Nesting. Check.

We're learning that there are varying degrees of "We're Ready". Last week, we were physically ready, with a place to put a baby. And that was a relief. So this week, we've had some time off together over the holiday so there has been quite a bit more Getting Ready.

Meet the official, finished (except for pictures on the wall) nursery:


The thing hanging down from the little pink shelf is a ribbon for barrettes and hair stuff. So cute that it almost hurts to look at it ;).


A very comfy chair, with gliding footrest. Some assembly was required.


That bookshelf was mine when I was growing up. It initially (like in 1980) was pink. Then teal (1986ish, when everything was teal), then a very unpleasant green (I don't know what happened there...) then kind of a neutral beige. It is now pink again. It's the circle of furniture life, and it truly does move us all. We stripped it down to bare wood, and it's now ready for the next generation of color experimentation.

This has been kind of a tough few days. I'm not sleeping very much (yeah yeah practice for when the baby gets here, just hang on, just you wait, blah blah blah) and so it was nice to have some time off where I can just sleep when the mood strikes. She's moving around a lot. I'm kind of high maintenance myself (just ask Rob...). Speck is taking my very carefully-cultivated Princess-and-the-Pea thing to new levels. It's becoming very clear that she has a narrow definition of what is comfortable, and I am at her mercy right now. More than once in the wee small hours of the morning, I've thought wistfully about a day that I'll be able to hand her to someone (like Rob...) and maybe score five minutes of comfort on my stomach. I know I'll miss how amazing it has been to have her all to myself--except for the times when Rob gets brave enough to put his hand on my roiling belly until she shoves it off. But I think We're Ready for the next phase to begin. Remind me that I said this in 6 weeks when I'm running on 8 minutes of sleep and my unwashed hair is permanently fused to the scrunchy holding it out of my eyes.

So that's what the expectant parents are up to. And here is the expectant dog:


Freshly groomed and hoping that someone will come to grab that duck out of her mouth, Gracie also patiently waits for the new arrival.

The Home Stretch

So today I am 34 weeks. Babyfit.com says:

Your Baby This Week A bouncing bundle of joy at 5 pounds (2.5 kg) and nearly 20 inches (51 cm), your baby's organs are almost fully matured with the exception of the lungs, which will continue to develop almost until birth. Though you can't see your baby, her skin is turning from red to pink. While her fingernails are fully formed, the toenails still need more time to grow. Some babies will even have a full head of hair by this point.

Aw, she's pink. She matches her clothes :). And I can attest to the five-pound thing. It's pretty obvious where she is (on my right side) and when she moves (generally, right when I'm trying to go to sleep).

We're at the point where the big stuff is done. The crib is together


and we have a nice comfy chair


and we have breathed a sigh of relief because we now officially have a place to put her when she arrives. We've got some stuff to hang on the walls, and a bookshelf that is ready to paint, and that can happen this weekend. And then there's nothing left to do except wait. We're starting to take care of the business as well--we've found a daycare that looks to be just about perfect (it's right on campus and about a 5-minute walk from my office). We'll get on the waiting list as soon as she's born, and chances are good that we'll get into that. It's time to complete the FMLA paperwork so that I have a job to return to when my maternity leave is up. I'm setting up my office so that my assistant and my director can do what needs doing while I'm out without too much interruption to the workload. Stuff like that. It's weird to finally be at this point, where we're suddenly hurrying to get everything lined up. It's gone by pretty quickly.

And here's what I look like today...


Maternity clothes aren't exactly flattering, but you get the general idea. She's still pretty high up, and I think she's still pointed in the wrong direction. There's time for her to remedy that. I go back to the OB after Thanksgiving, and then weekly from there on out. Next perinatalogist appointment is the week after that. This is when the docs start figuring out whether anything is starting to happen and how ready everybody is to move out.

Coolest. Pictures. Ever.

It's been 10 weeks since we've seen the Speck show. We've gotten some feedback from people who tell us that they love seeing the pictures but it's sometimes difficult to tell what we're looking at. These might be a bit easier to decipher.




And the obligatory, super cute "Look At Her Little Foot" picture..


