Photographic Evidence

Well, here's a glimpse at what we've been doing.

This first picture is our 2nd spare room. Or, I guess, soon to be our only spare room.

Where the bed is, there used to be a very large bookcase (I.kea ones they don't make anymore, minus the top of the shelf, as it was an off-the-sidewalk find). It just took up too much room, though. So, the bed came in (there's a cot under, as well), and the two shorter bookcases. Somehow, we managed to take everything that was on the THREE bookcases, and fit it on the two.

Behind the chair is the 2nd bookcase, and then where the kitchen table chair is, you can just see the edge of my sewing desk.


This is a view of the left half of to-be-Figgy's room. The dark brown bookcase used to be under the window, and the other one was along that left wall that will soon hold the dresser. Those are the curtains that I hemmed a while back. With the red one behind the multi-colored curtain, it does a great job of keeping light in/out, but some natural light was called for.

The rocking chair is the one my mother had, and gave to us a few years ago. I'm not sure quite how long she had it, but I know that I rocked my brother to sleep in that chair some 19.5 years ago. I was working on cushions for it, but I've stalled, and need to get back to that.


Though you can't really see it in the above picture, below you can see what we did once the future fig room was mostly empty. We looked up the measurements of the furniture that we bought/will buy, and marked on the rug and walls the width, depth, and height of them. Along this side (the right side, opposite the dresser) will be the crib (bought, paid for, being delivered and set up on Dec 5 - yikes) and the bookshelves (picked out, along with the dresser, but not yet purchased). Towards the window from the crib, we're going to try and fit a small table. We're not sure it'll work and still leave room for the rocking chair, but if it doesn't, we'll use one or two of them in the closet, to make "shelves," and they can be play tables later.


Aaaaaaaaaand this is the closet, where most everything figgy-related is being stored for the moment. The massive amounts of clothes that we've obtained (mostly hand-me-downs, a few purchased new by ourselves, my mother, my grandmother, and J's family at our small shower) take up the majority of the space. Off to the right (there are 2-3 feet of closet that you can't see, to the right of where the door opens, there are two boxes of maternity clothes, two large bags of our own stuffed animals, and (up on the shelf), our patterned baby box o' stuff, some empty gift boxes from presents that have already come, and one or two of the presents themselves. Up on the left, mixed in with the clothes, is a set of Winnie the Pooh nesting boxes that I got many a year ago in a thrift store when I needed to break cash to get change for a meter. They've just been waiting for a baby's room to go in. At the bottom there is a large plastic tub and two large shopping bags of stuff that needs to be sorted. Some hand-me-down clothes, some of the stuff that we bought up at the outlets back in October.


Off to the right of the closet is a small "shelving" unit that's holding a bunch of tiny stuff that we've acquired, from friends, consignment sales, etc, that have nowhere else to go until we get some of the actual furniture in. Also, a super cute hook, and a wall mounted light (you may have noticed the standing lamp - one of the few downsides of this place is no ceiling lighting. AT ALL. And, as I am not an electrician, nor have any desires to learn to be one - or pay one - even our wall lamps will have cords. Any recommendations for kid-proofing those suckers down to the wall would be greatly appreciated. ETA: I've got a bunch of those "nail cords to the walls/floors things, for our ethernet cords, but our walls aren't so good at holding things, and I'd rather something a bit more kid-friendly than sharp thick staple nails, should they fall out naturally or otherwise).

But I'm going to wait to show you the actual decoration until we've got the wall clings up. They're currently being smooshed flat under some heavy books, and we're hoping to get them up before the furniture comes (which is part of why we've marked the height of furniture on the walls), since it will be much easier to apply them WITHOUT having to work around furniture.

Not even going to pretend today was restful

My back is yelling at me for it, too. But the feet are up for now - we'll see how long I manage to stay awake. Hah. Brilliant, considering we're supposed to be going out.


