Our cuddly cat, Lu

Every morning is a battle to get out of our comfy, warm bed but lately it is even moreso because I like to lay there for a few minutes to see if I can feel the baby, much like I do each night before finally drifting off to sleep.

This morning however, our cat, Lucifer, decided he wanted to make it even more difficult by snuggling right up between Tyler and me and my belly. Instantly, he started purring. And guess what! The purring made our little baby happy and I can only imagine the little flutters I felt were the baby trying to reach out to pet the kitty.

I had thought before, when Lu was laying semi-on my stomach purring, that I felt the baby moving, but couldn’t be sure. Well, this time I am positive that the purring is making the baby dance around. We already have a pet lover on our hands and this little baby is moving more and more each day :)

Citrus Lane box 1 of 3

I won a giveaway!  Since becoming pregnant, I’ve scoured the internet in attempts to find some interesting and informative blogs about being pregnant and having kids.  It was not a surprise that I came across tons of blogs, but I have settled on a select few that I read religiously.  My favorite being a Babble blog called Being Pregnant which has multiple women in different stages of pregnancy writing about various topics. Every once in a while they do giveaways from their sponsors, well, being the ever so excited mom-to-be that I am, I participate when something peaks my interest.  Citrus Lane just so happened to do so.

Babble’s Being Pregnant was giving away a three month gift subscription to Citrus Lane, which sends monthly care packages for mom and baby.  I was so excited to see that I had won (just from commenting on a blog post)!  

Well, today my first package came!  It was like Christmas (I also am having carpet installed and got groceries delivered so there were many factors in making today a Christmas-like event).  Anyway, lots of fabulous things came in the box and it just makes me all the more excited to have our baby.  S/he will surely love the soft little elephant ring toy that ever so slightly reminds me of my Dumbo blanket - I suppose I will have a soft spot for elephant baby things.  Now I can’t wait to see what the November and December boxes will bring!

After the tile project, we had to move the minimal amount of furniture out of the carpeted areas of the basement to prepare for our installation today.  I also tasked Tyler with finally replacing all of the downstairs ceiling vents and office outlets (our whole house now has tamper resistant outlets for the baby - we started thinking about that from day 1 of moving into the house) so that we didn’t have to make a mess on the new carpet.  Luckily, it wasn’t too much to tackle but it still took a lot of effort over the weekend and a little bit of complaining from both parties involved.

Today, our carpeting project began.  For the first time on this blog - I think - I am showing all of the areas of the basement, our 1970s looking basement with the original blue carpet.  Finally, we are proud to say it is outta here!!!  Since the day we moved in, we’ve been talking about when the best time to invest in new downstairs flooring would be and we decided that it would definitely happen before we have children. Well, we are at that point now with a bun in the oven, so we had to get to work!

The carpet men came this morning and got right to work.  They left this evening and we had a transformed space!  We were even lucky enough to get them to dispose of the ugly white dresser that came with the house as well as our flimsy desk which we will have to replace at some point or maybe I will just put the bar table (aka our old dining table seen in the first picture below) in the office if I want to set up my sewing machine… but let’s be honest, I probably won’t miss it too much in the upcoming months!

Stair landing

The stair landing now with carpet

Basement playroom before

Basement playroom before

Basement playroom after

Basement playroom after

Office before (goodby ugly
desk and dresser)

Office before - anyone need
a row machine?

Office after

Office after

Nursery before

Nursery before

Nursery after

Nursery after

Under stair closet before -
unfinished cement!

Office storage before -
nasty carpet!

Under stair closet with carpet
instead of cement

Office storage now with
matching carpet

So now that this project is completely 100% finished, we can start flirting with the idea of putting the nursery together!!!! OH I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!

