Um... we could meet this little guy in 9 weeks? Single digits?!?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Nursery Progress
Hey, guess what we've been up to? Finally working on the nursery!
In the beginning we debated making a nursery at all. We plan on cosleepinig, so a crib was kind of unnecessary. I can't imagine going into the back of the house every time a diaper needs to be changed, so we didn't really need a changing table... then we got realistic and remembered how I we love a chance to decorate so the plan was to create a nursery, just on a budget.
Jerad really wanted to build paneling, and picked the color. I love love love the paneling so far... but am not sold on the color. Its a small room, and a DARK color. Since the paneling will all be painted white it will look a little lighter, but I'm still more than doubtful. He promised he'd repaint if I don't like the color, but I agreed to wait until the room was finished to make a decision:)
He routered all the wood so the panel pieces could fit right in without having to be glued or nailed to the walls. Like the beadboard kits you buy. Such a handyman!
What do you think, too dark right?
On the top there will be a shelf rail thing too.
Its been hard with the rain. All our pets are couped up inside, and we have to do all the cutting IN THE HOUSE. So the living room looks like this:
Hopefully we can finish up this weekend. The goal is to have everything put together by the baby shower next weekend. I can't believe its baby shower time already:)
In the beginning we debated making a nursery at all. We plan on cosleepinig, so a crib was kind of unnecessary. I can't imagine going into the back of the house every time a diaper needs to be changed, so we didn't really need a changing table... then we got realistic and remembered how
Jerad really wanted to build paneling, and picked the color. I love love love the paneling so far... but am not sold on the color. Its a small room, and a DARK color. Since the paneling will all be painted white it will look a little lighter, but I'm still more than doubtful. He promised he'd repaint if I don't like the color, but I agreed to wait until the room was finished to make a decision:)
He routered all the wood so the panel pieces could fit right in without having to be glued or nailed to the walls. Like the beadboard kits you buy. Such a handyman!
What do you think, too dark right?
On the top there will be a shelf rail thing too.
Its been hard with the rain. All our pets are couped up inside, and we have to do all the cutting IN THE HOUSE. So the living room looks like this:
Hopefully we can finish up this weekend. The goal is to have everything put together by the baby shower next weekend. I can't believe its baby shower time already:)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
My hubby is kiiiiinda awesome
So, remember how I was whining about wanting a new mattress, not being down with the chemicals in mattresses, but not wanting to pony up the $$ for an organic one? Well, Jerad found this snippet in an article:
***
As an alternative, parents can make mattress wraps using specified polythene (same as polyethylene) sheeting.
If this option is selected, the following instructions apply:
1.Use thick, clear (not coloured) polythene sheeting. The thickness of the polythene must be at least 125 microns and colorless. Do not use PVC (polyvinyl chloride) for mattress-wrapping.
2. Place the polythene over the top of the mattress and down the ends and sides, and secure it firmly on the underside of the mattress with strong adhesive tape.
3. The polythene on the underside of the mattress should not be airtight. It must be airtight on the top and sides of the mattress.
It is imperative to use the correct bedding on top of a BabeSafe or polyethylene covers. Use a fleecy pure cotton underblanket and tuck this in securely. Then make the bed using sheets and pure woolen or pure cotton overblanket/s.
Do not use any type of moisture-resistant mattress protector, sheepskin, sheepfleece underlay, acrylic blanket, sleeping bag or duvet. BabeSafe or polyethylene cover, BabeSafe or polyethylene covers should be cleaned by wiping with pure soap and water. Do not use chemical bleaches or sterilants.
***
It can totally be applied to adult mattresses which is great! Not only can we spare ourselves from breathing in so many toxins, but when the baby is in our bed, he'll be safe too. Polythene is strictly specified in terms of chemical formulation and physical specifications, and prevents any gases generated in a mattress from reaching the people sleeping on it. Also, the cover is itself incapable of any toxic gas generation. Plus its cheap and easy to do and will make our bed baby pee (and other fluids) proof.
Then as if that wasn't wonderful enough, the same day I posted the blog about needing another mattress, Jerad got offered 2 more side jobs which will more than cover a new mattress and box springs. Clearly God just wanted us to sleep better right? THEN, Sears extended the crazy mattress sale they are having right now.
I always have buyer's remorse about big purchases (hence why it took me like 5 years to finally buy a Kitchenaid stand mixer), but my hubby pointed out that since we spend about a 1/3 of our lives in bed, it ought to be a good bed. It wasn't really a hard sell, I just needed a little encouraging. So we spent hours reading reviews and perusing mattresses and then ordered a set last night... and got more than 67% off!!! Yeah baby!
We decided to go for another queen since a king would be so cramped in our little room. The next house is totally going to be an organic king sized tho. That I can streeeeetch out on. That is always our favorite thing about hotels, the big beds:)
Anyways, I'm pretty excited. I literally dreamed about mattresses last night. The first thing Jerad said when he woke up was "how many days until the new mattress gets here?" We're pretty one track minded I suppose...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
30 week Midwife Apt.
I guess I should write about my last apt since I'm already coming up on another one soon!
Last week I had my first "official" appointment with our new midwife. I went by myself since Jerad was working. We decided in the beginning that he really only needed to come if it was an "important" apt, or just wanted some time off because otherwise I am fine going by myself and he can save up his paid time off.
Anyways, I made the apt for a Thurs afternoon so that I could just have an extended weekend. I didn't realize at the time that Tiffany doesn't usually come in on Thursday's and was making a special trip just for me. oops:) She didn't seem to mind and she let me make the next apt at 5:30pm so neither Jerad or I would need to miss any work!
Everything was pretty standard, pee on a stick to check my proteins and sugars, then report to her if they were abnormal (they weren't as per usual). I only had to weigh myself if I wanted to which I didn't (I weigh myself every morning naked on the same scale which I feel is more accurate). She checked my blood pressure and it was great, then I sat on the couch and we talked for about an hour about all things labor and childbirth related. She was happy with my diet and exercise plan and the supplements I've been taking. She drew blood to have my hemoglobin, glucose, and iron levels checked. It was nice having her do it instead of having to traipse to the lab!
Towards the end I got on the table and we listened to the baby's heart (140bpm), measured my uterus (30cm, right on track), and she palpitated my stomach to check the baby's position. He was head down but at this point he is still flipping all around like a banshee so that didn't mean much:) I left with a list of "recommended reading" and went shopping. It was a fun day.
The next day I used my Valentine's gift from Jerad -- a prenatal massage. So amazing. I will be going back for sure!
Monday the midwife called with my blood results and everything looked peachy! My iron was good which is great because I tend to be slightly anemic when not pregnant, and hadn't been eating a ton of iron rich foods the few days prior to the blood draw. Glucose was 97 and up to 105 is normal for fasting except I had eaten right before which means that up to 140 is normal. So, I am definitely processing sugars fine and don't need to take a GTT test or anything like that.
Thats all thats new in this neck of the woods lately. I now have appointments every 2 weeks, and at 36 weeks (only 5 weeks from now!) will switch to once a week. I can't believe the end is getting so near :)
Last week I had my first "official" appointment with our new midwife. I went by myself since Jerad was working. We decided in the beginning that he really only needed to come if it was an "important" apt, or just wanted some time off because otherwise I am fine going by myself and he can save up his paid time off.
Anyways, I made the apt for a Thurs afternoon so that I could just have an extended weekend. I didn't realize at the time that Tiffany doesn't usually come in on Thursday's and was making a special trip just for me. oops:) She didn't seem to mind and she let me make the next apt at 5:30pm so neither Jerad or I would need to miss any work!
