Author Archives: Sarah

Limited Engagement (28w6d)

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Great appointment today, and apparently Dr. Scarypants was only available for a limited engagement – cuz he was nowhere to be seen today.

Today was (once again) a short, boring, good appointment. Highlights:

  • Blood Pressure was 138/85 on the first attempt (granted, the machine pumped up twice) which was VERY happy-making for Dr. Schwartz. Usually we have to take it again at the end of my appointment to get it that low. So Dr. Schwartz was very happy to see that.
  • I lost a half a pound. I was expecting to show a gain of at least a pound. So that was surprising. None of it makes any sense to me, cuz I’m totally eating. A lot. My belly is getting bigger. But whatever, I’ll take it!
  • Holy Cats! My kid is getting big! Misty (my favorite nurse) took a minute to have a look around and I was SHOCKED at how big my little boy is getting! I was convinced that Misty had the ultrasound zoomed in, because he looked SO BIG, and I couldn’t see all of him on the screen. His spine looked huge, with easily visible vertebrae! And OMG, he has HAIR!! Misty got a picture for me – but there’s no doubt he’s got quite a bit of hair already! And honestly, I don’t want to think about how big his head is already.

A little bump in my insulin, but that’s the only change. It’s expected, really – just part of the insulin resistance that comes with pregnancy. Dr. Schwartz cautioned me that if I’m starving when I’m up in the middle of the night to pee, that I should probably be eating something. He asked me to take my blood sugar if I think about it – just to make sure that the middle-of-the-night cortisol boost isn’t making me dip too low. He’s OK with my current blood sugar readings – even though I think they’re trending too high still.

My next appointment was set for two weeks, but had to be bumped to three weeks because of a scheduling conflict. The next appointment will be for a fetal echocardiogram, with Dr. Schwartz and a cardiologist watching the ultrasound as they check out every little part of our little man’s heart. Should be a great appointment to get new measurements of our (not so) little guy.

I’ll be 31+ weeks by the next appointment, which means that the non-stress tests will probably start the next week. Twice a week, at an hour or so each. Here’s hoping I can get them scheduled first thing in the morning so I won’t miss much work.

All in all, it was a great appointment. Dr. Schwartz said he hoped he didn’t scare me too much at my last appointment, and that the way things are looking right now, maybe his dire predictions wouldn’t come true. I told him that I’d christened him Dr. Scarypants, and he requested I give him another name now that he wasn’t preaching fire and brimstone. I explained that Paul and I are aiming to have everything ready at home and at work by the 36 week mark (June 19th) so that whatever happens, we’re ready. Dr. Schwartz was very happy to hear that.

Hooray for short, mostly boring appointments. And seriously, I do love Dr. Schwartz. I totally trust him and his judgment as to what’s best for me and the baby. He gets that life goes on, and that as great as being pregnant is, life doesn’t revolve *entirely* around the pregnancy. I have every confidence that no matter how things shake out over the next several weeks that the little man and I are in the best possible hands.

Help Wanted – May 2 (28w4d)

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We’re looking for help next Sunday (and possibly next Saturday afternoon) with moving furniture and building new furniture after the carpet is in.

We’ve got two IKEA dressers, an IKEA shelving unit, a desk and hutch, and the crib to build. Paul could use some help moving two small dressers, and the guest beds as well as possibly our bed.

If you’re local and have some time next Saturday or Sunday – we’d really appreciate the help, since there’s very little I can do to help lift or move anything. We’ve got a dolly and power screwdriver. We’ll even feed ya!

If you can help – reply to this message or email me (sarah at paulandsarah dot org) and let us know?

Thanks!!

Nursery Painted! (28w3d)

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The nursery is painted. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

We worked on clearing out the office on Friday night and finished on Saturday morning. We taped the room in record time and managed to get the lighter of the two colors painted on Saturday. Then today we finished with the darker green paint. Paul did the upper trim, while I did the lower trim. We make a great team – working together. We got the room painted in record time! (Thumbs up for that new Behr Primer & Paint stuff. It’s crazy thick, so it was a little work to get it into the nooks and crannies of our slightly textured walls – but one coat coverage that covered mars and blemishes on deep colors was GREAT! Oh, and NO smell! Thanks for the recommendation, Mikey!)

