Friday, November 26, 2010

28 days and Thanksgiving report

Yesterday for Thanksgiving we took it easy and enjoyed both of us having a day off together - today the chores begin.  Our Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful - we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie and then we went out for dinner.  One problem with living in a more suburban/small town area is that not a lot is open on Thanksgiving.  We assumed it would be easy to find a restaurant, but we ended up driving around a little bit until we found a place that was open.  It didn't look promising, but the food was actually great - we were able to get a traditional Thanksgiving hummus and falafel combo :)

After dinner we decided to try to find some place with pumpkin pie.  I am sure you all know how seriously Jeremy takes his pie - and due to his self-proclaimed "pie-dar" we were easily able to find a place that was both open and serving pie.  When our pie arrived it was really cold and runny - we had the following conversation

K: I don't think this is right - it is really runny
J: They served it with spoons I am sure it is just some new kind of pumpkin pie
J: It is delicious - can't you taste the nutmeg?
K: I don't know ...
J: It is really good and it has whipped cream on it - why would they put whipped cream on an undercooked pie?
K: Well ... ok ...
[I figured that we were talking about pie, so I really should defer to the expert here - especially since he was so sure that he was right - I took a couple of bites of pie soup]
K: I really think that the pie isn't supposed to be like this ... I think I'm going to ask someone
J: [Clearly annoyed at my pie ignorance and worried that I will embarrass him in the restaurant] Ok, if you want to ask, go ahead - but it is delicious [continues to eat runny pie]
K: What if there are uncooked eggs and I get sick - that would be bad for the baby
J: [Puts down his spoon] We should ask

At this point we call over a waitress and ask - she states the obvious that no the pie is not supposed to be runny, it is undercooked, and apologizes profusely.  We get new pie.

J: Oh my gosh, I will feel horrible if the baby gets sick
K: Um, what about me? 
J: I feel so bad, I can't believe I almost poisoned our BABY. 
K: Again, I could point out that you almost poisoned YOUR WIFE
J: You'd get over it.  But the baby ...

Anyway, it all worked out in the end because we didn't end up with food poisoning and we got free pie.  However, I'm a little worried about the total lack of concern about potential wife poisoning :)

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and also avoided death by pie.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We miss our friends and family this holiday, but we're also really enjoying having a day off together.  We just finished a lunch of leftover chicken and stuffing (thanks Mom!) and we're going to go see the new Harry Potter movie this afternoon.  We have had a pretty busy year with lots to be thankful for!  We hope everyone else is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

30 things in 30 days

As of today, there are only 30 days until Baby Bagel's due date!  We had another doctor's appointment this morning and everything is looking good.  As usual, the Bagel got annoyed by the Doppler and started kicking it - this raised her heart rate to the point that the doctor had to wait for it to come back down to normal before she could give us a clean bill of health.  We had to sit there for quite a while before Bagel realized we weren't going to move the Doppler and she just had to settle down.  Jeremy also got the news that he was looking for today - if Bagel doesn't arrive before her due date, they would probably induce BEFORE the new year for medical reasons (not just for the tax break).

Since there are only 30 days left, and we have a big list of baby to-dos, I thought I'd make a list of the 30 baby things that I hope to get done in the next 30 days.  We'll see if we can get them done before Bagel arrives. 

