28 weeks: Cauliflower Girl

Twenty-eight weeks: 3.7.12







Photo thoughts: Thinking that outside pictures will be few and far between now. And how do you like my wife-beater tank? Trying to avoid wearing the same tops in pictures is getting difficult already. Geesh.

 
Size of baby: Whoops! I think last week was supposed to be a cauliflower and this week was supposed to be the cabbage, according to BC. Look at me making up my own timeline!

Cravings: Well, I finally feel full, you guys. As in, last week I was not famished 24/7 and could actually go without snacks and sweets. Maybe baby girl is giving me a break on her growth spurt or something? But for the first time in months, no true cravings.

What I love: Still in that honeymoon stage with this pregnancy because I just love it all right now. Especially being in my third trimester. It's for real, folks!

What I'm looking forward to the most: Snuggling my newborn. Nursing her. Staring at her face for absurd amounts of time. Maternity leave. Being a mom of two. Seeing Truman as a big brother. Shall I go on?

Worries: It's been a pretty sane week around here! Too busy with house stuff, birthday stuff, and out of town visitors to worry. Even when painting the ceiling of a room in our new house this weekend, I didn't automatically assume that stretching my arms over head for countless hours would hurt baby girl. I just knew it would hurt my neck and she will probably be just fine. And yes, in case you were wondering---I wear a mask and my OB did say painting the house is 100% fine as long as it's ventilated in there. Look at me, not worrying this week!!

What is different this time around: With Truman's pregnancy I was complaining of an itchy belly, running three days per week, had a bad cold for a while, and was interviewing pediatricians for Truman. Oh, and being the ever-annoying over-achiever with nursery decor. It's funny because this week I had my first pregnancy cold and it was AWFUL, just like with Truman. I'm definitely not running or doing nursery related things but our found-pediatrician is still amazing and I'm glad I don't have to hunt for another one. Overall, week 28 with both of these pregnancies seems pretty similar!

Symptoms: This is sort of gross but I must document: flossing my teeth causes my gums to bleed in a scary way. I looked it up and apparently it's not uncommon to have sensitive gums during pregnancy but man--my 6 month check up is approaching in a few weeks and I'm sure my dental hygienist is just going to love me this time. Sick. I also had a cold for about 24 hours this week and thought I might die without taking a decongestant. But somehow I lived to tell the tale.

Sleep: Yes. Lots. Had my first night when my belly felt uncomfortable for a bit when I was trying to get positioned in bed. But really, I have no problems passing out like a rock every night. I might get up at 3 am to pee occasionally but not even that happens every night. I'm lucky so far, I know.


Movement: She is a superstar mover in there. My mom and Memaw even got to feel her jabs when they were visiting this weekend! She is still up high and down low and sometimes all over my torso. I really do hope she settles into the head-down position sooner than later. Isn't she getting a little big to have room to swim around like a fish?

The belly: Round, big, and no joke. I love it. Belly button is sometimes out and sometimes in. No stretchies but the itchy skin is still there.

Milestones:  Baby girl is 2.25 pounds and 14.8 inches long (very random numbers this week, in my opinion). She can blink her eyes and maybe even see some light that shines into my uterus (??). Basically, she is a real baby now and I picture her packing on the pounds from here on out.

Amusing comments from the general public:  Nothing new this week, thank goodness. But the chick from last week is still ringing in my ears. I forgot to mention that after she told me my face is pudgy (but she can tell I'm normally thin----thanks, biyatch) she proceeded to ask me if I'm a runner. What? I do get that question a lot when I'm not pregnant and usually I can answer with a solid 'Yes, I am'. This time I stammered out that I normally run when not pregnant but have been taking it easy for these 9 months out of my life and stick to walking instead (did not mention that this baby was basically a 'pending miscarriage' with a giant bloody episode at 6 weeks that has left me somewhat paralyzed in the exercise department. It's really none of her business anyway, if I'm running or not). Then the psycho lady went on to tell me about how she knew of a woman who ran on the treadmill next to her at the gym until the day she delivered. (Big whoop. Good for her.) And then the lady tells me that said-pregnant chick was back at the gym two weeks after giving birth. Sounds a little overdone to me, but maybe that's just my laziness/defensiveness talking. I was literally trying to walk out the door the entire time my best comment friend was telling me all of this because I wanted that awful conversation to end immediately.

