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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Consignment Sale Tales

Today, at the kids' consignment sale, we acquired a glider.

This is actually our second glider, but I've just realized I never wrote about the first.

You see, we're pretty freaking picky when it comes to furniture, and most of the gliders out there are just unbelievably ugly. I mean, I get that it's nursery furniture, but that doesn't mean it has to be hideous, does it? And the ones that actually are cute cost about ten times as much—literally.

So finally, we found one we didn't hate. (I tried to find a picture of it and didn't do very well.) It was at Babies R Us and had a tag on that said we could get it in 7–10 days.

But when we went to order it, we discovered that the 7–10 days only applied to the color they had on the floor—which was not the color we wanted. To get the color we wanted, it would be 10–12 weeks.

OK, cutting it close, but still doable.

And then they told us it would be back ordered. And we would get it in 16–20 weeks. Baby could be three months old by the time we get it.

Awesome. But what are we going to do? We ordered the chair.

My mother-in-law suggested that if we found one cheap at a garage sale or a thrift store, we should buy it. So when we saw one at this consignment sale for $40—with an ottoman—we got it. Who cares that the wood is the wrong color or that the cushions were GOD AWFUL ugly and dirty. I have already put them out with the garbage. And we'll have somewhere to rock Bean before she turns two.

Friday, February 25, 2011

30 weeks

  • Hauled my pregnant self to the rec center pool today in my pre-maternity bathing suit (yes, it fits... barely). That's right people. Living the dream. In spandex.
  • The pool visit was precipitated by our first meeting with our new doula, Whitney, last Sunday, in which she calmly told me, "You're about to run a marathon. And you have to finish the race whether you've trained for it or not." Yeah. That sort of got my booty in gear. I've gone for brisk walks Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and went to my first prenatal yoga class at a gym on Wednesday. (I've been doing a DVD since the beginning, but this was my first out-of-the-house class.)
  • Don't think I mentioned it, but my glucose test came back and said I actually had low blood sugar (even after drinking all that syrupy drink). So they told me to eat more often. HA! That is SO not a problem.
  • Did my first load of baby laundry yesterday. I have a big box upstairs in the nursery with all the soft stuff I want to wash before baby gets here. Maybe someday I will feel like it is "done" enough to take pictures. I ordered the elephant for the wall and the bunting flags last week, so they should arrive any time now. And Brandon has to go to work tomorrow, so maybe I will tackle painting the closet doors... Maybe.
  • We are also going to see a lawyer tomorrow about family planning and "wealth" management (where the value of "wealth" is a little different than most people's, I'm sure). But we want to make sure we have a will, power of attorney documents and that we name people to take care of baby should the unthinkable happen. Here's hoping we never need any of it!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Developmentally Appropriate Toys

Love this column from the author of "Free Range Kids" about toys.

I'm really drawn to toys by the company Sassy and I've bought at least one and registered for a couple more, but they are definitely culpable in this trend of making everything "educational" and developmentally appropriate.

And I have bought into it! I bought this lookbook just the other day:



It has bold black and white patterns on each soft page, with a plastic sleeve that you can also put a photo into. And I bought it because I had just read how really young babies (before 3 months) see bold black and white patterns best, and slightly older babies (around 3 months) love looking at faces.

This isn't maybe as bad as the Baby Neptune video mentioned in the article, but I do feel a little bit silly buying toys like that. At least it doesn't blink or vibrate or sing! Oh well. I have registered for a gorgeous set of wooden alphabet blocks that will maybe make up for my lapse. ;)

Friday, February 18, 2011

Maternity Fashions

In the time-honored tradition of hand-me-downs, I have received my first bag of hand-me-down maternity clothes.

Let's just be clear about this: I am pro hand-me-down. I am in support of using goods second hand that still have life in them to be used up. In fact, just last weekend, we went thrift store shopping and I bought a) a pair of (new) organic cotton sleep pants, b) a bunch of baby hangers and c) an All-Clad grill pan. My sister sent me a package of barely worn white onesies in sizes 0-18 months for which I am extremely grateful. Heck, a friend even gave me her (meticulously cleaned) used Diaper Genie, for which I am sure I will be extremely grateful in a few months.