1. Buy curtain rod for baby's room, sew curtains and hang them up (I already have all the fabric, I just need to get around to putting them together).
2. Buy Pack-N-Play mattress pad, sheets, and changing table covers - set up pack-n-play in our room - we'll keep the baby in our room in the pack-n-play at first so that we don't have to walk down the hall to get her in the middle of the night.
3. Clean off the top of Jeremy's dresser and make room for a  couple of baskets of baby stuff (see note about not wanting to stumble down the hallway in the middle of the night) - we might as well just keep a change of PJs, sheets etc in our room. 
4. Refill mini-shampoo, etc and back toiletries for the hospital
5. Do laundry and pack clothes for the hospital
6. Make list of last minute things to grab on our way to the hospital (camera, phone charger, etc)
7. Finally decide on a brand of baby shampoo/lotion/etc, purchase and set up baby bath station in bathroom (I realize the baby won't need baths right away when she comes home, but I figure it isn't like we'll have MORE time to take care of this stuff after she gets here)
8. Reinstall car seat so that Jeremy can take car to the highway patrol to get it checked out.
9. Purchase cloth diapers, wash (apparently you have to wash them multiple times before the first use for maximum absorbency - Jeremy and I feel that maximum absorbency is very important in this area).  I am waiting to see if there are any good online black Friday deals on diapers - if not, we'll just go ahead and buy them next week.
10. Purchase some more disposable diapers to tide us over while we try out different cloth diapers to see which ones we like (plus, we figure there will be times when disposables are unavoidable)
11. Locate extra camera battery and cable that allows us to download pictures from camera (OOPS!)
12. Purchase baby first aid kit
13. Purchase stroller that fits our car seat
14. Buy straps and tie large furniture to wall (apparently you need to do this in California in case there is an earthquake)
15. Buy baby gates so cats can get used to them before the baby gets here - we are getting baby gates with cat doors on them to keep the baby out of the rooms with litter boxes.  We'd like the cats to acclimate to the gates before the baby gets here - they don't handle change well so we want to ease them into the baby thing.
16. Purchase cabinet locks and other baby proofing stuff and start working on baby proofing the apartment.  Again, not something that really NEEDS to be done now, but we figure it is better to get a jump start on this and get it done before the baby is old enough to discover electrical outlets on her own.
17. Get bottle drying rack and sterilize bottles.  Find a place in the kitchen to store bottles and other baby feeding stuff (apparently you only have to sterilize bottles once - who knew! after that you just wash them like normal).  Finding a spot in the kitchen will be rough - we're already kind of maxed out so this might be quite the chore!
18. Sterilize breast pump parts and try to figure out ridiculously complex assembly instructions.  Again, might not be need to be done now, but I can't imagine those instructions will get any easier to understand when I haven't slept for weeks.
19. Purchase baby books recommended by other new mom friends - start reading them. 
20. Compile email list for birth announcements.  We're "going green" and sending out an e-announcement.  Really, it is for the environment.  It has nothing to do with us being too lazy to compile the actual postal addresses of our friends - really.  Also, we would like people to be aware of our child's birth before her fifth birthday and we don't have a great track record with snail mail.
21. Sew or purchase crib sheets.  I sewed one crib sheet already and have fabric for two more.  Realistically though, given my schedule, we might just want to go ahead and buy a few more sheets at this point.  We'll see. 
22. Write exams - this is technically work related and not Bagel related, but if Bagel decides to come early, I need to have exams written for my colleague to give so technically I think it can go on the baby list.
23. Buy new coffee maker :)  Just kidding, I've been lobbying for a new one on the premise that it is a baby-necessity, but I think that since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, this is probably a lost battle.  But I should probably at least make sure we have a good supply of coffee because everyone wins when mom is caffeinated. 
24. Purchase diaper pail and laundry hamper for baby's room - there's no denying that gross stuff is going to happen so we might as well have somewhere to contain it.
25. Hang pictures on the wall in baby's room
26. Figure out some kind of toy storage for baby's room - she doesn't have many toys right now, but if she gets many more, the "chuck it on the floor of her closet" method of organization will completely break down.
27. Download contraction timing app for iPhone
28. Download baby tracker app that keeps track of when to feed the baby, etc
29. Attend base-wide garage sale and attempt to find a second used baby bounce seat - the cats have made it pretty clear that they would like their own and I don't think that baby will be big enough to fight them off for at least a couple of months
30. Return mobile that Jeremy dislikes and try to find a better option - or just decide that baby doesn't really need a mobile to keep her entertained - consider replacing with cat toy - or maybe just a cat
31. Freak out about how much we still have to take care of (although I think we can cross this one off the list - we seem to have it pretty much under control) :)

Quite a bit to try to get done in 30 days given that this doesn't include things like doing my job and keeping us fed.  Maybe my students don't really NEED their essays graded :)  We'll see how much progress we can make over the next few days ...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

37 days ...

Jeremy says that every morning when we update the count, he is tempted to post on the blog "37 days - Holy Crap!" (or whatever the count is for that day).  I think that kind of sums up how we're both feeling right now.  We're both beyond excited to meet our baby, but at the same time it sure did get here a whole lot more quickly than we thought it would.  The list of "things that eventually need to get done, but aren't urgent" is dwindling and the to-dos are migrating to the "these things should really get done right away" list.  We hear that babies require diapers ... we should probably purchase some of those at some point ...

