We are so blessed to have friends and family who take an active interest in Kieran’s life – even before he was born! We were (and still are) blessed with gifts from family and friends throughout the pregnancy, not just at the shower – which was overwhelming in a very good way. The little gifts keep coming now, and are hugely appreciated as we discover new things that are required to keep Mr. Kieran happy and healthy.

A huge example of that right now: Kieran is getting slightly thickened feedings now due to his acid reflux – 1t of oat cereal per ounce of formula or EBM. The bottles we have for him (Born Free) don’t really support thickened feedings – which require a different type of nipple. Fortunately, Kelly (Gnoam in the comments) had just sent us yet another care package of hand-me-downs from her 9 month old daughter Kara – which included four 5oz Avent bottles. The Avent system has a FANTASTIC variable flow nipple for thickened feedings. So Kelly’s hand-me-downs saved us from having to go purchase other bottles for these next few months of feedings for Kieran. So HUGE thanks to Kelly (and hubby Peter and Ms. Kara) for the great hand-me-downs.

But even more than that – when I look around Kieran’s room I see what he cannot. That every minute he is surrounded with reminders of how much he was loved before he even arrived. That he is (literally) cradled with and wrapped in love from people who have never met him. Aunt Nita provided his crib; Auntie Lisa & Uncle Mikey provided the mattress and sheets he sleeps on; Donna, Lisa, Kym, Becky, Lisa & Tia, Aunt Cassie & Uncle Kurt, and Grammy Jeanne provided the stuffed friends who keep watch over him as he naps. Every time we change Kieran, we’re grateful to Great Grandma Cat and Grampa John for the wipes warmer which makes all the difference in the world to Mr. Sensitive Tushy. Bathtime is made possible by Uncle Oin & Aunt Cynthia who completely stocked our cabinets with baby necessities, and by Caroline who passed on her baby bath now that her little Hannah has outgrown it.

And that doesn’t even start with the clothes!! Admittedly, nearly everything he’s worn at this point was provided by Mama & Daddy (or Kelly again with the hand-me-downs in newborn sizes) but Paul and I look ahead with a bittersweet glance to the future when Kieran can wear outfits provided by everyone – from adorable onesies, to rompers and safari outfits and teeny tiny smoking jackets. (I don’t think any of us expected me to have such a tiny little peanut!) But the flannel blankets that we received from so many people have been put into daily use – as well as the burp cloths! (Admittedly, I wish the burp cloths weren’t so needed now – the reflux really made those a necessity.) Once he’s able to wear the outfits that fill his dresser and closet – we’ll think of the friends and family who gifted him with such cute togs every time we change his clothes!

The books we’ve been gifted with right before I gave birth are being put to use already – not that Kieran has much of an attention span… but it’s nice to have something to read to him.

So thank you, again, to everyone. The love and support that you have shown Paul and I since we announced our news last Thanksgiving to our family and to the world at Christmas; the care and concern and interest shown during the roller coaster ride of my pregnancy; the generosity shown as we transformed our house into a haven for our son; and the fact that you’re even reading this now… it means more to us that we can say. Kieran has no idea how lucky he is.

We (mostly Paul) cleared out our office/storage room so that it could be painted. We did the yellow and green painting in one weekend. The next weekend was carpet for the whole house, which basically meant we had to move out for the weekend. Paul and I busted our butts to pack up and clear everything out that week, but again – it was Paul who was up until 4:30am in advance of the carpet installer’s 8:00am arrival. The next two weeks (starting that afternoon) were a whirlwind of activity as Paul’s parents helped us immensely with putting our house back together and building a bunch of new furniture to make a nursery and to economize the storage space we have available to us now. The Guest Room is now Paul’s office/ManCave complete with an awesome new desk. He’s got room for projects and video editing now, which really makes me happy. (He’ll be spending a fair amount of time in there editing videos from the amazing camcorder Tom & Jeanne got us!) The guest beds are a lovely set of trundle beds from Nonny, which Oin and Cynthia have pronounced as extremely comfy.