Hooray! Huge progress on the to-do list was accomplished this week.  Finally, after making our final decision of which company to use a few weeks ago, the tile installation has arrived! As of today, the tile in the laundry room, stair landing, sliding door entry and downstairs bathroom has been completed. The carpeting is scheduled for Monday the 17th and we cannot wait to see the outcome of completely re-done flooring.  It will look like we have a whole new downstairs when we are through!

The tiling started bright and early at 7:30am last Monday, October 10th.  The flooring in the tile locations was ripped up, cracks sealed and everything was leveled out - clearly the original cement pourers were in a rush because… WOW bumpy.  Anyhow, once that was done, it had to sit and all was resumed on Tuesday, again at 7:30am.  Unfortunately the ground was so unlevel that it had to be re-set yet again and another day of waiting was necessary.  Wednesday, 7:30am the tiler came to start placing tile (finally) and on Thursday the grout was the final touch.  I guess the good thing about starting early all week was that I started working early too and got a lot more done during the day, even though it made for very long days.  So the project of two small rooms and a landing ended up taking four days of work, but at least we knew the tiler was taking his time and going the right way about leveling the floor and getting it prepared.  We’d much rather have paid for a quality job!

Laundry room before/during

Day 3 Laundry room (no grout)

Laundry room with new tile

Laundry room put back together

Stair landing before/during

Stair landing on Day 3 (no grout)

Stair landing complete! Can’t wait
to see how great it looks with the carpet!

Sliding door entry before/during
(started on Day 2)

Sliding door entry on completed!

Bathroom before/during

Day 2 with new tile and no grout

Bathroom complete

Finally put back together!

While there are still cupboards and potentially a sink to put in the laundry room to finish it off, for the time being, we are going to get shelving to put above the washer and dryer to make it look more polished.  Then the black shelving will go in the small closet (in front of the water shut off valve) in the nursery once the carpeting is in place next week!

I love Halloween.  I have since I was a kid. Even at Christmas I would shout “Happy Halloweeeeeeen!” instead of the more traditional “Merry Christmas”.  Not much has changed.  It’s a great holiday without the pressure of finding gifts, travel in snow, prepare a huge meal for a slew of people or do anything in particular.  The only downside is that you still have to go to boring work whereas going to school was still pretty fun getting to dress up in costume.

Anyway, this year, Tyler and I were super excited to do a pregnancy themed costume set.  We were going to go as Juno and her boyfriend, but alas, I am not going to be large enough to be that obvious.  So instead, I found the wonderful idea of dressing as skeletons.  I will be a pregnant skeleton with fetus and all whereas Tyler will be a very full skeleton with a burger and fries.  Even Glory and Lu have skeleton costumes that I found at Target!

I set up shop at the kitchen table, laying out
all the pieces to keep in mind what was missing
and making a huge mess.

Of course, I didn’t take the easy route for Tyler and my costume.  I made them from scratch.  I spent hours cutting felt to make bones and let me tell you something - I am soo glad that my body knows how to correctly create a human baby on it’s own because just making a fetus skeleton out of felt was hard enough! Cutting the teeny tiny pieces and sewing them on was quite a challenge but it was so worth it!

I ran into a problem with my initial gluing of the pieces to the black shirt and pants.  I got one piece on the shirt and noticed that - oh crap! - the glue turned the felt blue.  It was very upsetting because I knew that if I couldn’t glue, it was going to be an even longer project than I had anticipated.  So I decided to sew on the fetus since that would have to be done by hand anyway whereas the larger bones could be machine sewn.  The next day, I went to look at my work and noticed that the glue had actually dried back white! I was so shocked and thrilled, then kind of upset that I spent so much time sewing the fetus.  Oh well.  At least it made the remainder of the project go a bit quicker.  All in all, it took about 3 nights to put together.

My favorite part of the costume was the finishing touch with the bright red hearts - even little fetus has a big heart :) Now you will just have to wait and see the costumes on Halloween… but let me tell you, they look awesome!

Starting to pop so I’m decked
out in my maternity wear -
Maternal America jeans and
maternity sweater (even though
I plan on wearing the sweater
when I am not preggers too!)

