Sunday, January 31, 2010

35/35

Yesterday marked my 35th week and which also means 35 days left.  Of course that is not set in stone, but it's still quite the achievement.  My mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and friend threw me a baby shower yesterday as well.  It was a lot of fun and we got a ton of gifts.  It's so overwhelming! 

We also had a house full of people all weekend, so I am quite exhausted.  I will post more about it later this week and pictures too.  I need to go lie down!  But here are my 35 week belly pictures:


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Not Much of Milestone

Remember back in December when I wrote about this milestone? Well guess what? After a few weeks of not wearing my wedding ring, I decided to try it on. It still fits!

Every day I try it on, and most days it fits just fine. I just keep it on and just take it off at night. Fortunately I really don't seem to have much swelling, if any, even by the end of the day.

I bought another ring to wear that was really cheap and so ridiculous, but it was actually too big and I usually wear it on another finger on my right hand.

So - Yay for still being able to wear my wedding ring!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

34 Weeks and counting . . .



Skol Vikings! Above are my 34 week pictures. Wow - 6 weeks left! Yikes!!!! We are getting exciting, but a little freaked out as well. I am wearing Uncas's shirt, and it's really large - even for me. But I just had to wear it today!

This weekend we got more done in the nursery. The dresser is stained and in the room, a little shelf is hung as well as a little light. It's really coming along and looking like a baby could live there. Next week I should have the curtains!!!

But of course right now our focus is on the Vikings game. So I better get back to the tv! Skol Vikings!

Friday, January 22, 2010

It's never too soon . . .

To turn your kid into a geek! Uncas sent me a link today to these:

It's nice that he has taken an interest in our child's clothing options.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Guest Blogger

Uncas wrote up a blog post and requested that I post it.  First I need to give you a little background to his post. 

Last night we had another group appointment and our favorite most annoying mom was there.  As usual she dominated a lot of the discussion, but it was on things that were totally off topic, she was rude and interrupted people and wouldn't stop talking at the request of the nurse and the midwife.  It probably wouldn't be so bad if she had interesting things to say.  But after already 5 kids, her questions and contributions are puzzling.

The nurse and midwife were talking last night about all the marketing that is done to parents and how many things are completely unnecessary.  Then we got to talking about it can be difficult to know when you are nursing, if your baby is getting enough to eat and ways we can tell, other than going to the pediatrician's office to weight them.  Annoying Mom (AM) brought up how her kids wanted a new Wii Fit (apparently they already have one, but there is a new game for it) and she initially said no.  Then she read on the back that you can now weigh your baby with Wii Fit, so she spent $20 and bought it! 

Without further ado - here is Uncas's post titled:  
How to weigh a baby in 31 easy steps
1. Get in car and drive to your favorite electronics or video game retailer.

2. Select Nintendo Wii and WiiFit Plus game (and balance board) and new
52 inch OLED LCD TV

3. Pay for your new items

  a. Present debit card

  b. Listen to sales pitch and eventually decide to open store credit card in order to save 15% on purchase

  c. After filling out paper work and checking to make sure discount has been applied, listen to sales pitch for extended warrenties.

  d. Eventually decide to get warrenties for items - it's for your baby after all! Add 15% back onto purchase price.

4. Have 'helpful' teen employee attempt to load an already back seat with new 52 inch television box.

5. Attempt to close back seat car door.

6. Take out TV box and fold down rear seats. Slide TV box into trunk and attempt to close trunk.

7. Ask employee for rope to tie down hood of car.

8. When employee returns with a roll of packing tape, hold back urge to strangle (it's not one of the steps).

9. Use packing tape to secure trunk.

10. Drive home.

11. Once home, peel tape from trunk and attempt to carry in giant TV box by yourself.

12. Check local weather conditions.

13. Quickly unpack TV in driveway in order to beat incoming thunderstorm.

14. Haul unpacked TV into house narrowly avoiding the downpour.

15. Give up on soaked packaging spewn across your lawn - you didn't need that TV manual anyway.

16. Curse under your breath and run into down-pour to retrieve the Wii and Fitness board from front seat of car.

17. Unpack Wii

18. Connect stand to TV and insert power cable and look for remote.

19. Make a note to order new universal remote as it's likely the new one won't work after sitting in the driveway soaked.

20. Open Wii box and extract contents

21. Connect power adapter to back of Wii

22. Connect RCA input cables to AV input of new TV

23. Plug in Wii sensor bar and position in front of TV

24. Power on TV and Wii

25. Turn TV as far as it will go, you're going to need to use the controls on the TV

26. Fiddle with the controls in order to enable the AV input for your Wii (this make take up to 30 minutes)

27. Once you have the AV input set correctly, put batteries in Wii-mote and connect balance board

28. On the Wii main menu select Wii-Fit Plus

29. Use Wii fit plus to weigh yourself, the Wii will remember this

30. Navigate to the Baby weighing selection and pick up your baby

31. Step onto balance board and the Wii will tell you your baby's weight!

 

Monday, January 18, 2010

Quick Update

Our ultrasound went great today. Baby is growing and is quite active (not that I needed the ultrasound tech to tell me that it wiggles a lot!) The fluid in the kidneys looks like it cleared up on its own. The kidneys are slightly larger, but they weren't concerned with that. The next thing that they recommend is an ultrasound when the baby is 2 weeks old.

