Progress!

It finally dawned on me that the hold up in the nursery was practically creating a physical barrier for me to feeling ready for the Little Lady's arrival.  On an emotional level, we're excited and ready for what the future brings, but on a practical level, I have apparently been keeping this gnawing feeling of unpreparedness at bay.  I didn't even fully realize it was there until last week when we finally set a start date with a carpenter to get the trim and door casings dealt with - as soon as I hung up the phone, I felt a weight lift and a sense of joy spring out of nowhere.  To fully test my theory, I then gathered up all the supplies I needed to make the curtains for her room and finally just went to a seamstress to make it happen (I was so worried about finding a good one that I never picked one since no one seemed to have recommendations).  After I left her shop my heart felt positively light and it occurred to me it was because we were finally making progress.  Not being able to deal with the carpentry issues in the nursery had started to feel like this enormous brick wall we had to scale before the Little Lady could arrive.  I was running out of options for how to overcome it so it was taking a toll and making me feel defeated.  Now I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel - one that involves us actually being able to set up the crib, hang her curtains, and finally put things into place in the nursery rather than have them sitting all over the house in boxes and piles (I'm looking at you attic!).

And because I love a good series of before and after shots, I did get some "before" shots of the room formerly known as the Den/Guest bedroom and soon to be known as the nursery - prepare to behold the chaos in all of its wide angle glory:

Looking into the den from the dining room door - our bedroom is through the door to the right and the door to the left, just out of the picture, goes into the living room.

Looking into the den from the living room door - you can see across into our bedroom.

The door to our bedroom is just over my right shoulder and the Little Lady's wardrobe is directly behind me.

With the windows at my back looking towards the dining room, it's like a where's waldo game in here - amazing how much stuff we've been squirreling away.

From the corner by the futon now, you can see almost all of the room, and out into the dining room and living room.

We had to clear all of this out before the carpenter started so the baby stuff went upstairs, and we finally moved the brown sewing table desk and the yellow dresser into the garage.  The blue wardrobe and dresser and the futon are staying, but we moved them in front of the windows and covered them in plastic.  The room looks so bare, but so full of potential now!

And for those of you who might be wondering how we knew we had lead paint we needed to deal with, here are some lovely shots of what 90 years of crappy paint jobs will do.

There's at least 3 layers of paint you can see there and in spots it's down to the wood frame.  The brown paint is the lead based stuff (I tested to be certain) that was covered by a few "newer" hasty paint jobs.  You can see where the white paint is essentially bubbling and peeling off creating the chips and dust that are the true hazard.  We were inadvertently making this worse when using baby gates to corral the dogs.

It's a little hard to see - but this is the door jam just below the hinges where the doors and the frames would make contact (paint layers a few centimeters thick will do that) then stick and rip bits off of each other - again, see the evil brown paint.  It's been a problem we've wanted to fix from day 1, but just couldn't justify spending money on it - until now.  The bonus is that all of our doors will now actually close and latch!  Hooray!

A few of my favorite things

So being preggo is actually not as bad as the horror stories I've heard.  Sure, the first trimester was pretty horrid for me, but after that it's been fairly smooth sailing so far.  In fact, I've actually come to enjoy a few things about pregnancy such as:

1.  A new wardrobe!  Through the generosity of friends and family (and some key finds at the maternity consignment store) I've been enjoying other people's cute clothes for the last few months.  I think I've been pretty lucky that I have friends with good taste so I'm enjoying what I have rather than dreading it and have a decent variety.  The only problem I've had is that I'm getting fairly sick of the cold weather and wearing pants and layers all the time and could use some more heat and sunshine to enjoy the dresses I have too.  I am also dangerously close to having no jackets to wear but thankfully I can still barely squeeze into one of Wade's larger puff jackets.  I will have a hard time parting with elastic waist band pants though - it sure it nice not to have to fumble with a button or worry about whether your zipper is down, or enjoy Indian lunch buffet without feeling like I'm going to bust a button!

2.  A bigger sense of community.  Friends have been even more supportive than I could have ever imagined and have been helping out with hand-me-down gear, advice, and tricks of the parenting trade to make the transition easier.  It's been incredible to feel so supported and loved by everyone in our lives.

