bed rest

You probably won't see many posts from me here for awhile. I've been put on strict bed rest for possible pre-eclampsia. It sounded serious when my doctor was telling me about it, but I didn't realize how serious until I spoke to one of my best friends last night (angie, also a doctor). She actually "gave it to me straight," so I realized just how important it is to stay in bed. Before, I had been getting up to get snacks and drinks or just because I was bored. No more.

Keep us in your thoughts! We go in for our nonstress test this afternoon. My doctor is hoping to avoid delivery for at least 2 more weeks, but delivery is the only cure so that will only work if my blood pressure stays down and my liver and kidneys stay healthy.

cutest mobile ever

I'm so excited with how the mobile turned out! On a business trip to Toronto a few years ago, I was at a bookstore and found Pierre the Pig by the Manhattan Toy Company. He was very large...I'd say about 18 inches tall. Later, I discovered that they make smaller versions of the same animal, plus other farm friends! I have yet to find them sold in Indiana, but managed to pick up 4 of his friends on various other trips (Seattle and Boston, I believe). Target had their mobiles clearanced, so I just bought the cheapest one, cut off the animals that came on it, and sewed on mine. Love it!

I'm also pretty excited with how well the dresser turned out. Tony worked hard to make it look like a nice piece of furniture (it's something we picked up at Value City one day for $30), and I'm really pleased. I've already got the clothes moved over to it, so the other dresser can truly act as a changing table. Now we just need a baby! ;-)

Congratulations to my cousin Carrie and her family, for the new addition they added on Saturday! Can't wait to meet the little guy!

gettin' edjumacated

Wow. Double wow. We attended our birthing "crash course" class last night. Oh my gosh. It's a good thing you don't see those videos BEFORE you get pregnant! I'm sure not looking forward to actually giving birth after last night! I guess it's good to know what is coming, but oh my gosh.

I was really glad they went through the stages of labor and let us know when to call the doctor and when to go to the hospital. I was wondering about that...not know what contractions feel like. I'm also paranoid about my water breaking while I'm at work, so I was relieved to hear that only about 20% of women actually have their water break on their own.

At the end of the class we got to take a tour of the hospital...they let us know where to go when we come in to deliver and showed us the rooms and where the nurseries are. They also went through their security process, which seems really great. The labor and delivery suite is very nice, and the recovery room you go to for the rest of your stay was okay. I like the idea of the pull-out couch, and they promised that if I end up trying to nurse and our baby is in the nursery during the night and gets hungry, they will wheel him down to me and wake me up, rather than give him a bottle. That was good to hear, too! Oh, and they have 24-hour room service and refrigerators in each room. :-)

details

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1) Cashier at a family grocery store (first job, in high school)
2) Pharmacy technician (LOVED that job...reason I enrolled in Pharmacy school at Purdue!)
3) Retail (Bath & Body Works, Target, Scrapbook Xanadu)
4) Senior Creative Services Associate (current job, hard to explain)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1) Clueless
2) 40-Year-Old Virgin
3) Dirty Dancing
4) Pulp Fiction

Four places you have lived: (uh oh...this one might be tough for me...might have to cheat)
1) Parents' house in Brownsburg, IN
2) Dorm at Purdue
3) Apartment at Purdue
4) My house in Brownsburg, IN

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1) Laguna Beach
2) Any variation of the Real World/Road Rules
3) Grey's Anatomy
4) Entourage (sniff sniff...until we cancelled HBO)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1) Mackinac Island, MI
2) Various places in FL
3) Las Vegas
4) Hawaii

Four websites I visit daily:
1) www.twopeasinabucket.com
2) http://aliedwards.typepad.com/
3) My company's intranet page
4) www.oldnavy.com (well, not everyday, but pretty close...alternate it with www.gymboree.com)

Four of my favorite foods:
1) Tony's cheesburgers (seriously, if you haven't tried them before, remind me to invite you over for a cookout this summer)
2) Brownies
3) Sunflower Ranch salad
4) Tony's New York Strips (the man can grill, what can I say?)