Everything was pretty standard, pee on a stick to check my proteins and sugars, then report to her if they were abnormal (they weren't as per usual). I only had to weigh myself if I wanted to which I didn't (I weigh myself every morning naked on the same scale which I feel is more accurate). She checked my blood pressure and it was great, then I sat on the couch and we talked for about an hour about all things labor and childbirth related. She was happy with my diet and exercise plan and the supplements I've been taking. She drew blood to have my hemoglobin, glucose, and iron levels checked. It was nice having her do it instead of having to traipse to the lab!
Towards the end I got on the table and we listened to the baby's heart (140bpm), measured my uterus (30cm, right on track), and she palpitated my stomach to check the baby's position. He was head down but at this point he is still flipping all around like a banshee so that didn't mean much:) I left with a list of "recommended reading" and went shopping. It was a fun day.
The next day I used my Valentine's gift from Jerad -- a prenatal massage. So amazing. I will be going back for sure!
Monday the midwife called with my blood results and everything looked peachy! My iron was good which is great because I tend to be slightly anemic when not pregnant, and hadn't been eating a ton of iron rich foods the few days prior to the blood draw. Glucose was 97 and up to 105 is normal for fasting except I had eaten right before which means that up to 140 is normal. So, I am definitely processing sugars fine and don't need to take a GTT test or anything like that.
Thats all thats new in this neck of the woods lately. I now have appointments every 2 weeks, and at 36 weeks (only 5 weeks from now!) will switch to once a week. I can't believe the end is getting so near :)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Weekend Recap
Jerad has been working most weekends so we were really excited when we got to sneak off together last weekend. We drove up the coast to see the elephant seals:
The weather was beautiful!
After that we went out to dinner (a rare splurge for us), at a mexican place everyone keeps recommending "Taco Temple." We drove up and it looked ghett-o. Seriously. Jerad talked me into going in and the place was PACKED. We finally got a table, and a menu and everything was like $20. For Mexican food?!?!
We ordered the salmon salad and carnitas and ohmygod how have I missed out all these years? The portions were huge and the food was so good. So good. I can't even explain it. I don't have any pictures because we were so busy eating I couldn't take any. The carnitas were good, but the salmon salad was amazing. It had three huge salmon fillets, asparagus, mangos, rice, beans, mixed greens, I don't even remember what else. My mouth is watering just remembering it.
Point is, next time you are in Cayucos -- go there!
After dinner we went to Morro Bay to grab some Foster's Freeze ice cream cones, then headed back up to Paso to meet Taylor and Dom at Red Brick Pizza and watch the UFC fight. We stayed until almost 11:00 which made us feel very grown up since lately we've been crawling into bed around 9pm:)
Sunday morning we made a big breakfast then Steve came over for a bit. Most of the day was spent working on the nursery. Jerad got all of the lumber cut and routered and ready to put up, and the crib primed and half way painted. The dogs had a ton of fun running around and hanging out with us all day. That night we picked up the rest of the furniture that we needed, and the paint. Its all coming together! He is in the nursery painting right now actually. The color is DARK (its 2 shades darker than the one I picked). He keeps telling me it won't look as dark once there is white paneling on the wall.... I hope he's right. If not, he offered to repaint which is double-the-sweet because painting is his least favorite thing on this earth. Well, painting and mushrooms.
We finished off the weekend with a long bubble-snuggle bath and clean sheets. My favorite.
The weather was beautiful!After that we went out to dinner (a rare splurge for us), at a mexican place everyone keeps recommending "Taco Temple." We drove up and it looked ghett-o. Seriously. Jerad talked me into going in and the place was PACKED. We finally got a table, and a menu and everything was like $20. For Mexican food?!?!
We ordered the salmon salad and carnitas and ohmygod how have I missed out all these years? The portions were huge and the food was so good. So good. I can't even explain it. I don't have any pictures because we were so busy eating I couldn't take any. The carnitas were good, but the salmon salad was amazing. It had three huge salmon fillets, asparagus, mangos, rice, beans, mixed greens, I don't even remember what else. My mouth is watering just remembering it.
Point is, next time you are in Cayucos -- go there!
After dinner we went to Morro Bay to grab some Foster's Freeze ice cream cones, then headed back up to Paso to meet Taylor and Dom at Red Brick Pizza and watch the UFC fight. We stayed until almost 11:00 which made us feel very grown up since lately we've been crawling into bed around 9pm:)
Sunday morning we made a big breakfast then Steve came over for a bit. Most of the day was spent working on the nursery. Jerad got all of the lumber cut and routered and ready to put up, and the crib primed and half way painted. The dogs had a ton of fun running around and hanging out with us all day. That night we picked up the rest of the furniture that we needed, and the paint. Its all coming together! He is in the nursery painting right now actually. The color is DARK (its 2 shades darker than the one I picked). He keeps telling me it won't look as dark once there is white paneling on the wall.... I hope he's right. If not, he offered to repaint which is double-the-sweet because painting is his least favorite thing on this earth. Well, painting and mushrooms.
We finished off the weekend with a long bubble-snuggle bath and clean sheets. My favorite.
Monday, February 22, 2010
zzzzzzz's
How am I sleeping lately? Well not so flippin great. It doesn't have to do with being 30+ weeks pregnant, or being pregnant at all really... its my husband you see.
Jerad talks in his sleep.
It used to be a really infrequent thing and was pretty funny. When I say "talk" I don't mean he mumbles. I mean he TALKS LOUDLY and says things that are real words, yet the way he puts them together makes no sense. Recently it went from being once every few months or so to two or three times a week. Sometimes I type what he says into my phone to tease him about in the morning. Here are a few things I have saved:
"Abuse the loose ends. You can say he eats now but he eats crayons."
That time the phone was on his side of the bed and I asked him to hand it to me and he just started patting my stomach looking for the phone. Wtf right?
Here's another:
"Some of the bane's are the baseball of all time."
Okaaaaay.
Last night he sat up super fast and basically yelled "what's wrong?" I knew he was sleeping so I ignored him. Then he started shaking me and asked why I woke him up and if everything was okay. I told him that he was the one that woke me up and then he laughed like a sleeping maniac and conked back out.
Most of the time I'm amused but occasionally kind of freaked out. Like the one time I woke up to him leaning over me talking gibberish and keeping on holding my lips closed. I think the volume that he sleep talks makes it sketchier:)
Besides the talking, its the cuddling. We have always been cuddly sleepers. The the new and exciting stage of our relationship we'd fall asleep in each other's arms and stay that way all night. Then we got real and would go to sleep snuggling but after a bit both roll to our respective sides of the bed and toss and turn as needed. All of a sudden now he rolls over in his sleep and wants to cuddle with me. While snoring in my ear (another new development).
I think one of the issues is we seriously need a new mattress. We had a really nice mattress but moving 4 times and bouncing on the bed (and the time Jerad threw me on the bed when we were horsing around and the box springs broke.... embarrassing) have caused it to not be the comfy thing it once was. It slopes in towards the middle. Not fun.
We are both really sketched out by the crazy chemicals in mattresses. I don't need my mattress to be able to withstand a blow torch for gosh sakes! Besides not wanting to subject ourselves to mattress toxins... now we have a baby on the way to think about. We are planning on cosleeping and I really don't want to expose a little baby to that kind of stuff. What's the point of only using natural body care products, then breathing in formaldehyde all night right?
