[week 36]

Well....time sure does fly. Yikes. 36 weeks! In the past two weeks I have tried to relax...but it has been busy!

My parents came out to visit and we pulled off some incredible projects. It was awesome to see my parents, and how blown away they were with their daughter being super pregnant. My dad brought out the finished spud box (that's what my dad calls the co-sleeper for our room) ... much more on that later. My mom and I made fitted sheets for the crib and spud box. The roller-curtains were installed in the spud room. Matt and my dad brewed a cora-red ale. Oh, and my mom and I loved the indulgent mani/pedi. It was a blast.

My wonderful girlfriends out here in Idaho threw me a build-a-library baby shower that was perfect. Matt and I haven't been to babys r us... or toys r us... or any r-us, it's not really us. We don't have a registry... we are doing a little more minimal approach of having a child, but we did really want kid books. So we are starting to grow a little spud library, and it's fantastic.

So, I take that back, we kind of have a registry. I made a wish list on amazon for our families to look at. It's super simple and great that it pulls from anything on the internet...like etsy or ikea. We didn't expect to get too many things from our wish list, but it was a great way for us to budget for all of the items we thought we wanted/ needed with an evolving list. Turns out our families rock, and we have been so fortunate to have been gifted most of our wish list items.

....And how am I feeling being 36 weeks and HUGE?!

I feel good and extremely exhausted with everything. My pelvis feels as though it could rip into two pieces at any moment. I think Cora has dropped a little, for walking is a HUGE feat. But these are good things, all progressing in the right downward trend. She is head-down, which is encouraging too, her little 5 pound self just flops her little bottom side to side in my belly 24-7. The kicking and punching seems to be inwards and targeted at my organs. And at the end of this week spud will be full term!! Yay Spud!

[week 34]

I made it. I made it through my final preceptorship/clinical without having a spud born! Hell yeah. That is a picture of my 34-week-pregnant-body exhausted, but we did it. This is the day I was looking forward to all semester.

And... my parents are coming to visit next week, which will be fantastic. Instead of having my clinical to go to I can just relish in being pregnant with them. We get to do a few spud-room projects, my mom and I can get a pedicure while my dad and matt make a spud-brew-batch to drink when Cora is born. It will be grand.

And... spring is in the air. We are starting to get a few warm days (ie. 50-60 degrees) and birds are chirping like crazy. It's fabulous. I just love it when those first little leaves start to pop on the trees. Soon. Soon Spud will be here. This spring time will be extra fantastic.

music in-utero.

[precious picture from here]

Well... we have been a little cognisant of the fact that little spud hears a muffled version of everything that we hear. Do I want her to hear us potentially yelling? negative tones? ugly music? screaming? Probably not. I want her to hear her dad's voice and my laughter following it. I want her to feel my endorphins pulsating through her tiny little veins and arteries when I speak of her arrival and mention her name. I want her to hear the dogs breathing on my belly and trying to talk to us about wanting bones, car rides, and endless love. I want her to hear only the best of music to start her eclectic open-mindedness now, in utero. I want everything to be cheery in her warm little world. Why not? This world is great. We will make her world great.

I read somewhere about how fetuses start to gain a musical taste in utero. That she doesn't have to come out wanting to hear barney songs... she may want to listen to a little bob dylan and devotchka instead. That would be nice for us. Matt and I have always *loved* andrew bird music. He is fantastic. I made that little spud movie at week 16 to andrew bird's song "You Woke Me Up." We listen to him camping, on road trips, in the house, even walking down the aisle at our wedding (we asked him for a version of our favorite song of his without words... they sent it to us...it was sensational). Anyways, what prompted this post was his newest album that I just can't turn off nor turn down low. This will definitely be playing during my labor. I hope with as many hours as we spend listening to it that she comes into this world wanting andrew-bird-style lullabies. That and being soothed by matt's guitar playing. That would be blissful.

My questions for spudlet...

-Can she hear music when I wear headphones?!
-Can she hear both sides of the conversation on a cell phone?
...Probably not. I like to think she is my little ESP friend. Everything I think, she can feel. But I am sure this is not the case. I've just never had anyone living and thriving in my belly before. It's a pretty grand connection we have, even if she can't read my mind.

a DIY dutch door.

