Monday, April 19, 2010

22 Week Update

I feel pretty good, the little one is still kicking her way around my belly (but less when I'm active myself), and we still don't have a name. We've narrowed it down to a short list, but I don't think the final decision will be made until the last minute unless something just stands out between now and then. I told DH, it's like buying a wedding dress, we'll know when it's right, until then we just have to keep trying them on (he just looked at me funny when I said this - you girls know what I mean, right?). Of the two of us, I have more traditional leanings, while he seems more willing to go with a name that's less well known. At least it makes for an interesting discussion.

Friday I took off from work around noon and headed home to meet up with DH who had taken the day off work (after working 80+ hours, salaried, in under 7 days, he was a little frizzled around the edges). After a quick lunch (a peanut butter, Nutella, and banana sandwich on toast for me, sooo yummy~) we headed out to run some errands in Richmond, including our first trip to a store which sells baby furniture. Not one of the big stores, thank goodness! If my experience with a smaller store is anything to go by, I'm going to need a couple days to recover from one of those, thankyouverymuch!

I knew there were a lot of cribs out there, but seeing a just small portion of them in person overwhelmed me. And guess what, I think I've changed my mind about the crib, yet again. Or at least, we are seriously considering one of the cribs we saw there - the Million Dollar Baby Kalani. In white, natch. It's a nice low sleigh crib without any extremely pointy edges, which is good for a clumsy shorty like me, and it's less expensive than the one I had been wanting to get; unfortunately, I don't love it like I did the others. But do I really need to love something that's only going to get a couple years of use, but save us $100+?

And that's a $100+ we're going to need since DH has serious reservations about using the furniture currently in the room (I'll admit, there are some safety issues) and none of the cherry/stained dressers or chests of drawers currently in our basement or which were a prior resident of our basement (now at my in-laws) seems like a good candidate for our space/storage requirements. So, more furniture to purchase. (Question for anyone who's been there - those changing tables which are only big enough for the pad on top - where do you put your supplies so they are within your reach but not on top of the little one?) We don't want to buy 'baby' furniture as we see this being used for years to come and the markup on baby-marketed furniture is pretty outrageous for what you actually get. I'm thinking I'm going to start checking out some of the local consignment stores - see if I can find anything reasonable in both style and price before we head to the new furniture stores. As long as it's all white - who cares if it's not all from the same line or the same exact style?

We also looked at gliders at the baby store. They only carry the Best Chair line, which seems comparable in performance, if not price, with Dutailier. Of course, the one chair we both liked in size/shape only comes with a dark finish, so that's more looking we'll be doing. And they had the Chicco Key Fit 30 in Adventure on the floor and DH liked the color, so we just need to order or wait for someone to buy it for us off registry.

FYI: I found the best tool on the Huggies website for planning a room layout - so much easier than pulling out the pencil, graph paper and ruler and trying to figure out the sizes of furniture pieces. (And then erasing, redrawing, over and over and over and over again, if you are anything like me and like to have a layout on paper before setting up a room.) Trying to fit the crib, dresser/changer, chest of drawers, glider/ottoman, small bookcase, and a twin bed into the room before I found the website was melting my brain. Then it became a snap since things were so much easier to move around. (The twin bed was mine and the mattress top is only about a foot and a half off the floor, so will once again make a great toddler bed instead of having to convert the crib, but will first serve as a crash pad for those marathon nights.)

Saturday morning, I finally opened the boxes with the bedding and mobile. So cute. Even better in person than online. Of course, I may have mentioned how I wanted to paint the wall behind the changer green? No longer on either count. Between the room layout and the colors in the bedding, it just won't work. Instead, the wall behind the crib and twin bed, and perhaps one other wall, will be a nice, warm orangey-peach. But more orange than peach. As DH said, the room is too cool already, it needs some color warmth since the the only real sun it gets is the afternoon western glare. It totally shocked me to go that direction since I'd been imagining a green wall in that room since before we moved into the house! I'm hoping now to find some sort of vinyl decal to go behind the changer to help protect the wall from any unexpected fountains. And of course, now that I have the actual fabric colors, I can look for some pre-made valances for the windows.

Also on Saturday I had the pleasure of not only finding a pair of workout capri pants I had forgotten about over the winter but figuring out that they still fit around my waist without squishing me. At least for now. That was awesome! And not to be a tease, but I have totally 'popped' since I posted the 20 week picture. Much more rounded than beer-gut-esque which makes total sense because as of this morning I am back to within a pound of my pre-pregnancy weight. As I told DH, it's just distributed a little differently!

With warmer weather threatening to come and stay for a while I need to once again hit the stores and look for a few lighter weight bottoms than the jeans I purchased originally. I've been able to squeak by on the warmer days so far with a pair of capri pants and the Be Band, but I really need a couple more options and another top or two (note: when working 5 days a week, 4 tops are 1 too few!).

I'm finding myself getting up in the night more to visit the little girls room, especially when I don't remember to take my pre-natal vitamin until right before we go to bed and chug a cup of water with it. (I know, not smart!) On a good night I can fall back to sleep easily, on a bad night it takes at least an hour if my brain starts going or the little one starts moving around. Or if the younger cat decides to enact her evening-only velcro imitation. During the day she wants little to do with me, but at night, the closer she can be, the better! It's sweet, but can make it difficult to return to sleep. The older cat is now spending his nights in the laundry room - he just was too active and talky to let DH sleep well in addition to my tossing and turning. I've come to accept the dark circles under my eyes as just another one of those pregnancy things that will hopefully recede with time. And that's why makeup companies sell concealer. Amen.

Summary: feeling good, still no name, nursery furniture makes my head explode, clothing needs, & sleep, what sleep?

3 comments:

  1. Boo to the sleep issue. Amen to not being able to get back to sleep sometimes. Just this morning husband jumped up convinced he was late for work, only for me to remind him that he was, like me off shift and has 3 days more. He smiled then drifted hapily back to slumber whilst it took me and hour to get back to sleep!

    As for furniture, what an expense it can be. We found a set at IKEA that we like. I must say, style of cots (cribs) differ so much between our 2 countries. It's all basics over here but some I've seen on US site are beautifully carved and have inticrit detailing.

    Looking forward to seeing proof of that 'popping' belly!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, don't get me started on the nursery furniture! Oh, too late, you did.
    I made a list of what we need, everything I could think of, and considering that we have no baby shower custom over here, we have to buy everything ourselves. And suddenly I am quite crossed with everyone who overprices cheap furniture that is meant to be changed in a couple of years anyway. This is pure rip-off, really.

    Glad to hear you're feeling good. And baby girl is perfecting her kicks, soon you'll feel them when you are active as well. Give her a bit more time. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh man...After reading your nursery furniture musings I'm suddenly really glad all our stuff came second-hand. I can barely coordinate side dishes when I'm planning dinners, but trying to coordinate a room while pregnant seems like a task of Herculean proportions.

    ReplyDelete