Christmas Miracles

Just a quick post to show a couple of pictures mainly.  Christmas came and went so quickly, it barely feels like it was here.  I flew out on Friday night with only a slight delay, John flew out on Saturday night with the exact same delay.  All in all, it was a fun trip.

My cousins and I did cookies Saturday morning - a family tradition.  The older cousins help the younger cousins roll and cut sugar cookies and then decorate.  We did a few less this year, which is the way to go because many of the younger kids get tired and eventually wander off.  We'll be adding another to the mix next year -- he'll be even less interested than the 7 year old... ha. 

Sunday my dad and I did our annual present trek while John went to Arrowhead Stadium with my uncle and cousin to check out the Chiefs.  If nothing else, he got to see another stadium!  And they were the early game, which meant that he and my Uncle John were able to make it back to the house to catch the beginning of the Bear's game which is all they were really concerned with.  (With a nice little stop over at Gates BBQ -- one of my favorite places on earth)

Sunday is our big family gathering and present opening.  I was terrible and didn't get any pictures of the craziness that ensues -- to give a brief idea, there are 11 (??) kids under 18 in the family... most of which are under 10.  So it becomes a little bit of a madhouse.  But, as they get older the easier it gets to go through everyone.  I brought my dad up to the current century with a digital camera this year.  I thought it was time for him to join the digital age, especially with a grandson on the way!  (Christmas Miracle #1)

My talented and beautiful cousin did my eye make-up for me, so I actually showed up to Christmas with more than just mascara on.  (Christmas Miracle #2)

Our last picture just to the two of us!  Yikes....

 

Christmas day we travel back home to Chicago.  There was no blizzard this year so we didn't have to go with our fall back of my dad driving us back.. a welcome relief to this pregnant lady who probably would have made the 9 hour drive turn into 12 with the various stops I would have had to make.  

The big news of the weekend --- Katie and Marla got engaged!!!  Marla proposed on Christmas morning.  She made a great video of pictures of the two of them with the tune of "Marry Me"... I think everyone cried.  John and I weren't back yet, but we heard all about it.  (Christmas Miracle #3)  I'm so excited for them!!  What great years 2013 and 2014 will be!  Can't hardly wait..

So that wraps up Christmas.  We had a great time with family, of course it always passes too quickly and I never get enough time -- but it was great to see everyone.  One good thing about this timing (that helps counteract the sadness over missing some of the greatest beer releases of the season) is that I got an "interim" visit with my family..... I didn't just show up the next Christmas with a baby.  I think that would have been a mind trip...  

I hope all had a wonderful and safe holiday!  Can't wait to get this new year started and see what it brings.

75% cooked

I have promised pictures -- and pictures I shall deliver!  I'm nearly 75% done with this pregnancy business, and I can't even barely believe it.  We finally went to Buy Buy Baby today to kind of check it out and touch two of the more important items we are looking to buy, the stroller and the car seat.  It was a good trip, as we were able to figure out important things like "how the hell does the car seat come off the base?  Why are there so many buttons?  What do you get for an extra $220?"  I think we were able to answer most of those questions, and now the fun of registering begins. 

What else is new?  Doctor's appointment was yesterday for my 30 week check-up.  I think I've gained more weight in the last week and a half (Christmas food is so good) than I have the entire 29.5 before it.  Heartbeat was at 137, belly was measuring on track... and the swelling in my right hand is not a sign of strange things to come, just probably the way I'm sleeping and/or having to do with the bruise-like feeling I've had in my hand for the last 3 or so months.  Lack of movement isn't anything to worry about yet, and it seems like he just has some off weeks.  Today he was grooving along while I worked, so he's definitely still in there.  I don't go back for three weeks to get back to my even numbered week schedule.  John and I are signing up for a class soon (perhaps tonight if I finish this quick enough). 

Below are the last four weeks for your viewing pleasure. 

Week 27: The Calm Cucumber

Week 28: The Cribbed Cauliflower

Week 29:  The Capricious Cabbage

Week 30: The Bubbly Butternut Squash

It's starting to be much more obvious in regular clothes now, so I've definitely graduated to the "oh, you're pregnant" stage which is much better than the "are you pregnant or fat" stage.  I'm a big fan.  I'm hoping it will also provide my work with visible proof that my leave needs to be determined sooner than later.  

As for nursery, I have a couple pictures that show a little bit more of how the prints are being used.  

The crib with the Eat Well Travel Often print hung above.  The Chicago Bookshelf print will be hung to the left above the eventual glider.  

Our shelving which we have to figure out the spacing for still.  The dresser/changing table will go below.

From the front door, the print to the right we got in Ireland while we were there.  Our next thing we  need is new (read CLEAN) blinds.... Hopefully that will happen soon because these ones are gross!