The baby is currently measuring a couple of weeks ahead of schedule and is up to 5 lb. 9 oz. That was a little shocking, but of course the room for error is about 2 weeks and who knows with the weight. But I think the realization that this baby could really come at any time now has started sinking in for both me and Uncas. It looks like we might be moving in high gear to make sure that the stuff we want done before the baby comes, gets done and soon!

We also found out the position of the baby. It's head is up high still. I am hoping that in the next few weeks it turns head down, although I can't say I am looking forward to all that turning inside of me!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Weekend Bullets

We had a good weekend. After having visitors the past couple, it was nice to not have Sammy whining during the early hours to go visit them upstairs. Here are some random thoughts:

  • Friday night we did a little date and went out for pie. It was tasty and fun. We are working on doing stuff like this more in the next couple of months before the baby comes.
  • We also enjoyed sleeping in both days this weekend. Even Sammy slept until 9:30 this morning - heaven!
  • Saturday we went out to lunch with Josh and then dinner with our friends Matt and Janis. The big downside of dinner was me not being able to enjoy a margarita. They sure looked great! It was such a fun day hanging out with friends.
  • Skol Vikings! It was so much fun watching the game today - enough said!
  • I spent $7.80 on comfy pants last week and I LOVE them. I think I am going to go back to Kohl's this week to see if they have any more left.
  • Watching the Golden Globes and is so annoyed with James Cameron. I can't believe Avatar won for best movie - blah!
In baby news (I seem to include some sort of baby news in all my posts lately) we have another ultrasound tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing how much the baby has grown and where exactly the baby is positioned in my womb. Then on Tuesday we have another prenatal appointment. They seem to be coming fast and furious right now since they are every two weeks. We are under 50 days - which seems a little incredible. The discomfort is pretty consistent now, but I can see the end coming quickly.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

We're Ready

Last night I was sitting on the couch in our living room reading a book.  Sammy was next to me chewing on a rawhide and Uncas was playing some football on the Wii.  Sammy got up and started walking into the kitchen.  I looked up from my book and looked towards the kitchen while Uncas turned in his chair to also look in the kitchen.  As we waited, listening, we heard Sammy drink some water out of his bowl.  We looked at each other and smiled.  Each of us thinking - oh good, he doesn't need to go outside. 

Right after this little, insignificant event, Uncas turned to me and said "We are so ready to have a baby!  Look, we both were involved in something else, but became distracted when Sammy walked into the other room.  We were keeping tabs on what he was up to." 

You know what - I think he is right.  If there was any doubt about us as parents picking up on our baby's cues, it has definitely been erased.  I do think it's true that having a dog has prepared us for parenthood.  And just to reinforce that, something else happened with Sammy and me today.

I was sitting on the couch, probably on the computer and Sammy brought a piece of rawhide up to chew, but he flung it off the couch inside.  So then he looks down at it and starts whining.  I encouraged him to go get it, but then he decided to bark at me!  It made me laugh!  He wanted me to pick up his rawhide, even though he is fully capable of getting it himself.  So I ignored him and he finally jumped down, grabbed it, and ran into the other room to chew on it.  See - I didn't give in to him - more practice for what is to come!

In other baby news - this morning we met with the pediatrician that we will be using for our baby.  I really liked her a lot and the clinic too. It's really close to home.  One more thing I can check off our to do list!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Redecorating

Someone in our house feels the need to move rugs, blankets, towels etc. around.  Apparently, I don't do a good enough job decorating or something.  For example, here is a picture of the rug by our front door:


I think the little blue rug looks perfectly nice there.  But here is where the other someone thinks the rug should go:


Notice the other someone guarding his handy work!  It's not uncommon these days to find blankets in the bathroom or towels (that we keep by our side door to wipe up the snow) in the bathroom as well.  I guess he likes the look of rug on rug or towel on rug or blanket on rug.  Go figure!

In other news - today I got to hang out with Ella and her darling baby Eliza.  We went to IKEA for some shopping and some Swedish Meatballs - yum!  And I even had a piece of some delicious chocolate cake.  Here are a couple cute pictures of Eliza:



Sunday, January 10, 2010

Final Holiday Celebration

This weekend my parents came up to visit us and to finally celebrate Christmas.  They came with not only gifts, but also food, which made for a nice laid back visit.  Of course there were plenty of laughs, as always, and we even went to see a movie (Sherlock Holmes, which was pretty good). 