[one dutch door and two goonies]

We have dogs...as I have mentioned before, now 2 big ones. We did the doggy-gate thing for awhile in our house until my legs just didn't want to clear the gate any longer. Something about having a belly and no abdominal muscle tone makes stepping over a gate tricky and rather unsafe. We like to keep the dogs out of our bedroom and now we want them to stay out of spud's room too. I was struggling with the idea of putting a gate up in front of spud's room when I really don't want to be stepping over it holding a precious baby. Yes, a dog-free zone is important but what a nuisance! We have an old house that has super narrow doorways, like 26". The fancy dog gates with the door that opens needs a modern sized doorway that is wide.... not tiny like ours. So, unfortunately those wouldn't work in our house.

[a cute one from pinterest]

So plan B?! Well...I tossed out the idea to matt that what if we made a dutch door? I thought he might laugh at my silliness, but instead he loved the idea. We researched how much a dutch door costs- upwards of $1,000. Ridiculous right, for a door...a nice door but still?! Oh...this is a dutch door, also known as a barn door, stable door, half door (pictured above). They are adorable. So... we thought...hey let's DIY a dutch door! That's perfect!! A little door to open and close with a doorknob when we want to enter spud's room. This will be a door that almost 100% stays closed to keep big dogs out and little Cora in. We can also close the top half when its time to sleep and want to keep the noise out of her room. Perfect.

[completed dutch door!]

Our steps to a DIY door...

1. We didn't want to cut the door in half that is already existing to Cora's room. We are renting our house, and it's just not nice to start cutting things in half that aren't yours.

[the old, very nice looking singular door]

2. Get an incredibly helpful dad to help with motivating to start a project and help with the logistics of completing a dutch door project. So, Matt and his dad went to a second-hand-construction store to find an old door that would kind-of fit in our doorway.

[matt, his dad, and even colby trying to help]

3. It took about 2 days for them to make the door fit. That was shocking. But nothing in our house is level or straight. Not the ground, not to ceiling and definitely not the doorway.

4. Two additional hinges were chiseled and attached to the door and frame. This is so that each 1/2 of the door has 2 hinges to swing on.

5. Once the door was custom fit to the doorway and hinges placed they measured a nice 1/2 way point to cut the door in half. The door was cut in half and then fine-tuned to fit yet again in the doorway now that the load was hanging differently on the 4 hinges.

[in progress]

6. The pre-existing old fashioned doorknob was placed on the door again.

7. Matt added a strip on wood to the top and bottom edge of the door interfacing. This made the door look nice, a little more of a finished look. It also made the door feel a little stronger and more durable. He also filled in that awful hole you see above where the preexisting door latch was.

[the strip being screwed in]

[ready to be painted]

8. We painted the door tailor's chalk white- the same color as the trim in the room.

9. This is an extra step that most people would want to make... add a latch to connect the top and bottom parts of the doors into one door. This would be helpful when trying to close the door in its entirety. We are skipping this step for now because we don't see ourselves shutting the top half of the door that often, and can't decide on a nice latch to connect the two. So, we will address this step in about 6 months when we need it.

10. Marvel over the 1/2 door invention, and love it.....DIY dutch door complete!

[week 33]

Ahhh... week 33.  This week (actually right this second) matt and I are in a lamaze class. Lets all hope I am gaining the courage to do this naturally. As you all may know I have been on a Labor and Delivery Unit doing my last clinical rotation as a nursing student. Let me tell you this has been unbelievable and eye opening. I have been doing two night shifts a week, and I feel like a real nurse... it's phenomenal.