We were going to buy an organic mattress this year, but put the money we had set aside for that towards our home birth instead. Now I don't know what to do. I also don't know of any local stores that sell organic mattresses and driving up north/down south to try one out and cart it back is a pita. I can't imagine buying a mattress without laying on it first though.
I wish there was some sort of an option like the mattress wraps we bought for the crib and cradle! Then we could just buy a comfy old normal mattress, wrap it, put on an organic cotton blanket or mattress pad, and our organic sheets. And save like $2,000. So, if you know some secret, let me in on it soon!
In the meantime I'll be sleeping in a trough in the middle of the bed with my psycho talking husband. Help.
Jerad talks in his sleep.
It used to be a really infrequent thing and was pretty funny. When I say "talk" I don't mean he mumbles. I mean he TALKS LOUDLY and says things that are real words, yet the way he puts them together makes no sense. Recently it went from being once every few months or so to two or three times a week. Sometimes I type what he says into my phone to tease him about in the morning. Here are a few things I have saved:
"Abuse the loose ends. You can say he eats now but he eats crayons."
That time the phone was on his side of the bed and I asked him to hand it to me and he just started patting my stomach looking for the phone. Wtf right?
Here's another:
"Some of the bane's are the baseball of all time."
Okaaaaay.
Last night he sat up super fast and basically yelled "what's wrong?" I knew he was sleeping so I ignored him. Then he started shaking me and asked why I woke him up and if everything was okay. I told him that he was the one that woke me up and then he laughed like a sleeping maniac and conked back out.
Most of the time I'm amused but occasionally kind of freaked out. Like the one time I woke up to him leaning over me talking gibberish and keeping on holding my lips closed. I think the volume that he sleep talks makes it sketchier:)
Besides the talking, its the cuddling. We have always been cuddly sleepers. The the new and exciting stage of our relationship we'd fall asleep in each other's arms and stay that way all night. Then we got real and would go to sleep snuggling but after a bit both roll to our respective sides of the bed and toss and turn as needed. All of a sudden now he rolls over in his sleep and wants to cuddle with me. While snoring in my ear (another new development).
I think one of the issues is we seriously need a new mattress. We had a really nice mattress but moving 4 times and bouncing on the bed (and the time Jerad threw me on the bed when we were horsing around and the box springs broke.... embarrassing) have caused it to not be the comfy thing it once was. It slopes in towards the middle. Not fun.
We are both really sketched out by the crazy chemicals in mattresses. I don't need my mattress to be able to withstand a blow torch for gosh sakes! Besides not wanting to subject ourselves to mattress toxins... now we have a baby on the way to think about. We are planning on cosleeping and I really don't want to expose a little baby to that kind of stuff. What's the point of only using natural body care products, then breathing in formaldehyde all night right?
We were going to buy an organic mattress this year, but put the money we had set aside for that towards our home birth instead. Now I don't know what to do. I also don't know of any local stores that sell organic mattresses and driving up north/down south to try one out and cart it back is a pita. I can't imagine buying a mattress without laying on it first though.
I wish there was some sort of an option like the mattress wraps we bought for the crib and cradle! Then we could just buy a comfy old normal mattress, wrap it, put on an organic cotton blanket or mattress pad, and our organic sheets. And save like $2,000. So, if you know some secret, let me in on it soon!
In the meantime I'll be sleeping in a trough in the middle of the bed with my psycho talking husband. Help.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Frankie say RELAX
I'm staying home from work today. It was going to be a super slow day in the office, I have a midwife apt at 2, and both Jerad and my boss told me I should relax for a day. You don't have to ask me twice!
Except... maybe I need instructions on how to do that?
Its not 7 yet and I've made breakfast, washed 2 loads of laundry, checked and replied to my work and personal emails, kissed my husband goodbye and sent him out the door with a delish lunch and snacks, caught up on all of the blogs I read, and was all ready to clean the bathrooms and wash the floor in the kitchen.
WTF is wrong with me?
I need to learn to enjoy this babyless time where if I want to I can sleep in and there is no one that needs anything from me. Sometimes I think "why get used to relaxing/sleeping in/taking it easy now because in a few months it won't even be possible. I don't want to know what I'm missing." Er, I think that logic is kind of flawed and its probably acceptable at 30 weeks pregnant to not get down on my hands and knees and scrub baseboards on my day off.
SO.... I'm going back to bed.
Take that OCD! Now hopefully I can actually sleep for another hour or so and not dream about baseboards/floors/bathrooms and all the other crap on my to-do list :)
Except... maybe I need instructions on how to do that?
Its not 7 yet and I've made breakfast, washed 2 loads of laundry, checked and replied to my work and personal emails, kissed my husband goodbye and sent him out the door with a delish lunch and snacks, caught up on all of the blogs I read, and was all ready to clean the bathrooms and wash the floor in the kitchen.
WTF is wrong with me?
I need to learn to enjoy this babyless time where if I want to I can sleep in and there is no one that needs anything from me. Sometimes I think "why get used to relaxing/sleeping in/taking it easy now because in a few months it won't even be possible. I don't want to know what I'm missing." Er, I think that logic is kind of flawed and its probably acceptable at 30 weeks pregnant to not get down on my hands and knees and scrub baseboards on my day off.
SO.... I'm going back to bed.
Take that OCD! Now hopefully I can actually sleep for another hour or so and not dream about baseboards/floors/bathrooms and all the other crap on my to-do list :)
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Getting off the Frumpville train
Lately I've been in a major rut and just feeling "frumpy" for lack of a better word. I don't know if its a third trimester thing, an "I'm sick of maternity clothes" thing, an "I've never been so pasty white in my life" thing or what exactly.
My hair is almost always just put back in a pony tail straight after I take a shower, shaving has become sort of a weekly thing, I don't wash my face and don't get me started on my toenails. I seldom wear makeup, accessories are rare, and flip flops or uggs are my go-to shoes. All this would be fine if I still felt good about myself, but between all that and trying to adjust to my rapidly changing body shape combined with not being able to fit into most of "my" clothes I've been one un-happy camper.
I have so many friends that have a baby, babies, kids, whatever and still look stylish and put together, so I know pregnancy isn't an excuse.
Last night I made a resolution to suck it up and make an effort instead of just being miserable but doing nothing. I gave myself a little pedicure and painted my toes a sassy color (the last time I went and got a pedicure was a week before we got married. sheesh), I washed my face and did a mask treatment, I deep conditioned my hair, I took a shower, exfoliated, shaved, put on lotion and wore sexy pj's to bed. I woke up feeling SO MUCH BETTER!
Starting now I am going to put a little more thought into my outfits, I actually have some really cute maternity clothes, and take the extra time in the morning to accessorize. Cute belts or headbands, some sort of jewelry, and sassier shoes are all in my future. Also I'll make the effort to put on makeup in the morning-- even if its just a tinted moisturizer, mascara, and lip gloss.
So far so good and I'm in a much better mood. Maybe I'll even go crazy and start styling my hair! I think it would be easier if I didn't have to be up before 6am every morning. Then again I know the problem isn't that I'm too tired. Its that I'm too lazy.
Jerad bought me a one hour prenatal massage for this Friday so I am really, really, really looking forward to that. I might even feel all motivated and have my eyebrows waxed and hair cut too. I never spend the $$ in my "personal" budget so I've been building up lately, its probably time for a treat. Anyways, maybe next time you see me I'll look a little more refreshed and less frumped than the last time.
