Adding some Lemon into Life.

All and all I can not complain about being pregnant, however lately I have been wanting more variety in my drink selection.  It hard when people are having a glass of wine or beer and I am just drinking boring water!  For a while I would buy sparkling Lemonade when I saw it at HomeGoods but I felt guilty because it was anywhere from 70-140 calories a serving. 

So I decided to look for another option.
When I was in Bed Bath and Beyond completely my Christmas shopping I spotted this County Time Lemonade for our Soda Stream- i.e Sparkling Lemonade. 

They make a Crystal Light Lemonade for Soda Stream but have not be able to find it in the store and only online at the SodaStream Website where I have to pay 7 dollars for shipping which is a little ridiculous!

 It was 35 calories a serving so a little less guilty.
 I decided to try it at $5.99 minus 20% coupon that I had.  I decided to put only a half of a cap full in thinking it would be
1) Less calories and
2) Less Sweet.  

I totally love it!.  

It is so good and nice to have something different and fun to drink.  

Maternity Tour

Joe and I signed up for our Maternity tour and went a couple of weekends ago.

Yes I was only 24 weeks but the two dates that they had in December did not work and the two dates in Janaury also did not work- and I was not waiting until February to do the tour because the Farmers Almanc is calling for some major winter storms, not to mention we had time to do it now.

So Saturday we headed over to drop off Clemson at my parents since we were going to have dinner with them later and then headed out to the tour.

The Birthing in at Loudoun Hospital is nice in the fact that it is a separate part of the hospital and it does have a very calming atmosphere.  It only has 9 labor rooms which is minor when compared to Fairfax which is why I picked it. 

So we showed up for the tour which was large.

Probably at least 15 couples or 30 people.

The tour was given by a hospital administrator- not a nurse which I thought was interesting. 

We were walked thru triage, Labor and Delivery room, Postpartum room, nursery, etc. 

It last approximately 30 minutes. 

While it was probably great for Joe, I thought it very very generic compared to the tour we give where I work.  This might be because ours is given by a nurse. 

Joe and I did find humor in the questions people asked. 

For example, one lady was fixated on the fact that you can have gatoraid during labor and wanted to know what flavors were provided.  Seriously, I do not think you are going to be worried about this when you are trying to push a watermelon out of your vagina. 

Joe felt good knowing where to go and what to expect. 

Me the only thing I learned that I did not think of was to bring my check book to fill out the social security info.  Considering this was free it was worth doing, however if baby number 2 ever comes I think this is definitely something I will bypass even if delivering at another hospital. 

Clemson on the other hand had a busy day at my parents and was exhausted by the time we got home. 

23 week Visit

Bug,

 

Sorry I am late to getting around to this again, but that is life.  

I was originally suppose to have my 20 week appointment that got canceled because of Sandy so it turned into my 23 week appointment last week because that was the earliest I could get in without taking time off.    It worked out because Granny was able to go with us because she had the day off. 

Bug, today you are officially 24+ weeks.  

This is a big one- one that I as a high risk ob nurse at heart was counting down to.  

You are viable- which means if for some reason you come at this point (though you should listen to your mother and stay put) you could survive.  Every week from here on out it just gets easier, so please stay put.  Our next big mark is 28 weeks and then 32 =0).

Things about you that I have noticed since our last visit:

Well we found out that we are going to have another little boy in our life, Clemson being our first.  At first this was alot for me to wrap my head around because I do not know anything boys, but I think we are going to do just fine!  You have your name picked out and it is offically because we finalized our wills and started an email account for you which we will be in charge of for many years to come.  We ordered your letters for the wall for the nursery... the only thing is we are the only ones who know your name and love our little secrete.  

You are a crazy mover!  

In the words of the ultrasound tech-  "He is going to skip crawling and go straight to walking." 

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:  "He is going to be a soccer player!"

Do not worry- we are totally ready for you!  

