Busy Bees

It just hit me that I'm looking forward to this weekend.

Matt and I have been super busy -- not only with the nursery, childbirth classes, and Yoga, but we just have tons of things going on every weekend this past month and next.  It's making the time go by super fast which is a big PLUS.

Thursday night after work I'm getting together with my old co-workers (from when I first started working here).  I can't wait to see G again and show her my belly!  Friday I have off (Spring holiday), so we're all going up to Lake Geneva. My aim is to get a big blanket, my book "Birthing from Within," and sit at the beach.  Saturday we have Birthday Breakfast for my cousin Geena, and breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. But I always have a conundrum when I'm there... savory or sweet? Saturday night we have a party down the street, and the weather is supposed to be nice so hopefully we can take it outside.  And finally, Sunday is Easter which means brunch at a local country club and birthday cake for my uncle afterward.

This is a big time for birthdays and get togethers -- my cousins had their party on Sunday, my grandma's having a birthday party and a birthday brunch in the middle of April. We're getting together with friend for brunch... I have lunch again with my high school BFF which I always look forward to... and the last weekend of April, we're heading down to Nashville to visit Matt's parents.  Whew. 

May... nothing planned.  Seems like a good time to figure out what we're buying for baby and finishing up the nursery.

The nursery ... color explosion.

This weekend, Matt and I painted the nursery.

We haven't picked out any bedding, or... anything for that matter. But my dad's having knee surgery in April and wanted to get the crown moulding and trim up as soon as possible so that necessitated painting the room.

We have the pretty purple dresser that Matt and I painted before we got married; this will serve as the changing table.  We thought green would go great with purple, so we chose Benjamin Moore's Stem Green color.  (And I swear to you all, that we picked this out BEFORE finding out it was a Pottery Barn color-- because that in itself is a turn off... like reading one of Oprah's Book Club books.  It's like people need to tell us what to do and read because no one has an original idea anymore... but I digress.)

On the ceiling we chose a green 3 colors lighter - Frosty Lime.  In some ways --Matt and I joked -- this room would be the Mini-Me to our room (which also has green walls/ceiling and purple bedding/accents). Just more kid-like.

So the paint went up... fine.   I left the room for a while, Matt went to get a haircut.

When I went back up the stairs, the room all of a sudden looked like a Lime Bomb went off ... I almost died.  When Matt came home and looked up the stairs into the room, he almost fell over.  This was a SERIOUS Green Machine.

-----The website I'm linking to with the paint color appears to be a greyish, soft, green. It actually has more yellow to it, which is fine, but it's not as soft as it appears on-line.-----

All I could say was "Oh Shi%$t."   Matt said he loved it (even though he was as shocked as I was about the color).  All I could do was sit int he room and shake my head.  We tried bringing in the dresser and some objects to see if that would help.  Not for me.  I sat in the rocking chair, trying to rock my emotions away, but I couldn't.  I actually had to leave the room because it was so overwhelming.

Matt was insistent that after we put in furniture and decor, it would be better, and we agreed that everything should be cream that we put in the room.  But when we put in the cream nightstand, it turned green by the bouncing colors.  And besides, I don't want everything else to be cream. I wanted this to be a colorful, playful room.

What to do ... if Matt wasn't in the picture and I did this on my own, I would re-paint it instantly.  But I agreed to let it soak in.  2 days later (Monday), my dad put in the moulding and it looked a little better but ... nope. I still hated it.  I called Matt up, "What can we do?"

So we finally agreed to re-paint, but we haven't decided if we're going to leave the stem green on the top portion (like the picture of the ABC nursery), or change the whole thing.

Sigh.

A Parade of Felines

Matt and I love our cats, and we love taking pictures of them. Here are some to entertain you from this past winter.

Guinness napping in my Boppy pillow

Napping in front of the fire. Their favorite place in the winter.
Guinness had to take the ottoman since Mini hogged the spot in front of the fire.

Mini grooming on the chair.

Sharing real estate in front of the fire.

Nothing better than being petted by Mama. Guinness is passed out on my lap.

21 weeks: Level 2 Ultrasound

We had our Level 2 ultrasound Tuesday morning!

