baby baby baby

yah...all of my posts seem to be about the baby or some baby related something-sorry..its just the way its gonna be folks.....BUT the nursery is pretty much ready and we got the car seat and extra base in the mail! YAH!  I ordered some adapters on ebay so it can fit on our bugaboo and what do you know-the 2010 car seat is a bit different..so I will be trying to now sell those myself...and find some more used ones:) Anyways...so here is the car seat....with the model baby so we can figure out how it works. Actually-this fake baby has been nice to have around to figure some of this stuff out--ha....

and you saw a picture of the crib but here was the crib progress:

and here is how the room looks now...I am still working on it but everything is in its place and a few decorations are up:

so there you go folks...everything baby, yet again....but Monday will be 35 weeks so there sure isn't much time left! AHHHH

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Quick view

Here is a quick little view of the nursery progress. The crib has arrived and now I'm just trying to figure out how to arrange it all....and of course the fake baby is modeling the use of the crib for you. :) I am still choosing which bumper I like-I have the pink/gingham one, breathable bumper and the white one currently on the bed. I'm not a fan of the pink/gingham one but am leaning more towards white. Good thing I got these all at garage sales and paid hardly anything so WHO cares what I use or don't use!:)

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a day of firsts

 #1-HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY to my sister!! Nikki you are AWESOME!!

Today has been quite the day. It started out normal-9 am routine Dr. appt and after that it went weird. When the doctor was testing the baby heart rate she said it was a bit high so they put me in another room with some monitors on for about 20 mins. After the 20 minutes they still felt it was too high and told me i needed to go to the main hospital for some more monitoring. GREAT -I thought....and slightly freaked out on the 20 or so minute drive to the hospital. By the time I arrived I  was fine. Luckily we took a tour of the labor/delivery floor last week because I knew exactly where to go. So I arrived, checked in-had to put on a lovely hospital gown and got all hooked up to monitors. They asked me lots of questions-even if I was sleeping with anyone other than Ben...amm...nope and hello I'm 34 weeks pregnant-who the heck would want to sleep with me-HA.

Anyways-they they hooked me up to an IV and this was my 2nd first for the day. 1st-I have never been admitted into the hospital for anything and 2nd-I have never had an IV. So there I laid for about 3 hours with constant monitoring. Eventually they came in and everything was back to normal and as perfect as can be...phew!! I guess my blood and urine tests call came back infection free as well. The doctor said it was probably from over exerting myself and cleaning the basement after the water issues. I also must not of gotten enough water over the weekend. Once the fluids got in me I was fine. Normally I am really careful about getting enough water but I guess I failed this once. So then I was sent home and thank goodness it all turned out ok! And I will be making sure I drink the 2 liters of water a day-2 liters is alot of water! I think I may be visiting the bathroom quite often..

The next 1st of the day was that I actually was able to sew something good! I found this SUPER cute doxie fabric and just knew I had to make something great out of it for the baby.

I had recently bought 2 yards of chenille fabric for 2 bucks at the thrift store and had been wanting to make something out of it. Tonight I did just that. After a few little mishaps I came out with this:

I also worked on making some baby room decorations. I had seen an idea where they take an embroidery hoop and put fabric in it and hang it on the wall. So this the start of my embroidery hoop project:

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what.a.day

Last night when we went to bed we knew it was supposed to rain so I put a few towels down in the one corner that always floods. At 2:30 in the morning we woke up because the power was out and the house was hot-luckily it came back on a few hours later thankfully. Around 6 Oliver needed to be taken out so Ben took him out. When he came back in he said that basement had water in it-the worst yet. Ugg.. I went down and yes-it was bad...water throughout the whole basement-not much-but it was there-all the rugs were soaked and Bens new office floor was soaked. UGGG. We went back and laid in bed another hour instead of dealing with it. (I had been HOPING to hit up some garage sales this morning-but that was far from happening) So finally we got up and I was going to run over to Walmart to get a wet/dry shop vac and some box fans. At 8 we decided to go to Home Depot instead. Home Depot BUSY with almost every other person buying a wet/dry vac, sump pump, generator, etc. The plumbing section had a line down the whole aisle. This is when I realized we were far from alone in our water problem. So back to the house we came with our goods and ready to clean but where do you even start. So Ben starting sucking up water  and I started taking rugs to the garage to dry. Funny enough even though the rain was done and all was good....the power went out! So forget vacuuming and drying...UGGGG. In the meantime we emptied all the water from the of the pool cover into the pool and now our pool is super full again and we patched another hole. The neighbors were outside too and had alot of water as well...probably worse than us so really we couldn't complain. And this is how 290 looked from the Des Plaines overpass near our house:

