The Thin Green Line

So, Tuesday was my latest doctor appt. Everything was still nice and normal. Andrea (Dan's sister) went with me to this appointment and got to hear the heartbeat... These are all kind of uneventful appointments in my opinion :) But, it was nice to have someone else in the family come along!

On Saturday we started to paint the base layer of the baby's room. The blue went on very nicely and I painted the old, white dresser to match: Blue with green drawer fronts. This went so smoothly I had no doubt we'd finish it before it got dark. However, that wasn't the case because it was after the blue that we started to have problems. The first was the tape. We taped at about waist high for the marker as to where the green line would go after. First the tape wouldn't peel off and the drips of blue made it stick to the wall and we had to go around the room scraping it off with our finger nails because when you just peeled it straight off it tore into little shreds. I said it was because of the tape we used but Dan reminded me that he had bought actual painting tape. So, that was annoying but no big deal, all the little pieces eventually were cleaned off the wall. Next was the ugly, off-white paint in this place is obviously very cheap and as we peeled the tape off it started to peel the paint right off the wall and revel the previous color of the bedroom which was pink! Well, this was no big deal though as the green stripe was still going to be painted there to cover it over. However, this meant that we couldn't tape the bottom portion of the green line because if it peeled up the white again we had no way to fix that on the lower portion of the room.

Next came the green line. Dan swore it'd be easy and his hand was steady enough that we wouldn't need to tape anything. Then he dunked the new brush (a flat square one made for painting edges) in the paint and slapped it again the wall. Only problem is, he didn't squeeze out enough paint and as soon as it hit the wall it dripped copious amounts of paint down into the other section!! Argh! So trying to fix it, he wiped it with a dry papertowel which just made it smear all over the wall. Fortunately, this was at the top portion of the wall so he just needs to repaint the blue section again. After that he got the hang of it and with only a few other drips (which by the way wipe cleanly off with a magic eraser) and a few wavy areas (since we couldn't use tape) we... well mostly Dan... got the job done. Needless to say, however, painting the lines ended up being a huge chore and, while it looks awesome, it was a lot of work. But Dan has such a great attitude and never said one word of complaint! He's awesome.

Next weekend we are going to finish it up with the actual artwork and Andrea is coming over to help with that. I'm really excited to get it finished as I am now 31 weeks along and have only a few weeks of pregnancy left so I'm getting antsy for completion :)

Baby room design

So, designing a baby room that is not your typical nursery is proving to be a bit of a challenge, we have been browsing store after store and website after website and because it's not only baby items (already overpriced) but "specialty" baby items (not Winnie the Pooh or Racing Car themes) the prices at the stores are very steep with items being few and far between and almost never matching.

But, today I finally had an idea. I logged on to Ebay (probably the only site on the entire World Wide Web I forgot to check) and typed in "dinosaur" into the baby search section and hundreds and hundreds of items came up!! And sooo inexpensive! I mean there's everything: dinosaur bibs, stuffed animals, curtains, toys, clocks, pillows, borders, stencils, growth charts, bedding, pacifiers, artwork, drawer knobs... everything!! I was worse than a kid in a candy store. There are literally hundreds, heck probably thousands of people and ebay stores that sell every possible dinosaur nursery item you could need and there's even people who, if they don't make it WILL make it for you! I even found a dinosaur light switch cover that someone hand paints! I wish that I could register with Ebay.com instead of the "standard" (and very overpriced) stores *coughbabiesruscoughcough*

Anyway, after being very very inspired for nursery ideas, I got into Photoshop and designed the layout I want Dan and Andrea to paint for the nursery walls. I am really in love with this theme because it's a theme that can grow with the child too. So, later on, the room can be converted into a more of a child's room rather than a baby's room. Right now though, it's pictures of cute, little baby dinosaurs. I tried to keep it simple to save on time and paint costs but still give it that playful, bright baby room feel.

