Catching His Zzzz's

Someone is making sure to get his naps and relaxation time in before the baby comes.....

31 Week Check In

Today, we are 31 weeks along towards the due date for arrival of Baby Rogers.  Time is flying - it's amazing!  We have 9 more weeks to do some work on our new house, paint, get new carpet, move all of our stuff and set up the nursery...it's going to be busy times!  Let's hope we'll make it in time!  Luckily, our families and friends have been so generous by offering to help us paint or move or unpack. 

I'm feeling good still at 31 weeks!  I have my occasion aches and pains and uncomfortable and awkward times, but overall I can't complain.  I had some wicked upper back pain earlier this week, but Brian gave me a back massage twice and it's feeling much better.  Getting around and doing normal things are getting interesting - fitting through small spaces, getting up from the low car, getting in and out of bed, shaving my legs, etc.  No new cravings or weird eating habits - still a fruit-a-holic, which isn't a bad thing!  I'm getting heartburn a lot more and heartburn is the devil.  The baby is a moving machine and Brian can see it move through my sweatshirt - so neat! 

More updates to come....I'm SO excited for my baby shower with my friends this weekend!!!  Not only do I get to be showered by my closest friends, but I get to see lots of out of town friends like Alia, Megan and Emily whom I rarely see.....can't wait!

Bittersweet Day

Today, we received two pieces of news.  One sad, one exciting. 

My Nonni, who's been in the hospital for about two weeks now, passed away last night.  At 90, her poor body and mind did not wake up from the anesthesia ever and it was time to let her go.  I've been thinking all day of great memories of her.  She used to feed me and my brother toast and coffee - who feeds little kids coffee?  Every time we stayed the weekend with her, the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy (you get the drift) would come visit and leave treats at the fireplace - no matter the season.  She made amazing food - homemade macaroni, rabbit stew, snickerdoodles with cream cheese frosting, chicken cutlets, pastina, stracciatella soup, minestrone soup, biscotti, cialdoni cookies, fried zucchini flowers, and the list goes on.  She used to shout at my Nonno (with a really thick accent), "Oh, Mr. Nardi!".  She used to let us bring snacks to church.  She carried a purse with nothing in it but some tissues and a few dollars.  She sewed my whole 4th grade class bloomers for our Cinco De Mayo festival.  She let me play with her purses and her jewelry.  She used to be a big fan of "The Young and the Restless".  And I could go on.....she's now at rest in a better place and she'll be missed.

 On the happy note, we are finally closing on our new house.  We have an appointment to sign papers tomorrow at 9:30am and we get the keys on Monday!  So, let the construction, cleaning, painting, etc. begin!  We're starting with getting the master bath redone and redoing the walls in the laundry room, painting almost all of the rooms, recarpeting the carpeted areas, getting the (filthy) place cleaned top to bottom, etc.  Here are a few teaser photos - they are from the listing.  The house is NOT in as good of condition as it appears in the photos.  We have our work cut out for us - and it's a race against the baby clock! 

 Here's the outside - I'll have to shoot some new photos in the sunshine and get a bit closer.

 The entry way is bright and opens up into the living room, hallway and stairway.  We're going to get some shutters for that big window and we're also going to be covering up this heinous mustard yellow/green paint.

The kitchen has great bones - and awesome appliances (except the fridge) but it is DIRTY.  Seriously needs a scrub down and a disinfecting.  I love the granite, though and it's a big kitchen with lots of storage.  We'd like to paint the distressed/antique white cabinets a clean white, as well.  We'll see how much we can fit in before baby time. 

Here is a photo of the backyard - Riley's new paradise, but the photo doesn't do it justice.  We'll have two side yards big enough for RV parking/storage and the lawn is a great size, too.  Can't wait to get our patio furniture and bbq set up out here.  Yes, that is a treehouse and this is a serious treehouse.  The walls are finished and painted and there's carpet within.  Could be a fun little retreat for kiddos!

More photos and progress reports to come as we transform this baby into our home sweet home.

Recent Reading Catch Up

It's been a while since I posted my recent reading list.  Aside from my week by week pregnancy book and my breastfeeding book, I've been reading "fun" books, too.  Unfortunately, nothing fantastic, though.

I really enjoyed Frey's first book, A Million Little Pieces, despite his controversial Oprah appearance.  Novel or memoir, it was good reading.  Too bad, in my humble opinion, Bright Shiny Morning does not follow suit.  This was written in an odd style and the story just jumped around too much for me between too many characters.  I wasn't a fan and am glad I can move on to to the next book. 

 I'd heard good things about this book, Girls in Trucks, but again was disappointed.  I had the thoughts of "so what?  what's the plot?" running through my head during the entire book.  I had high expectations for this book, thinking it might be similar to The Help, but it was nothing like it.  Not the storyline, not the style, not the characters, etc. 