Today I am 17 weeks pregnant!  Yesterday Tyler and I had our 4 month appointment.  I don’t know why I need the reassurance, but I am always glad to go and hear the baby’s heartbeat - it is real and it is still there!  Somehow it doesn’t seem like it’s really happening and I don’t know when it really will sink in completely - maybe once I start getting kicked in the ribs I will finally feel pregnant.  Until then though, I have minimal physical reminders that the baby is in fact cooking along and growing.

Here’s the rundown of my first month in my second trimester:

• Size of baby: About the size of an onion - a sweet onion of course ;)
• Weight gain: I have gained about 13 lbs total which is still on the high side but I have been keeping my measurements too and thankfully the weight is showing in inches only around my waist, hips and chest with a very small and unconcerning increase to my thighs and biceps.  Unfortunately I know my face is starting to show the gain though :(  I am now unable to button my jeans and most of my dress pants that were much too large pre-pregnancy… I thought I’d have longer before I grew out of them! Oh well, time to go shopping!
• Symptoms experienced: I’ve been getting some sharp and dull cramping from the round ligament stretching, occasional gas pains and frequent but randoms bouts of heartburn (I only wish I knew what would trigger it on a specific day but alas, I will get it from not eating, I will get it from eating a cracker one day and then nothing at all if I eat the same type of cracker another day - just baffling!)
• How I feel: Great! I have been so happy to not be exhausted anymore!  I am back to staying up late with Tyler (on most days).  It’s still really hard to make important meal decisions so Tyler and I really need to start planning our weekly meals so we are not stuck eating out of the freezer every night!
• What I’ve been craving: Cream cheese. Man, I really wish I had a bagel and cream cheese right now actually. Dang myself for making it a conscious thought!  That seems to be the worst problem - I don’t have cravings till someone mentions something and then I need it.  But overall, there haven’t been any cravings as of late that I can recall.  Definitely not craving the sweet things like I used to pre-pregnancy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good serving of ice cream every now and then but haven’t found myself dying for some sweets.  Tyler seems to be craving candy more though… odd, no? 
• What I miss: Sushi. I wasn’t a frequent sushi eater but I was at a work function and we had a set meal that included amazing looking volcano rolls. I wanted them bad. I’ve never wanted something I couldn’t have as badly and I pouted pretty hardcore.
• Best moment: Every night before bed laying there trying to feel the baby move. I am willing the baby to push harder so I can feel it.  I will lay there concentrating and then realize I am holding my breath when I start to feel my heartbeat in my pelvis which ruins all hope of feeling the baby! For the last 3 nights though, my efforts have paid off because I am pretty sure I am feeling the first flutters.  Of course I tell Tyler and he tries to feel something which would be impossible considering I can barely feel it from the inside.  I only wish he could be feeling it too!  Until that day when he can feel it, I just give him the rundown verbally.

About two months ago I heard our septic alarm go off for the first time ever.  Last week, while I was in New York, Tyler had the joy of waking up to it.  Not good.

So I called the company we use and scheduled an appointment.  Anytime we have an appointment it is nearly $300 no matter what - fixed cost.  We were not happy about this especially since it was not long ago that we dealt out a wad of cash to the septic company.  Anyway, nothing we can do about it, so out they came yesterday to check into the issue.  I was told that even if it was a faulty pump (which apparently happens often right out of the box) that we would still have to pay for the labor while any parts would be covered by the warranty.  If that was the problem, I was ready to tell them to bill it to the manufacturer because that is just absurd!

Luckily it didn’t come to that and the technician was an honest guy because he came to my door with great news!  The problem was his fault and he fessed up to it!!! So there would be no charge for the appointment.  Apparently he didn’t splice the power lines together well enough to the pump so they came apart losing power.  He recommended that we hire an electrician to replace the wiring because it is extremely old and brittle, but we came to the conclusion that if it happens again, that would be our next step - even though he assured me he made damn sure to splice it the best he could to try and prevent taking those next steps.

