Monthly Archives: June 2014

30 weeks

I’m 30 weeks along today, which means 8 to 12 more weeks until the baby comes.  I’m guessing it’ll be closer to 8, but I was completely wrong last time, so we’ll see.

Your baby’s about 15.7 inches long now and weighs almost 3 pounds (about the size of a large cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will shrink as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after she’s born, she’ll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face.

I’ve heard the eyesight thing above is no longer believed to be true, that recent research suggests that babies’ eyesight is better than previously believed at birth.   Regardless, the little one is getting heavy.  I have gained on the order of 20 pounds; I’m pushing 150.  My RHR is much higher than when I’m not pregnant, and I am just exhausted all the time.  I have zero tolerance for heat or sun, and lately I’ve been having trouble sleeping, like last night.

I’m trying to keep my spirits up.  I mean, there is so much good in my life – baby on the way, beautiful toddler, wonderful husband, good job and good financial situation in general.  However, it is tough sometimes.  9 months is a very long time to feel lousy.  I mean, it’s nearly a year!  I am really struggling to focus at work (hence the blogging) and feeling extremely unmotivated.

In other news, L has spent the last several nights in her own room in the twin bed we bought for her.  In addition, I’ve been just putting her to bed and leaving her awake to fall asleep on her own.  I used to always stay in the room until she was asleep.  This was obviously a necessary step with the new baby on the way.  It makes my life easier, but it also makes me a little sad.  I used to cuddle her every day at nighttime and on weekends at naptime.  Now, I just arrange the covers over her and that’s that.  We don’t really have any designated cuddle time anymore.  I guess that’s just a part of growing up, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

butterfingers, and 29 weeks

B is out of town for three days.  There is nothing like having your husband go out of town to make you appreciate him.  He normally get L dressed in the morning, and it is such a negotiation these days.  It’s hard to know how much of this is just B having allowed it to be that way, and it being just the way it is with toddlers.   Thankfully, L is very good about letting me shower and entertaining herself in the meantime.  Then, however, I broke her bowl.  She has only one which we always use.  It’s Wedgewood (made in China), a gift from her MIL, and she was not pleased.  To replace the bowl and cup set (we broke the cup earlier) would be $30.  On the one hand, we’ve gotten great use out of it since we’ve been using it every day for more than a year.  On the other hand, $30 for a bowl and cup?  I told her B might be able to glue it together again.  Anything is possible, right?

I really am a butterfingers.  It’s probably not a coincidence that the vast majority of our mugs are missing handles, most of our plates are chipped, and we don’t have a complete set of anything.

On the bright side, I’m 29 weeks today.

“Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (about the size of a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain.”

I don’t think I feel as well at this point as I did during my first pregnancy.  I think having a toddler to take care of is definitely taking a bit of a toll.  While B has been doing more than 50% of the childcare, I still do a lot, and I can’t just lie down and take a nap when the mood strikes me.  I think at this point last time, I just took it easy.  I’m taking it easy now, too, but it’s not the same.

Symptoms: Increasingly severe acid reflux – I need to do something about this.  I’ve heard apple cider vinegar helps.  It may be time to try it.  Groin / pelvic pain when walking or otherwise moving my legs.  I think this is worse this time as well.  Moving just gets harder and more painful every week, and I still have a long way to go.  This morning, I was really hobbling trying to get from my car to work.  Intermittent stomach discomfort.  It’s hard to describe but just feels like my stomach is getting crunched, which it probably is.  Intermittent back pain.  I just have to be really careful of my back.  I’ve had the odd back spasm and some soreness.  It’s not bad, but I have been avoiding activities that would strain my back, other than lifting L, which is unavoidable.

All told, it’s not that bad, but I’m looking forward to the next step.  However, we have a lot to get through between now and then in terms of closing on the house and potentially – probably – moving in before the baby comes.

house success (for the moment)

Well, we got the house!  We are happy and excited, but also very busy as you can imagine.  We had it inspected yesterday.  This is the fifth house inspection I’ve been part of.  Nothing major came up, mostly minor things.  The only item that caused me significant concerns is that the inspector noticed some rat droppings in the attic.  Eek.  He said it looked very minor, but it still creeps me out.  Nevertheless, it’s not a dealbreaker, and we plan to proceed.  We will ask the seller for a few things, but we’ll continue even if they decline.

