3rd Trimester - Making it happen!

Well, the countdown seems to be flying right by, so we're definitely getting on the ball making preparations for Baby Morse to come into our lives!  We've signed up for the rest of our classes at the hospital, and we're well on our way to getting the nursery set up.

Eric spent Saturday putting primer up in the baby's room, so that when his parents come to visit next weekend, they can get the rest of the painting done, and we can start putting things in place!  While he was painting, I was sent out of the house to a pre-natal massage.  It was WONDERFUL!  The baby even got a little bitty massage.  :)

After my massage, I went and bought my first item off Craigslist!  I found a changing table, complete with baskets, in a matching wood color, at the bargain price of $50!  I think the baskets alone are worth $50, so I feel like I got a GREAT deal, not to mention it is very sturdy.  Only small snag was that it was too large to fit in my car, so I called Leslie's mom, Dana, who lives nearby to help me load it up and get it home.  Thank God for Dana!!

In other news, Eric felt the baby kick for the first time this week!  The excitement on his face almost brought me to tears, and that connection between the three of us is already something so special I can't even describe it.  I feel so lucky to have a husband as excited and loving as Eric is.  He's already a great father.  Stay tuned - we should have a fairly put together nursery in a week!

One weekend - three celebrations! Baby Shower, Baptism, and Mother's Day!

I'm still coming down from the high this weekend of all the celebrating we did.  I'm also on neice/nephew withdrawl, but luckily I got a lot of great photos. 

Baby Shower
Saturday night, my family threw a small couple's shower/bbq at my parents' house.  We had burgers and all the fixin's, and it was a great time.  We played a few games, which I won (imagine that - I won a game purely on the basis of identifying smells)!  Then the kids went outside with some of the guys and the rest of us did gifts and one more game inside.  I got some really great gifts but the most special moments were getting belly kisses from my nephews.  I can't wait to give Lauren a play buddy - she is definitely outnumbered!!

Baptism
Sunday morning we had a wonderful baptism where Eric and I became the godparents to Lauren Kathleen Godsill, my one and only niece.  It was quite an experience sitting through the service with Adam, who is 3, and knows a LOT about Jesus.  Perhaps more than me.  He professed "Jesus is alive!" and I could hear him quietly singing Jesus Loves Me during mass.  Lauren was an angel the whole time and didn't make a peep during the baptism.  We had sandwiches and cake after the baptism in the same room Julie got dressed in at their wedding!

 

Mother's Day

After the baptism, we exchanged Mother's Day cards and some of us even got flowers!  Eric gave me a really perfect card and a pre-natal massage, which I am to use while he is putting up primer in the baby's room on Saturday.  That explains the suspicious activity at the ultrasound last week.  He was hiding an envelope from the doctor, and I finally learned that he was getting a letter of permission from my doctor for me to have the massage.  That guy thinks of everything!!

All in all, it was a VERY special weekend.

Garage - done and done!

Well Jack's guys finished up our garage today and man do they do good work!  I even saw evidence that they took a rake through my soon-to-be garden!  Now if that's not service, I don't know what is!

Here is a "during"photo taken the Saturday morning of Relays weekend.  Fun to see the progress...

Here is our perfect looking garage now!  Just need to decide what to do on the moldings.  I think it's a perfect opportunity to have our trim repainted on the whole house in a color that better suits us.  Going to have to see a quote on that though.  I seem to be able to think up new projects a lot faster than I should, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't already have swatch books in the living room... all in good time, I know.  Good thing we bought a house in good shape or we'd be in a mess of trouble. 

 Oh!  And here is our latest bloom on the side of the house.  Purple allium.  Just gorgeous!  The funny thing is I've had fake Target versions of this flower on my desk at work for 6 years now!  At least now I can say "I've got the real thing at home".  :) 

Garage siding - 70% done!

Check another one (almost) off our to-do list!  We have a nearly completed newly sided garage!  It was in rough shape, see Exhibits A, B, and C.  We either needed to re-paint or rip down the wood siding and put up something more durable.  So we decided rather than paint every 4 years, to go with the new vinyl siding, and while we were at it with our #1 contractor, Jack Olson, we threw in new windows.  Might as well do it right the first time!  And as soon as they are done, it will be perfect timing to plant my garden!  Couldn't have planned it better myself.

