The countdown is ON!

Thursday night, 8 pm...

Last blood draw is DONE!

Granted, there will be more after he is here to make sure my levels go down, but the last prenatal is done! Hopefully results will be in at my 1pm appointment and we'll be able to schedule everything with (almost) certainty today!

(For those that don't know what I mean, inductions are scheduled, but then you still have to call in before you go to see if they have a room. They won't start someone's labor intentionally without a place for them! :D )

I definitely FEEL the increase in the levels this week. I don't know how far up yet, obviously, but I have gotten even itchier - and a new pattern has emerged on my hands and feet. It's not a rash, I'm just... red and white speckled LOL!

I'll update later today!

Cole's eviction notice has been dated!

My liver numbers are still climbing.

The plan? Get to 38 weeks, and then GET HIM OUT PRONTO! If all goes well, he will make an entrance on next Thursday or Friday! I still need a round of blood work on Monday, and we are hoping all will be fine to hold out until the end of the week. I hit 38 weeks on Wednesday, 7/22. If the liver panel results come back on Monday that we can wait, I'll be induced depending on hospital availability.

I will know on Monday when we get to meet the little man!

Another Monday approaches...

and another blood draw is looming over my head.

This week is full term week though! This is the official 37 week appointment, even though he is measuring past that. Wednesday is 37 weeks exactly, so by any measurement, he is "officially" full term! Granted, I'm pretty sure my due date is just kinda tossed by the wayside with all the weekly testing now LOL! That means baby boy gets the green light - come on out at any time, buddy!

I cannot wait to meet my little man. I'm moving into full mushy mode LOL! Today, Chris and I drove down to the beach on a whim. Every weekend is becoming like a celebration - we always do something special, since we never know what weekend will be the last one alone! Last week, we did NOTHING. I know, that doesn't sound very exciting, but it was awesome. We slept in, and laid around the house all day, made dinner on the grill, and just got to be US. No errands, no rush, no hustle... just us. Today started off the same way, but it was so beautiful outside, we just had to get out. So we took the Cabrio out, dropped the top, and drove to the beach! We had chairs in the water and just let the waves roll up on our feet. Finish off with dinner at Sheetz, and if this was our last weekend together before baby, it was a great way to have it!

Results are in...

and Cole gets another week on the inside!

My numbers have elevated further, but I am still in the 'safe' zone. He doesn't have to be delivered yet! Blood work repeats on Monday morning, and we should have the results by my appointment on Monday afternoon.

We're pretty much ready for him now! Since my levels are climbing, I want everything ready now... I can't rely on having 4 more weeks. His pack n play is set up in our room, the diaper bags are packed, the car seat bases are installed... I just need to now pack the hospital bag, and *still* hang the artwork in his room! I am so incredibly tired lately, that it seems to continually fall by the wayside. I get exhausted by going up one flight of stairs! I only vacuumed half the house today, it was just too much to do at once. I struggle to keep this place clean now... where did my nesting energy go, and can I have it back please? :D

In other news, heaven is a bowl of vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate syrup and frozen strawberries. Just to let you all know... :D

Almost there!

It's 1 am - which makes me 35w6d. That means Mr. Cole is officially measuring 37 weeks! My baby boy is full term! Blood results come back (again) tomorrow, so we will know if he has another week then. Hopefully we can have at least one more week, which would be best for his lung maturity, but he's officially made it out of the danger zone!

Good job buddy! :D

...and my body says "I QUIT!"

Not so good news on the home front, kids.

After a very unpleasant doctor appointment on Friday, followed by immediately going to the hospital to get my blood work, it's official. My body says NO MORE! Well, it's trying to say that. We just aren't QUITE letting it yet.

First, there is the protein in my urine. For about 6 weeks now, there has been a consistent small amount. It hasn't been anything to worry about though, since the amount was only +1, and I had no other warning signs for pre-e. Apparently, my blood pressure is now on the rise. It's not clinically high yet, but it's high for me. Add that to the +1 protein, and now we have warning signs that need to be watched regularly. Little bit of good news is my fifth disease blood work came back, and I don't have it - but I assumed that since they changed my niece's diagnosis. I also never have had it though, so I am not immune and still need to be cautious. And then there is my liver.

For a while now, my hands and my feet - ESPECIALLY MY TOES! - have been SUPER itchy. Like, I may have had mosquitos trapped in socks and gloves itchy. That went on for a week straight, and one day, I erupted into a full body rash. The rash disappeared 2 days later, but the hand and foot itch stayed. A week later, I broke into the rash again, and the next day, it was again gone. So at my bi-weekly appointment, I brought it up. I told Cheri, my midwife, that I was super itchy. She guessed "The belly?" and when I told her no, my feet and hands, I watched her face drop.

Uh oh.

She then told me I needed to go from the appointment to the hospital and get the blood work done then. The rash is unrelated, a typical pregnancy thing. Good thing it appeared though, or I would have never thought to mention itchy hands and feet! They swell up and down, so I thought itching would be a logical side effect of that. Apparently, I thought wrong.

Itchy hands and feet are a major warning sign of a condition where essentially, the pregnancy hormones are clogging up my liver and it's leaking bile into my blood stream. My body can handle a small amount of this, but any kind of concentration in my blood is a MAJOR danger. It's an acid - and it would work like an acid on my organs. Not only will it wreak all kinds of havoc on my organs, but it would also cross the placenta to Cole.

