Our lucky little guy

It's been a busy few weeks, which is why I haven't been posting nearly as often as I'd like.  I will catch you up on what's been going on and try to keep it brief...

First off, hubby quit his job.  So, the awful commuting to Connecticut is now over!  YAY!  He starts his new job on July 25, so we've spent the last week or so getting ready for baby and for the move downtown. There have been many trips to The Container Store, West Elm, CB2, Buy Buy Baby, Bed Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Home Depot, Benjamin Moore, etc... you get the drift.  We're trying to get things purchased and/or ordered so that we can get the apartment setup quick, just in case little Brady decides to make an early appearance.   Also, since our movers are also going to be packing us up, we wanted to make sure that we weren't taking lots of crap with us (since usually we do our purging during the packing process).  We've spent the last week going through every nook and cranny of our apartment, deciding what should move on to the new apartment, what should go into storage (i.e. our parents houses in NJ) and what is just garbage... Me, my label maker and my nesting instinct have been a bit of an animal about this whole situation... Our apartment is more organized and neat then it ever was, which is kind of disappointing since we vacate in a week!  I just wanted things to be organized so that when the movers come in, it will be easy for them to group things together and I can just focus on hovering and labeling boxes.  Since hubby will be in his first week of work, his mom will be coming into the city to assist me in the hovering and labeling process...

We also decided to paint the new apartment... something we've never done before.  Living in NYC and moving every few years, it just never seemed worth the expense to paint.  But since we're in our 30s and with child, we felt it was time to create a home.  Lucky for me, hubby has been an active participant in this process, because picking paint colors is HARD!  We've gone to the paint store a million times, bringing swatches of our bedding and furniture to try and find just the right colors... It's just so hard to look at those little chips and imagine a room of that color.  We finally decided on three colors, kangaroo for the living room (beige-ish), azores for the baby room (blue green) and shale for the master bedroom (a mushroomy color).  We got the paint delivered and hired our buildings maintenance man to actually do the painting. (When I said, "we decided to paint," I hope you didn't think that meant us... we don't know how to do that stuff!)  Apparently, the apartment has been painted, but because the heat index in NYC is over 110 degrees and the air quality is supposedly horrific, I'm not able to go downtown to check it out, which is killing me... I'm dying to know what the colors look like on the wall, with our apartments lighting, etc...

Because of this extreme heat, I'm forced to do the rest of my apartment shopping online... which is ok, but not nearly as fun as seeing things up close and personal, in-store... I've literally spent the past two days just ordering things from everywhere under the sun so that things arrive exactly in line with our move-in date!  I've also been doing the change of address stuff and trying to figure out what I still need for the baby.

This past weekend, my mom hosted my shower.  It was awesome!  Really really nice.  40 of our friends and family joined us at a restaurant in NJ.  My friend, A, was very involved in the planning process and did an amazing job helping with the party decor and games.  There was an adorable clothesline filled with babywear, a stork in each table centerpiece, a little tree where guests were asked to write their well wishes for me, hubby and Brady, a fabulous diaper cake and fortune cookie favors.  It was truly fabulous!

Clothesline with Little Clothes

Centerpieces with Blue Stork

Wishing Well Tree

Diaper Cake

Fortune Cookie Favors

It was so nice to see everyone... Since becoming pregnant, I really haven't seen anyone, so it was nice to have so many family and friends gathered in one place.  It was a bit overwhelming, but I was completely floored by the generosity of everyone in the room.  We got such a tremendous amount of gifts for little Brady.  Toys, clothes, necessities... It was SO SO SO nice and I am so grateful to be bringing our little boy into such a warm and welcoming group of people.  He's a lucky little guy!!

More catchup in the next post!

Last Weekend: H-Fest

Every year, our friend G hosts a big party for all of our friends at his parents house down at the Jersey Shore (the beautiful part of the shore, where there are gorgeous houses and pristine manicured lawns... not the shore you see on TV).  Called H-Fest, we all usually spend the entire weekend reverting back to our old college ways of pigging out, binge drinking, beer pong, etc... Every year there are t-shirts made to commemorate the event and friends come in from all over the eastern seaboard to celebrate.

We woke up on Friday morning to pack and get going (our friends C&L were kind enough to give us a ride from the city... I did NOT want to take the train).  When I woke up,  I nibbled on a chocolate croissant and immediately ran to the bathroom to throw it up... My two week run of no puking was over... Awesome way to start the weekend. 

Since I returned breakfast number 1, we hopped in a cab to meet C&L for brunch before hitting the road to NJ.  The car ride to NJ was pretty quick and luckily our friend S had to pee 1/2 way there so we stopped at a rest stop on the way... I didn't even need to ask!  I did ask them to turn the air up in the car... way up... so I think I froze everyone out... (I noticed goose bumps and cardigans on all...) But nobody said a word... they were very sympathetic to my ridiculously high body temperature.

