Clothes on the Line

All the clothes are washed, dried, and put away.  Despite the mountain of pink, I have fallen in love with the little footie pajamas, the teeny tiny shirts, and the zip-up jackets for our smallest people.  Even Kevin got all gooey after seeing all this on the line.  

I've organized her dresser and gotten everything into their little compartments.  A space for the socks, a space for the nighties, a space for the pants.  One drawer for newborn-sized clothing, and another for 0-3 months, just in case she doesn't fit into the newborn sizes.  (Or in case she grows out of them super fast.)

Everything else is separated by size into bins in her closet, labeled with a gray marker to match the room.  6-9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months/2T, 3T and older.  I've gotten a lot of hand-me-downs.  Our girl will be well-dressed for at least the first 2 years!  I'm just lacking in the 3-6 month department, but we'll make it work.

Last night was a bit overwhelming with piles of clothes on the floor, but now that everything is put away I feel much better.  I've picked out 3 choices for her coming-home outfit.  Kevin couldn't even pick a favorite, so we'll have to wait and see what we feel like putting on her when the time comes.  One of the outfits is newborn sized, and the other is in 0-3 months.

I can't wait to dress this little girl!  

35 Weeks, a bit late

Unfortunately our wonderful camera has died and for the moment is being shipped off to Nikon who will hopefully fix it quickly (like, before the birth). So the 35 week photos are from Kevin's camera phone. Obviously the quality isn't the same, but at least it's a picture, right?

Doesn't my belly look abso-freaking-lutely humongous? And to think I have another few weeks of incubation time!


And last weekend, my friend and moma and sister came to visit to throw me a baby shower (pictures soon). This is me with my little sister, who I hadn't seen in nearly 11 months for many reasons. It was so good to be around her again! She's a great girl with a lot of potential for a wonderful life! In this picture though, I think my belly looks bigger than it really is because there's a shadow from it on my sister. She said she liked this picture because the curve of my belly fit perfectly right under the curve from her boobs, haha!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. When pigs fly I hope my camera is working.  If it happened today I wouldn't be able to get proof and nobody would believe me.

2. It's amazing how quickly some people will cut you out from their lives, for the silliest things (such as being authentically truthful for once)... I mean, seriously?!

3. Call me fat and you'll have a teary, slobbery, snotty pregnant woman on your hands.

4. I could really use some chocolate if you know what I mean.

5. The most entertaining person in my life is Kevin because he's a big goofball... always making me laugh whether I want to or not!

6. First me, then a 2nd grade teacher, then a 3rd grade teacher, then another 3rd teacher got pregnant, all within 5 months!  Who's next?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cleaning my house!!!, tomorrow my plans include visiting Kevin's sick grandmother :( and Sunday, I want to build a bookcase (finally) for Adelaide's room!

Numb Tummy! And other pregnancy woes...

I've had a good pregnancy, I'll admit.  Compared to the horror stories that I hear women going through, I've been lucky.  No morning sickness, no constant backache, no sciatica, no major swelling.  

But just because I've not gone through major problems for the past 35 weeks doesn't mean that it's all roses over here.  Here's some of the issues I'm beginning to have:

• Swollen, tingly hands.  In the morning when I wake up my hands will be so sore!  It's difficult for me to bend my fingers and sometimes they feel like the joints are popping in and out!  They tingle and they feel swollen, though they don't look that swollen.  (Well, except for the one time that I tried wearing a wrist brace to help the soreness... when I woke up, my hand extending out from the brace was very visibly swollen!!)  My midwife says it's probably because of the mix of the hormone relaxin and water retention.
• Sore wrists.  This is carpel tunnel syndrome.  It creeps up during pregnancy because of pressure on the nerves in your wrists.  So far it's just my right hand (my dominant hand), and it mostly just hurts when I'm trying to hoist myself out of bed for the bathroom or waking up in the morning.
• Numb tummy!  The skin on my stomach around my belly button feels numb all the time!  It started at around 30 weeks and the numb area has just gotten bigger and bigger as my stomach does the same!  Some think it's due to the baby pressing on a nerve, others (and myself) think it's because your skin is stretched so tight.  It's totally fine, and my midwife says not to worry.
• Sore feet.  Duh!  I'm carrying around 30 extra pounds for hours and hours every day.  I'm a teacher and I'm on my feet all day running around the classroom, so of course my feet hurt at the end of the day!
• Feeling so tired!  At the end of the day, when I come home after working for 8+ hours, it's all I can do to fix dinner and get some chores done.  It's not every day that I feel this way, but it's starting to be.  I've been lucky that it's only just now hitting me, but I hate it because I want to be working on Adelaide's room or getting other baby-related projects done... I just don't have as much energy.