A few things I have learned from fellow pregnant ladies aka-my laboring patients-

• birthing is tough. there is no way around it. baby must come out.
• an epidural looks like a dream, I was hoping this wouldn't be the case...but come on. Its crazy to think you elect to have a baby naturally... all of the pain. Women are amazing.
• knowing how to read fetal monitoring/contractions will freak the hell of me when I deliver. 
• I now know too much to be clueless 
• when baby doesn't line up perfectly it makes delivering about 500 times worse, as though that even possible.
• screaming women have every right to be in pain...they are giving birth to a child. Nothing compares. 
• C-sections look like an easier route, but just don't look behind the blue curtain. It's a massive abdominal surgery that you're awake for. It's no wonder these ladies are sore afterwards.
• Vacuum assisted babies are sometimes a necessary means to an end. All the goofy swelling goes down within 24 hours and they have infant beanies for a reason.
• some women are so pleasant during contractions to their husbands, it's unbelievable... I just hope I am one of them.
• IVs, fetal monitoring, oxygen- they all have a purpose when shit hits the fan.
• A 9 pound baby is HUGE...actually quite a difference from a 6 pounder. I was 11 pounds when I was born, and I believe my sister was too... al' natural. HOLY COW. Go mom.
• A baby being born is phenomenal. Period. Taking its first breath of fresh air... welcomed into the world. I love it. I'm hooked. I can't wait for my turn.

My walk away message from my clinical so far-

I want a healthy baby. That's my birthing plan. Whatever is necessary I will trust my midwife/nurse/OB/anesthetist to do what they feel is safe. 

next month...

So... FYI...we are having a baby next month.

NEXT MONTH!!! Ahhh!!!

That's all.

Best news ever for this first week of March 2012 in our little house.

a little splurge here and there.

[my disappearing pink pedicured toes]

There are a few things during this pregnancy that I have splurged on and loved every second of it.

1. pedicures. Even when I could reach my feet (which I can't now) I justified that it was the perfect amount of pampering I needed. So once a month I get one. It's amazing. I love that time.

2. prenatal massages. I have had about 3 of them. I like them...I will probably get another. But I like really deep tissue massage- something they are hesitant to do on a pregnant lady. So I feel like they are not as satisfying as pre-pregnancy. However, my next one I will be trying is a hot stone massage... I can't wait. Regardless.... laying on your belly is amazing on their special beds. I feel like Cora has the most optimal blood flow possible. It's her time to really develop her little meninges. My hospital that I will be delivering at gives all new moms a *complementary* massage. Sure, I know I'm paying a few thousand for it in reality...but I am really looking forward to this massage. It will be well deserved.

3. eating. I eat a lot. I justified eating anything that would calm my stomach in the first trimester. And now...I just eat every 1-2 hours. Seriously. I try to get all my nutrients in, but I still eat unhealthy things too. I am trying not to be too hard on myself and enjoy the ride. Because if I eat, don't eat, or over eat I still feel bloated...so I eat!

4. buying a comfy couch. I have hated our couch for years. Really and truly hated it... I have no idea why we kept on getting uncomfortable couches. I hadn't realized that we could buy a comfy couch just like our parents have-where you sit in it and immediately feel cozy. Well we did it- we bought a cozy couch. I love it. We justified this purchase due to the countless hours I hope to be breastfeeding and sitting a lot on the couch with little Cora. It's microfiber, which is fine... not as good as leather for the dog hair or soon to be spit-ups. But it's warm and comforting and worth it. It even has a chaise part on it too that I love.

a couple of DIY OSB tables.

A few weeks back we joined the 21st century and bought a TV. It's a pretty big deal for us. We had an old fashioned monster-of-a-TV we kept upstairs... that we had our dvd player hooked up to... but we never used it. We liked to watch hulu or netflix shows, but our TV was too old to hook our computers up to. Anyways, we splurged a little and bought a flat screen. It is wildly exciting to be able to watch our netflix movies on a "big" screen. It's only 32" but to us it feels like a movie theater screen. We now had a little bit of a dilemma... what do we put our TV on?!

[old couch set-up with matt's large and beautiful coffee table...and the ol' chewy popping up in our pictures yet again]

Part two of this dilemma was...we moved our living room/couch set-up to another room...a smaller cozier room that needed a smaller coffee table too. Matt had built us an exquisit coffee table when we first met, but unfortunately it was too big for our TV/couch room now. We also were looking for a coffee table that had a little shelf to stash our computers underneath when we weren't using them. So now we not only needed an entertainment table but also a coffee table.

We shopped a TON and were rather dissatisfied with what we were finding within our budget in our small city. So we decided, what the heck, we could build our own tables!

We know that we LOVE our pipe patio table that we made and knew we could replicate that somehow.

