Still Waiting: A Whinefest

I am writing this at 3 AM on day 6 of week 41 of this pregnancy. Little Brother had an estimated ETA of January 15 and it is now January 28. I begin to suspect that, left to his own devices, he might prove me wrong on the whole “no way we make it to February” thing. 

This has not been an easy couple of weeks. No lovely babymoon, laidback nesting, or sweet family moments. Instead it’s been a big game of “who can get the worst version of the world’s nastiest head cold” punctuated by toddler insomnia, arguments, and stress. Maybe this kid just doesn’t want any part of this world at this point.

I’ve had a couple of decent rounds of contractions; in fact, the ones I had at lunch time yesterday had me convinced that we’d be on the postpartum floor by now, but then they stopped and I haven’t had any decent ones since. I guess the plus side to that is that it has given me more time to rest, eat, and get over the worst of this germ. I wish it had also given R more time to get the house ready for Baby (as I’m far past the point of physically being able to clean) but he of course has been far sicker than I’ve been and has been able to do little beyond hold down the sofa.

On Tuesday my second non-stress test showed that Baby was healthy and comfortable. A cervical check showed that I was about 3.5 to 4 cm, very thin, very low baby. Midwife felt confident we were likely within 48 hours. At that time we discussed inducing on Friday, hopefully using a more natural method with minimal side effects, but it was only usable if I were less than 5 cm by then. After all the start-and-stop contractions since then, I have no faith that this is still an option. 

That means I’m staring down the probability of a medical induction complete with extensive monitoring, IV drip, much higher risk of surgery, and everything else I had so hoped to avoid. This just needs to get over with. Nothing else is right about this at this point — in fact, very little about this pregnancy has been “right”; what difference does it make now if I have the birth experience I’d wanted? Whatever.

I’ve definitely had moments of positivity and good humor about this. The wee hours of the morning, on the Xth night in a row that I’d so strongly believed would be interrupted by real labor, is not one of them. Right now I feel beyond dejected and am all the way into “feeling like a total failure” mode. What the heck is wrong with my body that it won’t kick into gear? Like, literally — is something wrong?

Sigh.

Consolation: it will all be over in the next few days, one way or the other. Every day of waiting is another day for me to remember the bad aspects of labor,  of course, so I’m all nervous now. I’m tired of feeling sure that it will “be today” and then being disappointed. The whole extended family is on anxious standby and that makes me feel like crap too. I’m by nature a patient person (although it runs out) but not everyone in my family is, and I know this is making them crazy. 

I just want to hold my baby. Like, two weeks ago.

I suppose I ought to try to go back to sleep. It’s 4 AM now and nothing has happened to get us any closer to a natural showtime in the past hour. Got a tickle in my throat though that may keep me up. Blah. Poor me, right? Haha. Well, now that I’ve whined for a few paragraphs, maybe I can get back to an optimistic mood in the morning.

6 Great Gifts for a Pregnant Friend

Let’s say your friend or relative just told you that she’s pregnant, and you’d like to give her a congratulatory present. What is the perfect gift?

There are five things that, looking back on the past nine months, were absolutely indispensable to me. Individually they’d make a pretty funny present, but they’d make a kick-butt gift basket!

In increasing order of cost:

Calgon Ultra-Moisturizing Bath Beads: $2-4

Calgon, take me away!

Despite some alarmist advice you may have come across, it is NOT harmful to take a nice bath while pregnant. The thing is that you don’t want to raise your body temperature too much; hanging out in a hot tub or hot springs can be troublesome because the high temperature stays constant. A bath, on the other hand, gets cooler as you sit in it, so you’re safe.

Baths are relaxing, both physically and emotionally, and a pregnant lady’s skin can always use moisturizing. I’m a big fan of a bubble bath, but when you’ve become bulbous, it can be hard to get all those suds off your feet when it’s time to get out. Bath beads are a pretty lovely compromise; they smell lovely, turn the bathwater pretty colors, and don’t get you all bubbly. Calgon beads don’t stain the tub, and they come in waterproof containers so they can hang out in there when you shower.