But the problem with hand-me-down clothes for me is that I like to think of myself as a relatively stylish person. (Even a gigantor pregnant relatively stylish person.) When I shop for second-hand clothes, I shop at the chi-chi consignment stores. That's right, people: I might balk at paying $60 for a t-shirt at Banana Republic, but I'll gladly pay a whole $12 for it at a nice consignment shop so that I don't have to dig through 7,000 ugly shirts to find the one good one at a thrift store.

But I will not wear a shirt that I don't like, no matter how little it costs.

Even free.

So out of a large bag of clothes (A Banana Republic bag! So promising!) I found one top that I might keep.

Maybe.

Because I just can't see myself in super-faded-wash mom jeans or pilly tee shirts with questionable patterns. Even for two more months.

Even if they're free.

~*~

In other fashion-related news, I was assigned to write a story for the baby magazine about maternity fashions. The concept was that I would go to this cute little maternity boutique and their buyer would dress me up in adorable maternity outfits and then a photographer would take our picture as we showed off how cute having a bump could be.

Let's count the ways that didn't happen.

First, the adorable boutique is, in fact, super adorable, but the people I was supposed to work with over there dropped off the face of the planet. I got several very enthusiastic emails, and then... crickets. I called, I sent emails, I delivered muffin baskets (OK, not really). I could not get these people to talk with me again.

Second, I tried to move on to another adorable maternity boutique. But did you know that in the entire Front Range I could not find a single other store that specializes in maternity clothes—that wasn't a chain. Diaper stores? You becha. Stores dedicated entirely to nursing products? Absolutely. Yoga studios that cater to pre- and post-natal mommies? Sure thing. Stores that sell every green, eco-friendly baby product imaginable? But of course. But maternity clothes? No dice.

Third, early on in this process, I realized that I was procrastinating HARD on writing this story. In fact, working from home gave me the opportunity to see just how hard. When I ended up scrubbing the bathroom rather than trying to call the store again, I realized we might have a problem. It turns out, I REALLY didn't want to go get my picture taken in all my bumpitudinous glory. Like, really MASSIVELY didn't want to. Like, the thought of it pretty much gave me hives and and a compulsive need to go clean things.

So, I talked to my editor about the fact that this story was cursed, and she was totally sympathetic and understanding, and we reworked the idea a bit. And so it got written as a cheeky little do's and don'ts list for maternity fashions. Which is just as good, if you ask me, as having my photo plastered all over the pages of the magazine.

Better, even.

Friday, February 11, 2011

28-Week Update



  • Went for my 28 week checkup today, and everything is looking good. Bean's heart rate was right where it should be and my belly is measuring right where it should be (she was two weeks ahead last time, but now she's right on the money).
  • Did my glucose test to check for gestational diabetes today as well. It wasn't that bad. I had to drink about eight ounces of flat, over-sweet Sprite (lemon-lime flavored dextrose syrup) and then wait an hour and have some blood drawn. We'll know by Monday if there's anything to know. They'll also check for anemia.
  • And I had my Rogam shot. Seems weird that they don't even test Brandon to find out if he's negative or positive, but whatever.
  • While I was waiting my requisite hour, they had me watch a video on recognizing preterm labor, and I got all weepy just looking at all the mommies and babies. This does NOT bode well; in fact, one of my big fears right now (they change almost daily) is that I will be a crying, blubbering mess through my entire labor. And don't even START on when they hand the Bean to me for the first time... I might be getting weepy just thinking about it. BLAME THE HORMONES. (It couldn't be that I am also somehow genetically predisposed to waterworks... no...)
  • Got my diaper bag in the mail today from Aunt Marti and Uncle Joe! Thanks guys! Anyone who knows me can probably imagine how excited I am to get new organizational tools in my life. No, really—I'm thrilled! So many pockets!
  • I'm washing my first ever load of diapers. I bought some gDiapers on my sister's hearty recommendation, and the instructions say to wash the liners six times in hot water before using to soften the hemp even more. Brandon asked if it was also to get rid of all the THC, and I told him he if you could get high by putting hemp on your bottom, hippies would have figured it out long ago.
  • We are going to dinner with friends tonight at a Mexican place. I will sigh with longing as they order Margaritas. It's not the alcohol I miss; it's the having something more fun to order than water or lemonade or iced tea that I REALLY miss. On the upside, MEXICAN FOOD.

