JT has made such great progress in baby's room. The walls look great (all patched and sanded) and I love the flat ceiling (vs popcorn) – this is what we are doing to the entire house. He should be ready to paint next weekend. The tough part is that work is really busy for him right now, so not only is there no time to do anything after work (never is!) but he may have to work this coming weekend. But, he’s confident he can get the primer on the walls and ceiling, let that dry for a week, then paint the following weekend. Then it’s just trim, which JT will do himself, and carpet which we’ll have installed. So overall, the room is 'due' to be finished at the same time as her!

That means we’ll be picking out the crib and dresser soon. I just haven’t been motivated to do it since it’d just be sitting in our basement – which is already getting way to cluttered.

And yes, I am aware she can come at any time now!! This is why I'm getting a little antsy since I'm not able to get things set up for her/hang up her clothes...but I'll survive. I’m technically ½ though my 36th week. I go in for another appt tomorrow morning, so we’ll see if there has been any ‘progress’. Lets hope not – we definitely want to keep her in there for a few more weeks!

I started filling in her baby book that my Mom bought us. It turned out to be an all day project (with a couple hours for napping thrown in) but the first section is done! I put the photo printer I got for my birthday to work and am very satisfied.

Now I’m looking up how to make valances. Since we can’t really find anything we like in stores, I need to decide if I’m domestic enough to figure out how to sew.

Also, my feet getting to ‘hippo’ status and the cankles are coming in. This weekend is the first time I’ve been swollen enough to be uncomfortable…so I wish warm weather would hurry up so I can go sockless!

Boppy Love

Early on in my pregnancy, my mom bought me a Boppy Body Pillow. I haven’t used it much as I haven’t really been that uncomfortable laying down. As I’ve gotten bigger, I have been waking up more at night to flip around/readjust…but nothing like last night. I couldn’t fall asleep because I couldn’t get comfortable. Well, BBP to the rescue!! Immediately I was totally comfortable and only woke up ONCE in the night. I think I got the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long, long time. So thank you, Boppy Body Pillow and Mom. I can now fully appreciate the necessity of this – even if I am in my last few weeks.

I had a shower this weekend and was totally spoiled. JT’s aunt’s (4 of them) put it on and there were a total of 25 people there. It was all his side of the family except my mom. I have another ‘my side’ and friends shower in a few weeks. It’s always a little awkward being center of attention, but it was fun. Most importantly, we got some of the basics for Baby T – like a car seat so we can actually bring her home from the hospital. Minor detail ? Baby T also got so many cute outfits!

The nursery is progressing – I think JT will be ready to paint next weekend. We’ve decided on green for the walls but don’t have anything final for the décor. I may have already mentioned that we decided to nix the $170 ‘crib/nursery sets’. They are so darn cute, but not really necessary. First, we won’t use the crib bumper or the quilt (they aren’t ‘safe’ for baby), we don’t need a diaper holder (or do we?), the sheets are fine but I can imagine we’d need a few sets anyway (so why not buy a bunch of cheaper sets?)…so the crib skirt and valance are the only things we’d really use. Instead, I’ll see if I am handy enough to make a crib skirt/valance or recruit someone to do it for me.

For the rest of the décor we’ve been looking at clearance Easter stuff to do a bunny/baby animal “theme”. I use the term “theme” lightly because I don’t want to go overboard with anything.

Otherwise, things are going pretty OK. Baby T isn’t moving as much – but when she does she moves HARD. To the point where I yelp – but I still like it. It’s fun when she turns around and I can feel her adjusting for a while. Alright, if I would have read that 10 months ago I would have been freaked out at the thought of something ‘adjusting’ in my belly. So I’ll stop there.

34 weeks and all is good

The Dr appt went well today. I was lucky I even had my appt. I got a call in the morning that the clinic’s power went out so all appts were canceled. I was pretty frustrated as I’ve been waiting for this one and know my Dr is only available on Mondays and Thursdays. But, by the time I got though to someone to reschedule my appt (yes, I had to call someone else to do this) the power was back on and they said my Dr would come in for me today!

Turns out she literally came in JUST for me. ha! But I think I made it clear to whoever I talked with on the phone that I didn’t want to wait until Thurs. She probably didn't want to mess with the preggo chick.

However, all is fine. Nothing is really going on in there – the scare last week was something unrelated to baby. Baby T’s heartbeat is 145, and my belly is still 43.5 inches, I gained 2 lbs, but I can deal with that. Also, the past few days Baby T has been moving like crazy - I can feel her foot/hand roll across the inside of my tummy. Creepy at first, kind of cool now.

After the appt JT and I went to Culvers and had a wonderful lunch of chicken salads (me), butterburgers (him) and malts (both!).

So overall, it was an OK morning.

Jixed myself...

Of course a week after I blog about being normal, I have to make my first call to Labor & Delivery and then to my Doctor. I wasn't going to blog about it, but I guess I should share the bad w/ the good.

I won't give you all the TMI details (think red and watery), but L&D told me yesterday to relax and make sure I could feel the baby move. I did and I could. I didn't experience it again and didn't feel any contractions either. So they said it 'probably wasn't my water breaking'. Great. Thanks.

This morning 'it' happened again - so I FINALLY got in touch with my doctor (apparently no one waltzes into the office until after 8:30) and someone called me back 3 hours later. Initially the nurse seemed concerned that it was my water breaking, but then after talking with my Dr didn't seem concerned enough to get me in to get checked out. They said I could come in "if I wanted" but the Dr. was okay waiting for my already scheduled appt next Monday.