The nursery is painted in shades of Honey Beige and Mother Nature. (No, I don’t know who makes this stuff up.) The switch plate and outlet covers alternate with the wall colors. The main decorations are a watercolor alphabet sampler that Paul’s Uncle Howie and Aunt Chris gave us as a wedding present, and a set of ten 1-2-3 mixed-media art prints I found on one of my deal-a-day websites. We weren’t really thinking about how things would go together when we picked out our layette, but everything ended up with a A-B-C, 1-2-3 motif. We’re thrilled with how everything looks. The distressed black crib (thanks again, Aunt Nita) looks good with the black-brown IKEA dressers and side table. The rocking chair doesn’t really match, but it’s something we’ve hauled around with us for 10 years now with the expectation of using it in a nursery. And if nothing else, it’s nice to have somewhere to sit in there – and Laurel seems to like it. The dressers will also serve as the changing table – as soon as I order the changing table pad thingie and install it. (It’s got straps that screw into the back of the dresser to keep it from coming off.)

We’re busy now, stocking the nursery with everything our little man will need. Diapers need washing, clothing needs sorting, diaper changing station needs to be set up. But there’s time, and all of this is something to be savored. Every step we take brings us one step closer to meeting our son (who has been kicking the crap out of my laptop the entire time I’ve been writing this!)

Lisa, Tom and Jeanne knocked themselves out to prepare for the shower. Lisa came prepared with games that weren’t stupid or gross, and prizes to go with them! Her games got progressively harder – but they were fun! Tom and Jeanne outdid themselves with the food and decorating. Furniture was moved around, and anything that would hold still had a balloon strapped to it or was draped with streamers. “It’s a Boy” was everywhere, and in varying shades of blue. Tom had Tri-Tip out on the grill and Jeanne laid out quite a spread of accompaniments, cheese, and salads. Everyone seemed very impressed with the food – no burgers and dogs at this baby shower!

After a couple of rounds of games came the gifts – and WOW was there a lot of gifts! Our friends and family were so generous! I unwrapped gift after gift and opened bag after bag! What fun to see all the adorable little baby clothes, and all the nifty baby gear!

Lisa’s (and her sister Donna’s) gifts were especially wonderful, as they are both master knitters and crocheters (is that a word?) Our little man has quite a wardrobe of sweaters, hats and booties – as well as several stuffed friends (currently a stegosaurus, a tiny sperm whale, and a teddy bear!)

But Lisa outdid herself in one other way. A million years ago I told her that when I got pregnant (which I assumed wouldn’t be too long after Paul and I got married) that I wanted a stuffed Eyeore doll that was bigger than the baby – based on the assumption that we would have a Pooh-themed nursery. Well, things didn’t work out quite the way we had hoped – and the years have rolled on by without an Eyeore. I won’t say I’d forgotten about it – but it’s one of those things that just got (foreceully) pushed aside over the years. Until yesterday. Lisa pushed the final box in front of me, and I had no idea what was coming. The last thing I was expecting to see was an 18″ Eyeore staring back at me. The gifts portion of the program ended with happy tears. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.

All in all, it was a wonderful day filled with friends, family, food and fun. (good lord, that sounds corny.) We sat around talking and laughing until 6:30 before loading up our car, Lisa & Mike’s car and sending the car seat home with Joe. The front room and the baby’s room are now filled with random packages and bags. I have a lot to sort through, but not much to return – as there were just a few duplicates (altho the Pack & Play is one…) I’m actually looking forward to writing the Thank You cards. We have so much to be thankful for right now.

It was an amazing weekend. I can’t believe we’re at this point – I remember thinking that the shower was SO far away when I first got pregnant.

Pics tomorrow. Sleep now.

Paul really really stepped up this weekend. I commended him for doing real Daddy stuff this weekend by working SUPER hard doing stuff he didn’t wanna do simply because it had to be done, and I couldn’t physically help him with it. Paul was up until 4:30 on Saturday morning clearing out the house. He was unloading bookcases, liquor cabinets and dressers and then moving the furniture outside onto the patio until the wee hours. I had to stop before midnight because I was having some pretty painful contractions that forced me to go lay down. (Whoever said that Braxton Hicks contractions don’t hurt was a LIAR.) I dozed off and on, trying to get up and come help every hour or so and collapsing back into bed within a couple of steps.

Paul came to bed at 4:30am. I got up at 6:30 and started working again, letting Paul sleep until 7:00. The installers called at 7:00 and said they’d be there at 8:00. But we still had our bedroom to finish packing (our nightstands and general daily use stuff…) Paul ended up finishing that part of packing because I had to take our dog Kishou to go get a bath at Petsmart to get her out of the house while the installers were there. I came home later with bagels for breakfast to find the couches and bedroom dressers in the backyard, the bed in the garage and pad already laid down!