We are getting close to the end game, and we are wrapping our heads around being ready for it.  I think we are nearly there.  After going to the baby store today, it's definitely feeling more and more real and the realization that we will bring home a baby in about 10 weeks is sinking in.  

Next is a quick post on Christmas and all the festivities of Kansas City and Chicago.  I don't think there is too much going on otherwise... other than the fact that I'm getting used for a dance floor again.  Still a bizarre feeling, but I'll take it.  This kid might not know Bach or Mozart when he gets here, but he'll certainly enjoy Maroon 5, 90's rap, and various other pop culture icons... not sure if that's good or bad yet. 

Short Update

This is just a short update to give a picture of the crib and another print that I purchased a few weeks ago that came back from the framer.  I've been a little behind where I was hoping to be in updating on my blog, but work has been a bit insane and of course I do love to just throw in way too much life "stuff" - like Drinksgiving for 20+ of our closest friends, a concert, birthday celebrations, holiday parties... the usual.  Tonight is the first night I haven't had something planned since last Monday, and I'm loving it.  I have to work of course, but at least that's the only thing I have planned, other than relaxing and possibly falling asleep on the couch.  

I bought this at the Renegade Holiday Market.  It's essentially the Chicago skyline on a bookshelf, where the titles of the books are the names of the buildings.  I'm pretty excited about it.

And our crib!  We moved it around about 3 dozen times, and think right now that this is the best use of the space in the room.  We have the "Eat Well; Travel Often" hung right above.  I have pictures, but not on my phone of course.  So I'll have to post a few more (and be as repetitive as possible).

I'm holding off on any other prints for a while - mainly because we don't have a whole lot of room in our little nursery, and especially because we don't have a lot of wall space.  I'm also a little bit nervous that if I get too many (like I would love to do) then it will start to turn into wallpaper.  Our next steps are getting a dresser, registering, and getting a rug.  So we are starting to narrow it down.

Otherwise, all seems to be going well.  I had my end of week 28/start of week 29 appointment last Friday.  Heartbeat was still strong in the 140's, everything seems to be going well from what my doctor could tell.  So that was good.  

One thing that I find frustrating right now, and nerve-wracking, is that he's really slowed down on the movement front over the last week/week and a half.  I used to feel like my belly was trying to escape from my body, and now there are times when I don't know for sure that he's actually there.  So maybe he's just starting to sleep during all the times that I'm awake and only move at night or when I'm not paying attention?  But it's a little worrisome.  My doctor said not to freak out about movement until week 30, that's when she wants me to focus on the counts and all that jazz.  I find that to be good advice (the not worry or freak out part) but geez, it's impossible to follow.  Any tips out there?  I tried some juice this morning, I'm drinking a ton of water. But he's still a little bit stagnant these days.  I'm trying to avoid calling my doctor since I go back to see her in 8 days - and I really don't think there is anything to worry about, especially since I saw her 5 days ago and everything looked good.  

I leave for KC on Friday, back on Tuesday.  That will be a nice little break.  Going to be a little crazy to be around all my family - but definitely looking forward to it!  Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on a LITTLE bit of sleep, although I kind of doubt it.  

And just another thought -- I seriously underestimated the intelligence of men apparently when creating a maternity policy... I like to think that they are smart/sensible people who run my company - but apparently the idea that I would be out for 12 weeks was completely lost on them.  All I can say is "wow".... But hopefully with a little prodding from me, they'll come to see the errors of their ways.  Until then I keep sending them emails about various other engineering company policies that all essentially say the same thing.  I have 80 days (to due date at least) to have them figure this shiznit out.  Cross fingers that at least they decide to meet the minimum instead of their current idea of 2 paid days, then borrowing vacation for the rest or taking unpaid...... (I did realize though that apparently my boss didn't realize that I would be out for 12 weeks, so he figured apparently that I would only need to borrow a couple of weeks of vacation because I would be back in about 3-4 weeks....really?)  My first question should have been "did you show your wives this policy"... I didn't ask that.  I did ask important questions like - how long is my job guaranteed, will I continue to get my benefits while I'm on leave, will you enact short term disability... all the things that I figured they had looked into.  Apparently "google" is lost on them?  I might have chosen an interesting time to work for a company that is exempt from FMLA.

Crib is in the house...

... and it will be put up promptly once we have some time.  So in about 19 years from now once he leaves for college.

Okay, I won't wait nearly that long, but honestly, who has time to put a crib together between work deadlines, Christmas concerts, tap takeovers (moral support), and brunch?

Say goodbye to the 2nd tri

Holy smokes!  It's two-thirds of the way over.  I can't believe it.  It has gone so fast, and I'm now less than 100 days away from my due date - which means it's really soon that we could be bringing this little guy home with us.  Yikes!