Finally the power came on about 10 and I was able to take a shower BECAUSE I had a baby shower this afternoon....It started at 11:30 and I didn't get out there til about 12:30 because of all the blocked/flooded roads and streetlights out-total chaos around here. And poor Ben was left home to clean up most of the mess....which apparently-after driving out and seeing all the flooded streets-could of been MUCH worse. Supposedly the lady next door has only seen 290 flooded once that bad and she has lived here quite awhile-so I don't think our basement is always going to flood-but is more a matter of these awful downpours we have had this summer...uggg..

BUT the shower was great and I enjoyed being with everyone there and got some great things for this little baby-thanks everyone!! So at least the day ended on a happy note :)

little bobby saying hi to his new friend: 

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all sorts of stuff

Oh my dear readers do I have many exciting things to share with you today. Lets see...where do we start

#1-The Slush Mug. So Nikki wanted one of these for her birthday and when I was ordering it I thought-duh-I loved the slush mug I had when I was younger! So I bought one for myself too. I tried it out with lemonade last night and it was delicious! It is going to have a permanent place in my freezer from now on.

#2-I am planning to do cloth diapers with this little baby to save some money. Obviously when she is in daycare she has to use disposable but at home we are cloth diapering all the way! So I have been trying to figure out what is best. The all in one diapers are great but expensive! So I have decided pre-folds are the way to go. My mom used these on both my sister and I when we were babies. I found some pre-folds at a garage sale on Saturday and bought 5 of them for $1.00 each-since then I have been kicking myself for not buying more or seeing if they had covers there also. But I hadn't figured out exactly what kind of cloth diapering I had wanted to do-until now-ha. So I have been perusing Craigslists & Ebay to see what deals come up. Yesterday on Craigslist I found someone was selling a new box of 24 Bummis pre-folds and 4 covers for $10.00. The covers are size Medium which I may/may not need in the future but 10 bucks for all those pre-folds-I am so in! So I stopped by last night to pick them up and what a deal-brand new and in the box! I was so excited! So now I just need to get some more smaller sized waterproof  covers and we will be all set!:

#3-Baby Legs. I saw a tutorial to make some baby legs a few weeks ago and have been wanting to try ever since. I picked up some knee high womens socks at Target yesterday and then busted out the rotary cutter and sewing machine.

 
After putting a nice slice in my finger from the rotary cutter I was ready to go. Here are my cut and ready socks:

So you take the part that cut off between the foot and heel and use it for the top cuff. You have to turn it so the wrong sides are facing each other and sew all 3 edges to the top of the sock. But those little tiny parts I cut kept rolling and making it SUPER hard to sew. I pinned them flat a few times but still didn't have super great luck. Here are 2 I was able to do last night:

They aren't the straightest and most perfect but lets not forget that I am not an avid sewer (even though I wish I was) and this was my first time making baby legs. I am planning on making the other 4 tonight or this weekend sometime. And then when I don't feel like putting pants on this little girl-to make diaper changing easier-she will have a plethora of baby legs.

#4-Painting the baby room-DONE! Yep-you read that right-we are finally done painting the baby room!! Ben helped me finish the 2nd coat last night (thankfully-because he is much faster than me) and we are done! Its not all that different of a color-as you can see by the before/after photos-just a bit more yellow-but it freshens and cleans the walls up AND I figure the color will go with anything now and in the future. So I moved everything back in there and can now start decorating and getting it ready. And yes there is a newborn-like baby doll on the changing table. She was mine when I was little and was just sitting up in the attic so I brought her down and told Ben he can practice changing diapers. He has yet to do that....


BEFORE:

AFTER:

so there you....the top 4 exciting things in my life as of Wednesday:)

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Flowers from my yard

Now blooming...