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) Home
2) On the couch with a book and 2 cats
3) Seattle
4) NYC

nursery progress

The fence pieces are up! Tony and I worked on them this morning before the Colts game (if you can call it a game), and then when his brothers came over, they helped him re-arrange the furniture. The only necessities left are painting the dresser to put under the window, hanging the new blinds, and getting a changing pad to go on top of the current dresser. We're getting there slowly but surely!

shower

Have been totally swamped at work and haven't had much time to even think about posting! But wanted to let friends and family know my shower is all set for February 12, sometime in the mid-afternoon (2:30 or 3?). We wanted to make sure we avoided Super Bowl weekend. :-)

picket fences

Long ago we decided we would paint the nursery in two different colors, and then separate the two colors with these wooden craft fences I found at Hobby Lobby. They were $2 each for an 8" section at Hobby Lobby, so we talked about Tony buying some wood and cutting them out himself. Well, you really can find anything you want on the internet. I found this fence:

and we had decided we would just order it instead (44 cents each, rather than the $2 each that Hobby Lobby was charging). Then last night, I found the same exact fence, but already painted white, and for a cheaper per-piece cost (35 cents each!). Very excited! I can't wait for the shipment to arrive!

it has arrived

The bedding we ordered from Target arrived today! Yippee! I love when things arrive earlier than the estimated delivery date you are given (it wasn't supposed to arrive until January 9!). I think the greens are close enough (bedding vs wall paint color), so we're keeping it. Now we just need a crib mattress and I can see how cute/warm/snuggly baby boy's crib is going to be for him. LOVE THIS!

back to work

Ugh. Going back to work after a week off is always so difficult to do...especially when Tony has the day off! I'm used to him waking me up to tell me good-bye at 5:30, and then I know I have another 30 minutes left to sleep before I have to get up. But when I'm the first one to get up...well, we'll just say it isn't pretty. :-)

Had my 28-week appointment with Dr. Bolin on Friday. I'm measuring 28 centimeters and have gained 16 pounds, which she said is right on track. She said from now on I should be gaining 1 pound/week...yikes! I had my glucola test on Friday as well...if I passed, I won't hear anything from them. But if I failed, they will call me today and we'll schedule the fun 3-hour re-test. Keep your fingers crossed that I get no phone call!

Since Tony is off today, he's going to finish painting the nursery. I can't wait to go home and see it! We had to buy more paint yesterday...the ceiling really soaked it up! We just need another coat on the ceiling and then we need to paint the inside of the closet. There is an end in sight! I'll post better pictures once it's finished and the furniture is put back in it's place.

happy new year!

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a pretty low-key night...went to dinner just the two of us around 6. But we had just eaten lunch at 2, so we weren't even very hungry yet! Decided to go to Outback since we had giftcards to use up. We had a fabulous waitress and the food was pretty good, even though we brought most of it home. The kitties got their first taste of real crab legs...Satchmo enjoyed it a little more than Crosby, although he ate it all so fast I'm not sure Crosby even had a chance to tell what it was! I did fall asleep on the couch after we got home, but woke up around 11:30. Went to bed and watched "Law & Order CI", and Tony came in at midnight for our annual New Year's kiss.

What are your New Year's resolutions? I tend not to make any because I either forget what they are or don't follow through with them anyway. But here we go....

1. Be a great first-time mom.
2. Put family life ahead of work life.
3. Lose all pregnancy weight, plus the weight I needed to lose before I got pregnant.
4. Do a better job at keeping up with my scrapbooking, or at least get pictures put into albums in a timely manner.
5. Live within a budget.

We're making pretty good progress on the nursery. Here is a picture of one of the walls.

Even though we spent the extra money on nice painter's tape, the green still peeled off when we removed it. Grr. One more coat on the ceiling and some touch up on the peeled-off green and we're all set! Then we've still got to make the fence pieces and paint those, plus buy a chair rail. But all of that can wait. I'm so excited to start arranging everything!

Here is a sample of the bedding we ordered...should be here any day now! We might end up exchanging it for either the blue or the regular green, depending on how this sage color looks in real life against the paint colors we chose. We'll see!