The time has come...

For an arrival date and weight pool!

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Miabird kindly reminded me that I haven't started a pool yet, and with my belly reaching roughly the proportions of a medicine ball, it probably is time!

So here is how it works: Leave a comment with your guess as to Ella's birthdate and weight upon arrival. The closest to reality wins a prize! I am not sure of what the prize is, but it will be something prizeful. I promise.

PS For those who don't know... my due date (according to the doctor) is around Feb 28. They have moved it around a couple times, up to the 24th, back to the 27th, up to the 20th, back to the 25th.... Im sticking with the original one. And hoping she arrives early!

Our Baby Shower!

36 and 37 Weeks

36 Weeks
37 Weeks

And looking increasingly disproportionate and tired as we progress... I hit 38 weeks today, will try to get a semi-decent photo posted soon...

Commentary

You let them shave my butt and cut me open and you expect me to be happy about just getting my hood off? Think again, silly human.
What's so special about this room? You keep fussing with it. Come play instead!
I think my nose MIGHT be longer than yours. Lets measure and see!

A Family Affair

Building Ella's crib was a family affair. We undertook the big move of her furniture to the nursery last night, after Hubband put the last of the baseboards on.

The next step was to build the crib....




And then....it was done!


I also brought Ella's clothes (that have hangers...) into her closet. The baskets on the shelves were merely transport mechanisms, tomorrow when I'm off work (hurrah for personal days!) we're going to do a big shopping trip and pick up the last few things we need for the nursery and organizational items.
We finally have a nursery! It's not complete... but its a ROOM not a workshop! wheeeeee.

From the archive...and some news

A friend took this photo on New Year's Eve and I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of it since then with all that's been going on in her life and in ours... but here it is! I was about... hmmm... I think 32 weeks at that point. The belly looks so very small! >grin< Maybe its just our big Christmas tree...

In other news:
I had a nice little hour and a half or so of "real" contractions last night. They still weren't REAL in that I didn't go into labor, but they hurt... they started in my back moved around to my front, they were about 2 minutes apart...and Ella did NOT like it. We were encouraged that some good "practice" was being had, and my tummy today feels as though I did a marathon of sit-ups, so that's fun too. Right?

The nursery floor is done, the outlets all have grounding wires and safety outlets installed, the light in the closet is almost done, and tonight we're moving furniture come hell or high water (it IS raining, I suppose I should be careful what I wish for).

Photos will be posted of the nursery as soon as its clear of tools...and of course once its complete!

Where to Begin?

I have been remarkably remiss in posting anything lately, we've been so busy that when I do think "oh, I should update the blog" it is the lowest item on my list of priorities. Today, I have just enough desire to procrastinate that I decided to do a nice long list post detailing our lives the last couple of weeks:

• Hubband has been sick for weeks and finally broke down and admitted it to be more than a bad cold and went to see the doctor last week. The final diagnosis was Bronchitis, and he's taking about 20 pills/potions every day. He still randomly sounds like a frog or a hyena (depending on whether he's talking or coughing), but does seem to be finally doing a little better.

  
  

• We had a painting party here at the house last Saturday night, impromptu, but got the green up! Erin and Stacy kindly offered to kick in and help and in an hour or so we had the green done. Hubband just finished the white and the trim last night (we had a few interruptions, keep reading and see!) so hopefully we get a floor today and furniture tomorrow evening!
  

• Preparations for Ella are nearing completion. We're awaiting the arrival of her bassinet (A pack and play from her Grandpa Boyd) and once my freelance check comes in we'll pick up the last few items (a rug for the nursery, diaper pail, changing pad, etc). I even got some coupons so that we can just "clean up" the registry at Target.

• Oberon started acting funny, dribbling urine all over the house, growling when he got in his litter box, etc. about 10 days ago. We took him to the vet and they diagnosed him with a bladder infection and sent him home with some pills that were to fix the issue. They'd also taken some bloodwork and called us to let us know his kidney enzymes were high and he needed to go on some special food for the rest of his life (at 25 bucks a bag...ouch!). He seemed to be doing better after a couple of days, but when his medicine ran out we found him reverting to the same behavior and almost acting as though it bothered him more than before. We took him back in to the vet and they decided to try and catheterize him to see if he was blocked or if there was a neurogenic basis for the problem (because of the problems with his hips, there was a chance it was a nerve issue). An hour later they called and said they were taking him into emergency surgery because he was so blocked that no one could get a catheter inserted and the risk of toxemia was high (we had to open a veterinary/health care credit account to cover the costs. ouch.). We brought him home on Wednesday, and he's on 3 different medicines, wearing a collar (which he hates) and has a nasty looking line of stitches and lots of shaved skin. With his problems walking, the poor guy pretty much just stays in one place. He's starved for affection, though, and will venture forth to ask for love. Yesterday he tried to jump onto the couch and lost his balance and ended up pulling one of his stitches. We're hoping at his follow-up on Monday they'll take the stitches out so he can be more comfortable....