Here are some pictures from the weekend:


 Dad opening his gift - PhotoShop Elements


 Baby Nimzlet and Sammy gave my parents a Vikings ornament


 Uncas received a fun game called Smart Ass from Derek and Jeanna.  We had fun playing in on Friday night.


 Baby Nimzlet received a singing lamb/goat from Grandma and Grandpa. I love this (and Sammy is equally as fascinated with it).


Sammy received a Snuggie from Grandma and Grandpa!

In addition to gifts and food, my parents brought my dad's old bassinet that we will be using for the baby.  I actually slept in it when I was a baby as well.  Sammy needed to check it out.


He did not like the spot that I think the bassinet will be located in our bedroom (currently, it's being stored up in the baby's room).  I think we'll have to move it down to our bedroom about a week before my due date, so he gets used to it being there.

And speaking of the baby - Saturday marked my 32nd week.  Here are pictures:




Friday, January 8, 2010

Dice Wars!

A few years back Uncas was introduced to this online game called Dice Wars.  He played it a lot and showed it to me.  Basically you get stacks of dice and you try and gain as much territory as possible by taking turns (against the computer) and "rolling" the dice.  Whoever has the higher roll, wins the spot, but if it's a tie, the opponent is considered the winner and keeps the spot.  It's really a strategy game and so I tried playing it and I sucked at it and stopped (all in probably one day). 

Now Uncas - he is a big strategy game person.  He loves to think when he plays games.  I like to play games that you don't have to think too hard when playing.  He has played Dice Wars consistently throughout the years and has gotten very good at it.  And over the time I have watched him play and win.  Sometimes he would tell me different tips on strategy for the game and honestly after awhile I would enjoy watching him play. 

Right around Thanksgiving I don't know why I decided to give the game another shot, but I did.  Much to my surprise, I didn't lose immediately and then asked Uncas for some help and managed to win.  So, I played again with similar results.  I think it was a Friday night (I know - what exciting people we are - playing online games on Friday night).  The next morning I was up with Sammy and I sat down and started playing and I ended up winning my first game all by myself!  A strategy game of all things!  And I actually did play it strategically!  After all these years of watching Uncas play and listening to him talk about it, some of the tips and hints actually sunk into my brain.  And you know what?  I discovered that I actually like the game . . . a lot!

It's not uncommon to find both of us playing a game on our laptops while watching tv at night.  I do still ask Uncas for advice and sometimes we play a game together.  I never realized that a "thinking" game could be this much fun. 

And as much as I would like to type more, I need to go play a game now (I like to win at least one game a day).

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A Numbers Game

I've had a lot of numbers swirling in my head lately - allow me to share:

  • 60 days left until Little Nimzlet arrives, according to the floating baby - yikes!
  • 5 Centering Prenatal appointments left, one them is tonight.
  • 23-25 lbs (depending on the day and scale) is the amount of weight that I have gained so far.
  • 28 responses to the Baby Pool (I didn't count mine or Uncas's entry)
  • 3 days until we can celebrate Christmas with my parents (finally!)
  • 2 pairs of slippers that I have received from my in-laws as Christmas presents (one pair last year and one pair this year).  I am determined that Sammy will not chew on this latest pair - I love them!
  • 1 sleeping puppy on my lap.
  • 10 degrees outside (heat wave?!)
And finally . . . .
  • 28 days until LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year!

Last night we finally started celebrating Christmas! Uncas's parents came down from Duluth. This was the year of hats. My mother-in-law knit everyone in the family new winter hats. Here are Uncas and I showing off ours:


Sammy has really enjoyed having a playmate.  Sophie has been very patient and a willing participant in playing with Sammy at all times.  Here is a picture from last night, after they were all tired out:


Later on in the evening, Sophie decided to try out Sammy's bed.  It cracks me up because it's a little small for her, but that didn't stop her from sleeping on it all night!



We all made it till 12 am last night to ring in the new year, but we all stumbled to bed shortly after.  I think tonight bedtime will be pretty early.

Today was a fun day.  I went shopping with my mother-in-law and Uncas went shopping with his dad.  We have also spent time introducing my in-laws to our favorite tv sitcom - Better Off Ted.

Of course being the New Year, it's time to reveal New Year's Resolutions.  For the past few years, my resolution has been to learn to drive a stick shift car.  Guess what?  I didn't learn in 2009.  This year I only have one resolution.  It's car related and something that I thought of a couple of months ago.  For those of you who have had the privilege to drive with me, you'll know that I am impatient, aggressive and have a rather foul mouth towards other drivers on the road.  I realized that this is not good behavior that I want to model for my child, so my resolution is to be a more patient driver and not yell at other drivers on the road.  It's one that I truly believe I can keep this year, but we'll see.

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Years!  I think I am going to bed!