Moving On

Mom was hanging the wash outside the other day and some of Baby's wash was obviously mixed in with this load...

Like all good things, D's vacation has come to an end (more like a screeching halt) and he is back at work and on call tonight. Which means I won't see him until tomorrow afternoon. However, we (and I say "we" very loosely!) got a lot done on the house this past week. It's still not move-inable, but it's going to be sooner rather than later. I think most everything would have gotten done, but Dad and D are updating the electricity which is a) very time-consuming and b) a two-man job. We also had professional electricians come in to update the fuse boxes to a 100 amp service instead of the measly 60 amp that we had. They still have a few more things left to do with the electricity and the problem will be finding time when both are available to do it (D's on call all day Saturday and into Sunday this weekend...). What they did do? The baby's room and the Master bedroom are all painted and cleaned up. They just have to hook up the electricity and all will be done there. D's dad even installed the blinds, which makes it look and feel more homey. I have the curtains, too, they just have to be put up. Saturday night D and I set up the baby's changing table and crib in his/her room and I LOVE how they look. I set up the changing table all by myself while D was doing some electrical work and then we both tackled the crib. Dad, Yana, and Ry stopped by for a minute on their way somewhere and the little room was filled, which means we didn't get a lot accomplished, but it was fun none the less.

What else? The hallway just needs to be painted, the bathroom just needs some decorations (which I'm hot on the trail for), the kitchen ceiling looks horrible (they were yucky smokers) so they're scraping and painting and possibly even spraying the ceiling (you know, with the little bumpy things?). I'm steelwooling the kitchen cabinets so someone can urethane them into looking all shiny. Dad is insisting we add knobs and crown molding to make it look complete. We weren't completely sold on the idea (just another expense), so he went out and got the crown molding himself. I have to admit, the kitchen will look beautiful when it's all done. I'm going for an Italian look, so I've been getting things along that line. The living room just needs to be painted. D installed the ceiling fan on Sunday and it looks so nice. It's matches our furniture nicely. We're thinking of getting a sofa/sleeper sofa for that room since our chaise won't conveniently fit into the space. We went furniture shopping this weekend and got some ideas.

And then the dining area just needs some paint and shades and curtains to complete it. We took out the stained glass door (these homeowners definitely had an 80's theme to their style!) and Mom and Dad bought us a French door (D actually had the idea to put one there!) to go in its place. The dining area has a lot of windows and the French door will let in all that natural light. I'm so happy with how everything is turning out!! The basement and garage (boring!) just need to be painted. Here are some pictures. I forgot to get some of the crib and changing table, but I just might wait until I get the rocking chair in there, too, along with some other decorations. It's a fun and pressure-filled process all at the same time because I'm trying to get most of it done before the baby comes. I won't be doing much regarding the house at that point...for a few weeks at least.

In Baby news, I'm seeing the dr once a week now. Last week I wasn't dilated and this week I didn't bother asking him to check. The baby was squirming all around last week when the dr was checking the heartbeat, which he said he really didn't have to do because it was obviously the baby was doing quite well in there. A little too well, a little too comfy, I fear. Yesterday, he was sleeping, so his heartbeat was slower, but of course when the dr took the heart monitor off, he started his acrobatics again. I should just say he continued with his acrobatics. This child does not stop. This morning somehow D ended up facing me while we were still in bed and decided to try to cuddle with me that way, which meant his knee was at my belly. As soon as he moved into that position, Baby started kicking or punching his knee, quite a few times. D was laughing, I was trying to sleep. That's another thing the dr did yesterday -- check Baby's position. He's head down (yay!) and his bottom is the big thing that sticks out from the middle of my belly and rolls from side to side all the time. The dr said he can do another ultrasound if we have time, but he didn't make it seem like it'd actually happen. I know they do one if you're in labor and they think Baby is breech. We'll see. I'm ready to have this baby. He just seems so uncomfortable in there with all his squirming, so I told him that he could easily fix that by coming out. Nothing yet. Already not listening! I'm definitely feeling more pressure, but I don't think he's dropped. Which doesn't really mean much because they don't necessarily have to drop before labor, but one can hope.

So in the meantime, I'm still enjoying the freedom of not working and being able to relax or shop or visit or anything else. Although the days are always busy and next week is already September and I'm not exactly sure how that all happened. Mom and I went to Babies R Us yesterday and got pretty much everything that remained on my registry, which wasn't a lot at all, with the 10% off coupon they mailed to me. I have another coupon that starts on Friday, so I'll go back then and get the few remaining items. I'll do the same with Target, although I have everything I need at this point, so I'm not in much of a hurry.

Mom and Dad are off in Mystic for the day, D is working all day and on call all night, not sure where Ryan and Yana are, but this is prime shopping time!

