Welcome Oliver Daniel!

Hanging in there

Still no baby yet.  Not much to say unless you want to hear a bunch of complaining on my part, so we'll just leave this a short and sweet post.

D-Day

That's right, today is the big day, and no baby yet.  So instead of baby pictures I have one more project for the nursery to show you.

It started with some gray felt and a pattern I created.

 And ended up with a cute gray elephant.

 I was using them to refinish a mobile that had been part of Bella's bedding collection.

 And here is the finished project.

Dance Party

One of Bella's favorite activities is to dance.

Usually she has more fun when mom or dad is dancing with her, but it's a little hard to dance along and use the camera, so this is Bella's debut all by herself.

Children's TLC Duck Derby

Bella's former preschool is having a fundraiser this weekend down at the plaza. 

Now I hope you won't see us down there because we will either be home with a newborn, or still in the hospital.  But the rate things are going, we just might be down there enjoying all the kids activities with Bella.

See the link for more information - Duck Derby

Project Roundup

 Remember this Craigslist bust of a dresser.

Here is the new look with darker stain, spray painted hardware, and some structural modifications to make it more stabilized.

We also got the lamp spray painted gray.  I have ideas for re-doing the lamp shade but need to know if it needs to be girly or boyish before I start.  This is also the reason I don't have anything on the walls, that will be my opportunity to personalize the room.

I also finished sewing my first bag.  It's big enough to be a new diaper bag, or it could just be my everyday bag.  I guess we'll see what it really becomes here shortly.

Naughty Post

I'm going to get in trouble for this one.

I know it comes from a place of good intentions, but every day my "can't sit still, has to be doing something, list making, has one million things that HAVE to be done" husband comes home from work and asks me - "What have you DONE today"?
Translated means - "What have you done today which has helped your cause to have this baby now"?
If it were up to my husband I would be walking 4 miles every day while eating hot wings and stopping every mile to have sex, and then maybe the baby would come.
Because that's just what a very pregnant person wants to hear every night, that it's somehow her fault that this baby hasn't arrived yet, because she hasn't "done" enough.

It's all a waiting game

Yes, I feel like we are in a holding pattern around here, just waiting for the arrival of baby#2.  And nights like last night don't help.  There is nothing fun about having contractions from 9am until 3am in the morning, and then having them stop with nothing to show for them.  Except missing more than half a nights sleep.  Bella was also in a weird mood last night and stayed up giggling, yelling, and continuously moving around in her bed from 8pm until 1:30am.

This picture was taken at about 1am in the morning, it shows Bella's new PVC rail attachment that Jesse made to keep her from falling out.  I'm sure had it not been in place Bella would have fallen out of bed a minimum of three times with the amount of moving she was doing.
So needless to say no one got a lot of sleep last night.  You could call it practice, but who really needs to practice not sleeping.  We are pros around here on that one!

Happy Father's Day

Thanks for being my dad.

Sandcastle making.

Tickle Monster.

Part time stylist.

Bead wearing.

 Comforter.

Bath giver

Chauffeur.

Curl Giver.















Fun loving Father!!!!















I love you!

Memories

No baby yet.  Most people wouldn't be too upset with that if they weren't past their due date, but I was sure with the amount of procrastination going on in our house with the preparation for the new baby that it would indeed be early.
And I know that in general it's better for the baby to not come early.  But it's getting hard to take care of Bella.  And it's not even the carrying around the 33 pound dead weight of Bella (except when going up and down the stairs), it's the bending over and trying to pick her up from the floor, and the worst is trying to support her on my lap when there just isn't anyplace for her to sit.  And of course there is the general uncomfortableness of being this pregnant.
But if you want to know the real reason I am ready to have this baby, it's because I'm anxious to meet the little person growing inside of me.  I would like to know if it's a girl or a boy, being that my lovely husband wouldn't let me find out.  But most importantly I want to make sure the baby is healthy and everything will be okay this time around.
I start to remember my delivery of Bella.  Of being hooked up to a million machines and the whole labor and delivery taking forever.  Of her having a short little cry after being born, them handing her to me for all of 3 seconds and then needing to rush off and work on her.  And my first impression of Bella being in my arms was that she had such a pronounced cone head.  They worked on her in the room with us for a short while and they had to rush her down to NICU.  Jesse went with them, and the doctors and nurses had to finish up things with me.  I remember Jesse being lost and going in between my room and the NICU.  They would occasionally kick him out of the NICU to do different procedures and the doctors would tell him different things they found.  He would have to come back and report the different things to me with such a look of despair and disbelief.  They then informed us Bella would be transported to Children's Mercy downtown.  It wasn't until I had a brief time alone that I even allowed myself to cry.
This was the only picture taken of Bella and us at the hospital I delivered her at (they were in a little bit of a hurry and didn't allow us to take another one, even though my eyes were closed).

Jesse decided to stay with me in the hospital since they were going to release me the very next morning.  I was in a huge hurry to get out as I knew our new baby girl was all alone in a hospital without her mother or father.  I cried most of the way up to Children's Mercy. And of course life went on, as most of you know who read the blog.  But that is my memory of giving birth, and I'm ready to replace it with a new one....any day now would be great!

