Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Progress and The Home Stretch

I am 36 weeks today, which means that there's only one more week to go before Sparky is considered full-term, and my official due date is 4 weeks from today. We had a minor potential scare last week, when I was tested for cholestasis, a disorder that causes extreme itching for mom and means an early induction/delivery for baby. Fortunately, the test results came back negative, so we won't be welcoming him to the world next week (well, unless he independently decides to make an early appearance - STAY, Sparky, STAY!).

We also had the 36-week sonogram earlier in the week, which was, I'm sorry to say, anti-climatic. We've had good scanners (or whatever you call the people who do the sonogram) in the past, who have walked us through what each body part is, really let us see the baby from all angles, etc. Our scanner this time mumbled more than I do (which is quite a feat) in a quite thick foreign accent (Russian?), and the picture she eventually handed us of his "head" really makes me think I'm going to give birth to a 4-nosed alien instead of a healthy baby. Regardless, the ultimate take-away was that everything looked fine, he's head down right now - and will hopefully stay in that position - and he weighs in at a normal 6 lbs, 1 oz. Well, she did tell us that he has quite a lot of hair. Christopher did also have hair at one point, circa 1941, when the stress of the Clydebank Blitz caused him to lose it all.

Anyway, now that I won't be induced at 37 weeks, the outlook for completion of the house prior to "The Birth" is quite positive. Pictures below are far more helpful than my rambling.
Nursery mid-dry wall. The crib will probably go under the smaller window, though final decoration decisions have yet to be made.

Bathroom. First part will be the vanity, far room is the tub and toilet.

Attic as complete as it will get at this stage (though, after this weekend, there's a lot more shit taking up space).

Baby's closet. So exciting!!!

Maya getting in the way, as usual.

We'll have a small nook under the stairs - not sure yet exactly how that will look, but it should be a cute addition.

View from Molly's room out onto the street.

View towards the front of the house and the front two bedrooms.

I hate these stairs already. I'm sure once I'm not pregnant anymore and I can walk up 5 stairs without feeling like I'm going to keel over, they won't bother me, but after this past weekend's MANY trips up to the attic, I'm done climbing anything significant for at least 7 years.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Mother's Day is SO much better

Just kidding. But since there were mixed reviews as to my right to celebrate Mother's Day this year (I personally think that, once you've experienced your first cankle as a result of pregnancy, you have the right to celebrate ALL day long), I'll pretend these are begrudging Happy Father's Day wishes to my dad, my brother, and the guy who gets to listen to me complaining about how itchy my stomach is for at least 8 hours/day. Just kidding, Christopher - as I told him last night, he can have anything and everything he wants from the McDonald's $1 menu on Sunday morning. Go crazy!

As usual, a few photos to update the status of the house progress. Despite a glitch yesterday with the county that will cause a few days' delay (they really are very fond of their red tape), the guys have made a lot of progress this week. We now have windows, for example. And a bathtub upstairs. And dry-walling/painting/etc. should be starting next week. We'll be picking out our paint colors tomorrow, which should be a fun exercise in "things you never, ever, EVER thought you would enjoy when you were 22 but now constitutes the highlight of your weekend". We're talking a grayish-blue for the nursery, but if this kid doesn't learn some restraint before tomorrow (I'm honestly not sure WHEN he sleeps anymore), I may welcome him to this world with florescent fuschia walls. Don't mess with a tired, itchy mom, Sparky. You just don't want to go there.

I wish I had pictures of the weather yesterday, as we (and the rest of the country, it seems) are in the middle of a bizarre weather pattern. I sat in one of our conference rooms and watched the sky turn from clear blue to gray clouds in no more than 5 minutes before it poured horizontal rain for the next 10. There have been pretty frequent tornado watches and warnings in the area, which is, of course, old hat for a girl from Kansas, but it's unusual weather for DC. The flash flooding we've experienced pales in comparison to that wrecking Europe (and Prague, in particular - oh does that take me back to 2002 :)), but it's been pretty intense, regardless.

So, 34 weeks and counting. I did get straight A's at my check-up yesterday. My brother will be disappointed to learn that I don't appear to be headed the way of Kim Kardashian (for my parents, she has been compared to Shamu the Whale and is due around the same time as me), but I AM experiencing more ankle swelling these days, which is 100% awesomeness all the time. But looking good, Sparky. Just keep yourself in check for another 5 or 6 weeks - we're not quite ready for you!
Starting to look like a normal house. A house whose owner has zero taste in paint color, but a house nonetheless.

I've tried to convince Christopher that we don't need siding and paint and all of that crap. Dare to be different! But he doesn't seem to be buying what I'm selling.

Looking toward the back of the house, view into the nursery.

Toward the front of the house, the girls' rooms. Molly on the left, Abbey on the right.

Yes, I'm that annoying cat-lady, but I know that Nathan, at least, appreciates Maya.

Clouds this morning (view out of my office window). Not nearly as threatening as they were yesterday, but still stormy.



Sunday, June 9, 2013

Chuggin' Along

The title of this post applies both to the house and to me. We went on a hospital "tour" today - basically where they walk you through the various stages of the infant & maternity ward so you know where to go and what the rooms look like. It was definitely helpful for me to see everything, though we did entertain ourselves largely by excessive eye rolling at some of the weirdos who accompanied us. Before we got there, I said something along the lines of "if I'm very clearly the most pregnant woman there, I'm going to (fill in the blank with some form of masochism that I would never actually do, Sparky)". Well, thank goodness most of the other mothers were also, as Christopher so tactfully put it, "waddlers". But there were 2 women who didn't look remotely pregnant, so they were subjected to the most eye-rolling. I'm not a hugely superstitious person, and everyone has their own planning process, but for the love of god, if you're barely into your first trimester, leave the tours and classes open for those who are actually visibly pregnant, cause let me tell you, those things fill up FAST.

