Hello Due Date, Goodbye Due Date

Yesterday was my due date.  It came and it went.  No baby.

I know this maybe confusing to some of you who saw my FB post about Full Term a few weeks ago.  I suspected that this was being misinterpreted based on the comments.  But Alisa's comment of last week "Baby, baby, my lord you haven't had that baby YET??!!" confirmed it.  I was using "full term" in the medical sense, aka 37 weeks.  Now, I'm overdue.

Now we wait to see what will happen first.  Will the washing machine saga end or will baby arrive?  Will Bev finish teaching her classes or will baby arrive?  Will Karen go back to walk around Costco hoping to induce labor and stock up or will baby arrive?

My plans extend as far as the end of today.  Washer is set to arrive this afternoon.  With no contractions currently I feel pretty good that I'll actually have a new washer before I go to the hospital.  That said, they tried delivering this washer last week to no avail.  And I may work in a pedicure or haircut this morning if possible.  It just occurred to me it will be a while before those things happen again and they're also overdue.

Tick tock, tick tock.

Nursery before baby = whew!

It's been more than 3 months since my last post and over that time I've been slowly moving lots of projects along.  At a certain point I was starting to wonder if the baby would arrive before the nursery was done.  But no, I managed to squeak in under the wire.  Nursery was ready one day before the baby was full term.  Yup I'm now 37 weeks and, just like the nursery, all that remains for the baby are finishing touches like plumping up.

While I could show you photos of baby they're a little hard to decipher these days since you only see one body part at a time on the ultrasounds.  Instead I'll show you the nursery.  It still needs a little wall decoration like book ledges and artwork, but you'll get the gist.  I was going for a relatively modern look, with colorful splashes of "boy" against a gender neutral background. (if you can't tell from the photos the wall color is a very light green)

I think I could probably keep decorating this room for as long as it takes for the baby to come, or longer.  Mostly I just need to figure out how to use the wall space - book display?  future photos? open shelves for toys? etc.  And if you're wondering what the brown and white fluffy thing on the floor is.... dog bed of course.  Can't have Maisy left out of everything!

Any suggestions for final touches?  I'm happy to keep shopping. :)

No Xmas cards and no resolutions

Last year I was so on top of it.  Beautiful tree.  Cards sent in plenty of time.  This year, almost nothing.  I did manage to buy cards.  Didn't send them.  No decorations made it out of their boxes.  I haven't even had this baby yet, and it has all gone to pot.

I figure there's no point in making resolutions this year either.  It really seems a lot more like the kind of year where other forces are in control and I'm just along for the ride.  I suppose I could resolve to do my best to be a good mom.  But that doesn't seem to require a resolution. 

Instead I went visiting for the holidays.  And I hired a doula, signed up for childbirth classes, and set up my Amazon registry.  And went to bed at 9 pm a lot.  In fact, it's after 9 now.  My bed is calling.

Start of the baby projects

I'm half way through my pregnancy now and it's finally time to start the house projects to prepare for baby's arrival.  I'd been designing the nursery over and over in my head and have finally settled on a look.  So now it was time to prep the room before any stuff could go in it.

The painters were here this past week for a good list of nursery and au pair room prep.
- fix broken sash cords to nursery windows
- relocate baby-unsafe window treatments from nursery
- paint nursery (light spring green) and stairwell/hallway to 3rd floor au pair room
- re-do closet shelving in nursery - (will be used as dresser substitute with fabric baskets for drawers)
- add handrail to 3rd floor
- remove old carpet from nursery
The work is done and it all looks great.  There were a few unexpected discoveries along the way which serve to remind me that I'm still a rookie at this whole home ownership thing (and the baby thing for that matter). 

The first discovery in ripping out the old carpet is that the floors in the nursery are oak.  Kind of odd considering that all the floors in the rest of the 2nd floor are pine.  I don't really know how that happened or when.  But no matter.  The floors are in ok shape if I was game to refinish them, but I think I'm just going to opt to replace the carpet.  No more smelly projects.

The other discovery came along with the tour of the completed work.  My painter casually mentions "your storm windows".  What storm windows?  I don't have storm windows or I wouldn't have been putting that cellophane stuff up last winter on the old original windows that are still left.  Oh, but I do.  How can you go through a snowy NE winter without being motivated to figure this out?  No idea, but I must admit that I'm very happy to discover the screens just needed to be pushed up, and the storms pulled down.  I still can't believe I went through a whole winter not knowing this. 