Potential downsides: A container goes pretty quickly, and they can make the tub slippery. Solution: buy lots (they’re cheap) and be careful. 🙂

Enormous Bottles of Tums: $5ish

I am not sure any pregnant woman can have enough Tums. I’ve had a big bottle on my desk at work, another big one by the bed, a third one downstairs in the living room, and a smaller bottle (but by no means a “travel-sized” — I’d empty that in a day) in my purse.

In my case, the mint flavors were intolerable; it was Assorted Berries all the way. But different people will have vastly different tastes….

Double-walled travel cup with straw: $6-15

I have become so attached to my cups that they may have to surgically remove them at some point. I like the bigger ones that will hold a large quantity of ice and water. They keep the ice from melting very quickly, and you can keep hydrated in style. The ones in the picture are pretty boring; I’ve gotten most of mine at TJ Maxx, and they’re pretty stylish! My current cup has freezable goop between the walls to keep it cold even longer, and an insulated sleeve to keep your hands from getting too cold. The double walls also keep the cups from condensating, which is very nice at work.

The Body Shop Body Butter: $20

(Whoa! They’re on sale for $10-12 on the Body Shop website right now!)

When I first started getting stretch marks, I knew that there wasn’t really anything I could do about it (they’re genetic and, if you’re gonna get ’em, inevitable) but I wanted to keep my skin as elastic as possible just in case it would help. I read somewhere that body butter was the way to go, and ultimately cheaper than all the fancy products especially marketed for stretch marks, so I went to the Body Shop. Got lucky — hit a buy 2, get 1 free sale. 🙂

Each tub of body butter from The Body Shop costs about $20, although I’ve seen their products at other stores (Ulta, Nordstrom Rack, etc.) for about half that. They last quite a while; I’ve gone back and forth between two containers and haven’t emptied either one, although I don’t use it every night either.

At the time that I got mine, I was extremely sensitive to smells. Some of the body butters have very strong fragrances; the “baked good” scents in particular really turned my stomach. I ended up getting two with very light, benign scents: Vitamin E and Olive. I also liked some of the lighter citrus scents.

I don’t know if I can credit the body butter, but I haven’t had any problems with itchy belly skin — and since I always get itchy, that’s pretty miraculous! If nothing else, some luxurious lotion is always a nice gift for someone who isn’t feeling top-notch.

Snoogle Body Pillow: $40-50

Okay, so this might be a funny sort of present, depending on what kind of relationship you have, but it has basically saved my life. You can coil it into several different shapes to support whatever part of yourself needs supporting. The C-shape you see above gives you back support and hip support, and if you can coil it around you tightly enough it also supports your belly when you hug it. But you can do lots of different things with it, and there have been many nights that I don’t think I would have had any sleep at all without it.

And finally…

Something that is for HER, not for “Pregnant Her” or “Momma Her”

Once someone is pregnant, people want to talk about that a lot. You get lots of baby-related conversation, lots of baby-related gifts. Think how meaningful it would be for her to receive a gift that says, “I am happy for you, the person who is still herself even though she is incubating another human being, and this made me think of you.”

Trust me — she’ll love that.

What do you think? What are the things that made your pregnancy survivable? Share your suggestions in the comments. 🙂

Pics or It Didn’t Happen

All pictures by my mommy, Bonnie Hoffman; taken on March 28 & 31, 2013, in Platt Gardens at the Boise Depot.
I used http://www.fotor.com to throw together the collages.

37

Well, today I am 37 weeks pregnant. I have a baby-sized baby inside of me. He’s heavy. One of these dumb websites tells me he’s as long as a piece of Swiss chard. Why do all of the baby-size comparisons have to be to things we eat? I don’t want to have eaten my baby.

I can’t seem to get a good self-portrait of myself for these weekly posts, probably because I’m trying to take them using a timer app on my cell phone in a classroom with bad lighting. When we first got pregnant, Ryan wanted to take my picture every single day so that we could make an animated gif of my expansion. But then he started his new job and sorta forgot about taking pictures, so I’ve just been trying to take them myself, with pretty limited results. This one was so bad that I decided tohellwithit and gave it the Use Software to Turn a 21st Century Photograph Into a Terrible Photo from the Early 1980s treatment (aka Instagram, although in this case I used Pixlr). It actually improved the photo, which just goes to show you how bad it was.

