29 Weeks & Counting - This is Really Happening!

Well technically I'll be 29 weeks tomorrow, but close enough. Things have been super busy so I haven't had time to post in over a week. Here's a recap:

Visit from Mom
My mom arrived on the 18th and left this afternoon. I miss her already! It was great to have her here and she was a HUGE help, as usual. I wasn't able to take off much work while she was here (have to save up for maternity leave!) and my mom isn't very good at just sitting around, so she kept herself pretty busy. Aside from helping with the cooking and cleaning, she painted the inside of the nursery closet (which we had discovered was a nasty yellowish color) and painted a little chest of drawers. Last night Paul and I took her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday (which is today).

Baby Shower
My friend B hosted a baby shower for me last Saturday. It was so much fun! My mom, my MIL, and my Aunt K were all able to attend, along with a neighbor, another friend from college, one of Paul's friend's wives (and daughter), my office-mate (and her adorable six-month-old), and B's mom. For food, we had an afternoon tea style buffet with scones, mini quiches, fruit salad, etc. Yummy! B had 3 or 4 games planned, one of which involved guessing the number of diapers in a clear, plastic Rubbermaid container:

Answer:  216 - and yes, I got to keep them all!

Everyone also had to write a piece of advice (or so) on a card that they hung on a board. At the end of the shower, B put all the cards in a pretty jar for me to take home. The best piece of advice was when Paul's friend's daughter LP (who is 4) looked directly at my office-mate (who was holding her six-month-old) and said, rather matter of factly:  "When you have the scissors, you have to put the baby down."  Everyone got a good laugh out of that and her mom wrote it down and then had her sign it for me.

Then it was time for presents! LP was a big help unwrapping those :)  We got a lot of good stuff, definitely a LOT of clothes. We also got 3 of the same fleece sleeper with a little giraffe and frog on it. Apparently everyone thought it was cute (which it is)! In terms of registry stuff, we got the following:

• a rocker-sleeper thing that is super light and easy to move from room to room
• the larger of the two diaper bags we picked (for all-day or weekend-long trips)
• some nursing supplies
• various odds and ends (bottle brush, washcloths, etc)
• the Noah's Ark mobile (not a necessity but I kind of fell in love with it)
• the diaper pail
• our stroller! (We registered for both a simple stroller frame that works with our infant car seat, as well as a larger "all-terrain" type stroller that can also be used with the infant carseat or on its own when Flash is a little older. My parents got us the all-terrain stroller, which was one of Paul's favorite things. He was so excited he put it together the next day!)

I won't bore you with all the pictures from the shower, but have to share this one:

We've been looking for a "Flash" superhero outfit to dress Baby Flash 

in someday and my office-mate and her husband found one for us!

New Car Shopping

I mentioned in some previous posts that we've been having trouble with my car. We tried to fix it several times, but long story short, it's not fixed. And according to our mechanic, it will be "thousands of dollars" to fix at this point, which is way more than it is worth (a 2004 Honda Civic in pretty decent condition otherwise but with 190,000+ miles on it). This has been a major source of stress over the past month. Not only have I not had a car to drive to/from work (it is still drivable, but not for that distance or in that kind of traffic) but we've been suddenly thrust into looking for a new car about 6-8 months sooner than we'd planned (the plan was to pay mine off by the end of this year and save up payments for a few months before buying a new one next summer). So... we scrambled around and were able to figure out a way to pay my car off before the end of this month so that at least we'll get the full trade-in value from it. And between the train, working from home an extra day each week, and borrowing my MIL's car a bit (my in-laws have extra vehicles), I've been able to make it to work and back. Whew.

 

Meanwhile, we've been car shopping. My big thing (and Paul's too really) was avoiding having to run out and buy the first thing we saw. I don't like feeling pressured to make decisions, and buying a car is a relatively big decision! We knew we wanted a crossover-type vehicle and our priorities were good gas mileage (I have a long commute and we tend to go on a few road trips each year) and all-wheel drive. Paul did a lot of research and came up with a list of about 30 crossover vehicles from all the manufacturers out there that offered an AWD option. From that, we narrowed it down by miles-per-gallon (on the highway) to a list of about 7 that we wanted to look at in person. We visited dealerships and test drove 6 of those 7 (the last one was way too small) and from there, we narrowed it down to a final 3. One of the dealerships offered to let us take the car for a whole day so that we could drive it for more than the 5 minute test drive. Since they offered, we were able to go to the other 2 dealerships and ask to do the same with their cars. 