There's one last item that I hope is not a discovery.  I took some friends up to see the future nursery last night and when we opened the door to the nursery it was like we entered another micro-climate.  Really cold.  This morning I measure the temp and it was at least 15 degrees colder than the other rooms on the 2nd floor.  I think, aka hope, that it was just because the painters shut the heat vents while sanding and forgot to re-open them.   I"m running a little test now to see.  And if this is the case, I'll be very proud of myself for figuring it out!   Please don't let this be another HVAC repair.  I've got cute baby stuff already earmarked for that money.

So now I just need to pick out some carpet so I can finish up the "infrastructure" projects, and get on to the fun stuff.  The crib is already sitting in the next room waiting for assembly, and I'm ready to get my shop on!

Long time no blog

When I looked and saw that my last post was in late August, I debated whether I should keep going with it or close the blog as a year 1 chronicle of home ownership.  But I decided to accept my own excuse for the hiatus and keep going.  It was the first trimester of my pregnancy, and nothing other than sleeping, eating, and working were really happening.  Happily I have passed through that phase, my energy is back, and I've got a lot to do to get ready for this baby!

In no particular order, the house projects that have piled up are...
- furnish and decorate a nursery
- furnish and deocrate an au pair room
- install carpet runner on front stairs

Of course the first two items on the list beget a much longer list of items that need to be done.  Basically these are two empty rooms that have been acting as random storage.  I've actually already ordered a bed for the au pair room.  It has arrived and is awaiting assembly.  I've also emptied the room of lego kit projects and found a buyer for them (with my nephew's permission of course).

I also tackled the one stand alone item, and have the installation of the carpet runner scheduled for this week.  I'm a little embarassed to say I didn't shop around.  I just walked into a Angie's List highly rate store, and picked what I liked and seemed reasonable.  Fingers crossed I'm not throwing my money away.  I'll post pictures when it's done.

So that only leaves about a million other projects in line.  For the nursery, the first order of business is to have someone come in and remove the old wall-to-wall carpet and refinish the floors.  I've just started shopping around and know approximately nothing about floor refinishing.  Suggestions welcome.  This time I'll at least call a few vendors for estimates.  Don't know the right questions to ask, but at least I'll call. :)

So stay tuned for a frenzy of house readiness activities over the next 6 months.  Should be fun!

Mystery Plants Close up

Thanks to the master gardeners helping with the plant identification.  Lesli asked for a leaf close up of the "variegated one".  Hmmm.  I think she means the white edged one, so I've put that one first.  But on the chance that I'm totally wrong I got some close ups of two of the others....

Then here are leaf close ups of #2 (2 pics which on closer examination do seem like maybe different plants) and #3 from the original post...

Ok, now what do you think?

Mystery Plants

When you buy a house with a lot of garden beds, I think you face two choices.  Let it all go, or try hard to keep up. I'm definitely in the "trying" camp, at maybe 70% of where I need to be.

I'm now a quasi gardener, and proud owner of pruning shears and loppers.  They've actually gotten quite a bit of use as my shrubs see to be in overdrive, threatening to overtake the driveway etc.  I've been able know when and what to do with the Spring flowering shrubs and boxwood.  But there are a few I can't identify, and could use some help. 

#1 - The first one seems to be flowering now (in Massachusetts)  I did see something similar looking down the block, that was bigger and looking somewhat more tree-like, but in my yard it's a more sprawling and low to the ground.

#2- The next two are different sizes of the same type of shrub.  They see to grow very fast.  The 1st one is actually what has grown back in the last month since I hacked back 2 of these to a few inches above the ground.   The 2nd is more mature.

#3 - The third shrub below is quite tall, a little over 6 ft..

#4 - This one is also tall, and grows well in certain part of the yard, but is anemic in others.  I assume it's a sun thing.  The branches grow straight from the soil rather than a visible trunk.

So I'm looking for your help identifying them.   Once I know that, I can look up information on care/pruning etc.  Of course, if you know this as well, feel free to share!  Do you know what they are?