But I Am Le Tired....

Anatomy of the other night.

1:30 AM  Harper wakes up, fusses, I feed her and put her back down.

2:00 AM  Our air purifier's (i.e. the GREATEST WHITE NOISE MACHINE EV-ER) fan motor seizes up.  It lasted 10 years, it's had a good run.  I use Sleep Sheep instead which will run for a maximum of 43 minutes at a time.

3:30 AM D snores, I kick him.  H fusses, but goes back to sleep.  I get up and turn the Sleep Sheep back on.
 
4:00 AM H Fusses, I feed her again.  I turn the Sleep Sheep on again.

5:00 AM H fusses, I curse the damned toy designer that made the sheep only stay on for 43 minutes.  I go on Amazon.com and purchase a new air purifier.  I curse the fact that I will have to make it through two more nights like this until the new air purifier arrives.  I turn the damn sheep back on again.

6:00 AM The dogs bark to get their breakfasts.  H shifts around.  D gets up to let them out and feed them.  I turn on the MOTHER EFFING SHEEP AGAIN.

7:00 AM I finally give up and wake up.  Darryl blow dries his hair and packs for his business trip.  H doesn't even stir or make a peep. 

Ugh.

Harper's Birth Announcement

Here is Miss H's birth announcement!  Had so much fun putting this together for our sweet little peanut!

Harper's Birthday

I haven't gotten around to posting Harper's birth story because the little miss has kept me pretty busy and honestly, I didn't take notes or anything like some bloggers do (um really, notes?  I don't mean to judge but I was kinda busy HAVING A BABY, though I guess it would be a nice keepsake for Harper, maybe?).

So after a week of stalling past my due date and going in for checkups every couple of days to make sure everything was looking okay since it's generally not recommended for gestational diabetics to go past their due dates, we went to get checked first thing in the morning on Monday April 2nd.  My doctor finally said I was dilated enough and effaced (I think it was something like 1.5 cm dilated, 50% effaced) where he would attempt to do an induction.  So we agreed to induce the next morning.  Luckily there was a spot available!

So we showed up the morning of April 3rd to the hospital.  I was freaking out because D seemed like he was taking his sweet time getting out the door and then he missed the exit to the hospital.  I was afraid they'd say, "Sorry, you were 10 minutes late, we aren't going to take that baby out of you today after all."  Once we got there, there was no problem, we even had to wait to be checked in even though there was no one else waiting.  They brought us up to labor and delivery after we registered and paid our bills and had me get into my hospital gown.  We had 2 nurses, we were very lucky.  One was from ICU and was getting trained on labor and delivery and one was a more senior nurse.  It was cool because we were benefiting from every step of the process being explained to the ICU nurse, we never felt lost or confused.  Plus, since it was a training situation, I was their only patient that day, so I got lots of attention.

Around 8 AM we started the Pitocin.  Not long after, my doctor came by and broke my water.  Then I knew there was no turning back!  They kept asking me what my due date was as the nurses logged my info, I think they asked me 3 times.  They were surprised I was allowed to go past it, but all that extra work I put in with diet and blood sugar monitoring paid off to allow my OB to let me do that.

Around 11, my contractions started to really hurt.  I started to have to squeeze Darryl's hand.  They told me I could have my epidural at any time and that there was a 30 minute wait for the anesthesiologist.  I didn't think I really needed it but the contractions were getting a little harder so we said yes, please send him in.

It took the anesthesiologist about an hour to get to me.  Not long after requesting the epidural it's like I fell off a cliff pain-wise.  SO.  MUCH.  PAIN.  Every contraction was excruciating.  They had to show D how to hold my hand so I wouldn't hurt his when I squeezed it.  Sometimes the contractions wouldn't end before the next one would begin.  Both D and the nurse had to get in my face and remind me to breathe through them.  I didn't want to be a jerk, but I did ask a couple times WHERE WAS THIS EPIDURAL GUY?

Finally he made his way to my room.  Besides Harper, I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life.  This was the only part where I did not appreciate the ICU nurse being trained in my room.  He explained to her what he was doing and she was a super sweet lady, but it took every bit of my self control to keep from saying to them "Less with the talky talky, more with the pain relief."  Soon enough it was in and I was feeling better.  So I made it the first 4 hours without any pain relief.  I proceeded to sleep for the next 3 hours or so, which was glorious.  It was just the recovery time I needed to be able to push.  I asked the nurse how anyone did this without drugs.  Her response was that normal labor doesn't feel that way, it's a gradual increase, thus easier to manage the pain.  Pitocin makes you contract much harder.  Wish I had known that before hand and gotten that epidural earlier, but live and learn!

Finally around 3 PM they checked me and I was 10 cm dilated, it was time to push!  This was the first time I was aware that I was totally numb in the legs.  They described to me how to push, but I said "How can I do that when I can't feel anything?"  They probably thought I was an idiot, but I really had no idea what to expect and hadn't done a good job of educating myself prior to the birth.  Part of that was intentional though, I didn't want to be in control of the situation.  I believe in those situations, you just shut up and do what the medical professionals tell you to do, given that you have carefully selected a medical setting that you trust.