Monday, February 7, 2011

The Dresser Scenario

We have been searching for a dresser/changing table combo for months now, and yesterday, we finally bought one.

Originally, we planned to buy the dresser that matched our crib. But it had to be ordered online and delivered, and when we factored in all the charges, it was going to come out to be nearly $800—way out of our price range.

Then I decided that maybe a simple changing table wouldn't be a bad idea after all. I even found one at Babies R Us that had two drawers, so it could function as a dresser as well. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I remembered how much I liked my sister's setup—because her dresser was long enough to accommodate both a changing pad and some space at the end for essentials. Time to start the search again.

Finally, I found a dresser I liked at Burlington Coat Factory. It looked like it would sort of go with the crib (if not match), it had the features we wanted, and it was a killer price. So on Saturday, we ventured out to buy it.

First, they couldn't decide if they had one in stock or not. One person told us they didn't have any, the next person said they had two. We got that sorted out, they brought out the box, and we realized it was assembled, rather than flat-packed as we had assumed it would be. And it wouldn't fit in my car. Whoops!

We took some measurements and hurried home to measure Brandon's car: it would just fit. As we drove back to get it, it started to snow, so we really wanted to hurry and get home. The nice guy helping us brought it out to the car and pointed out a couple of holes in the box. He told us to call right away if we got it home and discovered it had scratches or was damaged at all, and he would put our name on the other one for us to exchange it. So thoughtful! we thought.

We got it home and realized that the thing weighed about 80 pounds in the box. It's also huge, so it wasn't even a matter of Brandon being able to hoist 80 pounds as much as it was "this thing is huge and unwieldy." I wasn't a whole lot of help.

We managed to get it out of the car, from the garage into the house, and onto the stairs with quite a lot of huffing and puffing. Brandon thought maybe we could slide it in the box all the way up the stairs, but the stairs wouldn't cooperate: they were at the wrong angle for sliding, and the box kept getting stuck.

At this point, Brandon said that unless the thing had only three legs or something, there was no way we were taking it back, and I agreed.

At this point, I had the idea that we could take it out of the box, take out the drawers, and then maybe be able to carry it up the stairs. There was no way to slide it out of the box with the box intact, so we ended up cutting the box open on all four sides.

But as we removed the tons of styrofoam and plastic wrapping we discovered that the cabinet door was completely broken off. Clearly, something bad had happened to this dresser. The back was slightly damaged, and one of the drawers wouldn't even open because the four feet (yes, there were four) had been crammed into it so tightly.

But any thoughts of returning the thing had to be banished from our minds: we had so completely destroyed the packaging, there was no way it could be repacked, not to mention the fact that we had come this far and to give up would have felt like failure!

Once we removed the drawers, we found we could carry it upstairs. Luckily, aside from the cabinet door, the damage is relatively superficial. Brandon is trying to fix the door, and may achieve success, but even if he doesn't, having open shelving there won't be the end of the world.

In the end, I was just extremely glad to have the decision made (finally!) and the stupid thing purchased and in the room. I celebrated by setting up my diaper depot, complete with the wipes warmer, and filling the bottom drawer with diapers from the diaper cake at my shower.

It made my back tired, but overall, it made my OCD extremely happy to finally have somewhere to put things away!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Baby Shower


You can see more photos from my gorgeous baby shower here.

UPDATE: Emily has done a great post here with lots more photos.