Can Life Get Any Busier?

So 3 weeks and 2 days till my official due date.  However I'm sure baby will come late and I am fine with that.  I feel like there are so many things to do before she comes...but in all reality I guess I can still do some stuff after she is here.  To add to the unexpected Chris is going to have surgery on his thumb next week and be out of work for a while...so that adds a nice stress to things.  I have spent all morning on the phone making doctor's appointments, scheduling Chris's surgery, pre-registering at the hospital, and trying to figure out short term disability crap for Chris.  Sucky...It's 12:39 pm and I am still in my pajama's, of course I slept-in till 10 am.  Okay, need to get busy around the house so I am just going to fill the rest of this post with pictures.

Me in my 35 week glory.  27 lbs heavier than pre-pregnancy.

Our new/used patio furniture Chris got off KSL for $120.

 Baby's crib I assembled myself complete with a hand crocheted "Mimi" from my mother hanging over the crib rail.  I need to get a mattress pad before I can put sheets on her matress.  "Mimi" is the name of my crocheted baby blanket that I admittedly slept with till age 26 :) Apparently I have no shame in admitting that.

Ikea dresser that took way longer to assemble than anticipated.

 My parent's old rocking chair...pretty sure it's at least 30 years old and looks dwarfed in that corner all alone.  Hanging over the back is a hand knitted blanket from Chris's mother.  Also check out the new paint...no too crazy but new paint looks so nice.  Obviously I need to hang something on those barren walls.  We'll see if I get that far before Chloe arrives.

 Blessing dress...still needs pleats and lace added to the bottom of the skirt.  Hopefully I can finish that in the next week or so.

 Just an upclose photo of the boddice, don't look too closely at my mistakes :)  Simple cute I think.

Progress on Baby's Dress

Thanks to my sister in law I may not have to do laundry for the first 3 months of Chloe's life.

Seriously!!  I think I have more than 45 newborn onsies.  But a thank you to everyone who gave us a few new things...nice to have somethings that aren't hand-me-downs.  After 3 months...we're a little lacking in the clothes department.  Perhaps I'll have to make another trip to California and get another "shipment" as baby Zia outgrows her clothes.

I was getting overwhelmed by the amount of projects I would like to finish before Chloe comes.  I tried to simplify my life and give up on painting the baby's room but Chris insisted.  So here we are prepping the room for a fresh coat of paint.

All taped off.

And Ta-Da...the one sleeved top half of Chloe's blessing dress.  Making  a ruffled baby sleeve and then sewing it into a miniature arm hole on the bodice of the dress was probably the hardest thing I have ever done.  Ugh...one sleeve down, one more to go.  Don't be too impressed or anything :)  And yes the bodice is complete with lining...kinda sewed the lining on backwards...but I've got to have a few errors my first go around, isn't really a big deal.  As I broke down yesterday overwhelmed with hormones and projects Chris suggested I have my mom finish the dress for me!  I was insulted, it's about senimental value sweetheart.  Besides, I need a few more gray hairs before my first baby right?

A few updates.  I am too lazy to take a picture of my growing stomach every week...I decided every 5 weeks was manageable.  I have a few inbetween  weeks from events.  The weight gain seems to be sporadic but balancing itself out.  For instance from 20 weeks to 24 weeks I gained a whopping 7 lbs.  But from 24 weeks to 28 weeks I only gained 3 lbs.

25 weeks 

27 weeks on my birthday/mother's day

Chris suprised me with tickets to the Celine Dion concert in Vegas...kind of a last hooray before baby comes.  It was a ton of fun.

Here is the beginning's of the blessing dress for Chloe.  I am actually a bit further than this but haven't taken updated photos of the dress.  This is the bodice piece.  I'm learning all sorts of fancy stuff like understiching the lining of the neck hole.  Her baby blanket has yet to be started...oops.  I was working on an identical style of blanket for my friend Steph who just had a baby and haven't had time to start one for Chloe.  Think I bit off more than I could chew/sew :)

30 Weeks and a few days, officially 22lb weight gain at this point...I actually put on make-up at 10:30pm right before bed to take this picture bc I just hadn't made time all week and didn't want to miss week 30 before it was over.

Celine Dion Concert in Vegas

Brunch from Mesa Grill at Ceasar's palace in Vegas...one of Bobby Flay's restaurants!  Chris and I, (mostly Chris) is obsessed with Bobby.

Chris at Mesa Grill...Blue Corn Waffle with Blackberry Burbon Syrup and Creme Fresh!

Father's Day Master Piece,  Grilled Halibut in a Grilled Corn Curry Sauce with a Tomato Chutney on top...another Bobby Flay recipe.  Chris grilled the fish but I prepped everything else for his father's day meal.

Delicious Fruit Salad...sorry I am definitely one of those people who likes to take pictures of food.

Chris and my Bro-in-Law Matt on Father's Day.  Love nothing more than eating outside on the deck during the summer months.

