Busy Weekend

Last week was the longest week for some reason. I woke up on Thursday one hundred percent convinced that it must be Friday and was none too happy to figure out I still had two more days to go until the weekend. And then the weekend didn’t prove to be too restful.

The contractor is going to start work on the house tomorrow so we had to get everything ready for him. Since he’s from San Antonio he is charging us a travel fee for each day he has to work so I wanted to make sure that the job would be as quick and painless as possible. To that end we spent all day Saturday cleaning out the rooms and closets that they would need to lay floor in.

On Saturday morning we went out to breakfast with my mom. She had planned to come into town and hang out since Richard was playing poker on Saturday night but she ended up getting put to work to help us accomplish everything we needed to do this weekend. I’m so thankful that she did come up since I don’t know how we would have gotten everything done without her. She even managed to sew a curtain for the nursery closet in the midst of the chaos. After breakfast, we went to Lowe’s to buy all the things the contractor would need during the week - the floors, the hardware for the new doors, etc. When we got back from Lowe’s Mom got to work patching a hole in the drywall in the nursery (which she did an awesome job at, by the way), while Brian and I started to clean out our bedroom and closet. Brian started packing up the books in our room while I went through the tons of clothes we had crammed into the closet. We ended up donating a whole bunch of clothes and now the closet isn’t quite so cramped. 

Cleaning out our room took up all of Saturday. On Sunday we turned our attention to the office which didn’t take quite as long. Mom worked on the curtain for the closet in the nursery and Brian and I dragged everything we could from the office into the living room. Now, as you can see from the picture above, a majority of what we own is in our living room, which is anything but relaxing. But I keep reminding myself that it’s only for a week and that the house will look great once all the work is done.

And, after all that work on the house all weekend, I got to top it all off by working overnight at the bookstore last night doing a mini-inventory of our fiction sections. The count went well but I’m still really exhausted from being up all night, despite the fact that I slept six hours after I was through.  I spent today doing some work from home and putting the final touches on getting the house ready for tomorrow. I’m completely wiped out and it’s only Monday. I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

But I know it will all be worth it come next weekend. My parents will (hopefully - if I’m extra nice to them) bring up all the baby things we’ve been storing at their house and then we’ll get to really get started putting the nursery together. Hopefully, by this time next week, I’ll be able to post some pictures of the nursery with floors and  furniture in it!

Deonne

Will enjoys looking at this site and especially likes looking at the baby pictures - the one that says boy stuff is his favorite.  It is nice now that you are practicing getting little sleep - that will come in handy in a few more weeks.  I think the living room looks really well organized even if it is crowded.  Great job.

Checking Out the Hospital

We are going to deliver at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center.  They just opened a new Women’s Health wing a few months back and we went to check it out this afternoon.  I’ve been a little wary about delivering at a hospital since I hate hospitals - too many memories.  But this place is awesome.  It feels more like a hotel than a hospital.  The rooms are gorgeous and the hallways are carpeted.  There’s none of that awful hospital smell to deal with.

The tour started in the atrium of the Women’s Center.  The L&D nurse conducting the tour talked for about 40 minutes about how to get into the unit (it’s a locked down unit for security reasons), what to bring, and what will happen when we come in to deliver.  Most of the stuff had already been covered in our childbirth class so it was mostly a review.  We then went into the L&D Unit to get a look at one of their rooms.  There are 29 rooms in the unit and all of them are LDR (labor, delivery and recovery) rooms.  That means that I will get to labor and deliver in the same room instead of laboring in one room and then being wheeled into another to deliver the baby.  The LDR rooms are gorgeous and really roomy.  They have a couch, rocking chair and bed.  The bathroom is really large and has a walk-in shower.  I was a little disappointed that there are no tubs in the labor and delivery rooms but I guess we can’t have it all.

Blogging and the To Do List

Well, it’s official.  We’re blogging.  I didn’t think it would ever come to this but the reality is that this is the fastest and cheapest way to let everyone keep up with us as we get ready for baby and for everyone to get their photo fixes after Oliver is born.  So, we are now bloggers.  But we still don’t tweet so I can feel pretty good about that.

We are a little over seven weeks away from our due date and I’m really getting to that point where I’m ready for him to arrive/get out.  I’ve been very fortunate in that my pregnancy has been uncomplicated so far.  I didn’t have much morning sickness at the beginning and my second trimester was amazing. I had tons of energy and felt great.  I haven’t had any health scares or issues so I feel very fortunate for that.  But, now I’m deep in the third trimester and my feet are swollen, my back hurts all the time, and I’m constantly short of breath.  Plus, I really want a cocktail. 

But there are still seven weeks and there’s still plenty to do to get ready.  We spent some time this morning writing down all the things we need to get accomplished before Oliver arrives and it’s quite a daunting list.  The nursery is still not done, we haven’t even bought a crib, and we need to find a pediatrician.  We are having a contractor put in new doors and windows for the house (to replace the 1968 originals) and install wood floors in the nursery, our bedroom and the office but we haven’t scheduled the time for him to do the work.  And, I’m starting to nest so I feel like I need to clean out every closet and cabinet in the house before the baby arrives.  So, we’ve definitely got plenty to keep us busy until his due date.

We went to the doctor this week for our 32 week appointment.  We are going every two weeks at this point so I’m starting to feel like we live at the doctor’s office.  Everything looked fine at this appointment.  My weight gain is good, my blood pressure is normal and Oliver’s heart rate is strong and steady.  We go back in two weeks and in four weeks we have our last ultrasound to see how big he is so far and make sure he’s head down.

We also finished our childbirth class this week. We took a class run by our doctor’s practice.  It was very informative and for the most part put my mind at ease a bit.  My favorite part was when they taught Brian some massage techniques.  I plan on making him practice those many times before I go into labor, especially considering how much my back hurts lately.  We still need to take a child care class and a prenatal breastfeeding class so we will look into those this week.  

Tomorrow we are going to tour the hospital where we’re going to deliver.  We are going to St. David’s North Austin Medical Center and everything I’ve heard about the place is great.  Can’t wait to see it in person.