Too excited!

If you read here yesterday you saw my lament about the IKEA crib that we still don't have and baby is two weeks away, but I'm OK with it. Really I am. But I want it, badly. Last week I even went to the website and printed out a picture and taped it to the wall in the nursery. I have been checking the website for a couple of weeks now and it still says "In Stock: NO." I'm afraid it is going to be discontinued and I will have to start all over with a search and still not be happy with what I settle for. This morning I finally added the IKEA site to my daily clicks and of course it said no, but that didn't keep me from refreshing every 30 minutes, so I reluctantly spent some time googling cribs to see what else is out there. So frustrating!

After lunch I was taking a break and decided to refresh one more time before signing off... "In Stock: YES." WHAT?! Two hours ago it was out of stock, and had been for months! OK, breathe--how many, how soon can I get it, should I leave work, who do I know up there (IKEA is about 90 minutes away), what if it's a computer glitch? Refresh 16 more times--OK, it's true. At 4 PM IKEA confirms that they have 19 cribs in stock. 19!! After not having any for so long. Wait--I am 38.5 weeks pregnant and not supposed to travel out of town, although my husband wants to go get it tonight. My mom is a bit excited about it, so numerous phone calls, e-mails and discussions later, my parents, 90 minutes from me, drive up there, buy it and drive home. So it is still not here, but close enough. They are awesome for doing that!

So here it is, the final piece to go in the IKEA nursery:



Worth all that drama, right?

Too cool nursery

We had decided long ago if we ever did have a baby their room would be bright but neutral, and no cutesy theme. I had this plaid fabric from IKEA (you'll see a theme here) that I have hung onto for about 12 years, knowing one day I would find the perfect use for it. So it became the inspiration for the room.

Before, when it was a messy office/dumping space:


Now, looking into the room. I love the way the light comes in even with the curtains down.


C. painted the walls and ceiling (I hate white ceilings) yellow over Christmas break, we installed a ceiling fan, my mom and aunt made the curtains, and family passed down furniture (I love that they are family pieces used by other babies and kids). The dots were a complete after-thought, just something I found while online, but they probably turned out to be my favorite thing that we did.





The changing table is our pack and play, set up in place of a crib for now, with my bear from when I was a baby wearing a size 0 Kissaluv cloth diaper and Proraps cover.



We stalked the rocker for 3 months and had given up when it fell into our laps one day after a particularly rough OB appointment, so we knew it was meant to be ours. We named it Baby Chairry--it looks just like the smaller version from Pee-Wee's Playhouse. If only it were green...



C. picked out the floors mats. Our whole house is hardwoods which we love, but knew we needed something warmer and softer for this room. So we looked at rugs, carpets and finally settled on these mats. I am not much of a plastic/rubber/synthetic person, but love that these are made from recycled rubber, non-toxic and can be easily washed. I am sure that will be the most important thing eventually. ;)



The books, stuffed animals and some of the toys we already had from teaching and collecting, so it was just natural that they go in a baby's room. A few times we saw really great themes that we loved, like Dr. Seuss murals and bedding ($425 for a quilt?! Umm, no.) and Sesame Street curtains and rugs, but always went back to the yellow and green, with a few favorites here and there.





I guess our theme could be called IKEA though, completely by accident! Of course the fabric, plus the buckets and vases on the dresser, fish mobile, green mirror and several toys all came from IKEA, and there is still a wooden shelf and hooks to put up if we need them.



And eventually an IKEA crib. Two trips up there and still out of stock. We have been told they will be there in June, but others are having trouble finding any cribs in stock, right now only 2 California and one Utah store have them. Rumor in England is that they are discontinuing these models. So I am not holding my breath, but will wait it out since baby will be in a co-sleeper (the blue bed in the first picture) in our room the first few months anyway.

So what do you think? Especially the lampshade--I am not sure I like the dots on there as much as I do on the walls.



Anything look odd or missing? We still have some things to do, like put together like the swing, strip the half table, add a basket liner and get a pail for diapers. You can see more pics and some other details here: Nursery

Too much fun!

So close now, and to keep me going at work the predictions have started. Family has their own ideas too, so wanna play along?

Some background in case it makes guessing easier: this is our first baby, due date is technically June 9, but early on was June 4, June 7 and as of right now I am measuring about a week ahead on the ultrasound. Baby was predicted at 6 pounds 13 ounces, give or take 1/2 pound either way at the 5.16.08 ultrasound. C and I were both 8 pound + babies.

Co-worker #1 said May 23. Nope :)
Co-worker #2 says Tuesday.
Co-worker #3 says June 3 or 21.
C's mom says this week.
On Thursday my dad said 9 more days.
C says 39 weeks, 9 pounds with a huge head. Thanks honey. ;)
I say June 7, middle of the night and yeah, a big baby. If I get to pick though, I want to hold out until June 16.

Comment with date, weight and anything else you wanna guess. Winner gets...I dunno, maybe the first babysitting job? ;)

Too long

...since I wrote here! WOW--February 21 was 3 months ago! I guess I have been a little busy. A lot has happened since then so I'll make this one quick (well, as quick as I know how to be) and come back with details later.

~Baby is still cooking, healthy and growing. I was 2 cm at my last appointment and baby is head down, so things are moving along. Today we are 38 weeks, OB has actually tabled the plans for induction at 39 weeks because everything is going so well and I finish work June 6 unless baby decides to come earlier. My sub for the summer starts on Tuesday, so I get to spend these last two weeks in the office and being with the kids. Off my feet for the most part--I like that. My boss really is awesome.

~Some very minor complications that make me uncomfortable, but all in all a much smoother pregnancy than any of us thought it would be. Acid reflux is miserable--so much coughing that I have a hard time catching my breath sometimes. But a new medication seems to be kicking in and the past 3 days have been almost normal. Otherwise, typical swollen feet, achy legs, sore hips, painful back. I had to finish swimming about 2 weeks ago because it was just too risky for me to be in the water with the coughing episodes making it hard to breath. Still doing some light yoga, but mostly concentrating on my labor exercises, breathing and Hypnobirthing relaxation.

~Showers were wonderful, carseat is installed, bags are packed and nursery is completely done. I will post some shower and nursery pics in the next few days. It is interesting to see the finished nursery compared to the sketches and plans I made in the beginning. Very, very happy with how it all came together. In the beginning I was very specific about how little and what types of baby stuff we wanted and happy to say I was able to stick very close to that plan. I know it will happen eventually, but as of yet our small house is not taken over with baby stuff. It feels just right.

~Having some contractions on and off this past week, but nothing notable. Spent today cleaning the kitchen, not what I would call nesting but "necessitating" since I can't remember the last time I did a really deep cleaning in there. It felt good, but I am paying for it tonight. I even sent C to bed early in case this sore back and on and off twinges turn into something. There has been a prediction for me to go on Tuesday, so maybe....

~Oh yeah, and somewhat unrelated, but we lost our laptop, the Original Baby, in March. It was a terrible, horrible, scary feeling when I went to log on and it was gone, stolen right off my desk at work. LMPD detectives actually worked (and apparently are still looking as of last week) on finding it, but I know it is a lost cause and so we just had to get a new one. Worst part is every belly picture, journal entry, web post and e-mail about baby was on there, so a whole lot of history is lost. I tried not to be too sad about it, but yeah, it really, really sucked.

Be back soon with a little game to play!