Getting the inspection scheduled was a bit of a pain.  We first scheduled it for Friday morning, but the seller then said they couldn’t do it then because their baby would be napping.  (They have a 10-month-old.)  To me, this is a ridiculous excuse given that you have only 5 days to do the inspection.  They gave us a list of times that would work, and we schedule for yesterday at 1 PM.  They then came back on Friday and said it was the woman’s birthday and the baby would be home with a sitter and we’d need to reschedule.  Now, if you’ve ever tried to schedule an inspection, you know it’s not trivial.  You need to find a time when the inspector is available, when you’re available, and when the agent is available.  I felt this was getting ridiculous, and we asked for a one-week extension on the inspection deadline and on closing.  All of a sudden Saturday seemed like it would work after all.  Overall, though, I’m frustrated by the seller’s lack of flexibility.  Do they want to sell their house or not?

Anyway, this too shall pass, and I really realized how much I love this house during the inspection.  So much space!  Right now we have a tiny table that will just about sit four people – this place has a dining room.  AND an island in the kitchen.  It has four bedrooms AND a small office for me.  (B will take one of the larger bedrooms for his office.)  The master bedroom looks out over the beautiful backyard, and wow, I can’t wait to take a bath in that tub.

The sitting room:

The kitchen, which includes a large pantry.  Currently we have no pantry of any kind, and due to a general lack of storage in our house, we end up using some of our kitchen cabinets to store non-kitchen items, meaning we don’t have a ton of food storage.

The ridiculous master bath, probably twice as large as both of our bathrooms COMBINED:

Main bathroom on the top floor – two sinks, which if we stay here awhile, would be perfect for two girls:

Now that we have a patio, we’ll have to look into patio furniture:

Anyway, I’m looking to lock in on our loan today.  I’m generally stressed about getting to closing on time, as always.  We’re going with B of A because (a) they have the best rates and (b) it is convenient since I bank with them.   When I refinanced, the actual process was incredibly stressful and annoying, but once it was over, it was really nice to have my mortgage linked up to my other accounts.

One of the ways we got the house was to not make the offer subject to financing.  (Call us crazy if you will.)  This means we’ll go down in the books as “cash buyers” even though we are actually taking out a loan.  I wonder what role, if any, waiving that contingency had in us actually getting the house.

We had to go 7K over on our offer, but we use a discount realtor, so we will get 7K back at closing.  Essentially, we bought the house for asking plus closing costs.

last hurrah

We made an offer on another house.  We think it’s a reasonable compromise between commute and living in a nice neighborhood.

The house itself is pretty much perfect – 4 beds, 2.5 baths, 2640 sq. ft., 2 car garage.  It’s in great shape, featuring among other things a new roof and . . . air conditioning.  My first pregnancy made me hate the heat, and that hasn’t really changed.  Now that I’m pregnant again, I’m kind of a vampire.  I honestly get annoyed if it’s over 70.  Having a/c would be a really nice, unexpected perk.

 

As usual, there are multiple offers.  This house is in a slightly less desirable area – nice, but not Belle.vue, and also not priced as well as some we’ve seen, so it should be less competitive.   I called this post the last hurrah, because we are basically out of time.  If we don’t get this house, we’ll probably be making it work in our current location.  That’s definitely not the end of the world, and may be good as it will force us to get rid of more material goods and not be packrats.

multicolor mittens

I made L some new mittens.  They were easy to make, and the pattern is free on Ravelry.  The original pattern was sized for 12 months, so I adjusted to make them a bit bigger.  They’re a tad on the large side, which hopefully means they’ll fit this winter.  L has been insisting on wearing them despite the fact that it’s been 70 degrees.

On a side note, our hydrangeas are beginning to bloom, and they are beautiful.  When I moved in, we had no hydrangeas.  Now we have about 20 bushes, mostly the traditional blue, but also a few variants.  They continue to be my favorite plant.

 

 

 

 

 

commute?

I’m curious how long in minutes people are willing to commute one-way on a daily basis?  How long do you currently commute?

We have found a house we like in the perfect school district, but the one-way drive is 27 minutes without traffic.  At rush hour, it’s 40 minutes plus.  My current commute is less than 10 minutes one-way during peak rush hour.  Needless to say, the idea of spending an extra hour on the road is very unappealing.  However, the idea of being trapped in Ke.nt for the rest of my life is also unappealing.