She Says… A Weekend Off

Two events collided this weekend and ended up giving me a gift I didn’t even know I wanted needed.

1. We were planning on heading up to New Hampshire with some of Benjamin’s family, many of whom were visiting from California and who we don’t get to see very often. We’ve had a few crazy weekends of “exceptions” for Owen and I’ve been working overtime recently, so I felt like all I really wanted was a calm weekend at home to recover. But our weekends available for road tripping before this baby arrives are disappearing fast and this trip has been planned for months!
2. Then, at the end of last week, our contractor announced that things were moving so quickly with our renovation (THAT NEVER HAPPENS, I KNOW) that he needed ALL of our bathroom fixtures/vanity/tub and other interior “stuff” in his hands on Monday so he and the plumber and electrician can rough everything in. Ummm. Apparently picked out on Pinterest wasn’t enough. He needed them, like, now.

So we did something unprecedented that gave everyone what they wanted.

Benjamin and Owen went to New Hampshire to soak up the sun and give Owen lots and lots of family time. I stayed home and got the weekend at home I was craving, and was in charge of making as many trips to Home Depot and the like to get everything we needed for the renovation. Lest you think I got the short end of the stick there, I ADORE trips to Home Depot and making those types of design decisions. I also adored the idea of waking up to silence in the morning and not having my schedule dictated by anyone’s needs but my own. I also adored that Benjamin absolutely demanded that I get a mani-pedi and put my feet up for at least a little while.

Don’t get me wrong. I also adore my husband and child. But I think it goes without saying that a day or two away (or, even better, at home!) can be just what the doctor ordered. My brain, and my body, needed a rest. And this 3 day weekend gave me that, and so much more.

Friday afternoon while the boys were driving north I was able to reorganize a closet that has been causing me a lot of angst because our cleaning supplies were previously stored within Owen’s reach. The weekend hadn’t even started and I was already feeling proud of what I’d accomplished.

Saturday morning I “slept in” until 7:30am. It felt glorious. After 8 hours of shopping (and going to Home Depot, Lowe’s, HomeGoods, back to Lowe’s and back to Home Depot), I had selected and purchased everything on our list for the basement renovation (no small feat) and a few things that I needed to get the nursery from storage closet to cute space where I want my baby to sleep.

That night I DIYed a mobile that I wasn’t sure I’d have time to get to. I washed everyone’s sheets and towels. I emptied the nursery closet and folded and organized all of the clothes and blankets and hats and burp cloths. In short, I was the most productive person on the planet.

And that was only Saturday.

On Sunday I worked on a half-finished quilt I’ve been “working on” (aka have had sitting on my desk and sewing table in various pieces for the last 8 months, awaiting the day that I had a few hours to devote to putting them together). I got a luxurious mani-pedi for nearly 2 hours.

I came home, pulled out the power tools and installed some curtains in the nursery. I even turned down plans with friends to just “be” in my house and soak up the peace and quiet. I ate dinner in front of the tv. I didn’t do any dishes.

Now it’s Monday morning and my To Do list continues. Benjamin and Owen will be home later this afternoon, and before they get here I need to do laundry, clean the floors and the counters and go to the grocery store for the week. You know, normal stuff. But it feels monumentally easier to get done without any distractions.

I feel rejuvenated. And rested. And I found that my brain just worked better after having a few days to myself. Usually I’m the type of person who will go to the grocery store for milk, and come home with everything but the milk. This weekend, with a little bit more time and fewer demands on my brain, I found myself remembering the milk. That gives me hope for my memory returning once my kids get a little older. Mommy Brain is not just an excuse, friends!

It was like my own, private, super-productive babymoon. And now I can’t wait for the boys to get home.

She Says… It All Adds Up

Project: Big Boy Bed could have been as simple as mattress on the floor. But no, things are never that simple around here. Somehow my brain turned that simple change into a catalyst for making all kinds of bigger changes.

Here’s what I intended to buy:

• Twin bed (Our crib converts to a toddler bed, but since we are planning to use that crib in July for the new baby, I didn’t think it made much sense to transition multiple times. Straight to the twin!)