3.  Time to be creative.  We painted baby clothes at our shower, but with the leftover paint, and some of the other plain organic cotton clothes I've been collecting over the past few months, I couldn't stop myself from continuing to decorate.  I used to do a lot of crafty stuff as a kid and I've really enjoyed having the inspiration to get back into it now.  I also love that friends and family pitched in to help so that the Little Lady will have a unique and fun wardrobe that will make us smile whenever we dress her.

4.  Prenatal Yoga.  When I was traveling a lot it was hard to stay with a yoga schedule even though I always enjoyed it.  Now that I can't travel and have the motivation (prenatal yoga helps prep the body and mind for labor), it's been easier to get into the routine of going and I always feel great afterwards.  I'm hoping to be able to carve out time after the Little Lady is born so I can maintain a regular practice that will also help get my body back in shape.  I got myself a new yoga mat and bag recently to brighten up my practice and that's also really helped.

5. Organizing.  I am a nerd for organization.  When left to my own devices I can be incredibly lazy, but from a fairly early age I realized I needed some coping skills to avoid devolving into chaos (hello, my religious-like devotion to a homework planner since 7th grade!).  With adding a new family member to the house that means we need to make room for her stuff in a way that makes sense but also doesn't make it feel like we're stuffed to the gills.  It's been a fun challenge to examine how we use all the areas of the house, clean them out, purge the excess, and then find a better to use that space for the stuff we actually do need.  We've also been trying to be very conscious about the kinds of things we get for the Little Lady to ensure we're sticking to the essentials that can serve multiple purposes.

6. My pregnancy necklace.  A while ago I read about pregnancy chime necklaces that women in Balinese and Mayan cultures wear (also called a Mexican Bola necklace).  It's basically a little silver ball that has a chime inside (sounds similar to a miniature Chinese medicine ball) that is worn on a long chain so it bounces off your belly and makes a lovely little chiming sound when you walk or move.  The theory is that babies can start hearing the necklace as early as the start of your second trimester (~20weeks) and get used to the peaceful, calming chiming sound so that after they're born you continue to wear the necklace (on a shorter chain) and it is a familiar, calming sound for them.  There are lots of pre-made chimes out there online (Etsy, various websites, etc), but I couldn't find one I really loved in time for my birthday so my Mom asked me to pick out some pieces I liked so I could put one together that I did love.  After some time snooping around Etsy, I found what I needed and voila, my own personal bola necklace that I love, has meaning for me, and I find calming to wear too.

My bola with a moonstone, tree of life charm, pearl, moss agate, and amazonite stones.

So far I haven't been too uncomfortable, but in the last week getting in and out of bed has gotten more challenging, getting off the couch or the floor takes some planning, and rolling over in bed requires a battle plan.  My ribs are sore as she's been pushing for more room, and sometimes my hips get sore if I sleep without a pillow between my legs for too many nights, but otherwise I'm good.  I definitely can't stand as long as a I used to and get winded ridiculously easy (again, because she's up in my ribs), so I have to remind myself to get up slowly and not carry things up the stairs.  I'm also getting a little clumsier so I have to be mindful of that.  I can still see my feet, but can't always see the cats if they're twisted around my ankles.  And every day I am reminded that no, I can't squeeze behind people like I used to which is funny and sometimes embarrassing when I inadvertently give people a belly nudge.

Week 33

We're well into week 33 now and everything is still going well - everything looked good at our appointment with our midwife last week and we even got in a date night this past weekend.

Our midwife, along with Thank You Mama (the organic baby boutique/wellness center near us that I love) are some of the sponsors of an art exhibit that debuted this past weekend called "Trust Birth".  It was a collection of a lot of different art mediums (watercolors, sculpture, pottery, photography, etc) celebrating birth, and in particular natural birth.  Our favor were some of the belly casts they did that had both the mom and dad's hands on the belly - it was done with this almost clay like material so it picked up all the detail like the texture of the skin and the hairs on the hands - it was really incredible.  It was also fun to see others in the community that I've gotten to know over the past year - before I started consulting we only really knew our friends, but now I've met so many people in town that when we go to events I actually know people - it's such a wonderful feeling to know we're building community here.