The main other highlight was one of the non-pregnant women and an unrelated dad-to-be drilling the tour guide on whether they "had" to give up immediate skin-to-skin contact with their baby in order for the nurses to do, well, all of the stuff they are trained to do - like clearing the baby's air passage, checking the baby for any signs of trauma, etc. They were both obviously upset that trained professionals would dare to interfere with their weird birth plan, but then again, I tend to trust a doctor's take on things a bit more than mine.

Anyway, a few pictures of the house. They're talking about getting all windows into the addition tomorrow, and painting/tiling could start as soon as the week after. They're flying along.
A team of 7 guys started and finished the roof yesterday. And they'd already done one roof before coming to do ours.





Stairs leading to the attic. The room you can see is the baby's room (to be).

View down toward the eventual dining room.




Thursday, June 6, 2013

"Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

That's right. It's the 69th anniversary of D-Day today. Why that fact happened to pop into my head this morning when I sometimes forget where I left my shoes is beyond me, but I may as well prepare this kid for the legacy of historical-dorkiness that is his mom's side of the family. Good luck to you, Sparky.

No house pictures for this post. Though they are making a great amount of progress, with the main frames already in place, it's not always as easy to see that progress. So my loyal readers get a run-down of what's what in my life this week.

My coworkers threw me a surprise baby shower this week. My boss, who is, by the way, Sparky, probably the single MOST enthusiastic person in the world about your impending birth, tricked me into thinking we were having a meeting first thing in the morning. This should have sent up red flags to me, as she's notoriously not an early-morning office person, but this mom-to-be isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed right now (no comments from the peanut gallery, please). Anyway, I forgot that I did have my phone with me during the party, otherwise I would have taken pictures of the actual festivities. Instead, I include pictures of the massive balloon and the sash I was made to wear. I was also given a nice Babies R Us gift certificate, which I'm sure will be spent on....something. I'm still getting the hang of what exactly bringing a baby home entails. Anyway, it was a very nice surprise, and I tucked right into the cake, fresh fruit, and scones people had made (just to be polite). Nicest of all were the cards people gave me - cheesy as it sounds, it's really nice sometimes to just hear the simple reasons people enjoy working with you or think you'll be a good mom.

I'm just past 33 weeks this week, so he is coming whether we're ready or not! Good god. The pregnancy bitch of the week is that my stomach is SO GODDAMN ITCHY. It is driving me absolutely insane, and it's SO itchy that other parts of me start to itch, as well, probably out of sympathy for my belly. This is, apparently, fairly normal, but no matter how much lotion I cake myself in, I twitch and itch as much as a 3rd-degree poison ivy victim all of the time. Otherwise, Sparky is getting pretty bold with his foot and fist movements. He's still kicking and punching at random, but he seems to enjoy playing mirror with me more than anything. As in, I find where his foot or fist is resting, and he moves it along with my hand. It's pretty cool, actually.

I've also started craving Snickers pretty much constantly. Pretty mundane detail, I know, but given my mother's love of Snickers for as long as I can remember, I thought she would appreciate it.

So that's the weekly summary. Exciting, exciting stuff.
I put this immediately inside my door to scare away any extra aggressive candidates.

This sash doesn't come with copious tequila shots like the "bride-to-be" sashes do, but it'll still be a nice keepsake.


Christopher "rescuing" Maya from the roof for probably the 4th time that night. She's discovered how to get from the attic construction to the roof of the back of the house. It's now her favorite place to hang out.
I never claimed she was smart.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

Movin' on Up

Despite the ever-increasing size of my belly and, thus, corresponding increased discomfort and crankiness, and despite the layers of dust that have settled on EVERYTHING (I almost mistook Maya for a large dust ball the other day and threw her out, for real...) and despite the fact that we've not had working laundry for several days now, I'm feeling far more optimistic about the work on the house. We now officially have a nursery. It may not have walls or a window or any air movement, but it's there. Pictures below.

They have been hard at work all day today, a Saturday, as they seem to be pushing hard to make the original deadline of early July. Which is much appreciated, particularly since I've had a fair number of contractions lately that could eventually end up in a surprise early appearance by the one and only Sparky. Or so my doctor says - what does she know, anyway? He's shooting for an August 1st birthday, I just know it. Grandpa wants to share his birthday, even if he pretends not to.

I also had my company picnic today at a park/marina in Alexandria. It was about 90 degrees, so it wasn't the best weather we could have asked for, but there were tables full of food, so I was happy enough. I also spent quite a lot of time talking to our Accounting Manager, who is now 20 weeks pregnant. It was quite a change in role to actually be the one imparting information, and she hadn't really done anything about childcare yet, which made me feel better about the general state of the NoVa "motherhood". Not everyone is insane, which is always nice to know :).

Stairs to the 2nd floor and stairs at the top to the attic.

Staircase to the 2nd floor.

 
View from the 2nd floor landing. The room to the immediate left will be the nursery.

View to the entrances of the 2nd two bedrooms - Molly's and Abbey's (left and right, respectively).

Staircase to the attic.

View from front of the house (Molly's bedroom) back toward the landing/stairs.

Attic space.

Attic, again.