Bed Rest Progress

I've now been on bed rest for about a week and a half and I have strict doctor's orders to be more diligent with the bed rest and to try to stay "more horizontal".  I'm still getting things done virtually, though (in addition to working!).  

Task # 1

I ordered our carpet from Home Depot.  The measure guys went to the house on Saturday and Brian and I picked carpet based off some samples on Sunday.  We expect to get it installed the week before Memorial Day weekend.

Task # 2

I ordered a set of nursing pj's and a robe online.  It's time to get the hospital bag packed since I'm on bed rest so I needed to get a pair of these.  I bit the bullet on the shipping because, alas, I cannot drive myself to the store and shop.  Here's what they look like (the top clips down for easy nursing access):

Task # 3

I made a list of stuff to pack in the hospital bag, including this super cute hospital gown I received as a shower gift from Stefania.  This is definitely way cuter than the standard issue gowns, but it also has more coverage in the back so your butt doesn't hang out, and the shoulders also snap open for easy nursing.

Task # 4

I made a spreadsheet of addresses for birth announcements.  I also have a handful of both girl and boy announcements bookmarked on my browser for when it's time to order. 

Fans Fan

Ever since living in our condo in Colorado, I've been a huge fan of ceiling fans.  All of our bedrooms had ceiling fans/light fixtures, as did our living room and I loved having the overhead lighting and the ability to circulate air without having to use an oscillating stand fan.  I'm very particular about fans - I don't like uneven or too strong of "winds" blowing at me.  My hair blows all over and tickles my face and it drives me batty.  So, a steady ceiling fan is now the only way I'll go. 

This evening, Brian drove me out to the new house (since when you're in a car, you're sitting, so that qualifies as modified bed rest in my book) to pick out paint (he and his dad had had selected and painted several samples onto the walls) and we went to Lowe's where I planned to sit in the car while Brian ran in for paint.  LUCKY FOR ME (sense my sarcasm?), they had motorized carts that Brian insisted I drive around the store instead of just waiting in the car.  So, once I'd mounted up on my little buggy, I perused around Lowe's while waiting for our paint to be mixed.  We ended up in the fan section and picked out the above fan for the baby's room.  This sucker may be returned in the near future because in searching for a photo to include in this post, I've found it has terrible reviews.  However, it's cute and you get the idea of the style we're looking for to mount in the baby's nursery.  This will look great with white trim and green walls.

Brian found this larger, darker fan at Costco this week and I love it.  This is for the Living Room.  Should look great with our tan walls (ahem, "Oatnut" by Valspar), white trim and dark furniture.

All paint and paint supplies are on promotion at Lowe's until Monday (for every $50 you spend, save $5) AND we had a 10% off coupon.  We saved about $50 on our purchases this evening.  I wish I could include a photo of me in my motorized scooter at Lowe's, but we didn't take one. I thought about it for two seconds, but was too embarrassed. Maybe next time....

We also decided on our washer and dryer purchase and are in the process of closing it out.  It's amazing how much shopping you can do from the couch - lots of reviews and articles right at your fingertips.  With the right appliance store and sales person, making an appliance purchase remotely is quite easy.  Also, we've been casually looking at sets for the last three months while waiting for our house to close.  We decided on this Maytag Maxima set, but in white and without the fancy (read: expensive) pedestals and platform thing.  These bad boys have great features, a super warranty and awesome consumer reports.  We also are getting a great deal with some additional rebates so it feels like a smart purchase  I am not lying when I say I'm excited to use them - especially to wash all of the bambino's new clothes and blankets and other washable accessories.

Brian the Good Samaritan

Yesterday, Brian came home at lunch to work the rest of the afternoon from home.  He heard someone yelling (very faintly) "Help! Help me!" and went to investigate in our neighborhood and found a poor old man had fallen and broken his hip/leg.  So, he called 911 and the firemen and paramedics came to the rescue.  The old man begged him to take his groceries (he was just returning from a trip to Lucky's) since he'd be in the hospital for a while.  So, Brian brought his groceries to our house and we put them away, hoping to save them for the old man, even though he told us to keep them......and now I'm staring at chocolate chip cookies, peanut M&Ms, pistachios, Tostitos nacho cheese dip.  Brian was the Good Samaritan by helping the old man, but I'm afraid I'm going to reverse his good deed by eating the cookies!

Rock-a-bye Baby

I've been shopping forever for a glider/rocker for the baby's room/living room for nursing.  I've had my eye on this one for a while, but I was waiting to see what happened with our housing situation and also keeping my eyes peeled for a coupon.  Well, bed rest is good for few things, one of which is online shopping!  I found a 20% off coupon today AND the chair and ottoman were on sale so I bit the bullet.  This beauty (in a latte color) will arrive in 2-3 weeks to our new house!