I currently have rock-hard abs. Or rock-hard fetus. Something like that. Anyway, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to having a quarter bounce off my abdomen. I’m actually pretty sure you could do that now. Wait — is that a thing? Or am I thinking of making your bed to military standards? That’s probably what I’m thinking of. Oh well.

Tomorrow is my Strep B test, which sounds completely lovely, as does any procedure in which the words “swab,” “sample,” “vagina,” and “anus” appear in the same sentence. I imagine that they’ll take the opportunity to check my cervix while I have my knickers off — or at least, it seems like they’d want to be doing that, given that the kiddo is technically full-term and plenty of people give birth at 37 weeks. That said, I’d be shocked to learn that any progress has been made toward infant evacuation. If I’ve had any Braxton Hicks contractions, they’ve been mild enough to be mistaken for gas or minor twinges.

More uncomfortable by far are my son’s long legs. What’s up with pregnancy diagrams, anyway? They’re all from the side — I can’t find a single one that looks at the uterus (with a kid in it) from the front. This is what all these pregnancy websites want you to think of when they say someone is 37 weeks pregnant:

But they’re missing out on the real story, which looks something a bit more like this:

(If I had the time or skills, I’d animate that so that you could see those legs shoving as hard as they can against ribs and side, constantly…)

What I’m trying to say here is, Kermie isn’t a placid little curled up ball of baby in there — although he has gotten calmer as he’s run out of room. He has really one and only one hobby, and that’s attempting to stretch my right ribcage out as far as humanly possible before his birthday.

I do have some very nice “look, I’m bulbous” photographs to share, but I need a little more time to curate them before sharing here. Like, real photographs, not iPhone crappery. I suppose I ought to take some time to figure out how so many people can take clear photos on their iPhones; mine are never as good as I want them to be. Anyway, here is one picture, taken on Easter, that doesn’t necessarily show off my bulbousness (that dress camouflaged rather than emphasized my shape) but which includes baby’s not-really-namesake, so that’s cute.

Easter (March 31, 2013)

I like the word “bulbous.” I grow somewhat weary of being bulbous…

As I write, my friend B is — well, if things have gone according to schedule, she’s recovering from the delivery of their second baby… Very excited for her… Can’t wait to find out whether it’s a little brother or sister…

I think that’s enough for now. Not very inspired. Got to go to a staff meeting now and then grade a bunch of tests. See y’all later.

 

 

Nesting???

I have lost track of how many times I’ve been asked if I’ve “nested” yet. I am adding this to a list-in-progress:

Things Pregnant Women Are Supposed to Do That I Have Not Yet Done (I Think) And May Not Do At All Unless It Happens in the Next 20-40 days

• cry for no apparent (or no rational) reason
• have major mood swings
• the belly button “turkey timer” pop
• develop a linea negra
• experience extremely strong cravings for strange foods/food combinations
• “enjoy” massive increases in cup size
• nest

According to Pregnancy Weekly, nesting is “an uncontrollable urge to clean one’s house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.” Beyond simply wanting a clean house for the little one (which seems like basic common sense) nesting is usually described as a somewhat fanatical impulse. The same article goes on to say:

Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have “brand new, clean” sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival.

This unusual burst of energy is responsible for women ironing anything in the house that couldn’t out run them. Being preoccupied with ant killing, squishing them one at a time for weeks on end. Packing and unpacking the labor bag 50 times. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards and organizing everything by size to the point that you make sure the silverware patterns match when it’s stacked in the cutlery drawer. Sorting the baby’s clothes over and over again is a favorite theme. Taking them out of the drawers and re-folding them, putting them away and doing it over and over again.

