Tag Archives: nursery

General Update (25w)

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It occurs to me that I should update, but there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot going on. Three weeks between appointments means there’s a slow-down in news, and right now things are mostly at a status quo. Almost boring – at least in comparison to earlier times when so much was happening.

The little man kicks like a fiend. Doesn’t hurt at all, but I’ve had a couple of jabs that have stopped me mid-thought or mid-sentence to look down at my belly. I’m positive that if I didn’t have all my extra padding that Paul would be able to feel stuff now. I don’t have his ‘schedule’ down yet – dunno if he actually has one. Some nights he’s up and bouncing when I lay down in bed, other nights I’m pretty sure he’s gone to bed before me! He’s rarely awake when I get up in the morning – takes after his Mama for sleeping in. I feel him at random times during the day. I’m a little sad to say it’s become commonplace now. It’s still nifty as heck, but I don’t sit in awe of my belly all day.

Speaking of my belly: wow. Getting big. I’m really seeing some growth there. My shirts are all starting to get tight, and even co-workers are noticing (and commenting) that I’m growing. I’m torn between freaking out about any gain in size, and being happy that my belly is getting noticeably bigger. Paul’s mom swears (after examining me in my maternity swimsuit) that I’ve lost inches in other places, but I can’t tell. I’m just impressed that my uterus is so noticeable now. It’s between my belly button and sternum, and I can totally feel it’s soccer ball size and hardness. I just might actually *look* pregnant at some point in all of this. I’m feeling kicks up higher too, which is kinda nifty – I can tell the little guy is getting bigger just by how far he can stretch!

Fashion be damned: I’m currently wearing black yoga pants, a green/brown/black/cream tunic and Men’s size 12 lilac Croc shoes. I have a pair in gold too, but they’re a size 11 and if it’s a busy day they’re too tight by the evening. (Hey, you take what you can get at the Outlet. I was looking for size, not style.) The swelling on my feet and ankles continues – and isn’t going down as much overnight as it used to. Dr. Schwartz still is OK with it – and assures me that it’s normal. My hands and face aren’t swelling at all – so that’s the checksum of this whole thing. Pre-eclampsia is marked by rapid swelling of the face and/or hands or extreme swelling of the legs (usually with one being far worse than the other.) Granted, some nights I question what ‘extreme’ swelling actually looks like. But I comfort myself with the knowledge that my 9-5 job at a desk all day is just about the worst thing I could do if trying to prevent swelling, so at least I know part of what’s contributing to it. We’re all on guard for other symptoms, but for now I’m just ugly from the shins down. Thus, I have embraced the Clown Shoes (that are 3 sizes larger than I normally wear…)

Progress in the nursery is moving slowly. We’re almost to where we can paint. I’m hoping to have the carpet installed towards the end of April. It’s gotta be in the couple of weeks before the shower so we have time to put the house back together before everyone is here. But since we don’t have to have the install on a weekend anymore, that opens up the schedule some. Paul is making good progress on several projects at home, so I can’t complain. (Especially since there isn’t a whole lot I can do to help him with most of it!)

I’m INCREDIBLY looking forward to the Baby Shower. It’s going to be a great weekend of friends and family – lots of whom are coming in from California (and Arizona!) I can’t wait to see Oin & Cynthia, Sean & Kristy, and of course Lisa & Mike! (Also: cake. I’m really looking forward to cake.) I’m very glad that Paul will be at the shower, as will several guy friends. I’ve struggled for this entire pregnancy to find ways to include Paul, and this shower is certainly a big one! It’s his baby too, no reason why he shouldn’t get to participate in the celebration of his kid!

I have to say though, when I really get to thinking about it, I’m just overwhelmed that it’s happening at all. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the day-to-day of being pregnant, and forget sometimes just how amazing this all is. Paul and I had absolutely given up hope that we were going to have kids. I worked hard for years to get myself to a place where I was OK with that. (Sean & Kristy can attest to many conversations exploring God’s plans and how they’re frequently hard to understand…) But looking at the little teddy bear-shaped invitation with our names on it, or looking at the registry we’ve built for our son, or even just typing those words “our son” chokes me up. This is really happening. It’s awesome and incredible and scary as hell all at the same time. And I am so so so incredibly happy that Paul and I are in this together. I can’t wait to see Paul’s son in his arms. And no matter how our situation may be right now, I’m confident that we’re going to be just fine, and a happy little family.

And speaking of the little family, here we are last weekend after the Jefferson Jackson Democratic Party dinner, where Al Gore was keynote speaker.

Late March, 2010 - 6months

Progress in the Nursery! (20w4d)

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Wow, my last post seemed kinda whingy. Don’t mean to be. All in all I’m really enjoying this pregnancy thing. Just wish certain aspects of it would hurry up and get here.

We made progress on the nursery this weekend. Guest room too, actually. The biggest part of both of those jobs is clearing out both the rooms. The guest room currently holds about 80% of all the clothing we own in baskets. So sorting through it is really quite a task, either folded into a dresser, hung up or put in the goodwill pile. This weekend we got through more than a third of it (and did a ton of laundry!) Paul brought baskets to me on the bed and I folded and sorted. It was amazing to see that if I stay in bed all day, my ankles don’t swell at all! hahahahaha

Paul is working in the office to clear out the stuff in there. Mostly it involves unloading shelves into boxes and hefting the boxes out to the garage. Not something I can really help much with. But he’s making good progress on what is honestly a crappy job.

