nursery update

the nursery is ever-evolving, not unlike my house. i change things out and add new things, i think everyone does. for example, we got this fun print from a friend, a baby gift for hannah. the artist noelle dass even wrote a personal note to her on the back!

this cute little chair sits in the corner of her room (or would, if the air mattress wasn't there currently so i can catch some sleep in the morning and not be disturbed by brian getting ready for work). brian thought she should have a little armchair. why, i don't know, but it's so cute and i hope she loves it when she is old enough to use it.

this lovely gift was handmade for us by another friend. i love the flowers, the beautiful embroidery (especially since i can't embroider to save my life) and how her name is spelled out by the dragonfly's trail. unbeknownst to kelly, brian expressed to me after hannah was born that he really wanted something with her name on it for her door, a "sign" or something. then we received this in the mail, and were so thrilled and touched.


i put philodendrons in her room also (the only plant i can keep alive), so she can grow up with living things around her. they're up high, on the shelves, so she can't accidentally eat the leaves. i don't feel like making a trip to the emergency room later because i was an idiot and left them too low.

nesting like nobody's business

and the nursery is FINALLY done! well, except for one piece of artwork, but that can certainly wait. i love her room:









this is what i did for my birthday: hung the shelf over her dresser, painted and assembled the shelves in her closet, set up the pack & play downstairs, and cooked like a madwoman. i also did laundry and some light cleaning, the usual weekend chores. my coworkers also took me out to lunch on friday and brian took me to lunch on saturday. we are both pretty beat lately, him from work and me from being pregnant, that neither one of us had the energy to make a big to-do for my birthday. i didn't really mind because of all those things that were nagging at me to get done before the kiddo arrives, and i'm generally happiest working on a project or six. thank heavens for this manic nesting energy or nothing would be done.

my freezer is also (i hope) fully stocked for the next few weeks. brian does not cook at all and while he can happily eat fast food and take-out for every meal, i would prefer something healthier and home-cooked. now in my freezer there are currently three turkey dinners (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables), six turkey pot pies, three bacon & leek quiches, two lasagnas (including a vegetarian one in case kiddo is here when my sister comes over), and one dish of stuffed shells. this is in addition to our usual assortment of chicken, ham, steak, fish, and frozen vegetables that i can pull out and thaw at a moment's notice. my mother told me that when i was born, she and my father ate from their freezer for six weeks. dad only had to go to the store for milk and lettuce. six weeks is a lot to live up to, i don't know if we will make it that far, but i'm trying. so now all brian has to do is take something out of the freezer in the morning, leave it to defrost, and stick it in the oven. i even wrote instructions on the labels.

i'm sure i could find more to do, but i think i'm going to go put my feet up with a good book or watch a movie. besides, brian is bringing me home a baskin robbins milkshake and i don't want to miss that.

we are at: 38 weeks 6 days.

cross-posted at éireann

37 weeks = full term

according to my doctor, i WILL get even larger. wonderful!


i know now why the third trimester is the dreaded one. what you can't see in this photo, thank god, is how swollen and hot and uncomfortable the rest of my body is. my wedding ring is on a chain around my neck as i cannot get it on anymore in this heat. you also cannot see how unbalanced i still am. brian discovered that this weekend after i burst into tears after one too many comments about my cankles. it's okay for me to make fun of me, but not him! he deals with stress and tension by cracking jokes... i think this whole pregnancy thing (and what it is doing to my body) is weirding him out as much as it is me.

in other news, the dresser finally arrived! and we have knobs! i had been searching for knobs for quite a while and had not been able to find anything that we could both agree on. in the end we put on our creative aprons, got out some acrylic paint, and painted plain wooden knobs:


i love them. they are so sweet, and go with her room, and were made special for kiddo with love by her mom and dad. i love love love them. and they look so pretty on her beautiful dresser:


we still have to get a changing pad and a diaper pail (the dresser will double as a changing table). i did an unbelieveable amount of laundry this weekend and now all those drawers are full of teeny sweet kiddo things.

at this point kiddo can come at any time and be considered full term. doc says we want to get through april and then we will be happy whenever she comes. due date is may 11 and at the moment (uncomfortable and all) i would like her to be later than that, just so i can have the extra time to rest.

we are at: 37 weeks.

serious nesting issues

brian asked me the other day if i feel crazy or different or anything (anything that could help him, please!) when i go all hormonal off on him, and i don't. i feel perfectly rational and justified and MY HUSBAND IS JUST BEING A JERK, it's so not me and has nothing to do with the 18 additional pounds i'm carrying or the demonically high levels of radioactive hormones coursing through my veins. honestly, i do feel perfectly normal, except for this raging nesting instinct that has been rearing its head for the last month or so, and oh Lord we have another TWO MONTHS of this?

