Week 21
posted on 08/24/2008
I'm feeling really good about having the baby's room as finished as it is. The furniture shown in the photo is everything that's in there right now. The dresser even has some clothes in it already thanks to Mike, Michelle, and my mom. We have mostly newborn sized clothes, so if anyone gets a wild hair up their butt about possibly getting us some baby clothes (like if you see something so cute in the store you think no one would be able to live without it and you absolutely, positively HAVE to buy it RIGHT NOW), go for a larger size. :D
Steve and I went to Goodwill last week, just to see if they had any baby stuff we might need. Yea, they didn't have bumpkiss. (is that how you spell that?) We did get a few kids books to read to the little one, and one for us called the Diaper Diaries: the real poop on a new mom's first year. There are lots of stories in there about what can (and probably will) happen that's negative. Most of these are really funny. It's mostly poking fun at what a new mom's life has turned into, but after reading it I'm just thinking there's got to be more positives, there's just got to be! I know full well that it's not going to be cake and roses. I'm not expecting that. But I am expecting that there will be (albeit brief) moments in time when the baby isn't crying and I'm not at the end of my rope, ready to bash the next person I see in the head with a frying pan. (Poor Steve.) And of course every baby is different with a unique temperment. Steve and I were both really easy babies, so I'm hoping we'll luck out there. But we'll see. It's certainly not a guarantee. We're just praying he won't be as difficult to deal with as Ramsey was as a puppy. We came incredibly close to giving him away. Obviously we didn't, and we're very happy with that decision. But it takes a lot to get either of us that riled.
We're thinking I might start my maternity leave as early as October (although we don't have a specific date in mind yet). I had been thinking October or November originally, just depending on how easy it was to continue working, etc. But we're leaning more and more towards October. We sat down and had a good look at our monthly budget and Steve's income, and figured out that we can afford to live on just his income, as long as it's a temporary thing. If any big expense came up, we'd have a really tuff time, but otherwise it'll be okay. That'll give me plenty of time to work on the things I really want/need to get done before the baby's born. I hope. Our dead trees are coming down this week, so we'll be able to start chopping wood. And we're just about done with the holder Steve designed for the firewood. It's all starting to come together, and hopefully things keep on this path.
I'm feeling good these days, which I appreciate daily! I have several little things that bother me from time to time, but compared to the nausea, I'm living on easy street. My feet are very prone to swelling the last few days, so I've taken to lying on the couch reading a book with my legs up against the wall. That seems to take care of it.
Both dogs have been really itchy lately, especially Ramsey, but they don't have fleas. We stopped using the monthly applications like Advantage because I'm not supposed to be around those chemicals, and they're freakin' expensive. So we bought some flea shampoo and special combs instead. Apparantly, fleas are not an issue up here anyway, but we want to be safe. We're not sure why they've been so itchy. It may be because they like to walk through poison oak (although it's never bothered them at all before). I brushed them both with the flea combs today and neither had any signs of fleas, but a lot of dry skin at the itchy sights. It hasn't been quite as humid lately as they're used to, so maybe it's that in addition to the flea shampoo or something that's just made their skin dry and itchy. I just don't know. We haven't been having any problems with the mosquitoes being bad this year (at least, not yet), but I guess that is a possibliity. The bugs do come out at night, and the dogs get evening as well as morning walks. (Talk about spoiled!) Anybody have any ideas?
Also, I want to post a new poll. Is there anything in particular anybody would like to see polled?