Here’s what I kind of forgot we had to buy in addition to the things above:

• Mattress
• Box spring
• Duvet cover
• Duvet/comforter
• Twin sheets (x2)
• Waterproof mattress protector (x2)

And then those things made me think of something else…

• Video monitor (We never got one when Owen was a baby, and I’m glad we didn’t because I would have obsessed over it… but now I want to see what he’s up to when that door is shut and he has no crib to confine him! We’ll likely get 2 cameras so we can watch both kiddos on the same screen.)
• Dresser? (Currently Owen’s clothes are all in his changing table. He is very much potty trained at home, but still wears diapers for sleeping, so we also kind of need a place to change him. Unfortunately he loves to climb his current changing table like a little monkey, and even though it’s securely bolted to the wall, I think it will be better if we take it out of his room once he is let loose. Also, we’ll need it for the baby about a million times more often, so it makes sense to put in the nursery. Which means that… now we need a dresser too? Maybe with a changing pad on top?).

And then somehow my brain made the jump that since we’ll be moving the crib and changing table OUT of Owen’s room and INTO the new nursery, we’re eliminating what we have been using as a guest room. Of course we knew that was going to happen, but the actual date (next Thursday) of the bed coming really catapults these changes into reality.

So, naturally, I started meeting with contractors to possibly put a bathroom in our basement to create a guest suite away from children… before the baby comes. Ummm, yeah. Maybe not the best timing, but it certainly would be useful!

I’m trying to convince myself that most of the new things we’re buying for Owen’s room are balanced out by what we DON’T have to buy for the baby’s nursery. And they will also be used for years and years to come (my good, sturdy twin bed lasted me until college!), so we’re investing in solid pieces, rather than something flimsy as a placeholder for the “real deal” when he gets older. Still, this feels like a much bigger chunk of change (in all senses of the word) than I bargained for.

She Says… Names, Nurseries and Nesting

Let me start off by saying that I am crazy. I know I am crazy. I do not have to be thinking about this stuff so early, and there are probably lots more pressing things that should be on my To Do list. But hey. Everyone has their things that they love to do. That they love to go overboard on. For me, right now, it’s dreaming aimlessly about the baby.

NAMES
I hesitate to even say this because I know it’s not the case for most couples, but Benjamin and I are nearly 100% on the same page when it comes to baby names. Before we found out if Owen was a boy or girl, we had a boy name and a girl name (first and middle names) all picked out. No fighting, no convincing, no stress. We just… agreed.

We kept Owen’s name a secret until he was born, even from our families. I loved the idea of the surprise when we first introduced him to the world, and I hated the idea of anyone other than Benjamin talking to my stomach like it was a person. Ew. We definitely plan to do the same for this baby.

Last night we agreed on the new baby’s name. It feels so exciting to begin to think about him as a little person instead of just an idea. I wrote the name out a few times like a teenage girl practicing her signature if she married her high school boyfriend. Except in this case, I was thinking about possible things that could be wrong with it. Too long, too short, would people misspell it, do the initials spell anything strange, how does it look and sound with our last name, and on and on. Crazy. I know. Even though I did the same for Owen I did not realize until the day he was born that his first two initials are O.J. (Owen James). Yuck. Now I’m just banking on the fact that when he grows up, people won’t really talk about O.J. Simpson much!

While I am so, so, so excited for Owen to have a brother, thinking about names makes me feel a twinge of sadness that we may never get to use the girls’ names that we love so much. I guess we’ll just have to have a few more babies…

NURSERIES
Ah, the nursery. Yet another thing that I do not need to figure out immediately, but can’t stop thinking about. I remember having a yearning to plan Owen’s nursery when we found out he was a boy, and it was one of the most fun things we did to prepare for his arrival. Now that I’ve been through this baby thing once before, I know that you don’t really need things like matching bedding sets or even a crib in the early days, necessarily… but still, the process of creating a space just for this little baby is something that makes me so happy and builds the excitement for him to join us. So I’m going to do it anyway.

