Christian is taking over the house...

I told Tim that our son was taking over the house and he isn't even here yet! I guess that is the way things go.... I took the camera around the house looking for evidence of Christian and I found it in almost every room!
He managed to hit the spare bedroom... we don't even have furniture in here yet but the closet is full! I know we will be thankful for all of those diapers when he gets here! The drawers are full of clothes!! One of the sets is 3 - 6 months and the other is 6 - 9 months. Oh, and the little organizer on top has toddler clothes.... don't ask how he already has those! The jumperoo and high chair are also currently residing in the spare bedroom just for lack of another place to put them! Here is the jumperoo that Aunt Christine put together... it is really cool looking!

I checked our bedroom and found a stack of books on Tim's night stand. He reads to Chris every night so those are VERY important :) The bassinet is also on my side of the bed so he is taking up his fair share of space in our room...

Next stop was the bathroom and what do you know.... he managed to take up residence there as well! The pictures are of two organizers... one is on the back of the door and the other is in the corner of the shower. They are really cute and hold tons of baby bath stuff! The other is one of his two bathtubs... he has another at my mom's house! I can't wait to take pictures of him in it!

Like the nursery it seems that the living room has also taken on a rain forest theme. The swing, pack and play, and bouncy chair are all go very well with our contemporary furniture!

The little bugger has already started to take up space in the kitchen too! What am I going to do for cabinet space?!? I will post a picture once I get it all of the Target baby food organized and put away .... it is going to be quite the ordeal :)

So in conclusion...just as Christian has already moved into our hearts it is easy to see that he has also made himself at home in our little townhouse... now we just need to get him to come out and play!

Christian is not a blanket snob!

You didn't think that was all of his blankets did you??? He also has LOTS of adorable blankets that came from the store... they may not take as long to make but they are just as cute! Christian is not a blanket snob and loves ALL of the blankets that friends and family have lovingly taken the time to pick out for him. Here is a small sample of the blankets that I was able to grab and photograph. He has another whole drawer that I didn't touch! The first two my mom picked up in FL because we realized that the child has no blue blankets.... we were pretty sure that was a crime for a little boy so we attempted to remedy the situation immediately!

Christian the Boy of Many Blankets

I know that babies need to stay warm .... but somehow my son has managed to accumulate more blankets than the Ramada Inn... These blankets are better than hotel blankets though...they are absolutely beautiful! So I thought I would share with you some of the many blankets of Christian's collection. These blankets were all hand made and show just a fraction of how much this little boy is going to be loved!
This is a recent addition to the collection. One of the moms at Tae Kwon Do made this for Chris! I was so excited when Tim brought it home!

My Aunt Cherry crocheted this baby blanket for Christian! It is really soft and I LOVE all of the baby colors in it!

My Aunt Wilma started this blanket as soon as she found out that I was pregnant! I love the white and yellow in it :)

Okay... this one needs a little bit of an explanation. Nana (my mom) bought this one for Christian at Christiana Mall. The first picture is the head of an elephant... that is one corner...the second is the butt of en elephant (complete with tail!)..... that is at the opposite corner... then the blanket has his name embroidered on it in baby blue. Sorry... that picture is a little hard to read. It is adorable and really soft. We love it because of the jungle theme in the nursery!
I am very proud of this little blanket because with Jennifer's assistance I made it!! Brendan was so impressed that he asked me to make him a blanket! Unfortunately for him I don't own a sewing machine.... he told me to look into buying one.

This is MY baby blanket!! My mom started it as a school project I think... but since we share the same desire and ability when it comes to knitting it was never finished....when they found out that my mom was pregnant my dad stole it and had one of his aunt's finish it as a surprise! I am very proud that I still have it!

This beautiful quilt was made for Christian by Jennifer. We absolutely adore it! I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the back because it is really cute too! This is what people who know things about quilts call a panel quilt. She is also making him a quilt that is pieced together.... I know it will be just as beautiful!

I hope that I haven't missed any blankets... I have started putting things where I need them so there is a chance that a blanket is already in a diaper bag.... in fact I know that one is in the car.... I will have to add that one later! We LOVE all of these blankets and know that Christian is going to cherish them for a very long time to come.... we can only guess which will become the coveted blankie!