So all in all I am still feeling pretty well.  I have finally taken up swimming because walking around the park makes my feet swollen and ache.  I literally had to buy the largest size speedo that Big 5 Sport's sells in stores!  Yes, I am quite the spectacle at the pool but I have been consistently been making myself swim a mile a few times a week at the pool.  

Other things people don't warn you about...hernia's of pregnancy!

Maybe two weeks ago I started having pain around my belly button, not sharp excruciating pain...just felt like a really bad bruise.  I keep thinking to myself, "What could this be?  It's like I'm bruised from the inside."  Finally I thought about it from with my nurses hat on and said hmmm...I probably have herniated my intestines through my thinning abdominal wall.  Sure enough I could palpate a distinguishable lump above my belly button and started freaking out.  I basically thought I would continue to herniate my bowel from now until I had the baby and would have to either need an emergency C-Section at the time of birth or be rushed into surgery after giving vaginal birth.  I was histerical and crying...(I'm blaming the pregnancy hormones just a bit here).  Didn't help that the on-call nurse midwife took almost 2 hours to call me back because she forgot she had silenced her pager.  

Well...turns out it's really a common thing.  The midwife said there is no way to know if it is bowel or just my muscles being pulled a part and part of my uterus pushing through...but assured me it was harmless.  Then come to find out my mom said she had one with all her babies and gave vaginal birth just fine.  My sister also had one...thanks for the heads up people! JK...pregnancy...kinda rough.

Spring Cleaning May Commence!

Hurray!!  The basement is pretty much done except for some very minor things.  Here are some pics of the flood and then some after pics.  I was mostly taking the before and after pictures for my mom...who already knows what the original basement looked like, so they aren't the best if you have never seen the basement before.  Apologies.  We also got the air ducts cleaned this week too so now I can officially start dusting without worrying about all my hard work being undone in a day or two.

This one is before the demolition started.  You can see the ceiling is saturated, it was literally raining in the basement.    History of the Flood:  A pipe feeding the kitchen sink froze and then busted just below the the main floor level back in January.  More than 200 gallons of water were pumped out of the basement.

Here is Utah Flood and Fire at work...you can see all of the carpet was trashed and several of the walls and most of the ceiling had to be ripped out.

This section was directly below the kitchen sink...it took almost 2 weeks to dry it out, and that was with about 30 industrial sized fans in the basement.  Yeah, our power and water bill were a little outrageous for January.

Here you can see they are busy ripping out the ceiling.  You will notice the basement is not very open.  When the house was originally remodeled...some major short cuts were taken.  As we started the remodeling process we found out why, there is a main sewer pipe running right down the middle of the room.  Instead of jack-hammering and re-pouring the foundation to move the pipe, the guys trying to flip the home just built around them.  So the room was all funky and broken up with a closet and nook jutting out into the middle of the room.

This is horrible shot of the bathroom...but it was built as a shower for two.  We're not sure what went on in that bathroom before we moved in??  Don't want to know.  But the shower took up about 60 percent of the bathroom, there was no counter or cabinets...just 1 huge shower with an itty bitty sink and toilet.  Not very functional.

Here is an after pic of the laundry room.  Nice level tile floor.  Before it was concrete that was majorly sloped.

New paint, walls, ceiling, carpet, and a look how nice and open.  No more sewer main running into the middle of the room.  Ignore the huge tarp I laid out to make a stack of all the linens that needed washing.

Functional, beautiful bathroom.  The bathroom still needs a mirror of above the sink but there is actually a counter top, cabinets, and a window in the bathroom now.  

Oh, PS...we finally made the plunge and bought a car!  No more 1994, smurf blue, manual Ford Escort, 190,000 miles, with no air conditioning.  No more expensive car repairs every 3 months.  No more rental cars for driving excursions outside a 45 mile radius.  No more 1997, green Jetta, with no functional heater...etc.  Just a shiny, pearl white, 2013 Subaru Outback parked in our driveway.  Oh, and a car payment :(  Getting use to being a 1 car family will take some time but luckily we live really close to work and have a bus pass.

Here is Chris showing off the trunk space.  Large enough for a 6'1", 180 lb man plus some.  Oh and the next two pictures are just for fun.  I am wondering what baby Chloe will look like?  We have pretty much decided to name her Chloe.  Here are pictures of Chris and I around the same age.  Maybe 5 or 6 yrs old?  Chris's parents seem to have misplaced his baby book, so this is the youngest picture I have ever seen of him.  I'm sure it will turn up some day.  But in the meantime enjoy.

And yes...no need to remind me that I haven't aged a day since I was 5 yrs old.  I am reminded of this fact all the time :)  Same little button nose...my adult nose decided not to grow in.  Also gotta love sponge curlers right!  Hated sleeping in those things.

And what to say about Chris...he's adorable!

April Update

This post is going to be all sorts of random...just stuff we've been up to.  We took my parents on a mini vacation down to St. George and Zion's National Park last week.  My mom's compulsive nature to work compels her to clean, cook, garden, re-caulk the sinks, paint the base boards, etc...whenever she visits.  So we decided it best that she spend her vacation time away from the Salt Lake House while she visited.  It was a great idea and my mom really enjoyed it.  