In the tally of preparing things for the possibly-Figment's-room, today:
-went to Tar*get to get various things, including more plastic storage bins, and a new tape measure
-put the bins to good use, moving the rest of the closet stuff over from one room to the other, and then sorting through the stuff in the 2nd closet, and moving most of what we kept from falling apart cardboard boxes to the plastic bins
-taking apart the giant falling apart bookshelf that we got on the side of the road
-sorting through the books on that, and the other two bookshelves, to decide what to keep (we have two boxes and a con bag of books to be traded or given to the FOL
-took apart the twin bedframe in the one bedroom, hauled all of its pieces, two mattresses, and the cot that lives under it to the other room and built it all again
-moved the rest of the furniture (sewing desk, love seat, po.ang) clockwise around the room
-reshelved alllll the books
-cleanedcleanedcleaned

Okay, so the rest of the house is an utter sty*. But at least those two rooms look good, right? We have to start somewhere, right? And I sort of can't help the fact right now that I'm obsessing over the soon-to-be-maybe-baby-room. Not just in the hormones sense, but in the holy crap they're delivering the crib in 2 weeks, we may not be here next weekend and WE DON'T HAVE ANYWHERE TO PUT THE CRIB sense.


So. That was today.

now I collapse.



*not entirely true. J was sweet enough to turn our mattress and put our new winter-y flannel sheets on the bed while I showered this morning. Mmm, cozy....

A good scan

is always a huge relief.

I'm not sure that will ever stop being true.

Everything looked great. She's still measuring a few days to a week or so ahead (depending on the body part), and weight is estimated at just under 3lbs (2lb14oz). All of the organs still look good, at least inasmuch as they can be seen via u/s.

And then the tech played "let's get a look at baby's face," since with the last two scans, Figment was facing my back and refused to let us get ANY look, but for a very fleeting glance of about 1/8 of the side.

We did a lot in 2d (and got to see her blink in 2d, which was SO freaking weird), but the only pics we got printed were in 3d. For the, like, 2 of you who haven't seen them plastered all over everywhere:

Laughing (you can see her tongue)

Looking peaceful

Complimenting the chef on her choice of breakfast (her eye is open in this one)

Playing (okay, not really, she was actually really pissed at the u/s wand, and was shoving it away. But I like that it looks like she's smiling and playing)

One more sleep...

until we see Figgy again.

I'd thought the appointment was this morning, but luckily THAT office does reminder calls, and TWO days ahead of time, so we didn't need to find out we were wrong by driving all the way out there at butt o'clock in the morning and coming back.

She's been super duper quiet in there today and yesterday. We used the doppler last night, and all was well, and I CAN feel movement, it's just switched from being the punches and jabs back to mild woobliness. So, though deep down, I feel like I know everything will be okay, I am yet again left asking the universe - please let everything be okay.

Still not a post about my nipples

But answers to questions (in the order that I was able to come up with answers)!

1. Nutella asked: So now that you are even closer to the arrival of the Figgy, have you decided upon a "theme" for baby stuff? Or just cascades of pink everywhere? ;-)

Oh, you're so funny. But oddly enough, our very vague theme does include pink. This wasn't really intentional. As far as actual themes go, there was nothing that we liked well enough to use in its entirety. So we have a bit here, and a bit there. But the overriding theme will be the colors sage, brown, and a dusty pink. Are colors enough to be a theme?

2. LJ asked: If you could be any non-lead character in from a disney cartoon, who would you be and why? I have no idea where that question came from, but now you need to answer.

I'm fairly certain I'd be Cogsworth, from Beauty and the Beast. But not quite as tightly wound. (Badum-ching!) I fear that this answer likely reveals quite a lot about me.

3. and Kristin asked: How did you and J meet? And how did you know she was the one for you? I'm a sucker for good love stories.

Believe it or not, we met on the internet.