Best moment of the week: Truman's birthday party, seeing my family from Missouri, getting a lot accomplished at the house, and realizing that it's freaking March already. Busy but fun times!

11 things

Andrea tagged me on this post and I figured I'll play along instead of 'resting my eyes' on the couch while Truman naps:)

The Rules
1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in the post you were tagged in
4. Create 11 new questions for your tagees to answer
5. Tag them on Twitter, Facebook or your blog


11 Random Things About Me

1. This is really great for me to do because I have a '100 things about me' tab on my blog that is BUGGING me lately. As in, I wrote it when I started my blog 5.5 years ago and now so many of those 'things' are outdated it's just ridiculous to even have it up there. I mean, a lot of my old posts are sort of cringe-worthy but I guess that is what happens when you blog for so long. Stuff changes. Hence the 'transition'. :) {ALSO, this is not an appropriate 'thing' about me for these 11 things but whatever. At least it's random!}

2. If I had to pick my favorite song in the entire universe, I think right now I'd choose Bon Iver's 'Holocene'. I started listening to his album last summer after my miscarriage and this song in particular gave me chills and made me cry every time I heard it. It still does, really. The lyrics are haunting and amazing and the melody is one of those that will never, ever get old to me. The phrase 'And at once I knew I was not magnificent' means so many different things for me, as I'm sure it would for you, too. Last year, it represented the harsh dose of reality I experienced with my loss and how I was humbled beyond expectation, begging God for guidance and mercy and hope. And now, I know I'm anything but 'magnificent' because of this amazing gift of life growing inside of me. Again. Thank you, Lord, for this gift I surely don't deserve.

3. On a lighter note, I am sort of hard/gangsta-like because I can recite every lyric to 'Gin and Juice' and other various rap songs. In fact, one time I dressed up as Nelly the rapper for some sorority event when every other girl went the cutesy/girlie/fairy route. Like I said, I'm pretty hard core.

4. I was a lifeguard during many high school and college summers. And yet, I also almost drowned once in high school. Not in a pool, but in some muddy river when I got sucked under a bridge through a metal culvert. Pretty freaking scary, really, but since I was a naive 17 year old I don't think the experience shook me up as much as it should have done.

5. I'm pretty Type A and anal-retentive about a lot of things. For instance, I cannot stand to have any unopened mail in my in-boxes. I have about 4 email accounts (all appropriately divided for specific purposes/people, of course) and I will immediately open, respond, or 'star' the emails instead of just letting my in-box hold unread mail. I always unsubscribe from mass emails/advertisements because I cannot stand for those to clog up my in-boxes either. Zeroing out my in-boxes is really like a sickness for me and I'm not even in the 'business' world, where you actually do get a lot of emails during the day.

6. I'm also a compulsive list-maker and I live/die by my To-Do lists. I will definitely add a task on my list that I just completed, just to cross it off and feel that accomplishment. I get a little panicky when my list starts to mount up and I feel infinitely better about life when I've crossed everything off. Does this make me a psycho?

7. I'm tall at 5'10" and my husband is 6'3". My mom and grandma are also both 5'10". They told me I had to marry a tall man and my mom has told me many times that it's one of her biggest pet peeves when short girls marry tall guys. I think that is because it takes one more tall guy away from the tall girls and is simply unfair to us giants:). She also said I should marry a 'last born' in the family and not a first born, since I'm a strong-willed first born and we go best with the more laid-back babies of the family. She was a psychology major and really into birth order----and whoops, I married another first born. At least he's tall? (and since my whole family loves Nate as much if not more than me, I think they will forgive me for this oversight)

8. I'm a picker. As in, I LOVE to pop zits and pull hangnails and pick Truman's boogers. Yes, I'm one of the gross moms in the world but I can't help it. Should have been a dermatologist or something.