By these standards, the answer is no — I haven’t nested. Yes, I wanted to get the house clean over spring break, and there are still household cleaning and maintenance projects that I really hope get accomplished before the stork shows up. But I never felt compulsive about it, and never experienced that lovely burst of energy that makes “real” nesting possible. I certainly haven’t scrubbed anything with a toothbrush (outside of my mouth) or organized my Tupperware. Heck, half of my clothes aren’t even hung up right now.

Yesterday, though, I felt an overwhelming nesting urge of a different type…

(That’s not my dog, but s/he does the same thing my dog does — only with less enthusiasm and perfectionism. I should probably get Paisley’s nest-building on tape at some point; it’s pretty funny!)

I was really sleepy yesterday. It was the first day back to work after Spring Break, I’d slept very poorly, and my allergies were setting in (especially in my eyes, which were dry, which made me feel even sleepier). About halfway through my day, I found myself obsessing about afghans. No, not people from Afghanistan or long-haired hounds; crocheted or knit blankets, especially those made with soft cotton yarn (not that ucky wool stuff). Specifically, I was obsessing about the two Really Special Blankets that live on our bed and provide my favoritest pillowage and coverage and without which I feel uncomfortable sleeping. I am not going to take this moment to publicly admit that I have a security blanket(s). No, really, I’m not.

Man oh man, did I want my blankets yesterday. I thought about my blankets all through my last class of the day, thought about them as I sat bleary-eyed at my computer wrapping up the business of the day, thought about them as I drove home. I wanted to bury myself in them, wanted to build myself a nest of blankets, curl up, and sleep for hours.

I got home, let Paisley out… changed clothes… and grabbed my blankies. I took them down to the couch and spent the rest of the evening squished up in them as much as my does-not-bend-due-to-enormously-bulging-midsection body would permit. I never did actually fall asleep until bedtime (which paid off; I slept very well last night) but it felt good to indulge my desire to be a cuddled-up puppy or kitty for an evening.

The critters liked it, too.

So! My life goal at this point, I think, is to get some sort of egg-shaped thing — a bit like a papasan chair, only with higher edges — and fill it with afghans, and climb in, and never get out. I’ll need some good air conditioning, and someone to refill my water bottle and bring me the occasional eclair. And someone else can do the other kind of nesting for me! 🙂

Catching Up

I am a wee bit overdue for an update. I honestly just haven’t felt like writing or reading anything for the past few days. It was a loooong week at work, and my brain has just been sapped. (I haven’t opened the book I’m “currently reading” for weeks… so much for my plan to bulk up on reading before baby arrives.)

Well, as of today I am 35 weeks and 3 days pregnant… and I am feeling every minute of it. Boy howdy, they are not kidding when they say that these last weeks of pregnancy are uncomfortable! The little guy is getting heavier and I’m having more frequent abdominal discomfort — not contraction-type stuff, but just tendons and skin and whatnot getting a workout — and a lot more trouble with all that leg/hip/pelvis mechanism. I really don’t think he’s dropped, as the bump is still very high up against my chest, but things are certainly changing. I’m having a hard time walking very far, increased (and increasingly random) need for the bathroom, and more back pain. It’s getting more difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position, and I’m finally at a point where I actually need the recommended four pillows (head, back, under-belly, between-leg) to minimize aches and strains. I’m also beginning to see very mild ankle/foot swelling after a long day.

The most aggravating thing I’ve had in the past few days (possible TMI zone for the gentlemen) is that the girth of my belly — getting larger, and still up high — has exceeded the maximum length of my bra bands, causing painful pinching and chafing. I’m really sensitive to that sort of thing (yay team SD) so this has been a high-priority problem for me. I haven’t wanted to invest much in larger-banded underwear because I know that specific problem will go away when the baby drops (or, worst case, when baby arrives) but I found a nice stretchy nursing bra at Target, plus a package of bra extenders for only $7 that I hope get me through the next few weeks.

Aggravating in a different way? Hiccups. OMG, are prenatal hiccups (his, not mine) annoying!!! I mean, I’m glad they’re there, I’m glad I can feel the munchkin doing things. But these extended fits of hiccups could just about drive me crazy.

