Finally DONE!

So i am happy to say the renovation are OVER!!!! Monday the closet people came out and built out all of our closets. The spray foam installers also came to spray-foam the underside of our house, so now our house is at least half well insulated ;-)

A few pictures:

New Pantry

(used to be our laundry room)

New Laundry Closet

Lillian's Closet

New Entryway Closet

New Guest Bedroom Closet

(closet is still filled with our junk but at

least its more organized junk, right? LOL)

I am so excited that everything got done before the holidays. Now I feel like I can actually relax and enjoy being at home while I am off for the week between Christmas and new years.

Work is continuing to kick my butt. Its just exhausting. But I've only got 5 weeks when I get back from the holiday break, so I should be able to make the last little haul. I am seriously BURNT OUT!

In pregnancy related news, I've begun experiencing some swelling in my ankles. I haven't had any swelling through out the pregnancy. However, last week after being on my feet for 3 hours while making oreo truffles, I had one fat ankle. This morning I woke up and the other one is a bit swollen. Not good, and definitely a sign that I need to stay off my feet more. sigh.

Exhaustion...

I am completely exhausted. I literally go to bed every night at like 8pm. The sad thing is that its not because I'm 32 weeks pregnant (<---btw how did that happen?!?), rather its because I am working 10-12 hours every day. I swear they're trying to send me into preterm labor. Its insane! I am really stressed, but I keep reminding myself I only have 2 more weeks before I take a week off for Christmas and New Years!!!! I can't wait for a little break. All of my sisters are coming in town for the holiday, so I am really excited about my little vacation.

My dresser has finally shipped from RH Baby. The very exciting news is that they just started their friends and family 20% off everything event, so I was able to call and get 20% off the crib and dresser!! 20% off makes the wait totally worth it! I can't wait to get the furniture in the baby's room. Hopefully it looks as good as I think it will.

We are also 1 week away from the house renovation being done!!!! I can't wait!!!! Next Monday the closet people are coming to build out the pantry and all the closets in the house. We also have the spray foam installers coming to spray foam the underneath of our house! We live in a raised cottage and during the winter the floors are VERY cold. We were worried about a baby crawling around on them, so we decided to take the plunge and get spray foam while the energy efficiency tax credit was still in place. After everything gets installed, I'll have about 3 days to put my house back together before all my sisters arrive for christmas! Its going to be a very busy week.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Seriously?

So we arrived in Kentucky on Monday afternoon. We stopped by to visit one of DH's aunts on our way to his family farm. We visited for about an hour and then headed to the farm to unload the car and get the dogs settled. Once we had gotten everything settled we drove into Louisville to go to the UL basketball game with one of DH's uncles. While racing to get there in time for tip off, we managed roll over a piece of steel laying in the middle of the road and blow our back tire...

The tire was obviously beyond repair. And to make matters worse, because the tires were old, we actually had to replace all 4 instead of just the one which was shredded by the piece of steel. Price to replace: $1063

This morning my husband went out to hunt on the farm. He had to drive over to the area of the farm where he was going to hunt... so he wakes up, turns on the car to warm it up, and when he gets back in it after getting dressed he notices:

The windsheild is cracked from the drivers side to the passanger side. Just got off the phone with safelight auto glass...Cost to replace: $223.

This has got to be a joke, right?

::off to search blogs for good homemade christmas gifts::

Rest and Relaxation

That is what is coming up for me... a week of rest and relaxation. I can't wait. I had another totally crazy week at work, including going in on Saturday. Grrrr. But I'm happy to report I got everything done, so I should be able to spend the next week relaxing!! I can't wait.

We're definitely making progress on Lillian's room. Please excuse the poor picture quality, I was lazy and took them with my IPhone...

PBK Carpet on the new hardwood.

Closet ready for build out.

We're also almost done the first phase of the laundry/pantry renovation. Below is the new laundry closet...

(previously this was just a normal single door closet)

New laundry closet with washer in it.