So we began pushing.  It went well, but after a while, Harper's heart monitor started showing some distress so they shut off the Pitocin and gave me oxygen.  Finally, she started doing better and we resumed pushing after a 30 minute break.  Everyone kept exclaiming how much hair she had once her head appeared!  Finally they called for my doctor and the room was suddenly flooded with about 15 people, including med students.  I thought "wow, this must be it, no way this many people would swarm in here if the birth wasn't immanent". I'm not shy, so I didn't mind the audience, mostly, I just wanted to meet our baby girl.  So the doctor came in and had me push a few more times and all of a sudden, there she was, our little baby girl!  D cut the cord and did not pass out (though he told me later that he did get light headed and had to sit down, I never even noticed).

After an uneventful 2 nights in the hospital and lots of visitors (and cupcakes, both Harper's and my blood sugar was good, no diabetes for either of us!) our little family was able to go home!  

So This Happened....

Harper Rose Daniel, born April 3, 2012 at 5:07 PM via induction.  8 lbs 7 oz 21.5 inches

Harper and her very proud daddy

Today we are dabbling in cloth diapers.  So far they are ridiculously big on her...

Have you ever seen anything cuter in footie pajamas?  Here we are trying out the Baby Bjorn, which she hated...Notice her shaking a tiny clenched fist at me.  Notice how tired I look, thus, lack of legit blog posting :).  That's it for now, just enjoying life with our beloved little munchkin!

Nursery Reveal

Here we are folks, the big nursery reveal.  Finally we are done!  First of all, we

 have our crib.  You will note that this is the same crib as seen on Young House Love.  They did a lot of crib research and wrote a lengthy blog post about it.  I was like, "Wow, they really invested a lot of time and thought into this whole crib thing.  That looks like a lot of work and their crib looks pretty awesome.  Sold."  For more information, read their post.  We got it at Walmart.  The paint color is Olympic's Butter which has grown on me.  We all agree that the paint color looks much better now that the room is complete and I think our baby will find the room cheery.  The mobile on the crib is a hand me down from a friend but you can find it at Pottery Barn Kids still.  Sheet is the Hayley collection sheet from PBK.  Crib skirt is a pink gingham skirt I found at Walmart.  Originally I had wanted the matching Haley crib skirt for 3x the price, but I put it on and you couldn't really see it so I figured cheaper and simpler were the way to go.

I won't talk much about the decal on the wall, yes it looks fabulous.  We got it on Etsy, but I wasn't happy with the seller (thus will not be plugging them) and left them negative feedback.  Plus some of the vinyl shrank, showing gaps between the segments of the tree trunk (which we fixed with a furniture scratch repairer crayon thing) and some of the leaves seem destined to fall off.  Also, the color scheme wasn't quite what we requested.  For the $100 we paid for it, not tragic and still adorable, but come on Etsy seller, WTF?

The rug I found online at Target.  The glider was a source of great angst and anxiety but fortunately we were able to find one with white wood for basically free.  We had planned to buy a $500 leather glider/recliner we could eventually use in our living room at the Room Store but when it came time to check out the glider A) was not in stock and B) they would not allow us to pick it up.  We'd have to pay $60 for delivery.  Yes, we are some cheap assholes.  We said thanks, but no thanks, and peaced out.  Next thing you know, we're walking our dogs and we come across this little stray chihuahua that develops a crush on Ginger and will not let her walk more than 5 steps without taking his nose out of her butt.  So we pick the little guy up, call his owner, who said his roommate must have let him out.  We kept the little guy at our house until he could pick him up on his way home from work.  As he's leaving, he hands D a $100 bill.  We stand in our living room stunned, I mean, holy crap, we're just doing what we hope other people would do for us, that guy must really love his dog!  So next thing we know, we saw this chair on Craigslist for $85, Darryl went to pick it up and we had $15 to spare!  When we're done, we'll probably sell it on Craigslist again and it's pretty nice and comfortable.  It retailed new for around $300 so that's cool. 

Next we have our book shelf full of books from Target and owl book ends from Pottery Barn Kids.  The table is one that I've had since college from Ikea that D painted white.  The lamp is really similar to the PBK one we registered for and didn't get, so I found one that looks EXACTLY like it at Walmart.com for literally a third of the price.  Seriously people, go to Walmart.com.  Plus shipping costs like 15 cents or something stupid cheap.  The whole crib was like $15 in shipping.

The curtain IS from PBK, a registry gift from my mom.  I think it was worth splurging on this item since it blacks out the window and I couldn't find a cheaper substitute anywhere that had the same look and function.  We saved money by only using one panel since our window is kind of small.

The dresser is another Ikea throwback from my college days that D and my dad painted white.  The changing table is also Ikea.  It's pretty sturdy and less than $70, so you can't go wrong.  The bins are pink gingham cubes I got from the Container Store. 

The Noah's Ark embroidery over the dresser is something my mom made while she was pregnant with me and hung in my nursery, so we reframed it for my baby.  Below it is my beloved childhood doll Lolly and the Sleep Sheep we got from our registry as a gift.  On the changing table is my childhood Cabbage Patch doll who has served as our "stunt baby" while we practice things like swaddling and breast feeding holds.  She basically fills in wherever Ginger and Petey cannot. 