Paul and I spent the next couple hours on the back patio doing maintenance and cleaning projects while the installers worked. (Paul cut a new ventilation hole in our entertainment cabinet and installed a fan to help cool our system that it trying to overheat.) I got cleaning supplies so that I could clean/dust the furniture before it came back in the house. (I wanted to clean the leather couches, but they were sitting in the hot sun.)

In just under 5 hours, the carpet was done! The installers helped Paul put the bed back together (even though they’re not supposed to) because Paul had moved so much of the furniture for them. The couches and recliners came back in and that’s about it. We tipped them (and gave them a 6-pack of beer) and Paul and I left to go get food and collect the dog from her bath. We returned and collapsed onto our bare mattress for a fantastic (in Paul’s case) nearly 4-hour nap.

Saturday night was very relaxed, as we were both still very tired after our nap. I slowly worked my way around the house cleaning stuff (OMG, ‘Magic Erasers’ are the single most appropriately named product EVER!) and Paul worked on cleaning up cables for our electronics. It was a quiet evening, and we both collapsed into bed (still unmade) around midnight.

Sunday found us starting the morning at Cracked Egg for breakfast (Peanut Butter
& Banana french toast!!) and then hitting Target to pick up what turns out to be the perfect light for the nursery! We came back home and were soon joined by Paul’s parents who were ready to help us build furniture. Jeanne spent the first hour+ wiping down everything in sight with her microfiber cloths, as there’s a heckuva lot of dust everywhere now. Paul and his dad tackled the new desk and hutch for the office – which turned into a MUCH bigger project than any of us imagined.

Jeanne and I built the 4-drawer dresser for the nursery (she and I built a couple of them a few months ago for our bedroom, so we were old hats at it) and then moved on to the crib. I picked up three battery-powered screwdrivers for the weekend and they made all the difference in the world! ($8 at Wal-mart and SO worth it!) It was pretty awesome to be sitting in my son’s room, building his crib. It went together much easier than I expected, honestly and looks just fabulous! (Thank you again, Aunt Nita!) Now all we need is a mattress for the thing! Ha!

We called it a night on Sunday and came back Monday evening to continue working. Tom and Jeanne have been great about helping us with this stuff. Jeanne and I put together the last dresser (baby’s room is getting one of our 4-drawer dressers, so we replaced it with a 6-drawer model) while Tom and Paul moved the trundle beds into the guest room/office and built the horizontal shelving unit. It’s SO great to finally have all those boxes out of the garage and have everything built! (Oh, and Tom took the slot machine and put it in his office at The Sun, so that’s even more room we have now!)

It’s been an amazingly busy weekend. Paul and I are still recovering – I accidentally took a 2-hour nap this afternoon because I sat down to have a snack. We’re plugging away at putting the house back together – there’s still a fair amount of stuff on the back patio. But we have this weekend to work on it and evenings this week and next week (altho not Thursday evenings, cuz our Childbirth classes start on Thursday) to get the house into shape before Oin & Cynthia are here for the shower, and all our other friends are invited over to see the nursery!

So for all of that – Paul and I are both astounded that we’re finally here. The point at which we’d be setting up the nursery and having the paint done, carpet in, furniture built always seemed SO FAR away. And now it’s here. It’s entirely likely that we will have our baby NEXT MONTH. Unreal.

(And no, there’s no pics yet. We’ve taken pics along the way as the nursery came together. I want to get the last things hung up on the wall and get the crib set up with linens before pics of the nursery are posted. Another week or so….)

Paul and I (truthfully, more Paul) have become a lot more eco-conscious since I got pregnant. I think it’s natural for expecting parents to start thinking more about the kind of world they’re leaving for their kid. The facts about disposable diapers are just terrifying. Bottom line, in addition to whatever goes into them during manufacturing (IE tons of chemicals in the plastics manufacturing process and the bleaching process for the filler, and the chemical compounds that absorb the wetness) they stick around in landfills for somewhere between 200-500 years. So, enter cloth diapers.

Cloth diapers have changed incredibly in the last 30 years. Gone are layer upon layer of cotton diapers secured with safety pins and crammed into a pair of rubber pants with too-tight gathers at the legs to prevent leaks. Today’s cloth diapers work similarly to disposable diapers, but with varying abilities to add (much thinner) layers for varying needs.