When we arrived at G's parents house, we all just hung out and helped them get ready for the main event which takes place on Saturday.  Because the weather wasn't very good (crazy rain!) we just hung out and did rainy day activities... It was like camp... Mrs H (G's mom) was a teacher and she had lots of construction paper, colored pencils, etc... So I spent the afternoon drawing pictures like a 15 year old while everyone else moved tables and did manual labor!  We ended up going for dinner at a nearby place and I was designated driver.

The next day it was a beautiful day to go to the beach... so what did everyone do?  They went to the beach... What did I do?  I stayed home with G's parents... I love the beach, but the thought of being out in the sun when I am already so hot all the time just wasn't appealing to me... Also, the bathroom situation leaves much to be desired and so does the bathing suit situation...

It made me think... it can be kinda lonely being the only pregnant gal sometimes... Who would have ever thought that being a party of two, you could feel so alone!

I just can't do all the things I used to do and the last thing I ever want to do is hold others back.  The crew was only gone for a few hours so I hung out on the shaded porch and read.  Once everyone came back to G's parents, the kegs arrived and the party was on.  Most of the afternoon is usually spent in the backyard... bocce, beer pong, etc... Unfortunately for me, it was super hot out and every time I would go outside, I would need to go back inside for at least an hour or two to sufficiently cool down (thank freaking god for air conditioning).  So I didn't really hang out with everyone.  I spent most of the day in the kitchen with Mrs. H, helping with food prep, etc... And then, once the party was in full swing... all the other pregos and babies started arriving!  Finally, I had people to play with!!!!  I heard stories about babies starting to walk at 9 months, other babies born 9 pounds a month early, etc... It was nice to have some peeps who would sit in the air conditioning with me and talk baby, commiserate about pregnancy, etc... It was a far cry from previous H-Fests, but fun nonetheless...

While most of our crew stayed up partying until 3 or 4am, I crashed at about 10 and didn't even feel bad about it... It used to reallllly bother me if I ever missed out on all the late night fun when the silly drunken antics typically take place, but it's gotten easier... and frankly, I'm so tired lately that I just don't care!  So while this year's H-Fest was definitely a different experience for me.  I had a great time!

On Sunday morning I was the first one to rise and asked everyone for a full report on what I missed.  We had our typical jersey shore breakfast... Taylor ham, egg and cheese and then were on our way back into the city!

Takin' the dog for a walk

Since it has been so hellishly hot in NYC, I really haven't been leaving the house during the day.  I've tried a few times and it's just so damn hot out that it's painful... I get tired, feel really fatigued and I start to swell up.

The only time the temperature is reasonable enough for a walk is about 8 or 9pm once the sun has gone down... It's still toasty but at least doable.  So, every night, my husband takes me for a walk.  We live right near the Hudson river, so we take a nice leisurely stroll... It's me and hubby walking along the water with half of the upper west side and their dogs...

We can't walk for too long because my "dogs start barking" (and sometimes they howl)...  I have never experienced foot pain like I am experiencing now... Walking is so painful that every night hubby asks, how far do you want to walk and my reply is, how long do you want to rub my feet?  When I get home I always elevate my feet and do everything I can to ease the discomfort and swelling, but nothing seems to work. 

Between the heat and my feet, I'm beginning to feel a bit like a prisoner... Baby jail.

Nesting or Crazy?

I've been getting emails from pregnancy websites about the "nesting" phase of pregnancy, which I guess I'm in right now... Granted, we're planning a move, not just the setup of a nursery, but I've been particularly motivated to "homemake" these days.  I have been going through all of our closets, drawers and such and just purging and organizing.  Given the pain that results from bending over, I can't do that much at a time, but I try to do at least an hour or two every day and I'm making headway.

Hubby is thrilled... he and I have very different "styles" when it comes to our approach to cleaning / clutter management.. I like piles... having a couple of neat piles doesn't bother me one bit if they're organized.  It drives him nuts.  While I like neat, who doesn't?  I'm not as motivated to achieve neat as he is... We've lived together for almost 10 years and this is still something we debate often... I will freely admit that I'm messier than hubby and he is a far superior cleaner than I am.  What I will also admit, is that there is a method to my madness... I may be messy, but I'm organized!  He's moderately organized, but doesn't hold a candle to me.  The problem with our apartment right now is that we have tons of stuff, but everything is "stuffed" away in random places (NYC living... you store things where there's room) and we don't know where to find things!  My goal in preparation for this move is to get everything organized... All of the tools in one place, electronics / cords in another place, office supplies all together, etc... Right now, things are just stuffed in various places, wherever they would fit... Well, I'm not having it anymore... When we move into our new place, I want to be able to find things... The other problem that both of us have is that we forget... I thought we bought tylenol... where is it?  Medicine cabinet?  Medicine drawer?  Medicine pouch we have for travel?  It usually takes a couple of looks before we find things... Or, one of us will say, I need new gloves... We buy them and then 2 months later discover a treasure trove of gloves that we forgot we had. Well, no more... Our new apartment has a ton of storage space, we're outfitting our closets with some handy dandy container store drawers and cabinets AND I'm adopting the strategy that has kept me so organized in business and bringing it home. 