We also are suckers for OSB (oriented strand board). We even have this tree artwork in our bedroom that we made from OSB a few years back.

For this project we bought:

• 1 1/8" thick OSB sheet
• 4 black iron pipes
• 2 flanges (connect the pipe to the underside of the board)
• 2 couplings (junctions between the pipe pieces for style)
• 2 reducers (feet)
• 2 brackets (to mount the table to the wall for just in case when Cora is mobile)
• hairpin legs for coffee table (old table from an antique store)
• 2 cans of spray polyurethane

Total cost of the supplies for the two tables: $90
(we also already had an orbital sander & router which were crucial)

The antique table we found for $20 had beat up boards on it, so we removed the boards and up-cycled the legs! The table top happened to have a lazy-susan feature, which is nice and quirky. So the table top spins if you want to rotate it.

[oh geez. make-shift entertainment stand]

So, with that matt started to make our dream tables. We wanted one continuous line for the TV and huge swiss-cheese plant to sit on. Unlike the picture above... so very staggered for such a small wall. The 1 1/8" thickness of the OSB was perfect to be sturdy, look industrial but also give us the edge we wanted. And we thought the coffee table would compliment the pipe-OSB table nicely.

[what OSB looks like after cutting... raw for indoor furniture]

 [matt doing a practice-routing for me to evaluate]

[all of the pieces sanded and ready to be polyurethaned]

[the routered edge without urethane on it yet...so very pretty, almost wood-grain-esq]

We are in love with our tables. They just fit our style. We have so many different types of wood in our house, so the OSB with its little flecks of different colored wood was perfect. The only issue we have with our minimal-industrial table is that there is no hiding the cords or sub woofer. Matt grouped the cords with zip ties and a hook on the underside of the table... but other than that we still see them. I will continue to peruse pinterest for a wire solution.

[our new cozy couch set-up]

[cute skinny pipe leg]

[finished edges, the urethane just makes it pop]

Ta-dah! A couple of DIY OSB tables done! I guess we are still capable of squeezing in projects here and there.

[week 32]

I'm 8 months pregnant!!! 32 weeks, just incredible. So this past week with my pregnancy I have had a few adjustments...

• I said goodbye to my ankles... and hello lovely cankles! 
• Edema is slowly but surely consuming me. Some days it's worse than others, something about eating tortilla chips and mexican food makes me swell?! Weird. I'll have to do more research on that one.
• I no longer wear my wedding rings. I used to have 3 bands that I absolutely loved wearing, but now I just wear one of them. It's simple, sweet, and fits a TON better. I don't feel like I have sausage fingers as much.
• Contractions are coming and going randomly. I have braxton hicks I believe. They are uncomfortable, not painful... but primarily a what-the-heck, I have a TON to get done before spud comes. I sure hope she waits, for the both of our good. 
• Sleeping is tricky.
• Bending over is near impossible. If something falls on the ground, it no longer exists in my world. 
• Energy level is plummeting... thanks to matt helping life still goes on though.

4 year anniversary!

[Matt and I hiking during our first few weeks together dating... I thought it was hilarious at the time that I looked pregnant with my mittens stuck in my jacket...oh what a thought of where we would be just 4 little years later]

Matt and I celebrated our 4th anniversary this February 20th. Four years ago we met at a sushi restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. It was love at first sight, literally. Super cheesy, I know. So this day is huge for us... and we celebrated it. We went out to sushi, like every other year. The only difference...this year I had cooked, not raw, sushi.

It feels like we've done a lot, and been together forever. I hardly remember life without him... but seriously only 4 years? In 4 years we have lived in 3 states together... returned to college... got married....and now expecting a baby. What a fantastic 4 years.

[week 31]

[My big belly is winning now... yay!!]

So I completely missed the 29 and 30 week picture... not too shocking considering our lives right now. But today I am 31 weeks... 31!! Unbelievable. I know, I can't always say each week is unbelievable but it truly feels that way. I keep looking at my huge profile when I walk by mirrors... holy cow (literally) this is me pregnant. I had been wondering what I would look like pregnant... would I show or just look huge? would my belly be high or low? would I enjoy pregnancy or be miserable with overwhelming symptoms? would our first be a boy or girl? So now I know some answers to a handful of questions... about 500,000 remaining.

