One Week Old!

It's been a busy day to be a baby today.  Lucy's had a bath (her third, I suppose, but the first one I was there for), lost her umbillical cord stump, been too fussy to have her picture taken, been to campus to be cooed over by her father's colleagues, and then been perfectly content to be cute and have her picture taken.  I'll post some of those soon; right now my camera battery is as in need of recharging as is my daughter.

Lucy Johanna Moore Hall

. . . was born at 6:31 Friday morning, September 14, 2012.  She's 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces.  My water broke at 12:30 or so, just before bed, and six hours (and one false alarm, one epidural, and 28 minutes of pushing (!)) later, I heard this crying sound!  We're both doing pretty well: came home yesterday (Sunday), she's a champion nurser (so far), and my mom and dad are here from Cincinnati to help out.  Since I'm not great at typing left handed, here are a bunch of pictures instead of any more words, for the present:

. . .

Still pregnant, just fyi.  Going shopping for a washer and dryer today, maybe?  The due date is Tuesday, so if she doesn't make her appearance this week, we're looking at inducing next weekend.

September!

Well, here we are in September, and still no baby yet.  It's heartening to think that, one way or another, this is the month in which she'll be born.  And who knows, I could still go into labor later today and my dad could have a birthday buddy (Happy Birthday, Dad!).  In the meantime, we've met with and really liked a pediatrician and gotten the room pretty much set up, although we're still waiting for the plumber to finish up before we go get a washer and dryer and get most of the clothes and linens laundered.

These photos are a little dark, but can you spot the cat's new favorite napping spot?  Here's a close-up:

Oh, Speedy, I don't think you'll like it there so much once this room and that changing pad are put to their intended uses!  Or maybe he will, I don't know.  I'm just glad he decided this was his spot, rather than the crib, which would of course be a big "No!" that he wouldn't really understand.

Oh, and can you make out the new purple-ness of the rocker in the corner?  I was hunting around for fabric we already had to slipcover it, and thought the purple of my old sheets would work well, so I just draped the fitted sheet over those pink faux-velvet cushions to see how it would look.  Then I started thinking, and 5 minutes of tucking and pulling later, and I had the laziest, no-sew slipcover ever.  And hey, it'll be easy to remove for washing!

...Still Pregnant...

Which, despite my growing discomfort, is probably a good thing, as we're still waiting on the crib and the dresser, among other things.  But, the following have arrived in the past few days:

• car seat
• stroller
• crib mattress
• mattress pad
• bathtub
• nursing tops for me

I'm starting to get to know the UPS guy pretty well.  He's very nice, and his wife is 38 weeks pregnant!

Notes from Waco

Hello, all!  Well, that was a busy month.  We are landed and somewhat settled in our new digs in Waco, Texas.  We've rented a cute little 2 bedroom/2bath house:

We're generally very happy with it, except for one or two things.  Mostly, there's the fact that there's a problem with the plumbing and sewer connections.  At 9 months pregnant, you really need to be able to rely on having toilets that actually work in your new home.  The problem is being fixed, but I don't love that it was an issue at all, and that it's involved multiple calls to the landlords and the plumber.  We have enough to worry about without that.

Like, for instance, the current state of the Nestling's room:

We purposefully held off on buying any bulky items, like nursery furniture, until now, so we didn't have to move them a thousand miles, but now we're feeling distinctly underprepared if she should decide to arrive a bit early (more on that in a moment!).  So, several large orders to Amazon and Bed, Bath, and Beyond/Buy, Buy Baby later, and we're awaiting delivery of a crib and mattress, car seat, stroller, diaper pail, and all that kind of good stuff.  

Speaking of which, I had my first appointment with my new OB on Thursday, and I really like both her and the office, so that's a huge relief.  But!  We found out I'm already 3-4 cm dilated, and so might not/probably won't make it to my actual due date, September 11.  That's not so bad medically speaking, as I'll be 37 weeks, which is considered full term, tomorrow (Tuesday August 21).  But we're now busily preparing ourselves, mentally and physically, for the possibility that she could be here rather sooner than we'd thought!  We've bought a pack 'n' play from Target with a bassinet feature, in case the crib isn't here in time, and I'm anxiously copy-and-paste-ing the tracking number for the car seat into UPS's website.  If she can just hang in there until Thursday at least, we should be good!

That's about all the news that's fit to print, baby-wise.  We'll go back Wednesday for another appointment, and hope to schedule a tour of the childbirth center sometime this week.  My project for this afternoon: find a pediatrician!  I'll leave you with a few baby bump pictures (I've been getting that "you look like you're ready to pop!" a lot these days).

Here's my perspective:

And here, since we had the mirror sitting on the ground for a while before we hung it, is what I imagine  I look like from the cat's perspective:

And the Nestling Will Be Born In. . .