My hair is almost always just put back in a pony tail straight after I take a shower, shaving has become sort of a weekly thing, I don't wash my face and don't get me started on my toenails. I seldom wear makeup, accessories are rare, and flip flops or uggs are my go-to shoes. All this would be fine if I still felt good about myself, but between all that and trying to adjust to my rapidly changing body shape combined with not being able to fit into most of "my" clothes I've been one un-happy camper.
I have so many friends that have a baby, babies, kids, whatever and still look stylish and put together, so I know pregnancy isn't an excuse.
Last night I made a resolution to suck it up and make an effort instead of just being miserable but doing nothing. I gave myself a little pedicure and painted my toes a sassy color (the last time I went and got a pedicure was a week before we got married. sheesh), I washed my face and did a mask treatment, I deep conditioned my hair, I took a shower, exfoliated, shaved, put on lotion and wore sexy pj's to bed. I woke up feeling SO MUCH BETTER!
Starting now I am going to put a little more thought into my outfits, I actually have some really cute maternity clothes, and take the extra time in the morning to accessorize. Cute belts or headbands, some sort of jewelry, and sassier shoes are all in my future. Also I'll make the effort to put on makeup in the morning-- even if its just a tinted moisturizer, mascara, and lip gloss.
So far so good and I'm in a much better mood. Maybe I'll even go crazy and start styling my hair! I think it would be easier if I didn't have to be up before 6am every morning. Then again I know the problem isn't that I'm too tired. Its that I'm too lazy.
Jerad bought me a one hour prenatal massage for this Friday so I am really, really, really looking forward to that. I might even feel all motivated and have my eyebrows waxed and hair cut too. I never spend the $$ in my "personal" budget so I've been building up lately, its probably time for a treat. Anyways, maybe next time you see me I'll look a little more refreshed and less frumped than the last time.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
And we finally had our valentines dinner.
Corn chip breaded chicken stuffed with ortega chiles and cheese, brown rice, black beans, guacomole, sour cream, and steamed squash with cumin.
It tasted way better than it looks in the picture:)
Even though we didn't go out or do anything "special" this year, it was fun sitting home in the candle light talking about our days, weeks, and upcoming plans. Plus there were truffle brownies for dessert. Yummo!
It tasted way better than it looks in the picture:)Even though we didn't go out or do anything "special" this year, it was fun sitting home in the candle light talking about our days, weeks, and upcoming plans. Plus there were truffle brownies for dessert. Yummo!
Starting to feel like popping...
29.5 weeks ago I was a size 2. Now I'm large and in charge! Kiiinda scared to see what's going to happen in the next 10 weeks.
Baby boy has some new tricks lately. He can kick the backside of my ribs, stomp HARD enough on my bladder to make me glad I've been doing my kegals, and likes to hang out in the front of my stomach making it contort into all sorts of weird shapes. We can now feel the difference between feet, a butt, and a head. My skin feels so stretched every night I am positive I'm going to take off my shirt and discover tiger-like stretch marks. So far so good. We've been religious about the organic cocoa butter. Even if it doesn't work, I sure do enjoy my belly rub down every night.
Many of our friends have been sharing stories about how their baby that was super active in the womb was born and turned out to be uber calm. I am so hoping that is the case with our boy! Because I can barely keep up now and he's not even out yet:) Anyway guys, keep those stories coming!
Yoga classes are really helping with my aches and pains. I came home lamenting tonight that I only have one more class left and my lovely husband insisted that I sign up for another session. And that I needed to go get a prenatal massage. I think I'll keep him around awhile.
Baby boy has some new tricks lately. He can kick the backside of my ribs, stomp HARD enough on my bladder to make me glad I've been doing my kegals, and likes to hang out in the front of my stomach making it contort into all sorts of weird shapes. We can now feel the difference between feet, a butt, and a head. My skin feels so stretched every night I am positive I'm going to take off my shirt and discover tiger-like stretch marks. So far so good. We've been religious about the organic cocoa butter. Even if it doesn't work, I sure do enjoy my belly rub down every night.
Many of our friends have been sharing stories about how their baby that was super active in the womb was born and turned out to be uber calm. I am so hoping that is the case with our boy! Because I can barely keep up now and he's not even out yet:) Anyway guys, keep those stories coming!
Yoga classes are really helping with my aches and pains. I came home lamenting tonight that I only have one more class left and my lovely husband insisted that I sign up for another session. And that I needed to go get a prenatal massage. I think I'll keep him around awhile.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Finally!
Jerad is on his way home. He thinks he'll be here by 10pm and he finished up so he won't be driving back next weekend. Our valentine's dinners consisted of him eating fast food on the road and me having grilled cheese (with swiss, salami, grilled onions, and pesto) by myself at home. BUT, he made 1/3 of our home birth cost so it was totally worth it. Plus being apart reminds us of how much we love being together, so I'd still call it a successful weekend:)
Love Muffins
Ingredients:
1.5 c. cornmeal
2.5 c. milk
1 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt (sea salt)
2/3 c. turbinado (or use white sugar)
2 eggs
1/2 c. canola oil
(If you are
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Mix cornmeal and milk, let stand 5ish minutes and grease baking pan or muffin tins.
3. In a large bowl mix together dry ingredients, then add cornmeal/milk mixture, eggs and oil.
4. Pour into pan/tins.
5. Bake 25ish minutes for muffins or 35ish for a loaf.
6. Enjoy with spun/whipped honey. If you don't have any.... your life is not complete and you really should go out and buy some.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Jerad and I are celebrating pretty low key this year... and by "low key" I mean I haven't seen him since about 6am on Friday and am hoping that he gets home before 11 tonight:(
This is the first Valentine's Day we've spent apart in 4 years. He is working on a solar side-job in Bakersfield. It started off only going to take Friday, and things have just gone downhill from there. I know he's not stoked with the way things are going and I feel sorry for him. Instead of a day trip up to the Bay Area and fancy dinner... he gets to work in BAKERSFIELD.
Hopefully he gets wrapped up at a decent time tonight (I still haven't heard from him today except an early am V-Day text) and we can still have dinner. If not it's no big deal. I do kind of miss that boy though, we don't spend very many nights apart. Even when he "moved out" for 9 months so we could both have some independence and experience "living alone" before we got married, I think there was actually only 10 nights we didn't spend together. We're kind of snugglers, it was too hard to give it up:)
I thought I was going to have issues sleeping alone like I normally do when one of us is out of town, but (shhh) it's kind of been heaven. I can stretch out and take up the whole bed or prop as many pillows around me as I want without pushing Jerad against the wall. Even though I've been sleeping soundly I can't wait for him to come home. The house is kind of lonely with just me and the pups.
I've had a pretty laid back weekend. I saw a few movies with my mom, went shopping for a few things, cleaned, took a few naps, and bought Jerad a V-day gift:
He's obsessed with Alton Brown so he'll be pretty excited.
My only plans for the rest of the day are to walk to the store and get some corn meal so I make cornbread muffins (his fav).
This is the first Valentine's Day we've spent apart in 4 years. He is working on a solar side-job in Bakersfield. It started off only going to take Friday, and things have just gone downhill from there. I know he's not stoked with the way things are going and I feel sorry for him. Instead of a day trip up to the Bay Area and fancy dinner... he gets to work in BAKERSFIELD.