Cloth diapers are cheaper in the long run over disposables – even when you factor in the cost of washing them ourselves. (At least here in Las Vegas where water and power are cheap.) That said, cloth diapers main barrier to entry is the start-up cost. At an average of $15-$25 per diaper, building enough of a stash to allow for laundry days means a fairly large initial investment. (The used cloth diaper market is HUGE.)

But I found a brand of diapers that has been around for quite some time in their native Japan, and has been brought to the States in the last year or so: Kawaii Baby Diapers. They’re getting rave reviews all over the internet (on baby websites, and diaper blogs – yes… these things exist) and they’re about a quarter of the price!! No, they’re not organic cotton, and they do have velcro fasteners. I’m totally OK with all of this. Why? Because I can get a 20-diaper stockpile for $115! That makes this a MUCH more viable option for us!

We’ll still end up using disposable diapers for the first month or so, as cloth diapers tend to be a little big between the legs of a teeny newborn. But we’re really happy to be able to try out cloth diapers. We’re not concerned about the extra work of a couple of loads of laundry a week. The benefits of cloth diapering make it worth it to us. I haven’t purchased our diapers yet, but I will in the next couple of weeks. (I’ve been holding off as much as I can on buying things until after we have the nursery put together – and after the shower.)

Speaking of the shower: I’m having one at work too! I can’t believe that two weeks from Saturday is the shower at Paul’s parent’s place! I’m having such a good time seeing the RSVPs trickle in on the Evite. Especially now that more of Paul’s friends are responding that they’ll be able to attend. I know he’s really stoked that his buddies will be at the shower too. (Although I think we’re gonna have to get creative on the seating! I’m hoping it’s a lovely day outside so we can take advantage of the patio.) We’ll have two babies at the shower, because Caroline is bringing her 7-month-old little girl and Jeremiah and Jamila are coming from San Diego and bringing their 4-month-old little boy! Paul and I are SO looking forward to having friends and family gathered to celebrate our little man. It’s just going to be such a great afternoon (and weekend!)

But, I found out this week my co-workers will be throwing me a shower at work too, a couple days before the shower at Tom & Jeanne’s! We’ll connect up our three offices with the video conference system so friends in the Northern offices can share in the fun as well. I was really happy to hear that something is being planned. I tend to miss out on a lot in my office since my physical office is so far removed from everyone else – which facilitates getting stuff done, but can have an isolating effect as well. I remember Caroline’s shower late last summer – everyone had a good time. I hope mine is as enjoyable.

Other big thing right now is the house. We’re (again, mostly Paul) killing ourselves this week to clear out our belongings in preparation for the carpet install on Saturday. Dangit, there’s a lot of stuff in this house. But at the same time, I’m so stinking excited about the new carpet and then putting the house back together – because it means the nursery will be mostly put together, and we’ll be that.much.closer to having our baby here!! Paul and I both spend a moment or two in the baby’s room in the mornings when it’s bright and full of sunlight. We love the colors we painted. I can’t wait to finish the room in the next week.

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!!

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.

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!)

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!