We also spent some time in the yard this past weekend trying to spruce things up (our version of spring cleaning).  We've decided to accept the invitation to have our house on the Permaculture Garden Tour next month so we're trying to get most of the prep work done now.  Yes, we might be a little crazy since it's the week before our due date, but we have a contingency plan and frankly it's nice to have something to motivate us to get the yard in shape before the long hot summer season settles in and we have a newborn to distract us from major yard projects.  Mom and Larry were really sweet and came up for the afternoon to help us get some work done - Wade mulched, Mom and I weeded, and Larry started laying out our temporary patio in the garden.  It was a productive day and a huge help - Wade has been doing most of the yard work himself since bending over is pretty much impossible for me.  I did discover that if I put a yoga mat down on the ground I can sit cross-legged and weed that like, so it was nice to be able to feel productive in the yard.

This week we had our second birthing class which went well and we also had a breastfeeding class which was helpful.  I've started reading the book on breastfeeding that everyone has recommended that our friend Alison gave me, so I'm feeling a bit more oriented now - funny how you think it must be really straightforward, but it's actually not!  It was also good for Wade to learn so if I'm having a bad day (or night) he can provide moral support and help keep me on track.

I have also now interviewed our fourth carpenter and am awaiting the last quote so hopefully we can get that started and moving forward soon.  We're definitely stuck between a rock and a hard place because to put a bandaid on the problem to save money now will likely mean in a year we'll just have to do the work anyway but with a toddler in the house.  We're not exactly in the best place to be spending a few thousand dollars right now on a house project so it's tempting to take the short term fix.  At this point, I'll just be relieved when it's over and we can start setting up the nursery (and not have to fight with chipping lead paint), but we're going to have to get more creative about expenses when I am on maternity leave since we're eating into our savings to deal with the lead paint problem (that we've been ignoring until now).

Feeling a little like we're back in school....

Now that the holidays are over and we're less than 9 weeks away from our due date we're getting more serious about getting certain things done.  We almost have our doors squared away, but have not had luck with a carpenter yet for the door casings and trim which is getting a bit frustrating.  Until that's done it's sort of holding up any serious work in the nursery so the "nursery" is still the den/guest bedroom and doesn't look any different at all.  Le sigh.

We're trying to focus on the things we do have control over for now - Wade's been mulching the yard since it needs it and we likely won't have a chance again until the fall so we're trying to get it done now before the heat of summer kicks in (mulch helps keep the moisture in the soil and keep the weeds down).  

We've also been doing lots of reading and have finally signed up for some classes so I feel a little bit like we're back in school.  We just did a baby basics class (they eat how much, how often?  how do you change a diaper?) since neither of us are particularly kid savvy or have much experience with babies.  There were some helpful things and we got to practice sponge bathing, diaper changing, and swaddling on a creepy anatomically correct plastic baby.  lol  I even got an action shot of Wade at work - watching him do this actually made everything feel more real for me than anything else so far!

Look at that perfect football hold!

We're also signed up for a breastfeeding class since apparently it is not as straight forward as the name might imply (boob = food).  We've been working our way through the various birthing books that support natural childbirth (Bradley Method, Birthing from Within, the Big Book of Birth, etc.) and have finally picked a class that we start next Monday.  It's nice to feel like we're doing something.

I have started cleaning out pockets of clutter in the house as the nesting organizing instinct has starting kicking into overdrive.  I've been reading a helpful book we got from Libby and Jess called Organized Life with Baby which has been helping me think about what we'll need and how to stay organized once the little whirlwind arrives.  Part of this has been starting lists of stuff to prep in the count down to make sure we aren't forgetting anything for her (pre-washing the cloth diapers and 0-3mo baby clothes, for example) and ensuring we both know what needs to be done.  The free Wunderlist app has been a godsend for this since I can make a list and share it with Wade (groceries, baby prep, whatever) and it will sync to our phones, computers, and tablets.  We're hoping this will help us stay organized after the Little Lady arrives too, particularly so we don't find ourselves without food or toilet paper at inopportune moments.

Showered with love

This past Saturday, three of our wonderful friends (Alison, Megan, and Libby) teamed up to throw us an incredible baby shower.  The theme was "the Cooper family is in bloom" - a play on a garden theme which was really sweet and fun.  The original plan was to have the party in our garden, but since it's been so cold we realized we needed to move the festivities indoors. The night before Wade and I tidied up the house (the housecleaners came on Wednesday to really clean the house) and put out the extra table and chairs.  Fortunately we were both feeling better by Friday night so we were looking forward to seeing everyone the next day.