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the weekend

This weekend we toured the labor and delivery floor at Loyola-where I am planning to birth this baby out of me. The main hospital entrance is new and nice and cushy. And where is the L&D unit located? In the old part of the hospital. Yah-I could of chosen to deliver at the womens hospital a mile or 2 north of the main hospital but I chose the main one because it takes about 5 minutes to get there from our house and the I also heard there is a railroad track on the way to the one up north-and if you get stuck at a train—ugg..no fun... Anyways—having seen numerous pictures of rooms in friends pictures and being in one room after a baby was born-I figured this would be pretty cushy. WRONG. The L&D rooms aren’t bad but the postpartum rooms…wowzers. It was a bed, a few chairs, a tv, and vcr-a typical hospital I guess. HA. They even let us know they have quite a few old vhs videos on the floor for us to watch if we so desire. And if Ben stays  the night they will pull in a cot or bed for him to stay on. This all made me laugh because I was expecting a bit more-but then again I think they put the money into the Womens hospital up north-because that’s where most births take place. (BUT 1 positive thing is that they are now private rooms-unless they are overly booked-so that in itself is enough for me.) And this floor is  just plain and boring. BUT I realized I don’t care because they are good doctors, they treat high risk situations, and the neo natal unit is 2 floors up. Not that we will necessarily need any of those things-but they are there-in case something happens. I guess a number of the local hospitals send patients/babies there for extra care if needed-because they have good facilities-just not nicely updated facilities I gathered-ha.  And really-I don’t need the flat screen tv or dvd player or wood floors and extra seating, I don’t need the nice artwork and cushy stuff. I just need a place that will take care of me and this babe in the best possible way. Today is 33 weeks…its getting closer! AHHH

The rest of my weekend consisted of 2 garage sales (where I bought some pre-fold cloth diapers, more Dr. Browns bottles and a few other things-all for dirt cheap), swimming in my pool and going to see Inception-which may I add-was a great movie. We saw it on the IMAX screen-even MORE fun!

So that is the weekend update. It was supposed to consist of painting the baby room BUT we didn’t get around to it. Ben did put the tape up for me though-so that’s a start.

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the latest view

in all its glory.....the 32 week belly..... a self portrait:

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32 weeks and all is good

I had another doctor appt. today-it went well. I saw the good looking, flirty doctor-ha. He is a nice guy but a define flirt. Today he told me I was looking good and that I was nice and tan and my weight was right on track. Who doesn't want to hear that!? Especially when they are 32 weeks pregnant! I figure he probably butters up all his preggo patients and makes them feel better about themselves even though they are feeling fat and out of sorts. Ha. Anyways-everything measured good, the heartbeat was good, and yah-nothing exciting-which is how I like it to be. The front desk secretary also knew my name. I felt a bit funny about that-I walked in and she said Christine-right? I said-yep...and I was all checked in. I guess in these last 2 months they will really get to know me since I'm going in every other week-soon to be every week-for an appointment.

We also settled on 2 possible colors for the baby room....I got 2 sampler paints to paint on and see which we like best.These are the 2 colors:

Macadamia:

Honey Nougat:

I wanted a color that wasn't too girly or too baby like but rather could last a few years. So I will make the final decision tonight after painting some streaks with my testers...

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Deal of the Day

Yep. That's right. I got another great garage sale deal! I was wanting a glider for the baby room yet didn't want to pay 200 or so bucks for it. Today we found this one with the ottoman for...$25! What a deal. I like darker wood better but I'm not going to be picky when its in this great of shape and for the price!
Ben now has all his stuff moved to his downstairs office and its time to get this baby room in order. I picked up a bunch of paint samples from Home Depot today to figure out what color we want to paint it. I like greys...yet some yellows are ok... So I taped them all to the wall to go through the process of elimination.
Sorry the pictures aren't great-Sometime I just don't have the desire to take and upload them from my camera-so the phone does just fine:)

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garden update

I realized I have never shared pictures of my garden with you! So I took some quick ones with my phone. Here it is:

Last night I was picking some more green beans....they just keep coming-which is awesome!....and I remembered there was a green tomato still on the plant that I was waiting to ripen. So I went to check on its progress BUT it was missing. MISSING! I recalled that a few minutes earlier I had seen a green apple sitting in the yard and I thought-what!? a green apple? I guess a squirrel must of brought it into the yard. All of a sudden I thought-that was not a green apple-that was my tomato!! So I went back to investigate and sure enough....my nice round green tomato was sitting there with a tiny little bite mark out of it...I was not happy

I also planted some flowers earlier this summer and completely forgot about them. So I have patiently been waiting on this one to see what it would produce and lo and behold one of my favorite flowers-Dahlia. I, obviously, completely forgot that I had planted these bulbs-ha. But it sure is pretty! Sadly enough this morning when I checked it out there were 2 earwigs sitting in it....probably eating it like they eat everything else in my yard-ugggg.