We still need to stack the dryer and then we'll put some shelving on the left side for storage of cleaning products. We thought we were going to be able to get the dryer moved this weekend, but we got sidetracked with some other things around the house. DH promises it will be done soon! I think I am going to  schedule the company to come up to build out the closets and the new pantry for the second week in December. I can't wait to be DONE!

And just for fun... a picture of me. This is from last night. My mom was hosting a sweet sixteen party for her boyfriends niece, and DH and I went to help host.



Woooo...

...I'm officially in the 3rd trimester. How did that happen?? Although the weeks seem to be creeping by at times, its also been flying by at the same time. Only 3 more months until our LO will be here. Yikes!

I'm dreading weighing in tomorrow. 2 weeks of eating every meal out is surely going to cause some major weight gain. Ugh. I go back to my midwives on Thursday and am sure to get a scolding.

On the bright side, thanks to daylight savings time changing this weekend, my morning walks with Maggie are in the day light again! I hate walking her in the dark. I know as we move further into the winter, the sun will start rising later again, but for right now it rises right before we get up! Its very nice :-)

Phew...

As I mentioned below, I am in a two week long training for work in Ohio. I arrived on Sunday October 24th and leave tomorrow! I must say two weeks seems like a LONG time these days. I've enjoyed the training but have not enjoyed eating every meal out, and having to do a lot of work in the evening to keep up with my normal duties. Its been quite exhausting!!

I am very excited to report that my husband has officially made progress on the house renovation and the nursery in my absence!! I am quite impressed with his determination to get everything done before I get home. Our house came with a good sized laundry closet right next to the kitchen, but there is no pantry. For a pantry my husband and I have been using a single hanging cabinet in our kitchen. However because that cabinet is stuffed with just two of us in the house, and all the other cabinets are full of dishes, glasses, and serving pieces, I was getting really concerned about how we could integrate a baby into the house. I literally have no where to put a bottle. A few months ago we made the decision to take over the current laundry closet and turn it into a pantry. But this forced us to relocate the washer and dryer. We decided to relocate it to the front of the house into a closet that was basically being used as a junk room. However this required us to do a little renovation to get the closet ready (widening the door frame, getting the closet plumbed/wired/vented, ect). Since I left, the new laundry closet has been constructed and the plumbing and gas for the washer and dryer has been run. All we need is electrical and we should be good to go! I am fortunate to have an electrician in the family so that should be done shortly! Once we get the washer and dryer moved, we can start un-plumbing the other closet and prepping it to become a pantry! Before I left for Ohio, I met with California closets and got a quote from them to build out the new pantry. It is a little pricey, so I am going to call Closets by Design to see if they'll come out and quote it for me. Once we make a decision on who to go with, we should be able to have the new pantry built out within a week or so! I'm really excited to get this project done! We're been talking about it FOREVER!

The other thing DH has been busy with is the nursery. He had the carpenter who was helping us with the closet run the hardwood floor in the baby's room. After that was done, my husband painted all the walls and the ceiling. I am sooooo excited to see everything when I get home. I also received my rug for the nursery so I am excited to get home and put it in the room! Eeek! Everything is actually coming together!!

We decided to go with the Polka Dot Border rug from pottery barn. Hopefully it will look good with the green walls...

Hope everyone has had a good week! Say a little prayer that I make it to my last day of class safely tommorow. They are predicting SNOW here in Ohio! eeeek!

Does anyone have an eraser I could borrow?

Does anyone have an eraser I could borrow? I need to erase the word "Sucker" from my forehead. I would usually say, "wow, how has over a week passed since my last post?" But I know exactly how it has happened. About 3 weeks ago, the head of my office approached me and told me he was going to be giving me some additional responsibilities. One of my colleagues was leaving, and rather than back-filling her spot he was going split her duties between me and another person. I was still going to retain all my current duties but would take this on as well. So the next week more details came out... apparently I was expected to move cubicles, and what was supposed to be 50% of the other job turned out to be more like 75%. So basically now I have 1.75 jobs. So last week, I finally got fully integrated in my new position, and I totally got my butt kicked. I stayed at work every day until after 6. Which may not seem late to some of you, but when you get in at 7:30am staying until past 6 is WAY too late in my book. It is just brutal.

