The state of things

Right. So I realized that if I drop off the face of the planet for a week everyone is going to start flipping out and thinking I had a baby or something… so I thought I’d do an update. Things are beyond crazy right now ... this is a little scatterbrained…

Our Kitchen:

The kitchen is coming along… there have been several issues along the way (of course there were) but it's going. I was going to post some progress pics but decided not to. Our finishes are beautiful but don’t really look it with a layer of construction dust covering everything. So instead let me show you the carnage throughout the rest of the house:

Is that a stove in your dining room or are you just happy to see me?

Yeah. It’s BAD. The photographs don’t quite do the amount of dust this project has generated justice. And if the baby comes before all of that goes away… *cries*

Me:

I am currently 37 weeks aka 9 months pregnant. Which means that Gizmo is totally, completely, and without a doubt full term. Also the size of a watermelon.

Here I am at 36 weeks:

I missed both 34 and 35 due to the turmoil that our house is in right now… also the backdrop changed because the previous one is now hermetically sealed in plastic in the hopes of keeping construction dust out of the baby’s room. But, bottom line? I’m large:

According to my doctor I’m right on track with everything. My body is starting to prepare for labor (aka lots of contractions) and the baby could come at any time. However a 3 week early baby is pretty rare so Babywatch 2009 doesn’t officially begin until March 1.

Gizmo:

We had our third and final ultrasound last Thursday:

Baby picture goes here. I can't get to the scanner. See above house disaster area.

According to the scan Gizmo now weighs about 6lbs 3oz. Totally newborn sized. I was pretty freaked by how BIG that sounded but he/she is in the 32nd percentile – meaning that this is actually a pretty tiny baby. My doctor thinks that he/she won’t get too much bigger than 7lbs total before birth because there's just not room for any more.

I’m going to keep kicking you under the ribs until your body makes more room for me. You don’t need those pesky organs, do you? - Gizmo

Also baby is head down which is good. Although I'm pretty sure they are in there doing this:

How we’re handling everything:

Lots and lots of vodka.

Well that’s how we would be handling things… but since we’re broke and pregnant instead the main coping mechanism is this:

That would be our bedroom - the one room in the house that isn’t completely disrupted by the renovations. The pack ‘n play that my wonderful girlfriends got me is all set up and ready with diapers, etc, and my hospital bag is packed. I spent a huge chunk of time clearing off memory cards so our cameras are good to go. And we took the hospital tour on Monday so we know what's what with how this all goes down. Even if Gizmo decides to make his/her grand entrance nowish I’m ready. I’ll just live up here until the kitchen is done.

I really, really, really hope the baby doesn't come before the kitchen is done.

Birth Class #2

So last week’s class was better than the first class but still not what I expected at all. My observations:

1.) Everyone was a whole lot more relaxed than they were before. A few other couples were giggling to themselves and I didn’t feel like anyone had their Serious Mommy hat on. So either everyone was just nervous the first week or watching several births full on is a good ice breaker. One of the two.

2.) Matt and I are still the slow kids in the class – this time we forgot our pillows and blankets. Oops. So we rocked out the breathing exercises using our coats as cushions. I’m pretty sure that a good chunk of parenting is creative problem solving so while it looked like we were unprepared really were just practicing. Right.

3.) I suck at breathing. Seriously. All of the hee hee hee stuff made me really dizzy. The instructor said that if you get lightheaded to just slow it all down… but when I did that I was basically just breathing normally. Pointless.

4.) All we covered in class was un-medicated birth. Not that I’m opposed to that or anything. I really haven’t decided how I’m going to go about all of this yet - I’d like to have all of the information before I make a decision. Yet every single video we watched was about someone doing the whole thing naturally. One was at home and one was in a hospital with a dula there the whole time. We’re doing neither of those things. Add to that an instructor who adds “helpful” tidbits such as “well if you have an epidural you won’t be able to move your legs like that.” Or the even less useful “since most of our women have pitocin and you have to be on a monitor with the pitocin you won’t be walking around the halls like that” and I’m left with A LOT of questions. Like what is this monitor thing and why is everyone on pitocin? What the hell? I’m hoping they cover what a more typical hospital birth is like tonight or I’m going to go from slow kid to the annoying one who asks a ridiculous amount of questions.