Busy Weekend Post # 3: The Shower

Now, the post you've all been waiting for (right?!) - The Shower!  Alia flew in from Albuquerque to throw me an amazing shower with all of my friends.  I was so sad when I thought I'd have to ask her to cancel it, but we only had to push it back a couple of hours.  Everyone was still able to come, for the most part.  It was the perfect way to end such a stressful/scary weekend.  I could have not asked for a better day with all my friends. 

A few disclaimers before you go looking through these photos.  I spent the night before in the hospital and probably got about 3 hours of sleep.  I clearly need a tan (the self tanner isn't working as well as I thought).  I didn't have enough time to do my hair properly so you're getting the natural look.  All pictures are compliments of Miss Alia and her fabulous photography skills.

Christina, Cat and Andra enjoying the sun and the brunch.

 The adorable diaper cake Stefania made me - I love it!

 The party in action!  There's me in my "throne" - I was treated like a true queen due to the bed rest orders.  I felt a bit lazy and rude, but I know my friends were understanding of my condition (that sounds so needy).

 Gift time!  I was showered with so many generous, neat gifts.  Baby Rogers is very fortunate to have so many of mommy's friends and two excited grandmas so excited to meet him/her!  Some gift highlights - our car seat, our baby monitor (the ONE with the motion, sound and video!), a hospital gown, lots of goodies like diaper ointment, onesies, wipes, stroller accessories, jammies, blankets, a pack-n-play, nursery decor, a few cute outfits, a boppy, toys and rattles, etc.  We are one lucky family!

 The Alpha Phi girls (minus Tracey - who couldn't make it with the time shift).

 Me and Muffin!  Can't wait for our babies to be great friends and cousins!

 Me and my gracious hostess - feeling up on each other's baby bellies!  Our babies will be 4 months apart and I hope they're as good of friends as Alia and I are.

 Here's my 32 week shot - loved that my dress had pockets!

 Me and mom at the shower.

And there you have it!  A little recap of a great, great day.  So glad the hectic weekend ended on such a great note.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing and generous friends and family members!

Busy Weekend Post # 2: The Hospital

Unfortunately, after the hectic Saturday I had with the new house and pushing myself too far, I landed myself in the hospital on Saturday night into Sunday morning.  I had a bit of an episode with the pregnancy, but the good news is that baby is doing perfectly and I am healthy, as well (if you want to know more, just ask, but I'll save the general blog readers from that for now).  The bad news is that I am now on modified bed rest indefinitely.  What does this mean, you ask?  Well, it means that I can really only get up from sitting down or laying down to use the bathroom, get something to eat, take a quick shower and get something to drink.  No driving, no errands, no standing for long periods of time, no dog walking, no gym, no grocery shopping, no laundry, no vacuuming, no going to work.  Luckily, I can work remotely.  Not so luckily, we have a ton to do in the next month with the new house so Brian has just got had his "honey-do" list tripled.

Here's a little snapshot of my lovely hospital bands....one for my drug allergies, one for my admittance info.  I've never stayed in the hospital before.  We can go ahead and mark "hospital tour" off of our baby to do list, now.  I headed to the hospital OB Triage around midnight on Saturday night and was admitted and put in a Labor & Delivery room by 2am.  They hooked up Baby Rogers to an external fetal heart rate monitor and gave me a shot to help Baby's lungs develop quickly in the event he/she comes earlier than planned.  The monitor was very reassuring and basically just told us how great the baby is doing - although, the heart rate wives tale is now indicating that Baby Rogers is a he!  We'll see if that's true.  Luckily, I haven't had any signs of early labor (contractions, dilating, etc.) at all.  The steroids shot for baby's lungs was 100% precautionary - and it's only for the lungs, no Popeye the Sailor Baby for us.  The doctor reassured us that if (hopefully when!) baby goes to full term, there is no harm in having had the steroids shot.  The on call doctor and the nurse told me I'd have a full ultrasound in the morning and advised me to try to get some rest.

 I was so glad to find that my doctor was the on call doctor on Sunday morning and she came in with a big smile on her face and said "So you had a bleed!  Alright, let's get you up to ultrasound and confirm everything is a-okay and discharge you so you can go home and make it to your baby shower!".  I really love my doctor and it was so reassuring to talk to her.

We headed up to ultrasound and got to see lots and lots of Baby Rogers - doing great!  Lots of movement.  Baby is measuring 4 lbs., 6 oz. and looking perfect.  We actually got a great profile picture, too.  My placenta is still low, but slowly but surely moving away from my cervix.  This could have been the cause for the bleed.  One of three suggested hypotheses.  The doctor took a look and sent us on our merry way with orders to be on modified bed rest and told me to have fun at my baby shower :)  We had to head back last night and get my second steroid shot for baby's lungs, but otherwise I was glad that the baby is great, I am fine and we didn't have to cancel my baby shower, only push it back a couple of hours (more on that in Blog Post # 3)

 So now that Brian is on ultra husband and daddy-to-be duty, he stopped by Costco on the way home to buy a few food items and he surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of flowers.  I love them - the colors are so pretty and there are lilies and gerbera daisies, 2 of my favorite types of flowers.

