Oh, and about the carpet...

It is bought and paid for! Thank you Lowe's, for having competent employees and subcontractors.

The carpet had to be ordered, so it should be in by Monday - we will get a call when it comes in and schedule a date then. I'm hoping for Wednesday the 17th. Cutting it close, yes, but really - that will have me at 33 weeks. THAT is cutting it close.

I also had to cancel the crib (Drama!) since it was yet again back-ordered further. I could get it faster by canceling and ordering from a different website - so we canceled. That of course, has to be reordered now... so much money going out at once has cheapo Megan in convulsions. :D

But, the crib should be reordered on Friday, with delivery in 2-3 weeks. That puts the arrival time right around July 4th.

Oh, and since the crib was re-back-ordered.... It is now showing as available. Cute, huh?

Rules of War

Painting War, that is. This war had begun 5 years ago, and is just now ending this week. Let me describe the rules:

Rule #1 - lay out the rules before painting begins.

Some of us grew up with lazy mothers, who didn't want to paint - so she painted EVERYTHING - walls, ceiling, trim - the same color. Moving from there, into apartments where everything is white, I would have no knowledge of basic rules of paint. You will see all the following rules could have been avoided if THIS rule had been followed.

Rule #2 - Ceiling paint is not a gimmick.

After painting the walls and ceilings in the living room, hallway, up the stairs, and upstairs hallway in a lovely shade of tan called Devonshire, I was then informed that ceilings should be white. So when I painted the bedrooms, I painted the ceilings white. What kind of white you ask? White! The same can of white paint I had for the trim - white is white.

No. White SEMI-GLOSS is not the same as white ceiling paint. Please revert back to rule #1.

Rule#3 - Get more paint than you need when you buy paint the first time.

Paint is reformulated all the time, especially now for VOCs and all that stuff. So when the paint was first discussed, over the phone with DH already at Home Depot, I then learned about finishes. I wanted flat paint, seeing as we live in an 1850's townhouse - our walls are FAR from perfect. I was promptly vetoed, seeing as flat hides wall imperfections, but is apparently impossible to clean.

Imperfections versus Dirt? No contest.

So I vote eggshell. He wants semi-gloss. And I don't write down which one we buy - and since we had the perfect amount, I didn't keep the can. So when I go back to get more for touch ups a year later, I find myself staring at the paint aisle. The can was white with blue and red on it.

Eggshell has blue trim with red writing.

Semi-gloss has red trim with blue writing.

So I buy semi-gloss, figuring that he knows about paint way more than I do, I would have conceded to him. I get home, make the touch ups, HOLY SHINY SPLOTCHES ON THE WALL.

Guess it must have been eggshell.

Go to Home Depot, get a quart of eggshell, HOLY MATTE SPLOTCHES ON THE WALL. The semi-gloss was closer. And now I have to re-roll the entire thing. Luckily in the living room, I can just re-roll the spots since the lighting in the room doesn't give it away. So I work my butt off the whole day.

THE FARKING LIVING ROOM IS PAINTED IN EGGSHELL. It was WAAAY closer before. Moral of the story - write it down. Oh, and if you keep a consistent color throughout your house, USE A CONSISTENT FINISH.

There are more rules, but they will have to wait... Off to paint yet another white shiny ceiling.

Alright Lowe's... keep it together for me.

The measurement is scheduled for tomorrow evening, and we should hear the results shortly after that. Considering I have already killed the pink carpet in Cole's room, this BETTER work out. I have hope for you Lowe's... don't let me down!

I wanted everything done by 30 weeks - that is tomorrow. I don't have another 3 weeks to burn on yet ANOTHER store and yet ANOTHER measurement!

::let the freak out commence:::

Fuck Home Depot... and Carpet Mart too.

So, as I wrote earlier about the carpet being installed... yeah, let's say it will NOT be done by those two places.

First Home Depot - We were called last week after the measurements, and we were told $2700. We went in last night to schedule the appointment for round one of installation. We went back and sat down - first off, the old guy was so SLOW. He was reading over the entire quote, and that alone took 10 minutes. As he's reading, he says about removal of vinyl flooring in accordance with HAZARDOUS regulations (that we specifically told the guy NO, we will carpet over it, we don't mind the quarter inch ledge between two rooms... and 5 year old vinyl is not exactly hazardous, thanks.) and so he says "Oh, then we can subtract that $700..." That of course peaks my interest. I start reading the page (I can read upside down, thank you years of childhood boredom) and I see the bottom of the page says $4400!!!!!!!! Ummm WTF NO. The first page says $2700, so I would love to know where this number is coming from.