So... I've now driven (to and from work) a Subaru Outback, a Chevy Equinox, and a Honda CRV. I like them all and would take any of them if offered one for free! But since we are paying for it ourselves, I have ruled out the Equinox (it just wasn't as comfortable and there were a few things that drove me nuts about it). So now it's between the Subaru and the Honda and I like them both pretty equally. Paul and I have to talk some more about it since he drove them too, but we're hoping to have a decision by the end of tomorrow and then will start the paperwork on Monday. Fingers crossed that things go smoothly and I have a new car sometime next week!

 

Nursery Updates

In addition to the painting that Mom did, the wall mural that Paul's friend's sister is doing for us is really coming along! She thinks it might even be done after one more session. I'll have to post some pics of that later (don't have many on my camera yet) but it's super cute and I'm so happy we asked her to do it. We also decided to paint the rest of the furniture (a taller chest of drawers and the changing table) a plain white and decorate with any extra wall decals we have. 

 

Speaking of the changing table, it's almost finished! I can't remember how much I've said in previous posts, but we're converting an extra desk we had sitting around into a changing table. It already has several drawers, which will be great for storage. And the space in the middle where the chair would go will be perfect for a trash/diaper can or laundry hamper. Paul and his dad built a topper for the desk that has compartments for the changing pad and various supplies. It's screwed on right now, but when we're finished using it as a changing table we can take it off and still use the desk. I'll have to take pictures of that later too. 

 

In addition to the paint-job, the closet got new shelving and Paul is going to install a pull-chain light and a new bi-fold door that should take up less space than the old regular door. Now that we're starting to accumulate more and more baby stuff, I'm looking forward to putting it all away in the closet and getting organized!

**********************************

Those are pretty much the highlights of the last week or so. Tomorrow we are attending an all-day baby class at the hospital (intro to the stages of labor and delivery, overview of what to expect and what our options might be, a tour, etc). We had to sign up for the day-long boot camp version as opposed one that meets weekly for an hour or so due to Paul's work schedule. After class is over, we are doing a photo shoot with my friend Jay from college who runs her own photography business (she also took our engagement and wedding photos). We aren't officially calling it a maternity shoot, but basically that's what it is. I've gone back and forth about whether to do this or not, and here's what I've concluded:

• This might be my only pregnancy, so I kind of want to document it with more than just the crappy phone-camera mirror shots I've taken of myself. 
• Even if this isn't my only pregnancy, we worked really hard to get to this stage so I want to celebrate the accomplishment with my husband. I like the symbolism of looking back at these photos and knowing that they represent our success in overcoming a huge obstacle in our married lives together.
• We need Christmas card pictures. Usually we do a collage of photos from our various travels and adventures throughout the year; past photos have included skiing in Colorado, standing on the beach in North Carolina, horseback riding, wrestling with our dogs, and hiking in Maine. This year, we've still traveled some but have done considerably less "adventuring" than normal due to IUI/IVF and then pregnancy restrictions.
• We haven't taken formal pictures together, just the two of us, since the wedding. And we likely never will again (or at least not for a very long time). So why not?

All of this to say, I kind of had a minor freak-out earlier this week when I realized just how REAL this is getting to be. The nursery, the shower, the baby class, the pictures... We are going to have a baby in like... 11 weeks (give or take). ELEVEN WEEKS!!! That's really soon! I'm excited, of course. We've been waiting for this. For a long time, it seemed like this would never happen. But now it is. And I'm suddenly feeling so completely unprepared and overwhelmed by everything that still needs to be done! I know it will be okay, I know we'll be fine, I know things will get done and we'll be as prepared as we can be. But in the meantime, I just can't let myself think about the countdown yet. I need these last weeks to slow down a bit!