Hopefully he gets wrapped up at a decent time tonight (I still haven't heard from him today except an early am V-Day text) and we can still have dinner. If not it's no big deal. I do kind of miss that boy though, we don't spend very many nights apart. Even when he "moved out" for 9 months so we could both have some independence and experience "living alone" before we got married, I think there was actually only 10 nights we didn't spend together. We're kind of snugglers, it was too hard to give it up:)
I thought I was going to have issues sleeping alone like I normally do when one of us is out of town, but (shhh) it's kind of been heaven. I can stretch out and take up the whole bed or prop as many pillows around me as I want without pushing Jerad against the wall. Even though I've been sleeping soundly I can't wait for him to come home. The house is kind of lonely with just me and the pups.
I've had a pretty laid back weekend. I saw a few movies with my mom, went shopping for a few things, cleaned, took a few naps, and bought Jerad a V-day gift:
He's obsessed with Alton Brown so he'll be pretty excited.My only plans for the rest of the day are to walk to the store and get some corn meal so I make cornbread muffins (his fav).
Saturday, February 13, 2010
29 weeks
And thank you God for some warm weather! I can finally wear something besides pants! My goal today is to go buy a bra that fits. I think continuing to cram my boobs into my VS 34B underwire bras is starting to cause permanent damage...
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Switching Care at 29 weeks.
So, basically I am busy and lazy at the same time so I thought the easiest way to tell this story in a timely fashion would be to copy part of an email that I sent to my mother in-law today:
Jerad and I actually had a consult with a new midwife yesterday and are switching care to her. Neither one of us had really ever resonated with the nurse midwives at Creating Harmony and had been having reservations about them and delivering in a hospital all along. So many people love them, but I think their approach/attitude/practice just wasn't a good fit for us. They are so busy (each midwife delivers about 30 babies A MONTH) so they don't really have time to get to know the patients. The appointments were all really short and impersonal and honestly not worth the drive to San Luis. The receptionist is AWFUL. Plus even though French hospital has birth tubs, you can't actually have the baby in them, they're just for use during labor and a waterbirth is something that I had really wanted to do if possible.
The last straw was my last prenatal appointment when the Glucose Tolerance Test came up. She wrote up a script for me to go take the test before my next appointment and was basically like "its time for you to do the GTT test" without discussing it at all. I told her I had a few reservations about it which made her get all snarky because she had to sit back down and talk to me some more :) I told her that I didn't have ANY of the risk factors for gestational diabetes (family history, advanced maternal age, excess weight, PCOS) and at every appointment I have never measured abnormal for sugars or proteins in my urine. I also told her that I felt like the test wouldn't really be accurate for me because normally I do not eat refined carbs or sugar, drink soda, heck, I don't even have juice with breakfast! So waking up and drinking a super sugary high fructose drink and seeing how my body processes it didn't make very much sense to me. If my body can't process a million grams of high fructose corn syrup on an empty stomach.... its not really an issue because that situation is never going to present itself in my day to day life. Even assuming I DID have GD, they would put me on a diet and exercise program that is basically the same as what I'm doing now so... I just wasn't interested in the test at all.
She was not happy and told me that while I could "technically" refuse the test I should know that babies born to mothers with GD can have all sorts of complications including excessive growth or worst case scenario, be a still birth. We went back and forth and I basically told her if I were having any symptoms or issues, or had family history or any other risk factors I would probably be fine with doing the test. Or maybe even if SHE was actually convinced/concerned that I had some type of risk. I also said I was open to measuring my fasting and after meal sugars with a monitor for a week OR possibly eating a high carb more normal breakfast instead of the glucola then having the GTT test done. She wasn't happy, but was willing to work with that and thats sort of how we left it. She dug around the office and found the "alternative" diet sheet for people that can't drink the glucose stuff. Its something like a piece of white bread with butter and jelly, an egg, grape juice, and a few other things.
When I got home I told Jerad how the apt went and he pointed out that if thats how they act about something so trivial then they probably aren't going to be the best advocates of our wishes in the hospital either. Anyways, I didn't really know where to go from there. Jerad suggested that we drive to the bay area and have a midwife attended birth center birth there but driving hours in labor didn't seem very enticing to me so I decided I'd just suck it up and keep trying to like the people we'd already been seeing and maybe lower my expectations a little.
Then, last week while I was looking for pediatricians, I found a naturopathic physician specializing in pediatrics who had just moved to the area. A lot of people were saying really great things about her on message boards. THEN I found out that she is also a licensed home birth midwife. We met with her yesterday for a consult and just to see how we felt about her. The appointment ended up lasting TWO HOURS. She was soooo personable and such a great fit and we all just "clicked." She has so much experience, and since she is also a pediatric physician in the super rare case that a complication did occur with the baby after birth she is more than capable of dealing with it. The only thing that was kind of holding us back was the cost. Home births are usually $2000ish-$7000 depending on the area. Plus its a huge ordeal to get insurance to cover it so they are pretty much all out of pocket. In our county there is NO competition. Prior to her moving here we were down to ONE midwife that would attend homebirths (we had called her when we first found out I was pregnant but she is on vacation when I'm due). Plus, everything in general is expensive here so I just figured it would be on the upper end of the cost spectrum. But, she only charges $4,200 for all of the prenatal appointments, birth, and post natal appointments/baby checks (done at 1 and 3 days, then 1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks). I asked her if since I had already had a lot of my prenatal "care" completed so far if she would be willing to give us a discount, and offered to pay her the whole amount at once. She offered to take off more than we were hoping for. So, yesterday I called Creating Harmony and told them we were switching providers and we officially get our home water birth!
A few weeks ago Jerad and I were talking about our concern/reservations/fears about labor and delivery and switching providers and taking the hospital out of the equation literally wipes out everything we were worried about. So, we're both pretty happy now!
So, that's what's up for now. I have my first appointment with her next Thursday then will see her every 2 weeks until 36 weeks, and every week after that. She does the post natal and baby visits at 1 day, 3 days, then one week at our home, then 3 weeks and 6 weeks in her office. I am SUPER stoked that she is also a family practice doctor because now our family will have a doctor! Jerad and I never go unless there is something really wrong (like when I thought I broke my arm or he got a double ear infection and mono) and then we just go to an Urgent Care. We're both pretty leery of western medicine and usually do natural treatments at home but it would be SO NICE to have a doctor that we had a relationship with and was a naturopath!
Edited to add: I just wanted to say that even though Creating Harmony and French hospital didn't work out for us, I think they are both GREAT options! I know so many people who have used one of both and had the best experiences. I'm not trying to say that a home birth is the "right" way to go, its just so right for us :)
***
Jerad and I actually had a consult with a new midwife yesterday and are switching care to her. Neither one of us had really ever resonated with the nurse midwives at Creating Harmony and had been having reservations about them and delivering in a hospital all along. So many people love them, but I think their approach/attitude/practice just wasn't a good fit for us. They are so busy (each midwife delivers about 30 babies A MONTH) so they don't really have time to get to know the patients. The appointments were all really short and impersonal and honestly not worth the drive to San Luis. The receptionist is AWFUL. Plus even though French hospital has birth tubs, you can't actually have the baby in them, they're just for use during labor and a waterbirth is something that I had really wanted to do if possible.