. . . Waco, Texas.  You know, unless something goes quite, quite wrong and Baylor University decides to be a total jerk or the Nestling decides to come rather early, which we're really hoping won't be the case, obviously.

30 Weeks

The past few weekends, we've been hitting up Craigslist and garage sales for some second-hand baby things.  The highlights:

• the super high-tech Summer Infant Best View Handheld Color Video Monitor for $100
• a glider-style rocking chair for $30 (It has pink faux-velvet cushions, though.  I'm going to try and make slipcovers)
• a new-in-package and ridiculously named but well-reviewed "My Brest Friend" Nursing Pillow for $25
• A changing pad and cover for $15
• a mess of used clothes, mostly onesies

Check-up earlier this week went fine.  My next one in two weeks will probably be the last one in Madison- we'll be talking about finding a new OB wherever we'll be moving, among other things.  It's one of the sadder parts about the job/moving situation, that we won't be able to stay with the same OB and hospital/health care group (Meriter).  She and they have been really great.

Oh, and I caved and bought some more maternity clothes, from the Motherhood Maternity in the mall and everything.  I had hoped to get by on what I had, or to try and find any additional things second-hand, but it was just so damn hot, I needed more tank tops.  Found another pair of shorts and a breezy tank dress, as well.  This one, in fact, but in a red/white stripe.  I wore it for the Fourth with some big ol' star shaped earrings and my blue blue nail polish.  We went and saw The Avengers.

found here

Nestling News this Week

Dateline Tuesday:  I do not have the Gestational Diabetes.  Hooray.  (On the negative but much less important side, that orange-glucose-drink thing messed up my stomach for the rest of the day.  yelch.)

Dateline Saturday: Did a bit of yard sale shopping in the neighborhoods between Regent and Monroe Streets.  Picked up some newborn-12 mos. clothes, and a box full of awesome-looking blocks.

In other news, we're starting to get pretty impatient to know some things, like where we'll be moving in just over a month, where our child is going to be born, little things like that.

But that's our problem.  The Nestling is doing well, lots of kicking and squirming, especially if I roll over onto my other side in the early morning.  28 weeks this week, so month seven and third trimester.  damn.

Complaining

I'm becoming more and more convinced there's not a right amount I can eat late at night.  If I eat too much too soon before bed- 2 AM HEARTBURN.  If I don't eat enough- 2AM QUEASINESS.  bam.

Checking In

Well, after a busy couple of weeks (graduation! family visiting! getting the car's AC fixed!) we're settled back in Madison for the time being.  The Nestling was a good traveler, seeming to sleep for most of the car rides.  Long may it continue.  I can feel kicks, somersaults, hiccups and such pretty regularly now, and we've both felt, and seen, some of the more spectacular ones from the outside.  I also got some great maternity stuff while in Cincinnati; three cheers for Snooty Fox and the Kenwood Gap having a maternity section (mostly the maternity stuff is online only, and I really prefer to be able to try things on).

I've still get a bit of queasiness/morning sickness a few times a week, but it's definitely an improvement over the first several months.  This is week 26, and the pregnancy emails say the Nestling is about 14 inches (crown to rump? or including legs? I don't know) and 2-2.5 pounds.  The two books tend to say varying things, though.  It's sort of fun to compare the different measurements/fruit comparisons.

So I've put in a link on the sidebar to the registry I put together, for the benefit of those who made inquiries.  Please don't feel obliged to, on the one hand, give us anything at all, or, on the other, to give us only things from the registry*; it's just a few suggestions: some basics, some splurge items we wouldn't buy for ourselves, and some books that have been recommended to me.  I'm using the site MyRegistry.com, which I've never used before, so as to be able to list things from different stores.  I'll be interested to hear if it's working properly, is easy to use, etc.  From my end, some of the managing functions are a little wonky, but the ease of the bookmark bar button "Add to MyRegistry" is great.

Thanks for stopping by!

*I guess the exception to this would be the car seat.  My Mom picked up a Graco stroller secondhand from a coworker, so having the car seat be a Graco also would be best.

Baby's First Denim, Apparently

So I've been putting together a registry, as a few people have asked about one, and I thought this page was kind of hilarious, and wanted to share.  Coming soon: an actual update.

Twill-Trim Boot-Cut Jeans for Baby 

The Nestling will need to know about their Cincinnati roots

I've been on a Charley Harper kick lately, so just wanted to share the adorableness of these:

ABC's

Coloring Book

Giant Ladybug Floor Puzzle

And, possibly best of all:

A Memory Game!

Though, let's be honest, I really want the coloring book for myself, not the Nestling, who's still several years away from coloring at this point.

It's a Baby Sea Monster!