• Blood Sugars: I’m concerned about my blood sugars. They’ve been really pretty good for quite a while now. My last a1c test (long-term blood sugar report card) was a smashing 6.0. But since my last appointment, my sugars have gone back up. I’m eating basically the same stuff, no real changes. If anything I’m not eating as often, but I’m eating larger meals when I do. I’m avoiding eating in the middle of the night when I get up to pee and find myself starving. But my fasting sugars are much higher than they used to be (averaging 110-ish or higher) and my post-breakfast sugars look even worse as a consequence. That’s the really frustrating part – I eat the same three things for breakfast every morning during the week. But for some reason now my blood sugar is blasting up 70-100 points after breakfast, as opposed to the 30-50 points it did before. (I take my morning whopping dose of insulin and then eat breakfast within 20-40 minutes.) I know this will be a big discussion topic at my next appointment. I’m aware that as the pregnancy continues that it’s not uncommon to have some impressive insulin resistance, but I’m concerned that this seemed to come on so suddenly. I’m kinda hoping that it has a bit to do with my stress levels of late. I’ve had a big project at work hanging over me for a couple of weeks now – a server install/migration that has gone wrong in every way possible. Hopefully this weekend will be the end of it – if not, my job might be on the line… so maybe if I get rid of this stress, my sugars will behave? Here’s hoping.
• Weight Gain: I have no idea how much I’ve gained since my last appointment, but I can’t imagine it will be good. I don’t know how to deal with the fact that I’m getting bigger. Everything in my life has always been about *not* getting bigger at any cost – so mentally I have no mechanism to deal with these changes. I’m not contemplating dieting or anything… but I live in fear of that scale at Dr. Schwartz’s office. For the record, I don’t feel like I’m getting bigger anywhere but my belly and boobs – but what the hell do I know?
• Swelling: Some days are better than others. I’m always swollen in my feet and ankles to some extent, with the left being more swollen than the right. (Not to an alarming extent, but I notice it.) If I spend an inordinate amount of time with my feet up, the swelling will go down some, but when I wake up in the morning, things are still swollen. That said, I have three pairs of shoes I can rotate through depending on how bad the swelling is on a given day. My hands and face remain un-puffy, which is good since that is a sign of pre-eclampsia. My wrists are still pretty swollen though, so the carpel tunnel issues continue, and actually seem to be getting worse. I’m looking into braces or something to help with this, since I can’t do anything about my job that requires me to be on a computer all day.
• Names: We have a list of 23 names we’re working on. Not sure if this list is the final list though. I’m still on the lookout for a good baby-naming book and always listening for a good name. Those who have glanced at our list have been surprised at how ‘normal’ the names are. I guess people thought we would be naming the kid something from Star Trek or Canterbury Tales? (Geoffrey Tiberius, anyone?)
• Kicks: Our little man is a dancing, kicking, punching, rolling, whirling dervish. I have no real idea what appendage is whunking me at any given time, but I feel him all throughout the day these days. Sometimes when he’s really on a tear it can be hard to concentrate on other things for all the activity in my belly! I’m pretty sure I had a little baby bum sticking out to the right of my belly button yesterday morning though. I was re-familiarizing myself with myself in the mirror before hopping in the shower, and noticed a lump about the size of a tennis ball to the right of my belly button. I poked at it, but it didn’t do anything. It was gone after my shower though! (As I’m writing this, he’s kicking at opposite ends of my belly – I wish I could see what on earth he’s doing in there!)
• Kicks, part II: Paul felt the baby kick on Easter Sunday! (April 4, 25w3d) I was hanging out on the couch with my hand resting on my side. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my hand jump – and realized it coincided with a big kick. I watched as my hand jumped again, and I quickly called Paul over. He put his hand where I showed him and a few seconds later, he felt his son give a mighty kick! He gasped and kind of giggled as he got a couple more punches in quick succession. The look on Paul’s face is something I will never forget. He continues to be impressed with how quickly the baby moves inside me – Paul assumes that it’s all dreamy water-world in there, not karate practice!
• Nursery: Progress in the nursery is still slow. But we have a deadline now – the carpet installation has been scheduled for Saturday May 1. So painting the nursery will more than likely happen the weekend of the 24-25 of April. Which means the clean-out portion of the program has to be finished by then! I’ve given up the dream of re-painting the baseboards in the house before the carpet goes in – just too much other prep to be done, since it’s like we have to move out of the house to have the carpet installed anyway. I’m excited that things will finally be moving visibly forward, but trepidatious at all the work that has to happen before then. I’m looking forward to having something to show friends and family when they’re out for the shower!
• Baby Shower: To my knowledge, no RSVPs have been received for the baby shower that’s in just over a month. Starting to wonder if anyone wants to celebrate this kid…or see the nursery! (On Edit: I didn’t realize that my BFF Lisa has been *dying* with a cold, allergies and asthma all ganging up on her at once and then sticking around. I’m sure that the RSVPs are being well-tracked. She’s just been a little too sick of late to pass them on to me! That said, feel free to comment here after you’ve RSVP’d either way!)
• Daycare: One day last week after I got out of class, Paul joined me for a tour of the daycare that I’d toured a couple of months ago. He was as impressed as I was, and feels comfortable about placing our baby there when the time comes that we’re both working again. Not sure when that will be, but I wanted Paul to tour the place and see what I was so excited about. It was pretty neat watching him check out all the babies in the infant room. He doesn’t get this panicked look anymore, more interested than anything. Which I think is a big step in the right direction. He had much the same look on his face last week when he finally met Caroline’s little girl here in the office.

I guess that’s about it. Other than feeling pretty tired in the evenings (and right around 3:00 every afternoon) I’m feeling pretty good. Definitely feel pregnant, and it’s an interesting experience to say the least!

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