[from babycenter.... cute little scrunched-up spud doing tons of summersaults]

At 31 weeks in-utero spud is potentially...

• 3.3 lbs!!... spud grows a 1/2 a pound a week now
• 16 inches long
• she is packing on the fat now, just like me!
• spud's brain is getting wrinkly with smart little meninges... tons of brain development
• spud is making her own blood cells in her bone marrow now...I feel like she's already growing up and moving on... my bone marrow is old news

and then there were 2 goonies...

[chewy gazing off into the wilderness... the great unknown. When we took this picture last summer we knew he could see things we couldn't... the next life? dog spirits frolicking in the hills? Turns out this was Chewy's last camping excursion, one of the best ones.]

This week has been a tough one for us... we lost a dear friend, Chewy. He was our third goonie...a dog that made our little house feel complete and calm. He passed this week at the grand old age of 13, not bad for the big guy. He had stopped eating in the past week so we had sensed that he was trying to tell us something...but he was still so happy we just couldn't put him down. Then, he passed on his own without a struggle in matt's arms. This was a dog that had been matt's for the 13 years... not just a dog, a true best friend. He came into my life about 4 years ago and I knew that his passing would be a rough one for both of us. He was a perfect dog and he will be missed greatly. Perhaps he is making room for our new addition. We only wish he could have met her. 

Now I promise to post happy things.

 Not busy schedules, not cancer, not death... 

Now we focus on happy life and cherish it...
The head-out-of-the-window type of happiness.

skin cancer of sorts.

[here]

I usually like to focus on happy things, life is too short to be bummed... but something keeps on reoccurring. Skin cancer. I don't care for it...and I also don't care for the keloid scars I get. I do like however to be cancer free after the dermatologist takes some stabs-- so that's positive! My mom has a history of melanoma (a skin cancer on moles)...so my sister and I have always been on the lookout for them. We go to the dermatologist frequently and get moles removed just in case. About 2 years ago, before my wedding I had a mole removed on my thigh that turned out to be melanoma. It was shocking. I couldn't believe the call, that as a 26 year old I had skin cancer?! I was just getting life going excited about the future not thinking about skin cancer. So I had a big ol' chunk removed from my leg... and away went the cancer. Wahoo!

Well, now I go to the dermatologist every 3 months to get my moles looked at and since then I have had two more pre-skin-cancer-ridden moles in the past couple years. And just by a fluke when I scar it becomes keloid (ie. not pretty...big pink bumpy... not a sexy fun scar). So, before excitedly birthing my first child...I have another pre-skin-cancer mole that was removed last week. But we caught it early... it wasn't a melanoma yet! Which is fantastic news. Part two is this upcoming week when I need to return to the dermatologist to get an additional chunk of tissue removed even deeper to get a clear border...then he will suture it up. But the bummer is it happens to be on my boob. Yup. Boob. I said it. Seriously...of all locations right now when I need to have a little life gain sustenance from those jugs? Close and very scary call. And not to mention it's not a fun place to have an incision with all the stretching. But it could have been worse!

So... ladies... go to the dermatologist!! Better to be alive with scars than not alive at all (that's what matt tells me all the time when I complain about my scars).

And that concludes my soap box.

last semester ever.

[my first day of my last clinical in the spud room with a content little spud brewing]

I just want to share my excitement with all of you...this is my last semester of college...ever. I am beyond thrilled. This being my last semester of nursing school, it means that I will be a nurse soon. I have been working so hard at this, that I can't wait to just be working full time. Going to school full time and working full time is exhausting. Oh yeah, then throw pregnancy in there. I asked for all of it, it was my choice...but seriously. I. am. exhausted. I can't help but smile each time I think about graduating. 