A while ago I started a Pinterest board with baby things I loved (after Owen was through this stage). This has become a great starting place for the new nursery plans. It’s fun to pin things that I like and then look at them all together and see that I already seem to have a design plan I’m drawn to, even though I hadn’t thought about it that way. So far it’s looking like gray and white with pops of orange. We’re reusing Owen’s crib and changing table (which I still adore) and perhaps even the rocking chair (though unfortunately I feel like the rocking chair was the only thing I picked “wrong” the first time around… it’s not terribly comfortable, which is incredibly important, especially if breastfeeding works out this time!). Any tips on choosing gliders, particularly for short people?

NESTING
The nursery planning is the beginning of the nesting I’m feeling, but yesterday I ventured up into our attic to find a book and saw the boxes of baby stuff I had put away after Owen was born. Now all I can think about is getting back up there to bring the boxes down and sort, wash, organize, etc. I know. I’m crazy.

Did you and your partner agree on names, or were you unsure until the baby was born? Was the nursery an important part of your “nesting” and prepping for the new arrival?

She Says… Shortcut

Remember these bookshelves that Benjamin and I made in our old house for Owen’s nursery?

It was a relatively quick and easy DIY project, but we still had to cut each piece of wood specifically for the weird wall nook we were trying to retrofit. And attach the pieces together. And paint them. And figure out a way to get them on the wall that didn’t show ugly screw heads.

As we were running out of Ikea a few weeks ago (yes, literally running… Owen was hungry and tired and Benjamin was hungry and tired and I was, well, hungry and tired, and we had a 1st birthday party to get to) I spotted something that stopped me in my tracks.

A picture ledge. EXACTLY like the one that we had built.

Ikea

For $9.99.

So I snagged a few and kept right on running. Look at how perfectly they work as baby bookshelves!

Apparently they come in multiple lengths, so I didn’t need to get three and make Benjamin all frustrated by asking him to hang them perfectly straight so the edges matched up (which, as you can see, never really worked out right so we ended up spacing them out across the wall so you can’t see the imperfect edges). But what can I say? We were in a rush. I grabbed what I grabbed.

They are perfect in Owen’s playroom. All of his books are off the floor (the ones we like to read at naptimes are in a shelf in his nursery; these are the “playtime” books), and, as a bonus, the shelves match our picture frames in that room perfectly because they are also “Ribba” from Ikea.

So now I don’t have to write a post about how to build those bookshelves from Owen’s old nursery. Because the answer is, “Get your butt to Ikea and buy some for under $10″. Easy.

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What We’re Eating: Not much inspiration today, sorry folks. Last night’s dinner was embarrassing. I stood in front of the ‘fridge and picked out what I could. Slim pickin’s, though, since it’s been awhile since we went to the store and Benjamin was still out of town. I think I had a leftover sausage or two, some bread with leftover white bean spread made from baby food, leftover asparagus and some cucumber spears. Lame. Since there were no good dinner leftovers, Owen ate a sunflower seed butter sandwich (his FAVE), broccoli “trees” and cucumber bites (sans skin, because it’s still a bit hard for him to chew… I find the rinds tucked in his cheeks while I’m brushing his teeth!), and strawberries for lunch. I’m defrosting a frozen hamburger I made a week or two ago and roasting up a sweet potato to have with a Dr. Praeger’s spinach pancake for his dinner tonight.

Apparently I need to go to the store tonight because Daddy’s coming home and Owen needs food for tomorrow.

She Says… Nursery Reveal!

To those who were reading back in July and care about how the nursery turned out, sorry to leave you hanging! We worked so hard on Owen’s room, but when he arrived 1 1/2 weeks early, there were still a few things left undone. The big stuff was in place, but some of the little things, like pictures in picture frames and some art on the walls, were not quite ready. I’m sure he didn’t care, but I wanted it to be “finished” before we took pictures for the blog. And so, here we are, almost 5 months later, finally taking pictures Such is life with a new baby, huh?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the room. It’s teeny tiny and a strange shape, especially given the angled converted attic walls, but I think it makes the room quite cute and cozy.

If you missed our other posts about putting the nursery together, check out these posts:

- crib and changing table
- custom bedding and changing table cover
- time lapse video of painting the room
- finding the perfect rocking chair

The shallow display bookshelves, the shelf next to the changing table and the mobile above the crib were all DIY.

And the art on the wall was a photo from my maternity photo shoot with Katie Ring turned into a canvas print by Za Za Gallery.