Luckily, Thanksgiving break is right around the corner.  It cannot get here fast enough.  This semester has been a really long one for both Jeremy and myself.  Jeremy has been readjusting to grad school, and I've been adjusting to growing another person :)  I get a whole week off for Turkey Day and then only have two weeks of the semester left after break.  Jeremy only gets off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, but our semesters end at the same time, so that is nice.  Everyone says to get as much sleep as we can before the baby gets here.  Unfortunately with all of our work, we've been pulling some pretty late nights/early mornings.  I guess there is nothing we can do about the lack of sleep, except maybe use it as justification for buying a new coffee maker!

We don't really have any news, just thought I'd post a quick update to say we're still here, Bagel still has not made her appearance, and Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

43 days and a pediatrician

Today neither Jeremy or myself had classes, so we checked another baby biggie off the to-do list - we found a pediatrician.  This was actually our second pediatrician visit, but we liked this one a lot so we decided that we're done making visits and we'll just go with this option.  There are only two big practices in the area, and this one seemed more friendly and more flexible about scheduling - both of which are good things!  Jeremy was a little concerned that the toys in the sick baby area seemed nicer than the toys in the well baby area - he thought that maybe the doctors were trying to lure the well babies into the sick baby area to ensure repeat business - but that seems like a minor concern in the scheme of things :)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

44 days, doctor and car seat!

Today we had another doctor's appointment - they are every two weeks now so they are keeping us busy.  Today's appointment featured our last ultrasound.  It was pretty quick - just to check that the placenta was out of the baby's way and the good news is that everything looked great!  We got to see the baby moving all around and hear her heartbeat and the doctor re-confirmed that we are indeed expecting a girl.   Good thing too, because we have acquired quite a lot of pink clothing and a boy baby would look kind of silly wearing a "daddy's girl" onesie :)

In other news, what is that in the backseat of my car?

It's a car seat base!!  (sorry, Blogger rotated the picture for me, so it is technically an upside down car seat base, but I can assure you that we plan on putting the baby in right-side up).  We are borrowing our car seat from our friends Geoff and Kristen whose baby outgrew it.  While they were here over the weekend, Geoff helped Jeremy install the base and make sure it was level and what-not.  Apparently the base is a pain to get in and out, so we'll have to decide if we want to get a second one, or if we will just always drive Bagel around in my car.  We'll probably try to stick with the one base at first to see how it works out.  Jeremy's car is a 2-door, so we're not super-excited about trying to wiggle a car seat in and out of it anyway.  In true engineer fashion, Jeremy and Geoff used wire ties to hold the end of the seat belt out of the way (they assure me that the wire ties are in no way being used to restrain the baby). 

Having the car seat installed is one more thing to check off the baby to-do list!  It sure makes it seem like Bagel's arrival is just around the corner. 

Monday, November 8, 2010

46 Days and Baby Shower

We officially have a days-to-baby countdown on our fridge now that gets updated every morning.  Nothing like a little panic over breakfast to get you going :)  Today there are officially 46 days left until the predicted date.

Today, my colleagues also threw me a baby shower!  Given that we haven't been in California for very long, we were assuming that we'd be baby-shower-less (hence all of the garage saleing we've been up to).  However, my colleagues are super sweet and put together a nice lunch-time get-together.  Since I work with mostly guys, we skipped the traditional games and hung out over pizza and soda - Jeremy even came!  It is really great to see how excited and supportive all of my new colleagues are about the baby.  We feel pretty lucky to have landed somewhere with such nice people.  They even decorated with cute pink baby shower balloons :)

Friday, November 5, 2010

33 weeks down, 49 days to go

Today Bagel is 33 weeks along.  The scarier number to me is that there are less than 50 days to her predicted arrival - 49 days to be precise.  I think we go back and forth between being anxious for her to get here already and worrying about all the stuff yet-to-be-done.  In particular, I have a lot of stuff for work that I need to get squared away before the baby arrives. 

Of course, it would work out better for us if Bagel was a week or two early since Jeremy has to go back to work so early in January.  We've been trying to convince Bagel that Monday, December 13th would be a great birthday - we'll both be done with finals/grading and it would maximize her daddy-at-home time.  Of course, we hear that babies are notoriously uncooperative about these kinds of things, but we figure it is worth a shot.