Apparently, $2700 is for CARPET ONLY.

"Well, you are getting 1300 square feet of carpet, that is a lot... we can take off a room to reduce that." Uh, no, we are not taking off rooms, we are not picking a different carpet. Our foyer wasn't measured properly (wasn't supposed to measure the whole thing) and they said they would have to come back out and measure (yet another $35), and now you want to jack the price up that we were told and saved up for by $900?! OH HELL NO. So I told dude off, got up, and walked away. Chris mentioned about how he had already paid for the measurement, so he was going to go get the file - no problem. He comes back with hand written measurements, not the file LOL, and I start looking over them.

And it clicks. How is it that carpeting MAYBE half an 1800 square foot house, do we need 1300 square feet of carpet?!

Bedroom 1 - measured as 12'x11'1". Reality? 19'x11'. Yep, that's a TAD off.
Bedroom 2 - measured as 12'x17'2". Reality? 15'x12'3". Are we in the same house?
Hallway - counted as bedroom 3 for some reason - measured as 17'4"x12'. Reality? 16 FEET BY 30 INCHES. If you can tell me how 16'x2'6" (40 square feet) equates to 17'4"x12' (208 square feet), I will pay you the $4400 they wanted for carpet.

Needless to say, we won't be using them - and we've burned $35 and 2 FUCKING WEEKS on them.

So today, we go to CarpetMart. Okay, they are running a special, Good time to buy - and they would be able to install quickly. We get to the carpet, we are looking around, literally looking at 100 different carpets - and dude is BREATHING DOWN OUR NECKS. He is standing right behind us the whole time, making comments, even as we are walking down this HUGE aisle. We did find a carpet we liked, in a manageable price range... Chris says, Let's do it.

My only problem - I forgot the paint swatch. I can't be sure that it will match the paint - and since we have an open floor plan, that color is in the living room, dining room, foyer, up the steps, and the whole upstairs hallway. I will not be repainting that! Chris is already filling out the paperwork for the order for the measurement... so I walk over to Chris and say Wait. We can run around the corner and get the paint chip from Home Depot, and come back - I don't want to spend another $30 on a measurement if it doesn't match. We don't like any other carpet here, I want to get the paint chip so we don't waste more money.

Also, I have some slight qualms that their best padding is SO expensive. We were told by a friend of the family who used to install carpet - Go BEST with the padding, and cheap but decent with the carpet.

Doesn't this DOUCHEBAG sales guy have the NERVE to say to me (right after saying the $30 is NOT refundable), that no, the $30 can be refunded if we don't like it, but if we leave, he won't be here and he doesn't want us to WASTE ANYONE ELSE'S TIME. I of course, DO NOT THINK SO. I say "OH HEEEELLLLLL NO. We can leave now."

EXCUSE ME?! No, you are saying that YOU want the fucking commision. If you want it so badly, you can wait while we go to the OTHER SIDE OF THE SHOPPING CENTER and get the damn paint swatch! You don't 1.) tell me what to do with my money, and 2.) tell me to spend MY money so you don't have to STAY LATE if you want the commission so bad.

Luckily, we went to Lowe's. When we went in, we were immediately asked if we needed help, and when I responded with "Not yet", we were actually left alone to shop in peace. When we flagged him down for help, he was friendly, attentive, actually had a CLUE about what he was talking about, and all in all, a good shopping experience. We were trying to decide between two carpets - one way cut pile, one was loop. Loop was more expensive, but I had a worry about the dogs. Instead of telling us lies just to upsell, he explained that it shouldn't snag any claws, but it is a possibility - and it will pull ALL the way across the room. (Oh, by the way, Home Depot said oh no, that wouldn't happen! Good thing I didn't believe them to begin with.) Even though it was cheaper, he told us cut pile would be a better carpet in our house. So we picked one out, a very nice color called Golden Honey, also known as yellow lab. :D

To top it all off, we got BETTER quality padding (Lowe's best is thicker, anti-microbial, anti-mold and mildew, vs. just thicker) and a better quality carpet for LESS MONEY! WAYYYYY LESS MONEY!

Now let's just hope they are freaking competent in their damn measurements and we can get through this in one piece.




...otherwise I might have kill someone.

After well over a month of neglect...

I am back to the blog... momentarily, anyways.