9. I'm reading the Hypnobirthing book right now in attempts to learn how to avoid another panic attack during labor. I would really REALLY like it to be more zen and calm and enjoyable this time around. If I don't have to be induced, I'd even go so far as to say I'd love to avoid an epidural if possible. But I'm not totally committed to that idea just yet because I definitely do remember the feeling that I was going to die during childbirth from the pain ( I still say what I experienced during my 40 hours of induction could not have been anywhere near 'normal'. I'm hoping it wasn't the norm, at least!). Apparently this author of the Hypnobirthing book says my intense pain was because of fear (and probably the insane amounts of Pitocin coursing through my veins)---and I will admit I was totally freaked out by the intensity of my contractions after my water broke. So this time around I'm hoping for less of a Cursing-Like-A-Sailor/OMG-I'm-Going-To-Die mindset and more of a This-Is-Going-To-Be-Okay mindset. But if my anxiety does get the best of me or if I have to have Pitocin, I will not hesitate to ask for drugs. For real.

10. I am really horrible at math, which is funny since my dad is a CPA. I mean, it's really bad and I hope our kids always ask Nate for help with their math homework. Nate loves to tell everyone the funny story from when we first started dating and I admitted my hatred towards numbers. There was some comment from me about how I could get confused about whether 75 and 15 was actually 100, or if it was really just 90. I don't really remember this comment but Nate sure does and loves to rub it in my face. Whatevs. Math is not my strong point, but I think the more artsy/creative stuff is (and Nate doesn't have anything on me in that department. Hmph. Take that, fellow first born 'overacheiver' husband of mine!)

11. I went to a private grade school/middle school, public high school, and a private college. Nate and I both feel strongly about sending our kids to 'good' public schools and I sure do hope they choose state colleges instead of pricey private ones. Student loans really suck.

11 Questions from Andrea

1. Massage or facial? Massage. Hands down. I think I've only had one facial in my life but a ton of massages and could really go for one right now.

2. The one facebook-ism that gets on your nerves (eg. cliche status updates, game requests, kissy face photos, etc). Oh, definitely the annoying 'ambiguous/mysterious' or 'fishing for questions' posts. Like, 'I'm so excited!.....' or 'I wish I could tell you a secret but I can't' type of thing.  I realize the entire concept of Facebook is sort of attention-seeking but it bugs me when people beat around the bush hoping they will get comments about it.

3. Be honest. What's your biggest insecurity? Hmm. Usually my small boobs but right now they are pretty gigantic, and will surely balloon out even more in the next few months. Yay for pregnancy and breastfeeding!

4. One word to describe your life AT THIS MOMENT. Changing. You know, the new house and new baby thing will do that to life.

5. Did you have any odd habits or preferences as a child? I was the strangest kid ever. I think I mentioned on here before that I played in sandboxes with yellow dishwashing gloves because I hated the feel of sand. And my parents had to do Easter egg hunts on the sidewalk for me because the feeling of grass on my feet was too much to handle. Maybe I had some sensory/tactile issues?

6. On what side of the sink do your dishes pile up? Well, both, since we don't have a dishwasher right now. The right side holds dirties and left is clean ones that are drying. Did I ever mention that our new house will have a new dishwasher for us? Dying thinking about it.

7. What's the most embarrassing thing in your fridge right now? Nothing 'embarrassing' just yet. But this question makes me think about when I had a giant urine collection jug in our fridge every week for about a month when they were checking for Pre-Eclampsia with Truman's pregnancy. God, I hope I can avoid that whole thing this time around.

8. What websites and in what order do you visit them every morning? Emails, Facebook, Google Reader, Pinterest, Blogger. Not really every morning, though, more like throughout the day on my phone. (which, by the way, I still say Andrea NEEDS a smart phone more than anyone else I know. Life changing, girl!)

9. Did you (or do you) have a myspace page? Not anymore but I totally did have one. And it was beautifully personalized. :)

10. Would you ever sky dive? Nah. But at one time I was ALL about it for some reason.

11. Post the last thing you pinned on Pinterest. It's been awhile! Where have I been? But this is my most recent one and I love it. Does anyone else think that Pinterest is being taken over by chevrons? Love.

