House Tour- downstairs

So, I realize I said, oh, about a year ago, that I would post photos of the inside of the house... and I never did. If you have been waiting and waiting for that day to come, you are in luck, my friend. At least sort of. I snapped some quick photos of downstairs before our bbq/shower the other weekend. I totally broke all the cardinal rules of home photography. I used a flash, the lights are on (it was pretty dark and dreary outside, so natural lighting was not working), and I did not style anything... It is definitely set up for the shower- with random extra seats in the living room, onesie decorating set up in the dining room, and tables set up for buffet style grub in the kitchen. But, you know, you at least get an idea of what our house looks like. Also, I only took pictures of the 4 main rooms: the foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen. I did not take any pictures of the guest bathroom, Bill's office, or awkwardly large hallway (some day I would like to combine the weird hallway with Bill's office to make a family room/media room type thing. Some day.)

Our first stop is the foyer. You can see the main entrance to the house along with the little entryway (with a bench seat) in the bottom photo. You can also see our coat/shoe closet to the left. When we bought the house  this room was already yellow. We like the color. It is very low on our priority list of rooms to paint. It definitely could use some touch ups and plaster work, but, like I said, we like the color so it stays.

Next stop is the living room. The first photo is looking in from the foyer, the second is from the dining room. This room is top priority on the painting list. The beige overload is killing me. We have the colors all picked out (a muted turquoise for the below the picture molding and a light version for above the molding and the ceiling). Only issue is, we need the plaster (yep, lots of our walls are good old lathe and plaster) repaired before we can paint. There is damage on the ceiling from an old water leak (from before we bought the place) and there are various cracks and holes that need to be fixed.

And, now we come to the dining room. In the top photo you can see the door on the left leading to the kitchen and the door on the right leading to the weird hallway. The second photo is looking to the living room. You can see part of the framework for the giant pocket doors that can separate the dining room from the living room. Like I said before the dining room is all set up for onesie crafting, not so much dining.

Last up is our kitchen. The kitchen was an add on. From what we can tell is was originally a galley kitchen that took up the area of the funny hallway and maybe 1/4 of the current kitchen. The first photo is from the doorway to the dining room, the second is from the back door. I hate the red walls. Hate. And, if you'll notice we have no drawer or cabinet pulls. There is a lot I would like to do to this kitchen. A lot. The space is really big, but the layout is really poor. This project will wind up being such a big one that I think it will probably be years until we actually get around to fixing it up.

That, my friends, is (most of) the downstairs of our house.

37 Weeks

Full term! Wah-hoo! We are all registered at the Birthing Inn. And... here is the most exciting part: I am now on leave! Yay! So far the best part of leave is being able to take naps in the middle of the day. It is a glorious thing, I am telling you. My last day was Thursday and we had a little going away party in my class. My students decided it was my 4th baby shower and they were very excited since they got to go to this one. They didn't think it was quite fair that they were not allowed to attend the work baby shower. It was a very nice way to end our time together.

Actually, since it it Memorial day weekend my leave has not yet officially started, since school is out anyway. But, tomorrow, the kids will all go back to school and I will stay at home. Well, I actually will need to go in after school to drop off a few things for the sub, but you know, whatever. Also, in exciting maternity leave news- I have been approved to take a full year leave of absence. So I will be a SAHM for the next school year. Even though I am now on leave, I am not quite done with work. I still have to complete the end of year report cards. Judah and I have a deal- he is not going to arrive until after I have finished report cards. Good deal, right? I should really get on that report card thing then, because he could come at any time...

That being said, I still have yet to experience any Braxton-Hicks contractions. I have had lots of dreams about having contractions, my water breaking, and general going into labor stuff... Every now and then I think maybe I am having a contraction, but then I realize it is just Judah changing position (so there is pressure in just one area not across my whole uterus) or it is just that I have to poop (because contractions are said to kinda feel like period cramps, so you know...).

We had our 36 week ultrasound the other week to check size and position. Everything looks good. He is right where he should be. He looked to be about 6 lbs, and they said to anticipate an 8lb baby at birth. Of course, ultrasounds are not super accurate on weight, so give or take a pound. He continues to be very responsive to getting poked and prodded, which is a good thing. Being able to raise and lower his heartbeat shows that he should be able to handle the stress of being born well. Way to go, little buddy.