• We're still waiting on a deposit from the navy that should have come through by December 9th....Hubband has been making a plethora of phone calls to try and get it fixed. Supposedly 8 days ago it would be in in "5 days"....

• We helped host a game night at the church with another member of the social committee on the 26th. Had a pretty good turnout.

• I completed another freelance project (editing the manuscript of a money management book... very interesting!) and turned in my "notice" and invoice. I'm unavailable for freelance until at least May.

• At my most recent doctor's appointment we found that I'm about 35% - 40% effaced (was 20% last week), not dilated at all, but Ella is head down and getting lower every day (at least it feels like it!). Yesterday at my appointment the nurse practitioner who checked me (the doc had no free appointments, we see her again next week) could actually push on Ella's head! Wasn't comfy, but was kind of cool. :-) The doctor told us that she won't let me go more than 1 week overdue so it looks like around March 5 is the latest we'd have our new arrival...

• My promotion has officially come through at work! I got a 10% raise and nothing else changed. hehe. I've been doing the actual job for months, just hadn't gotten the official sign off on the promotion from the the VP and HR. The raise was quite fortuitous as it will be just a touch more than the increases in our health insurance with the new year and the coming of Ella.

• Hubband has been interviewing with the TSA for a parttime security position at the airport. We've not heard anything for a week or so, but if it works out it would be a good summer job and would eliminate the need to spend another month in this rotten job market trying to find something that would pay a decent wage. Pray that we get a call! He's made it past all the testing phases, just waiting on the results of the security checks.

• I have nearly finished our taxes and it appears that our return may be enough to enable me to take an extra 2 weeks of maternity leave. Hurrah! I have to finish the final check of the papers and correct any missing/inaccurate info, but in general we're about ready to file. I really wanted to get it DONE before the baby gets here.

• We found the baby swing we wanted and could never had afforded new on Craigslist. Went to see if "like new" was really like new and it WAS. The thing is a beauty and is sitting in our living room waiting for its occupant.

• I'm sure many of you heard about our crazy weather the last few days...on Tuesday night we got hit by a line of tornados. Thankfully, our house sustained very little damage (really just some water damage from storm clogged pipes causing backups all over the house). The closest tornado (the one that hit the mall and made the national news) passed us about 1/2 mile away, but didn't touch down until it hit the mall, which is about 3 miles from here. We had high winds and LOTS of rain/lightning, but didn't even end up losing power. Definitely a blessing! Many of our friends were even closer to the storm, but everyone came through fine. One of our friends' mom had some minor damage to her house and downed trees/power lines, but that was the worst our "gang" experienced. So many more weren't as lucky. :-(

• Hubband has been trying to finish the nursery construction for a week now and something keeps seeming to come up... either phone calls or outside commitments (a baby shower for some friends, navy reserve weekend, church duties, school, phone calls from family....). The worst one was after the storms this week when our pipes clogged up so badly somewhere between the house and the street that it took a snake, Hubband crawling around under the house with a flashlight in his mouth, professional heavy duty drain cleaner (that has to sit in the pipes for a minimum of 6 hours), a bottle of instant plumbr, and every towel we own (to mop of the overflows and nastiness) to stop the backflow. Our bathtubs, sink, laundry.... everything overflowed/backwashed and was covered in nasty silt. I'm only just now beginning to catch up on laundry and dishes.

• Because of the warm days preceding the tornadoes (it hit 79 degrees on Tuesday), my daffodils have popped their heads up. Now Im worried its going to freeze again and they will die! I worked hard to plant those bulbs over the bulging belly this fall. hehe.

• The social committee at church is planning a Valentine's banquet for tomorrow night. It is our last "project" with them until next fall, as we've told the director we'll be bowing out with the advent of Ella.

• Sunday marks the first "Dinner My Way" meeting here at our house. Im not sure they will ALL be here at our house, but a group of us who enjoy cooking/want to learn more about cooking/etc have decided to get together on a monthly basis and share recipes, cook them up, and each have at least 2 dishes to take home and freeze or portion out for meals during the next week.

I think I'd better quit... this gives you at least an IDEA of what's been going on....satisfied? Anyone?