Brief aside: I just walked into my parent's room and saw this. The cradle has been there for a week, but I'm seeing all these items being added to the whole setup each day. Yesterday, Mom, Yana, and I went to the Christmas Tree Shoppe (love that store!!) and Baby came away with a "My 1st Thanksgiving" bib and a hand print kit! This baby is so spoiled...


Inside the cradle: a sleep positioner (Mom bought this for Baby because she feels bad that the baby has to sleep on his back...) and bibs that say "I love Grandma/pa". Outside the cradle: the two going-home outfits, one for a boy, one for a girl. Mom's going to wash whichever one we need and bring it to the hospital. And of course there's the changing pad. I have the cover and the little pads to go on the cover, they're just not washed yet.

No, not that kind of shower (although it's been getting progressively harder to take one), I mean I had another shower. The ladies at church wanted to throw me one, even though my mother told them it was highly unnecessary because I have everything we need for the baby from my previous three, but they overruled her and decided to give one anyway.

We arrived at the church around 11am on Saturday and after a few minutes, everything was called to order and Mrs. Boone gave a devotional.


It was very well done and she even used our life verse (Jeremiah 29:11) in her message, even though she didn't know it was our verse. During the devotional, Baby decided to put on a little show and shifted so noticeably that the people sitting in the first two rows oohed and ahhed--interrupting poor Mrs. Boone. I'm telling you, this child's personality is already well-established and shining through. It's going to be so much fun meeting him!

After the devotional, the floor was open to the ladies to share a parenting experience or advice. This was in place of games and since we had already played baby shower games at Rita's house, this was an excellent substitute. Both my mom and D's mom shared something :) After that? LUNCH! Baby sure enjoyed lunch.



I'm glad one of the ladies who organized the shower kept me on track. I was having so much fun talking with people that I didn't know what was going on. At one point, she told me to cut the cake (isn't it gorgeous? and it was the best cake I've ever tasted...as evidenced by the two pieces I had there and the one I had at home!) and another time she told me to start opening the gifts.


The big gift we got for Baby was the money tree to which A LOT of ladies contributed. I have so many thank you notes to write, which I don't mind, I was just surprised by the amount of people I have to write them to! Then there were a few gifts, but really there were more than a few considering all the money people already gave. I finally got the diaper bag (which was all packed and ready to go a few days later!) and D's mom gave us the Pack N Play we wanted. Other people gave diapers and wipes, which is so helpful (my mom originally had said to have a diaper shower, where everyone brings different sized diapers, but I guess once you hit a certain stage they make diapers different for boys and girls...weird). My two-year-old niece Ari was such a big help when we were opening gifts. At first she waited patiently for me to open the cards, but then she got annoyed with the lull they were creating in ripping open the wrapping paper. That's when she started ripping the cards off herself and trying to throw them away! It was quite entertaining, but I easily distracted her by telling her she could open the gift while I read the card. She's so good about stuff like that, she doesn't go wild when you tell her she can't do something, she simply moves on to the next thing. Oh and it was even more fun to watch her "open" the gift bags with the tissue paper. You'd see the paper flying every which way and then Ari standing in the middle when it all settled. I'll have to ask Yana if she got pictures of that.

Speaking of pictures, the few you see here are some that my mom took. Unfortunately she took them without her glasses on, so she was unable to see how blurry they were. So these are the best of the bunch, even though she took a lot more and they were really good ones besides the blurriness factor. But she's cute, so we'll let it slide :)

Yay! 37 weeks!! Also known as FULL TERM :). You can't really tell from this picture, but a number of people have said that I've dropped a bit. I'm really liking those people at this point! We'll see what the doctor says tomorrow. I got my diaper bag(s) this weekend (it's a five-in-one deal), so now all I need to do is put the stuff I got for the hospital in the bags.


Baby continues to move, move, move and he continues to really respond to any stimulus. D had him going this morning, just talking and pushing back. It was cute. D is SO excited about not only seeing the baby, but taking care of him. I don't ever remember hearing of any dad being excited about taking care of an infant, but he can't wait to wake up with him and feed him and everything else. I told him it'd get old fast, but he assures me it won't. He's already an awesome daddy! Just a few short weeks more...