To be honest, I feel like I am being used by my senior management. They know that I'm too much of a perfectionist to do either job crappy, so I'm busting my butt to try to do them both to my usual standards. Its so frustrating. Grrrrr... I would probably sit them down and tell them how this is too much responsibility for one person but then I remember the following is my schedule until the baby comes..

2 weeks - out of town work training (currently doing)
2 weeks - work
1 week - off for thanksgiving
4 weeks - work
1 week - off for Christmas/new years
4 weeks - work

then the baby should be here... or just about. So the reality is its just busting my butt for 10 weeks. Which is totally doable in my book. That's nothing.

After I return from my 12 weeks of maternity leave, I'll assess the situation again. If its too much I'll cry uncle and try to get some relief. Until then, wish me luck!

Nursery Progress

So we're making some progress!! We've pretty much picked everything out... now we just need to get it all in the room.

First, we're going to run hardwood into the baby's room.

And paint it Benjamin Moore Glazed Green. 

This is our crib which is now back-ordered even more, ugh!

It expected to ship Dec 30th!

We ordered the matching Dresser/Changing table

I've picked a land of nod bedding set called With a Flourish.
This is the bed skirt, bumper and crib sheet.

I'm also going to mix in a few other sheets (since I'll definitely need more than one). I bought  two while at PBK the other day. Hayley (shown above) and a purple gingham which isn't on the PBK site for some reason.

I ordered the above glider from a local baby store which is called the Heritage Glider. I believe it's made by Little Castle.

It will be finished in the "Zippty Scone" fabric shown above (which is lighter in real life).

I thought this was neutral enough that it would just blend into the room.

I think we're going to order the Green Trellis rug shown above from PBK.

Our carpenter should be coming in about a week to start working on the baby's room and another home renovation we're doing. I can't wait to start to see everything come together! I hope it all looks good!

Have I mentioned

How much my pug loves the snoogle? DH emailed me this picture this morning. Too cute!

I'm alive..

...but barely.

I got sick. Like really really sick. It started off as a soar throat and ended up as a serious upper respiratory infection. I work in cubeland, and a lot of the people around me have been sick so I knew it was coming. The problem is that I don't like taking medicine while pregnant, so I stubbornly held off taking anything. II used my neti pot, and bought one of these hoping I could cure this problem the "natural way":

(can you tell I was getting desperate?)

My stubbornness, in reality, probably made things a lot worse because the mucus backed up into all my sinus cavities and ears, and moved down into my chest. Yesterday, after trying to fight this off on my own for over a week, I broke down and went to the doctor. He confirmed what I already knew, I have a bad sinus infection. He prescribed Amoxicillin and told me to take some Robitussin DM. After googling enough to make me sufficiently comfortable to take these meds, I headed to the pharmacy to get all drugged up. I'm happy to report today I woke up already feeling better.  Let's hope this is the only illness I face this pregnancy.

I have lots to report on nursery progress, but that will have to wait until I get all caught up on work!

Anatomy Scan

This week on Wednesday we had our anatomy scan. I'm happy to report the baby is growing well and is now 14 oz! I was so nervous before the ultrasound and now I feel like a big weights been lifted off my shoulders.

Here are some pictures:

Full Body Shot

Profile Shot

(head is on the left with her hands up by her face)

Foot

Leg

I'm not sure I've talked about this yet, but I'm really hoping to have a natural birth. I wasn't able to conceive without intervention, but I'd really like to be able to give birth with as few interventions as possible. I hadn't been able to talk to my doctor about my desires prior to this appointment. Unfortunately, he basically totally shot me down. He's not really supportive of the idea at all. Its a shame because I really liked him, but I figured it was a possibility. So I'm officially switching doctors again. Although this time I'm actually switching to a Nurse Midwife. She and her partners work with a local hospital and are partnered with 3 OBGYNs who perform a c-section in the event of an emergency.  I'll be calling to make an appointment sometime this week and hopefully will be able to get in with them soon!

