Due dates...just a suggestion

Due date, schmue date.  Come and gone and no baby in sight.  Well, I guess he's technically in sight since I'm sporting this bowling ball midsection thing, but...you know.  Does it look like he's worked his way downward at all?  Everyone keeps asking if he's dropped...well, I don't know, maybe...so then maybe not because should it be really REALLY obvious?  I haven't exactly done this pregnancy thing before.

So what do you do with a pregnant lady who's hit her due date and hasn't had a baby yet?  You take her out to dinner, preferably somewhere with awesome pregnant lady food like biscuits and fried chicken.

I love you, Babe's.  Although it's a little sad that I have limited tummy room these days.

We do have an induction end date in sight, which is both reassuring to KNOW Holden will be here within the next week and also a little weird to KNOW something like that.  Still hoping he decides to make his appearance on his own; I keep telling him it's ok to come out, but he seems pretty content to keep baking in there.  Stubborn kid.

Might as well get as ready for everything as I can!  The tax department is shifting to a new space in our building over the summer...so on Thursday I went ahead and packed up all of my stuff, which definitely felt a little strange.

And I was feeling mushy anyway since the sweet work gals got me flowers and a card AND cupcakes and took me to lunch at Uncle Julio's - talk about some of my favorite things.

So sweet!  I managed to not cry, which is a big accomplishment for the pregnant lady.

It's strange to think about having a completely different routine in the next week.  I mean, we know change is coming and we've done a million things to "get ready" for this ridiculously large life event, but I just don't think it's going to hit me until it really, really HITS me, like with an actual baby actually here.  It feels very real right now...but still just a waiting game.  Yeeps!!

Let's see if anything happens at 40 weeks and 1 day...last child-free weekend EVER.  Weird.

Operation Nursery...complete!

It's definitely been a work in progress, but now we finally have what is probably the only "complete" room in our home.  Holden, I hope you like it!

He really does have an army of puppies in there!  Quilt by my wonderful mommy, crib skirt by me, puppy prints from Etsy, crib from Pottery Barn Kids, crazy wall camera to watch him sleep installed by Craig.

All ready for changing!  Dresser and mirror are from Ikea, and random assorted things are from random assorted places.

The giant alphabet wall!  Alphabet decals are from Etsy, chair from Buy Buy Baby, storage ottoman from Target.  Learn your letters, Holden.

The tiny clothes await!  Itty-bitty plaid shorts, I die at the cuteness.

Lots and lots and lots of tiny clothes...and diapers and toys and books.  Thank goodness for plenty of storage space.

Cute things on shelves, yeah yeah!

Alllllll ready for lots and lots of reading, courtesy of wonderful friends building his library at the baby shower.  Yes, we probably need an actual bookcase or something, but for now a basket on the floor works for me.

All ready for you, Holden!  Curtains by me

See, we at least appear to be ready for a baby...

I love the "little man" banners from the baby shower, so they're on the wall now!

Here's your cozy place, Holden.

The puppies are waiting!

Sooooo pregnant

You know what's exhausting when you're 39 weeks pregnant?  EVERYTHING.

I'm rocking wet hair and flip-flops in this one...BECAUSE I'M 39 WEEKS and tired, y'all.

Here's what's up lately...I've been hyper-aware of Holden's movements since his heartbeat was a touch slow last week...but at my doctor's appointment last Wednesday he was jumping around like a crazy bean and had a right-on-target heartbeat of 122.  And he's doing a really good job of kicking and punching in there, so I'm not worried about it - except when I get focused at work, pause, can't remember the last time I felt him do anything, and then frantically poke at him to make sure he's moving around. "Knock it off, Mom!"

As of last Wednesday, there's a whole lotta nothing going on down there right now.  So we'll see how the next week goes, but have already scheduled a date for induction since I'm not really interested in being pregnant FOREVER (which is how it feels right now).  A scheduled birth!! Yes, that appeals to the accountant in me, but I'd rather my body and Holden just come to terms with each other and do this thing. We'll see what happens. And my doctor reminds me that this could all change at any time. Yeeps.

Anxiously awaiting his arrival around these parts!!  And distracting myself by doing things like sewing curtains for bedroom (which Harrison may or may not approve of)...

...and snuggling with the fur children, who have absolutely no idea how much their worlds are about to be rocked even though we keep telling them a baby brother is coming...

...and approving betting pools at work on the birth of our child, which I don't think Craig was a huge fan of, but someone should at least have fun with this waiting game...

...and playing in the dirt by replacing last year's sad dead herbs with adorable new ones, plus a citronella plant that will theoretically keep mosquitoes away.