On Saturday morning the three amigos showed up early to get ready for the party.  Megan put out a fantastic spread of decor related to the garden theme which made it really festive - I keep telling her she needs to quit her day job as a lawyer and become a party planner because she's a natural at it and always has such creative and cute ideas for party themes!  She also brought stuff to make fun mimosas and bellinis.

Alison and Libby put together a tasty brunch including quiche, hash brown casserole, muffins, incredible fruit salad, southern shrimp & grits, and a coffee bar.  It was an impressive spread of delicious food!  

One of the activities for the shower was to paint baby clothes (there were pants, shirts, onesies, and burp cloths) so I had found some good non-toxic fabric dye/paint and white baby clothes we liked.  We set up two tables for people with fabric paint and markers, stencils, and brushes and let everyone just do whatever inspired them.   We got an incredibly fun and beautiful mix of clothes that I know the Little Lady will look cute in and will bring a smile to our faces every time we dress her.

Once the clothes were painted we hung them up to dry so everyone could admire the creativity.

We opened presents next - our friends showered us with a sweet collection of stuff from our Amazon registry, fun baby books, parent-approved goodies, and lots of cute wrapping and cards.  After gifts we did a shower game of a race to dress the baby - everyone had a stuffed animal, onesie, cloth diaper, pants, socks, and a hat to put on.  The first done won the prize - everyone was pretty quick, but Wade and I both came in last.  lol  On a positive note, it was the first time Wade has changed a diaper, so that's a start!

Our dress the doll race winners - Jess and Robin!

We had so much fun hearing everyone's stories of parenthood, seeing the love poured into the decorated clothes, and the thoughtfulness of the gifts.  It's amazing how having a baby reveals a sense of community we didn't fully appreciate before.  Friends, neighbors, and family have been wonderful about sharing hand-me-downs, advice, and moral support beyond what we expected.  We're so blessed to have such thoughtful and giving friends! 

The ladies were so efficient at cleaning up afterwards that I only realized after they left that we didn't get a group shot with them and Wade and I!  We had such a fun time and really enjoyed the shower - thank you Alison, Megan, and Libby, you're the best!

Home and more home

Fun fact, when you're pregnant, your immune system gets better at protecting the baby, but at the expense of you actually being more likely to get sick.  Hence why pregnant women are supped to get the flu shot since it can turn into something particularly awful if you're pregnant (also, fevers are really dangerous for the baby).

Thankfully I got my flu shot back in October, but despite my best efforts, I ended up getting a less awful form of whatever ick Wade had (which we have learned lots of people around town have been getting and it's been extremely virulent, which is weird).  I've been home bound all week which has not been fun.  It's been frustrating spending all week in bed when we'd like to be getting ready for the shower.  It's also tough being stuck inside while it's freezing outside and I'm getting oven roasted by the dry heat inside.  We've been running the humidifier like crazy which helps, but it means I stay cooped up in the bedroom to contain the humidity.  The cats don't seem to mind nesting in the blankets with me all day long though, so that's been a small consolation prize.  It's definitely the worst cough I've ever had though - it feels like I've been kicked in the rubs when I cough which makes it doubly awful (might have something to do with my ribs expanding anyway due to pregnancy so they're already at their max).  The good news is that Wade started feeling better just in time to start taking care of me.  Haha.  My downtime also meant I was able to catch up with some friends on the phone this week which was nice, but I had to cancel my lunches though, boo.

It was nice to get caught up on the blog, and I discovered we were behind on some garden updates.  Up until New Year's we were having ridiculously balmy weather that was allowing our garden to go a bit crazy - we've been eating all kinds of tomatoes (heirloom and 3 kinds of cherries - red, sun gold/orange, and yellow pear), greens (broccoli, kale, lettuces), star fruit, green beans, herbs, and eggs from the new(er) chickens.

Heirloom tomatoes galore and star fruit from our yard!  We're also still finishing off some straggler lemons and key limes.

The small brown egg and the small white ones are from 2 of our newer chickens, the grey/blue and large brown eggs are from our older ladies.  We'll soon start getting chocolate brown eggs too.

