Thirty Three Weeks

Another week gone by...so much to do...and sometimes I feel like so little done! But that's not really true this week...I've tried to take it easy as much as possible, but as any expectant mother knows when you get down to the last few weeks (I'm in SINGLE digits, people!) there is never enough time.

I'm not really sure that posting what babycenter.com says is really accurate anymore...what do you think? I guess that I'll go ahead and include it this week and then after my appt on Thursday we'll know more about my ever-changing due date.

So, with that in mind, here's what babycenter.com has to say about this week...this week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (pick up a pineapple)and has passed the 17 inch mark in length. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening (which I can attest to, as his kicks have a LOT more punch than they used to!). The bones in his skull aren't fused together yet, which allows them to move and slightly overlap each other, which makes it easier on him as he travels through the birth canal (which will be sooner rather than later).

source

Like I said, some of that doesn't really jive with Jax right now...I mean, the doctor told us last week that she would guess that he's already at 5 pounds in weight and since his little bones are measuring at 34 weeks last week, then he's probably well over the 17" mark too. But that's all good to know, I suppose.

This week has been harder on me, and WAY more exciting. On Sunday night, I started cramping...nothing to really worry about, just maybe some early labor signs. Then on either Monday or Tuesday I started having small, preliminary contractions...maybe what you would call Braxton Hicks pains? They never last more than 30 seconds to a minute in length and are gone within two hours of starting, so they're nothing too serious. But the really exciting news is that baby boy has DROPPED about two-three inches in the past week. He's riding REALLY low, which is both exciting and exaperating for me all at the same time. It's good to know that he's moving into position, but much harder for me to get around.

I feel like I'm moving along at a snail's pace most days, and Brent has to slow WAY down to walk beside me now. I'm relieved that the pressure is off of my lungs/diaphragm (I can breathe again!), but now it's all on my bladder and lower back. You trade one thing for another, I suppose. Here's some weekly belly shots to show you how large I feel like I'm getting... And yes, that's one of Brent's T-shirts that I'm sporting...I've outgrown all of mine!

So with all of these things happening, both of us are anticipating an early arrival. I know that boys are different than girls, and I have had to keep reminding myself of that fact several times this week. What I mean is that Jenna didn't drop until DAYS before I delivered her...so when I noticed (and some of my co-workers mentioned to me) how low Jax was now riding, I have to admit to having several moments of panic. Taking deep breaths was easier, but didn't really seem to help all that much...

Luckily for me, I've been able to talk with several other women who carried both a boy and a girl and all were quick to reassure me that their boys dropped a LOT earlier than the girls did. Whew!

And since we can both see the signs starting, we've been working in overdrive (yes, I know that goes against doctor's orders!) to get the nursery ready. Brent was a sweetheart and got our whole bedroom painted in two days! We need to figure out the trim color and then we'll get started on that as well. In addition to the painting, we've cleaned out that entire area and cleaned it top to bottom and made some purchases this week for the nursery. I promise a post will come on that soon! And most exciting for me was that Jenna and I put Jax's crib together (which was her old crib) today and it's standing there with the mattress in it, waiting for the dryer to finish drying the last load of bedding stuff so that we can make it. It's really all starting to come together...

But I'm pooped. I've been meaning to write this post since Friday night, and just didn't have the time or more honestly, the energy, to get around to it. I'm literally exhausted each night...and all day, but who's counting? That's how these last few weeks are supposed to be, right? Right. And there's so many other things going on down there that I haven't even begun to talk about...but that's also normal these last few weeks, just makes it all that much more exhausting! It won't be long now...so exciting...and SO scary all at the same time!

Nursery Options

In keeping with the current topic of choice, let’s keep talking about Jax’s nursery. You might remember from several posts that I did about picking his bedding, that we went with a bedding set by Cocalo called (ironically) Jackson. Here’s a picture in case you need a refresher: Cute, right? Well, my step-mom had generously made the offer to purchase the bedding set for us once we picked on out, so I had emailed her a list of places online that sold it. Then she found it on her own at BuyBuyBaby. At our shower two weeks ago, I got to bring the bedding set home. But as cute as it was, it was lacking a few things…you know, the accessories that make the room cutesy. And yes, even little boys need cutesy rooms…

I found out (sorta by accident) that JCPenney’s carried some of the items from that line of baby bedding, and it was on sale this week. I looked at it very seriously for a few minutes, but then decided against purchasing any of it since their sales prices were the same prices as the normal prices anywhere else. Plus, my Uncle had gifted us with a gift card to BuyBuyBaby where I knew that I could get some of the items. Then, the VERY next day, I got an email coupon offer from JCP offering an additional 15% off of online or in-store purchases, including items already marked on sale. Hmmm…this might be worth pursuing…

So I picked three additional accessory items and dropped them into my basket and applied the coupon and held my breath to see the total. Not bad – just over $100…but wait! I had some JCP gift cards from a return and a gift that I hadn’t used yet…I quickly applied those balance to the basket and my grand total out the door was about $30! Score. Quick – click on the Submit My Order button fast before anything happens!