I ordered a label maker!

Have you ever used one of these things before?  They're AMAZING little devices that help you identify things at a glance.  These little labels will allow me to put an organization system in place and then adhere to it, by plainly saying on the outside of each little box what it contains.  It's perfect.  I am so excited for my best buy purchase to arrive!!  I've already started a list of all of the labels I need to print out.

When you gotta go, you gotta go

One more story from San Diego... Hubby and I are in the bathroom together at my Aunt's house.  I'm getting ready to get in the shower and he's going to pee.  (I tell this story assuming other couples spend alot of time in the bathroom together like we do... but maybe it's a product of living in NYC and only having one bathroom?? regardless, at this point, it doesn't matter where we are... we go into the bathroom together - no boundaries!)  I'm pulling out the towel, assessing the toiletry situation in the shower (making sure there's shampoo, conditioner and soap) while hubby begins to pee.

Like a whirlwind, the bathroom door slides open and my cousin's five year old is pants down, holding his junk, screaming I gotta go potty!  I gotta go potty!  Hubby turns to me, not sure what to do... he's midstream at this point... And I say, step to the side, let him in. I figure they can cross swords... Hubby is actually able to stop mid-stream and step away in time to not get peed on...  The five year old begins peeing immediately and I'm impressed by his good aim... Well done, little guy!

It's amazing how quickly the whole thing happens... Hubby and I are both looking at each other... Don't forget, we just woke up... This is a shocking experience first thing in the morning... Then the 5 year old pulls up his Star Wars pj pants and runs out with the same reckless abandon he had when he ran in.  Hubby and I burst out laughing... To watch this tiny little person kick my big hubby off the toilet, while he was using it, was priceless... And hubby and I thought we had no boundaries!  It was a funny glance into our future with little Brady...

But I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go... As a pregnant lady who pees at least 2-3 times a night, I do understand this...

Time to Get Literal

When I was in San Diego a few weeks ago I was trying to explain to my cousin's five year old that I am having a baby and what that meant - he was going to have a new cousin soon!  I don't have much experience talking to little people, but thought I could handle this...  Here's how the conversation went.

ME: I'm having a baby.  There's a little baby in my tummy.  He's smaller than your other baby cousin's and that's why he is still in his mommy's belly.  He's growing and when he's ready, he will come out and play.

He loses interest and runs around with a light sabre for a few minutes while I wait.

5 YEAR OLD: When's he coming out?

ME: Well, he's still cooking.

5 YEAR OLD: Wait... you're COOKING THE BABY?  eyes open wide... Why would you do that?

ME: Floundering to explain to a five year old that when I say cooking, that I really mean the baby is growing and developing in his mommy's tummy... He looks at me, completely flabbergasted that I would cook my own child and goes back to playing with his light sabre.

And I learn my first lesson in talking to little people...

Everything grinds my gears...

The past couple of days I've been pretty irritable... Not that I'm a patient person... I'm not... but I've been particularly annoyed lately... It could be my discomfort (ohhhh, my aching back), lack of sleep, etc... But certain situations are "grinding my gears" (as Peter Griffin would say) more than normal.

Like, yesterday... hubby tells me he wants to go to see fireworks...It's the 4th, they're on the Hudson river, a block from where we live and he wants to see them.  Despite that many nights I fall asleep before 9pm, I think, ok no problem... I've been pretty lame overall, not up for doing much... so I figure I can make sure I get to fireworks if that's what hubby wants... I had to make some phone calls so I went into the bedroom so I wouldn't interrupt hubby's tv time with my yabbering and he tells me to be ready at 9pm.  I get ready by 9pm and am just waiting for him to come get me in the bedroom... All of a sudden, I notice  it's 9:10... Where is hubby?  I get off the phone and go into the living room... What is he doing?  Playing video games... He's in the middle of a soccer game... I say, aren't we going to see fireworks?  They start in 10 minutes!  He says, when I'm done with my game... So, I get my tired, pregnant ass up and dressed so he can see fireworks and he tells me to wait for him to finish his game... Normally that would be a mild irritation, but yesterday I wanted to clobber him... How dare he make me wait so he could finish a video game that he could EASILY pause and resume when we got back.  I was sacrificing my precious sleep time to go with him to see the fireworks that HE WANTED TO SEE... I frankly, couldn't have cared less about seeing them...  He could not understand why I was so mad... It was seriously like we were on different planets!  I really don't think that men understand the extreme exhaustion of pregnancy and while maybe it seemed like nothing to him to make me wait... he was wasting my precious relaxation time... and for what??? A VIDEO GAME!!  Yes, I'm married to a 15 year old.