The other day I whined, half-seriously, that I was never going to be comfortable again nor get a good night’s sleep again. Then last night I got six hours of uninterrupted sleep, which was pretty awesome. I should take a moment to remind myself that I really have been enjoying being pregnant. I may not be able to remember that very much longer! 🙂

Anyway, at 35 weeks, Kermie is supposed to weigh about five and a half pounds and be 18-20 inches long. He doesn’t have much room to maneuver anymore, and in this particular case he isn’t really doing much in the way of kicking anymore, but he’s been stretching his legs out and pushing me in the side rather strongly. The little illustrations online and in books show that Kermie pretty much just looks like a baby now, putting on weight and all that good stuff.

I have several other posts that need writing: baby shower, stroller, maternity photography…. We’ll see if I get to those this weekend….

31!

Wow: I don’t need all of my fingers to count how many weeks are left before our due date anymore!

Also… Yikes. I don’t need all of my fingers to count how many weeks are left before our due date anymore.

Before I continue, behold! A not-very-clear photograph of me after a long day at work with my clingy cat who recently feels the need to be surgically attached to me at all times!

31 months pregnant with my two boys: d’Artagnan, and He-Who-Refuses-To-Be-Named

Kissy kitty!

At 31 weeks’ gestation, the kiddo is now 18″ long (yep, big enough to hang out with Addy and Josefina) and has passed the three pound mark. Allegedly, this makes him the size of a pineapple. He is getting stronger; when he aims just right, his squirming and kicking can now get uncomfortable. Case in point: yesterday evening, when he got bored with pushing on my bladder and decided to jump on my cervix a few times! No bueno! He hasn’t caused me any pain yet, but I was definitely wishing I could grab him and move those little feet somewhere else for a few minutes there.

I feel him moving a lot these days, and have become conscious of him stretching or moving all the way from left to right and top to bottom. Sometimes I’d swear he’s all the way around to my side (especially the right side); sometimes he shoves my belly up as far as it can go toward my chest; and as previously noted, sometimes he heads south. Other times, I find myself entirely unable to imagine his position; I’ll feel what seems like kicking and tickling in all four quadrants of my belly, as if he’s in starfish position doing jazz hands. A couple of times I’ve felt series of bumps, about the size and shape of small peas, up near my ribcage — guessing those might be toes? All I know is that when I push on them, they go away… I do think he’s spending most of his time butt-upward lately, although honestly I’m only guessing that what I feel is bottom versus head. He is, after all, his parents’ child and therefore genetically likely to be a butthead.

So that’s what the baby is doing. Here’s what I do:

• visit bathrooms
• blow my nose (or wish I could, when kleenex aren’t available)
• guzzle ice water
• rub my belly absentmindedly
• belch at inopportune moments (e.g., when explaining nuance in Romeo and Juliet to a room full of 15-year-olds)
• blame stinky freshmen boys and squeaky furniture for other unintended emissions
• drop and/or knock over things
• forget my own mailing address
• make a significant impact on the Tums company’s quarterly profit margin
• have long stretches of time (multiple days) in which I can only eat about six bites of food at once, and never seem to have any appetite
• have shorter, but more enjoyable, stretches of time in which I can and will devour EVERYTHING, especially if it is made of chocolate [ed. note: I am not, ordinarily, a chocolate fiend]
• wish I could take a nap
• hate everything 🙂

Everyone wants to know if we’ve picked out a name yet, and the answer is still no, although I am beginning to think that we’ve either narrowed it down to two or are about to throw it wide open to a whole new list of possibilities. On the way home today, I began second-guessing my opposition to names that end with -er sounds (I love those names, but not the rhyming thing with our last name). And a few days ago, we were considering Zappa names. I’m beginning to warm up to Dazzling Moonburst Baker; what do you think? We could call him Daz…

Horizontal Stripes are Cool

One body, two hearts, one TARDIS. I am totally going to be the next Doctor. I’m even a ginger!
(I wear horizontal stripes now. Horizontal stripes are cool.)

 

 

29!