I love that you have fallen into a pattern of moving like checking in with me multiple times to let me know you are ok.  I also love when I am listening to other babies heartbeats at their mommies appointments you start kicking me to let me know you are there.  It is like you are saying hi to the other babies.

Thank you for saying goodbye to the all day sickness.  It is so nice to be able to eat normally- well not normally but actually keep stuff down.  I have noticed I have to eat smaller meals and dinner has totally gone out the window.  Your poor father has not had dinner cooked for him in probably two weeks because I just have no appetite when I get home.  I still hate the smell of meat and am loving everything fruit related.    I am offically back up to my pre-pregnancy weight which I do not really understand since there is definitely a small belly which was not there before.  

I have been trying to be good about walking and jogging when I have the energy and Clemson has kept me company.  I have been fortante to really not have any pregnancy discomforts at this point.  

I am still able to fix into alot of my regular clothes but I know that any day that is going to change when you pop.  I can already tell that you are going to be like a little basketball which I love!

I have had a couple stressful moments and the "pregnancy Laura" came out the other weekend when the crib drama hit the fan- more to come on this later.   But the good news is your room is painted, the crib is ordered, the chair is ordered and we are starting to get ready for you!

I received my Dtap shot to make sure we keep you from getting Whopping Cough when you are born.  Next visit I have to do both my glucose and my rhogam which I am not really looking forward to it but it should be the last time that I hopefully have to get blood drawn. 

You are measuring right on!  23 weeks at 23 cm.  Your heart rate was 155s.

In closing a happy thought- My favorite part of the day is when we are in bed and you are kicking me as you always do when we get ready to say goodnight and Clemson comes and lays his head on my belly.  My two boys already bonding!

Next appointment 28 weeks....

Crib Drama

You may remember when I blogged about our crib selection:  MTV Cribs

We made our decision a Baby Cache crib from Babies R Us.

Only it was not meant to be. 

We went into to purchase it in October and was told it was on back order until the begining of November.

Checked the begining of November- backordered to end of November/December.

Checked again toward the end of November- now even further backordered until late December.

Yeap in true pregnancy style.... I lost it! 

Well we would just find a replacement crib - right? 

Seriously this was hard. 

All I wanted from a crib was for it to be pure white and for it to look nice and be a convertible. 

Well you would be amazed how many different types of whites there were! 

There is

Off white

Cloud

Distressed White

French White.

Seriously!!!

Then you cut out the cribs that are ridiculously priced-there really went that many options.

So basically all the cribs at Babies R Us were out because they did not have any other pure white cribs that were also convertibles.

Buy Buy Baby was out because they quoted us 12 weeks to get the crib.  Seriously I would be 36+ weeks.

I do not think so!

So upon a recommendation from someone Joe works with we headed to Great Beginnings in Marland.

It is basically a baby wearhouse. 

First they scare the shit out of you telling you it will take 12 weeks to get your crib in- making you feel bad for waiting till 24 weeks. 

Well it was not my choice to wait- life just happened.  It was also very expensive and again overwhelming.  We left and I got in the car and cried. 

That sales lady totally made me feel bad and stressed me out!

So Joe looked at me and said-

"Lets go to the place in Manassas- we have nothing to loose at this point."

I agreed with him, so we headed to Baby 2 Teen. 

I will tell you I had a completely different experience this time. 

We walked in and started looking at cribs - we found two that we love. 

The sales rep came over and asked us if we had any questions. 

Answered all our question and was very knowledgeable. 

Joe basically told him what happened and our crib story so he called the companies and made sure both cribs we were considering were in stock and ready to be shipped.  They were. 

I was amazed that he did this considering Joe just told him what happened and did not even ask him to check.  Then he started telling us about the specials that they are having on black friday- basically if you buy a crib and dresser you get the conversion kit for free.  We explained we were not going to be here because we are going to Florida for Thanksgiving and he said he would honor it today or if we came in again because we would not be here.  The conversion kit is basically a $200 expense that Joe and I were going to pay for so this was a bonus. 