So there's my list.  It's not too bad, but then again... I still have almost 5 weeks to go.  Who knows what will creep up on me?  If you're preggers like me, hopefully you don't have any major problems that you're dealing with... and if you do have major issues, just remember it's for the best reason ever!

This book's going in the gutter! (Gutter bookshelf, that is...)

While working on Adelaide's room, I was trying to figure out what to do with a wonky-sized corner.  The wall facing the doorway has a window, but the window is not centered (drives me nutty!).  To the right of the window, we have the dresser and wet pail.

To the left, we had a 3-ft span.  I was originally wanting to do some sort of corner bookshelf/bench/cubby thing, but I realized when doing all the measuring and figuring, that the vent would either have to be covered up or blocked.  It is the only vent in the room so that's not an option.  I don't really want Adelaide to freeze in the winter or burn up in the summer.

So, after seeing lots of examples of this on other home/mommy/school blogs, I decided to make some bookshelves out of gutters!  I loved the idea for the simplicity of the look, the easiness of the project, and the cheapness of the whole thing.  

For $20, I was able to purchase the 10-ft vinyl gutter and 6 endcaps (3 left and 3 right) to create our three 3-ft long bookshelves.

After cutting them to size, with a bit of scrap left over, I sanded the pvc-like edges clean and attached the end caps.  I caulked along the inside of the caps to make sure they adhered really well and let them dry overnight.

The next day, Kevin and I measured exactly where we wanted them on the wall and found the studs so they would be nice and sturdy.  We predrilled holes in the gutters, and then screwed them into the studs, with a couple of other screws on the ends to add support.

Ta-da!

Adding books makes them look so fantastic, right?!  And the idea behind these gutter bookshelves is that Adelaide will see the fronts of the books, instead of just the spine, therefore being more interested in reading the books.  The first is only 18 inches off the floor, so definitely in her reach, when she gets to moving around.  Nicer books will stay on the top shelf, and Moma will have to pull those down for reading to her :)

We still plan on making another bookshelf/cubby piece of furniture out of birch plywood, but that's still a work-in-progress and will go on the wall to the left of these bookshelves.  This child already has a lot of books, and will surely collect many more (just like me!).

34 Weeks

Can you believe that there used to be a lot of space between me and the other tree???  Now I'm getting so close!  With less than 6 weeks to go, I'm thinking I'll get there, for sure.  My friends and family are guessing as to which week they think I'll no longer fit!

Dear Adelaide,

Things are going really well, for the most part.  The house is getting tidier, your room is getting ready.  You are still head-down and the midwife thinks you're engaging, which means that your head is dropping down under my pelvic bone to get ready for birth!  

For some reason, now that I have 6 weeks left, everything feels surreal again.  In the beginning it didn't feel real because I couldn't feel you move.  Now you're so big that I simply can't ignore that you're there, but it feels unreal because it'll be so soon that your body will be out of my body.  And we'll be able to hold you and hear you and see you.  

I've been very lucky to have an easy pregnancy.  There are three other ladies at work that are pregnant.  One is due 2 weeks after you, and she's had problems with her back.  One is due in February and she got really bad morning sickness for a long time.  And the other is due in May with twins, and she's had a whole slew of pregnancy-related issues.  

Thankfully I've only had to deal with headaches (in the beginning, from not drinking enough water) and heartburn (off and on for the past few months.  I'm not taking any medicine for it though because I don't want it to get to you!) so I just have to deal with.  

However, I have developed a little bit of carpel tunnel syndrome, which makes my right wrist hurt pretty badly sometimes.  And in the morning when I wake up, my right hand feels so swollen and painful that sometimes I want to cry.  It's hard for me to bend my fingers or hold things first thing in the morning.  I think it's because I sleep mostly on my right side and the weight of my body on my arm makes it hard for the blood to flow.  And since there's so much more blood in my body now, for you, that equals painful swelling and joints.

Other than that, I've had no issues (well, and that week-long freakout of you being breech!).  I hope that the last 6 weeks continue to treat me well!  Stay in there, girl, and keep getting strong and ready for us!

We love you!

Check! Carpets are cleaned (by moi)!

On my baby-do list, I had "Get carpets professionally cleaned."  

Well, my carpets are cleaned, but not by a professional.  Instead of paying a stranger to come into my house and overcharge me for a pretty easy-to-do service, I bit the bullet and did it myself.

A couple of weeks ago the newspaper had a $10 off coupon to rent one of their Rug Doctor machines, and after the 24-hour rental and the shampoo and spot cleaner, the total was around $50. 

The hubster helped move almost everything out of the living room, and when you have a teeny tiny house and nowhere to put things, this is what happens to your teeny tiny dining room:

Plus there was stuff in the bedroom(s), like another armchair and the shoe rack.  Too much stuff!

The carpets are now clean and ready for baby crawling!