I also cleaned out the fridge and freezer - like, CLEANED.  I suspect I'm over-nesting.  But I have to do SOMETHING.  And yes, every activity is followed by a break on the couch because I'm just tired.  More tiredness to come in the near future, though, so I might as well get used to it.  See you soon, Holden!  We just don't quite know when!

A new addition

Faked you out, didn't I?  A new addition?  You thought the baby came!!  Nope, we just had a built-in wine bar installed between the kitchen and breakfast nook - a lovely new addition to our home.  I think this may qualify as the male version of nesting...we'd talked about doing it for a while, but then Craig kicked it into high gear and made this thing happen.  Do you know how many options are out there for wine fridges??  It's a little redonk.

Here's how things were looking about three months ago...

We committed to a wine fridge (this was actually the second one we bought...the first one didn't exactly run quietly...quite the opposite, which was causing me to go bonkers, which meant we definitely got a different wine fridge), and Craig did manly things like move electrical outlets and switches to make room for the new cabinets.  Electrical things scare me...Craig, not so much. He's very brave.

Fast forward a few weeks...

...and amazing things have happened!  We now have granite people and a cabinet guy and staining guys (yes, different people for each one...apparently this is not a one stop shopping endeavor), and the whole thing is really coming together.  They did an awesome job of matching the existing kitchen cabinets, but the process was a little scary - I actually spent two nights at a hotel while Craig held down the home fort and kept the animals alive while battling truly epic fumes from the varnish/staining/painting process.  We decided it was probably best if I didn't expose our unborn child to scary fumes...yeah, they were pretty bad.

And then we debated backsplash options and found yet another guy (the tile guy!) to come make it all happen and NOW...

All done!!  It's awesome.  And I told Craig I didn't care if the wine fridge matched the existing appliances, but now that it does, it makes the crazy person in me really happy.  Not that I'm enjoying wine these days, but soon enough.  Yay for successful home improvement adventures!! And it's alllll done before baby comes...which could really be any day now.  Yeeps.

Puppies, paint, and paying people for perfect corners

Remember how we reached "just need to perfect the chair rail...and the crown molding...and do eight million other things to really make this room a nursery" several months ago?  IT HAPPENED.  BEFORE THE BABY'S BORN!!!  That's really a major victory.

Here's that chair rail in progress, which we did finally get done in February:

And then there was this crown molding thing going on...you see that funky angle on the wall with the window?  That slope into the wall and ceiling business?  That makes crown molding kinda tricky.  We gave up and called in the pros, which was a really excellent decision.  Because then things started looking like this:

Sometimes that yellow just comes out really, really bright...I promise it won't blind the kid

Yeah yeah!  Totally painted walls and totally painted chair rail and beautifully installed crown molding AND then we could do cool things like set up the crib and make it start to feel like a baby room.  Major, major props to Craig on tackling the painting and ladder work and general furniture assembly.  I sure hope Holden appreciates all the physical labor his dad put into his room.

Then that's where mom steps in - time for decorating and sewing and putting things on walls and cute-ing up the place.  Remember those little puppy dogs I was working on?  I made an army of them...

...and overanalyzed spacing them out and practicing just the right stitch length to applique them to the background fabric...

...and finally, finally made it all come together in a crib skirt!  Huzzah!  Again, busy season really puts a damper on getting projects done, wah wah.  But at least it's done now!

Yay for puppy dogs!  Full nursery pics coming soon...because it's DONE, y'all.  Totally ready for a kid.  At least the room is ready...I don't know if that has any bearing on us really being ready...

Two-ish weeks to go...or possibly two days, who knows??

I feel kinda ginormous these days.  Although apparently not everyone thinks so, since the same people who told me I was "finally looking pregnant" are now exclaiming "oh, there's NO WAY you're due in two weeks, you're not big enough!" - so basically I can't win on that front and I'm just doing a lot of smiling and changing the subject.

Obviously still not sleeping incredibly well, or I wouldn't be blogging in the 6 AM hour on a Sunday.  Yeeps.  We went to baby class yesterday (both infant CPR and "all about baby," where they teach you very basic things like how to keep your newborn alive when you bring him home from the hospital) and learned that newborn sleep patterns are apparently established by the 36 week mark of pregnancy.  So when I feel Holden doing baby jazzercise and throwing dance parties, that's what we should expect when he's here for reals...theoretically.  That's scary.

Physically...doing ok, just low on energy.  And low on space for meals - Holden's taking up some room in there.  Although maybe not quite enough room - the doc thinks he might be a little on the small side (which she guesses at just by squeezing around and feeling him - not quite an exact science), so we're doing a sonogram on Wednesday to check on his size and growth and general condition of things in his own little personal biodome.  And my hips are killing me - side sleeping? Body stretching out and doing weird things to prepare for this whole birth business?  Yeeps again.