The mobile is from another Etsy seller.  This design is called "Isabella".  You can save yourself a ton of money buy buying their kit and stringing it together yourself.  I did not do this (much to D's annoyance).  I just saw myself with a tangled jumbly butterfly mess, sitting in tears on the couch after 6 hours of trying.  I am not crafty.  So I bought it pre-assembled and it arrived in perfect condition.

We are so excited to bring our little girl home to this room!  Of course, she will be sleeping in our room for the first couple of months, but soon enough, she'll transition in here and I hope she'll adore it as much as we do!

Spearmint Baby Feature

One of my favorite baby blogs is Spearmint Baby and one of my wishes totally came true last week, our maternity photos were featured in their "Show Your Bump" post!  It totally made my week, especially since I was so hesitant to take maternity photos in the first place! 

Today is my due date, the doctor is monitoring my situation closely because of the gestational diabetes, having me come in for non-stress tests and ultra sounds every few days, but we are hopeful that I'll go into labor on my own. 

If I haven't given birth by this weekend, I'm looking forward to posting photos of the nursery.  It's all done!  We're all stocked up on everything we might need, everything is washed and put away.  It's so odd to have a whole room of furniture and possessions set up for a little person we haven't met yet.  It started out a little shaky with the bright yellow walls, but it's become a cheery spot for our new addition.

I've decided not to take any crazy measures (or not so crazy measures, basically, I'm not messing with it) to induce labor, my doctor doesn't believe in any of those things and has advised me to get plenty of rest.  We are hopeful that they will allow me to continue to carry the pregnancy through the weekend until Monday (unless she comes on her own first).  Our doctor doesn't consider me a candidate for an induction at this point (I appreciate the fact that he's conservative about this procedure and am starting to understand that his stance is rare) so our only other recourse is a C-section, which despite my earlier pregnancy feelings, now that I'm staring the prospect of one in the face, I don't take them lightly. 

So here we are, limping along with lots of extra monitoring (but despite the GD and the insulin, everything looks really good, so yay!  I am nervous about all that, but I trust our doctor), with our fingers crossed that Mother Nature allows my body to do what it was designed to do either on its own or enough to make me a viable induction candidate before the C-Section becomes inevitable.

39 Weeks....Almost There!

We are almost done!  Went to the doctor on Tuesday and he is having me come back next Tuesday for one last appointment.  My due date is Wednesday and he said with the diabetes he won't let me go past it, so Tuesday we'll see where I'm at and discuss options.  So this time next week we should have our little baby girl!

It looks like Tuesday will be my last day at work, so it's good to be able to put a finite end date on that.  I guess I could still randomly go into labor on my own, but I don't think that will happen.  The last bits for the nursery will be arriving this week, once they're in place, I can't wait to share it with you!

Things I'm looking forward to after the birth besides our little bundle of joy?  A margarita and a big bowl of pasta.  I'm hopeful that our girl can come into the world through a vaginal birth, but my total and complete lack of any cervical dilation make me think that may not happen, so I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for a C-Section.  The doctor said he wouldn't induce unless I dilated some on my own, so we'll see what that means and what my body has done on Tuesday.  A C-section isn't the end of the world, I've recovered from major surgery before, much worse than a C-section, but I was 10 years younger and didn't have a new baby to care for, so I'm a bit nervous, but whatever happens, happens, we just want our baby to be born safely and healthy!

37 Weeks

Here's Ginger, who spent an uncharacteristically long time in my lap tonight while I read my magazine.

Last weekend was our fantastic baby shower (pictures and recap to come) and this week I'm officially full term at 37 weeks!  Diabetes remain under control with my super strict diet and my oral medications and the doctor said he might even let me go to full term since I'm doing so well with it!

The Braxton Hicks contractions are coming ALL. THE. TIME. now, it's pretty crazy, but I take them as a good sign.  For the most part, we are ready for our little one's arrival.  We have all the essentials ready to go in the house and we took a newborn care class this week and walked out feeling like we hadn't learned anything.  Not in a bad way.  In a "wow we're actually ready" way.  We have our pediatrician picked out and now we're just sorting out our childcare for after the birth for when I return to work. 

No remarkable cravings to report, they don't really matter because I can't eat what I really want to eat most of the time.  Mostly I'm very tired all the time.  We're trying to take time to relax in these next few weeks before she comes. 

Today we visited our first day care, which was okay.  It was hard to focus on ANYTHING the lady was telling us because she was holding the most ADORABLE 3 month old baby girl in her arms who kept smiling at us.  It has made me ache for our own baby girl so badly.  I physically hurt for her to hurry up and get here! 

It also strengthened my resolve on our decision to wait until our baby is 6 months old to put her in daycare.  I know everyone has their own choices and decisions, but for us, we're going to choose an in home caregiver for the first few months so our child can have one on one attention and then she'll enter a daycare center a few days a week when she's older/has all her 6 month vaccinations/and can in my opinion benefit more from the social interaction daycare infant rooms have to offer. 