August is half over and summer is almost gone and normally I would be sad about this, but every day that passes brings us that much closer to meeting our baby. The past few times I've had weird muscle spasms or a shooting pain, D automatically asks, "Are you in labor??" The other morning, before he left, he made sure to tell me, "Call me if you're in labor"...as if I'd forget or something! I can tell he's getting really excited about seeing the baby, although I will miss his nightly chats with him or her. They're so sweet and heartfelt, but I guess he'll just talk to the baby that way, although I won't necessarily be there to hear. On Monday this child was in constant motion for a good twenty minutes, and while he's always active, it's never for that long of a duration. Ever since then I've only felt him in the middle of my belly with a few good swats and kicks to the right, but I think (and hope) that was him getting into the head-down position. Last appt, the dr said he'll check the baby's position and if I'm dilated at the next visit (this upcoming Monday), so I guess we'll have an answer then (D is on vacation next week, so he's coming along to the appt)! A few people in church last night commented on how I look thinner and went on to say that I'm the only pregnant woman they've known to look thinner at the end of pregnancy, but I really think that Baby is just hanging out in the middle. Whereas before he'd have oh-so-much fun stretching himself out sideways, which was always (not) a fun feeling. And one last baby thing. My friend recently told me about this really cool bottle for breastfeeding moms who also want to bottle feed from time to time (me!) called Breastflow. See how it has a double nipple so it's not as easy as regular bottle feeding? So cool.

While Baby is very important and all, that's not all we've been focused on (although we did go to an all-day childbirth class on Saturday which was very informative and answered all my questions). We've been going over to the house almost every night and getting little things done here and there. D's dad has been over a few times, which has been a big help. And of course my dad is over there practically every morning for a few hours doing his thing. He has amazing skills and is not only saving us thousands of dollars, but is doing everything so professionally. I do what I can when I'm over there. I've even ventured into painting...just the front door which is very well ventilated. I was going to paint it white again, but realized I didn't have to paint it white just because it was already white, so I put a first coat of black on. It now matches the porch light, the house number, the mailbox, and the screen door handle. I like it much better. D has a friend coming over on Saturday to help with ceiling painting. My mom is plugging away at all the trim work. Yana primed the baby's room earlier in the week and is just waiting for the ceiling to be done so she can paint the room. I guess she's excited about doing that, which is a great help and I will be sure to let Baby know she had a big part in putting his/her room together! We have a few more projects going on, but with all this help we're getting from some family and friends, they'll all get done sooner rather than later.

However, we most likely won't be in there before Baby arrives, but Mom has offered to put the cradle in her room (there's no room in ours!) so she can get up with the baby, change his diaper, and bring him to me to feed during the nights for the first few weeks. I'm not sure if I can pass up a deal like that! And I like the idea of Baby and her bonding since she is SO excited about her first grandchild (and she definitely will be as excited about every grandbaby that follows...which is scary!). D just found out, too, that he only gets 3 days paternity leave while he's on the floors for the next two months after his vacation (back to having call every fourth night) and that's basically all while I'm still in the hospital. Then, after two months of floors, they said he'll get his week of paternity leave (when he's on an elective rotation). So random and so inconvenient, but that's how it's going to work. I feel bad for him because he wants to stay home for longer and when he is home, he'll be getting up early and getting home late and on call every fourth night. All that to say I will definitely be needing the help since he won't be here much, so thankfully my mom is a very ready and willing grandma (along with so many other people I'm not sure if I'll even be seeing my baby for a few weeks). But I digress, the house will look so much better when everyone is done doing their thing. I'm so excited to see the outcome!!

In other happenings, Mom, Yana, D, and I went over to Nick's house on Tuesday night to watch the Olympics. That was a fun night. Tonight we're going over Rita's house for Yana's bday. Tomorrow I'm going curtain shopping with Mom and Yana and I'm hoping to get D to go furniture shopping. Next week our best friends from PA are coming up for a 3-day visit and I am sooo excited to see them!! They really are awesome, they said when we found a house to let them know and they'd come up to help. We've yet to find friends as great as them, they're the best! I'm sure next week will be super busy with all that's going on, but at least D will be on vacation and we'll be doing fun stuff. And maybe, just maybe, Baby will pick one of those days for his birthday. An eight-and-a-half month pregnant mom can hope, can't she?

Mom and I worked on Baby's laundry last week...my goodness what an undertaking! Thinking I'd sort through the clothes later, I did the four loads of laundry in no particular order. However, I came home to this scene in the sunroom on Thursday. Mom had folded and sorted everything! Baby's not even born and he's already taking over. The funny thing about this picture is that I didn't register for a single item of clothing (except for onesies) and look at what we ended up with. People can't resist buying baby clothes, they're just too cute! Baby probably won't get a chance to wear everything because of sizing and because I want to dress him/her in something besides yellow or green all the time, but he has plenty if needed!