that nesting instinct has manifested itself in the nursery, where i have been sewing insanely for the kiddo and doing what i can to prepare for her arrival. i know i have lots of time still, but who am i to fight the hormones and body chemistry that God has blessed me with? ergo, we bought a crib and i promptly had to make bedding for it:


not only the quilt but the other linens as well. it all kind of snowballs, doesn't it? then the rocker (that mil rocked brian in as a baby) needed a pillow, for back support. and the underside of the crib was just plain ugly to me and needed a skirt, though i hate skirts. then i was not thrilled with the pink sheet over the mattress. and then, and then, and then.

the name on the wall, that was all brian, by the way.

we also got an inexpensive bookcase which i felt the room really needed to balance the crib and rocker (and the soon-to-be dresser). i really wanted this one but apparently it is discontinued IT DOES NOT SAY THAT ANYWHERE and unavailable. the other one does not actually look as awful as it does online:


most of those books are from my childhood though some are from brian's and some are from when i was tutoring in college. and the pregnancy books. the beatrix potter breakables go up on shelves once the dresser gets here and we are able to hang shelves. mostly this stuff was all on the floor and it helped my hormones to get it up off the floor, organized, some semblance of put away. i will be so much better once the dresser arrives and i can get to work organizing the crap that is currently in boxes and bags in the closet, and then i can kit out the closet with shelves, hooray!

we are at: 30 weeks.

cross-posted at éireann

wherein everything progresses right on schedule

another routine checkup today and everything seems to be right on track where it is supposed to be. i am measuring 25 cm fundal height, which is supposed to (and does) correspond with the number of weeks along. blood pressure is fine though it has not been an issue save one minor hiccup last month, which personally i think is attributable to the stress of not being able to pee before the ultrasound. according to the doctor i am gaining enough weight but not too much and am neither too large nor too small in the belly. she had reviewed our ultrasound with the tech and everything looks normal. we heard our gal's heartbeat again, nice and strong, 150 bpm.

this time we left with a handful of paperwork. it seems like every visit is the same with some little added twist and this time it was the paperwork. lab slips and instructions for my blood glucose test which is am supposed to do between weeks 27 and 28. the dvd for our newborn care class (part of the birthing class we signed up for) that we have to watch. more information about how things should be progressing in the next couple weeks. a card for tracking kick counts (starting in week 28) which i thought was not really done so much anymore but i guess i am wrong or maybe my doctor is just old-school. an online video to watch that i signed up for a while back but can't remember what it is for, maybe about pain relief during labor? and of course we have to make a birth plan. brian was pretty insistent that he did not want to cut the cord and actually turned a little green when i asked him about it, but he was offended that i want my mother there during delivery in case he passes out, go figure.

next weekend or so we will start in on decorating the nursery, now that i have cleaned out my sewing room to make room for the baby. we have settled on lavendar for the walls but not yet agreed on which lavender. i am not a huge fan of lavender in particular and purple in general so i am leaning towards more of a pinky lavendar which brian wants a bluer, cooler shade. we also have to figure out what we want for a crib so we can let my dad know as he has generously offered to build us a crib. and we have to find a dresser. and i have to get the rest of my crap out of there so we actually have a place to put things. oy!

we are at: 25 weeks.

nursery musings

a few years ago mil got this cute little rocker for brian, as a gift for the future grandbaby:


brian just adores baseball and the san francisco giants and has all his life. he has always been and always will be a giants fan. (i even incorporated baseballs into our wedding.) so he was thrilled with this little rocker. it sat in mil's basement for a couple years, in it's shipping box, because we did not have the space for it nor a little one. since we purchased our home this summer, it has moved up here with us and lives in the museum - brian's office which also doubles as a display room for all his baseball memorabilia, including that from his playing years. when the rocker was purchased i suggested we could create a gentle, peachy, giants-themed nursery around the rocker when we had a baby. in the meantime it complements the museum nicely.

now brian wants to get started on the nursery. as in, now, let's paint this weekend.

keep in mind that i am only 15 weeks along.

keep in mind also that the nursery will displace my sewing room, which i use almost daily and have longed for since practically the beginning of time. once the sewing room is converted to a nursery, the sewing room will [somewhat inconveniently] share space with the guest room. displacing the museum is apparently not an option to my dear husband.

am i nuts, or does he want to get going on this just a tad bit too early? i told him we didn't need to start on the nursery until the beginning of april. spot is due may 12 and could well be late. that gives us 6 weeks, at least, to prep and paint and build furniture and shop and decorate and move my entire sewing life downstairs.

we are at: 15 weeks 1 day.