Quickie

Yay snow day! Well really it's an ice day b/c EVERYTHING is frozen over, although it's rapidly melting. Funny thing- watching dogs try to walk on ice covered sidewalks- a very entertaining way to start my day.

Rug Update

Thanks for the reminder about FLOR tiles, Meg! I did think about them, but was under the impression that they were more expensive. There are definitely designs I like better, but they are too much- so here are the 2 options.

Thoughts?






I do worry that the rug isn't very cushy, but at least it would provide some kind of sound barrier... and if the 8x10 is too small, I can just order the tiles separately and add on to cover more space. And yes, I am blogging during school hours. I am at school- on a day when I should be at home enjoying the snow. Yes, I am bitter.

Finally- a purchase- nursery news

We bought the crib on Saturday- FINALLY. Of course it was on backorder- at first we were told 8-12 weeks, but then she changed it to 6-10 weeks. See, S, we should have ordered it a long time ago since we bought it without your mom anyway! Who is always right? That'd be me. If you forget which crib I wanted, there's a pic of it in an earlier post- the AP Industries Lollipop crib- in white. Of course now I am second guessing getting a white crib- maybe we should have gotten a dark brown color? I think I'll feel better about the color once we have it and the room is set up.

We moved the couch out this weekend and are slowly making progress. The only thing on the walls are some of S's things on "his" wall. He gets one wall in the room since he had to give up the room for the baby. It was the least I could do and since his dresser and clothes are staying in the room, it made sense to at least give him the wall.

I am having a hell of a time finding a rug at a decent price- and by decent price I mean something under $200. I don't want to pay more for a rug than our crib! But I'm thinking we may have to suck it up and get a carpet remnant to cover the entire floor in the nursery in stead of a area rug. Even though our downstairs neighbors' bedroom is under ours, I have a feeling they will still be able to hear the baby at night- so we're going to need to muffle the baby noises in the middle of the night and the only thing I can think of is to carpet the whole room. Ughhh that will not be good for my allergies, but I don't think we'll have a choice :(

Now the next step is to paint the nursery (S sd he was going to buy the paint this week) and we still need to move the computer out- into the dining room. That will look good.

So here's my most recent obsession- crib mattresses. To go organic or not? The authors of Baby Bargains recommend getting the Colgate Classic I - firm and well priced. They also say that there is no evidence that traditional cribs are bad for babies... however, I've come across some info that says otherwise. While I wouldn't necessarily shell out 2-3Xs as much for an organic mattress just b/c it's organic, I would spend that money for a mattress that is not coated in potentially toxic chemicals used to make it fire retardant. So this is the dilemma. I need to find some reputable sources- scientific studies or something along those lines -so if you happen to know of any... Yes, I know that once this baby is born I will have to not worry so much, and yes, I know that I can't worry about every little thing b/c I will go crazy. But if I can potentially prevent SIDS by buying a mattress that does not have nasty chemicals that might be a cause of SIDS, then how can I justify not spending that extra money? Peace of mind... that's what I'm buying with an organic mattress. Specifically I'm looking at the Naturepedic ones b/c they have natural fire retardants and not chemical ones. Not all organic mattresses are created equal- not all refrain from using the chemicals to make them fire retardant.

Once we get the room painted I'll post pics b/c it might be awhile before this crib gets here!

Twins...

So we sat for the twins last Friday night while my cousin and her husband performed. Oh my god am I glad I just have one baby inside me right now! As cute as they are, it is so much work watching 2 infants at the same time! It took all 3 of us to take care of them (S, my sister, and me). The twins are about 4.5-5 months old, so at least they can sort of entertain themselves in their jumper and play mat. But that only lasts so long. M, the girl, is a screamer- she will cry and cry and cry and nothing can soothe her. While P, the boy, is as chill as can be.

I was quite impressed with S's take charge attitude while we were there- I think he wanted to prove to me- or himself- that he could in fact take care of a baby. Honestly, feeding them was the hardest part. They are the messiest eaters. Baby food got everywhere- my hands, my face, baby ears, baby eyes, baby clothes. And to make it worse, P likes to spit as he eats- so the food goes EVERYWHERE. The whole experience really made me appreciate the fact that I only have to do this with one child at a time- now I know why Kate (from J&K + 8) used to act the way she did about taking care of the sextuplets. Sooooo much work.

In other news, I spent Inauguration weekend holed up in our apartment. Between the cold, the crowd and my belly, I was not going anywhere! So when Baby T asks me where I was on the historic day, I will have nothing exciting to tell her.