Take Target for Everything...

Well Laura being the devoted nestie that she is learned of a coupon online from Target that gave you $1.00 off any two Gerber products. Well the little containers of baby food are only 84 - 92 cents depending on which Target you shop at. So for about 84 cents you could purchase two packs or four servings of baby food. Not a bad deal.... you could also use the coupons for juice and cereal.

Being the devoted Aunt and Soon-To-Be-Mommy that I am I volunteered myself and my mom to do the shopping for both of us since poor Laura is out in Targetless western MD. Yesterday we went to the Aberdeen Target and bought 100 things of baby food for $32. Quite the steal... Today we went to the Bel Air Target.... now we were a little disappointed because instead of the 84 cents of the previous day we saw that the baby food was 92 cents at this Target...after some discussion about the difference in price we decided to go ahead with it because it was still a good deal. Besides Aberdeen was cleaned out and who knows when Mr.Christian is going to appear... now is as good of time as any to get this shopping done! So my mom and I bought ANOTHER 100 containers of baby food, 16 boxes of cereal, and a TON of juice. All together on both shopping trips I ended up spending $152 but Laura and I talked and we think we have enough baby food to last us until the end of stage 1!

So needless to say Lucy and Christian are set for awhile... especially considering they won't start making a dent in the food until they are 6 months old! Now us moms just have to find somewhere to keep it all!

Here is a picture of what the "loot" from todays trip looks like. I haven't started to put it away yet...

Excitement just makes you sleepy...

So poor Tim is probably had a very lousy day today... yesterday was pretty calm. We went to Smokey Bones for dinner. It is in York, PA so it was a bit of a drive....but the food was really good! Apparently there is one near my parent's house in Florida so they knew that they liked it... Tim and I came home and went to sleep almost right away.

I woke up at 2:00 a.m. with really bad stomach cramps. When your a pregnant stomach issues are really weird because our stomach is squished up under your ribs so instead of a tummy ache it feels like one of your lungs is about to explode... My back started hurting too and I knew it was going to be a long night. I didn't want to call the doctor because they really isn't much they can do and well if I can't sleep at least someone else deserves to!

I tried laying, sitting, standing, etc to get rid of the cramps... and then I attempted to take a hot shower but nothing worked. Tim was very sweet and rubbed my back for me and kept me company while I whined... Finally I told myself that if it didn't stop hurting by 4 am I was going to call the doctor. So at 4 I talked to Dr.Wienreb and he said it was probably labor. He told me to try walking around and that when the pain got to be too much to go to the hospital and call him.

I almost didn't tell Tim because I was pretty convinced that I wasn't in labor and I didn't want to get him excited but I wanted to walk and I couldn't go by myself so I told him to get up. I googled contractions to see if something would describe what they felt like and the only thing I learned was that if they were real contractions they would increase with physical activity. That sealed the deal and at 4:15 I dragged Tim out the door to go for a walk. He was a very good sport and walked with me for 40 minutes! We came back in the house close to 5 and my stomach didn't hurt anymore...go figure. So we waited for a little bit to make sure it didn't come back and then we went to sleep.

Poor Tim's cell phone rang at 9:30 and it was Russ. He needed Tim to come into work... it never fails. The only time he gets called in is when I have some sort of issue and keep him up all night! He was a pretty good sport about it but I know he had to be frustrated!! He is on his way home now and I am making corn on the cob for dinner. We are going to eat corn and hot dogs and then we are going to watch Night at the Museum. I know its a kids movie but I really want to see it...

Baby Stuff is Tough...

Christine came over yesterday and ended up putting together the high chair and the jumperoo. Baby stuff is really hard to put together!! She has put everything together. The highchair, jumperoo, swing, bouncy seat, play yard, and stroller. She is an amazing aunt an Chris isn't even her yet! Oh, Daddy put the crib together and Grandpa put the Bassinet together. Lucky for Chris I have put NOTHING together. I will stick to picking out cute clothes and toys so that he stays safe.

My Son Has Style...

This is what Christian is planning to wear home from the hospital. Notice the matching bib, hat, socks, and shoes. We will take plenty of pictures and then let him strip down to his diaper so that he is truly happy...