That said, MAN, it was hard work. The carpel tunnel syndrome I’ve been dealing with is in overdrive. I’m hoping that trying to take it easy on my wrists will ease some of the swelling – my right wrist and forearm are noticeably swollen. I pushed myself to the limit today after the painting, while we were applying a frosted window film. I had to go lay down for what I thought was just a minute, and woke up 45 minutes later.

But it’s totally worth it. I feel fine this evening, if a little tired. Our little guy’s room is painted, with alternate colors on the switch plates. Paul re-wired the light switch to work with a dimmer. We’ll be getting some sort of floor lamp for the room. The curtains have been bought by my girlfriend in Arizona and will be mailed this week. (Every IKEA in California is sold out, but hers had two sets left!) We’ll install the curtain rod and curtains on Sunday after the carpet get installed. We have a fantastic piece of art that was given to us as a wedding gift by Paul’s aunt and uncle – and it has a perfect place in the room. I’ve ordered some other art prints that compliment our bedding and ABC-123 theme perfectly. I need to find some skinny black frames for the 10 5×7″ prints, which hopefully will be here before the shower.

I can’t wait for friends and family to see the completed room. Tom, Jeanne, Nonny & Cassie came over this evening to see the paint job – but I want to get the full room put together soon.

So next weekend is carpet. That’s gonna be a heckuva lot of work to get the house ready, but I’m looking forward to it. It feels great to be taking these concrete steps in preparation for our baby.

(Yes, pictures have been taken – before and during. After pictures will follow when there’s better light, and after the carpet is installed.)

Oh, and as a total aside – the baby has been kicking like mad while I’ve been writing this post with my netbook on my lap. He’s knocked the laptop askew three times so far. It has become routine to feel him kick, but it’s still incredibly reassuring every time he does. I’m not gonna say that pregnancy has been fun, but I’m still fascinated by the experience and so grateful to be going through it. I feel so much more connected to my son now that I can feel him kick.

Nursery Happenings (27w4d)

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This week is gonna be a busy week. The nursery is about 70% cleared out (I guess it’s still “the office” until it’s fully cleared out, huh?) Painting MUST happen this weekend, because carpet happens next Saturday, May 1. So the office has to get emptied before the weekend.

Every evening, Paul and I will be in the office sorting, packing and moving stuff out into the garage temporarily. (Well, I won’t be moving anything, but I’ll be helping to sort and pack.) We really need to have a garage sale, but I’ll settle for another round of donations to Big Brothers, Big Sisters. (It’s just such a PITA to inventory everything before making the donation – but it’s necessary to get the tax write-off!) Well, except for tonight. I have homework and tests to finish for Accounting class tomorrow.

This weekend, we’ll paint the nursery (presumably with help from friends – depending on how the timing works out) so that it can be good and dry (with windows open) by next weekend. So I’ll be buying paint at Home Depot at some point this week during my lunch break. I wish I could find a coupon or a sale!

Then all next week, we box up the house and move IT into the garage. (Did I mention that our garage – despite Paul’s best efforts and an already HUGE pickup from SafeNest – is about 85% full already?) The carpet guys will move the furniture, but we have to unload it all first. So I’ll be culling our impressive bookcases, and attempting to sort through mountains of clothes that need to be donated. (Again with the inventorying…) Paul is threatening to send me away on the day of the carpet install, saying I’ll probably just be in the way.

Then once the carpet is in, we have a week of evenings and one weekend to put the house back together (including building all the stuff we got at IKEA yesterday and the crib) before the Baby Shower. Oh, and Baby classes start happening in the evenings there too.

THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO! But I’m looking forward to it. We’re *finally* at the point where we can be DOING stuff for the nursery. Nothing like a deadline to get one’s butt in gear! (I did a little figuring this weekend, and I’ll hit 36 weeks around June 19th… so any time after that we could have our little guy. So I’m all the more glad to be getting the house really ready for him!)