Milkshakes are delicious.  And so are soapapillas at Chuy's.  I'm kinda liking just going for it here in the last couple weeks...

Oh, and happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!!  I'm secretly hoping Craig will do something sweet for me today...but am also managing expectations.  He's big into logic and technicalities, and since Holden is still hanging out in utero, in Craig's eyes I probably don't qualify as a real mom yet.  We'll see what happens...but for now I might try to go back to sleep as a present to myself.

I'm definitely doing that "nesting" thing

I'm feeling pretty super pregnant these days...

...and am most certainly deep into this nesting business. I think my nesting instinct was somewhat hampered by this "busy season" thing that keeps taking over my life, mainly because I literally didn't have time to do anything, so I'm afraid now I've entered an extreme phase that's frightening Craig and the animals.  See the army of tiny clothes - probably should have left tags on some of those guys since Holden will likely not make his way through alllll of the clothes, and then a sane person could have exchanged them for different sizes.  But I NEEDED to wash them and dry them and hang them in perfect order.  I NEEDED TO.  Oh boy.

And then there's the baking...

Baking double batches of banana AND strawberry bread definitely counts as nesting.  And now we have wrapped mini-loaves hanging out in the freezer, all ready for us.  So...at least we have some frozen breakfast?  Because it's quite possible I might not actually make anything else.

And Harrison's favorite part of nesting - the warm clean clothes from my need to stay way on top of any laundry situation.

This week's winner of the "least helpful" award in nesting assistance - Harrison and his idea of helping with laundry.  Laying on warm things and pressing wrinkles IN while adding a light dusting of cat fur is NOT helping, Harry.  And yes, those are more tiny clothes that got added to the army of tiny clothes...they didn't get washed in the first batch and it was bothering me, imagine that.

More updates and ramblings on the baby front...

I'm pretty much over it at work.  Yes, there are plenty of things I can still get done, but since I'm just tired and super pregnant, I'd kinda rather be at home chilling on my couch.  A teeny part of me wishes I had stayed at Pdub just for the maternity leave.  If that were the case, Friday would be my last day of work...must not think about that and should probably focus on actually getting some more things done.  Also, I have this irrational fear that my water's going to break while I'm at work. Or maybe it's not irrational.  It could just be really gross, y'all.

I'm trying to squeeze in so many things in these last few weeks - lunches and dinners with friends, husband, or just myself (I took myself to lunch at La Madeleine yesterday and ate quiche and read my non-baby book - it was blissful); attempting to throw things in the freezer that will sustain us over the summer when I may or may not have actual time to cook; making things perfect that don't really need to be perfect at all but I'm anal and crazy; absorbing information so I feel "prepared" for this thing I don't think you can really be prepared for.  And any of these things that require any movement are just a little difficult because I'm ginormous. Bah.

I think I need to chill out.  I'm certain Craig would agree with this.

Oh, and I wear things in pregnancy that I never wore in my non-pregnant life - things like leggings and maxi skirts. I wonder if any of these style choices will stick.

My weight gain has been very on track for what it needed to be (minor victory!), which means I'm kinda just going for it in these last few weeks...to the extent I actually have room in my stomach since Holden's commandeering a lot of the midsection space these days.  Milkshakes are my current drug of choice.  And Craig picked up three more pints of Ben & Jerry's this weekend...

To aid in the nesting, we now have a GIANT freezer AND a fridge/freezer combo in the garage...a little too much storage space for right now, but I'm imagining it'll come in handy for a ton of things. Right now it holds the aforementioned banana and strawberry bread, ice cream, and the ice cream mixer attachment.  And probably some beer for Craig.  So basically we're set on ice cream.

And to close...remember how I was adamant that we talk about something other than the baby? I've pretty much gone to nothing but baby on the blog, haven't I?  HYPOCRISY!!

Mustaches and bowties

A month ago (a whole month ago!) my dear, wonderful, amazing friends threw an adorable "mustaches and bowties" baby shower to celebrate Baby Holden, yay!!  In the midst of the tax crazy, it was so nice to just take 48 hours away from my desk (ok, really more like 44.5 hours...a whirlwind from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon when I was back at my desk around 4:00, blech) and spend some quality time with family and friends getting ready for the little guy's arrival.

I'm such a lucky gal to have such wonderful friends - love you girls!!  A few pictures from the festivities...

Me and the mommies...well, the grandmommies-to-be!

little man onesies

My cravings!  Clementines and...sugary little kid cereals. :) Transformed by Kami into delicious Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal bar treats.  SO GOOD.

The wonderful hostesses and party-throwers extraordinaire

Everything's more delicious through a mustache straw!

Piles and piles o' wonderful presents and the great start to Holden's library

My wonderful mom made Holden the most adorable rocking horse quilt - I love it!!