We are currently trying to enjoy as much as we can - while our house is reaching it's 15-20 life span apparently.  We went to another Bears game (season tickets are so amazing - I want them every year) and the weather was just beautiful.  I realize I'm wearing a poofy coat in the the second picture, but that was more precautionary so that I wouldn't feel cold and it was the end of the game.  And, it's the coat I bought at the end of last season on sale, so I'm trying to get as much wear from it as I can before I'm carrying a watermelon and it won't zip anymore.

See the sweet argyle scarf behind my left ear?  If we had been on time to the game, I probably would have gotten one.  Oh well, the spicy v-bloody mary and veggie burrito were worth it too.

Everyone looks happy because we won!!  It was a great game to be attending, it would have probably been a boring game to go to since it was essentially a blow out.

Just a random pic of the turned off Buckingham Fountain with the city skyline.  

So, how is our house falling apart you may ask?  Well, we had a chimney sweeper person (no, they were NOT dressed like those in Mary Poppins, nor did they sing and dance, or jump from rooftop to rooftop - seriously disappointing) come and check our dryer vent and our fireplace.  The insert in our fireplace is cracked (ugh) and the dryer vent through either their own methods of cleaning or through the problem of our venting being done poorly in the mid-90's essentially collapsed and fell apart.  That means we are a bit ghetto right now with venting our dryer through our back door because otherwise we could set fire to our building.  And as much as I do appreciate the work of our fine firefighters, I feel like I would like to not experiment with using a fire extinguisher.  So we are hoping to rip our ceiling a little bit and snake a new hose through there to fix our dryer venting.  

I guess that's the main of it, in the end it's more of a pain in the butt, and not actually that we are going to have our house condemned.  But seriously, as John said yesterday "it seems like owning our condo for the first two years was 'gravy' (yes, he said gravy?), and now we are getting essentially sh*t on at every turn".  I have to say that I tend to agree, although I don't know that I would have said gravy.  I'm hoping that these will be the worst of it, and we will only essentially be left with minor things after this - but I imagine that with such an old building it won't be.  I miss the days of calling a landlord when things were broken -- it's strangely difficult to dial my own number from my own phone.  I always get a busy signal.  

We're getting quite the eclectic start to our nursery.  Side note: we've actually started using the word "nursery" in every day conversation, so that it's not as shocking when we actually have to start using it that way.  We have a wooden moose (thanks Katie for our awesome present!), an orange corduroy aardvark (love him!), Paddington Bear, the Crawling Bear from when I was a kid (he doesn't crawl, but his shirt assures him he can), and of course our family motto print (Eat Well, Travel Often) -- this is probably a serious repeat, but I forget where I post things and who sees them, so figured I would also share on here.

And we are going to get a rug from Flor.  Molly works there and has been so kind as to off her services to help us getting it ordered (which I believe comes with a discount!).  Sorry for the poor quality of the picture - but I took a picture of the rug we want off my computer screen. 

We might change a couple of the colors out, I think the blue/green we will pick to be a bit darker to match the color in the print.  I'm excited for it though.  Should be fun, and bright!  

I wish I was better at figuring out those "inspiration boards", that would probably be a lot better presentation.  I'll work on that.  See what I can come up with.  I'm savvy, maybe not tech savvy, but I'm savvy.  I should be able to figure something out.

And finally, my last picture of my last week of my 2nd trimester.  I say adieu to the last 26 weeks, and bonjour to the final 13 weeks and 6 days.  

I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for this.  I don't think I'll ever be ready -- but I guess I don't have too much time left to think about it before diving right in. 

He's moving a lot more, although not consistent or anything.  I can actually feel him a lot more.  I don't notice any time more than others really, but I do realize that he moves around a lot more on Saturday mornings - which clearly is because Saturday mornings are the best time of the week.  So he's already brilliant!  Ha.. lame sauce, I know.  But it's cool to have him move around.  It's still kind of creepy since my body is no longer my own and moves on it's own accord, but you know, I'll take it.  Ha. 

I've realized in the last few days, now that I'm starting to actually feel big, I might have a bit more Hoyt in me than I would like, with worrying about weight and how I look.  I realize that getting round comes with the process, but I'm really struggling with it.  It's tough for me, and I have a hard time accepting that it's okay.  I'm hoping that as I start to feel more pregnant that it will help.  Until then, we'll see how it goes.  I just need to get myself moving and off the couch and maybe do some more walking and go to the gym or something (I'm paying that every month for a reason, right??).  So yeah, just some of the random things that I find hard .. I guess it's not so bad.

What was the favorite part of being pregnant for others?  When did you really feel pregnant?  I'm just getting there, and I'm 6 months in.. ha.  What are every one's plans for the holidays?  We are going to KC again until Christmas Day and then flying back home to Chicago.... doing something fun for our last New Year's as just the two of us... Should be a good time.

Personal gripe time:  Chicago bar bathrooms.  They are always so freaking cold!  Don't they keep heaters in there???  Grrr, gets me every time.  :)