Three weeks ago (wooly carp, was that really only three weeks ago?) I wrote a weekly prenatal update and included a handy-dandy diagram I’d found that not only showed Kermie’s development in utero, but included some really boneheaded labels. After we all had a good laugh at the idea that BabyCenter didn’t think I knew where my own back was, I decided to look elsewhere for my illustrations.

Today marks Week 29, though, and a rudimentary GIS was less than inspiring. Since I happened to be sitting at a computer with Photoshop, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Behold, the new and improved BabyCenter diagram for a 29-week-old pregnancy:

I think they should definitely hire me, don’t you?

This week, if I had to describe how I feel in three words, they would probably be:

• sleepy
• temperamental
• round

The first bullet point ought to be in flashing red text. I am So. Tired. I wake up daydreaming about taking naps. (This may be because while actually sleeping, I dream that my husband is the only one who can breastfeed our baby and that my sister wore a tutu to her wedding and didn’t tell me she was getting married until it was too late for me to buy a pretty dress.) I’m actually sleeping pretty well these past couple of weeks — knock on wood — but it’s just not enough anymore. And it’s become visible; as you can see, the eyes have it:

The second bullet point is mostly a teaching issue. I’m not, as a rule, a yeller, threatener, discipline referral writer, etc.. This year, though, the combination of “classroom management challenges” (that’s code for “bratty kids”) and my general feeling of exhaustion and discomfort has really begun to turn me into something that I’m not. Yesterday, I told a fellow teacher that I probably really shouldn’t be here anymore; I simply don’t have the patience that I need to survive my freshmen. I’ve caught myself being irrationally sharp outside of the classroom, too. I don’t suppose it’s really any more fun, but I kind of wish that these pregnancy hormones made me weepy instead of cranky. At least then people might feel sorry for me instead of thinking I’m the Wicked Witch! To tell the truth, if I could still be paid for it, I might be looking to bail out on work now.*

Bullet point #3 refers to the fact that my belly has finally become conspicuous — not in terms of the way it looks, but rather how it feels. When I sit up straight or lean forward, my belly rests on the top of my legs; that’s a peculiar sensation, especially when said belly is engaging in autonomous motion! My default sitting position has always been to cross one leg over the other (I suppose a bit as if I needed to use the restroom) but this has become increasingly strange-feeling, as my belly gets wedged up against my hip joint. Kermie seems to get cramped in this position and will often tickle my hip socket until I move.

After a few days of taking it easy (and making his mommy neurotic) Kermie has gotten wiggly again. Last night I was lying on my back, fully clothed, for a few minutes (I’m glad this is still comfortable, as it makes tired backs happy) and was able to watch — not feel — Kermie bouncing around in there. I’d been led to believe that mobility would begin to decrease, but I think he is still flipping quite a bit — and pretty quickly. Yesterday I clearly felt him kicking to the side, and only a moment later he was kicking at the top of the uterus, and only a few moments later he was definitely kicking the bladder/cervix region.

Killer indigestion. Achy stretchy hips/pelvis. Short of breath. Happy, though, except when I’m losing my poo at my freshmen.

Tomorrow is the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Gestational Diabetes Test. I’m not exactly jumping up and down for the fasting or the flat orange soda thing, but I’m cool with it. What I’m dreading — like, hardcore — is the drawing of the blood. They’re going to try to do it in the OB’s office, which means it won’t be a specifically-trained phlebotomist… and since a phleb couldn’t get a vein last time, I’m really not looking forward to that part of my day tomorrow (and of course, it’s going to be an A day at work)… but who knows. Maybe I’ll get lucky. 🙂

* So. Moms in Sweden get up to sixteen MONTHS of maternity leave at 80% pay (I get six weeks at 67% pay). Estonian moms get 18 months paid leave, starting up to 70 days before the due date. Moms in the UK are entitled to up to 39 weeks of paid maternity leave, and that may be going up to a full year. Lithuania and Slovenia, provides a full year at 100% pay. If I lived in Austria, Slovakia or the Czech Republic, the typical length of maternity leave is THREE YEARS. The chart I’m looking at has, as far as I can tell at a quick skim, only one country that has no nationally-mandated parental leave… that’s right, ladies and germs: The Good Ole U S of A.