Here are some before pictures.  Stay tuned this week for after pictures - it's almost done!

Exhibit A - View from the house

Exhibit B - closeup of some problem areas

Exhibit C - rotting windowframe

Week 26 - Top Ten List: You know you’re pregnant when…

You know you’re pregnant when… 

1.  Your button flies off your spring jacket (Subway commercial style).  And bending over to pick it up almost doesn’t even seem worth the effort.
2. You realize after going to the bathroom for the 10^th time in 4 hours at work that you haven’t zipped your fly in 3 months – because maternity pants don’t HAVE flys (or have fake ones)!
3. Your biggest concern every morning is having enough food stashed in your desk or work fridge to last you through the day.
4. You find yourself coming out of a gas station at lunch with a roll of Tums, Hot Tamales, and a Pepsi Freeze, and think, one of these has GOT to either wake me up or soothe my heartburn, and I’m willing to take my chances!
5.  You cry watching almost every show on TV, including but not limited to: The Office (come on, Michael is leaving!), Bethanny Getting Married, Pregnant in Heels, the local news, and several commercials I won’t mention to save my dignity.
6. You start surveying your friends with kids – do YOU practice the 5 S’s?  (Swaddling, side/stomach positioning in parents' arms, shushing, swinging, and sucking)
7. EVERY time you hang out with anyone with kids it turns into a Morse Interview session and only ends when we’ve crossed the line into TMI-land, or when you are sufficiently terrified of what is to come.
8. You realize your 3-story office has not one elevator, but TWO!  And that you are now the #1 customer.
9. You have to do laundry religiously every week so that you can wear one of your five pairs of maternity pants.  (Because they are NOT fun to shop for!)
10. You are DYING for warmer weather so you can expand your wardrobe options to waist-free dresses and capris!

Blooms, babies and baseball!

Blooms

I just can't get enough of our brand new garden alongside the house!  We have almost all the flowers up now - lots of tulips!  Purple allium are going to be the last to bloom in the back closest to the house.  Don't worry, as soon as these wilt, our peonies on the opposite side will steal the show!  I love spring!

Babies

Saturday night we got to hang with our goddaughter Quinn for the evening!  Eric really got into reading her books and he even put her to bed. 

It just melted my heart to hear him practicing his lullabies over the baby monitor.  (BTW, he hums any words he doesn't know.)  :)

Baseball

And of course it was opening weekend for the Iowa Cubs, so we went to the Sunday 1:00 game, hoping for sunshine and a taste of warmer weather.  We went early enough we were among the first fans to get free t-shirts.  Here is Eric with his first brat and beer of the baseball season! 

We didn't make it to the bitter end - it started raining in the 9th inning and it was hovering at 50 degrees, so we made a run for it.  I think we got out at the right time - it went into 11 innings and our Cubbies lost.  Oh well, it was fun to go and I'd rather be cold at the game than hot and swollen! 

Week 24 - All about Eric

Eric is the star of this blog post, and you'll see why.  We are into week 4 of our pre-natal class, and our last class is coming up next week.  In a mood to bargain, I made a deal with Eric that since I watched a video of a live birth (that was not animated), something I REALLY was hoping I wouldn't have to do, he would put on the "empathy belly".  Now, let me preface this by saying that no other man in our class has volunteered to put this thing on.  But Eric, ever the good sport and lover of a happy audience, did willingly put on the empathy belly.  I believe they said it was 35 pounds, and they wedge this thing that looks like a sack of marbles inside so that it presses on the bladder.  He took it all in stride, and lapped up all the laughter and smiles.  He even wore it for close to 45 minutes, after which looking at him with boobs really started to bother me more than him!  What a guy.

Also we interviewed a pediatrician this week.  Eric's "dad's book" said that was something we should do, and he even prepared a typed up list of questions to ask.  I think the pediatrician was so impressed that she could have tried to run off with him (depite her 4 carat diamond ring).  And I think he probably wouldn't have put up too much of a fight with the amount of schmoozing and borderline flirting going on.  She was exotic and drop dead gorgeous, after all.  I asked him as we were walking out if he needed a moment alone with her, and he said oh, sure!  If he wasn't truly the best husband I could ask for, I may have just taken the car and left him behind!  :)