Hello baby girl! Good bye money.

18 Weeks, 1 day.  So close to the halfway mark I can taste it.  I finally felt the baby moving last Tues!  She moved all day almost every 10 minutes and then the next day was less and then the next day was less, etc.  Now I still occasionally feel her but it much more muted.  I can only assume she was in a really good position for me to feel it on Tues and now is in a different harder to feel position.  It bummed me out when I couldn't feel her as much after that first day but thank god for the doppler because I have checked her HB every few days and it's still nice and strong.  I am looking forward to her getting bigger and me being able to feel her more reliably.  

We accomplished a few baby preparations two weekends in a row.  The nesting instinct is setting in.  Really I just have the kind of personality where if I have an idea of painting a wall or rearranging a room then I just want to do it already!  Whenever I have moved to a new apt/house I want to get all the boxes unpacked and put everything in it's new spot immediately after moving all the boxes in.  I don't like to wait until the next day to slowly put books on the book shelf or dishes in the cabinets, I want it done NOW!

Last weekend we bought a dresser for the baby's room.  Maybe you remember my last post, this one, where I talked about how B and I always talk ourselves into buying more expensive items that we maybe don't really need?  Well, I know us well.  It happened.  Luckily we don't regret it.  We went to go look at two dressers that this lady had on craigslist.  Of course it happened to be the morning after we got about an inch and a half of snow for the first time in two years.  Fortunately the roads were totally drivable.

The lady had two matching dressers for sale.  One is called a triple dresser, it's long with three rows of drawers.  The other is a counter height dresser with just one row of drawers.  We went with the intention of buying the counter height dresser not for Hazy's room but for a child proof bar solution.  As in where we keep our liquor.  Totally necessary, right?  Not.  This was not really an immediate problem that we had to fix.  Our current bar situation would have been fine until Hazy starts crawling which wont be until next spring so we had plenty of time to deal with it later.  The problem is we fell in love with the dresser on craigslist and talked ourselves into grabbing it while we had the chance.

We also loved the triple dresser but I thought it was too low to work as a dresser for Hazy's room that we could also use as the diaper changing station.  Well, I was wrong.  I was optimistic enough to bring the diaper changing pad that I bought a few weekends ago and we were able to throw it on top of the dresser and realize that it was actually perfect for us.  B and I are not very tall people so I suppose if someone over 6 ft has to change Hazy's diaper they will have to bend over while they do it but for us it totally works. 

The dressers are mid century and hard wood which I love!  They have a few tiny dings but are freshly painted already and all I have to do is find some contact paper for the drawers.  I did talk the lady down $100 so we bit the bullet and bought both.  We basically paid three times as much for two dressers as we had planned to spend on one dresser for the baby's room.  This is what we do almost every time we make a large purchase.  A couple of years ago we almost talked ourselves into buying a brand new $30k car (in cash!) before we came to our senses and instead bought a used version with more features for almost $10K less.  Thank god. 

Anyway, we justified the purchase because we are getting so many baby items for free from my nanny families and friends who are already done having kids.  One of the perks of being infertile and taking four times as long as everyone else to start having babies.  Also the two pieces match so 5 or 10 years down the road if we are in a different space and everything gets rearranged we can use them for different things in different rooms or in the same room quite easily.   

This weekend we picked up the crib that's being handed down to us from my nanny family that I've worked for for 7 years.  It is white which I probably would never pick myself but a free crib in good condition is a free crib.  Plus the dressers that we got are painted white on the top and sides but the drawers are just stained wood so the crib matches the dresser but the drawers balance out all the white in the room.  It's a win win in my book.

 

 Mama and Papa's new bar in our dinning room next to the dinning room table.  Bar 

glasses are in the top drawer and I will use the other drawers for bibs, wash clothes, etc.  

One of B's paintings in the background.

Hazy's new dresser in her room, diaper pad and pile of baby clothes on the top!  Still have to

figure out what to do with the cable hook up/modem on the left...it's not staying there! 

The crib is still sitting in about 6 pieces which is driving me crazy!!!  I wanted B to put it together immediately after hauling it through the door but he is more laid back (lazy) about setting things up.  We also attempted to bring home a really nice armchair glider but 1) it wouldn't fit into our car and 2) it might be way too big for Hazy's room so we need to think about finding something smaller.  Bummer because this chair was really nice and I know it was expensive and it was/is ours for free!  So hard to turn it down but whatever rocker/glider we get has to fit in the baby's room and that room is tiny. 

Buying the dressers and getting the crib forced B to move the desk out of the office (hereby known as Hazy's room) and into the basement.  We also moved the dog kennel out of Hazy's room and into our bedroom which required us to then move my dresser over a couple of inches and move a storage ottoman to a different spot which then required us to move our night stand a few inches.  It's a chain reaction.  We also moved two really tall CD racks to a safer place where hopefully when Hazy starts crawling around she wont be able to knock them over on top of herself.  We still need to move a filing cabinet out of Hazy's room and sand and paint a bookshelf that is going to stay in her room.  It's very slowly starting to take shape.  If I had my way we would have it all done in one weekend.  But that's not going to happen.

Because I love spending money I don't have I started to look online for nursing dresses that I could potentially wear to my sister's wedding which at worst case scenario will be less than 3 weeks after I give birth.  Maybe if she comes just a little early I will have a month to deflate.  God, so depressing.  Anyway, I found a few websites that have some cool nursing clothes.  Figure 8 Maternity and Milk Nursing Wear.  I actually bought a nursing dress that I really liked from Figure 8.  I am not sure if I will wear it to my sister's wedding, it kinda depends on what my other sisters end up wearing because I want to be similar to them for pictures but I really liked it and I will wear it for the rest of the summer even if I don't wear it to the wedding.  I had no idea what size to get so I got the size I would normally wear if not pregnant which is a huge gamble.  Considering that I am at least 20 lbs heavier than my normal pre-pregnancy weight already and I still have 20 something more weeks to go, one could bet money that I won't be fitting into this dress 3 weeks after giving birth.  But I liked it so I bought it.

Sorry they are blurry but you get the picture.

I think with cute jewelery and cute heels it can work for a casual summer wedding, right?  Hopefully my sisters decide to wear pink, green or coral! 

I also created a baby registry at Target for essentials.  Mostly crib sheets, G diapers, baby gate, diaper changing pads etc.  Nothing too exciting but a lot of stuff I will be happy that I didn't have to buy myself!  One of my closest friends is arranging to have my baby shower at her dad's condo's event room which is super classy and nice.  It's in downtown Seattle which is a perfect neutral location because my house, while centrally located, is way too small for the 30 plus ladies I will be inviting and my sister who is hosting also has a small house and lives just about as far south as you can get and still say you live in Seattle.  Not very convenient.  My friend had her bridal shower in the event space at her dad's condo and it will be perfect for my baby shower.  I have decided that I am limiting the attendance of children to my baby shower to "babies 1 and under welcome."  All my friends have one to two kids a piece and there would literally be 20 kids running around if they all came.  Every time B and I throw a party at our house no matter what the occasion it always feels like it turns into a kids birthday party.  I don't want that vibe for my baby shower.  I know it's totally selfish and self absorbed but I want the shower to be about me and MY baby not theirs!  Already one of my friends is acting insulted and trying to manipulate me into letting her 9 year old daughter attend, it's strange how people cant respect other people's boundaries.   

Alright that's all I got for now.  I am posting my 18 week belly pic on my Belly Pic Page if you want to see my fat in all it's glory.