So I looked at Joe and we decided we were not going home without ordering a crib.

So we ordered the Pali Marina in White.

We opted for this one because I loved how it went down a little in the front because I am short and loved the finish.  It looks nice but still boyish, some of the white cribs definitely have a femine style.

All in all the total for the crib, dresser, conversion kit, and delivery was only $100 dollars more than if we had purchased at Babies R Us because we got the coversion kit for free. 

I totally love it!!!!!

Say My Name....

Early on after we found out that there was going to be a little bug,

Joe and I decided to keep the name a secret until bug was here. 

This was a decision made on the fact that we thought it would be fun

but also because we had both a girl and boy name that we both LOVED

and did not want anyone crushing our love for the name. 

We did have to figure out middle names but again that seemed to be so easy for us that we just went with it. 

So Baby OH or bug will have to due for the time being. 

But that being said I totally find it humorous how many people have tried to guess bug's name or

give us suggestions. 

LOVE IT! 

I promise you Bug that your name will totally be you.

It will not have anything to do with Clemson University- Sorry Calhoun.

It will be normal -  sorry no Snickers. 

You will not be the top 10 names but you will probably be in the top 100. 



Finishing Our House Goals

Earlier this year, you might remember when I blogged about our "House Goals" for the year.  

This is something I have done for the past two years and I truely love this idea.

It helps prioritize what needs to be done but also spreads your projects out financially.  

Well it is now the middle of November and happy to announce that we completed all of our 

house goals for 2012 with some additions.  

You May remember...

1) Storm Door

We paid someone to install it because our doorway was not standard and this was not a project I was willing to let Joe take on.  

Cost of door and installation- $500

Completed in February 2012 in around 2 hours

2) Painting the house

We again decided to pay someone to do this.  After finding out we were pregnant, this added another huge room.  Joe was totally against paying someone but after getting an estimate from someone who did work on our neighbors house- we were sold.  

We ended up having the entry way, that downstairs living room, the stair way on the main level and the upper level, the hallway upstairs and the nursery upstairs painted.  

3) Move the bushes out front to the side of our house and use that area for flowerbeds.

Done is less than a couple hours with the help of hubby.  

Done in March/April

4) Moving furniture into the house

As you recall- Joe's parents moved out of their house and down to Florida. 

We inherited some furniture.  

The big item was a chest which is now going to go in the nursery to store stuff.

Fortunately, Joe's parents moved this for us since it was big and heavy.  

5) The carpet down in the basement level.

This was our May/June project.  

After looking at a couple places we went with CarpetLand because they were the cheapest and also the least pushy when it came to sales.  

Total cost:  $750 for the two large rooms.  

6) Guest room

This was a 2 month project because I did it gradually.  

Originally this was going to be my winter project but quickly became my first trimester project once I found out that we were pregnant.  

We moved furniture down from the old guest room and got rid of furniture that we no longer had a use for.  

We painted the room.  

Got new linens, hung curtains, etc.  

The total cost of the room remodel was less than $450 which included everything from the dresser, to the paint, to the bed frame purchased on Craigslist, to the all the linens/curtains.  

7) Attic

Joe completed this task over the holidays last year! 
Money:  Less than $100 for floorboards
Time:  5 hours total 

I am so thankful to have all this extra storage area now!

Especially with a little one on the way.

 All the projects this year are considered minor considering in

2010 we redid the kitchen and in 2011 we did the patio and all the bathrooms.

All in all I am happy with the fact that we completed every task that we set out to do.  

Now a new task has been added to our list...

 The Nursery.

Fortunately we have a lot of time to get this done. 

Paint- Done

The nursery is officially painted!!!

WAHOO!!!

Now I just have to order the furniture if it ever comes into stock!

Leave it to me to pick the one that is back ordered!

We went with Ashes in Behr Paint!

I totally love it especially with the white crib we have picked out and the yellow accents that will be coming!