I will post the pictures in a different post later this weekend.

Every time I have to go to the doctor, I agonize over what to wear. I want to look pregnant, but not too fat. I'm young, I'm hip, I want to be a hot ma.ma, not a beached whale. But this morning I decided on my new lounge pants because I didn't want to add any unnecessary weight, but I must have tried on 5 tops. I finally said, "Why do I think the Doctor's office cares what I wear?" And Matt responded, "And I don't think they care how much you weigh either." My response, "Do I look too pregnant in this top?" No answer from Matt.

In the last 2 weeks I seriously popped (as you can see from my belly shot photos). I cleaned out my closets because I couldn't fit into any of my pre-pregnancy shirts (unless they were empire waist). And with that came the weight gain... I only gained 1lb at my last visit and this time I gained ... 8 lbs. I am now officially over 160lbs. Sigh.

The ultrasound technician was new to me and really nice. We told her we didn't want to know the gender and she said more and more couples are opting for the surprise. So I tried to watch the monitor but I was scared I might see something (you know what) and it was hard to hold my head up, but Matt was glued to the monitor. I kept watching his facial expressions and he'd rub my arm. Then he'd say, "Is that the heart?" "Is that the head?" The heartbeat was at 147 (same as 4 weeks ago) and my little butternut squash was measuring only 1 day behind, which is considered perfect (86 percentile). He/she was super active and I still couldn't feel a thing. The tech would have the wand and say, "That's him moving, not me. He's not staying still." In the beginning his/her head was in my lower right abdomen, and after 10 minutes it re-appeared in the upper left section. Definitely an active baby. We didn't get any face shots (no way to see the size of his/her nose), but we did get a good foot photo (clown feet).

I told the tech about my gallbladder pain and asked if the wand could move northward and check for stones or any problems. As far as they can tell, it looks fine. A stone would have to be larger than 3mm to show up, and normally they have you drink something before a gallbladder u/s. So if it continues to be a big problem, they can order that test. But no sludge, no irregularity as far as they can tell. The doctor did say that what can seem like gallbladder pain, might be rib pain from the expanding and shifting. The u/s Tech was able to see that my kidneys are already up by my gallbladder cause the baby kicked it out of its normal place.

So all is well so far and I'll be back in 4 weeks. Baby Screeman is alive and kicking.

Gaining too much so far?

First prenatal class

We had our first prenatal class with our Bradley instructor Tuesday night.

The class is almost 1/2 hour away (isn't everything in Chicago 1/2 hour away or more?).  Matt's train was late and as I was waiting to pick him up I decided to read the pamphlet stating, "Wear comfy clothes... bring pillows... bring mats ..."  I had nothing with me and jeans on. So we had to make a beeline back home to change -- this is so typical me -- and then like crazed maniacs zoomed off to class getting there with 2 minutes to spare. Along the way Matt asked how long the class is.  "Until 9:45PM," I answered. "Almost 3 hours?!" I swear I told him all this, but it's not until we're going to the class that he asks.

I couldn't tell if Matt was nervous or not, but I'm sure there was a lot of apprehension when he walked into the townhouse clubhouse where the class was being held, seeing 2 other couples sitting around and our teacher gathering items (she was a doula at a birth that afternoon and was running late too, whew!).  So there ended up being only 3 couples, and our teacher is this nice lady who sits on a yoga mat in Indian style as she described Bradley and the class (which I already knew most of because I recently read Husband-Coached Birth), and passed out a slew of material

The class is 10 sessions long, each one taking a different topic.  Last night was Exercise. So for the last 1/2 of the class, we learned all these different exercises we have to do each day.  Some of them include our husband (like the squatting, which I offered to help her demonstrate for the class without thinking that squatting in front of the entire class was probably not something I wanted to do as an Intro to "Hi I'm Rosemarie.")  And even the pelvic rocking - which is just for us - she had the guys get down on all four to try them out. Matt appeared un-hingeable but he did it.  A lot of the exercises were similar to things we do at yoga so it's nice that I've already been doing these, and have a feel for how they feel and know now how they'll help me even more in labor.  And as I was telling Matt, I do yoga alone but this is something we can share together.