IKEA Madness (27w3d)

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What a weekend! We spent the weekend in Orange County to attend the memorial service and life celebration of Paul’s grandmother (Gigi) who passed away late last year. The services were lovely at the church and the graveside, and in truly Gorman tradition, the family picnic that followed at Doheney State Beach was great. Lots of old pictures on display at the picnic, some of which I’d never seen before. Gigi and her husband Howard were truly special people. I wish I could have met Howard, but I’m so glad I knew Gigi.

We stayed at the Pacific Edge Hotel with Paul’s parents. They’ve been going there for getaways for YEARS – Cassie (ah hem) got her start there. We were *literally* on the beach, with the high tide waves crashing against our building. We left our balcony sliding door open all night just for the novelty of hearing the waves. Paul’s parents were next door, so we enjoyed their company and passed coffee, pastries and hair dryers across balconies. We watched dolphins from our balcony on Saturday morning too!

For Paul and I, this weekend was as close to a “babymoon” as we were gonna get due to financial concerns and my inability to take time off. But honestly, this weekend was just what we needed after this last very stressful month. (Granted… a day or two longer would have been just fabulous, but we’ll take what we can get!) There were plenty of tears at Gigi’s memorial – but they were vastly outnumbered by the laughter and smiles of a Gorman get-together. And everyone is SO HAPPY for us about our little man. I’ve never been happier to have my belly blessed and patted as I was this weekend. (Although the little guy sure picked a crappy time to have a quiet weekend! He hardly kicked at all. But he’s whacking away at me as I type this now on the couch at home.)

I got to see my Dad and Grandma too, as they attended Saturday’s events as well. I am so lucky to have married into such a warm and welcoming family. Paul’s Uncle Howie and Aunt Chris especially have always welcomed my family to gatherings (like their Christmas party) which is where my grandmother spent a fair amount of time with Gigi over the years. Dad and Grandma wanted to attend the memorial to pay their respects anyway, and were gratified to be invited to attend the family picnic as well. It was just fabulous for me to have so much family together. (If only Oin and Cynthia could have been there too!)

So today on our way home (after breakfast at Tom & Jeanne’s fave spot: Snooty Fox) we hit IKEA for a couple of things for the nursery. We’ve discovered a fondness for their Malm dressers, and plan on having two of them in the baby’s room. They’re perfect height for a changing table too – just add pad! But we figured while we were there that it would be a waste if we didn’t look around for a storage option or two for the new office/guest room since we’re losing all our current storage in the office/nursery. And I had to look at the Baby section. The closest IKEA to us is nearly 5 hours away, so we had to make this trip count!

In the end, we got the two dressers we came for, a storage unit for the office, a sturdy pillow for me for breastfeeding in bed, a very-cushioned play mat for the baby, a curtain rod, and some cookies. We found curtains for the nursery, but they were out of the light blue color we want. So we’re hoping Auntie Lisa can pick those up and bring them out when she and Uncle Mikey come out for the shower next month. I was very tempted to pick up another component for the play mat – the baby gym, but I managed to show some restraint.

Paul was amazing as he tetris’d everything into the back of the SUV. After 3 hours I was completely done. My back was killing me, I was having belly pains that I think were braxton hicks contractions, and was dizzy. I’m embarrassed to say I was not a happy camper. A sit-down and a drink helped some, but I wasn’t back to my cheery (ha!) self for a little while.

This trip was a big milestone though. I remember finding out when the memorial was scheduled and thinking that we could fit in an IKEA trip to get dressers – and thinking about HOW FAR away that was, that I’d be SO pregnant by then. Heh. Well, it was very very cool to finally be here. Paul and I are freaking out a tad at everything that has to get done in the next three weeks (and weekends) but we’re excited that concrete progress will be visible by then. (And honestly, with Dr. Scarypant’s predictions at my last appointment, we’re glad to be crossing things off the “getting ready for baby” list now.)

Oh, and Paul took pics this weekend. Here’s me on Friday evening before dinner. I didn’t realize until later that my belly fit just perfectly under the balcony rail. The next morning, I nearly knocked my coffee off the railing with my boobs. I guess I’m not as aware of how big I’m getting as I think I am!

Sarah +1 in Laguna