Don't get me wrong, that 3 month old baby was loving life and seemed really happy there, but honestly, this is more about making my return to work easier on me and I think I'll feel less guilt if I'm leaving her with a nanny at first and then easing her into a more social environment when she's a tad bit older. 

We've by no means made a decision, we still have 2 more centers to visit, but I'm feeling better about the whole daycare thing after seeing our first one.  So now I would say my Baby Rabies are at their absolute PEAK.  It's not about just being DONE with being pregnant (I am) or just being so excited to meet our baby (we are), but I can't wait to snuggle a smiling happy little girl in footie pajamas and smell all her delightful baby smells and give her baths, and rock her.  I'm so lucky that I get to be the one to stay home with her for weeks and weeks!

Diabetus

Am I the only one who remembers Wilford Brimley's diabetes commercials?  It's pretty much the only humor I'm finding in my current predicament.  So we've had some trouble getting my gestational diabetes under control so this week I got to take an an entire afternoon off from work and spend it bouncing between the endocrinologist to the dietitian to the pharmacy. 

As a result:

• I now check my blood sugar 4x a day.  This is actually kind of interesting, learning what I ingest and how it affects my BS levels.  All that finger pricking isn't that bad either, I'm okay with blood.
• I am now on a special diet of low carbs (I mean reallllly low) and high protein (realllly high, I like meat and stuff but DAMN).  It's actually stricter than most regular diabetics adhere to, but then again, I AM answering for another person's blood sugar, so it makes sense.
• I now give myself insulin shots every night.  I thought giving myself a daily injection would be the end of the world, but it's not bad at all.  I did not freak out at all the first time I had to stab myself in the stomach in front of the nurse to prove that I in fact could handle it and not freak out.
• And I pee on a stick every morning to check for ketones.  Which is no small feat considering I can't see ANYTHING under my giant belly. 
• I also learned that I really can't just have 3 bites of a sweet treat and it be okay.  I had literally 3 bites of the brownie D and I made at our cooking class this weekend and my blood sugar was totally out of whack the rest of the day.  Meaning baby girl's blood sugar was too.  Lesson learned.

I'm not excited at all about the diet, I think that's the worst part.  It was okay for the first few days or so, but I'm really getting sick of all that protein.  Pretty much every time I put food in my mouth it has to be accompanied with a serving of protein.  Thank goodness I adore cheese so much, otherwise I'd be miserable. 

Most of all, I'm trying to keep the end in mind, our beautiful baby girl and appreciate all the people who fight this disease every day, who don't have a light at the tunnel 4 weeks away where they know they can devour cupcakes again.  Diabetes is no joke and it's something I totally took for granted until now.  This week I'm looking forward to:

• Interviewing pediatricians
• Infant CPR
• Breastfeeding class
• My first cervical exam, finally time to start the weekly exams!
• A lunch with all the ladies of the office before I potentially go into labor
• Our baby shower!  I have a new dress and an appointment to get my hair did just for the occasion!

34 Weeks

Here's me after a long day at the office this week with my feet up watching TV.  Petey decided it would be appropriate to rest his chin on my belly, which, coincidentally, was the same spot that the baby chose to kick.  It didn't seem to bother him, he happily lay there for quite some time. 

This weekend we made some major progress on the nursery, I can't wait to show the big reveal to you guys!  We also celebrated our last Valentine's Day as just the two of us.  It's probably going to be our last big romantic night out for a while.  Darryl brought me flowers and we had a late supper at Chez Zee.  After cooking a nice dinner for us at home for many years, I've sworn off staying at home for Valentine's Day.  Go out, trust me, it's better.  Or have him cook, D is good at that :). 

 My mom was also super sweet and for Valentine's bought me this gown to wear in Labor and Delivery.  My friends who have had babies have sworn up and down how much better something like this will make you feel on the big day.  I'm not sure at what point in the process I plan to wear it, it'll also depend on if I ultimately end up with a planned C-Section based on the baby's size.  It may be something I slip into post-op, we'll see.  At least I will have some wardrobe choices ;). 

My gestational diabetes isn't going well, so far the initial medication they gave me isn't working so I've been referred to an endocrinologist for insulin.  I was super bummed this week when I got that news, but I'm going to make an appointment with the specialist and we only have a few more weeks left, I'm sure I'll live. 

Maternity Photos

At 31 weeks Darryl and I returned to South Congress Avenue, the place where we had our engagement photos taken, to have our friend Amelia take some maternity photos of us.  Amelia has been quite the photographer as of late and made us feel very comfortable.  Getting my picture taken right now is the last thing in the world I want, I feel like such a whale, but I'm so pleased with how these turned out and that we took time to do this.

I plan on using these photos for the baby book and blowing one up and framing it for the baby's room.  I wanted to be shot in front of the Jo's "I love you so much" graffiti so the photographs would be a love letter to our baby.  I think they have the perfect sentiment to describe our feelings toward each other and towards the baby.  Thanks so much to Amelia for sharing her talent with us!

30 Years and 30 Weeks

Here I am at 30 weeks on my 30th birthday!  I always imagined I'd spend it partying it up in Vegas, but being 30 weeks pregnant, well let's just leave that trip to my 31st birthday, shall we?