5.) Powerpoint can be abused. But I think we all knew that already.

And just to leave you with some random... how about a cute Dexter pic:

I miss this little guy. He’s moved in with my parents for the time being since everything in our house is covered in plastic and/or construction dust. We have visitation rights but it’s not the same. Insomnia by yourself sucks – insomnia with a dog companion is much, much more tolerable.

Good Idea/Bad Idea

So this is an odd thing to be doing at 35 weeks aka 8.75 months pregnant:

Tues:


Wed:


Tues:


Wed:


Tues:


Wed:


This is either the smartest thing we’ve ever done or we’re complete idiots. Possibly a little from column A, a little from column B. Any bets on which will be done first - the kitchen or the baby?

Birth Class #1

So last Monday was our first birth class. Some observations:

1.) Of the dozen or so couples in the class I am the furthest along by about 2 weeks. I at one point heard one mom whispering in hushed tone “that woman over there is due in March” The horror! Clearly we are awful parents! Or terminal procrastinators! Yeah I’m not worried about it at all. My doctor said to set it up so that we finish the classes somewhere around my 37th week. Which is exactly what we’re doing. So I don’t really get why all of these other parents are there so early… except that…

2.) We are maybe not taking this whole thing as SERIOUS as other people are. Don’t get me wrong – we’re very awed by the being parents and clearly even going to this class shows we care a great deal… but not so much that we couldn’t snark on the terrible ‘80’s shirts the people in the book were wearing – Matt’s response “so to be your ‘support partner’ do I have to stock up on horrible polos?” Btw giggling during a birthing class gets you dirty looks from the other Serious Mommies.

3.) I am so, SO over pregnancy. I don’t even want to think about it anymore. And yet the second half of the BIRTH class was spent with the guys in one room discussing their feelings (no shit) and the girls in the other making a list of pregnancy complaints. Uh huh. So when all the Serious Mommies were hesitant to be the first one to open their mouths I jump in with “I’m stupid.” And they were all…???? I went on to explain that my mind hasn’t been as sharp as it used to be and how it’s frustrating when I’m at work and I have to redo things 3 times that I should have had right the first time. The Serious Mommies gave me blank looks and then proceeded to complain about things like not being able to tie their shoes and how un-cute pregnancy clothes are. Did I mention I was the only migraine sufferer in the group? Yeah...

4.) Matt has had it so easy this pregnancy. Despite all of the physical complaints I’ve had I haven’t really been that crazy emotional. No ridiculous crying jags, no complete change in personality (other than the stupid and a complete loss of empathy)… and the things I’ve gotten upset about have been more than reasonable (like the possibility that I will be coming home from the hospital to a construction zone). One guy even said “I want pregnancy to be over so that I can have my wife back.” How awful. Matt just wants the pregnancy to be over so that if he gets a cold my response isn’t “I have the same cold as you do and I can’t even take anything good. Suck it up and enjoy your day-quil/hot toddy cocktail, wuss.”

I’m hoping tonight’s class is better and that we focus more on the actual birth part and less on the pregnancy and feelings part… not holding my breath… although I have to say it’s going to be interesting finding out where all of the Serious Mommies stand on the more controversial parenting topics. I’m really hoping we get into the vaccination debate. That should be at least be fun to watch!

Superbowl Sunday and Gizmotopia Design Inspiration

First of all thank you for all of your kind comments on my sleeping problem! Really, though, I’m ok. I didn’t mean to worry anyone! It was just kindof a fluke that things went down that way and I thought it was an amusing enough story to share…

So last time Pittsburgh was in the superbowl we made a whole thing of it. We even rioted! Here’s the post with the recap of our trip and here’s my feelings as a Cleveland fan about the whole thing. I still feel that way, btw. This time, however, the pregnant lady was “strongly encouraged not to travel.” We debated it… but in the end decided that me going was probably a dumb move. Especially since if I went into labor out of state my insurance wouldn’t cover it (this whole pregnancy thing? Has made me realize that insurance companies = bastards) Just because I’m stuck at home was no reason for Matt to miss out, though.