Source: etsy.com via Julia on Pinterest

11 new questions from me:

1. What would you do if you won $1000 right now?
2. What inspires you? (very vague, I know).
3. Where in the world would you go if you had an all-expenses paid vacation gifted to you?
4. Favorite season of the year and why?
5. Favorite place to shop, online or in store?
6. If you could meet any celebrity, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
7. What is your worst habit?
8. This or That: Wine or Beer. (Mmmm, salivating). And why?
9. Name the three things you'd grab from your house in a fire.
10. What's your favorite trait about yourself?
11. If you had to eat one thing every single night for dinner what would it be?

 Hmmmm, who to tag? How about:
Erin at It's All Happening)---(since she has nothing else to do with a brand new baby at home:) But since she is a super-blogger maybe it's not totally ridiculous to think she might muster up the time for this?)

E@Oh! Apostrophe

Rachel and John

Allison at A Little Blueberry

Lauren at LiveLaughLove


Or anyone else that wants to join in the fun, or leave a comment with answers!

House renovations, take two: Painting up a storm

My biggest project in our house thus far has definitely been painting. Nate hates to paint and so he's mostly focusing all of his time on the kitchen, which is fine by me because pulling down cabinet doors and fixing up wood holes sounds awful to me. I love to paint and volunteered to tackle the massive project of transforming our house with a little COLOR on the walls. Plus painting every other conceivable surface out there, but we'll get to that in a minute. I love picking paint colors even though it's pretty stressful for me, too. Nothing like painting the interior of a 1700 square foot house in just a few weeks to make a lady crazy, right? But we have to have the paint done before we move in---it just makes more sense to do it before furniture and people are in the way. Want to see what I've done so far?

MAIN ROOM transformation:

This was the room that had all cream colored walls, crown molding, and ceilings. Along with blue carpet. It's also basically huge which is great for when we live in the room, but not so fun while painting every surface of the room. At 24 feet by 13 feet, it's easily the largest room of the house and where I forsee us spending most of our time. Wanna see the true before picture again?

Bam.


I decided to go with Behr's 'Cloudy Day' for the wall color, and picked two shades lighter for our ceilings in there (which was basically 'Wave Crest' plus another 25% shot of white). Next came the fun part of removing ALL of the hideous window coverings including about 5 types of rods and screws and hinges on each window. This was not fun, guys. I wiped off all the walls and woodwork and got to town. I think it took me about 5 hours to paint these walls with some help from my mother-in-law on the edging (I prefer rolling it on, she likes edging, therefore we are a perfect pair.). The ceiling and crown molding paint jobs took another 5 hours. Ick. And so?

Main room walls during the painting day. Also, note that the ceilings are still white at this point and the crown molding still 'creamy'. Which, to me, is such a waste because the crown molding is SO pretty--why not make it pop out more?


Main room after walls and ceiling painted, but before crown molding turned cream into white:


And after the crown molding was transformed by the white. Isn't it insane how the ceiling looks a lot less blue with that white against it?


During the crown molding paint job:




All that is left to pain in here is the dark woodwork :::dodging the stone-throwing from the crowd again, as I type that phrase:::: I really do think it will be amazing with bright white wood everywhere though. It's very 'us' and I know it's going to suck big time to put in the hours for painting wood work. But I really do think it will be worth it!

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DINING ROOM transformation:

After a lot of debate, I decided to keep the dining room the same color as the family/main room. They flow together very nicely so it makes sense and plus, this dining room will be one that keeps some of it's dark woodwork (the built-in and the windows will remain) so I'm sure that will make the blue walls look totally different than the main room. I wanted to paint the ceilings in here, too, but it sucked so bad in the main room I just can't bring myself to break my neck in there again. Plus I ran out of paint although I thought I bought enough of the 'Wave Crest' ceiling shade for the two rooms. I take that as a sign from God that the ceilings might remain cream colored in there. We did paint the crown molding bright white though. 

Built-in buffet before paint and before I hacked away those ugly curtains:


And after the paint. Also shows a nice shot of our new floors! Never mind that the buffet is a huge storage area for us right now.


After blue goes on the walls, looking into the sunroom. But this doesn't show the crisp white crown molding just yet. It's there but no pictures to show it off.