The last straw was my last prenatal appointment when the Glucose Tolerance Test came up. She wrote up a script for me to go take the test before my next appointment and was basically like "its time for you to do the GTT test" without discussing it at all. I told her I had a few reservations about it which made her get all snarky because she had to sit back down and talk to me some more :) I told her that I didn't have ANY of the risk factors for gestational diabetes (family history, advanced maternal age, excess weight, PCOS) and at every appointment I have never measured abnormal for sugars or proteins in my urine. I also told her that I felt like the test wouldn't really be accurate for me because normally I do not eat refined carbs or sugar, drink soda, heck, I don't even have juice with breakfast! So waking up and drinking a super sugary high fructose drink and seeing how my body processes it didn't make very much sense to me. If my body can't process a million grams of high fructose corn syrup on an empty stomach.... its not really an issue because that situation is never going to present itself in my day to day life. Even assuming I DID have GD, they would put me on a diet and exercise program that is basically the same as what I'm doing now so... I just wasn't interested in the test at all.
She was not happy and told me that while I could "technically" refuse the test I should know that babies born to mothers with GD can have all sorts of complications including excessive growth or worst case scenario, be a still birth. We went back and forth and I basically told her if I were having any symptoms or issues, or had family history or any other risk factors I would probably be fine with doing the test. Or maybe even if SHE was actually convinced/concerned that I had some type of risk. I also said I was open to measuring my fasting and after meal sugars with a monitor for a week OR possibly eating a high carb more normal breakfast instead of the glucola then having the GTT test done. She wasn't happy, but was willing to work with that and thats sort of how we left it. She dug around the office and found the "alternative" diet sheet for people that can't drink the glucose stuff. Its something like a piece of white bread with butter and jelly, an egg, grape juice, and a few other things.
When I got home I told Jerad how the apt went and he pointed out that if thats how they act about something so trivial then they probably aren't going to be the best advocates of our wishes in the hospital either. Anyways, I didn't really know where to go from there. Jerad suggested that we drive to the bay area and have a midwife attended birth center birth there but driving hours in labor didn't seem very enticing to me so I decided I'd just suck it up and keep trying to like the people we'd already been seeing and maybe lower my expectations a little.
Then, last week while I was looking for pediatricians, I found a naturopathic physician specializing in pediatrics who had just moved to the area. A lot of people were saying really great things about her on message boards. THEN I found out that she is also a licensed home birth midwife. We met with her yesterday for a consult and just to see how we felt about her. The appointment ended up lasting TWO HOURS. She was soooo personable and such a great fit and we all just "clicked." She has so much experience, and since she is also a pediatric physician in the super rare case that a complication did occur with the baby after birth she is more than capable of dealing with it. The only thing that was kind of holding us back was the cost. Home births are usually $2000ish-$7000 depending on the area. Plus its a huge ordeal to get insurance to cover it so they are pretty much all out of pocket. In our county there is NO competition. Prior to her moving here we were down to ONE midwife that would attend homebirths (we had called her when we first found out I was pregnant but she is on vacation when I'm due). Plus, everything in general is expensive here so I just figured it would be on the upper end of the cost spectrum. But, she only charges $4,200 for all of the prenatal appointments, birth, and post natal appointments/baby checks (done at 1 and 3 days, then 1 week, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks). I asked her if since I had already had a lot of my prenatal "care" completed so far if she would be willing to give us a discount, and offered to pay her the whole amount at once. She offered to take off more than we were hoping for. So, yesterday I called Creating Harmony and told them we were switching providers and we officially get our home water birth!
A few weeks ago Jerad and I were talking about our concern/reservations/fears about labor and delivery and switching providers and taking the hospital out of the equation literally wipes out everything we were worried about. So, we're both pretty happy now!
***
So, that's what's up for now. I have my first appointment with her next Thursday then will see her every 2 weeks until 36 weeks, and every week after that. She does the post natal and baby visits at 1 day, 3 days, then one week at our home, then 3 weeks and 6 weeks in her office. I am SUPER stoked that she is also a family practice doctor because now our family will have a doctor! Jerad and I never go unless there is something really wrong (like when I thought I broke my arm or he got a double ear infection and mono) and then we just go to an Urgent Care. We're both pretty leery of western medicine and usually do natural treatments at home but it would be SO NICE to have a doctor that we had a relationship with and was a naturopath!
Edited to add: I just wanted to say that even though Creating Harmony and French hospital didn't work out for us, I think they are both GREAT options! I know so many people who have used one of both and had the best experiences. I'm not trying to say that a home birth is the "right" way to go, its just so right for us :)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Bleck
Yesterday Jerad had a side-job after work and wasn't going to be home for awhile. I decided to visit my parents since I'm pretty bad about doing that and we do live in the same town now. I figured I'd stay for an hour or two, then go home and make dinner and do some laundry.
Before I explain how awesome I am, let me mention that my car will not let you lock the doors if the keys are in the ignition. I decided to get around that by taking out the keys, throwing them in my purse, then locking the whole thing in the car. NICE. Luckily Jerad was almost finished up and came and rescued me. Plus since it was so late my mom gave us dinner which is always nice (veggie lasagna with eggplant and cottage cheese. le yum).
Before I left my mom asked me how I'd been sleeping. I went on and on about how "oh, I'm sooo lucky! I just fall right asleep and haven't been waking up to pee.... or if I do it's only once. I sleep so soundly and feel so rested when I wake up." Yeah, three guesses what happened last night right? Woke up 10 times. No joke. I could not stop rolling around. A few times I even woke up on my stomach which never happens anymore because sleeping on a basketball is not the most comfortable. Usually listening to my hypnobabies scripts knocks me out. I made a playlist with three of them on there so I should have had at least 2 hours of sound sleep. Nope, I'd wake up all angry and annoyed feeling, instead of her voice soothing me it would just piss me off.
Besides sleeping like crap, I accidentally turned off our alarm clock this morning so we were both scrambling to get out the door and be at work at 7. Its raining today so the dogs have to be left in and one of us will have to go home on our lunch break to let them out. There was no time for breakfast. Once I got in my car the gas light turned on, and when I got to work I was greeted with an overflowing desk.
Alrighty, I got all the complaining out of my system so now I can just have a good day. Plus, I have my prenatal yoga class tonight! I'm hoping it relaxes me so much that I sleep like a baby. I think I might just go treat myself to a subway breakfast english muffin now. mmmmmm.
Before I explain how awesome I am, let me mention that my car will not let you lock the doors if the keys are in the ignition. I decided to get around that by taking out the keys, throwing them in my purse, then locking the whole thing in the car. NICE. Luckily Jerad was almost finished up and came and rescued me. Plus since it was so late my mom gave us dinner which is always nice (veggie lasagna with eggplant and cottage cheese. le yum).
Before I left my mom asked me how I'd been sleeping. I went on and on about how "oh, I'm sooo lucky! I just fall right asleep and haven't been waking up to pee.... or if I do it's only once. I sleep so soundly and feel so rested when I wake up." Yeah, three guesses what happened last night right? Woke up 10 times. No joke. I could not stop rolling around. A few times I even woke up on my stomach which never happens anymore because sleeping on a basketball is not the most comfortable. Usually listening to my hypnobabies scripts knocks me out. I made a playlist with three of them on there so I should have had at least 2 hours of sound sleep. Nope, I'd wake up all angry and annoyed feeling, instead of her voice soothing me it would just piss me off.
Besides sleeping like crap, I accidentally turned off our alarm clock this morning so we were both scrambling to get out the door and be at work at 7. Its raining today so the dogs have to be left in and one of us will have to go home on our lunch break to let them out. There was no time for breakfast. Once I got in my car the gas light turned on, and when I got to work I was greeted with an overflowing desk.