On Tuesday we had our 20-week ultrasound. One of the pics of the Nestling's spine looked like some sort of sea monster.  So you can guess who has a new nickname.  Here are some of the other, non-sea monster images:

Some with the new-fangled 3D imaging:

And this one is my favorite- it's not the clearest image, but I love the classical, dramatic pose (and apparent thumb-sucking!):

And, more importantly, the ultrasound tech and doc said everything looked good.  So we're just over the moon over here.  It was a good day yesterday (even with the subsequent vomiting in the clinic's restroom because I didn't get my late morning snack in before the appointment).  Cheers!

This is what the cat thinks of the pregnancy...

. . . my belly makes a comfy pillow, apparently.

Also, Pinterest

PS: If you're interested, I've also started a Pinterest board for baby-related ideas & images.  I don't think you have to be a member of Pinterest to view it:

http://pinterest.com/firepurplefly/the-nestling/

How things are just now

So, yeah, I kinda forgot I had a baby blog for a while.  But, really, there hadn't been much going on, Nestling-wise.  But now!

This past Tuesday, April 17th, was our first childbirth class.  We sat in uncomfortable chairs, learned about the stages of labor, saw a video of the birth of someone who, judging by the parents' hair and glasses, is about as old as we are.  It's a 6-week class, with the second half focused on newborn care.

Friday we had another OB visit, and everything seems to be going well.  We heard the heartbeat, and a couple of kicks on the heartbeat monitor.  My thyroid has been borderline the past few visits, so it's being tested again.  Since pretty much every woman I'm related to has either hyper- or hypo-thyroidism, I knew this was coming sooner or later.

And then yesterday, we went to the Spring Half-Pint Resale and scored a tidy haul, our first baby purchases:

All for about $50!  From top left, clockwise: portable changing pad, green hooded bath towel, duck-head bath robe, 3 short-sleeved onesies, 3 long-sleeved onesies, green sleeper, 3 swaddling blankets, 5 burp cloths, baby bjorn carrier, and green fitted crib sheet (backround).  And also, on the less practical side, an awesome dragon marionette: 

Speedy photobombed the pictures, because he needs to sniff the tail of whatever creature comes along, be they other cat or green dragon.

I'll try and remember to post more regularly again, which shouldn't be too hard now that there's a bit more going on.  20 weeks on Tuesday!

Slow news week

Not much going on here on the baby-bump front. My next check-up is this Friday (14 weeks), so hopefully I'll be able to bring back a positive report from that.  And maybe one of these days my morning sickness will finally, actually go away and not come back.

Meanwhile, I feel like I'm really starting to show these days, which has me looking at more maternity clothes (it's one of the few things I can plan and shop for: until we know where we're moving in the summer, most baby-related buying or even planning doesn't make much sense).  I came across the Hatch Collection by way of one of my daily read blogs, A Cup of Jo.  Their thing seems to be fashion-forward maternity clothes that you can continue to wear afterward.  One way to look at it is that they're "investment pieces." Another way would be that several hundred dollars is too much to spend on a tank dress, maternity or otherwise.  But, despite myself, I couldn't get this oversize striped tank out of my head:

It's so cute.  It looks comfy.  It's $128.  And that's a big no for me, obviously.  But!  This story has a happy ending.  For browsing around Amazon this afternoon, lo and behold, I found this:

It's not an exact match, but I bet if I order a size or so up, the fit could be pretty close.  I could chop that scalloped hem and re-hem it straight if I wanted.  And, you know, it's a hundred dollars cheaper.

Maternity Clothes Are Happening

Over the weekend, Mom and Dad came to visit and we did some maternity clothes shopping:

Striped Roll-Tab Henley

Side Ruched Scoop Neck

Puckered Empire Top

Poplin Capris

That empire waist top is a prettier color green in person, I swear.  Also, it's going to be a stripe-y pregnancy.  You have been warned.

The Story So Far...

There's not much to tell, really. We found out I was pregnant on a Monday morning in late January. The next day we went out and bought What to Expect When You're Expecting.  I had fun with morning and early afternoon and sometimes evening sickness for most of February, and eventually my OB gave me a prescription for it. Now I can do things little things like work in the morning and use the computer without getting queasy.

The first visit to the OB (at 10 weeks) went well- everything looks good, and we got our first peek at the Nestling.  Ultrasound photos to follow if we can ever get the scanner working.

I'm at 12 weeks now, and What to Expect says that the Nestling is the size of a large, ripe plum.

Birthstone Ring

The Nestling's due date is September 13, so likely their birthstone will be sapphire.

$80 Is Too Much to Pay for a Diaper Bag, Right?

...But it's so stripey!

Found: here.

Oh, No: Am I a Blogger Now?

I suppose I am.  I wanted a way to share news and photos of our nestling with all our wide-scattered family and friends, without flooding inboxes or newsfeeds with any more info than you were interested in.  So, here it is, a baby blog.  I'll link to this on facebook when it's time, but for now, I'm just going to practice blogging some.  Blog, blog, blog, blog.