Really amazing, huh? We thought Dad & Florence might get a kick out of seeing not only the pictures but the live show as well, so they joined us this morning and I'm so glad they got to see her moving around. The staff at CMFM is great, and we've had the same ultrasound tech for the last 3 visits. She tends to narrate what she's looking at, so we got a full tour of Speck's functions and bloodflow and "princess parts" (i.e. she's still most definitely a girl). She's measuring at the 60th percentile for growth, which is well within the normal range , and she weighs 4 pounds 12 ounces, give or take half a pound, which is right where she needs to be at 32 weeks.

The tech actually commented on how active she is: "This has got to be the most active 8AM baby I think I've ever seen!" Yikes. That sentence should be followed by a gong or the music from the Psycho shower scene. I hadn't even had my single precious cup of coffee yet when she said that, either. The more time that passes, the more we realize that this kid is going to keep us jumping.

In other news, I had to take that stupid, awful 3 hour glucose tolerance test again on the weekend. Seriously, that makes for an awful day. Fortunately, my system seems to have leveled itself out and the numbers were about where they should be. This was good news after a month of fingersticks and blood testing four times a day. I'll get the details at the OB's office tomorrow morning, but it was good to hear that the results were better overall.

Let's see, what else.... the nursery is perilously close to being finished. We need to build a crib and that's about it. This is what it looks like right now. It's green, and I don't know if that's represented well by the current lighting we have in there...


That big box is the crib. Maybe this weekend? We make no promises.


This one's not a bad shot of the color--you can kind of tell that it's green. Note the stroller and the very small, very cute clothes hanging in the closet.

I just finished painting this nightstand--it's pink and super cute. The lamp was my mom's when she was growing up in Ventura.


So we're very very close to ready, roomwise. We have a bookshelf that was in my room when I was a kid that we'll paint to match the nightstand. A glider/rocker has been ordered, and hopefully will be here before the end of the month.

One last thing before I finish (I'm getting kicked pretty good by our active little princess which means that it's about time to go lay down) in regards to her name. We're pretty sure that we've come up with one that we like, and we've decided to keep it to ourselves until she gets here. It's a good name, that is easy to spell and we think it sounds nice with our last name. So bear with us, and play along. It's our turn to have some fun here, and we're looking forward to sharing it with you when the time is right.

We Don't Know Nothing 'Bout Birthing No Babies

Well, we didn't. Yesterday was our Childbirth Education class. We've heard mixed reviews about such things, so our expectations were pretty low. My OB recommended that we go, just because we haven't done this before and we might learn something. And we did. Quite a bit, actually. The teacher was a Labor & Delivery nurse from the hospital where we'll be delivering (check it out). She's been doing this for almost 30 years, most of which have been here in Vegas. She was a cross between Julia Child and Cloris Leachman. Very knowledgeable, lots of good information (like "Don't forget to bring lip balm" and "Make sure your car seat is installed before you show up to have a baby") and instructions. She warned of possible complications without being an alarmist and gave good advice about what to do if Something happens. She also gave us her home phone number, and invited us to call anytime with questions. Nice. We also got a tour of the hospital and now we know exactly where to go and what to do and say when we get there. They let us pre-register so we don't have to go through the whole admissions process. It was a long day, but we were pretty impressed with what we got for our 35 bucks.

This morning we put the stroller together. It's been sitting in its box for 3 months, and it was time. Not the most difficult thing in the world, as it was mostly intact. It folds up almost flat, so we won't be tripping over it for the next 2 months (HOLY CRAP TWO MONTHS OH MY GOD). There's a way to fold it up smartly with one hand that I haven't quite mastered yet. I'm going to be the over-excited expectant mom who practices folding up the stroller ;).

We have officially stopped sleeping. Not entirely, but we're down to about 5 hours a night and we're not sure why. I suppose there will be days ahead where we'll look back fondly on five hours of generally uninterrupted sleep and wish we could get that much again, but right now it kind of stinks. Waking up at 4:30 makes for a long day, and the earlier we go to sleep the earlier we wake up. So this morning, on this fine Sunday when we don't have to work and there are no real commitments at all, we were up a good 2 hours before sunrise. Yuck.

So what's next in our preparations? Finish painting--just touch ups, mostly. Paint the bookshelves, assemble the crib (note to self, buy a crib mattress), stuff like that. I've talked to one day care center--yes, we'll have to put our child in full-time day care and while we're not thrilled, there are several good options available--and we'll meet with a couple more before we commit. There is a ton of very small clothing that needs to be washed before anyone can wear it.

On paper, we're about ready for Speck's arrival. In reality... we'll figure it out as we go :)