Ta da!

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In other news, don’t forget to enter the Barefoot Books giveaway! We’ll choose a winner at 6pm Eastern time tonight.

She Says… 38 Weeks

My little watermelon,

You are so close to popping out, I can just feel it. My stomach is so hard that it feels more like a bowling ball than a baby in there most of the time. I still feel you kicking and moving around, but the quality of your movements has changed a lot since you don’t have much room in there. Since your head is engaged in my pelvis getting ready for your big journey, that’s pretty stationary, and there’s not very much you can do other than kicking your little feet (which I can see poking out of my side!).

Recently I’ve been doing a bit of research on fetal positioning and how that affects labor. After a bit of belly mapping and poking around, I am fairly certain that you are somewhere between the Right Occiput Transverse (ROT) and Right Occiput Posterior (ROP) positions. That means that you are head down (thank you, you good little boy), but looking out and facing my belly button, rather than facing my back, which is the best position for labor. Not surprising, since you’re my son — you want to look around and not miss a thing, not stare at the wall! Your little rear end is on my right side, just under my rib. There’s been a big bulge in that spot for weeks, and now I finally know what it is! And the strong kicks I feel under my left rib are your foot. Thankfully, the majority of all ROT/ROP babies spin during early/active labor and come out just fine wthout interventions. However, I’ve started doing a few things to help you get into that position too. I’m sitting on an exercise ball instead of a desk chair (hoping to open my pelvis and hips in preparation for labor too), and spending time on my hands and knees and doing yoga poses like puppy pose and downward facing dog to give you some room to spin. It certainly helps to be working from home at this point; my coworkers would think I was crazy if they saw me!

Daddy and I are putting the finishing touches on your room. I feel like I’ve been saying that for weeks, but we really are getting down to the details now, hanging artwork and shelves and a mobile that we made. Can’t wait to share the pictures with all of your adoring internet fans All of your tiny clothes are washed and put away in your drawers, and diapers and other necessities are ready and waiting for you to arrive. It’s so much fun to feel so ready for you. This afternoon we’re completing the one, last thing that Daddy and I really wanted to do before you arrived, so you can come any time now, little guy. We can’t wait to meet you.

I have another doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so we’ll see if my body has made any more progress toward labor. I hope so! Daddy and I have both had a strange premonition/preference for you to arrive tomorrow, on Thursday, July 22nd. Who knows where we got that idea… but the other night Daddy said, “If he came on Thursday, that would be perfect” and I had said “I hope he comes on the 22nd” at a separate time, not realizing that was the same day. So, we’ll soon see if we are psychics or just wishful thinkers!

I can’t stop thinking about you. Every little twinge and poke and cramp feels like a symptom, like we’re one step closer to seeing your sweet face. Come out soon, ok?

With more love than I ever thought I had to give,
Mama

She Says… 36 Weeks

My sweet little man,

One month. Exactly one month until you are scheduled to arrive. I know that’s just an estimate, however, and I’m still feeling like you’re going to come a little earlier than expected (wishful thinking, perhaps?). I have definitely been feeling some changes in the last week. My Braxton Hicks contractions have been stronger and leave me feeling crampy in my lower abdomen in a way I haven’t felt before. Most mornings now, my stomach feels all mushy like I have an upset stomach or indigestion, but then it passes in a few hours and I feel fine again. I guess I can’t be sure these are pregnancy-related, but I bet they are. Also, my swollen cankles are still an issue, and the swelling has begun to affect my fingers as well. My knuckles are sore and a little puffy like I have arthritis. Perhaps this is what getting old feels like!

In any case, I am still so proud of my body for carrying you safely this long, and so proud of you for growing and developing like you are supposed to. You are such a miracle, yet at the same time what we are doing is so natural, it’s hard to think that I ever had trouble creating you.

You are still putting on about 1/2 a pound every week at this point, stocking up on that baby fat so your cheeks are nice and pinchable (and so you can warm yourself once you pop out of that climate-controlled womb). Man, I wish I had a climate-controlled womb to be in these days. Yesterday it was over 100 degrees, and the next few days are supposed to be about the same. Although I am lucky to be working from home and I’ve had our little window unit air conditioner going 100 miles an hour, I was still quite cranky and hot yesterday. However, I managed to take a little walk with Schnitzel and even get to the gym (being on the stair climber in the air conditioning feels SO much better than walking around in the heat!).

