20 Week Update

Alternate Title: How did we get to halfway there, OMG nothing is ready!

Friday after work I decided to swing by TJ Maxx to see what girly colder weather stuff they still had on clearance - and the answer is not much that I liked! (In a twist of irony there were plenty of adorable little boy things still on the racks.) But with perseverance (meaning I searched the non-clearance rack for clearance items) I found a darling little pink sweater dress with a matching hat, so that was enough to satisfy my need to buy pink, and I can already see the white tights and black patent "shoes" sticking out from beneath it.

DH bought the Baby Bargains book, so I've been rigorously comparing things I like with their comments. Thus leading me to think that maybe the original crib I showed you is not what we want, so back out on the search I went again. I found one which is quite similar, but the company has received better comments, so I went by the local furniture store which carries the line to get a quote yesterday - let's just say it's more than the online price above by quite a bit. But it does include the delivery and setup, so that's something, but I don't think it's enough to make up the difference! Back to contemplating...

I ordered the crib bedding set & mobile Saturday morning. Turns out that while I had selected several boy/neutral sets, DH and I had only agreed on one girl set. So, that was easy. And easier still since when going back over the set to confirm that I still liked it on Friday, I noticed that it was apparently no longer being manufactured. So after double-checking with DH that he was still okay with it, the orders were placed. Orders because it was cheaper to buy the set from one store and the mobile from another. I had wanted to get the pillow set too, but DH made a good argument that it was unnecessary, so after a quick pout I could only agree. But I'm not saying that I'm not going to keep an eye on the price. If it drops by 50% or more, I'm going to try and argue for it.

Once that comes in, I'm planning to look for complementary fabric to have valances made (or even better, find some pre-made that work) as I am not a fan of the matching balloon valances. If they'd offered a tab-top valance in any other of the fabrics in the set I would have been all over it. And I'm thinking that it would be quite adorable to put some dragonfly decals (or maybe even a stencil?) in similar colors to those on the fabrics up on the already cream walls, along with planning to paint one of the bedroom walls (whichever the changing area ends up going against) a complementary/coordinating color in a water-resisting formula. The flat wall paint the builder used is just not going to cut it! And with the crib bedding in hand it's going to be easier to select glider fabric, at least once we decide on a glider, that is. All these little dominoes are starting to fall into position, at least in my mind.

Moving on; one good thing I've noticed about waking at the evil hour of 5:30 or earlier (oh how I loathe it!) is that the little one* is quite active at that time and so it is uninterrupted time to just enjoy feeling her move around. Of course, all her movement on top of a full bladder is what's waking me up, and getting back to sleep after the effort of getting out of and then back into bed for a quick bladder empty and the corresponding heart rate increase is most difficult knowing that the stupid alarm is going to sound at 5:45ish whether or not I'm ready for it to do so.

I was reading 'The Happiest Baby on the Block' this weekend, and the author noted that overnight does tend to be a more active time for the baby since I, the mother, is less active, so the baby gets less of the soothing activity she's used to. At least it's some explanation for the yoga I was feeling Saturday morning - I swear she was doing the sun salutation series or something with the way my uterus was being stretched around. (For anyone keeping track, I really didn't feel anything I could specifically point to as movement until last weeks kick and now she's MUCH more evident.)

Of course, it appears that my emotions are even more on the fritz than I had thought. We went to watch "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" Sunday night and I got ambushed by a trailer before the DVD even got to the menu. All I can say is if you are in hormone city - avoid the trailer for "Hatchi" at all costs. 5 seconds in, my throat was tightening up and tears were welling. By the end of the trailer, I was outright sobbing despite my desperate desire to not be. DH was laughing at me even as he went to grab the tissue box, but only because my first reaction was "Oh Crap" and somewhere along the way I dropped the F-bomb in regards to my frustration with my inability to control my emotional response to the condensed story line.

On the food front: my appetite has returned and I can finally eat more than a couple of ounces at a time (which plus the 12-weeks of morning sickness would be the main reason why I still have not reached my pre-pregnancy weight). Still not a fan of green pepper or reheated garlic based dishes (why freshly cooked is okay but reheated is not I don't understand and I think it's weird myself, but hey) or broccoli. Not nausea inducing, but not appealing either. I feel like I'm eating more salad type veggies and fruit than I ever have, but I have to admit fruits and veggies are much healthier than ice cream and cake as cravings or dining preferences.

Oh, this is a biggie: do you remember that I was given a used Peg Perego stroller? And it was in great condition but for the little problem of an issue with the folding mechanism? And how I had used the online customer service form to request assistance? Well, after a week of not getting a response I called the 800 number for customer service and found out they sell a replacement kit for $20 or so (including shipping). Parts ordered, parts received, 30 minutes or so of DH's time invested while I was cooking Easter dinner on Saturday (we ate a day early) and we now have a fully functional $200+ stroller for the low low price of slightly less than $20. That rocks my socks! Now all I have to do is find some way to add a storage basket as it's the one accessory that did not come with it. Eh, it shouldn't be too hard to find something aftermarket, right?



*Name remains TBD - DH and I are in discussions about using the real name during pregnancy vs. a in-utero nickname, but as I'm not likely to share her real name here in any case, I would want to be comfortable using an in-utero nickname post birth. It's all quite confusing. Not to mention that DH and I only just this past weekend starting tossing around names. Interesting tidbits: after comparing our separate lists, we had one name in common (with spelling variations) and both of us were leaning heavily towards more unusual Irish/Gaelic/Welsh/Scottish/etc. type names. And the in-utero nickname, well, who knows where that is! I'm going along with the theory that something will just sound right one day and until then, she shall just have to remain nameless. Poor thing!