So Much To Do!

I'm 21 weeks and 3 days, only 130 days to go!  It might seem like a lot of time left but I know it's going to fly by.  I have so many things that I've been wanting to do before the baby comes; both fun things and things that will help us to be more organized when she arrives.  I know once she gets here we will be so busy there is no way we will get to a lot of this stuff. 

Here's my to-do list so far.  I completely realize that I will probably be lucky to get half of this stuff done.  Hopefully posting it here will help me get a handle on it and I can keep chipping away at it in the next 130 days.

Home Stuff
-Finish organizing my closet
-Finish unpacking/decorating the bedroom (since we just moved in December it's still a bit disheveled)
-Unpack/organize/decorate the guest room
-Install IKEA shelves in the office and unpack the rest of the office stuff
-Clean up the formal living/dining room area (currently being used as a storage/furniture building area)
-Organize the craft room
-Finish organizing the baby's bathroom
-Install a utility sink in the laundry room and possibly a counter and shelves

Preparing for the Baby
-Create our baby registry
-Order the crib and dresser
-Get the nursery painted and decorated, with everything set up and organized
-Sew crib bedding and window treatment
-Read 1-2 baby care books (Baby 411 and What to Expect: The First Year)
-Read 1-2 breastfeeding books
-Do 1-2 freezer cooking sessions so that we will have a month's worth of meals on hand and already prepared (I have done this before, so I know I am capable of it, as long as I don't get too tired of being on my feet)

That's all I can think of so far.  What else am I forgetting?

And, here's my weekly update:

How far along?: 21 Weeks

How big is baby?:   Your baby is the size of a butternut squash! Your baby now weighs about 15 ounces and is 11" long.  You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and her vagina has begun to form as well.

Any appointments or updates this week?:  No

Body changes?: The bump is still growing :)

Maternity clothes?:  Yep, it's pretty much all I wear now.  I love my new Gap maternity jeans!  I can still wear some pre-pregnancy sweaters but everything else isn't quite long enough for my belly. 

Best moment last week?:  Deciding on our crib and bedroom set

Food cravings?:  Ice cream, girl scout cookies and all kinds of chocolate candy!  Oh and fettucini alfredo...yummmm!

Symptoms?: I haven't had any acid reflux this week, thank goodness.  I've been avoiding spicy food and marinara sauce.  My leg cramps are still waking me up at night.  And the numbness in my left leg really bothers me sometimes.  All of a sudden it can feel like water is running down my leg or worse, a burning sensation.  Art googled it and we found out that this is something called meralgia paresthetica.  Apparently it is caused by compression of a nerve that supplies sensation to the skin surface of the thigh.   I have been trying to sleep on my right side to see if it helps shift the baby away from that side, but it's hard to sleep that way.  I've noticed it's been getting harder and harder to get comfortable at night.

Exercise?: I didn't get a chance to go to yoga this week but I did go for a walk.  I'm hoping to go to a yoga class this weekend.

What I miss?:  Sleeping all the way through the night - yep, still this from last time.

What I'm looking forward to?: Getting my fabric swatches in the mail and getting to start working on my craft/sewing projects!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

House Update - We own a new home!

So after a lot of stress, multiple walk-throughs checking every little thing on the house, and a few desperate e-mails, we finally closed on our new house on Wednesday!  What a relief!  Considering that we were planning to move on Saturday it was getting down to the wire. 

So all week we have been packing and getting ready to make the move.  I'm so excited!  Here is a picture of what our living room looks like right now: 

As you can see it's pretty much organized chaos.  I can't believe how much stuff we have crammed into our little 2 bedroom townhouse over the years.  And it's a little bittersweet because this is the first home we have lived in since we got married.  But we have made lots of great memories here and are ready to move on to the next chapter of our lives. 

We are hoping to finish up the packing tonight and be ready for Moving Day!  Luckily we have the world's best friends who are coming to help us.  It's going to be hard for me to just watch them since I'm not allowed to lift any boxes but I suppose I will manage somehow ;)

Our plan is to pick up a U-Haul truck in the morning and load all of the boxes and small things like chairs and end tables into it and unload it at the new house.  Then we have professional movers coming in the late afternoon to pick up our big furniture.  I'm looking forward to having everything moved in one day so that we can actually sleep at our new house on Saturday night! 

Stay tuned for more updates! 

More Frustration!

We found out this morning that our house did not pass one of the inspections, so we won't be able to close until Wednesday at the earliest now.  It might seem trivial but this house thing is totally stressing me out!  I know it will all work out in the end but I really wish I didn't have to wait any more.

Sometimes it really feels like God is giving me a test of patience.  I have never been a patient person and as I've gotten older I can see how I will need to be more and more patient...especially once we have a child!  I guess it's good that I'm getting these lessons in patience now, as much as I wish I wasn't.

So stay tuned for more house updates soon, I can't wait to share pictures and start getting moved in!  I will be praying all week that we still can move this weekend. 

We're moving!

Over the past few months (even before we got our BFP) we have been talking about moving to a bigger house.  We found our dream house and signed a contract on it the day we found out we were pregnant!  Since then, we've been waiting patiently for November 30th to close on the house.  Well, Friday came and that didn't happen...unfortunately the builder didn't get everything completed on time to get all the final inspections done by the county.  Talk about a stressful day!  But in the end, we did sign most all the paperwork and now are just waiting on one more final paper which will probably get done on Tuesday after the final inspections (IF they get done on Monday). 

So it's moving time for us!  Art and I put together a plan of attack yesterday (3 stages, rooms used least to most) and then he awesomely priced out boxes at all the stores and we went to buy supplies.  Today we jump into packing!  3 boxes down, a million to go.  Except that we forgot to buy tape, so Art went to WalMart to get that.  Packing while pregnant isn't exactly a picnic.  I get winded every five seconds.  And after 3 boxes I am tired.  So I will be taking lots of breaks.  But, I want to keep the momentum going so that we can hopefully be moved in next weekend.

Luckily the new house is only a few miles from our current place, so our plan is to start moving boxes over as soon as we get the keys.  We decided to hire movers for the big stuff, considering that I won't be any help and Art just doesn't want to mess with it.  But, our goal is to get the little stuff out of the way so that when they come everything else will already be moved over.  We will see how it goes...stay tuned!