We have a few special things planned though, don't fret, and if I'm good and take pictures I'll share them with you next week!

Not much else to report, the gestational diabetes thing (and the continued morning sickness, SERIOUSLY, still with the morning sickness?) continues to be not the highlight of my pregnancy, but doing well so far as we continue to tinker with my medications.  Baby is active, but I think rather than kicking as much as she used to, she's running out of space and really just getting more jabby than anything.  My appointments are now 3 weeks apart and I'm getting closer and closer to my "no travel" deadline for work.  It's going to be weird going months and months without a single business trip but I've got a good reason to stay home!

I'm looking forward to so many things, like celebrating my birthday with friends and D this weekend (and taking a break from all things baby or house related) and registering for our shower gifts next weekend!

So That Was a Fail....

So I may have mentioned that I was given a large number of hand me down bottles.  My mom and I took some of the bottles apart this weekend to wash them.  Today I pulled them off the drying rack and assembled them to put them away in the baby's room.  Note that I was very meticulous about only washing one or two types of bottles at a time and was very careful about pulling the pieces apart so there would be a limited number of spare and confusing parts or worse, missing parts.  A clever plan, eh?  So here are the bottles from that wash load that I was able to reassemble.

And here are the leftover pieces that I'm not sure what to do with.  I mean holy crap man, they multiplied!  And I can't seem to figure out what goes to what.  How did this happen?  I'm going to need some diagrams or websites or something to figure out where all these parts and pieces go.  In the mean time, my baby only needs 9 bottles right?  Good thing I have boobs....

Nursery Progress

This weekend my parents were kind enough to come to Austin and donate their entire weekend to slaving away in the nursery while I sat with my feet up. Okay, that's only partly true. My feet were up, but I have not been feeling stellar. I was diagnosed with a borderline case of gestational diabetes after failing both my 1 hour and 3 hour glucose tests and started on a diabetic diet and prescribed Metformin. One of the lovely side effects? Stabbing horrible gas pains in the abdomen despite consuming the maximum recommended dosage of Gas-X. Like grab a throw pillow and wince in pain gas. I'm thinking it makes the average person majorly farty, however with the restricted real estate around my intestines lately, I think it's just getting all stopped up in there. I would kill to be farty right now. I never thought I'd type that. 

Anyways, I did manage to go through a lot of the hand-me-downs from friends and family, wash them, and put them away.  The color I picked out for the nursery is very.....yellow.  I chose Olympic Paint in Butter.  The folks at Lowe's said it was VOC free and I think they were correct, the room has very little odor to it, perfect for a nursery.  I've always wanted a room that's a beautiful buttery collor.  However, it is a bit more yellow than I was expecting, so we're not completely sure about it.  It's also a huge change from the previous walls which were dark blue, but I think we were expecting something more muted.  We have no intentions of changing it, one weekend spent painting was enough thank you very much, so I'm hoping once we finish decorating the nursery it'll grow on us? 



Inside the crib with my childhood doll Lolly (in pink) and my other childhood baby doll Alberta, serving as the Baby Daniel stunt double for things where we can't wrangle a terrier into position.

Here's the inside of the closet.  It's a bit of a jumbly mess right now because the car seat is in there, once we pull it out and put it in my car it'll be less chaotic at the bottom of the closet.  But for now I have all our little dresses hung up with age specific closet dividers.

Above, a wide shot of the crib against the yellow walls.  The bassinet to the right is a vintage bassinet that will ultimately live in our bedroom for the baby's first three months.  This piece has been in my family for generations.  My parents were kind enough to test it for lead paint (it passed) and spruce it up for us.  It's been impossible to find a skirt to go on it, modern bassinets break apart where the tops come off.  Short of having a skirt custom made, I don't have a solution, but I figure Ginger will probably just hide out under the skirt so it might be for the best that we don't have one.  The blankets on the crib are ones that I had as a baby. 

The lower shot is of our changing table and dresser.  What do I put in the bins under the changing table?  I bought a pack of wipes and newborn diapers, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to put in the other bins.  More diapers I assume?  Lotions?  I'm sure I'll figure it out.  The changing table and dresser are covered in toys that were handed down to us.  I put them all through either the dish washer or the washing machine in a lingerie bag.  Some of them made noises and seemed like they may not survive the cleaning.  So far we look like we'll have a 75% survival rate of my cleaning shenanigans.  They were free and I'm sure they were all over the floor and in some other kids mouth and while I GREATLY appreciate the freebies, I wanted to make darn sure they were clean before I gave them to our daughter.  I'm going to let them sit out for a week, then turn them all over and let them sit for another week to make super sure they are dry and don't mildew. 

My mom and I also started to navigate the GIANT stash of bottles that were handed down to us.  We started with cleaning and sterilizing the Platex Ventaires and Dr. Browns as I plan on starting with those.  Our minds were a bit blown with all the parts and accessories, but also, someone was kind enough to give us the little baskets to wash all the pieces in the dish washer, so that was a huge help.  I'm being really careful to only keep one bottle type in play at a time, because I think my brain might explode if I tried to have too many rolling around, trying to figure out what piece goes to what brand bottle.  Plus, I guess normal people only try one brand at a time, then go out and buy a different kind if the first kind don't work to help eliminate any problems?  We are not normal people.  We have been greatly blessed in the bottle department. 