Baby Things and Helpful Pets

Today, we didn’t find The Perfect Chair on Craigslist (we found the perfect chair a few days ago, but someone bought it from under us) so instead we wandered around town in the fog and sleet looking for inspiration. Honestly, it was rather nice just driving around town listening to the rain on the windshield and the music on the radio.

I had half-promised myself that we wouldn’t do anything baby-related today, but then I remembered that Other Mothers (one of the local consignment shops) was having their monthly Quarter Sale. We drove down but got there too late for the sale, but since it was so gross out and we’d driven down, we went in anyway. We’d been in a couple of times before (that’s where our dinosaur and bassinet came from) but until now had refrained from buying any clothes… but I’d been eying a fleecey ducky sleep sack for a while, and it was there for $3, and, well, one thing led to another.

We also went by Ross, in a moment of weakness, and found a couple of things there too. Kermie got a little bit spoiled today!

Pardon the bad photo quality; I took it in poor light on my iPhone, and I’m pretty sure I need to clean the lens. At the top is a painting that we just love for the nursery (I’ll post a better picture of it below). Then, from left to right, top row first: green gingham summer suit with giraffe, orange polo-shirt onesie, green “Snuggle Saurus” onesie, froggy onesie with pants and hat, tie-wearing teddy bear onesie with pants, two fleecey ducky sleep sacks, orange-and-blue stegosaur shirt, monster onesie, “smile” sleep-and-play for ironic squalling baby photos, a two-pack of baby mittens, tiny maroon corduroy overalls that stole Ryan’s heart, and a diaper bag that matches the stroller we registered for. The frog suit, bear suit, striped shirt, and mittens all still had new tags. They’re a variety of sizes from 0-9 months.

Here’s a better shot of the picture:

Again, not great photo quality — doesn’t really show the colors to their best advantage. It looks really cute with the other things we have, and we love that it isn’t all dinosaurs; we didn’t want a mono-themed nursery, necessarily.

I suspect that in some ways it’s pretty silly to be buying baby clothes three months before Kermie is scheduled to make his appearance, especially given that babies tend to get a lot of wardrobe gifts and hand-me-downs, but it’s just very difficult to resist adorable little onesies and whatnot on a dreary January afternoon! (I’m seriously contemplating braving the Nampa store’s Quarter Sale, which is supposed to start next Friday afternoon, even though I’ve heard it can be a bit cutthroat. I’m a big fan of garage sale/thrift store/etc. “treasure hunting” and I’d love to see what one of these sales looks like, and a month is a long time to wait for the Boise one.) (Back-to-back parenthetical comments! I’m also looking forward to the Moppet Togs sale in March — looks a little crazy, with the lines and all, but I’m promised that it’s amazing!)

The critters were, as usual, very helpful when it came to things related to their little brother. Paisley added her own contribution to the clothing lineup, and d’Artagnan pointed out that C was really for Cat, not Crocodile:

(Every time I turned around, that spider was in the middle of my shot again… Paisley is very helpful.)

Maybe the neatest thing about our unintended baby expedition was that we ran into someone we knew from Blue Thunder, who was at Other Mothers with her week-old baby boy. We talked for some time and I just soaked in that little guy — got to watch him have a diaper change and have a bottle. So little! I really wanted to hold him, but wasn’t bold enough to ask. I’ve been wishing that I could spend some time around little new babies — just to feel a little bit more prepared, you know? And this was amazing. I wonder if Kermie will be that size when he arrives!

(And man, if anyone was wondering if maternal instincts are hardwired — they are. It took an enormous effort of will not to swoop in when he started crying… like, it almost caused a physical feeling of pain to stand back! And Ryan felt it too… Goodness gracious, but we’re programmed creatures, aren’t we.)

The other VERY fun thing that happened today was that we got Meredith’s wedding pictures, and they’re extraordinary. I can’t wait to share some of them with you, but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow because it is going to be torturous to narrow down the photographs to a blog-sized sampling! Until then… good night!