Sunday, December 30, 2007

From zero to 60 in no time flat...



That's how quickly our office/ guest bedroom has been transformed into a nursery! We made the trek from Jersey to Delaware yesterday, since it is the home of tax free shopping. Our mission: to find a crib and dresser in our price range that matches my ever picky tastes. My sister mentioned a children's furniture store. After checking the website, and Bryan mapquesting directions we were off! The trip is relatively easy, unless you decide to try and circumvent the traffic right over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, like we did. After driving through some of the more "colorful" areas of Wilmington we somehow found a round that was actually on the mapquest map. After a few more turns, ta-dah Closic's Children's Furniture! I get nervous walking into these places. Suddenly I feel like I'm a little kid, when in fact I have an opinion of what I like and even more of an opinion of what I don't. They were great there! We gave them our ballpark and we were able to spend less without them trying to sell us more crap than we need. So here's our crib and dresser: Imagine them both in white!

From Closic's we took a bit of a detour. Friendly's was calling! Who doesn't love Reese's Peanut Butter cup sundaes?? We then attempted to surprise my parents and family friends as my mom was housesitting in PA, but that didn't quite go over as well as anticipated so somehow about 2 hours later we're on the way back home. That is until we saw IKEA on the side of the road! Backstory a bit: Bryan HATES Ikea. He hates the idea that people go into the store and actually purchase entire rooms from rug to couch to picture frames. So, as I suggest IKEA for a new single bed, I thought he'd laugh. Yesterday, he had a change of heart. He saw IKEA as I do- a great place to purchase inexpensive furniture that requires some sweat and an allen wrench but overall worth the cheap price. We did the grand tour, as is the only way to shop IKEA. After dancing with the notion of purchasing another metal daybed because it was only $59, we settled on this. Not too bad right, for under $200. While the bed isn't too snazzy, the storage underneath is sick! Really I think the baby's entire wardrobe can fit in the deep drawers. If my crafty side comes in play, I may even paint the wood orange or green to match the bedding! Of course that wasn't the only thing we bought. We have a snazzy new desk lamp that's about the size of a bottle of soda shining on the computer. Plus new wooden hangers, 6 lightbulbs, a red circular rug for the kitchen, and we found a blue elephant for the baby! Now, it's time for Bryan to whip out the allen wrench and attempt to assesmble this bed, because the boxes really clash with the Christmas decor in the family room!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Can you believe viability is only 3 days away?

I mentioned to Bryan that my doc sister has a 24 wk. preemie in the NICU that she sucessfully intubated. It was as I was saying this that I realized, Wednesday we are 24 weeks. Baby could come and survive and while I told Bryan I found it exciting, inside I could not wrap my mind around it. Bryan, meanwhile, went into an immediate panic. Making another list of what we need, complaining that my shower location is not booked, barking at me to set up a tour of the hospital, as well as enrolling in baby readiness class.
This pregnancy has been a dream thus far. Really, besides my huge boobs and ever growing stomach, nothing else really has changed. In the first trimester, I kept waiting for the morning sickness to come. Days turned into weeks turned into nothing! It was also during that time that I was sure I would miscarry. I remember thinking to myself, "now don't get too excited, you could loose it any day". Just like the morning sickness, that day never came. No extreme tiredness, no moodiness, no crazy cravings- everything has been good. While I normally consider myself an optimistic, I still think something is going to hit me. I keep knocking on wood. My mom said that the healthiest she ever felt in her life was during her 3 pregnancies. I'm guessing I'm following her lead. Hopefully my labor will be short like hers too!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Chicken Pox and Head Lice and Runny Noses- Oh my!

Friday started out as any other day. I got dressed in my new long sleeve t from Gap which honestly feels like pajamas, made the commute up the turnpike and rolled into school. Everything was going normal. My kiddies were a little crazy, be it a Friday that's nothing new. I was sitting at my desk correcting some papers when our school nurse stepped in with a piece of paper in her hand. "Nothing really to worry about, but I just wanted you to read this" as she hands me a letter from a mother of a student I had had last year. "I wanted to write to inform you that I think I may have chicken pox. While we're not 100% sure, I thought it would be in the best interest of everyone if I let you know.....please let Mrs. S know since she's expecting." CHICKEN POX on an parent?!? I didn't even think about worrying about the possibility of that. Luckily my kiddies had Spanish so I was able to sneak to the office and call my OB. After calling the other office, I finally get in touch with the OB coordinator and try to explain my story. It went a little something like this:
"A parent of a former student may have chicken pox and I'm wondering if I should be worried". I say
"The student shouldn't be in school if they have chicken pox!" Says the nurse.
"It's not the student, it's their parent."I say.
"The parent should know better than to send in a student who has chicken pox!" says the nurse
Deep Inhale hear then slow exhale by me
"The student is fine, it's her mother that may have chicken pox!"
"OHHHH! Sorry. If you had the chicken pox and your tests early on would show your levels you should be fine. "
Sigh of relief from me
Nurse says "Let me go check your file to see what your levels were like early on".
Insert cheesy hold music here.......
Nurse comes back "Yeah, you never had that test. So we you come in next week, I'll give you the paperwork for it. But I think you'll be fine!".
Great, one more thing to worry about....but the day gets better.
I get back to my room and things go on in their usual crazy manner. The nurse comes in via intercom asking to see a certain student. Student heads down and within five minutes she comes back on asking for his things. Weird, right?
Ha ha, there's more. She then says that he has some houseguests on his head and could I send down some of my kiddies to get checked. The four letter word that brings fear into every heart of elementary school teachers has come into my class- LICE! Luckily all the kids, myself and my student teacher were clean, but it didn't stop us from itching the rest of the day. It ended up this child and his entire family had it and the nurse said she had never seen them such large ones before. Nice, I win the fattest lice game!
The day continues and my nose starts to run. Normally, this situation could be handled with any number of OTC drugs but not now, not with baby on board. So here I am, with box of tissues next to me sniffling away. I've heard vitamin C helps, I wonder if there is such a thing as too much orange juice?

Saturday, December 1, 2007

"Everything looks perfect"

Those were the words the doctor uttered after looking at all the frames from the ultrasound. Our baby is developing fine. We're only a few weeks away from "viability" and it's really starting to feel more real. I have started to feel on a regular basis this kid kicking me. Speaking of kicking, let me mention this child's measurements thus far. The head, stomach, etc.. all measured about 21 to 22 weeks. Exactly where I am, that is until the tech got to measuring the leg bones. Surprise- 24wk. 4 days! We thought that was long,until the tech measured the arms- 25 wks. I think we can safely assume that is going to be one long baby! At the end of the session the tech punched in all the numbers and gave us an estimation as to how much the baby weighs at 21 weeks. Typically babies are about 3/4 of a pound. Not our little porker! All ready, they're saying it's 1 1/4 pounds! I should also mention that's with me being on lovanox- a blood thinner whose only side effect is low birth weight! What does that mean- can you imagine how big this kid would be if I wasn't on the blood thinner?!?
With each week, I'm getting more and more excited. Before we know it, April will be here and we'll know whether it's a boy or a girl. Until then, it's orange, and green, and yellow!