You now weigh about 6 pounds and are nearly 19 inches long. Big boy! You’ve shed your lanugo, the downy hair that covered your body for many weeks, and also most of the vernix, the white, waxy stuff that has covered your skin to protect it from being in fluid for the past few months. You’re getting ready to emerge. Believe me, I can  feel it. You’re SO ACTIVE. I feel you moving around at least 45 minutes out of every hour. I think Daddy and I are going to have our hands full when you arrive.

We’re getting really close now, little guy. Daddy is already giddy and I am beginning to feel “ready”, whether the nursery is completely finished or not. Not that I’m ready to evict you, thankfully I haven’t hit that point yet. I am just so excited to meet you in a few short weeks.

All the love in the universe,
Mama

She Says… THE Chair

The nursery has been a labor of love for me. Piece by piece, the room has come together and evolved. The design concept began as an excel spreadsheet with bedding I liked and paint colors and furniture, and then changed slightly as I bought each piece as a result of a good deal or a measurement I needed to stick to or what was available at the moment that I wanted to buy it. The room started as a pink home office, and has been transformed into a calm, cozy blue space perfect for rocking a baby to sleep.

You’ve seen most of the pieces I’ve picked out so far except one thing. THE CHAIR. I searched and searched and searched for the perfect rocking chair. For me, it was the hardest thing to decide on. I knew I wanted something upholstered (Benjamin and I both have totally irrational fears of creaky old wooden rockers — they seem too “Hand that Rocks the Cradle” in our home). And I knew it had to be compact, above all, because our nursery is on our third floor in a converted attic. Let’s just say the two flights of stairs to get there are VERY tight, and we’ve had to nix several pieces of furniture in the past that could not make the corners.

But I had one other stipulation, too – it couldn’t be stupidly expensive! I was shocked when I began my search for the perfect glider and found prices hovering around $1,000. Are you kidding me? Some people swear that they almost never use their rockers anyway, so I was not about to spend that kind of cash on a piece of furniture that might not even get a lot of use.

I LOVE the modern lines of the Nurseryworks Sleepytime rocker… but with a $900 price tag? No thank you! 

 

And the Pottery Barn Dream Rocker seemed like the perfect fit (and even comes in an impressive array of fabrics), but again, the price tag was a huge obstacle ($750 with the cheapest fabric option for the slipcover).

 

The mid-century modern design lover in me almost pulled the trigger on ordering an Eames molded fiberglass rocker, but when I thought about the reality of sweaty thighs sticking to the seat while rocking a baby to sleep in August, and how uncomfortable those arm rests would be while holding a baby in nursing position, I forced myself to rethink that decision.

I began to think that what I was looking for just didn’t exist. I checked Craigslist every day for new listings, and search eBay relentlessly. Nada. So then I turned to the unexpected source of the rest of my nursery furniture — Walmart! Lo and behold, look at what they have:

 

An upholstered rocker for $170. You have to buy the slipcover separately, but you get your choice of several colors for only $60, so the whole shebang is about $230. And free shipping right to your door! I read some iffy reviews online, but it sounded like most people were complaining that their slipcovers were not in stock at the time, so they had a chair they couldn’t use. The slipcover I wanted was in stock, so that wasn’t a concern for me. Also, a few people mentioned that it was kind of hard to rock on carpet. I figured I wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny that until I bought it, and probably wasn’t going to be a huge issue for me either.

My review: Walmart came through for me again! The chair is adorable. The chair base and slipcover (I got “butter”, which is somewhere between beige and light yellow) shipped within a few short days of placing my order, and all the parts arrived safe and sound. It was a breeze to put together (although easier with two people, since the pieces are somewhat large), but the fact that it shipped in pieces solved my “how to get this up the stairs” conundrum. Also, the brown wood of the rocker base coordinates perfectly with my crib and changing table without looking too matchy matchy for my taste. One downside: The commenters who said it didn’t rock very well were right — it’s not so easy to rock. However, that may be due to our plush carpet, and might be solved by putting one of those plastic pads down (like people do under a rolling desk chair) or even planing down the rockers so they have a different angle. For now, we’re going to live with it and see if it becomes an issue.