No, really. Though if you're my mother, you heard that we met through friends. And that part is also true! We just happened to meet through friends on the internet. Not a dating site or anything like that. No. But a big dorky dorkish game for dorks who like dorky things like books and tv shows and like writing about books and tv shows. Her friend dragged her in, mine dragged me in. She had loads of free time, recovering from surgery. I had loads of free time... being an insomniac who was chronically late to work. We spent many many a night up late talking. I liked her... but did she like me? Well, the story behind finding THAT out is possibly one better left for other venues (no, nothing like that, but I have no desire to embarrass any particular person(s) that may be reading), but it turned out she did. And as soon as she was able to travel again, she hopped on a train to come visit me. We decided to see what happened.

And, well, the next few months were filled with the two of us traveling up and down the east coast, wasting most of our money on train and plane tickets (and some of the money of very generous friends as well). I tricked her into falling for me, and she convinced a hard-hearted tramp that there was such a thing as love. And after 4.5 months of the back and forth, she moved down here. (What? For girls that's virtually like living apart for YEARS.) She asked me to marry her, and a year and a few weeks after we first started dating, we were legally wed in Toronto, and a month after that, we had a ceremony with our friends and family present.

And that, my friends, is a very very abbreviated version of how J and I met, and our courtship.

Just don't ask about the futon.

Any questions?

I had things to talk about.

That was before it took me about an hour to go 5.5 miles.

Most days, I'm thankful for the flexibility that is afforded to me by the fact that it's cheaper for us to drive into the city for our commute. Today is not that day. Sadly, that is nowhere near the worst traffic I've encountered. There's a reason our fair city is #2 in the country for bad traffic. Whoo! Up from #3 - I mean, hey, we've got to excel somewhere!


So instead, I open the floor up for questions. There's very little that I won't answer, so please ask away.

Happy trails to you....

Now, as far as physical changes go, aside from the obvious, I've been fairly lucky. Yes, my boobs and my stomach are huge. But my zits have been kept to a minimum, I don't have any splotches. No linea negra for me, and a very small number of stretch marks are still light enough to not really be all that distinguishable from the stretch marks I've got from simply being overweight. I haven't even gotten those really dark or wide nipples and areoli that supposedly everybody gets.

But a few weeks ago, I noticed something.

Something a little disturbing.

A few of the hairs below my belly button are turning dark.

Not a lot. Not even enough to properly be called a happy trail. Perhaps a happy hopscotch course. But it is strange and awe-inspiring nonetheless.



Thank you for your comments to my post yesterday. For what it's worth, the dog is crated when unsupervised (which is pretty much only when we're out of the house, b/c we're not stupid, and he is a crazy little puppy), aside from when we are fast asleep, but he's in our room (with the door closed, and a puppy pad in the bathroom, because he won't let us know when he needs to go out, so it's that, or clean up his crate twice a day instead of once, or continue buying rug shampoo enough to keep the companies in business) with the door closed. We keep the television for him all day while we're gone. He still goes nutso barking when we get home. And, I presume, when other dogs are out. We're not quite ready to spray him with vinegar, though. And while I'm sure we'll play some kind of noise for Figment, I'm not a fan of using white/background noise to get them to sleep. But even if I were, there will be some time during which Figment sleeps in our room, and oh TRUST ME when I say that there is no level of music or television or white noise that will block out the high-pitched squeals of the dog when going nuts at other dogs. There just isn't.

The good news is, whether it's because I shut the window, or because he was just worn out from running around yesterday, this morning didn't have the insane barking. We'll keep it shut a few nights more and see what happens.

Another Day of Restful Productivity (and a Question)

A handful of errands this morning (note: right when it opens is the best time to hit Ta.rget) to get some necessities, and J has spent the rest of the day working on fruitcakes. I got a decorative blanket hung in the to-be-Figment's-room, as well as hanging of the wall lamp we got. All without drilling a hole, thank you 3.M. Then sewing - for the swap we're doing on FF, I bought a few things for my swappee, but decided to make a matching bib and shoes set. The shoes came out great. The bib... well. Anyway. They match.