He said he's going to be the best coach and make sure I do my exercises every day (like this morning on the train, I had to do my kegels). He insists I don't need a doula and that he will be there every step of the way, even if he ha to hold me up for hours on end. Smile.

Adios Facebook

I deactivated Facebook today.

I never checked it anyway, and frankly I thought it was an impersonal way to keep in touch with friends. My "social" networking involves personal phone calls, going out to lunch, and -- at the very least -- emailing my cousins and friends who live far. This wasn't working for me. Although I did re-connect with an old friend from my year in France and it was great to catch up. In the near future, I'm hoping for a "France" reunion.

Matt said if I deactivated, so would he. Neither one of us ever really wrote anything on it anyway. In fact, I told him that one of the MANY reasons I love him was because he never was on Facebook; if he was one of those people addicted to it, we would have had to rethink our relationship.

Door County weekend

Door County was so great and relaxing this weekend. (Click on the photo for pictures)

Door County March

This time we stayed in a different room at our usual Inn. I was totally apprehensive about this, because we've gotten accustomed to "our room" (where Matt proposed to me in 2002). But we loved this new room -- it's the only "suite-like" room at the Inn, so there's a sitting room in addition to the bed & bath. It was very cozy and felt like home. The view out of the bedroom was of the lake & pier (as opposed to the woods). Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day (ask Matt how many times we go out for breakfast!) and the Inn makes a nice one. The first morning, they made banana crumb muffins (in addition to their homemade granola, fruit, coffee, etc), and the second day they had cherry sour cream muffins. We "swoon" over homemade baked goods! Not to mention, they have an endless cookie jar filled with cherry oatmeal cookies, and in the afternoons a bowl of popcorn.

And speaking of food, we can't say we have our favorite restaurants yet -- since every time we go up is low season and not that much is open. But on this trip we did eat at all new places. Our first night we had dinner at Alexander's -- a white tablecloth place with a nice lounge and good food. We had a great waiter and Matt had 2 killer Rum Runners (not that I tasted them, but "killer" as in I drove back). The next day we had lunch at the Village Cafe -- a quirky colorful cafe known for breakfast all day, so I got their cherry pancakes (pancakes as good as the Pancake Pantry in Nashville) -- and a low-key/late dinner of thin crust pizza & tasty gelato at Joe Jo's Pizza & Gelato. The best thing about low-season is that there are no waits, and everything is casual (even the white tablecloth places).

Our main reason to go up to DC this time was for some R&R, so we took it easy this time. We hung out at the Inn a lot and soaked in the whirlpool ( I really needed this, my back has never felt so good). As we approached the peninsula, Matt realized he had forgot his jacket, so we found this outdoor shop in Sturgeon Bay where the guy helping us told us about Door County Land Trusts -- great places to go hiking if you know where to find them. So that's what we did Saturday morning - hiking near Egg Harbor. Afterward, we drove up to Sister Bay to go bowling and Matt played the best game of his life: 163! He got 5 strikes; he was HOT! My best of the 2 games was 142, which was typical for me when I concentrate, but I could not get a strike to save to my life.

It was a little too cold to go strolling through the quaint, picturesque towns, so we'll do that next time -- but driving on the curvy country roads was a lot of fun with the stick shift (I couldn't pull Matt out of the driver's seat).

We're not glad to be back - I could have used 1 more night and 1 more tub soak.

Door County Wisconsin this weekend!

This Friday we're leaving for Door County. We really needed to get away and Matt doesn't want me traveling too much (especially once I hit the 3rd trimester at the beginning of May).

So we decided to go back to our favorite place in Door County, the BlackSmith Inn. Not only do we have our best memories there, but they don't allow kids so we wanted to take advantage of it once more (before we have to ask someone to babysit!). The Inn has a special in March if you stay 2 nights, and even though it's cold in March, it's cozy (and we've gone up in October & November, so we're used to it).

The next time we go up to Door County, it will be a whole different experience -- no more fireplace, whirlpool tub, and couples massages, but instead camping at Penninsula state park, making s'mores, and waiting in line for custard. Wait - that sounds like even more fun!