But once the office/nursery is cleared out, we can PAINT! And speaking of paint, we finally picked colors! We’ll be using two colors, but not sure how. Probably whole walls of color, not top & bottom or something.

Honey Beige Mother Nature

Feels good to have that sorted out now. (Oh, and we’re going to just repaint all the baseboards white before all the carpet goes in.) I’ll get the paint in the next week or two. We need to have the painting done before the carpet goes in, and I want the carpet in by April. (So local friends reading this: we’re gonna be asking for help in the next few weeks!)

Also, since Paul cleared out the closet in the nursery I could put some of the baby stuff we’ve accumulated in there. Yesterday I bought two packages of baby hangers. They’re neon pink, but whatever. It was so nifty to hang up all the little outfits and sleepers I’ve bought, and the stuff that Caroline at work has gifted me. Hanging up the little outfits made me even happier than buying them. I never thought I’d be hanging baby clothes up in my house. It’s been real for me for a long while now, but it’s stuff like this that makes it exciting. I can hardly believe that in just over four months there will be a little baby for me to dress in these dinosaur sleepers.

I can’t wait.

So much to do! (12w4d)

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Now that the holidays are over, I really feel like I can turn my focus to preparing ourselves and our lives (HA! like that’s actually possible!) for the arrival of our baby. And holy cats, is there a lot to do!

My house is cluttered. I will admit this. I’m not a packrat, but Paul and I like our stuff. Well, this has gotta change. Currently we have a guestroom with two twin beds, a dresser and a bookshelf. We also have an office/storage room that serves as Paul’s workspace, pantry overflow and general storage. It is frequently a disaster area. And then there is our garage. We’ve been meaning to have a garage sale for *years* and just haven’t gotten around to it.

The time is nigh, my friends. The office will become the nursery, so everything stored in there has to go somewhere else. The guestroom will become the guestroom/office, with the focus on being Paul’s workspace. The current guestroom gets used for guests about 5% of the year. So why should it be configured as nothing *but* a guestroom 100% of the time? We’ll be replacing the two twin beds with a twin trundle bed, and adding a desk/workspace for Paul where one of the beds was. The guestroom will still accommodate two people, just in a somewhat cozier fashion.

The garage will be cleaned out. This is gonna be a family effort, since Paul’s parents and grandmother have been using 1/3 of our garage for their storage for a couple of years now. We had to give them an eviction notice… cuz we can’t spare the room anymore! So once their stuff is out (hopefully soon) we’ll begin sorting through the garage with a focus on getting rid of at least half of what’s in there. A garage sale would be best, because cash is good (and cribs aren’t cheap from what I’m reading….) but I don’t know if I want the hassle. Maybe a huge tax-deductible donation to Goodwill or Shadetree would just as good and easier/quicker on us.

Pantry storage will move from the office into the garage, along with just about everything else that was/is stored in the office right now. It’s a really daunting task, but it’s kinda exciting at the same time. I’m sure it will be cathartic to Paul and I to unburden ourselves of a lot of the stuff out there. (We’ve been wanting to do it for a long while, but when it’s 100+ even at midnight several months outta the year, and there’s no place to actually sort the stuff… it gets easy to put off.)

But maybe even before all of that starts: Carpet. We have got to replace the carpet in at least the front half of the house. The contractor cheaped out on everything possible when building our house 10 years ago, and the carpet is really, really showing it. (Also nearly 7 years of an indoor/outdoor dog traipsing around doesn’t help.) Even when freshly shampoo’d, I wouldn’t want to set the baby down on the carpet, even on a blanket.

So we’re looking at replacing the carpet. A good friend of ours (Sibyana) is an insurance adjuster with lots of experience, so she’s going to help us with measuring and whatnot to make sure we’re getting a good deal. Sibyana also swears that we can pull up the existing carpet ourselves and save some money there on installation. (I wonder just how much we’d save vs. the headache and mess of doing it ourselves.) So that’s exciting and terrifying. At first glance, this carpet thing doesn’t look cheap at all.

And once the carpet is in (which we gotta do sooner rather than later so it can air out for a few months, right?) we can talk about painting the nursery. No, I have no idea what color. We haven’t even gotten to the point of talking nursery design/decor. Neither of us sees the point in “what-iffing” ourselves to death before we know the sex. Once we find out what it is we’re having, I’ll go off the deep end, I’m sure. Right now, I’m leaning towards not having a central “character” or anything. No Winnie the Pooh or Noah’s Ark. But who knows, maybe that will change when we find out. (I’m hoping to find out at the next appointment, at which I’ll be almost 14 weeks along.)

And all that is just physical prep for the house! Then there’s classes we really should attend. But that’s another show.

This is a huge list. It’s stuff we’ve wanted to do for a long, LONG time. But now we have a really good reason to do it all, and a deadline. I’m a little worried (OK, a lot worried) that I’ll end up on bedrest or something horrible at 8 months and won’t be able to do anything else. So I feel like I need to set an artificial deadline of like 3-4 months to get all this done. Which means we’re gonna set a whole new definition of Spring Cleaning at the Gorman house this year!