[my grandma's nursing pin- her name is even engraved in the back how amazing is that?! in the top it says "non nobis solum" which means not for us, but for everyone... that people should contribute to the general greater good of humanity, apart from their own interests... pretty wonderful]

I don't actually think I will go to my graduation...they aren't all that special to me (I've already graduated college once before mind you- it wasn't too moving, although my sister's graduation I felt was perfectly tailored for me, in the audience, and I was balling throughout the whole thing). However, my pinning ceremony is a little more unique. Nurses get "pinned" as a sign of leaving the student realm and becoming a colleague. What makes it even more special is that right before my grandma passed away she gave me her pin, from 1939. Crazy right? She went to nursing school in Tacoma, Washington forever ago. It was a huge deal for her to pass it on to me (my little sister is already an RN and becoming a nurse practitioner this May also...talk about over-achiever, a real one-upper...I'm so proud of her). Anyways, I feel obligated to go to my pinning ceremony to honor my grandma's legacy and my future. We will have spud that will be only a couple of weeks old though, perhaps we can bring a gallon of hand sanitizer with us. That's reasonable right?

So here is my timeline of the upcoming months in case you're wondering where I'm at:

January 

 Yay! 3rd trimester begins!

 start up last semester of school

-this month DONE!-

February

start applying for nursing jobs

most intense clinical/preceptor days on labor and delivery unit. Super exciting, I get to pretend to be a nurse!

two nights a week of 12 hour clinicals, then three days a week of working 12 hours, and one day of class. Yikes. Is that even possible being huge?! I guess it has to be.

March

 ditto from February, if I can make it through

take some fun birthing classes

April

Spud is due!!!

maternity leave from work 

still in class, preceptorship completed

family visiting

May

finals, pinning ceremony, & graduate

matt on summer break from school

study for the NCLEX

family visiting

oh yeah and have a newborn

June

take NLCEX

get my first job as a nurse!

July

just work full time

and

be a mom full time

Yay!! It will be amazing.

a busy final semester.

[umm... quite possibly the cutest galoshes my sister bought for Cora, sitting on top of a precious little chair- a dumpster find by my wonderful husband]

Oh blog world how I miss you...

Things over here are busy, just as we expected this spring 2012 semester. I wish I could spend hours getting lost on pinterest or browsing all of your beautiful blogs. But alas... school is trumping all. This is my final semester of nursing school, which is heavy in nursing clinicals. Actually primarily one nursing clinical- my final preceptorship where I am on a labor and delivery floor with one nurse for a couple 12 hour shifts a week. It's utterly fantastic and unfortunately exhausting to keep up with my weekly schedule. I feel the third trimester a little more now with difficulty sleeping and a little less energy. But this too was expected for expecting.

What I wish I could be doing...
-shopping for cute spud outfits
-finishing spud room
-finding daily inspirations on pinterest
-catching up on lovely blogs
-taking pictures of our ever-changing life that I love
-sending little hello notes to my friends
-visiting said friends that I miss so
-dreaming of Cora, boise summertime, camping, and a relaxing life yet again

What takes a priority instead...
-finishing my resume
-writing a cover letter
-applying to nursing jobs
-going to class
-going to preceptorship clinical
-homework... papers... projects
-working full time still

[handy husband with his new nerdy/emo glasses]

Luckily I have an utterly supportive husband who does the dishes, the laundry, cooks dinner, and loves our dogs. He is fantastic...I wouldn't be sane without him keeping our lives together. Also, at work we have a little lullaby that plays over the hospital's speaker system each time a baby is born. Now when I hear it I get inspired to keep on chugging. This craziness is only temporary. Soon that little lullaby will be mine. I will have my sweet little spud AND maternity leave AND summer will be rather near... yay!!!

[week 28]

[colby yawning at this whole weekly picture business]

So now that people can tell I am pregnant they ask how far along I am. I realized that the rest of the world does not live in weeks as I do. Perhaps I am alone in the world of "week-counting" just me....the newborns... and the occasional dieter. People do not know that 28 weeks is a HUGE deal. Heck even 8 weeks was a GIGANTIC deal. But that it is out of 40 weeks total... which is 10 months. Very confusing. I am even confusing myself right now. So now I do the math in my head real quick to give the general public a normal answer... 7 months! I'm 7 months pregnant!! Sweet.

Other big news:

My belly button is getting adorable. It's flattening! It even looks like a little frowney face. I always wanted a flat belly button. Who knew it would take 30+ pounds to do so. I also *hope* it turns to an outtie. Wouldn't that be fun?

Yup. That's all the news folks.