I have things to write... just nothing that exciting....

How many times do I write that I am going to do laundry? Probably more than I can count... well I have been doing okay with it. I just haven't gotten done everything that I want. So maybe today is the day. Jess is coming over to paint so I can't really leave and there isn't much else to do. So I will focus on getting the laundry all caught up.

The nursery looks really cute... I am waiting for my furniture but other than that and some shelves that Matt (Christine's boyfriend) is going to make everything is actually in the room. Tim even took his tools downstairs and put them away because we won't be needing them anymore! The shelves are going to hold all of his stuffed animals because like his mama he already has quite a few!! They can't stay in the crib so I figure shelves above the crib is the next best thing! I am hoping to convince Matt to make me two so that all of the animals have plenty of room. We wouldn't want to squish Mr.Tiger....

I am officially done adding music to my ipod. It says that I have six full days of music stored on it. Now watch I won't even remember to take it to the hospital with us! I think I may get out the thing that makes it play in the car and start using it again. It seems like such a waste for all of that hard work to just be sitting in the hospital bag...

Okay off to find something productive to do while that clothes are drying...

Has it been two weeks yet?

Yes we still have a whole two weeks before Christian is supposed to get here... it seems like a very long time even though it is actually not that bad!

My mom, Tim, and I went to Babies R Us today. We bought an outfit for Christian to come home in and we exchanged the car seat base so that we have the right one. Tim and I went to Wal Mart to do grocery shopping after that. We were both starving so we ended up buying tons of food. That is actually not a bad thing ..... there was nothing to eat in the house so we really needed to stock up!

We came home and ate lunch.... and then Tim went down in the basement to pay bills... he hasn't come back up yet but when he does he is going to hang the curtain rod and the parrot in the nursery. He also is going to call the furniture store to see if my rocking chair has arrived yet. I was really hoping it would be here by now...

In other news I am almost finished with Christine's CD collection. After her CDs I guess that will be about it.... I don't know who else I would take CDs from. I am up to almost six days of music on my ipod so I really cannot complain. I am definitely running out of things to do... and starting to go a little stir crazy. Which doesn't seem possible because I really leave the house quite a lot.

Jess has started the mural. She is about 1/3 of the way finished....maybe more. It looks really cute and I can't wait to post pictures of it! I'll wait until it is finished to do that. Once that is finished all we need to do is move the furniture in and we are done!

I really have no idea what I am going to do with myself for the next two weeks. I am out of books, sick of TV, and running out of places to clean! We shall see what I find to get into...

Sorry... but I told you he was staying put

Doctor's appointment went fine. Next one is August 2nd... I told you the kid isn't going to show his face :)

Jess is coming to work on the mural tomorrow!

Jess called this morning and said she wanted to start sketching and painting tomorrow! I am really excited even if it means I have to get up before noon! My mom and I are going to go buy the paint before my doctor's appointment so we should be leaving soon!

Things that Rory has Destroyed

1. My Brown Old Navy Flip Flops
2. The Carpet in my Spare Bedroom
3. The Fan in my Spare Bedroom
4. Her dog bed
5. 2 bags of the cat's food
6. An entire bottle of Tide
7. The carpet under the door to the washing room
8. The grass in our backyard
9. The dog crate... she hasi the metal bent every which way
10. My sanity

She leaves August 8th.... she is cute and I like her, but I will not be sorry to see her go.

I don't think he is ever coming...

I know every person who has ever been pregnant has said the same thing...but I am pretty sure Christian is not coming. He has decided that things are too good on the inside and he has no reason to go through with this whole birth thing....

On the plus side Christine is home!!! So if I do go into labor I am actually able to give birth! I can't imagine how I was going to go about explaining to Dr.Weinreb that he needs to keep the baby inside until Sunday..so it is a relief that she is home and available.

I am still adding music to my ipod... my mom's CDs are almost all added. I am up to three days of music! Next I am attacking Christine's CDs. She doesn't know it yet but she will in a few hours when I get to the house.. or sooner if she reads this I guess!

My mom agreed to make me hot dogs for dinner. I am not sure why but I have wanted them for dinner quite a few times over the past month or so. Anyways I am taking Rory with me because now that she can break out of the crate I am not sure how to contain her... I have to figure this out before my doctors appointment tomorrow.

