Countdown

With less than six weeks to go, we've officially entered countdown mode. We've made a countdown checklist of all the projects and shopping we want to get done in the next few weeks and so far we're making pretty good progress. (I prefer "countdown mode" to "nesting" because it feels more accurate and less cheesy, not to mention that since I've made the checklist I've had The Final Countdown/visions of Arrested Development stuck in my head, which is fun.) I can't wait for everything to be ready. Only a week or two after we finally moved the hutch and the rocker out of the dining room and into the nursery, the dining room is once again filled up as our default storage space, now with all the items from the baby shower and a newly painted dresser.

Last week my main focus was washing all the clothes and linens we got at the baby shower. I've done most of it, but stopped when I ran out of room for all the clean items since the dresser wasn't finished yet. Paul-John painted the dresser yesterday, so now that its dry we should be able to get it upstairs fairly soon. Hopefully this weekend we can get all the furniture and everything else in place and we can put up all the wonderful decorations we got at our shower!

In other news, I am now going in for non-stress tests twice a week! It just started last week, and I'm lucky that my schedule is pretty flexible but it still is time consuming. At least I'm able to bring my knitting, there aren't any extra co-pays and it is always nice to know that everything is going well. This week I also have another ultrasound to check on baby's size. I had one just after I was diagnosed with gd and she was measuring fine. Now its been 5 weeks and since I've been managing my blood sugar levels, hopefully she should still be a normal size! Although I have heard from a lot of people that their weight guesses aren't very accurate, I'm still looking forward to checking in on her size.

Baby Shower!

Saturday we had our baby shower! It was really, really, really great. The only thing I would have changed would be to have someone taking more photos - below is one of the only photos of the guests! The rest are of me opening presents, and if I'm not holding something directly in front of my face then I either have red eye, a strange expression, or am super blurry - it is so hard to look good in action shots. We got a lot of baby clothes and linens, a lot of the decorations for the nursery, and almost all of the big items we registered for like the stroller and high chair. We also got some great handmade itms - a super adorable quilt from one grandmother and a knit blanket and crocheted hat and sweater from my other grandmother. Overall I don't think I was surprised by any one item, but I was certainly surprised at the volume of presents compared to how many people were there. We are so lucky to have such generous friends and family!

We didn't have any games but we did have a bunch of plain white onesies and bibs along with fabric markers for people to decorate and I think it was a big hit. At first I was just thinking that this was something that would be fun for the guests to do and practical for us since we'll get to keep them. It wasn't until we started looking through all of them after the shower that I realized how special it will be to put our baby in all these things made by the people closest to us.

Here we are with the cake. I didn't get to have any but I thought it looked great! It matched the decorations, which of course we don't have any photos of. I also got lots of compliments on the dress and I have to say I think I rocked it pretty well. It is one of the many clothes I have borrowed and I felt great in it.

As promised

As promised, here is a timely follow up to my last post.  In fact, I have two very exciting things to post about today!

The first is to share Threads of Compassion New Britain which is a local chapter of a charity that I have been working on opening for the last couple months.  Our website and facebook page just went public last week.  The staff at SACS were all very supportive of the idea when I proposed it, and since everything went public I have gotten even more positive feedback which is encouraging.  We already have a couple scarves (thanks mom!) and I am so excited to see how this goes.  I am hoping that by January we will have enough people interested to do a monthly knitting/scarf packing night.

The second is to share some photos of our nursery!  We've gotten a lot of the work done but we still have some finishing touches left - we have a dresser we want to paint, the hutch needs different knobs, we have some things to hang on the walls, some furniture still needs to be moved around - but it feels really good that we've gotten so much done already, and the room has a really good vibe so far.  Almost as good is the dining room and upstairs hallway are finally without lots of random furniture!

The crib we bought new, but on sale with reduced shipping and a free mattress.  So far we are really happy with it and there isn't too much else to say about it...  