Only remaining paint project in the dining room will be the baseboards and door frames. Plus those French doors that lead into the sunroom. Sigh. Lots of painting still ahead. I believe it took us about 3 hours to paint the walls and another 1.5 hours to do the crown molding. That stuff is no joke with all of those little twists and turns but I love it. :)
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SUNROOM transformation:

I haven't gotten any great pictures of our sunroom to show you just yet. Must work on that. But this is the room that I painted Behr's 'Peridot' green and I just sort of like it. I am hoping that with white woodwork I will love it though. I have yet to paint the crown molding a bright white and I think I will actually muster up the energy to paint the ceiling two shades lighter than the walls, which is Behr's 'White Willow' color. It's only 10x12 so it can't be THAT bad, right? 

Before painting walls, and before floors:


After painting the walls green, and after floors are refinished:


Painting this room, including the rolling and edging, only took us about 3 hours. Gotta love smaller rooms.The ongoing paint projects in here: crown molding, all woodwork, and ceiling (plus French doors).

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BEDROOM transformations:

I don't need to do much else besides the walls in these three bedrooms. I'm not going to bother with the ceilings, and I'll probably just leave the crown molding the off white color. The other woodwork is all white, except for the baby's room---for some unknown reason, they painted that entire room a pastel yellow that is really ugly, if you ask me. So I guess I will be painting her woodwork white in there. Luckily the other two bedrooms are already the color I'd choose for the woodwork, though.


Master bedroom:
I chose Behr's 'Honey Bird' yellow for our room. It's a bold choice, probably the brightest room of the house, but it's going to be SO awesome combined with our gray and white bedspread. There's nothing like a warm, inviting color in the master to make this a fun room. It took me about 3 hours to do this room.

Here is the true before, carpet and all:


During painting day:


After! The floors aren't stained/finished here, though. And I swear the real color is not such a bright 'highlighter yellow'. It's actually quite pretty in real life (aside from iPhone pictures).


Truman's room: 
This is turning out to be the room that is the thorn in my side right now. I wanted T's room to be a nice, pale gray. And I KNEW it would be hard to nail the right shade but I was still too cheap to actually buy samples first. As soon as I put Behr's 'Gentle Rain' color on  his walls, I panicked. I really thought it looked lavender and I was seriously thinking about returning the entire gallon and starting from scratch. But I kept plugging away because Nate and my mother-in-law (and everyone else that I've shown) swear it's a fine gray, not too purple. I'm still not 100% convinced, though, and I'm hoping that by adding T's bright colored accents in there I barely even notice my pet peeve wall color. Truman didn't yell 'PURPLE' when he saw it, either. So that's a great sign. It took me 3 hours to do this room (apparently that is how long it takes me to do most of these rooms)

Before:


During the painting episode:


After painting, floors only sanded but not stained in this shot:

It really does look purple in this pic, huh? In real life I don't even think it's *that* bad.

Baby's room:
This room also took me 3 hours to paint and I actually did it one night after Truman went to bed. I picked Behr's 'Wildwood Spring' which is a pretty robin's egg blue to me. I just really hate that I still have to paint her woodwork white because it almost looks white in this 'before' picture from online. I wonder if the owners repainted the whole thing after this picture was taken and went with the yellow instead. Should have asked me first !! :)

Before we moved in:


After I painted the walls, but before floors were stained, and before I bother to paint the woodwork WHITE and not this ugly yellow:

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So that's that. A ridiculous amount of painting on my part, huh? I just added it up and that looks like about 27 hours of straight painting and I'm not even done yet. I really do enjoy painting, thankfully, but man---it's a lot of work! Luckily, with my trusty mask and lots of fans I am still following doctor's orders and not killing my baby from fumes or anything.

Really not looking forward to prepping and painting all of the dark woodwork on the first floor. But I think I have convinced Nate to help with this large task. And I didn't mention the kitchen at all just yet, since that is it's own separate project and painting the walls won't come until much later. We also haven't touched either bathroom or any of the hallways with paint. Not sure I have enough energy to bother right now anyway.

Off to paint some more...