Alrighty, I got all the complaining out of my system so now I can just have a good day. Plus, I have my prenatal yoga class tonight! I'm hoping it relaxes me so much that I sleep like a baby. I think I might just go treat myself to a subway breakfast english muffin now. mmmmmm.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Weekend "fun"
Friday our doula came over for about an hour and a half. We talked about our birth plan, and she had nothing but good things to say about the home birth midwife we are thinking about switching to! She also is really interested in Hypnobabies and asked us to give her a copy of the tracks I am listening to and Jerad's birth partner guide so she can use their techniques with us during labor. She's taken Bradley classes and has another client doing hypnobirthing (different than hypnobabies but similar) so she will have tons of techniques.
We have an appointment this Wednesday with the midwife. If all goes well we'll be switching to her for the remainder of my prenatal care, delivery, and post natal visits.
We were both 200% sure that we wanted to do a home birth, but were unsure about the costs. It can range from $1800-$6500 and we live in an area where there is NO competition and has a very high cost of living so I just figured it was going to be on the upper end of the scale. Which still isn't a ton, but we've already paid for almost 30 weeks of care and bloodwork at the practice we're at now. Luckily, her normal fee is only $4200 for all of the prenatal, delivery, and post natal appointments. Which is totally doable for us. I'm going to see is she'll take a little money off since we won't be having as much prenatal care, and maybe we can get a discount for paying it all up front. Jerad's attitude is "its worth it no matter what" and "we saved so much by eloping we're still ahead" but... its still a big chunk so I think its worth asking!
Plus, the less money we spend now, the more time we can take off after the baby comes:)
This weekend we were able to check off a lot of things on our "to-do before baby gets here" list.
We hung the new wall hangings in the living room. LOVE THEM! I got everything at antique stores. My favorite is a 6ft by 4ft window from a Victorian house in SLO. Jerad painted the frame and we hung it on the wall. It really fills in the big wall in our living room without making it look too busy. I should probably take some pictures or something....
So now our room has been rearranged and the paint touched up, the paint touched up in the kitchen, hall bathroom, and the living room and hall both repainted. We bought new living room furniture and a TV as Christmas presents to eachother so the whole room has a new color scheme and feel. The guest room doesn't need to be painted, but we still need to touch up the back bathroom and laundry room. The shower in the back bathroom is finished too, so MOST of our indoor projects are done! Mostly all that is left is the nursery, and a little painting.
We picked out this fabric to make the cradle bumpers:
That will be on the outside, with brown piping on the top and brown on the inside. Its ADORABLE, and matches both our new living room theme (aqua and birds), and goes in our bedroom as well. Everything is almost finished with those.
The biggest project this weekend was clearing out the office/3rd bedroom space so we could start turning it into a nursery. Once we decided that it was going to be the nursery, we sold the bed that was in there. Well, that freed up all sorts of room for us to put our totes of Christmas lights, thrift store donations, baby stuff, laundry... basically anything we didn't feel like dealing with at the moment. It was a disaster. I'm so OCD I was literally losing sleep over it. So, we finally buckled down and put everything in its proper place so we'd have a clean slate. Here is the room as of now:
(the pics are from Jerad's phone so not the best quality)
On Sunday Jerad went to Lowe's and bought the materials to build the molding and baseboards he wants to put up. Think something like this:
The paneling will be painted a bright white, and then the walls a deeper blue. The crib set we picked out is "Pea Berry Ice," by Nursery Works:
It is EXACTLY what we were looking for! Not too "baby," simple, and easy to match.
On Sunday my brother in law came over to watch the superbowl and help Jerad load/unload the lumber. I made a few dips and had to buy mayo for the second time in 4 years. That stuff freaks me out! I always use sour cream or greek yogurt instead, but I was making a new dip and wanted to make sure the flavor was right. We had jalapeño popper dip, spinach dip, veggies and ranch dip, homemade buffalo chicken tenders, and nachos. Annnnd today we get to pay for our sins; for snacks we have cottage cheese and veggies, Jerad got up before work to workout this morning and is running tonight, and I walked 2 miles on my lunch and am working out tonight. It was totally worth it tho:)
Jerad has a lot of side jobs going on right now (he's even working in Bakersfield next weekend for 2 days!) so I don't know what we'll be able to accomplish during the week but the goals are:
We have an appointment this Wednesday with the midwife. If all goes well we'll be switching to her for the remainder of my prenatal care, delivery, and post natal visits.
We were both 200% sure that we wanted to do a home birth, but were unsure about the costs. It can range from $1800-$6500 and we live in an area where there is NO competition and has a very high cost of living so I just figured it was going to be on the upper end of the scale. Which still isn't a ton, but we've already paid for almost 30 weeks of care and bloodwork at the practice we're at now. Luckily, her normal fee is only $4200 for all of the prenatal, delivery, and post natal appointments. Which is totally doable for us. I'm going to see is she'll take a little money off since we won't be having as much prenatal care, and maybe we can get a discount for paying it all up front. Jerad's attitude is "its worth it no matter what" and "we saved so much by eloping we're still ahead" but... its still a big chunk so I think its worth asking!
Plus, the less money we spend now, the more time we can take off after the baby comes:)
This weekend we were able to check off a lot of things on our "to-do before baby gets here" list.
We hung the new wall hangings in the living room. LOVE THEM! I got everything at antique stores. My favorite is a 6ft by 4ft window from a Victorian house in SLO. Jerad painted the frame and we hung it on the wall. It really fills in the big wall in our living room without making it look too busy. I should probably take some pictures or something....
So now our room has been rearranged and the paint touched up, the paint touched up in the kitchen, hall bathroom, and the living room and hall both repainted. We bought new living room furniture and a TV as Christmas presents to eachother so the whole room has a new color scheme and feel. The guest room doesn't need to be painted, but we still need to touch up the back bathroom and laundry room. The shower in the back bathroom is finished too, so MOST of our indoor projects are done! Mostly all that is left is the nursery, and a little painting.
We picked out this fabric to make the cradle bumpers:
That will be on the outside, with brown piping on the top and brown on the inside. Its ADORABLE, and matches both our new living room theme (aqua and birds), and goes in our bedroom as well. Everything is almost finished with those.The biggest project this weekend was clearing out the office/3rd bedroom space so we could start turning it into a nursery. Once we decided that it was going to be the nursery, we sold the bed that was in there. Well, that freed up all sorts of room for us to put our totes of Christmas lights, thrift store donations, baby stuff, laundry... basically anything we didn't feel like dealing with at the moment. It was a disaster. I'm so OCD I was literally losing sleep over it. So, we finally buckled down and put everything in its proper place so we'd have a clean slate. Here is the room as of now:
(the pics are from Jerad's phone so not the best quality)On Sunday Jerad went to Lowe's and bought the materials to build the molding and baseboards he wants to put up. Think something like this:
The paneling will be painted a bright white, and then the walls a deeper blue. The crib set we picked out is "Pea Berry Ice," by Nursery Works:
It is EXACTLY what we were looking for! Not too "baby," simple, and easy to match.