I'm only on day 2 of modified bed rest and I'm already going a little stir crazy.  Luckily, I got this neat lap tray for Christmas and we finally busted it out of its packaging to start using.  I used it all day to work from and then this evening, I set up a thank you note station for writing baby shower thank yous.  Some of the benefits of being on bed rest is that I'm getting lots of thank yous taken care of, handling overdue email and phone correspondence, and of course catching up on TV and snuggling with my pooch.  Riley is digging the unexpected quality time, I know it.

The moral of my long story is that we are all doing fine health wise, but we had a little scare.  Now, I have a lot of idle time on my hands and a bit of anxiety over the move - the packing, the prepping, the unpacking, the painting, the moving, etc.  I get a free pass, but if you know me well, the control freak in me does not want a free pass!  But, of course, I'll be following doctor's orders and baking this baby for as long as possible as we tick off the remaining 54 days until our due date.

Busy Weekend Post # 1: The House

We had a ridiculously hectic, fun, stressful weekend ever.  So much that this blog post is going to be broken up into three posts: The House, The Hospital and The Shower.  We'll start here with The House.

I previously posted some photos of our new house that were from the original listing.  These are the REAL before photos.  Of the fixer upper project that is our new house. 

We'll start with this photo here of my brother, Gregory, who's painting our "antiqued" cabinets a clean, crisp white for us.

 Here's the living room - after screws have been extracted from the walls and some spackling has been done.  Also, you'll notice we tore down the ugly brown blinds.  This room will be painted a lovely "builders beige" - something neutral and easy.  Our contractor is knocking down the decorative white beams and we'll be putting up a ceiling fan (that Brian found at Costco today!) and getting new carpet in here, too.

 Here's the entry way and yes, it's getting painted.  Although mustard yellow / puce green have always been favorite colors of mine (not), we're going with the neutral "builder's beige" here, too.  The light fixtures will also get a good cleaning.

 Here's the big project (big as in we're paying someone to do it).  This is our master bedroom.  From the left to the right, you'll see the door to our master bedroom (opened), the door to the master bathroom, the linen closet we're having torn out to expand the shower that's being replaced (and if you look closely, you'll see the torn out bathtub/shower combo behind it), and our walk in closet.  What you cannot see in this photo is the texturing on the walls.  It's like extreme sand paper finish - if you were to trip and hit the wall, you'd surely have an injury.  It's so rough and ugly.  Our contractor is going to re-mud the walls for us and we'll be painting this room a lovely grey/blue color.  I think it will look great with our dark furniture and striped bedding.  We're also getting rid of the laminate flooring and replacing it with carpet.  Our stay here in SF has taught us that Riley and hardwood bedroom floors don't mix. 

 Here's a snapshot of our master bathroom - another "before shot" because this is being redone.  The mirror will stay.  The light fixture goes.  The vanity stays, but it's being raised up when the floor is redone.  We'll also be replacing the sink and countertop.

 Here's a before shot of the upstairs bathroom.  This one probably needs to be updated, but it's not in the cards for us yet.  We bought a new light fixture (thank you Clearance shelf at Lowe's!), a cute shower curtain that will go with the yellow-ish granite counter and disguise the not that great tile job in the shower.  This bathroom will also get a thorough cleaning and be squeaky clean.  We'll be replacing the mirror, as well - and the ugly towel bar.  Hoping to paint this an aqua color or a grey color.  We'll see!

 Here's the before shot of what will be our guest bedroom.  Previously inhabited by a young boy with an obsession with push pins.  We knocked down the chair railing and this room will be painted a lovely shade of green.  Also, expect new carpet in here, too.

 Here's the filthy room that will soon be our precious baby's nursery.  Soon, the ceiling will be a crisp, clean white and will sport a new white ceiling fan/light fixture.  The peach and orange walls will be painted a lovely shade of gender neutral green and the dirty carpets will be replaced.

 Here's my generous father-in-law who is our life saver with the work to be done on the house (you'll soon understand why in Blog Post #2).  He's cleaning all of the cabinets with a tough cleaner and getting them ready to be painted and lined.  He's also removed a ton of screws from walls, cleaned all the window sills, spackled, sanded, primed, etc.

That is our current update on the house - we picked up the keys on Saturday and the work has begun!  We have a long way to go, but we're confident the work will be done and we're excited to move in!