So the room has a LONG way to go, there are a lot of decorative elements that we will register for and continue to hunt for, plus a few more weekends ahead of me where I still have to sort through and wash the hand me downs.  But for now, I'm very relieved, especially because sometimes women with GD have complications that require them to deliver early, that we have a lovely start under our belts!

The Baby and the Bathwater

The way I see it, I have a few problems here folks. 

1. It just occurred to me this week that I will have to bathe my infant.  I am now obsessed with this fact. 
2. I watch YouTube videos of infants getting baths every night.
3. I am terrified to have a tiny slippery wiggly little baby in my hands, what if I drop her?  She will take her baths in a tub surrounded by pillows on the floor apparently.....
4. Every time the baby starts to fuss and cry in these videos I start to cry.  I didn't even used to like babies that much.  Now I come unhinged when one cries because of a little water?
5. And the dogs do not seem to be taking kindly to all this infant screaming coming out of my computer.  Been getting plenty of dirty looks from the furry first-borns.

What are we going to do?

Non-Alcoholic Alcoholic Beverages

Since I'm pregnant and have been majorly missing my occasional beer, wine, or cocktail, I've been exploring a few low-alcohol options.  Let's start with the beers, shall we?

First, I tried the old stand by, O'Douls.  I drank this in college when I had to give up the hooch while recovering from hip surgery (took 9 months, not my first dry spell, I've done this before).  D thought it was weird that I awkwardly told the checkout girl that I was only drinking it because I was pregnant.  I can't have someone thinking I would actually drink that crap normally, okay?  I like beers, good beers, legit beers, like Young's Double Chocolate or some other hand crafted microbrew that makes me seem all awesome for liking it.

It's probably the easiest one to find out at a bar, I've ordered it a couple times on 6th street.  Not as good as a Dos Equis (which is what I try to pretend I'm drinking when I drink it) but it scratches the itch.  The thing I've found with most of these non-alcohol (or low alcohol, less than 0.5% by volume) is that they don't go down as smoothly as their alcoholic counterparts.  Mostly, you have one and then you're full, do yourself a favor and switch to water. 

This weekend I found Kaliber at Spec's.  Kaliber is made by the same people that make Guinness.

I like Guinness and I saw another preggo buying it, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  It wasn't great, it really had a strong molasses taste.  D said it tasted like they'd poured syrup into water and encouraged me to not feel bad about tossing the whole six pack.  This is a normal reaction I think from someone who can actually drink real beer.  Good beer.  When your options are crap or crap, you learn to be less picky.  Note that they store a lot of gluten free beers in the same refrigerator unit at Spec's as the non-alcoholic.  D had to point out to me a number of times that I had an armload of gluten free beer that would indeed, still get me drunk.  But if you don't do gluten, rest assured, there are options out there for you apparently.

Christmas eve I tried Sutter Home's alcohol removed bubbly from their Fre line of wines.

It didn't taste anything like a brut sparkling wine I'd ever had, but I tolerate the sweeter sparkling wines quite well and it was nice to have a bit of bubbly in my hand all evening and I bet it would go nicely in with some orange juice for a faux mimosa.  Again, doesn't go down as easily as the real thing, I can easily toss back an entire bottle of champagne by myself, but slogging through an entire bottle of this was a bit much.  That being said, I still like this better than say a bottle of sparkling apple cider, though, any bubbly port in a storm. 

Finally, for New Year's Eve, I found Ariel Wines at Spec's.  I'd read about these wines, they seemed pretty legit and I was excited to try them. 



I bought a bottle of chardonnay to have on my birthday in a couple weeks and a bottle of the sparkling for NYE.  I ran into the same issues with Ariel as I did with the Fre, too sweet (but the Ariel was less sweet), didn't go down too easily, but I think it was better and I'd prefer to buy Ariel than Fre in the future.  I haven't busted open the chardonnay, my big 3-0 is in a few weeks and I'm saving it for that. 

So if you can abstain from drinking for 9 months, great for you, I on the other hand, occasionally need a virgin margarita at happy hour, a cold alcohol removed brew at the end of a hard day at the office, or a little something bubbly in my hand at parties to make me feel like my old self again.  Or at least like one of the big kids.  I don't miss feeling hungover though, that is one thing I've decided, is totally played out.  I want to snuggle my adorable baby girl once she arrives more than I want to spend the day lying in bed with a headache.

Happy New Year!

We had one of our most low key New Year's celebrations this year, maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but maybe I just realized how super duper blessed we are.  Saturday I spent most of the day in the kitchen, cooking chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles (YUM!) and the Barefoot Contessa's Greek Salad Recipe.  I added some lettuce to the salad, since D isn't fond of weird veggie only salads.  I also used some of the olive oil we brought back from Tuscany for the dressing.  I hate how Ina Garten is always saying "use 1/4 of a cup of good olive oil," implying that her viewers typically buy some sort of subpar ingredients on a regular basis but since you're making her recipe you should step it up a notch?  Maybe it's just me....