A Little Excitement

We had a bit of excitement yesterday... I had a really bad headache all day and when I called my doctor to let them know they had me take my blood pressure. It was 144/90 so Heather, the nice nurse, told me that labor and delivery would be expecting me... I called my mom and she said she would drive me. I called Tim and he said he would meet us there. Now don't get mad that I didn't call you... I was convinced that I wasn't staying!

They monitored my blood pressure for an hour and it kept going down to the point that Tim joked that they were going to keep me for low blood pressure. They checked on Christian and once he decided to cooperate they were able to see that he was doing just fine. Dr.Bellantoni said I don't even have to go on bed rest. I just have to spend time when I am not doing anything laying on my left side...oh and I think this weekend's marathon will have to be cancelled :-) I have another doctor's appointment on Monday so I will let you know how that goes.

Anyways...Tim brought me home, fed me pizza hut, and sent me to bed. All is well.

I am adding music to my ipod right now... I am up to two full days of music. I think that is pretty impressive! I am contemplating a trip to the grocery store. I am hungry and haven't found anything in the house that I would really like to eat. However, that would involve locking up Rory and putting on shoes... I really don't feel like going through all of that effort!

In other news... Tim helped me out on Tuesday and Thursday and we got almost everything on my list completed! The only thing we have left to do is finish catching up on laundry and hanging a curtain rod in the nursery! Pretty impressive!

Another Productive Morning

I have only been out of bed for an hour or so... but it has been a very productive hour!

I called the hospital because I never signed up for all of those new parent classes that you are "supposed" to take.

Even though Chris is due soon I was able to get into most of the classes that I wanted! Of course the hospital tour and CPR class are scheduled for the day before his due date.... but the first baby is always late.....right?

I also signed us up for an infant safety class. We are not exactly sure what that is but I called Nina and told her to sign up too. So Chris and Lilly will both be safe.... I don't think Andrew and Laura took a safety class so we will have to keep a close eye on Lucy.

Finally I signed up for a prenatal breastfeeding class. It is this Saturday. So I actually have things to do this week! AND I have a baseball game Thursday night!

Christian has no clothes!

To be more accurate Christian has no clothes in newborn sizes. This is a mystery to me considering the child has more clothing than Opera. Laura said the same thing happened to her, but I am still in disbelief. He has three little outfits. Two of which are pants so it may be too hot for him the actually wear them. The third outfit has a spot on it and although this is fine for around the house Nana will not stand for her grandson to come home in something with a spot on it. I agree completely and so this weekend when we got to Babies R Us we are going to be on the look out for something for Chris to come home in!

Late Night...

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided that I would start rereading the last Harry potter book. I figured this way I would "be ready" for the next book which comes out on July 21st. I finished the book last night... I didn't really plan on THAT. Still I just slept late this morning so it wasn't so bad!

Today is Tim's birthday. My car is at the shop so I can't leave the house.... my mom is coming over to help me organize the nursery. We have stuff piled everywhere. Anything that was purchased in the last two weeks is just sitting in the floor. After we organize everything she is going to take me to the grocery store. I am picking up corn on the cob as a surprise for dinner. Tim LOVES corn. I am really not sure why he loves it as much as he does....but I thought it would make a nice birthday dinner. I have to figure out what to fix with the corn...

I think tonight he will watch the last Harry Potter movie. Tim loves the Harry Potter movies and I think Wednesday we are going to go see the new one. He likes to see the old one an extra time before going to see the next one... so Christian got him the DVD for his birthday and I got him movie tickets to see the next one. Its not much but we are trying to save money so hopefully he will enjoy it.

My mom will be here a little before 2:00 so I think I should probably go take a shower and try to clean up the kitchen before she gets here!

Busy Saturday

Today started off slow... Rory and I slept in while Tim headed off to work. My mom came over and we went out to run some errands. I took a box of books to the book thing in Baltimore. (www.bookthing.org) It is a really cool place where you can go to get free books. Whenever I find books that I no longer want I always put them aside for them. They say that their mission is to find a home for unwanted books. Then I dropped off some papers at Notre Dame for Tim. After that we went to Babies R Us and picked up a bassinet for my mom's house. She is very excited to have her own! We also picked up a Halloween costume for Christian!! He is going to be a giraffe!! It is going to be soooo cute! After that we went to Barnes and Noble to pick up Lucy's baptism gift. We finished our day at Target where I had to pick up some odds and ends.

