Painting the Nursery

Yesterday, Mark and I chose a color for the nursery. We went with Benjamin Moore's JetStream color because it matched the nursery decor we picked (Lambs and Ivy Goodnight Star). I helped washing and taping the walls but then Aunt Dana came to do the painting.

Mark and Dana did a fantastic job! The color looks great! Here they are, hard at work:



Mark will do a second coat today and will work on the trim this week. Then we will install the wallpaper boarder. Pictures to follow...

The Crib Saga

On Sunday, Mark and I spent a few hours at BuyBuyBaby (BBB) selecting a crib and a dresser/changer. The crib proved somewhat easier. We thought that the Sorelle Isabella in espresso looked great. The dresser/changer proved to be difficult because we needed to find something that would fit into the 48" nook that we have in the nursery. The Sorelle was too long at 51" as were a number of other options. Then there were the changers that were too small. We finally decided upon the Stanley Young America 4 Seasons in espresso that was just right at 45". We hoped that it would be close enough to the Sorelle's espresso color. We decided to sleep on it and on Monday morning, I placed the order - 6 weeks for the crib and 8 weeks for the dresser/changer - not bad. We were happy to be done or so we thought. On Tuesday night I received a voicemail asking me to call BBB and on Wednesday morning I called back. Apparently the Sorelle would be an extra 6 weeks. UH OH! Not good. That would mean we wouldn't get the crib until Mid December. I ended up cancelling the entire order as we decided we should start from square one.

On Wednesday and Thursday, I did some more research and went to a few other stores. Apparently 8 weeks seems to be the earliest you can get your furniture since most items are made in China or out of the US and those that are made in the US have long lead-times anyway. I also found out that the crib should be made of a hardwood rather than pine which can be consumed by the baby when they are teething.

So to make a long story short, I spent another 2 hours at BBB today re-placing our order. Mark and I decided to go with the 4 Seasons Contentment crib and dresser/changer from Stanley Young America in espresso. The quality seems good and while the lead time might be after the baby comes, a travel crib can provide help until it arrives. We also went with a glider and ottoman from Dutailier. DONE! Finally :) Here are pictures of the items we chose:

Crib and dresser:


Glider:

Susan and Mark to share gold medal for "Nesting"

Mark here. Wow, less than 100 days to go. Nine months seemed like an eternity at first, but now we're starting to realize how much we have left to do to prepare ourselves (and our apartment) for this new, little human being.

As little as they are, babies seem to come with many accessories and so we've been making room by cleaning (I believe the technical term is "nesting"). We had numerous boxes of "stuff" in the basement. Here is a sampling:

• Every single page of school notes from elementary school to college
• Every greeting card we ever received
• 6 boxes of books that are either no longer relevant or that we'll never have time to read
• VHS tapes - movies and home videos
• 3.5" disks
• 5.25" disks
• Iomega ZIP disks
• Old decorations we'll never use
• Ancient electronics like film cameras and cassette players

We've spent the last couple of months either scanning, digitizing, converting, donating, giving away, recycling, or trashing all of this stuff. After that, we completely reorganized our basement to make room for the inevitable overflow of toys, clothes and other baby accessories.

With the basement all cleaned up, our next step is to start cleaning out the office, which will become the nursery. We'll get rid of even more things and move a few things to the living room. Then, we'll paint the nursery and start buying some new baby furniture.

Phew! Who knew this baby thing could be such hard work?

It's (going to be) a...BOY!!!!

Today was the day for the fetal anatomy sonogram when we could find out if Giblet was a boy or girl. From the beginning of my pregnancy, I was convinced that Giblet was a boy but this would give us the answer (or so we hoped). Mark and I thought though that the baby might not cooperate and that it would be mooning us the entire time. But Giblet was very well behaved (for 97%) of the sonogram.
Our wait was short this time and the sonographer asked us if we wanted to know the sex. We answered "yes" and we got started. The sonographer started at the head and brain and she worked her way down, checking out the arms, hands, fingers (5 on both hands), stomach, umbilical cord, legs, feet, and toes (5 on both feet). I noticed something when the sonographer got to the legs and she mentioned that she saw the sex of the baby. I said, that I thought I saw too, that it was a boy. She said "you saw right." The baby's little bits n' pieces were as big as day on the screen.

"Censored for privacy :)"
The last part of the sonogram was to check the heart. The sonographer was able to get three of the four views but the left side proved impossible because the baby didn't want to turn over. She and the doctor on call checked the images and said everything looks good though.
Mark and I are really excited that the baby looks healthy. Now we get to start thinking of names, picking out blue items and starting to work on the nursery. But all that will wait until we return from our "babymoon" in Bermuda.
In the meantime, here is another picture of our beautiful baby boy.

Feeling the baby kick! (Susan)

Mark and I were just watching some TV this afternoon when I felt some twitches. I felt about 4 of them and I said Mark I'm feeling something weird. He put his hand on my stomach and felt one of the weird twitches too. We think it's the baby kicking or hiccuping. COOL!
The interesting thing is that when I look at info on the Internet, it seems like I'm feeling the baby earlier than normal. We can't wait to see what is growing in there in two weeks.

Third OB Appointment - June 13, 2008 (Susan)

It's Friday the 13th but that proved to be lucky for us today. There was almost no waiting to see Dr. V. for this morning's appointment and we had a great visit. Dr. V. gave us the results for the neural tube defect blood test. Everything came out well and there were no problems. I told her I had felt the baby moving around but not too much since last Friday. She said this was pretty normal since the baby is still small and it depends on how it's positioned. Then we all listened to the baby's heartbeat which was beating "strong" she said. All seems to be progressing well.
We have our fetal anatomy sonogram in two weeks and (fingers crossed) we'll find out the baby's sex. COOL!

Feeling the baby move! (Susan)

It's happened a few times already and today quite a bit. I'm feeling bubbles and they aren't air. It's the baby moving around! It started a few weeks ago and I wasn't completely sure but after the past few days, I would say this baby is quite active.