Anyways, I brought half the cupcakes over to a get together at D's brother and sister-in-law's house in the late afternoon.  We visited and had snacks and the boys grilled.  I mostly housed the chips and dips, using pregnancy as my excuse for my usual gluttony over anything dippable. 

After the sun set we headed home to change clothes, feed the pups, and then head to NYE bash number two (yes, we're very popular, kind of a big deal, I know) where I brought the rest of the cupcakes for dessert and the greek salad I'd prepared earlier.  We went over to Christine and Parker's for an AMAZING dinner complete with an impressive spread of hors derves, wines, egg nog, a delicious prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and kale au gratin.  Suddenly, I wished I'd made a more impressive dessert, maybe cupcakes are a bit low brow as a finale for a spread like that, maybe I'm a bit nutty because I'm preggo, but they were moist and totally hit the spot.  I ate two.

We headed home right after midnight, this preggo was A) exhausted and B) *TMI alert* rather gassy.  Like grab on to something wincing in pain with gas cramps gassy.  It was so bad that I had flashes of worry that I was in labor or something.  Then the reality set in that oh-my-god-labor-is-going-to-hurt-that-much-and-more-f*#$!  So we came home where I could take the appropriate medications and wait out the storm in the peace of my own bed.  Also, note, that this isn't  like me being all farty and gross, it was just pains, I would kill to "be all farty".  The baby seems to be jamming up all that business in my digestive tract so it's not getting out, thus the intense stabbing pains in my abdomen, causing me to excuse myself from social gatherings, lest people interpret my periodic gasps and winces of pain as I clutch the nearest pillow as actual labor.  I blame that damn greek salad and all the chopped up veggies.... 

 

New Year's Day we woke up, decidedly un-hungover, and spent the day doing chores around the house.  I picked out a paint color for the baby's room.  There were multiple trips to Lowes.  The paint department guy there officially knows me as the crazy pregnant lady who bought WAY too many sample jars of paint and made off with roughly half their paint chips.

Left to right:  Sliced Cucumber, Lilting Laughter, Yellow Bliss, Butter, and on the bottom, Vanilla Wafer

The Lilting Laughter came off very pink and while I loved the Sliced Cucumber, we realized our ENTIRE house is either green or grey and that it wouldn't kill us to use a different color in one effing room.  Vanilla Wafer is a bit too close too white, so it's in between Yellow Bliss and Butter.  Butter looks best in the daylight, Yellow Bliss, best by artificial light.  We're still trying to decide between the two, but I'm sure it'll look great whichever one we choose.  As you can see we have ridiculously dark blue walls in that room, so a good coat of primer will be required. 

While I was having my color summit in the nursery (attendees included two terriers and D), I also made a big pot of my Guinness Stew.  This is one recipe that I can genuinely claim I made up.  I researched some other versions online, but it was inspired by something D had skiing one time and came home and told me about.  I made some tweaks from the last time I made it.

-Brown the meat in half a stick of butter.  Toss the meat with 2 tablespoons of flour, salt and pepper, then throw it into the melted butter.  I used 2 lbs this time.
-slice up an onion, 4 cloves of garlic, two carrots, 8 oz of sliced mushrooms, and half a lb of new potatoes, sliced in half.
-throw it all in a pot, add a can of tomato paste (4 oz-ish?) pour in a can of Guinness, add a cup of water and one packet of onion soup mix (I made this in the past with 2 packets, but I'm trying to cool it on the sodium being preggo and all and it was perfect)
-throw in some herbs, thyme, a couple bay leaves, some dried parsley, basically anything that sounds good and isn't nailed down
-put a lid on it and slide it into a 350 degree oven for 2 hours (I took it out once to stir it half way through)
-D likes his sauces thick, so I thickened the sauce with a couple tablespoons of flour, but that's totally optional
-I served it with buttermilk biscuits, but if you kept the sauce thinner, some rice or egg noodles might be nice.

And there you have it, flying by the seat of my pants, making it up as I go and never the same way twice, but it always turns out damn tasty and D is a very happy man.    Which is good because he spent the whole day rekeying our locks, replacing door knobs, fixing our brand new fan (which was crappily made, engineer husband to the rescue!).  And that is the very unglamourous way we rang in the new year, but it made me realize how blessed we were to have so many good friends, plenty of food on the table, jobs that allow us to have such nice things, a beautiful home, a darling child on the way, and of course, two of the snuggliest and most entertaining pups on the planet.  Sometimes you have to stop and wonder what you did to deserve all this, you know?

27 Weeks

Here I am at 27 weeks, in my last week of my second trimester during the last week of 2011!  Everything is definitely getting bigger, Santa brought me lots of maternity dresses and some bigger maternity jeans.  I'm finding some of the ones I originally bought that were incredibly too big are now laughably small with a serious "crack" issue when I sit down.  The time has come for full belly coverage on the pants and I've set my wardrobe up for these last 3 months to be all about the mumu and less about the pants. 

