Getting Ready

There’s so much to be done and so much going on around our house right now! I feel like sleep is a waste of time and, although I know I need my rest, I feel like any moment resting is a moment that should be spent accomplishing something! I guess you could say ‘nesting’ is settling in at our house.

We have so much we’re trying to get ready for; the list seems to go on and on. First is Christmas. We’re hosting Neil’s family for Christmas this year which we’re very excited for, but the preparation is also overwhelming. We honestly started about eight months ago by taking the first steps to finish our lower levels. We knew there was no way everyone could comfortably come to our house without that extra space and it was a good excuse to get started. We’re now almost finished, almost, but not quite. Neil has been busy staining doors and I’ve been busy finding the little things we need that are easily overlooked. Thankfully, I have an amazing and handy father who is going to come down this weekend to install doors and lights, help move furniture, etc.  I’m excited for that all to be done, but then comes the top-to-bottom cleaning that our house desperately needs. The past couple months I have been excessively tired at all times which means the simple chores of vacuuming, dusting, organizing, and such have gone unfinished and now that I have some energy back that really needs to change. My husband is amazing and has done more than his share while I’ve been exhausted, but there was only so much I would let him do alone. Now I have only four weeks to get caught up and then some so that our house is ready for company!

The other thing we’re preparing for, of course, is Baby B’s arrival! Since we found out the gender and have had quite a few people asking what they can get Baby/us as Christmas gifts we decided to get a registry done at Target. We spent a few hours going up and down the four little aisles of baby items at Target on Saturday and hopefully have everything listed that we need. We decided we weren’t going to register for any clothes because people like to pick out cute baby clothes on their own anyway and I have no doubt we’ll get a lot! I tried to stay neutral with most items, just in case we have another child in the future and it’s not a girl, I don’t want to have to buy everything new. My husband was insistent that the bedding be pink and girly though, and yes it was honestly him, I really liked one of the neutral bedding sets but wasn’t going to fight with getting pink! Of course if Baby surprises us as a boy, this just means Neil will have a lot of returns to make and shopping to do in the few days Baby and I are still in the hospital, but don’t worry my mom has already volunteered to help with any shopping that would need to be done then!

I know the next four weeks are going to be a blur of cleaning, gift wrapping, meal planning, and grocery shopping and the next four months will rush by in a haze of pink; I simply cannot wait!

Halfway there!

It’s official, we’re having a baby girl! Neil and I are thrilled and so relieved to finally be able to tell anyone and everyone. We were very cautious telling people prior to 20 weeks because of my miscarriage, or I was very cautious and Neil understood and went along with it. He even jokingly said to me one night, “I bet if you had it your way we wouldn’t put anything on Facebook or Twitter until the baby is born.” I laughed, but in actuality he had a point. At 20 weeks though I figured I couldn’t wait any longer, I officially look pregnant. I’ve ran into a few people I know and have seen them glance at my belly and can just see the thoughts in their head ‘I think she’s pregnant, but I can’t ask because what if she’s not…’

My pregnancy has been going great. There were literally days where I would almost forget I was pregnant or worry that something was wrong because I had no symptoms. I haven’t had a single moment of morning sickness, I’ve gained maybe 2-3 pounds, and although I could tell my stomach was getting firmer it was hard for me to look in a mirror and say I looked pregnant. We had our 20 week ultrasound on Wednesday and since then I have felt pregnant. Seeing Baby B move, kick, and squirm around made everything so much more real. We’ve been able to listen to the heartbeat at prior appointments, but listening to it while you can see it beating on the screen is amazing. Right now baby is measuring right with my due date of March 29, 2012! She is in the 45% for size and weight and absolutely every measurement and image they looked at was normal! She is already a stubborn little girl, but if you know Neil and I that’s to be expected. She was curled up pretty well in there and the ultrasound tech had to try a few different techniques to get her to move enough to see boy or girl. We weren’t one bit surprised by this since at our last ultrasound she was all curled up and wouldn’t even roll over so they could get a measurement from a different angle; she just kept kicking and hitting at where the tech would push on my stomach. Hopefully that means she’ll be a snuggly baby!

My doctor is absolutely amazing! I always worried about choosing the right doctor because I was afraid I would never feel that comfortable with them, but she is perfect! She has a fun, goofy personality you would never associate with a doctor and always makes Neil and I feel like any question we have is a good question. To make it even better she’s actually expecting for the first time as well and at just six weeks ahead of me can fully understand everything I’m going through. She’s expecting twin boys so she hopes to be back in time for my delivery, but if not she is getting me in to see one of her partners that is the most like her.

So now comes the fun part: names, clothes, nursery things, and everything baby! I already went out Wednesday night and just had to buy a few little pink outfits, but I’m keeping all the receipts just in case our stubborn little girl turns out to be an even more stubborn little boy!