which is what happened when we first moved in and tried for a very similar color, which came out bubble gum pink b/c it was so pastel that the reds came out more than the yellows). I promise I'll post photos, but I think I might wait until the paint is all slapped on, the chair rail is up and the striping is done on the lower half of the wall (something I'm also terribly excited about).

So pregnancy symptoms: still going very well. I've had a couple of extreme instances of heartburn recently, which I literally had to call my mom and ask about because I wasn't sure what exactly was going on. I've got some tums now and I'll be asking my doctor about other possible recommendations as well. The baby's been moving around enough to sometimes wake me up which I'm dozing, though not in the middle of the night (yet). Nothing else much to report, other than feeling sliiiiightly more tired than in the second trimester, but it could just be because my life has become insanely BUSY these past few weeks.

Oh, I also completed all of the paperwork needed for my FMLA leave, my Short Term Disability insurance, and I cleared our healthcare/new baby understanding of insurance with my insurance, Tim's insurance, my doctor's office AND the insurance dept. at the hospital. The only one of those four "expert" places that actually could explain to me the timeline and how insurance for newborns work? The hospital. Though it will still cost us thousands of dollars in deductibles, it shouldn't be a shock or anything more than we thought before, thank goodness. I actually went down to our HR department to explain how the insurance works b/c I'm one of three ladies who are expecting in the next few months, and it seems no one,  not even the insurance companies themselves, understand the rules and steps of the process...of course.

I think that's all that's happened in the world of Baby Dwight this week! My weekly updates say he is the size of a squash. I think someone should tell them that squash comes in a lot of varieties. Are we talking a tiny acorn squash or are we talking a monster-sized yellow squash?

Congratulations Mom - 26 years later

So when I was a child, my mom was very insistent upon us putting away our clothes asap after they arrived, folded, in our room (we usually did the folding downstairs ourselves, and then whomever was near the laundry basket brought them up and distributed).

This was not so hard for me. What was VERY hard was keeping my drawers neat. I've never been able to accomplish this. No matter how often I organize them into cute, folded stacks, rearrange, etc., my drawers always look like someone put them in the drawer by standing across the room and shooting scrunched up handfuls of them in, basketball style. I have a friend who tells me its because the rest of my life is so organized, there has to be something, somewhere to slip up :)

In fact, my mother got so mad at me at least once when I was little for not having neat drawers, that she took everything out of my dresser, threw it on the floor and made me put it all back in. A very handy technique to inspire automatic neatness :)

I am here to tell you mom, that my wild ways have changed - I now have organized drawers!!! Partly because I finally started rotating my seasonal (or in my current case, maternity/non maternity) clothes, partly because we bought some marvelous boxes to use in our closets instead of trying to stack clothes on the top shelves which neither of us can reach.  Thanks to the marvelousness of Ikea, I should say. I've included a photo for proof of my new system. My skivvies drawer is also organized, but I figured I didn't want to make that permanent record on the inter-webs for my kids to find in 47 years :)

I'm feeling like our house is really, truly organized. We have so little storage space, it's not like I really had that much work cut out for me - but all three of our closets are good to go, our spare dresser in our guest room has two drawers cleared, I've donated old clothes to goodwill, our basement received a thorough (and shocking) clean out back in October, and I finally spent the ten bucks to buy a spice rack and get our large quantity of spices out of the back of the pantry next to the iron pans.

Next, and probably near the end of the organization list (until the baby items start arriving en-masse) is adding an extra shelf to our one kitchen cabinet at floor level. I also need a handy place to store my chemical cleaning stuff for the bathrooms - currently just sitting next to one of our toilets...not a good idea, I know. I'm thinking a bucket at the top of one of our closets might do the trick. We have no storage space in our bathroom and our linen closet is beautifully organized, but packed to the gills with only floor-level space left, also not so safe.

We were originally planning on painting our babe's room this past weekend, but we realized two things: it takes more joint compound than you think it does to joint a wall, a ceiling, and all corners of said ceiling and wall, and b) even if you have enough joint compound, you can't expect it to dry when it's only 42 degrees in that room all day, every day. The compound instructions said it dries within 24 hours --- at a temp of 75 degrees. Woops! So we'll be taking some time this week to do even MORE joint compounding, sanding, sponging, priming, and, eventually, painting. We'll be putting up some chair rail when Tim's dad visits in a few weeks - though that begs the question, with our very old house: do we level the chair rail with the uneven floor, the uneven ceiling, or actually level it around the room? I don't know.

While we waited for joint compound to dry, we instead put together our Ikea furniture, so when the room is done we'll hoof it on in there! These are stock photos, but they look as good as the real thing! Crib not put together yet, but that takes up the most space, so that'll be after we finish painting the room, probably. Oh, and I should clarify. By "we put together" I mean that Tim put together while I read him entertaining things from SuperFreakonomics, the Caveman's Guide to Baby's First Year, and Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue. All entertaining in different ways.

You probably want to hear something about the baby, not just how I've endlessly been preparing for him. He's started to move around a LOT. I'm supposed to start fetal kick count monitoring this week, but I haven't yet, and I was thinking, crap, I don't know if he really moves 10 times every hour - partly because I don't notice very much when he does, and because before it went in spurts - his sleep cycles, as it were. Not so much now. He's probably still sleeping, but not so motionless. I'm sure he'd hit that 10 every hour number. There's one spot at the top right of my belly that he kicks the most, and sometimes I poke him back. Encouraging turn the other cheek retaliation early in life, you see :)

And last but not least, we think we've settled on a name. No, we won't be sharing it, but we're feeling pretty confident about it. No, it's not Grover. Or Wilmer. It might be Jasper.

I know this is getting long, but I thought I'd add one more thing which I somehow forgot to mention yet - we found a pediatrician's office that I am in love with! It's about a quarter of a mile from my OB/GYN, which is a mile from where I work, both of which are 15 minutes max from our house. They came recommended by my midwife, but no one I know actually goes there, so I was a little unsure. They have all of the things I was looking for though - small practice, PAs or NPs as well as physicians, at least one male doctor (there's two), very, very open and personable - won't think of me as the "uninformed and/or anxious mom" but rather as a partner in care for our little one, strict on vaccinations, and, oh yes, a super-fun waiting area. Their hours flex into the evenings and on weekends, which works out for us quite well. Also, the PA I met with's name is Joaquin. I think that's how you spell it, anyway!