I decide I might as well go in since my morning was shot and I wasn't going to work anyway, so I call to make an appt. and am told my Doctor is "booked for the day and leaving at 12:30". Forget it!

Overall I'm sure I'm fine. If I did go into labor it wouldn't be the best since I'm only 33 weeks, but they could stop it (probably). Otherwise, I haven't felt anything else all day other than Baby T kicking/somersaulting away.

Honestly, I think she’s toying with us because we completed our ‘Childbirth Prep’ class on Sat where they go though all the signs of early labor and when to call the Dr. She was testing me to ensure I called!

On that note, we toured the 4th floor of Mercy Hospital where the L&D department is. We saw 4 tiiiny babies in the nursery and seeing one of the actual rooms where they have you deliver only freaked me out a little bit. Overall, it was good.
They seriously did teach us the ‘he he he he he, hoooo’ breathing technique.

To end, here are some updated belly pics… @ 33 weeks.... I have the classic 'no makeup/exhausted looking' pregnant lady style going on even though I swear I had some on/wasn’t counting down the minutes until 9:00 (and what I've deemed a respectable bedtime).

Random Updates

I went to the Dr on Monday and all is ‘normal’. It still seems surreal to me that I’ve been so ‘normal’ my entire pregnancy. No real morning sickness (or any sickness), no intense cravings, I haven’t really been bloated….that’s not ‘normal’ is it? But I guess I’ll take it.

I also didn’t gain any weight since last month! Hard to believe, but good since I’ve been gaining a little more than what I want to (more than what is ‘normal’…so I guess there is one thing that is abnormal). I’ve been trying harder, though – I think reality is hitting that in 2 months I’ll be working to lose weight again rather than just eating what I want.

I’ll start going to the Dr every 2 weeks now. Which means it is getting CLOSE! She also showed me where Baby T’s head was and her back – she’s already facing downwards which the Dr said was ‘normal and good’.

Otherwise, JT and I have pretty much finished registering. He didn’t get to work in the nursery this past weekend because he helped his brother move on Sat and Sun he was out of commission w/ a cold (which I now have…). This weekend we go to a baby class at Mercy where we’ll get the details on ‘the big day’ – what to expect, a tour of the hospital, etc. But hopefully he’ll be able to make some progress on Sunday.

So the strangest thing that’s happened in a while: Last night I woke up about 2 hours after going to bed and I was FREEZING. Literally shaking. Our heat wasn’t any different than it normally was and I had all the blankets on, but I couldn’t warm up. JT compared me to Rags (parent’s dog…old dog now? ? ) when fireworks are going off. It was bizarre and a little scary – but we took my temp and it was normal. I also had really, really bad heartburn to where I thought I was going to puke. But eventually I warmed up enough to fall asleep. Again, I thought pregnant ladies were supposed to be hot all the time… so this is where I’m abnormal, too?

Nursery Deconstruction!

Before (after Scrappy was re-located downstairs)

Today:

Yup, our ceiling is now on our floor. Here's what JT is going to do (in 60 days):

- Finish taking off the ugly popcorn ceiling /scraping the walls
- Mud/fix dry walls and ceiling
- Sand
- Mud
- Sand
- Mud
- Sand
- Prime
- Paint
- Put up new trim
- Put in new carpet (yay! We think the carpet in there was original to the house...so 25 yrs old. Ick)
- Put new shelving in the closet

It seems like a lot – well, it is a lot -especially since he really only has time to work on it on weekends. But, I have faith in him. And although I get a little antsy to see results right away, I know all the prep will be worth it. To prove it, I’ll post some dining room and living room before/after pics soon.

We also finally registered at Target this weekend. It was fun, but we still have some items to add. We’ll head to Babies R Us, too, just to see what they have. We’ll probably register for our bedding there but I’m not sure what else. Target had the main items (car seat, stroller, etc) that were fine for us.

Also, JT grilled tonight. It kicked ass. Hurry up, Spring!!

Just plugging along...

The only updates are that my belly is getting bigger and bigger and she is moving more/kicking harder and harder. I feel like we are almost in the home stretch, which is kind of scary considering we don’t have a nursery, registry, or any other ‘ry’ ready to go yet. But after my next Dr Appt (on 3/3) I start going for appts. every two weeks instead of monthly. That just seems like they are keeping too close of an eye on me…as if she could come and any moment!

However, I’m not panicking because we are slowly but surely getting there. Even though we did nothing this past weekend. Instead, JT planned a nice relaxing weekend where we just had fun – no schedules, no work. We felt like it’d be a good thing to do before baby comes. So we went to Como Zoo (the baby Orangutan wasn’t on display….. boo!) and walked Grand Ave in St Paul. Then we stayed downtown St Paul for the night and went swimming and watched cable (I miss HGTV). It was very nice and I give kudos to JT for planning it all (but he’s always been good at that stuff).

So now that we had our ‘babymoon’ (JT’s word, not mine!! I don’t get why it happened before the baby and not after.) we will be ready to work this weekend. I plan for us to register somewhere (probably Target) on Friday night. And JT will work on the nursery this weekend. Other than that, I’m looking forward to my showers that everyone seems to be working hard on (Thanks Mel/Mom and JT’s Aunt Nancy!).

Oh, my manager just announced that she pregnant too. She’s due at the end of Aug. So I’ll be back at work for a month and then she’ll leave….so that’ll be interesting.

That’s all the news fit to type about.

Also, Sarah gets to go to Hawaii tomorrow so I’m allowed to call her a brat today. :P