The changing table/hutch we bought used on Craigslist and I absolutely love it.  A lot of people just put changing pads on top of dressers but we will be using a tall dresser so that wasn't the best option, and buying a new table seems silly when you'll only use it for two years.  What I love about the hutch is I think it'll still be a great piece of furniture even when we're no longer changing diapers.  I also like that the shelves on top will be easier to reach mid-changing than the shelves below the changing station on most changing tables, and there is a spot we can put a diaper pail so its not just out in the open.  Really, everything about this piece of furniture is perfect (or will be, once we buy new knobs).  Next to the hutch is a quilt rack we also bought used ($10!) with the first quilt my grandmother every made.  I think we may end up moving the hutch fully in the corner and putting the quilt rack on the other side.  

The dresser, once painted, will go where these two rockers are and the rockers will go on the wall with the windows, but there is still one last piece of craft room furniture there right now.  Paul-John's meme (whose middle name will be baby's middle name) made the mini rocker and it says "Paul" across the top.  The glider we bought with the hutch, we got both pieces for $125.  I kind of want to get a new slipcover for the glider, but I have no idea what brand it is.  Slipcovers are also much more expensive than I anticipated, so we'll probably keep the blue for now, I don't mind it.  The footstool does sag in the middle - it turns out it is cracked and so Paul-John just needs to get some wood glue and hopefully it will be as good as new.  The bookcase we had already but we painted, doesn't it look great?  

So I've gotten some flak for not updating this nearly as often as I should be, so get ready for a long post!

The biggest pregnancy-related news is that I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes about three weeks ago.  I am now testing my blood sugar four times a day and I have to be very mindful of what I'm eating - in addition to being low in sugar, it is also low in carbs.  I also have to eat smaller meals with snacks in between, which also took some getting used to.  The first week was very challenging, but now I've mostly figured out what works and what doesn't, and so it is getting much easier to manage.  And there are two pieces of good news - at my last appointment we went over my numbers, and my doctor thinks I am doing a good job of managing my sugar levels.  Otherwise I would need to go on medicine and go in to see the doctor every week!  So I am really glad I don't have to do that.  I also had an ultrasound, and so far the baby is still measuring within a normal range, so as long as I continue to manage this well she shouldn't get too big.  I have another ultrasound coming up in a few more weeks to once again check on her size.

The only bad news, which really isn't bad, I guess, is that they now want me to deliver between 39 and 40 weeks and if I get to my due date then they will induce.  So we'll see what happens!

Lots of other baby stuff has been happening as well.  We have started on getting the nursery ready and over the next couple weeks we are hoping to get everything done in there.  We painted it this weekend, and all it needs is some touch-ups which hopefully Paul-John will finish tonight.  We also have to paint a couple pieces of furniture, and move a ton of stuff around.  Right now the glider and changing table/hutch we got off Craigslist are hanging out in our living room, and the crib should be arriving either at the end of this week or early next week.

We have already had our childbirth preparation class, which turned out to be a total letdown and as soon as I work up the courage I'm going to be calling to ask for our money back.  That's a long story that I've already told most people, but if you want to know, just ask.  This weekend we have a cloth diaper class and then on Monday we have our infant care class.  I'm really hoping these next two classes are a lot better, we are both really looking forward to both of them.  The diaper class was free to sign up for and we'll be leaving with a coupon, so even if its not informative at least it won't be a waste of money.  While there is a lot of information about cloth diapering online, there aren't any local stores to go and see anything in person, so I am really looking forward to this.

In non-pregnancy news, I got laid off from one of my three jobs.  It sucks to be making less money, but I think we can manage.  One job had just started to pick up around the time I got laid off (from 3hrs/wk - 6hrs/wk, but still) and now that school is back in session I should be seeing more hours doing prevention ed, so I'm staying optimistic.  I also cut off all my hair and am opening a local chapter of a charity, so I've managed to stay busy.  You'll be hearing more about that last one soon.