Amazing

The Snoogle. Quite possibly the best invention I've run into in quite a while. After a particularly terrible night sleep on Thursday night, I headed to Baby R Us to try to find something that could make me more comfortable. I'd done some research online prior to my expedition, and the Snoogle seemed to get some pretty high marks. So after weighing the options at Baby R Us, I took the plunge and bought the worlds largest pillow. This thing is amazing. I had been sleeping with a pillow on my back and one by my head, but having it wrap behind me, and go through my legs has made quite a difference! I slept sooooo good Friday night. It was amazing. It may just be having something in between my legs but my back ached so much less when I woke up Saturday morning. The pillow does make me hotter than I usually am, but I just cranked the AC down another degree or two and was good to go on Saturday night. Once my belly gets bigger I guess I will want the support and might flip it the other way, but for now having it wrap around my back has been great!

Oh, and when you're not using it to go to bed it doubles as a dog bed... LOL. I walked out of the bathroom this morning to find this:

Apparently, Ella and Maggie like the Snoogle too!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and restful weekend!

Half way there...

I can't believe I am half way there! I can honestly say there are still moments that I can't believe this is actually happening.

I had a really cool experience this weekend. I was at the beach with girl friends for the weekend and I felt really distinct movement for the first time. I was sitting up reading a book in my beach chair when my tailbone started to hurt. So I laid the back of the chair down and flipped over onto my stomach. As soon as I got comfy, I felt a tap, tap, tap, tap, tap in my lower abdomen. Its was so cool and was the first time I felt something I could definitely say was the baby. Of course I immediately flipped over, assuming this was Lillian's way of tell me I was squishing her by laying on my stomach. LOL. It was pretty cool. I can't wait for DH to get to feel her move.

I'm starting to feel really overwhelmed. There is so much stuff to buy and so many decision to be made. I've been pretty relaxed my whole pregnancy and all of the sudden I feel like its time to get my butt in gear. Its amazing how much time you can spend researching something and still have no idea what is the best thing to get! ugh!

Baby Furniture

So on Saturday my mom and I decided to go shopping for Baby furniture. I learned that apparently my taste in cribs has not kept up with the times. These days the convertible cribs are all the rage. We went to the store where all of my friends have bought their furniture, and all they had were these big heavy/chunky convertible cribs. I guess I see the appeal of having a bed for life, but given that the room which we are using as the nursery is on the smaller size, a large chunky crib just wasn't going to do it. So we headed home to look online. We finally found one we both liked:

It's Emelia by Restoration Hardware.

We'll probably also get the matching dresser also

We looked for bedding as well. I think we're going to go with Kate by Serena and Lily, but I'm not 100% sure on that yet.

 

I just can't decide if it will go with the crib, or if we should do something solid and more muted like shown with the crib on the Restoration Hardware site:

Thoughts and Opinions Welcome..

Big update...

Wednesday right after I posted, I left work to head to the Drs office. I was set up to tour L&D at 3 and then had a Drs appointment at 3:45. When I pulled into the garage the Drs office called and said he had emergency surgery. I told them I was already there, so they shuffled some things around so I could the NP who practice is in the office. I went on my tour of L&D and then headed to my appointment.

After giving my urine specimin, I noticed I was spotting. I mentioned this to the NP when I saw her and so she did internal exam. When she finished I noticed a good amount of blood on her glove (sorry that's gross and probably TMI). She told me were were going to do a ultrasound to see what was going on.