So his superbowl day looked like this:

Matt and his brother Joel at the bar before the game


The bar during the game


Carson St. after the game


Above the city after the game

My superbowl day looked like this:

Yeah. That was the before. I don’t quite have after pics yet but I’m getting closer. My mom came over for the day and helped me deal. She painted while I organized. All of the baby clothes and linens are now de-tagged, washed, and organized by size. And can I just say that keeping the gender a surprise was a great decision? Because while I may not have any wee little outfits with matching shoes I have enough basic sleepers and onsies that I should be pretty set for the first 6 months or so of this kid’s life. Rock.

Also this burgundy wall:

Is now stoplight red. Matt and I had decided months ago to go with bright, primary colors for Gizmotopia after learning that pastels are bull shit. Seriously. As cute as they are infants can’t see them. They only see in high contrast. So we’re rolling with that as the “theme”

Other details we have worked out… We’re going to hang this quilt that my aunt made for the baby on the wall behind the crib:

Pic from the baby shower… I really need to do a shower recap post because this was just one of many gorgeous handmade gifts. This kid is going to be so well loved!

It should look pretty stunning against the red. I bought some plain red fabric and some of the black with bright dots that’s in the quilt to make matching curtains, bumpers, etc. etc. for the rest of the room. My mom is on that task as my sewing abilities are complete crap. Actually she’s in Florida with my grandma now so they might be working on it as we speak!

Oh and the crib! Long story there… basically we found a crib we wanted but surprise, surprise it was WAY out of our price range (architects make no money but have very expensive tastes. It’s a bitch). So we registered for the cheap knock off at Babies ‘R Us. Then they discontinued the knock-off and the store was sold out after they specifically told me it was in stock. Many hours of internet time and a lot of frustration later and I found the original, designer crib that we loved at 50% off. It was still more than we originally intended to spend but in the end I think it’s completely worth it:
It’s called the Loom Crib (pretty fitting name for my kid's crib don’t you think?) and it’s even more stunning in person.

And one last fun little detail is the ceiling fan:
We fell in love with this fan back when we replaced the fan in our office… but were too cheap to actually buy it. However, considering how perfect it would be for a kid’s room we figured we’d wait until we had a kid and then justify it that way. I can’t wait to see how it actually looks in the room!

And with that I have to leave to DD for happy hour... Have a great weekend, everyone!

Out of control and asleep

So one thing I’m constantly amazed by with this whole pregnancy business is how completely out of my control my own body is. For example:

The other morning I woke up and was feeling really nauseous. So I called into work to let them know I was going to be late and got the answering machine. I didn’t leave a message since I knew the receptionist would be in soon and I’d rather talk to a person than leave a message. Right. I then proceeded to fall completely, dead-to-the-world asleep on the couch without meaning to at all. I wasn’t even in the comphy couch spot! I didn’t even have my pregnancy pillow fortress set up!

Later on when Matt tried to call me at work and I wasn’t there he was a bit concerned since he left me awake and fully intending to go in. When he called my cell and noone answered he became real concerned. And by the time he tried me at home with no result he was flat out freaked out. So he called my office and asked the receptionist where I was… and they didn’t know. Neither did anyone else in the office. And when I’m not going to be there I always call in.

Mass Panic! Hysteria! Ohmygod where is the pregnant lady!!!

Finally all of the frantic phone calls (now from both Matt and my coworkers) woke me out of my stupor at about 2:30ish. Good thing, too, because that was the last time Matt was going to call before he drove home in a panic to make sure I was still alive.

The really freaky part? Even after sleeping all day I was asleep before 10 that night.

I am being ruled by a 5lb creature who demands sleep and there’s not much I can do about it.