Moving all around

Apparently after almost 4 years, we don't stay where we are put anymore.  The other morning I propped Bella on the couch (she was leaning on the stripped pillow you see in the background).  I went into the kitchen to grab a drink and when I returned I was surprised to see Bella hanging off the couch. 

Of course instead of rescuing her, I ran back into the kitchen to grab the camera and take a picture.

What is funny, is that she doesn't seem to mind that she is falling off the couch.  She doesn't really make a sound, she just slowly lets herself sink to the floor.  Now it would be more exciting if she would use her legs to help hold her up in a situation like this, but that is just not Bella's style.

To accompany the rolling off the couch, she has also fallen out of bed twice.  She doesn't do it while she is asleep, but instead during the times she is awake she will move all around and eventually fall out.  We have created a contraption of sorts to keep her in the bed, it's been on for almost a week, and so far so good.

I'm hoping these things are a good sign, that Bella wants to move around more, in her own way.

Nursery Update

I posted a little while back about all the projects I had to complete in the nursery.  A lot of them were sewing projects, and I am happy to report that they are pretty much done.

 First I wanted to recover Bella's old bumper with new fabrics.  This turned out to be the most time consuming and tedious project, but it turned out good.

Next were the fabrics for curtains and crib skirts.  I ended up going with just a plain and simple gray skirt.

 And the curtains are the fun geometric print I had originally picked out.

 Now as far as the overall nursery, there might be a few projects left to go.

 And with approximately two weeks to go, someone is not amused.

Okay this might have more to do with the fact someone woke up at 5:30 this morning and at 7:30 finally got put into her chair to eat breakfast.  And instead of feeding her, mom decides to run around and take pictures. But don't feel too bad for her, I am currently feeding her as I type this up, and I personally had no intentions on waking up at 5:30am.

Happy Birthday Dad

I love you!

And your dancing!!

Swim Party

Bella attended her cousins swim party this past weekend.  It was a nice hot day outside.

 Jesse pulled Bella down the Slip N Slide, we weren't quite sure if she liked it or not.  She would look a little scared as she was being pulled down, but then you would get a big smile after you picked her back up.

 So she either liked the ride down, or was just happy it was over.

Because the party started at 1pm and we didn't make it home until 4pm, we decided to try a day without a nap and see how sleeping would go through the night.  There have been some suggestions that maybe she doesn't sleep through the night because she is getting too much sleep during the day in the form of a nap.  Well experiment tried, and failed.  That night we were up crying at 11pm and stayed awake until sometime after 3am.  Needless to say on Monday we got a nap, and on Monday night we slept through the night.  So I'm going to say the reason we don't always sleep through the night has nothing to do with the fact we still take a nap.

Feet torture

Bella really likes to put her feet on my belly.  This happens when she is laying down next to me, or when she is sitting in her chair eating.  Sometimes she is lucky and the baby will kick her back.  It's a fun little game for the two of them, too bad it's not always comfortable for me!

Craigslist

I love the idea of craigslist.  In fact I have vowed to not buy new furniture again.....for the most part.  It all started when I bought this buffet table and refinished it.

We have also had good luck selling things on craigslist, which I feel good about not sending items to the landfills.  Granted you meet some interesting people when buying and selling.

This recent purchase we made for the nursery might be a little bit of a bust.  I overpaid for it in the first place, $50 for something that I needed to restain or paint seems a little pricey as it's a pretty small dresser/changing table.  Then when I got it home and learned one of the drawers was busted and now we are going to have to figure out how to fix it, I really overpaid for it.

I like how people will post "great condition, everything works well", "solid wood", etc and it's not true.  

I know it's partly my fault which is the reason I am writing this post.  If you are like me and buy things off craigslist, make sure you try them, all the pieces and parts before you hand over money.

Some other more successful items we have purchased include this entry table.  Which is the next goal to get organized after the nursery is finished.  Can't believe how much mail and junk piles up so quickly!

This desk which I use as my sewing table and provides plenty of storage for all my sewing related items.

I bought an antique bedside table for Bella's room.  This one was a little pricey at $30, but it is antique, the correct color for the room, and the drawer functions, so I still call it a success.

We bought a new swing for the baby, as the one we had bought previously got torn apart to use in the bike cart for Bella.  This was another pricier item, but at less than half the price of a new one and in good shape, as long as it works for as long as we need it, it was still a good deal.

The bargain buy had to be this end table for our sitting room, which cost only $5.  I want to refinish it someday, as it's a little too varnished for my taste.  But it still looks good enough as is, that it can be in the room before I get around to it.

And about that changing table.  After all is said and done, it should still be an alright deal.  If you went to the store and spent $50 you would get something like this (actually price of this item is $70):

And if you wanted something similar to the changing table we purchased it's cost new would have been $150 or more.  So in the end, we didn't do too bad, but we could have done a lot better.

**The changing table is currently being refinished, final picture to come shortly.