The best part? It didn’t break the bank. And in my opinion, that made up for the fact that maybe it wasn’t the MOST stylish of all the options I considered.

She Says… 35 Weeks

To my little sweet pea,

We are a few short weeks away from meeting each other face-to-face. Some days I think it might be only hours away. Yesterday from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to sleep I was more uncomfortable than ever before. My feet were puffy, my stomach muscles seemed to cringe at every movement, I was a million degrees and I felt all crampy and emotional. I’m hoping it was an aberration, however, because 5 more weeks of that would be exhausting. This morning I feel a bit better and the weather is more comfortable, which I think played into my discomfort quite a bit yesterday. Mama’s not good at being very hot (except when poolside!).

On Monday I went to my weekly strength training class at the gym with Daddy and realized it might be my last time until after you are born. Next Monday is the 4th of July (observed) and the following week I will be 37 weeks. Daddy thinks that should be my cutoff at the gym, since I’m starting to get some stares when I walk in with my gigantic belly. We’ve started to joke that one of these days they’re not going to let me in because I might on into labor on one of the machines. People look at me and guess that I am due tomorrow, not in 5 weeks, which I think says something about how big I am right now!

This week you are putting on the finishing touches of your development, my little mini-masterpiece. Most of that is just packing on the pounds at this point. You weigh about 5 1/2 pounds and are over 18 inches long at this point! Your liver has begun processing waste products and your nails are growing so long they may curl over the tips of your tiny fingers and toes when you’re born. And you’ve completely taken over my body — over the past few months, you’ve squished all of my organs out of the way, and any day now, you’ll make a final move and shove my heart up and to the left to make more room for yourself. I don’t really mind, but you have been making my tummy feel the burn, stretching over your kicks and jabs. You are so active in there sometimes I wonder when you sleep!

Things are slowly falling into place around the house. Your nursery is coming along and I washed the first load of all of your teeny tiny baby clothes last night. I can’t believe it’s already time to do all of these things. I’m working on hanging artwork in your room and researching the best products we’ll need soon like diapers and wipes and creams and lotions and bottles and pacifiers, etc. I now realize why some women choose to stop working before their due date… although it takes a chunk out of your maternity leave, you have the TIME to comfortably get all of these little To Do’s done before D day (delivery day!). I’m sure we will get them all done too, but it’s beginning to feel like a mad dash in the last few weeks.

I love you, little one, despite the cramps and aches and pains that are slowly but surely coming on. I cherish these last few weeks of having you in my tummy, and can’t wait to see your little face very soon.

All the love in my (squished up and displaced) heart,
Mama

He Says… Benjamin the Builder

So now that the nursery was painted, I had no excuse for not getting started on the furniture assembly.  Fortunately Kate, who has a degree in building Ikea furniture (not really), was still willing to help despite the fact that lifting and sitting is becoming more challenging.  I decided to give myself my own handicap by going out for some after work drinks with some friends prior to assembly.  I had, perhaps, one more drink than I needed which created some extra challenges in assembly.

We had three pieces to assemble: the rocker, the crib, and the changing table.  We got through the first 2 before I had to call it quits and go crawl onto the couch in front of the tv.  These pieces were actually much easier to assemble than I had anticipated (certainly easier than most Ikea furniture… these were from Walmart, and surprisingly a bit higher quality than the Ikea offerings), and had we completely followed the directions everything would have gone much smoother.  But we (I) didn’t, so I assembled the chair backwards, which required taking it apart and starting over. Ooops.  I would love if these companies would use Philips head screws instead of Allen screws so that I could use a power drill for assembly, but as they all use the stupid Allen screws, it takes much longer.

Anyway, we got the two pieces done and the nursery is really starting to come together.  The crib looks great and we put the bedding on and it’s really adorable.  I started to get all emotional (or maybe it was the beers) picturing our son in that crib in a very short time.

In a couple weeks we’ll have the room all done and will do a big reveal.