My mother-in-law lent me this next book, Daughter's Keeper, and I definitely enjoyed it.  However, I found the behaviors and actions of the main two characters infuriating at times.  It was interesting, though, to read a book set in the Berkeley/Oakland area having some familiarity with the neighborhoods.  Also a very interesting story line that keeps you on your toes, wanting to know what's going to happen next. 

I'm a big Jodi Picoult fan so of course I ordered a hardback copy of her newest novel, Sing You Home.  It addresses some controversial topics and challenging situations (infertility, child custody, whether or not an embryo is a life, same sex adoption, born again Christians, etc.).  This was a good read, but certainly not Picoult's best.  If anyone is interested in borrowing, I'd recommend the book and happily lend it out.

Springtime Weekend

Since we thought we'd be closed on our house by now, we had no plans this weekend, aside from the A's game.  It was a GLORIOUS weekend because of it!  It's been too long since we did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted.  We headed out to the A's game on Friday night with some friends to celebrate Brian's birthday - we grilled hot dogs and sausages, noshed on homemade guac (super delish, if I don't say so myself) and other snacks and also treated ourselves to yummy birthday cupcakes for the birthday boy.

Here are Brian, Gabriel, Rob and Dough all clearly not entertained by my photography.

 Brennan and Dan in the midst of some philosophical, deep conversation, probably about the economy or communism or what's wrong with the "f word" (seriously, Brennan wanted to argue there's nothing wrong with it).

 And of course it wouldn't be your 29th birthday (or maybe 22nd??!) without some beer shotgunning.  The boys had fun, which was a good thing because the A's lost big time in the 10th inning.

On Saturday, we slept in, made breakfast burritos and then I headed out to visit my Nonni and do some shopping/errands out in Walnut Creek.  It was a beautiful day in the east bay and aside from a parking ticket, it was a great afternoon.  Although, Nonni is still not awake so please keep her in your thoughts.

 Saturday night, we went on an impromptu date.  I was craving some "home style" food and we've wanted to try the restaurant "Home" in San Francisco for years so we finally pulled the pregnancy card and took a trip to the Castro to indulge ourselves.  Dinner was DELICIOUS.  If my friend Katie ever makes the trip from Georgia to San Francisco, I will take her here because she and I would have the most amazing meal ever and enjoy every second (Katie - check out their menu!  I'm just sayin').  Then my loving husband drove us to Ben and Jerry's where we got some ice cream to share on the drive home.  We ended the night by renting "Inception" on On Demand which was good, but tough to follow....I'm still not sure I "get" it.

 Sunday was another gloriously unplanned day.  We slept in, Brian brought me breakfast in bed, I lounged and read my book until noon and finally got up and went to the gym for a swim - where I had the pleasure of swimming in the dreaded 24 hour fitness pool ALL BY MYSELF.  Seriously, two whole lanes to myself.  Amazing.  I ran some errands and got some new work/dress shoes on clearance at DSW (score!).  I decided to make lasagna last night and I have always wanted to try the "oven ready" (also seen as "no boil") noodles, but am a bit skeptical.  I decided to bite the bullet and give them a try - Target's brand "Archer Farms" makes whole wheat oven ready lasagna noodles so I bought those and headed home.  The lasagna was DELICIOUS and tasted just like a normal lasagna, which is a double win because usually whole wheat noodles taste a bit earthy to me AND I didn't have to boil the noodles.  For anyone who ever makes lasagna, I encourage you to give these a try - total time saver! 

We need to enjoy these kind of amazing weekends while we still have them - we're about to embark on a journey into home improvement and newborn care - only 10 more weeks to go before the bambino arrives!

Ts & Ps

My Dear Blog Followers,

Please send your thoughts and prayers our way for my Nonna who is sick in the hospital - send good Ts & Ps her way so that she wakes up from her anesthesia.  She just celebrated her 90th birthday this past December and she very much wants to meet her first great-grandbaby in June. 

P.S. Sorry, Mom, I know you're not going to like this photo of yourself.

Birthdays & Babies

It's been a busy week (how often do I start blog posts like this?).  Brian's 29th birthday was on Monday - happy, happy birthday to my hubster!  We had lots of house related errands on Sunday and then headed to my parents for dinner - my mom made Brian a scrumptious carrot cake for his birthday and he was a happy camper.  I didn't trust our crappy oven to bake one myself, but I will be baking cupcakes for the birthday boy at his lil birthday shindig at the A's game on Friday - we'll be heading to the game with about 10 friends to tailgate and then (hopefully) watch the A's kick some tail against the Tigers.  I did, however, make him, what he referred to as my "best enchiladas yet" for his birthday dinner and he enjoyed the evening watching  baseball and more baseball.

Then, this week, we had our first set of baby classes - Infant Care, Infant CPR and Breastfeeding.  I really enjoyed it and we both learned so many new tips and tricks we hadn't heard already.  Infant CPR has changed slightly since the lifeguarding days so the refresher was good - Riley, I'm sure, appreciated us practicing on him last night as part of our homework.  The breastfeeding part of the course was also very helpful (or so I think it will be) - lots of helpful tips for a successful nursing experience.  I can tell you all about it if you're interested, but probably not great blog material.  The infant care section was great - diapering, swaddling, soothing, bathing, proper holding, burping, sleeping, scheduling, etc.  Now, we have four weeks to go until our Child Birth class!  Here's a quick photo I shot of Brian holding our baby from class:

Third Trimester, We've Arrived!