There is so much going on right now! Today I have officially hit 29 weeks - just one week shy of 30 weeks! I don't know why 30 weeks seems like such a milestone to me - there is no difference between 29 and 30 weeks really, but 30 weeks just seems SO CLOSE to 40 while 29.... not so much.

This timing of course, only fuels my nesting rage. I don't know what it is about this little man, but I have been insane psycho nesting since somewhere around week 17. We are talking house changing, room ripping, full house remodel nesting. We always had too much in this house - Chris lived here for over 10 years before I moved in, so he had accumulated a LOT of junk. And of course, there are those typical "We haven't touched it in 5 years, but we might need it one day so we'll keep it" items... no longer. Everything has been thrown out! Everything has been emptied, removed, donated, and destroyed.

Home Depot has already come out to measure for the new carpeting, we are heading there tonight to set the appointment for the first installment - Cole's room, the upstairs hallway, and the stairs - which I am HOPING beyond hope it can be done Saturday May 30th. The second installment will be the living room, dining room, foyer, and master bedroom, hopefully around June 13th. And who would have ever thought that carpeting the stairs would be the expensive part? We are talking the REALLY expensive part! They are a separate labor fee, and if you don't want it done half assed with giant gaps on the stair foot, you are going to pay per stair. Installment one will cost 150% of what installment 2 will cost - and it will be HALF the carpet. Strange!

The crib has been ordered - it was on back order, so while not planned, we had to order it early. Now hopefully the carpeting will be here before the crib is! I will not want the crib sitting in the box, I will want it UP asap! I will be ripping carpet up this week as well - since the carpeting is wall to wall already, I need to paint the baseboards below it just in case. You never know where new carpeting is going to fall compared to the old stuff!

Nesting Must Have Product - I have been so crazy, we don't even bother with regular trash bags anymore for anywhere but the kitchen - we get the contractor bags. Heavy duty black nothing-is-getting-through-these-babies contractor bags - I highly suggest the Husky Contractor Clean Up Bags from Home Depot. Big yellow box of 42 gallon trash bags! I have gone through 2 of those boxes (32 count) since ripping up the house, and I need to get another box tonight since I used the last one last night. And no, the other brand from Lowe's is not the same - they aren't as strong and they STINK. No kidding - the whole kitchen panty now smells like those Lowe's bags.

My new ceiling fan has been put in the dining room, ceilings have been returned to white, every closet has been cleaned, paint has been completed/touched up, nursery is painted, furniture has been broken down and thrown out... and now it is time to start the last minute demolition before all the rebuild!

As long as the all of the new flooring is put in before Cole is here, and his room is completed, I can handle having to delay other remodeling... but all floors go in before baby!

That being said, Cole is still doing fantastic. I'm still measuring 2 weeks ahead consistently, and he's still a big boy :D I have been able to watch him move and wiggle and kick for a while now - I've been trying to capture it on video, but it hasn't worked out so well LOL. He is very active, and I love when he has the hiccups! I'm now moving into the stage where when he kicks hard, it hurts - it feels like being knuckled from the inside! He discovered my kidney was a fun toy a few nights ago, and I was pretty sure I was dying... but seeing as I lived, we're all god again. Just keep in mind kid, Momma has 18 years to exact such revenge... :D

Stretch Marks are the Devil.

And the devil has found me.

Well, technically I was never lost.

For those of you that are squeamish, now would be the point to stop reading - I have no shame of my stretch marks and will be describing them to you and their progression in great detail.




Well, the history of stretch marks began at the ripe old age of 16, otherwise known as puberty. I was a competitive gymnast, so this was a late onset, but still mind boggling all the same. Suddenly I had boobs, hips, and stretch marks on both locations. Small, little pink cracks, that quickly faded to a silvery white. Always being semi-aware of them while no one else would be, I reserved myself to boyshort bottom bikinis.

The first pregnancy stretch marks arrived at about 16 weeks. The silvery white lines left over from puberty now suddenly had pink tips to them. 2 on the left, 3 on the right - they were continuing to rip. Not long after, I noticed 2 pink tips on the right boob - sure enough, also ripping. That week, one on the left side had made a running leap up my hip, and was now a dark pink line about an inch and a half.

At this point, I had gained one pound.

I had already been getting nightly rubdowns by the husband, in an attempt to stave off such advances of the dreaded dark pink, and well, to be honest, it was getting difficult to whip around to attempt to view my hips. I just assumed the husband would be making me aware of any new developments.