I'm glad today is Friday. I think we're finally buying our crib this weekend. I've been pestering S about it for the last month- I'm worried it will be backordered or something and Baby T won't have a place to sleep! I'll let you know how it goes.

One more thing...

Tammy tagged me. So here's my tag post.



This is a pic of Natty and my sister. She's just so darned cute in her elf hat, I had to document it.

Here's how it works. Go to where your pics are stored, select the 4th folder and the 4th picture in that folder- upload it and explain it.

Rachel and Christine- you're it!

Crap- I think I jinxed myself

with that last post I mean. Guess what reared its ugly head yesterday- yep, heartburn. I better not write about any other pregnancy related ailments that I don't have because apparently that's a sure fire way to make sure I do have them. This sucks. So if anyone has any recs for pregnancy safe heartburn remedies, please send them my way!

Hormones are better. S and I had a good weekend and I think we are at a better place in terms of him being more aware of what is happening to me during this pregnancy. I thought about writing the word understanding in that last sentence, but I don't know if it's possible for men to really understand it all, or at least not S. So for now I'll just take comfort in knowing that he's aware that these next few months are going to be rocky and that my emotions might be all over the map. I think we're just not used to this kind of stress in our relationship- there's a lot we BOTH have to get used to and it's better that we start realizing that now and start working towards dealing with it now, rather than in 3 months when the baby is born.

Yes, that's right, I said 3 months- give or take. Crazy isn't it? Today I have 100 days left, tomorrow I will be in double digits. We still have a lot of baby stuff to do... a lot.

We'll get our first test run of caring for a baby this weekend- well 2 actually. My cousin, who just had twins this summer, is coming down to perform this weekend, and we are watching her twins Friday night. Luckily there will be 3 of us as my sister will be helping too. I'm sure it will lead to an interesting night which I will fill you in on later.

I am soooo looking forward to this weekend. We have an in service day on Friday - which for me will be a work from home day and then we have Monday AND Tuesday off- hello 5 day weekend! I CANNOT wait. Even though we've only been back to school for 2 weeks it feels a lot longer. I just hope I can get my reports done before this weekend so I can just relax. Speaking of reports I need to stop procrastinating and finish them up. S is at a Cap's game tonight so it's just me, the pups, and my dvred shows. What a night!

Hormones... (warning, this post is NOT uplifting)

...they suck. I've known that pregnancy causes changes in hormones for awhile- it's in all the pregnancy related info I've read. "You might be feeling more moody this month." "You might notice you're more sensitive." And on and on.

Let me back track. I've had a VERY easy pregnancy so far. And anyone who is pregnant or has been pregnant and did not have an easy pregnancy might hate me for saying this, but it's true.

Have I puked at any time during this pregnancy from morning sickness? No (I did puke once, but that was in my 2nd tri when I had that horrible bout of vertigo- probably the worst thing that happened to me during this pregnancy -so far- and that lasted only 24 hrs).

Have I suffered from heartburn yet? No (there are a number of girls on the message boards where I post who claim they have had heartburn since day one of their pregnancy)

Have I been nauseated? Not really- during the 1st trimester if my stomach was empty I would get a little nauseas, but nothing a few crackers couldn't fix.

So all in all, I feel like things have gone pretty well for me over the last 6 months. I've been really lucky.

And because of my lack of "normal" pregnancy side effects, I've come to think of myself as immune to any of the bad stuff. Not so much anymore. I've become EXTREMELY sensitive this last month- to the point where I'll be driving home and some baby related thought will pop into my head and I'll just start crying and I can't stop. Or I think about something horrible happening to S before the baby is born and I fall apart. Or S will say something in a joking way that I would normally be able to brush off, but instead I end up balling for an hour. I even had a breakdown Christmas morning over something trivial. It's ridiculous - logically I know that. But in the moment I am just so overcome by emotions that I just lose it. And even writing this post right now has me tearing up b/c I think about being sad in those moments and it makes me sad all over again!

The worst part is that S doesn't know what to do with me. He's never been good with emotional things and usually when I cry he just ends up getting mad at me. This last month has been no exception and that just ends up making things worse b/c on top of me being upset about something he's done unintentionally, I end up getting upset with the way he responds to me and it just keeps this vicious cycle going. And it sucks. The one time he had an appropriate response was on Christmas morning and so my crying bout only lasted 10 minutes instead of half an hour.