Here we are at the top of Angel's Landing.  PS- I have done this hike 4 times now and NEVER EVER EVER have run into such a crowd of people climbing to the top, do not hike this during spring break.  For those Everest obsessed like I, you will catch my drift when I said, "It looks like the freakin Hilary Step up there"!  I was really proud of my mom for climbing despite her fear of heights, my dad for making it to the tops despite his old man knee's, altitude sickness, and out of "shapeness", and me for making it to the top being 21 weeks pregnant.  I am also proud of Chris but we all knew he would have no trouble.  

This is really not doing justice to how HUGE I have gotten...but it would be highly inappropriate to post a picture of me getting out of the shower.  That's a horrifying site.

We were reminded the drop off the top is 1400 vertical feet!  So awesome.

My mom definitely made the most of our 1 day in Zion's National Park...she was bound and determined to do as much hiking as possible.  My mom and Chris hiked 4 different hikes for a total of 9.5 miles.  I tagged along for 3 of the 4 hikes for 8.5 miles until my feet would have no more.  My dad did 2 of the 4 hikes for a total of 7.5 miles.

In other news we will try our hand at gardening again, we have not had much success in the past.  I meant to start all these little seeds back in March but didn't get to it until this week.  Here what we hope to grow

Chives

Sweet Basil

Lemon Basil

Egg Plant

Cherry Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes

Better Boy Tomatoes

Parsley

and

Bell Peppers

And finally...how I spent my time off this week.  I was naively thinking I would be able to relax and spend my time off working on a baby blanket.  Instead we were informed by the contractor that the whole upstairs and downstairs would be carpeted the very next day (we thought they would be done on separate days).  Thus I spent my whole weekend moving boxes out to the deck and into the only livable space in the house (the kitchen and living room)...rendering them un-livable...and then frantically moving them back inside the next day before it rained and we had to go back to work.  Not sure if that made sense but it was sucky.

the pile of boxes we moved out to the deck and covered over night with a tarp

the kitchen...we ended up getting pizza for dinner

what use to be the only place to sit down in the house

So my plans for Spring cleaning this month have not even begun.  Looks like it will be pushed back until May.  Construction sucks.

20 Week Dr. Appointment

Wow...posting on my blog twice in 1 week, I must be really board :)  In reality I am really board.  Chris is at work and I am preparing for four 12 hour night shifts in a row.  That is 48+ hours I will put in by Wednesday at 7am...UGH.  Not looking forward to it.

We had our 20 week midwife appointment this week.  I have gained 9 lbs so far.  My goal was not to tip the scale past 10 lbs.  I haven't been dieting or anything, just crossing my fingers.  Pretty sure I even did the victory fist pump when I stepped off the scale.

We were also hoping to get our little lady checked out on ultra-sound.  However that didn't happen.  It was mostly a shame on us as parents type situation.  I realized we have not been into the office in 8 weeks!  Oops.  At our last appointment, (which we never made) they would have given us a script for an ultra-sound, but since we never came in...that never happened.  Everyone kept asking us, "Why haven't you been in for 8 weeks"?  Well, what it boils down to is... I have no good reason...I just never made an appointment.  I have been preoccupied with recovering from the cruize, construction at the house, and getting back into the swing of work.  I didn't mention the that I felt my last appointment was relatively useless.  Did I just say that?  Oops again.

Not sure what I was expecting from these appointments but seriously last time we were there the CNA student took my weight and blood pressure (don't worry, Chris and I had to help her figure out how to use the blood pressure cuff).  The midwife then asked me if I had any concerns and palpated my stomach for 2 seconds to find the fundal height.  That was it!  I'm sure that is what my patients feel like at the hospital..."Useless nurse, you took my temperature and palpated my pulses...big deal!"  :)

JK, kinda.  I know it's important stuff but also relatively simple...unless there is actually a problem.  I promise not to miss any more appoinments, mostly bc my motherly guilt is kicking in.  It was nice to hear baby girl's heart beat, just kinda make sure she is alive in there.  I'm pretty good at distinguishing her little movements now but they are remarkable close to grumbling intestinal peristalsis.

20 weeks

We finally took our first "here is my baby bumb" picture.  I decided even if I feel like a fat cow we would some day want to look back at the progression of my tummy.  Since there are about 3 people who look at this blog it was a safer place to post than facebook.  Enjoy.

I have also bought fabric for our little girl's baby blanket and have in my posession a pattern for a blessing dress.   I seriously struggle with decisions so I am pretty happy to be done picking out fabric.  However, after looking over the pattern for the dress I am feeling in over my head...dont understand 90% of the instructions.  But we shall see what happens.

Goals:  No new goals right now...need to work on the sewing projects.  Also the construction mess we have been living in for the past 2 months is almost over so my goal for April is spring cleaning (our house flooded back in January... like BAD).  It's going to take me the whole month to get the house back in order, quite literally, but I am looking forward to a dust free environment, multiple trips to DI, and organized closet spaces :)