On Sunday my brother in law came over to watch the superbowl and help Jerad load/unload the lumber. I made a few dips and had to buy mayo for the second time in 4 years. That stuff freaks me out! I always use sour cream or greek yogurt instead, but I was making a new dip and wanted to make sure the flavor was right. We had jalapeño popper dip, spinach dip, veggies and ranch dip, homemade buffalo chicken tenders, and nachos. Annnnd today we get to pay for our sins; for snacks we have cottage cheese and veggies, Jerad got up before work to workout this morning and is running tonight, and I walked 2 miles on my lunch and am working out tonight. It was totally worth it tho:)
Jerad has a lot of side jobs going on right now (he's even working in Bakersfield next weekend for 2 days!) so I don't know what we'll be able to accomplish during the week but the goals are:
- finish cradle bedding
- build molding in nursery
- make midwife decision
- actually put "craigslist stuff" on Craigslist
Saturday, February 6, 2010
8:00am
Dogs fed
French Toast made
Kitchen cleaned
Its raining so Jerad can't go to his side job...
So, its time to work on the nursery!!!!
Goal: Clean out all the crap we've been putting in that room (and put it in the appropriate places)
Build Craftsman style molding.
Paint?
French Toast made
Kitchen cleaned
Its raining so Jerad can't go to his side job...
So, its time to work on the nursery!!!!
Goal: Clean out all the crap we've been putting in that room (and put it in the appropriate places)
Build Craftsman style molding.
Paint?
Friday, February 5, 2010
Passion
Natural childbirth is something that I am very, very passionate about. My "fun" reading for the past few years has been things like clinical studies, Ina May Gaskin, Henci Goer, and natural birth/home birth blogs.
Jerad and I have talked a lot over the 4+ years we've been together about pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I would share with him things that I was learning and studying and he's always been receptive. He's done a lot of reading and documentary watching. I knew he was on board with the way I felt, but honestly I thought he wasn't that opinionated. Sort of like how he is with the way we eat; he knows the reasons, has read the research, knows its important to me, supports it and even likes making most things from scratch so that we avoid chemicals and additives in our diet. BUT he is also more than fine when we eat at someone else's house or a restaurant and they are serving white bread/pasta, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods and a big hunk of hormone-laden meat.
Last night Jerad was talking on the phone to one of his best friends that lives up north. I was watching Project Runway (is Heidi Klum ever NOT pregnant on this show?) and not paying very much attention. It started getting harder to focus on the TV because he was talking louder and sounding all excited. I thought he must be talking about one of his solar projects because that's usually when he gets all worked up on the phone. After a few minutes, I realized that he was talking about birth choices.
Listening to him talk on the phone and be so PASSIONATE about our choices and beliefs was amazing. He was bringing up statistics, and studies, and examples... using words like pitocin and dilation and sounding so excited about it at the same time.
He seriously had a 45 minute conversation (with another man) about labor and delivery. On purpose. I guess my only point of this post is that my husband is awesome and its amazing to be having a baby with someone who is not only so excited, but so supportive.
Jerad and I have talked a lot over the 4+ years we've been together about pregnancy, birth, and parenting. I would share with him things that I was learning and studying and he's always been receptive. He's done a lot of reading and documentary watching. I knew he was on board with the way I felt, but honestly I thought he wasn't that opinionated. Sort of like how he is with the way we eat; he knows the reasons, has read the research, knows its important to me, supports it and even likes making most things from scratch so that we avoid chemicals and additives in our diet. BUT he is also more than fine when we eat at someone else's house or a restaurant and they are serving white bread/pasta, high fructose corn syrup, processed foods and a big hunk of hormone-laden meat.
Last night Jerad was talking on the phone to one of his best friends that lives up north. I was watching Project Runway (is Heidi Klum ever NOT pregnant on this show?) and not paying very much attention. It started getting harder to focus on the TV because he was talking louder and sounding all excited. I thought he must be talking about one of his solar projects because that's usually when he gets all worked up on the phone. After a few minutes, I realized that he was talking about birth choices.
Listening to him talk on the phone and be so PASSIONATE about our choices and beliefs was amazing. He was bringing up statistics, and studies, and examples... using words like pitocin and dilation and sounding so excited about it at the same time.
He seriously had a 45 minute conversation (with another man) about labor and delivery. On purpose. I guess my only point of this post is that my husband is awesome and its amazing to be having a baby with someone who is not only so excited, but so supportive.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Dream
I had the weirdest/creepiest dream last night.
Jerad and I were visiting friends and I had already had the baby. Except he was TINY. Like, the size of a grapefruit. He looked fine, was just SUPER SMALL. I was afraid to hold him so Jerad carried him around everywhere and would get him in/out of the carseat. When he carried the baby he'd just cup it in his hand. So bizarre.
I think I had the dream because of a convo we were having right before we went to sleep last night. There is this concert we really really want to go to:
We LOVE Billy Currington, and have had a great time at every Phil Vassar Show we've been to. We were already planning on seeing Merle Haggard when he is at Chumash, and The Devil Makes Three is probably one of my favorite bands. If you stop by, chances are they are playing in the background.
The slight hangup is that the concert is exactly a week before I'm due. And in Pozo (about an hour away). Its an all day show. Jerad joked that maybe we'd have a c-section baby (born in section C at the show:). We decided to go ahead and get tickets, and if we can't go we can sell them or give them away. OR, maybe it will be so stimulating between the crazy drive and loud music that I'll go into labor shortly after wards.
Jerad and I were visiting friends and I had already had the baby. Except he was TINY. Like, the size of a grapefruit. He looked fine, was just SUPER SMALL. I was afraid to hold him so Jerad carried him around everywhere and would get him in/out of the carseat. When he carried the baby he'd just cup it in his hand. So bizarre.
I think I had the dream because of a convo we were having right before we went to sleep last night. There is this concert we really really want to go to:
We LOVE Billy Currington, and have had a great time at every Phil Vassar Show we've been to. We were already planning on seeing Merle Haggard when he is at Chumash, and The Devil Makes Three is probably one of my favorite bands. If you stop by, chances are they are playing in the background.The slight hangup is that the concert is exactly a week before I'm due. And in Pozo (about an hour away). Its an all day show. Jerad joked that maybe we'd have a c-section baby (born in section C at the show:). We decided to go ahead and get tickets, and if we can't go we can sell them or give them away. OR, maybe it will be so stimulating between the crazy drive and loud music that I'll go into labor shortly after wards.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Pretty Excited
I just found out that SLO has a new home birth midwife. She is also a naturopathic doctor specializing in pediatrics.
I don't know if it will be possible for us yet; if she is available for my due date, and what the cost would be. I left a message and am waiting to hear back. I like the nurse midwives we've been seeing enough, and I know French is a nice hospital with a more "natural" approach.... but a home birth is something that Jerad and I really felt strongly about before even getting pregnant. So far the practice I've been going to has been good about me declining any tests I didn't want (first trimester screening, glucose tolerance test) and talking about our birth plan. BUT, its still not the same. It would be SO NICE to have our prenatal visits in our own home, and to not have to deal with the horrendous office staff. Anyways, I'm trying not to get too excited because like I said, I don't even know that its a possibility yet but at least we know there are more options for next time now!
So... crossing my fingers for some good news.
I don't know if it will be possible for us yet; if she is available for my due date, and what the cost would be. I left a message and am waiting to hear back. I like the nurse midwives we've been seeing enough, and I know French is a nice hospital with a more "natural" approach.... but a home birth is something that Jerad and I really felt strongly about before even getting pregnant. So far the practice I've been going to has been good about me declining any tests I didn't want (first trimester screening, glucose tolerance test) and talking about our birth plan. BUT, its still not the same. It would be SO NICE to have our prenatal visits in our own home, and to not have to deal with the horrendous office staff. Anyways, I'm trying not to get too excited because like I said, I don't even know that its a possibility yet but at least we know there are more options for next time now!
So... crossing my fingers for some good news.
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