Nursery: Phase I

Remember the dilemma I was having over what to do with the nursery furniture that was boxed all over my house? Well, about a week ago, I moved my brother's stuff into the front bed room and began phase one of Project Nursery. I assembled all of the furniture, by myself I might add, and set everything where I wanted it. The walls are still bare and paint less and there are no drapes on the window, but that will just have to wait. At least I don't have giant boxes strewn all over my house. It's nice to actually have a space for my little nugget of joy, even though he's not here yet.

The crib:


The most comfy rocker ever!



Changing Table:


Car Seat - This was a gift from my mom.



Summer semester is in full swing. I hate it. I'm keeping my eye on the prize, working hard and doing my best to remain focused. I finished last semester with decent grades; I knew I wasn't going to get a 4.0 this time and I didn't even try. I just could not put in the emotional and mental effort, I took my 3.75 with a big smile on my face and said "Two more semesters to go!"

Question: Why do people think that they can touch my belly? For those of you who have experienced this, please comment. People who normally don't talk to me (and perfect strangers) are now touching my belly - why? I would never walk up to a fat chick and start rubbing her flab, so why do people assume that they can rub my belly? Just because there is a baby in there doesn't make it any less awkward. When my son is born I certainly don't want people touching him without permission, so why wouldn't they ask before they put their filthy, nose-picking fingers on my belly? It boggles me.

The belly: 26 4/7 weeks




P.S. Don't judge my dirty bathroom - I asked for it to be cleaned two weeks ago and I refuse to break down and do it myself. It's the principle of the matter...

While I Have the Time

I figured I should put up a few photos of what we did this weekend, considering I go back to school tomorrow and life is about to get very hectic.

My stroller and the nursery bedding arrived right on time, so naturally I had to get it all out and play with it. I pushed Lola around in the stroller, she wasn't impressed. I made Kreat feel all of the pieces of the bedding and "ooh and aahh" over how soft they are; he didn't really care, but went along with it to make me happy.





Yesterday (Saturday), I planted our small, yet enjoyable garden. Due to the configuration of our yard and the fact that we have two dogs that love to dig, we plant our vegetables every year in whiskey barrels. It's not much, but I love doing it. This year our theme is "Salsa" - totally influenced by my Mexican cravings. Our goal is to grow our own ingredients to make our own salsa...wish us luck.

Cilantro: According to the little plastic stick in the soil of the plant, each of these tiny little things will grow to fill the entire pot...


Onions: Each little green thing is the start of one onion. We planted 27 of them.


Tomatoes: We only planted two; that should be plenty.


Peppers: Mucho Nacho's and Jalapeno's...delicious. We planted six plants. Notice the chicken wire surrounding the plants? The dogs LOVE peppers and without this reinforcement, they will eat any pepper that grows on these plants.


Lola and Titan weren't very productive as I schlept dirt and plants around, they were more interested in watching us.




This photo was taken today - 24 5/7 weeks; my son is almost viable. Explanation: at 25/26 weeks fetus's are considered "viable" meaning they can theorectically survive outside of the womb. And because I have taken care of 26 week babies in the NICU, I would really like my son to remain in-utero for a long time to come; no preemie please.

It's Been a While

Okay, I know I've totally slacked with the blogging, but for good reason. I finished my finals yesterday - thank goodness! I studied for four straight days for my advanced medical/surgical cumulative final and ROCKED IT! 97%! And I took the entire test while laying on the floor of my classroom because I was so nauseated and lightheaded that I couldn't sit upright in a chair. Ah, the joys of pregnancy and nursing school. I also had my advanced health assessment final yesterday (don't know the results of that one yet) and had to turn in my end-of-the-semester portfolio. Let's just say that when I got home from school last night, I was completely worthless - no, really. I went to Chipolte, got a chicken burrito with black beans, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce and cilantro rice, came home sat on the couch, ate the whole thing, and didn't move until I went to bed. My brain was mush.

Although the spring semester is over, I start summer school on Monday morning. Four days a week. Yippee (sense the tone). Summer school runs until the first part of July, then I have 13 12-hour shifts to complete during the month of July, also for school, so that I don't have to do them once the baby is here. My summer "vacation" will be a whopping total of 18 days...August 1-18, then fall semester begins, I have a baby and I find out what I'm really made of. Pray for me.

This morning I had a chiropractic appointment. I have been experiencing the most miserable sciatic nerve pain for weeks now, some days I truly cannot walk from my bedroom to the kitchen. I finally decided to try chiropractic therapy - I've been impressed. This morning was my third appointment and I've been feeling great. For those of you who don't know what sciatic nerve pain feels like, let me tell you: on my worst day last week I could not sit, lay on my back, lay on either side or stand without continuous sharp, shooting pain running down my left leg, starting at my glute and radiating to my calf. There was no position that helped it, but every movement hurt it. And because I am pregnant, there were no anti-inflammatory drugs that I could take for it. Just good ole Tylenol, which does nothing. It was lovely. But, I'm feeling much better.

The baby furniture and miscellaneous items have been arriving to the house, which is quite exciting. For those of you who don't know, my brother Bob has been staying with us; he's actually in the room that the baby will be in, so we have boxes of baby furniture strewn around the house and closets of stuff because there's no place to put it yet. We can't set the furniture up yet, because what are going to do with it? Leave it in the living room? Bob won't be with us much longer and then I can tackle the most exciting part of this journey: nesting. I love to clean and decorate and I am super excited about that. We have more stuff on the way. The nursery bedding will be arriving tomorrow, the stroller will be arriving on Saturday, the rocking chair and cushions will be arriving end of the month. I don't know where we are going to put all of this stuff in the mean time. Our entire garage is filled (literally every inch of it) with Bob's stuff...who knew one person could have so much stuff! [For the record, we totally love having Bob with us and he knows that he has a ton of stuff; I'm not in any way taking shots at my brother, so don't take it wrong].

Here are some photos I thought you'd enjoy.

This was taken on Sunday May 11; I was 23 6/7 weeks. This dress does not show how truly huge I am...


Closets of stuff:



This is our changing table. It's in the dining room. Beautiful, isn't it?


More nursery stuff. One of these boxes has the ottoman to my rocking chair in it.


This is the crib...


Lola was helping me this morning


Here's mattress and changing table pad, which are being stored behind my exericise bike, which is boxed in with all of this stuff. Not really being used much right now.


I took these this morning, using Bob's bathroom to aid in the one-person-photography trial...Not bad. See, I totally look like a bus.



And finally - the belly! And I know it's only going to get worse.