Until yesterday.

After getting our of a particularly hot shower, I was feeling super tight and dry - like, wanting-to-claw-my-skin-off-itchy tight and dry - no more blindly applying lotion. It was time to check things out.

OH MY GOD THE HORROR I SAW!

They have progressed. They have started to wrap onto my back - it looks like I was attacked by a wildebeast with some nasty claws where there were once tiny pink caps, only to be replaced by a new and more plentiful multitude of pink dots, which now have me convinced I am turning into a leopard.

Well, I did gain 7 pounds last month. That could be considered alot for the body to handle at once. Not to mention, according to my latest belly picture, I had quite the re-popping. Looks like I am going to have a big boy! I am thinking I will run out of room before 40 weeks....

See what I mean? How will this continue for over 16 weeks? :D

All the hard work paid off!

All the stressing about calories paid off - I gained 7 pounds this month!

I made up for lost time. My midwife, Cheri, was proud :D She told me it was about time! They like to see a jump in weight right around 20 weeks, since that is when the spawn usually has a big growth jump.

As for the little man, he is perfect! The official ultrasound results, all of the measurements were right on target, nothing to worry about (the hip thing can't be diagnosed yet). Well, except one thing. His head is in the 80th percentile.

:::gulp:::

Other than that, I am measuring 2 weeks ahead in fundal height (24 weeks). I'd been reading my weekly emails, the one said about fundal height being equal to my belly button at 20 weeks, so I didn't think anything of it when I felt things real high, just figured it was gas. Nope... it was him. Cole just likes to hang out low most of the time, so even though the feeling is rare, it's him. Maybe he's just lost - his father's sense of direction. :D

I've hit that point in pregnancy where I can watch him kick me. This kid wants to play soccer apparently! He has quite the force behind those legs - which I do not appreciate at 3 am on my cervix. You can not come out yet little man! Stop trying to kick the door open! :D

Serious weight gain issues.

Never in my life did I think gaining weight would be a problem. Especially while pregnant.

I have 5 days until my doctor's appointment, and again, my scale is reading the same. I don't get it! I'm supposed to have gained more than a pound by now. I just hit 21 weeks today, so I need to be getting an extra 500 calories a day instead of the 300. I have been eating three times more than I have ever eaten in my life, so I didn't think twice about not hitting my calorie range. According to babyfit.sparkpeople.com, I should be getting at LEAST 2100 calories. The range is 2080-2380.

There are some days where it's a REALLY good thing I drank 700 calories of orange juice! It's bad when I enter all my food for the day and it says I've had 1000 calories. That of course sends me into a panic! I know Cole got his, since he gets them first, but I can't live off 500 calories! That could explain my lack of weight gain.

It's such a double edged sword, the entire new 'food and drink for pregnancy' plan. I have to be very strict about my water intake since the b/h, so with drinking so much, I don't get hungry. Then, you are supposed to eat healthier (which is all I have the taste for lately) and think about the quality of these calories that you eat - but healthy food naturally has LESS calories in it! I literally eat all the time too - there are times I will stop eating becuase I am tired of eating. Literally, like my jaw hurts and all I can think of that I did that day is eat. :D I even make sure that every day, I eat cookies. It's girl scout cookie season, I have a 10 year old girl scout niece, and I am pregnant!! You would think that would be an easy combination for calorie perfection, but nope, not even girl scout cookies do it! I'm only averaging about 1600 calories a day - that is way under what we both need. Of course, when I do head to taco bell, then I have a 1600 calorie dinner and blow that right out of the water :D

I've only gained one pound so far - that of course makes me wonder, if I end up having GD, what the heck will I do then? The only way I am getting even CLOSE to my calories is orange juice, iced tea, and cookies! The other question is which to worry about more, quality or quantity? And if I am under one day and then over the next, does it just even itself out?

I feel like such a pregnancy failure.

Houdini's Due Date

Don't get me wrong, never in my life have I felt more complete than with my son wriggling around inside me.

But at the same time, I feel so empty knowing that there was supposed to be another child, my child, who is not here. Who was supposed to be here. Even if I could go back and change it, I wouldn't, or I wouldn't have Cole. That of course brings a ton of guilty feelings, like saying that means I didn't want Houdini. I know that is not what it means, but it FEELS like that.

But I wish in some way I could have them both.

I was supposed to have a baby now.

