Chicken math

Apparently our ladies suck at math because they think you should be able to fit 4 chickens into 3 nesting boxes!  It's normal to have a ratio of about 2-3 chickens per nesting box when you design your coop (they actually like to lay in the same box since it tells them another chicken has checked out the space and deemed it worthy).  However, they don't lay in the same box at the same time - or they aren't supposed to - this morning I went to check out what all the ruckus was and found certifiable proof our chickens are ridiculous:

Clemmy and Dottie sharing the left box, Pearlie in the middle, and Ruby on the far right end.

 

 

8

It's hard to believe Wade and I have been married 8 years already (yesterday was our anniversary).  In August we'll have been together 12 years (we celebrate both dates) - which is also a little crazy considering that's a third of our lives!  This anniversary was pretty low key for us since we kind of celebrated early when we were in the USVI in December and Wade was out of town for most of the day to give a talk at a meeting.  He made it home in time for an early dinner at Ceviche, our favorite place for special dinners.  We got there early enough to get a nice table out on the patio to enjoy the view and the perfect weather we were having.  We enjoyed a leisurely dinner then headed to the water to get some pictures of us together to celebrate that this will be our last anniversary as a family of two.  We had fun trying to get a timed shot of ourselves and managed to get a few nice ones.  As an anniversary present to ourselves we bought a good portrait lens for my big camera which everyone has told us will be essential for getting good baby and family photos.  So we finally tested it out!

Wade wanted a belly shot in the garden of his two ladies before we left for dinner.

Sunset downtown along the water - I realized it's hard to take pictures when I'm this big because I can't lean in close to Wade!

With a little luck we were able to balance the camera on the hood of the car to get a shot of the two of us, but we're hoping to get some more taken on the beach in the next few weeks.  After playing with the camera we headed to Paciugo, our favorite gelato place, for an absurdly large to-go box of our 4 favorite flavors.  We had plans for that large box of delicious. :)  We then headed home and promptly changed into PJs to watch a movie and eat heavenly gelato while snuggling on the couch.  It was just what we needed since we were both pretty tired (Wade got up at 4:30am that day to drive to his meeting) and it was fun.

We're looking forward to the new chapter in our family and were thankful for such a wonderful first 8 years together!  We're also really looking forward to raising a family in this city we've come to love.  

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).