Basically, there are 2 full walls, one wall with a big window and the 4th wall is all entire closet door. So, this gives me 3 walls to work with. With the largest wall, I wanted to find some cube shaped (or at least half square/modern looking) shelves to display a few items on the walls. Also, the shelves will help to fill some of the extra space in without it looking overly cluttery.

The wall with the window on it cannot fit as much, but I figured the narrow space between the wall corner and the window can be some dinosaur footprints and just hanging a simple green curtain (although the curtain idea may change if I can find matching or near matching curtains) You may also notice the two tones to the room separated by the green borders, which will be at about waist height. This was because I didn't want to have all these beautiful decorations on the walls that would then be covered up by furniture! I figured this way we can put the furniture around the room without taking away from the design.

And on the final wall, the last of my two favorite dinosaurs in cartoon format, triceratops and stegosaurus.


I plan on painting the built in shelves in the closet to match as well and I may throw a volcano into the mix somewhere but these were my basic plans so far. Of course there is always the fear that the ultrasound maybe was wrong and we'll end up having a girl... but I figure that if she's anything like me, all of my "imaginary friends" as a child were dinosaurs, this will still be an appropriate room for her, which is also why I tried to keep the colors very pastel... just in case.

Other than that, my health is still great, went and got a gestational diabetes test the other day, Wednesday and boy was that painful. The nurse didn't know what she was doing and ended up poking me ALL over until she was finally able to draw the blood out of my hand, leaving my hand aching the rest of the day. Doc said that as long as I didn't hear from him everything was normal and so far I haven't heard anything. My belly is also horribly heavy feeling and weighing on my muscles like crazy making sleeping, sitting, standing and walking or doing anything a pain and I'm thinking of going out and buying one of those maternity back/belly braces tomorrow if I can find one.

Well goodnight to everyone, I hope the day finds you all healthy and in good spirits. :)

Final Stretch

Well, here we are 28 weeks now and officially in the 3rd trimester. I have wanted to begin working on the baby's room but as of right now it seems to be more of a storage room than anything else! So I'm hoping this weekend my very able bodied man of the house will move everything to the basement!!

The weekly email tells us that the baby is now the size of a cabbage... and I don't know... the comparisons of baby to food is starting to really bug me as I get further along! It kind of feels wrong, can't they compare it to a doll or a kitten or a toy or something non edible?? It's weird to me! Here's some other facts I just learned... his hair has started to gain color now and his brain was smooth previously is now, due to rapid growth, is gaining those wrinkles on it. Apparently, the baby is now positioned head down and has very little room to move, unlike the widget that shows the baby floating in circles!

I have been feeling wonderful, went to the doctor yesterday and blood pressure is down still lower than before my pregnancy (126/70). Doc says I have no signs of preeclampsia, the high blood pressure, swelling and protein issue that caused me to have Tyler early, so that made me very happy to hear. I am for some reason highly emotional however... something I thought went away after the first trimester has only seemed to get worse with me and now I find myself crying and getting upset over the tiniest things heck even TV commercials get to me and I'm not a big cryer! Sleeping is also a pain, literally, which, now that I think about it, may be why the increase in my emotional state. I can only sleep on either side and the weight of everything pressing down against my sides causes me to toss and turn all night and to have super sore hips during the day and every day the recliner is starting to look more and more like a better sleeping option! :)

Also, my belly sticks out so far now that when I eat I spill things on my stomach! Those of you that have ever eaten with me know that I am notorious for spilling something (pretty much every meal) on the ol' food catchers!! Now I sit so far back from the table and have and lean over this awkward "bowling ball" that I have to keep my shaky hands steady as the fork makes the journey from my plate to my mouth or more of my dinner will end up on my belly than makes it in my mouth...

I have to go this week to take the gestational diabetes test. It's the one where they have you drink some super sugar drink then sit for an hour and then they draw your blood. So, here's to hoping that test is normal too!

Well, all in all, I'd say these things are pretty minuscule to the problems I had in my other pregnancy and I am happy to accept these in exchange for a healthy and so far very easy pregnancy!

I hope everyone has a great week, wherever you are :)