We also finally switched over to our new midwife for our 30 week appointment.  Since everything has been going smoothly and both the Little Lady and I are both healthy (we've passed all tests with flying colors), we're going to do a home birth.  We've been doing a lot of research and reading and discussing our options ever since we started trying to start a family and a home birth is the right option for us since everyone is healthy.  Our philosophy is, if something is wrong or changes and we need to go to the hospital we will, but why treat a normal biological process as an emergency if it's not?  There is plenty of research to support the safety of home birthing for healthy, low-risk  pregnancies, and in the event something does go wrong, there are many procedures in place to look out for trouble signs before they become an emergency (we're also only 7 minutes from the county's top standing neonatal emergency unit at All Children's Hospital).  And since we're going au natural for the birth, I'm not really in a hurry to get to the hospital to get hooked up to an IV anyway.  So we're really excited and really like our new midwife (the pets are also incredibly calm and friendly with her which we took as another good sign).  She spent over an hour and a half with us on our first appointment (we had previously interviewed her before the holidays asking lots of questions and talking about her training and experience).  We have the appointments at home (extra bonus!) and she explained the tests she runs during each appointment ("Oh, so that's why they have me pee in a cup every time!") and what the results of each mean which was really refreshing.  She checked the baby's heartbeat and her position then took the time to show Wade how he could feel her position too which was pretty neat (her butt is up in my ribs and her head is down near my right hip) - another first during a prenatal appointment.

So, although the week started slow with us being sick it ended well with our new midwife and our baby shower.  It's good to be at home.  :)

Week 30

The last few weeks have been pretty busy while I've been cranking out a report for a client then travelled to Philly last week to present the findings.  It's been a lot of late night working on final edits and trying to wrangle a massive report into a manageable size, but I'll be relieved when it's over.  I enjoy the work, but since the government shutdown set the project back a month it was hectic having to work on it over the holidays (it was supposed to be done before our USVI trip in December).  I'm awaiting final revisions and should have it wrapped up before the end of the month.  Hooray!  This was the last major project I have on the docket, but fortunately another client called with some additional work they need done for the next few weeks, so that was a relief.  Trying to look for work and not over commit when I only have 10 weeks left until our due date has been a little tricky.  We obviously need to keep the income coming in, but after the chaos of the last few weeks, I was actually looking forward to taking a bit of a break to concentrate on getting things ready around the house to make room for a new member of the Cooper family.

So it's a new year and it feels as if the arrival of the Little Lady is just around the corner.  Everything is going well and I can see (so strange to watch your own belly move without you!) and feel her moving much more now that she's getting stronger.  We're also making some progress in the nursery.  The doors are almost all done being stripped and repainted, but we're still trying to find the right carpenter to remove and rebuild the trim and door frames (evil exposed lead paint).  Since we live in an old house, rebuilding door casings around original doors is the ultimate test of a good carpenter, so it means finding a good carpenter with experience is really important.  Until this is done, we've been holding off making any really changes to the room for fear of contaminating her stuff during the demolition process.

We have made some progress with cleaning up her furniture and figuring out how to store and organize her things.  We also realized we're going to have to go to Ikea and bite the bullet to buy a wardrobe for her room this summer once we move the guest bed upstairs.  We just don't have enough storage space in her room (no closet) and we need something to approximate a closet, no matter how careful we've been with not getting too much stuff for her - storing baby clothes and stuff that she'll grow into is our biggest challenge.  In the mean time, the ole nesting instinct has kicked in and I'm deep diving into every squirrel hole and closet in the house to throw out anything we don't need and to make sure we're being efficient with the space we have.  So far we're making good progress and it feels good to know we'll have the house in order before the whirlwind of change is upon us.

This coming weekend three of our wonderful friends are throwing us a baby shower so we're excited that our friends want to celebrate the imminent arrival of the newest little Cooper.  It also means we've been trying to tidy up to get ready since the shower will be in our garden, but we had a little set back this weekend when Wade came back from some meetings in Miami feeling pretty awful (this is literally the sickest I have ever seen him in our 11.5 years together).  So we have a driveway full of mulch and neither of us are able to do anything about it.  We took this as our first lesson in parenthood - the best laid plan may fail due to reasons out of your control and you have to roll with it rather than fret and get frustrated, that's life (an important lesson for occasional control-freak and perfectionists!).

The past two weeks I've been in that phase where I actually feel great and that I look better than ever (and for once in my life, am not self-conscious about how I look!), so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can since it probably won't last much longer.  It might also help that I've gotten some more cute maternity clothes from family just in time for our cold weather (thanks Angela)!

Wade's been having fun trying to sneak bump shots, I however, am still feeling a bit camera shy.