Ice Cream, Patios and Nursery Progress

Hi

4.5 weeks left of pregnancy. Just when I was getting used it, it is almost over. Mostly I am kidding, but I have to say that I am enjoying the third trimester much more than any other part. If that doesn't tell you how miserable my first 34 weeks have been then I don't know what would! My only complaint right now is not being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time because it is a huge production to change sleeping positions and my ligaments hurt like the dickens. I have almost fully accepted the fact that I am large and my image in the mirror is only temporary, this is not that I will always look like (that's only taken 8 months to come to terms with, not too bad). Don't get me wrong, I am so totally over being pregnant and I want more than anything to hold this baby in my arms, not in my belly, but I am happier now than I have been in 8 months. I waddle when I walk, my body can't keep up with my brain and I swell to the size of a whale on a daily basis, but I am fat and happy.

I talked to our Doctor and they are going to induce me at 39 weeks, we just haven't picked a day yet. I have an appointment on May 2nd and hopefully we can choose an official birthday. There are pros and cons to wanting to be induced and awaiting the arrival to come naturally. Let me just say I have a 100% medical mind frame and I am 100% ok with getting induced a week early, I have zero desire to labor at home and time my own contractions. I am more comfortable in a hospital and that is where I want labor to start.

Today I wanted ice cream so bad I would have sold my left foot on the black market to have some. However, I am still counting calories like 100 dollar bills so we got low fat frozen yogurt and I mixed in 2 Oreo cookie for a semi healthy ice cream fix. Clever. (**Busted** I also ate 3 Oreos on the side)

My grandma sent the bedding this past week and I LOVE LOVE LOVE (a million times LOVE) it. She is so talented with a sewing machine, something I wish I would have inherited.

And here is the antique medicine cabinet in all its adorable glory hanging above the changing table/dresser. It houses the tiny tiny nail clippers, brushes, butt cream and booger sucker-outer

I wake up in the middle of the night (or day depending on when I am working) and I want to get out of bed to clean and organize the baby's room. I have resisted this temptation many many times, but it is becoming all consuming. The only thing stopping me is that we don't have everything we need yet so I can't organize it! While I am nesting on the inside of the house Matt has started to nest on the outside. He decided that he wanted to tackle our long thought out plan of a patio THIS WEEKEND. With no help, no official plan set in stone and did I mention no help.  This project was a huge undertaking for a few good men, let alone one man with limited tools.

Day One: Digging out a 18ft x 18ft patio section 4inches deep. Nice in theory, but our ground is clay and gravel. Not so nice and easy to dig up. 12 hours of heavy manual labor later, this is what Matt looked like...

And this is what the backyard looked like...

Day Two: Finnish digging out hard as stone backyard patch and lure neighbor over with a beer. Matt and the neighbor, Joe, worked from noon to 10pm with only a dinner break. They managed to dig, level and lay paver gravel over half of our hugely under-estimated patio. In case anyone is thinking about laying a paver patio anytime soon, here is a little Gravel for Thought: Each bag of paver gravel weighs 45lbs and we are using 231 bags. That is a grand total of 2,395 lbs of gravel schlepped. Day Two ended with 2 IBProfen and 2 large blisters.



The start of the paver gravel

Day Three was a wash. It rained. To be continued.....