I also noticed my lily was blooming and was quite pretty:

So that is my garden/yard update for you.

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The Perfect Pillow

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1st piece

The first piece of baby furniture has been added. The changing table-all done with its final coat and added changing pad. Of course, we still need to paint the walls..but at least this part is done:)

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First Tomato

There it is folks..the first wonderful garden tomato...mmmm

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the 4th weekend

So its over... .my  4 day weekend...and I don't really have much to show for it.  Basically I was feeling sick & exhausted all weekend so I didn't take pictures or even do anything fun...yah...I know.....no pictures....and I love pictures! Anyways..back to the weekend.

Friday: We went down to Peoria and back for Bens grandmas funeral. We ate some Long John Silvers and Noodles and Company that day....yah...I think one of them really messed up my tummy. So we took it easy Friday night and I went to bed feeling a bit ick.

Saturday: I woke up feeling ick and my stomach was NOT happy....so all morning I kinda laid around-well wait-we didn't even get out of bed til 10:30 anyways---we are sleeping in on days that we can until this baby arrives. So I was tired and feeling out of sorts. I took it easy and later that afternoon I thought getting in my pool might help me cool off. Can I just say that being pregnant and being able to float in water and feel the weight lifted off your back/belly is the greatest thing? I wanted to fall asleep in the pool it felt so good. After dinner I laid around some more and went to bed semi-early-in hopes of sleeping this off.

Sunday: I woke up feeling better but STILL dealing with stomach problems. So we skipped church and laid in bed for most of the morning again. When we finally got up I decided to, yet again, spend glorious time in my pool and it was wonderful. After pool time Ben and I drove to get the Lego Harry Potter game for the PS3...these Lego games are the only video games I like-you never die and they are super easy. After picking up the game we went to the grocery store for 4th of July food. Meanwhile Nikki came over and we were ready to start our 4th celebrations. We made fresh squeezed raspberry lemonade-oh it was SO good, potato salad, beans, Ben made burgers on the grill for Nikki and him, and we had watermelon to finish it off. So we hauled all our yummy food to the front porch and enjoyed a little July 4th picnic. It was YUMMY!! After dinner we took a walk-with Oliver-to the park 2 blocks from our house to check out all the 4th of July festivities and funny people. It was so hot out that when we got back we all decided to hop in the pool for a bit to cool down and again-it felt wonderful. After cooling off it was time for some fireworks--Some bottle rockets and glow snakes...well the snakes don't really do anything but grow into gross black things..but they are still fun. Here are the 2 pictures Nikki got of our celebration. And I look giant in that photo.....not that my belly isn't giant...but I am also wearing a giant t-shirt making me look giant and the photo seems to be taken in a giant sized angle...ok why am I explaining myself because I am 7 months pregnant and need to let it go.....anyways..here are the photos:

After our own private fireworks extravaganza we played some Lego Harry Potter until we heard the fireworks going off. See....the advantage to living 2 blocks from the park is that the fireworks are only a 2 block walk-and this year we didn't feel like walking up there. So we took some chairs out to the alley behind our garage and had a fabulous view-why walk down to the crowds and people? Except that we had to move about 5 times because of random cars driving down the alley-but it was awesome.

Monday: Nikki spent the night Sunday and Ben had some jobs Monday morning so when Nikki and I woke up and got going with our day we.....went in the pool again! After pool time I called my doctor to find out if I needed to be concerned that I was still having major stomach problems and he said as long as I was drinking fluids and taking it easy I should be fine..but to call back Tuesday. Poor guy was on call-it sounded like he was in a bathroom or small room when he called me back...ha...probably having fun with his friends and go interrupted by a call from a concerned pregnant lady-h.a. So it was another take it easy, lay around day for me. I had so many things I should of been doing-tending my garden, working on the baby room. None of it happened and I just took it easy and we watched Alice in Wonderland. Before bed I was able to pick some more beans and there were tons! I even picked my first tomato---I am so happy with my little garden.

So there you go...my weekend of nothing. I talked with my doctor again today and I need to keep drinking lots of fluids and take it easy...I think I can handle that....and I think I am finally on the mend ...thankfully!

oh and I just realized today is July 6...and this little babe is due on September 6...meaning exactly 2 months away. AHHHHHHHHH so crazy. and i must say I think I will be quite ready by the time that date rolls around. This little girl loves to cozy up on the right side of my belly...making it stick out in a funny way..and making it super uncomfortable for my rib cage...and it is only getting a bit worse by the day.

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