I was excited to see the baby because I hadn't seen it since 10 weeks and 2 days. It was so cool to see it moving around and it looked so much more like a human. Everything looked fine and they thought it was probably just some cervical irritation causing the bleeding. She also said she was 99% sure what the baby was and asked me if we wanted to find out the sex...

Those are a legs, a bum and girly parts!

We're having a girl!! I was in total shock. Like seriously shocked. I have thought we were having a boy since day one. She said she was 99% sure, but because it was still kind of early to save the receipts if I went on a pink shopping spree :-)

I felt really bad that DH wasn't there with me to find out. I had told him not to come since I was just seeing the NP and I didn't realize I was spotting when we talked. I wanted to do something fun to tell him since he wasn't there. I ran to our local kids store and grabbed a really cute onsie. I had them wrap it up in neutral paper with the ultrasound picture.

DH was so excited when I got home and he opened his gift. He'd always thought we were having a girl, so he was pleasantly surprised when he opened his gift and his suspicions were confirmed!

I had also decided to make a run walmart on my way home so I could get all the supplies to tell my family in a fun way. I decided to make a shirt which I would wear on the plane the next day. So after I told DH and we celebrated together, he helped me make my shirt. Well, really he just watched and laughed at how un-artistic I am but we had fun doing it ;-) Our finished product:

On me the next morning...

(looking a bit rough because

its very early in the morning)

It was really funny to see how long it took for people to figure it out. My sister who picked us up didn't really get it at first, but my one of my other sister's got it as soon as I walked into the house we were staying at. My mom came home a little later and didn't get it at all. I finally had to ask her what she thought about my shirt and she replied "did you run a race or something?" LOL. I sent a picture text of me in the shirt to my other two sisters, who both got it right away. But when I sent it to my dad, he thought it meant we were having twins. Its funny though because DH and I thought it was so clear, since all our family knew we were going to use the name Lillian for a girl, but apparently not! Nevertheless, they were all really excited about our little girl once they figured it out!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

This weekend we are headed to Bridgehampton to celebrate my sisters 30th Birthday. I have two sisters who live in NYC so I am really excited to get to see them both for the weekend. We were supposed to fly up Friday, but because of Hurricane Earl we are headed up there tomorrow. I'm hoping the weather doesn't turn out to be a drag!

We are staying at a friend's house and planning on throwing a party for her on Saturday night. We've decided to cook some of our southern favorites as a treat to her and all her yankee friends!

On the menu:

Emeril's Chicken and Andouille Gumbo

Barbeque Shrimp

(we have a family recipe, but these are pretty close)

And a half and half doberge cake to top it off!

(From the best bakery in the world)

 I hope you all have wonderful Labor Day weekends!

Happy Saturday

Maggie and I started our day off with a trip to the vet, and now we're snuggled up back at home hiding out from a ton of rain. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Send Help

Please send help because I seem to have awoken a beast. We finally finished our Chocolate Mint Chip ice cream this weekend, and when I was cleaning out the storage container on Sunday DH made the decision that we just had to make strawberry ice cream this week. So on our trip to whole foods for this week's groceries we got all the ingredients. And in about 2.5 hours we had turned this:

Into this:

When I'm complaining about my weight gain tomorrow, please feel free to remind me that homemade strawberry ice cream does not contribute to a well balanced diet ;-)

The small things

Sometimes you need to look around and appreciate the little things. I have been super stressed with all this work stuff (the contractor has decided to come back to the table, which means long days for me), but I am trying to remind myself that I need to stop every now and then to appreciate the little things going well in my life.

1st: Morning Walks. Every morning I wake up and take a 30-45 minute walk with Maggie. She LOVES to walk. And I love getting the exercise.

2nd: Fresh Flowers. Particularly those from Whole Foods. These flowers make my living room smell wonderful, and look beautiful.

3rd: Clothes that fit. I recently bought some more maternity clothes. It is so wonderful to have clothes that don't make me feel like a stuffed sausage. Although its pretty funny because they definitely make me look  much more pregnant that my regular clothes do.