My nausea seems to be getting worse, I've been doubling my anti-nausea medication, which has been helping and so far it's only dry heaves, no actual vomiting.  Everything looked good on our last ultrasound, I have my glucose test next week.  Now that January is upon us, it's time to get down to business completing the nursery, finding a nanny, registering for baby shower gifts, and getting everything in its right place by mid-February. 

I can't travel anymore, per my doctor's orders, as of Valentine's Day so I figure it's best to have everything squared away so if she comes early, we won't be taken by surprise.  I can feel my stomach expanding upwards, doing things like bending over to dry my hair or shave my legs are becoming increasingly uncomfortable, not to mention how I picture squishing the baby while doing those things.  I'm also super burpy, which I think is terribly unattractive, but not much I can do given my current situation. 

Cooking and grocery shopping is easier, I can now grocery shop alone without someone to help me get the food products that gross me out.  I can buy raw meat again and have no problem preparing and cooking red meat.  Chicken still makes me heave so D has to do all the prep work for me so I can just slide it right into the pan.  I still can't face the frozen dinner aisle, so if D wants these, he knows he has to go to the store himself to get them.  But I'm back to enjoying cooking and have been making some delicious creations such as smoking a chicken on the grill, roasting a prime rib with gravy and mashed potatoes, and all sorts of chili.

I am looking forward to March, when our little girl is ready to be born and I will finally have my body back!   



Weekend Recap

Friday

My parents came in from Houston to help us with baby prep stuff.  We had a yummy BBQ dinner of food my parents picked up in Elgin and then went to Lowes to get supplies for our weekend projects.  Darryl was kind enough to replace our kitchen sink faucet since it was corroded and getting dangerously close to breaking.  I kept imagining it breaking off on a Tuesday night and a giant geyser shooting up in the middle of the kitchen.  Replacing the faucet was really the last thing that needed to be done for our kitchen makeover, so I was glad to finally have it out of the way!

Saturday

My mom and I went on an Ikea adventure and found a great changing table that matches the style of our nursery and was under $70!  Sold.  We came home to find D and my dad working their way through restaining the guest bedroom dresser to match the nursery based on a project I saw on Young House Love.  Turns out Sherry and John, they are not.  It ended up being a difficult project, but they persevered.  After Ikea my mom and I ran some errands together and then went through the GIANT box of hand me downs from our friends' little girls.  We are so lucky because they had the most beautiful clothes.  My mom kept exclaiming how much better dressed my daughter is going to be than me!  Since we were given clothes from newborn to 12 months, I ordered a set of baby closet dividers and hangers on Amazon.  When they come in I'll be able to hang all the pretty dresses by age range.  Then my mom and I practiced swaddling my childhood baby doll using Youtube videos and directions from Happiest Baby on the Block.  We took a dinner break and then D and my dad put the crib together in the living room.

Sunday

The dresser still wasn't going great, the stain wouldn't dry so we decided to just leave it for a few days in the garage.  D put together the changing table and we rearranged the guest bedroom furniture to accommodate the new baby furniture.  At this point we realized a major miscalculation on our part.  There was no way to fit the crib through the doorways from the living room to the nursery.  So then poor D and my dad had to pull it apart and put the parts, defeated, into the nursery/guest bedroom.  My mom and I spent some quality time getting my closet situation under control. 

All and all, it was a productive and busy weekend, but I'm sure D will be glad that we don't have another one like it planned until January when we paint the nursery and start getting it set up for real!

Closet Woes

We live in a small house built in the late 70's.  Thus we have limited closet space.  Since I lived here first by myself, I called dibs on the master bedroom closet and refuse to share it.  (Before you feel too bad for D, he has like 3 closets in the study and hallway outside our bedroom.  Plus we both have dressers.)

Behold, my closet in all its "glory".  I use that term loosely.



My closet is 5x5, which is pretty small for a master bedroom closet, so I have a rule, no new clothing article can come into it without something going out of it.  However, with my expanding waist line (and hips, and rib cage, and boobs) I can't wear a lot of my favorite closet staples (all of my carefully aquired Antrho clothing collection, tear).  I know I'll be able to wear them around June, after my body starts to return to its original shape, but for now, I can't wear a lot of what is in my closet yet have no room for the new maternity wear I'm accumulating.  So my mom helped me go through my closet and dressers, weed out a bunch of things that I'll probably never be able to wear again (Note that I anticipate my ass shrinking, but not back to a size 4 probably seeing as it wasn't quite there when I got pregnant in the first place.  Time to let go of that dream.) for Goodwill.  The other items, I bid a temporary farewell to as I boxed them up in a giant Rubbermaid container and put them in storage for the next 6 months or so.  After the baby, when I return to work, I plan on swapping out the contents of that box for my maternity clothes.  I think this is a good strategy for other space strapped preggos out there, it's too annoying to get dressed for work each day and have to try on clothing article after clothing article that is too snug, doubling my getting dressed time. 

My question for those of you out there who have had children or are currently pregnant, did your foot size change?  I've got a pair of spendy designer shoes on my Christmas wishlist and I'm wondering if this is a foolish time to ask for them?  So far all my shoes seem to fit the same.  Just wanted to make sure we're not about to waste a boatload of money as these.