For just over $30, these items are on their way to our house…the Mobile……and the extra window valance that we need for that area of our room… …and these adorable wall hangings…Awesome, right? Then on my way home that day, I stopped off at BuyBuyBaby and picked up the lamp (which JCP didn’t carry and I really wouldn’t want shipped anyway) and spent a whopping $2 out of my own pocket for that item! Double score!

Ten minutes later, my friend Brandi emailed me a 20% coupon for one item from BuyBuyBaby. Sort of rotten timing, as I wasn’t going back to the store and trying to get the discount back…but now that I have this email coupon sitting in my Inbox, it’s calling my name…urging me to use it…almost mocking me.

I took a look online real quick to see what other items are in the Jackson collection that I could use the coupon on and found a few things. Help me decide which one to get.

There’s a laundry hamper… A throw pillow that might look good on the glider that we’re probably going to end up getting…Or a blanket that matches the bedding. Normally, I would shy away from the blanket, remembering the astonishing amount of blankets that I received when I had Jenna. But I only got one blanket in my last shower…so maybe the blanket would be cute?

Which one do you think that I should get? They’re all pretty cute, except I’m not sold on the laundry hamper 100%. A nice dark brown wicker one would look just as cute and match our other ones as well…

Do you have any thoughts as to which other accessory would help dress up the room a bit more? Or do you think that I should wait and get the room “assembled” and then step back and look and see what else I might need?

Starting on the "Nursery"

Yeah, I get it...we're running a little behind on the whole starting to fix up the nursery thing...you don't have to rub it in!

But in my defense, we don't really have a nursery for Mr. Jax...which has presented all sorts of dilemmas in the first place. You see, our house is a 3/2 and there are already three of us that need rooms...Brent and myself, Tanner and Jenna. We're pretty sure that since there is such a large age gap between all the kids, we would like for neither of the older kids to have to give up "their space" to share with baby Jax. Even though we don't have either one of them all of the time and we'll have Jax 24/7...yeah, I know.

But still...so that presented the first problem. It was "easily" solved by us agreeing that for the first few months (no longer than a year) Jax could live in our sitting room. Luckily our house plan has a rather large master suite that includes it's own sitting area. Now, I know that the sitting area doesn't have it's own door...or even a sliding wall of any kind...and yes, I understand all of the logistical problems that we're not going to want to deal with for too long of a time period. But what's that old saying - when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right? That's what we're trying to do here. We understand that with the birth of this new one, we've outgrown our house...but for the next 6 months or so, we're sort of stuck here. It is what it is...

The second thing holding us back on starting the nursery was that since it is our sitting room/area that we don't use as a sitting room/area (we use it as a junk catch-all corner) it really needed to be cleaned out before we could start anything. So, like I said a few days ago, we rented a storage space and started working on clearing out all of the extra crap that you tend to accumulate during the course of your "grown up" years...and it's a slow process, people.

But we finally made some space...and yes, I hear you, I'm within 6 weeks of giving birth...but we started painting yesterday. And yes, Mom, I'm using the word "we" while I really mean just Brent is doing the painting. He doesn't want me painting anything at this late date and I have been threatened with bodily harm if he sees me with a paint roller in my hand. He's not even sold on the idea of me helping "trim out" the room...but he's thinking about it. It IS a large room after all...

I posted here the other day about our paint color choice...and then I changed my mind about it. I decided that that one was too dark and it would probably close in our room quite a bit once all the walls were painted that dark. So we tried two other color samples, decided on one and bought the paint the night before last. Then the paint took a field trip with me to my office the next day...instead of staying home with Brent, who needed the paint more than my car did...but oh well. A quick rendevous for lunch and a transfer of all Home Depot packages from my car to his truck fixed that problem, and when I came home from work yesterday afternoon, this is what I saw: And just so there is proof that Brent did ALL of the work by himself... Feel better, Mom? And Brandi? And all of you others who have threatened to hurt me if I do too much these days? I hope so, because it's harder than you think to "rest" and "take it easy!"

This color has a bit more blueish tint to the grey color, which will go with my bedspread nicely, don't you think? We love it! Now we just have to pick a good trim color and all decisions for our room will be finished. Brent did Jax's corner of the room first so that we could put the crib together ASAP and start washing/assembling the bed to await his arrival. My next shower is here at our house, so I'd really like to have it all put together and ready by the time that happens...and Mom would really like to see it all together too!