So I've come to realize I'm not immune to all things pregnancy related and it kind of sucks. I know it's going to be a long time before my hormones settle down- like months after the baby is born. In the meantime I'm just going to be an emotional mess and there's nothing I can do about it :(

Christmas Part Two

So we had our second Christmas today. Guess who wasn't there. Yes, that's right. S's bro was a no show. I don't really know why he didn't make it up this weekend, but he didn't, so it was just the four of us. I had a feeling E would not make it up here. We actually found out earlier in the week that E and his gf would not be coming up. It made for a relatively short visit with the Ts, but we had a mini Christmas dinner (complete with the best ham biscuits ever) and exchanged presents. I think E has known since Thanksgiving that he wouldn't be up here for Christmas b/c apparently he had plans to go to his gf's family's house on Christmas Eve. It was still a nice day and Baby T got lots of presents.

Now I just have to mentally prepare for going back to school tomorrow. I don't know where this break went. On the one hand I feel like I've been out of school for months, on the other hand I can't believe break is over already. :( January is going to be a busy month, so I hope that means it will go by quickly. We have progress reports due later in the month and a 5 day break in the middle of the month. We get the Friday before MLK Jr day off, MLK Jr day and that Tuesday (for Inauguration). So that will be nice. I think I can make it through January, but Feb and March are always hard. We do get President's Day off in Feb, but I think our spring break is late this year- very end of March beginning of April. That is going to make for a sucky March- come on snow days!

I am getting very anxious about setting up the nursery, and we have made very little progress. The couch is still there. We did manage to donate A LOT of stuff the other weekend, so that was good. I've been stalking Craigslist for a short dresser to double as a changing table. I've seen a lot of posts for the one I want from Ikea, but apparently other people are much better at buying off of Craiglist than I am b/c every time I email people about dressers I either get no response or they tell me it's been sold already. I did find the large version of the dresser that I want for the nursery. We're actually getting it today from a craigslist seller (as long as she calls us back!) So that will help clear up some clutter in our room. It's a lot larger than my current dresser so I will actually be able to fit all my clothes in it and make room under the bed for odds and ends instead of my clothes. I think we also figured out paint colors. S hasn't decided when he wants to paint yet, but once that's done I'll feel like we're actually getting somewhere.

I've spent enough time this break procrastinating, so I guess I should put in a few hours of report writing tonight and make my life easier the next couple of weekends. Off to do work!

Welcoming in 2009

Happy New Year!

I actually managed to stay up pretty late last night- 1:30! I think it's because I've been on vacation for awhile now and I'm not as exhausted as I usually am from teaching. We had a nice night last night. My sister and E came down for dinner, as did our neighbors across the hall. I made lasagna- yum! Then we played some Catchphrase and Guitar Hero before turning on Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest. I have to say, as much as I'm into tradition, I think it's time for Dick Clark to retire from hosting NYE- I just feel so bad for him and it makes me sooo uncomfortable to watch him on tv. Although he was a bit better this year than last year. Anyway, the drinkers in the group managed to do a power 16 minutes before the ball dropped. I have to say I was a bit sad not to be participating in the drinking festivities of NYE- and it was weird to think that next year we'll be celebrating with a little person (although I'm hoping she'll be asleep at midnight, but who knows).

I am not a NY resolutions person- they annoy me; I don't know why. I don't think I've ever made one- I guess that means I don't try to improve myself from year to year? I think over the years I've become a less reflective person and try to live more in the moment- or in the future. I tend to not look back - and if you don't like back on life, how can you resolve to do something different in the future? So I have no New Year's resolutions to report. Instead I'm just looking forward to what 2009 will bring-a lot of changes for us, or maybe just one gigantic change that will result in a lot of small changes. Either way, I'm particularly excited for these next few months to pass- quickly. But I'm trying hard not to wish my life away by looking too far into the future. It will be hard, but I'm going to focus on enjoying these last few months of just the two of us.

In baby news, we've reached another milestone- 24 weeks- viability day. Every day from today, baby T has a greater chance of survival if she is born prematurely. Let's just hope we don't have to deal with that scenario, but if we do...

S and I are settling in for a day of vegging before our busy weekend starts. We have a lot of TV to watch- the NHL winter classic- Blackhawks vs Red Wings in Chicago, a Caps game later tonight and the Virginia Tech bowl game. We'll see how much of the sports I can tolerate today. Then tomorrow it's off to test strollers and look at carseats - again- since I've vetoed the ones we originally registered for- too many bad reviews. We also have to do some last minute Christmas shopping- yes, I know it's over, but we still have to do ours with the Ts and S's bro is bringing up his girlfriend and her son, so we have to figure out what to get them. Then it's Christmas at the T's on Sunday- not exactly how I want to spend my last day of break, but oh well.

Enjoy the day and recovering from your hangovers! (I am not jealous about missing out on that this year!)