Here are some photos from the ultrasound. I actually found it harder to tell what everything was this time around than at week 20. He is just so much bigger that you only get bits and pieces on the screen at one time as opposed to the whole shebang. We couldn't get any super clear shots of his face because he had the umbilical cord right in front of his nose and his face was pressed right into my hip bones. Oh well, soon enough we will see his face clear enough :)

He has gotten so big at this point that when he moves it kinda hurts (especially up in my ribs). It is like someone slowly punching me on the inside. There is just no more room for the little guy. His head is also pressed into my pelvic bones constantly, so there is always a dull pressure down there. I have also had crazy heart burn these last few days. I have had it quite a bit throughout the pregnancy, but these last couple days have been insane. It used to be just after eating I would feel heartburn, but now it just comes on whenever it damn well pleases. So much acid. Blech.

We continue to work on the nursery. It is still a mess with baby stuff everywhere. We are making little dents in the piles each day, but there is just So Much Stuff. It is crazy times how many material goods this baby has.

35 Weeks

We had an appointment with our midwives at week 34 and our next one is this upcoming week at 36.

At our last appointment we listened to Judah's heartbeat and the midwife poked around to feel where his butt, back, and head were located. Usually we do the heartbeat first and feel around for him second. However, this time they did the poking first. There was a lot of head poking because he has begun settling pretty low down. Then, when we listened to the heartbeat it was racing. Baby boy was pissed! He was not a fan of getting poked in the head while trying to sleep (aw, he is just like his mom). It took about a minute for his heart rate to come back down. Not even out of the womb and he already has a temper. Great.

This week we get another ultrasound (yay!). It is to check his position and size. I'm pretty sure his position is good. He has gotten so big that he can't really drastically change his position a lot at this point. He usually has his butt up in my right ribs and his back then goes down my right side to end with his head down low.  I think he has dropped as of last week or so. I have started feeling a kind of dull pressure in my groin. All of the time. He is pushing down on my bladder, so I always feel like I have to pee. But, then, I try to and it is just this tiny little trickle because his head is pushing on my urethra. So, yeah. We are really getting close to go time here.

Some other changes: I can no longer wear my wedding ring (it was getting too tight) and I only wear sandals. My feet are not swollen, they have just spread a but wider. Here's hoping that goes away after he is born, amIright? Thankfully, it is May and sandals are appropriate to wear (at least some of the time). I don't know what I would do if he was a winter baby. Sandals would not work so well then.

Rolling over in bed is now quite the production. I have to make like a 5 point turn to get from one side to the other. There is no smooth rolling. It happens in stages and is definitely accompanied by grunts. If I move to fast I get a sharp pain in one side- movements just don't quite happen like they used to. I have also started getting leg cramps at night. So, that's fun.

Last week, my good friend and my neighbor both had their babies. It is pretty crazy. It just makes it that much more real for me. We have all been pregnant at the same time, but now they are not pregnant. They have newborns! That means, very soon I will too! Crazy!

The nursery is still not done- but major progress has been made. Bill finished the floors. We bought a rug, moved up the crib (and assembled it), moved in the rocker and the bins of clothing and whatnot. Bill tried to assemble our dresser/changing table, but we are freaking missing a part (one of the guide rails to a drawer). Bill called the manufacturer and they are sending out a new part, but that will take anywhere from 2-3 weeks. Lame. So the dresser isn't quite usable yet. We still need to reattach the closet door and I need to touch up the trim (where is got floor stain on it) and paint the inner part of the door. We also want to attach quarter rounds to the trim to cover the gap between the floor and the trim (from where the carpet was). We will see when we get it that. It definitely feels more like a nursery now. It is not finished, but is much closer than it was... And may I say, it is very nice to no longer have a crib in the dining room, clothes in the living room, and toys/gear in the kitchen. So very nice.

Next weekend we are having a shower/bbq at our house. Here's hoping the weather is decent! Most of our free time lately has been dedicated to getting ready for Judah and getting ready to host a party. Just like the nursery, there has been serious progress but we still have quite a ways to go!

Oh, our porch restoration project is almost finished. Our contractor anticipates Tuesday being the last day. Next up, getting the exterior painted!