It's weird, the feelings that come with this. I wish someone could just tell me how to feel, how I am supposed to feel. People always say that kids don't come with a handbook - neither does a miscarriage. You don't even know if you are "allowed" to be feeling this. At the same time, the guilt. The guilt of, I think about Houdini less now that I can feel Cole all the time. I have by no means forgotten my sweet baby, but the sadness is softened by the joy of Cole coming. I still think about Houdini all the time, but since the sadness isn't so life-consuming any longer, it brings feelings of guilt to replace that.

I just wish I knew how I was SUPPOSED to feel.

Well interwebs, time for the big reveal!

YOU WERE RIGHT!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!

Cole Patrick is on his way!

We immediately went from the ultrasound to baby Gap outlet and bought him THE CUTEST outfit! We are so excited - I wanted a boy, but was SO SURE it was a girl! At the last minute, on the way there, I was asking Chris was he thinks it is - he told me "If I were putting money on it, I'd say girl. But just guessing? I say boy." Looks like Daddy was right!

Momma's little man is on his way!

...pics to come later :D

Gender Predictions

This idea is shamelessly stolen from Chrysallys :D

Madame Zaritska: The day you deliver, outside will be foggy. Your baby will arrive in the early morning. After a labor lasting approximately 24 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 9 pounds, 13 ounces, and will be 20 inches long. This child will have dark brown eyes and barely there blonde hair. (We both have blue eyes.. but good try! :D And a 24 hour labor for a 9lb.13oz. baby?! Bitch.)

The labor of love: It's a girl!

Babyman: It's a girl!

JustMommies: 67% girl!

The Bump Chinese Gender Chart: It's a boy!

Baby Gender Predictor: 69% girl!

Sex Ratio Test: 65% boy!

Wedding Ring Test: It's a boy!

Shettles Method: It's a boy!

Family and Friends: 50/50 EVEN!

Intelligender Kit at 11w: It's a girl!

Blog readers: 69% boy!



10 and a half hours to go!

47 hours and counting.

I was doing really good with waiting. The days were just flying by, and the big date was getting closer and closer.

And now it is DRAGGING. DRAGGGGGGGGGGGING!!

47 hours. I can survive this... right? :D

Nursery work has begun!

The tape is up, trim is done, and the rollers come out tomorrow!!

Well, 2 out of 3 trim is done, and 2 out of 3 rollers will come out tomorrow.. :D Because there is 3 days and 12 hours until we find out if the top of the room is blue or pink! :D The brown bottom of the walls and the white stripe will be completed tomorrow!

Pics will come up when the room is completed, an all in one type post. But for now, I bring you.... 19 weeks. :D

Husband FAIL.

Chris had some down time at work today between jobs, so he calls me up and we are talking about absolutely nothing - as usual - when the conversation takes a sharp turn.

DH: "Oh, and ya know, we need to register."

Me: "For... ?"

DH: "Baby stuff. We need to make a registry. I mean you know somebody is gonna throw you a shower, they will have to get invites and stuff out."

Me: "babe, we have plenty of time. We aren't gonna make a registry before we find out the sex, and people aren't going to throw me a shower NOW."

DH: "Well yeah, I just thought it might be fun to do it right after the u/s when we find out."

Me: "Okay, we can do that."

DH: "Oh and ya know, you said you were gonna make that list for me? do you have that?"

Me: "What list?"

DH: "All the friends and family addresses that you want invited to the shower, you said you were gonna get a list ready so it was already there."

Me: "uh huh."

DH: "What?"

Me: "Who called you?"

DH: "What?"

Me: "Who called you about throwing me a shower?"

DH: "Nobody. Why would you say that?"

Me: "Right..."

DH: "Okay, it was somebody, but I'm not gonna tell you who. But c'mon, you knew someone would throw you one..."


The day my husband leans over and says "Let's go baby shopping!" is the day hell freezes over, I die, and I become the reigning ice queen of hell. I drag him to BRU so often, he would be thrilled to never set foot in that store again. Plus, I can't get out of there without spending, oh, well, let's just say more than I should. I love my husband, but the man is cheap. :D

Husband, I married you. I live with you. I know you better than you know yourself - and your every mannerism. FAIL.

But it was really cute, he thought he was being all slick. :D

I love him :D

In honor of the interwebs...

There is now a "boyish" theme to my page. :D

I have total blog ADD. I can't stand it looking the same for too long, it bores me. I have the same issue with my tickers :D

So here's one more ticker for fun - but this one will last until it's done! :D