My mom's good shower ideas even extended into the Thank You notes. She had me pose with all the guests at my shower so I could include the picture with my thank you notes. I decided to put the pictures on the front with those cool picture corners, along with the little "thank you." Needless to say, I had so much fun making them and now that staying at home is my job, I have plenty of time for such activities:

We did a lot this weekend, but for some reason it didn't go by fast...which is a good thing! Friday started out with the closing on our home (see previous post for a pic) and it went really well. There was a slight dispute about how much oil was in the tank. They were charging us over $400, but when we did the walk-through the night before we looked specifically at the oil tank and it did not have anywhere near $400 worth of oil in it. So we brought that up to our lawyer, who brought it up to their lawyer, who brought it up to the sellers (mind you we're all in the same office, only we're in a room and they're in the waiting room). We ended up splitting the difference between what we thought was in there (1/8 of a tank) and what they thought was in there (1/4), which means they gave us $210 cash on the spot! So I'm glad we said something because it got us $210 that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

From there, D went to work and I went to meet his mom, his sister, and our niece at the mall for lunch. We ended up going to the Rainforest Cafe and Ari seemed to really enjoy the place. She was playing shy with me in the beginning, but when I offered to take her around the place after we were done eating, she warmed right up. She was really, really good about holding my hand and staying with me. I expected her to want to run around, like any two-year-old, but she was such a good girl. We saw Nemo and Dori and the water(fall) and we even sat on every stool at the bar because they were designed as animal legs (I told Sara it probably wasn't the best idea to have a two-year-old seat-hopping at the bar, but she didn't know any better). It was a lot of fun and when we all met back at D's parent's house a while later, we watched I Do (But I Don't) which was quite cute. D was also there by this point because he called me on his way home and I told him where I was and he wanted to visit, too. Oh yeah, before D got there, Mom and Sara went to ColdStone and brought back ice cream...I had lemon sorbet with raspberries, yum!

Oh, but my Friday did not end there. We were having Ladies Night at my parent's house, so after I left D's parent's house, I stopped to get Big Y donuts (best in the world) for dessert. Pizza was awaiting Baby and me when we arrived, as was Rita, Yana, and Mom. We all ate and then went over to our new house to show it to Rita. Mom took over the tour because I was so tired by that point, I was just leaning on whatever was available. Dad was on his way home from Ryan's house, so he stopped by and dropped off all this material for the house. It was a nice surprise to see him and it was really sweet of him to get all that stuff for us. When the ladies made it home, we watched Sabrina with Harrison Ford and while I fell asleep half way through, I really do LOVE that movie!! I never watch movies twice, and that has got to be the tenth time I've seen that one. I, obviously, was ready to go to bed, but D was in the middle of watching a movie with some of the guys. I tried waiting up for him, but to no avail. Now Friday was over!

Saturday morning D and I got up and went to the house and took some inventory of things we want to buy and did some measuring for curtains and all that fun stuff. They left all of their curtains, but I didn't like any of them, so D took them all down. Later in the day, Dad and D went back to the house to work on it and got a lot of little projects started. I wanted to go, but I was in the middle of a much-needed nap, so Mom gave G&G, Auntie, and Ana The Tour. Everyone came back here to watch Ryan and Yana's wedding video that Ry's friend put together for them. Later that evening, D completed the task of installing the base of the carseat into the Volvo. It might technically be a bit too early for such a task, but considering I have my, D's, and the baby's hospital bag almost all packed, it seemed like the next thing to do. I'm ready for Baby to be born, even if he's not quite ready yet. See my cute man in action? (Then he sat and read the user's manual and tinkered with the car seat itself for a good while, but I wouldn't expect anything different from him!). The carseat/stroller style is the Graco Quattro Tour Travel System - Deco and it's absolutely beautiful. I love the color scheme, although I would have preferred green dots to the blue, but I really like that color blue, so it's not a big deal at all...







And last but not least, I present to you my 35-week belly picture which my mother has sent out to all her friends and family with the greeting, "Isn't she huge?!"
However, I had my OB appt yesterday and I measure exactly where I should be, so all is well (and Mom was with me to witness the dr saying I was measuring normal!). I see him again in 2 weeks, then it's down to one week after that. I've been doing Baby's laundry this week, too. I've already done two full loads and at least two more await me. It's incredible. Oh and look what I found while perusing eBay, a new type of swaddler called the Woombie. I think it's a rather clever invention and might invest in one when Baby gets to the bigger size. Now, I have so many good swaddler blankets that I would feel like I'm wasting them if I got the smaller size. But I thought it was a neat invention! You can watch a video on the website if you want to see how it works. Ok, I'll shut up now.

Well, it has happened. We are officially in debt for the next 30 years and the cause of it all? Our new home:


We've already given quite a few people the "before" walk through: my parents, D's parents, Peter, Sara, Ryan, Yana, Rita, and even one of my brother's friend who was visiting. There are a few cosmetic things we want to do to the house, but nothing major at this point. Stuff like painting, changing door knobs, replacing light switch plates...little things that can make a big difference. I really like the landscaping, so we'll just have to upkeep that...along with installing gutters and replacing the railings on the back patio. Well, that's all for now. I'm sure they'll be more updates in the near future!