We've had a big week - this week we entered the infamous "third trimester".  At 28 weeks, we're only a short 3 months away from go time (a little less than, actually).  Today, we had our 28 week check up and an ultrasound.  For the next 2 months, I'll go to the doctor every two weeks - no more monthly appointments.

We took a few minutes for a quick photo opp before heading to the doctor.  Poor Riley thought he was coming along for the ride.  Sucker.  Here I am at 28 weeks, 3 days.  Baby is still very active and it's really neat to see and feel it move!

Our doctor's appointment went great - I passed all of my blood tests from last time with "flying colors", says my doctor.  I've only gained 1.5 lbs from the last doctor's appointment, which is also fabulous to hear.  Heartbeat sounded strong and my belly (ahem...fundal height) is measuring at 30.5 weeks, so now I'm measuring about 2 weeks ahead of schedule.  I asked the doctor, again, if this means anything and she said it's still too early, but she said, "You're not going to have a 6 pound baby.  He's too big of a dude [pointing at Brian] for that to happen.".  Yikes.  I can't wait to hold my 12 pounder in my arms.  Just kidding...I hope.  Next, we headed over to our sonogram appointment and we got to see Baby Rogers again and it was so good!  Again, baby was not cooperating with the camera and our photo opps were slim pickins.  The tech did get this profile shot of the baby's face - you can see the nose and nips if you take a good look.  The heart rate was measured at 167 and baby is folded in half (like jackknifed) with its butt up near the left side of my rib cage and its head, arms and feet down above my right hip.  The good news is that my placenta is now not covering my cervix, however it's still too close to be called "clear"....so we'll go back in a while for another scan and hope it's moved the last 11mm to get out of the way for a vaginal delivery.  Likelihood of this happening is high which is great. 

After our appointment and scan we jetted over the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin to Pottery Barn Kids.  We wanted to pick up a piece of our nursery bedding to match paint colors to for getting the nursery all done up, so we bought a fitted crib sheet.  It's so cute! 

Here's the Pottery Barn image of our nursery bedding and decor.  Of course, our nursery will be different.  Our furniture is dark, espresso wood and we're not going to have that bird branch thing going on.  Or a wooden giraffe toy hanging out.  Although, I do like the little topiaries.  Either way, I'm really excited for the Peter Rabbit bedding!

Birthday Boy

Brian's birthday is a week from today and in today's mail, he received his first birthday card....from Southwest Airlines!  Ha ha.  He said to me, in a sing-songy voice, "I got my first birthday card!  From Southwest...."  I thought he would throw it away, but this evening I noticed he put it on the fireplace mantle where we put all of our cards....I find this extremely cute and also hilarious!

Gas Guzzling No More

Brian and I have been in the market for a commuter car (aka a "beater" or a "bucket") for a couple of months. You see, he's been commuting to San Jose from San Francisco since June in his Dodge Ram. Yeah, you read correctly - 80 miles round trip almost every day in a big pick up truck. As you can imagine, our gas spending is ridiculous. So, we've been on the lookout for a good little commuter car. We don't want to sell his truck because he uses it for truck things so we wanted something cheap that would cost barely anything to insure. This weekend, we found the perfect car! A friend of my mom's has been looking to sell her 1998 Toyota Corolla (only 121,000 miles!), but didn't want to list it on Craigslist so we went up to take a look and it's in great condition! For $2200, we walked...err, drove away with our new commuter car. As you can see in the picture, the paint is faded here and there, and inside the upholstery is a bit stained/worn here and there, and the model of the car is bare bones (no automatic anything, nothing fancy). But, it runs great and gets fabulous gas mileages! 

In other weekend news, we ran errands, Brian painted furniture, I did laundry and cleaned house, and we took Riley on a great hike and he got to swim a bunch (thankful for the sunny weekend!).  We also went for another inspection on the (potential) new digs.  Looks like our hopeful new house is going to need some work, but it's worth it.  Besides, it will make for some good blog posts!

Holy Price Tag!

I have done a bit of research over the last 4 months or so on baby monitors and I found a brand, Angelcare, that I've been really excited about.  Mostly because their monitors include a movement sensor so you can be alerted if baby stops moving (aka stops breathing) for more than 30 seconds - it's like a SIDs miracle tool.  I read about the NEW Angelcare monitor that was to be released in the spring that not only included the sound and movement monitor, but also a video monitor and I told myself this was the one I surely wanted.  Well, it's finally been released, and the price is steep....how much can it be, you ask?  Wait for it.....$255!!!!!!!  Holy hell, that's a lot of dough for a baby monitor....especially compared to the deluxe model that includes sound and movement, but no video which is roughly $125.  Is it worth it?