A Few More Updates!

It's just me and the cat tonight, as Ben is on a camp-out with his 14-15 year old boys from church. I'm a little nervous about him being gone, but he's only about 30 minutes away, and with 3 weeks left until my due date, I'm not very likely to go into labor tonight. However, I still have a sink full of dishes and I'm exhausted from walking all over Walmart today.

One thing I'm really grateful for, is that I'm done working. I had my last day of work on Wednesday the 17th. It probably would have been a more emotional day except that it just happened to be an extremely stressful day with teachers calling in sick and spraining their ankles and having to go home early ... yikes! All in all, I haven't missed working yet, and I probably won't until I miss that first paycheck I suppose. I do miss some of my co-workers and the children, but it's good to have time and energy to accomplish some of the tasks around my house that have been piling up for the last couple of months. I do have to be very careful about how much I do though, because if I overdo it, I really end up paying for it!

We finally got furniture in the baby's room! We've had the crib for a couple of weeks of course, but initially we weren't sure what we were going to do about dressers, etc. However, one of our friends was participating in a yard sale to benefit a young man with some medical issues, and one of the things they collected to sell was a complete white wicker bedroom set, 2 dressers, a trunk, a nightstand and a rocking chair. Since the rocking chair was wrapped in cellophane and we couldn't tell whether it was comfortable or not, we opted not to get rocking chair. We did, however, get everything else for $80, which I'm quite proud of! The color and style match the room perfectly and now we have STORAGE! I finally got to wash the baby's clothes and have somewhere to put them! It was so fun folding all the baby's clothes. I kept thinking to myself, "oh my gosh that is so cute!" and "oh my gosh, THAT is so cute!" She is going to be one well-dressed little girl.

I went to the OB on Wednesday and they discovered that I am dilated 1 cm. Isn't that exciting? It doesn't give any indication of when the baby is coming, of course, but it's progress! I had contractions all night that night, probably due to that internal exam. Last night however, everything was pretty calm so I'm not worried about going into premature labor. Well, not yet anyway! I'll be happy to give it one more week just to make it to 38 weeks and then she can come any old time she's ready, or perhaps she can be convinced ... I'm getting pretty uncomfortable and my clothes are getting too tight so I'm ready!

Baby's Room Update!

The baby's room is finally done ... sorta. We finished painting the day of my baby shower and got the crib in there a couple of weeks later. It looks really good. Now I just need to finish painting a shelf, hang it back up on the wall, and get the baby's furniture in there. But you can see the dramatic before and after shots. I think the stripes turned out beautifully. I'm SO happy with them. I also had my hubby change out all the cream/black electrical outlets for bright white ones and spray-painted the heating vent cover white as well. I wish we had painted the woodwork white because it looks very shabby next to the crisp, freshly painted walls, but I guess that's a project for another time!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Getting down to wires

We're getting down to the wire here, only about 6 more weeks to go! We are so excited and of course, nowhere near ready! The goal is to finish painting the nursery this week and get the crib moved in. My baby shower is on Saturday and I keep telling Ben I need somewhere to put all the baby's stuff! Maybe tonight I can convince him to finish painting?

Speaking of wires, I made a trip to the cardiologist last week after a slight scare on Monday morning. I went to visit a friend from church with another friend, and we were sitting in her living room talking when all of a sudden I started to feel like my heart was beating out of my chest and I was feeling slightly nauseous. I leaned over to my friend who had been a nurse and she put her hand on my wrist and we timed my pulse--120 beats per minute, just sitting there! Of course, our friend had the space heater on in her house and I was feeling pretty warm. With having a baby on board, I called my OB just to make sure everything was ok, and they told me to go ahead and visit the cardiologist as the OB's office doesn't have any sort of cardiac diagnostic equipment! Eek! So off I went to the cardiologist who told me not to worry, that everything was probably just pregnancy-related, but who still ordered an echocardiogram and a 24-hour heart monitor. I had the echocardiogram the same day and it came back normal. I went Monday for the heart monitor hook-up and spent a very uncomfortable 24 hours with 7 electrodes taped to my body, recording a constant EKG. I can't even describe how silly I felt with a bunch of cords running under my shirt, but I dealt with it. I still haven't gotten any results back, but it can take a week or so. I just hope I don't have to go back to the cardiologist for many, many years to come!

In other news, I only have about a week left of work. We found my replacement and she's starting next Monday. I suppose I should be grateful, but truly it feels a little weird. As stressful as it can be sometimes, I've been working for so long that I'm very used to it. I enjoy my job, and I enjoy my contribution to the family budget. We'll survive without my income, but we won't be able to save as much as we have been able to while I've been working. That said, I know how important my role as a mother will be in the life of my child, especially having worked in child care for the past couple of years. I truly feel that nothing can replace a mother's influence in her child's life. I know it will be a challenge for independent-minded me, but I'm looking forward to this new phase in my life.