When my mom dropped me off at the house I had time to show Tim all of the wonderful things that we picked up. After that I had time to take a short nap before it was time to go to dinner with Tim's mom. We headed out to Ruby Tuesdaysand had a very yummy dinner. We stopped at the groccery store on the way home and picked up water so that I can make more Kool Aid.

As we pulled up to the house Tim got a phone call. He got called into work. So now I am home alone :( I am not sure what I would like to do.

Even More Progress!

I have so much done! I am currently putting music on my ipod so that I can take it to the hospital with me. The kitchen, living room, and bedroom are all clean. I did a load of dishes...but I should do another. Then the sink would be empty. I should REALLY go downstairs and put another load of clothes in the washer.

We are going to Coakley's tonight and I am getting excited because I haven't left the house today. Tomorrow my mom and I are going to Babies R Us, Target, and Barnes and Noble. I am going to pick up Lucy's baptism present. I already know what I am getting, but I have to pick it up!I think I am going to raid my moms CDs too. She has lots of really good ones and who knows what I will be in the mood to listen to when we are waiting for Christian!

More Progress...

I cleaned the kitchen some more... I cleaned up the bedroom.... I packed my hospital bag and Christian's bag.... I addressed all but five of my thank you notes.... and I called to harass JHU.

I still haven't started laundry although I did sort it. Tim isn't here so no progress on things moving around the house. I feel pretty good about the progress but now I am on the couch again and having trouble getting off. The Kool Aid helps... but only to a certain point! Rory has slept the entire time.... lazy dog doesn't she realize we are accomplishing things today?!?

UPDATE!

Well the kitchen is ....cleaner. I don't sweep because Tim is nice enough to do it for me so the kitchen needs to be swept but after that it should be good.

I am currently working on the living room and it looks like Christian's toys are making themselves at home!

Lilly and Leap took over the bouncy seat!

The Monkey is in the pack and play!

To Do List

I thought maybe if I put it in a list I would feel more prepared for getting things done. Plus then I can ask Tim for help with finishing the list...

1. Wash dishes
2. Clean Kitchen
3. Clean Living Room
4. Move Books from Closet to Basement (Tim)
5. Take Bassinet Upstairs to Bedroom (Tim)
6. Clean Bedroom
7. Organize Nursery
8. Wash clothes - 5 Loads and counting :(
9. Find Addresses for Remaining Thank You Notes
10. Pack Hospital Bag for Self and Christian

So I guess 10 things really isn't that much... especially since I can't move heavy things so I have to depend on Tim for two of the items. I am going to go drink a large glass of Kool Aid and see if I can get started.... but don't be surprised if I come back without much progress.

Almost Fully Recovered

Well it has been five days since my baby shower and I think I am (almost) recovered. It was amazing and perfect!! My family did such a wonderful job, they thought of EVERYTHING! It has taken all week to get everything put away and we are not quite there yet. I think my mom is coming over today to help put away clothes... that's pretty much all I have left to do! Christine and my mom came over on Tuesday and helped assemble everything. Now it really looks like Christian has moved in! He has stuff in almost every room of the house... including a swing in the kitchen. I am working on finding a home for the swing, but I think it is going to involve saying goodbye to one of my end tables. We were already planning on getting rid of the coffee table to I guess it will be okay. Luckily we can store everything at the furniture store and maybe one day it can makes its way back to our living room!

Christian is going to be spoiled beyond belief.... I think I already may have known that, but the baby shower just confirmed it! Tim and I are so lucky to have all of these people in our lives who care so much about us and little Chris! This baby has everything he could possibly need or want... and many things that he doesn't even know exist. I can't wait for him to be old enough to realize just how lucky he is!

I am going to go do a load of laundry. I think getting two loads of laundry done and packing my hospital bag and I guess Christian's hospital bag are my only goals for today. That is until my mom comes over .... then we have a huge stack of clothes to put away and organize!