But my question for you, dear folks is, if a dog has, since spring, taken up a wretched habit of running around like a madman and barking out the window early early in the morning when the neighbor takes his dog out for a pee... will closing the window for winter help with this? Or are we screwed? Oy. I don't know if it's the new Large Thing in our room, but when he did it this morning at 5 or so, and I looked over and saw It, I had a moment of sheer panic. In the "if we're up all night and get the baby back to sleep and he pulls this shit, I.will.kill.him.

Okay, maybe panic's not the best word.

Restful Saturday

I needed today.

I really needed today.

I have done SO much of NOTHING today.

Well, to be honest, it didn't get off to the BEST start. I woke up a little before 3:30 this morning (after falling asleep somewhere between 11:30 and midnight), having to pee, and wasn't able to fall back asleep. I think I might've been hungry? But then Figment was Up and Kicking, and I couldn't fall asleep. And then it was light out - and I have so much trouble falling asleep once it's light outside.

But I spent most of the early day lounging about in bed, and did finally manage a 2 hour or so nap in there. Then we brought more Figment stuff into the room-we-plan-to-be-Figment's-room. I started emptying out the closet, and putting Figgy stuff in there. (Of course, now the sewing room looks like a very messy and well-read hurricane hit it with bookshelves and plastic buckets full of memorabilia...) Figgy's clothes are in the closet (we haven't gotten the dresser yet, though we've known for months which we want), in buckets, and a few hanging up, courtesy of J. We plugged in and tested out the ty.ke light that J managed to get on the cheap, geez, a year or so ago. I hemmed both the curtain that was already in there, and the curtain we want to use, as they vaguely match, and J had the brilliant idea of using them together to make the room darker, without a black-out curtain. (With the double feature of keeping the draft from coming through too badly.)

And then my feet were all swollen again, and I hit my energy limit (which is low on the best of days) and so I am relaxing on the couch while J works on baked goods in the kitchen. And damn, does it smell good.


After over a month of packed weekends with trips and showers (both bridal and baby) and birthday parties and holidays and weddings and plane trips and car trips and insanity, I could not be HAPPIER with just sitting here on my big fat behind. It's a pretty comfy behind, I must say.

Wrapping up for the week

Pssst. If you want any of J's tasty baked goods, she neglected to point you towards the link for our etsy shop, over in the sidebar. -------------------->


Thank you all for your comments over the last few days. I think Meredith got it most right. I mostly use this place to vent. But your comment, Meredith, was exactly what I needed. I've worked HR before, and I know all of those things, but it's always really nice to have them repeated back to you.

I realize you can't "know" people properly over the internet, so I will say that I'm the type of person who, if I want advice, I'll usually say I'm asking for it. And so it is that, by the time I made my post yesterday, I was entirely calmed down and in a much better place, if not a great place, and simply was trying to share the fact that it's not all roses and confidence 'round these parts. Pregnancy does a number on things that I tend to rely on - self confidence, logic, etc.


I miss my logic. *sniffs*


I will also say that, in addition to my proposals I listed the other day, I'm more hopeful of the possibility that I could at the very least shift my hours, or truncate my day by taking a shorter lunch, if all else fails. We'll see what happens. I don't actually think anybody's out to get me, or anything like that, but hormones plus the first written warning in a 15+ year working career will do a number on you, you know?

Today is a better and brighter day, and even better yet, it's a Friday.

It's a Friday. I had a chat with another one of my bosses, and confirmed that she is perfectly happy with my work. I, sadly, did not have the energy for choir last night, but J and I celebrated hitting the third trimester by making a fairly large purchase with some of the money from the family shower.

We're a day into the third trimester. We're less than a week from 7 months. We're hitting the home stretch here. I have hip and back pain. I swell. I waddle.

As J said in the car this morning, "we have as much time left until our EDD as is on a generic computer warranty." And it's funny, but it's true.

I look around this foreign land and am utterly baffled. How on earth did we get here? If I blink, somebody might take it away.

Please don't take it away.




Up soon on spamming you theatre: a post about my boobs!