Pre-natal exercise videos

In addition to my Wednesday night pre-natal yoga classes, I also bought 2 DVDs for me to do at home, and so far I really like them.

Gaiam's Pre-natal Yoga with Shiva Rae
This video is really gentle yoga and if you do yoga regularly, you'd probably find it a bit boring. Because I have my class (and I don't want to overdo it), I don't mind it. And I really like the modifications that they show - there are 3 women (Shiva, Poppy, & Britta) all representing the 3 trimesters and the modifications are helpful. I feel pretty well stretched and relaxed after I do it (especially in the evening).


Gaiam's Pre-natal Workout with Summer Sanders
This one is actually broken out into 3 workouts for the 3 trimesters. I've only done the 2nd trimester video so far. It starts off with some low-intensity aerobics and then moves into weight training all done with a band (instead of free weights). I feel like I get a good workout when I do the entire thing and I'm not pushing myself too hard. It's good in the morning to get me energeized. I'm happy to do the weights because I don't want to turn flabby and be strong for labor.

Now my mom wants to know why there are no videos with people who have run-of-the-mill names?

The Neti Pot

There are a lot of things, I am now realizing, that people don't tell you about pregnancy. Like gallstones occur more frequently in pregnancy -- and I have been having gallbladder pain for weeks now that radiate between my front and back (although the pain doesn't occur after I eat a fattening meal, but rather when I'm sitting in something other than my desk chair. So that would be the couch, the car...)

The chronic stuffy nose is another thing. 2 nights ago, I was so stuffed that Matt kept waking me up all night because I was snoring and keeping him up. Then he felt bad about it in the morning, but I decided enough was enough. So I bought a neti pot.

A few people have recommended this to me so I thought I'd give it a try. And Matt was there to photograph the occasion, not one of my better moments.

There the water goes in.

And there it comes out the other nostril.

I was trying not to laugh and breathe through my mouth as the instructions state. But Matt was cracking me up!

ABC... nursery idea

There's this new show from Canada called Sarah's House. I briefly caught the episode where she renovated a nursery and loved the idea she had of putting letters around the room.

These pictures are from her website. Now I'm torn between this idea and the wall decals (can I do both?)

Beautiful

Thank you Danielle from Where I Intended to Be!

Pre-natal Yoga tonight!

Yoga Update 3/5/10 -- Class was great. the teacher was so nice and it was interesting for the first time being with so many pregnant women of all sizes. I got to see what I have to look forward to and the fact they they can still do all these yoga moves was inspiring. I felt great when I left. Matt took the train up to meet me for dinner and then the drive home. Matt was a wreck thought when I met him; the idea of me exercising makes him nervous but my doctor said everything appeared to be going well. Doing this is good for me, the baby, the pregnancy, and hopefully the labor to come. Om.....

- - - - - - - - - - -

I'm taking my first pre-natal yoga class tonight after work. I've been searching in vain for some pre-natal classes in my area, but there really isn't much out there (or they start at 6PM 3 towns over and I can't make it there in time after work).

• A yoga studio a mile from my house offers classes such as gentle yoga on Saturdays which they say is good for pre-natal students, so I will most likely "drop-in" on a class to see how it is.
• A hospital about 12 miles away offers pre-natal yoga and aquatics classes, but the session just started the day I found out about them.
• And our hospital offers aquatics classes on Tues&Thurs, but our birthing classes are on Tuesday.

But I feel I lucked out when I found a dedicated pre-natal yoga class only a block from where I work. Classes start at 5:30PM so for the next couple of Wednesdays I'll be driving in so I don't have to rush for a late train. At least I can see how I like it. I loved doing yoga before getting pregnant and I'm getting some new aches and pains I hope this gentle stretching will relieve.

Wall Art

I love the idea of wall art and I think this would be so cool for the nursery. Matt and I really wanted it to be a colorful, whimsical room (the baby is, after all, inheriting a bright purple dresser!).

So I found this great website of wall decals/art. So many of them can work perfectly in a nursery. Matt and I especially liked the ones above - the jungle and the caterpillar, but there are so many to choose from.