Whew. Crisis averted!

Tonight Tyler and I got to share the joy of finding out what Jess and Tony will be having in February 2012.  We went over for dinner and celebrated with pizza and cupcakes.  Tyler and I had taken bets as to what gender their baby would be.  I was set on girl and Tyler by default had to choose boy - the winner got to pick a dinner of their choice to be prepared by the loser. I had a lot riding on this bet since I have not been a fan of working in my kitchen these days.

Anyway, before we headed over to their place for the big reveal, we stopped to pick up some gifts - a girl outfit and a boy outfit just to be sure.

So, what is Baby Ross going to be?!?!

So now Tyler and I are going double or nothing… if I’m right for our baby, no one makes dinner, but if I’m wrong I have to make two of Tyler’s requests!

Well, we are really excited for Tony and Jess and their little boy… next up to find out should be Kate and then Me! Can’t hardly wait :)

First off, I’m going to say that family makes my arms hurt.  Now to take a step back and explain that I will tell you that I was holding lots of babies - well two to be exact!  I wrote about spending time with the Katie, Marlee and the twins on Friday. Well, the family fun continued on Saturday and Sunday too.  My father-in-law, Steve, got into town late on Friday night so all of us Seattle kids headed up to Katie and Brandon’s place on Saturday to hang out.  Naturally, the twins and Marlee were the center of attention and with all that holding and up and down, apparently my arms were getting an unknowing (and much needed) workout!

On Sunday morning I woke up and thought I was getting sick because of the achy feeling, but then realized it was only in my arms and quickly figured what the cause was - I wasn’t sick at all, just very inexperienced at all the baby holding!  Good thing I have my little niece and nephew twins to practice with before our little one comes in March!  Anyway, Sunday my mother-in-law, Suzi, arrived so the family gathered at our house before we all headed to lunch and then a pumpkin patch.

Tyler with his monster pumpkin!
(see Katie and Marlee finding
the perfect pumpkin in the background?)

Lunch was delicious and the pumpkin patch was lots of fun!  Marlee got to go on the “animal train” and then we all picked out our pumpkins.  Tyler was quite macho and picked a huge pumpkin for himself.  Baking pumpkin seeds was definitely the main focus when he picked his pumpkin, with the perfect carving surface in mind as close second.  I picked a medium sized pumpkin as well as a “fetus pumpkin” - even though there isn’t a baby yet, s/he will get their own tiny pumpkin since his presence is very much here and is being well incorporated into Halloween.

Tyler and Me with our pumpkin haul.

So after the pumpkin patch, we all headed back to our house to hang out and relax a while.  After everyone was getting hungry and tired after a long day outside, they packed up shop and Tyler and I were left alone.  With the thought of dinner on our minds, we ended up meeting Tony and Jess at Chantanee before we called it a night.

What a great fun filled fall weekend with our family!  Steve left today but Suzi is here all week, so I am sure more family fun will be had in the next few days.

While I was gone in New York, a package for Tyler and me came.  It was from Tyler’s brother and sister-in-law, Nick and Sarah.  Nick had given Tyler a heads up that it was coming and that it was a baby gift so I urged Tyler to wait for me to come home before opening it.  He - being the amazing and patient man that he is - obliged and we got to open it yesterday night after a wonderful dinner and date night.

Beautiful star blanket set.

Thanks a million to my wonderful brother- and sister-in-law for the most precious baby gift ever.  If you know me, you know I love stars.  Well, they do know me and sent us an adorable star blanket, burp cloth and bib set along with a pacifier connector (if that’s what they are called).  The blanket set material is so comfy soft and the delicate edging is so cute and will be perfect for our little one who will no doubt learn the shape of a star before any other practical and average shapes :)

So thanks again to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Nick!