And then today... I did something that I have never done in my entire career.  I responded to an email in all caps to express my severe irritation to a completely unaccommodating vendor and then proceeded to vent on the phone to a colleague that I wanted to "pop a cap in his (the vendor's) ass," for being so difficult.  I don't think I've ever even said these words before... But, my fuse is short... and frankly, I don't give a damn....

Height (almost =) depth

I've been spending alot of time measuring furniture and various things, making renderings and floor plan layouts, etc... in preparation for our move.  Today, I decided to do a little self-charting.

The belly is getting ridiculous... I'm short.... only 5ft and I measured my belly and right now from my back to the tip of my belly is about 1ft.  That's not normal! My depth is 20% of my height.  While pre-pregnancy, I was a very shallow curio (for plates and small knick knacks), I am now a deep bookshelf (and we're not talking soft cover books)!

Heavy and tired

Honestly, I have never been so sleepy in my life.  I am so completely and utterly exhausted all the time and the unfortunate thing is that I can't sleep for longer than 5 hours at a clip. 

For the past two weeks I feel like I've put on a significant amount of belly weight (though according to the doctors scale my total weight gain has still only been 18 lbs, completely on track) and I've also also just become so tired that I can't even handle it.  In my first trimester I was definitely tired and took naps when I could (which was an odd phenomenon for me... I'm not a napper).  But that was nothing like the exhaustion I am feeling these days.

Last night I fell asleep at 7:30pm.  Slept until 9 or so, woke up, went back to sleep at 11, slept until 4, got up and ate some Cocoa Puffs, fell back asleep by 6 or so, then slept until about 9 or 10.  And literally, every night lately has been like that... (with many bathroom breaks throughout the night and tosses and turns to wake up sleepy limbs)...

Today, we went for some brunch, ran some errands - Pottery Barn, Bed, Bath and Beyond... you know, the usual stops for a couple who is planning a move in the near future.  By about 3 pm I was bushed!  We came home, made a late lunch and I fell asleep shortly thereafter for a few hours.  Woke up at about 6 or 7, had some cocoa puffs, relaxed a bit more not really able to get up and now, here I am at 10:25pm starving... My plan is to eat some mac n cheese and go to bed... But this schedule is taxing... I'm not used to feeling so lethargic... I would imagine the extreme summer heat doesn't help much. 

I've been SO THIRSTY too... I can't drink enough water, which means that I literally pee constantly... But, I'm very paranoid about dehydration, so it's worth the bathroom trips.

I've also started getting some headaches, which aren't fun at all, but they are easily treatable with tylenol.  I read that they also become more common in the 3rd trimester... sweet!

And finally, I'm sore... the extra weight that I'm putting on is really tough to carry... My feet are killing me and my shoulders and lower back are sore.  I'm trying to do everything the books say... take notice of my posture, etc... but nothing really helps... It's just very hard to get comfortabe.

As moving day and Brady's arrival near, I'm getting a bit concerned that my lack of energy is going to be a huge challenge... How am I supposed to get everything done when I only have very few good hours where I am alert and awake every day?  I'm also still working, though not as much... But it's just tough to juggle everything...

I've also started thinking about (and reading about) labor... I'm still definitely terrified, but as time goes on, I just want this baby out (of course, not before he's ready)!  It's a little less daunting when I think about how I will actually get my body back, not have to carry this weight and will hopefully have a normal appetite again!  Pregnancy has taken such a physical and emotional toll... 

One of my really good friends had a little girl this week and she shared with me some of the intimate details of the labor process... I can't believe how long it can take... She pushed for almost 3 hours!!!  I don't even know if I would have the stamina to do that...  Maybe knowing that there is some Lamb Vindaloo and Chicken Tikka Masala on the other side would help (haven't been able to have my beloved Indian food in 7 months!)... Oh, and finally meeting Brady...

Hubby and I talk about it all the time... What's he going to be like?  We really can't wait until he's here... Of course, we have the normal concerns, is he going to be healthy, etc...?  But then we're also wondering, who is he going to be like?  Look like? etc... It still shocks me sometimes that I'm going to be a mommy and hubby will be a daddy... Like, the way I call my mom all the time and ask her how to do things, he will do that with me... That's wild!  I was joking earlier today, that he would call me and ask me what to do, and I would tell him I would call him back, call my mom and then fill him in!