The results came back today. My liver function test came back with elevated levels. I have it. Currently however, it's not yet in the danger zone. What does this mean? For one, Cole gets to stay put... for now. Two, Megan loses more blood - weekly, from here on out. There is a number that once I hit, Cole gets handed an eviction notice stat. Hopefully however, he makes it just two more weeks to 37.

I however, expected the test to come back normal. I freaked out at first, but then calmed down and figured it was just some precaution that wouldn't turn into anything, so I was completely blindsided by this news today. And didn't think to ask how far away from that "Bail" number I was. Genius. :\

So for now, it's a holding pattern. Wait and see. Google tells me that it's pretty darn rare for these numbers to hold steady, so I should expect them to climb, and fairly fast at that. When Cheri explained it to me on Friday, she said she's had 3 cases - and while 2 made it to 37 weeks, one had to be taken at 34. Luckily, we are mostly out of the danger zone with Cole - if he needed to be delivered this weekend or next week, we would be so close to full term that he shouldn't see much effect.

The only attempt I can make to help out my liver is to, basically, overhydrate. Realistically, it's not going to make a difference. Most times, you can't flush out the liver until the hormones have stopped producing. I figure however, even if I can get my little guy just one extra day closer to full term by downing a buttload of water for a little bit, then it's worth it. Plus, it's just water! I already know where every bathroom in the county is :D

That also means it's time to finish up with last minute things - time to pack the hospital bag, install the car seat bases in the car... I've already made up his bed, finished his laundry, and the toy bin is being picked up tomorrow. As soon as the pack-n-play is set up in our room, we're all set for him!

It's like a whole new house!

I cannot BELIEVE the difference new carpeting makes!

Carpeting went in on Friday. My house looks fantastic! Now if I could just get it all unpacked LOL! Cole's room is coming along nicely. It's a little messy currently, I need to get the artwork and shadowboxes on the wall so I can get some of that stuff off the floor :D I also have a ton of baby laundry to do. You would think with my king sized washer, those tiny clothes would be done in one load... unless you shop like I do! I am officially not buying any more clothes though, until he starts moving into 3-6 months and I can see what the weather is like. There are a few more purchases that need to be made before Cole gets here, but I'm pretty set!

I was pulling out the newborn diapers yesterday, and I got all teary. I know how tiny babies are, I have had decent exposure to newborns, but not to my own. Considering where they come out of, they better not be adult sized! But putting away those itty bitty diapers just made me want him here more than ever. I can't wait to meet my little man!

His crib should be here shortly - hopefully :D It could be another 2 weeks, but I am hoping it arrives before that. I am holding off on washing his bedding until I have somewhere to put it!

I had a surprise shower on Saturday. My SIL got me SO GOOD! I thought I was going to a surprise birthday party for her FIL. Even after I walked in and they yelled Surprise, I still didn't get it! I was looking at my friends, like what are they doing here? Just as it was dawning on me, my SIL told me it was my baby shower :D I was completely clueless! I loved it. I have the best in-laws in the entire world.

I can't believe the things I got at my shower either. I got the convertible car seat, the high chair, the most ADORABLE diaper cake you've ever seen... I can't begin to list everything. My friends and family were SO generous. Cole will be so loved, and I hope he grows up knowing and appreciating the kind of people that are around him. I don't know what I did in my life to deserve the priviledge of calling them my friends and family.

Things are almost falling into place!

Yes, I said almost. We all know I can't catch a TOTAL break!

After one major meltdown, realizing how far along I am and how little I have prepared, things have kicked into gear. I spent today making purchases and preparing the house - carpeting goes in on Friday, starting between 9 and 11 am! That means my house needs to be EMPTY - but that also means it can be filled up immediately after!

Today, I bought him a car seat. Speaking of, MAJOR shout out to healthchecksystems.com. Not only did they have my car seat, it was $5 cheaper than anywhere else, had a 5% off coupon, AND free shipping. I ordered it today at about 3 pm. Free shipping will have it here - no lie - TOMORROW. Talk about fast! But here it is, the Chicco 'Romantic' KeyFit 30:

We also purchased the swing today. I've been eyeing this one up for quite a while, and I officially had to have it! It's the Fisher Price Starlight Papasan Swing. It runs on batteries or plugs into the wall, so it's definitely perfect!

And - that's right, the shopping continued even further - I also bought his toy system for his second closet. One closet in his room is a good size, we will be installing a do-it-yourself custom shelving system in there. That of course, leaves the evil closet. The closet that is incredibly diagonal, with a pipe running down the side, which makes the thing impossible to handle. One side is 12 inches wide, while the other side is 15 inches. Adult hangers just BARELY fit in the thing - it's evil. Not to mention, you can't have anything in drawers, since the closet is so much wider than the door. So I found the perfect solution:

All that is left, is to get his dresser and bookcase! His changing table is currently stuffed in the back of the kitchen, the crib will arrive when it wants to LOL, and the only thing left is my diaper bag!

Everything else will have to wait until after my shower :D

And all that good news and progress is trumped by my newest bit of drama - my adorable niece, who I just spent time with over the weekend, has come down with Fifth Disease. My blood work was done today, so I will hopefully have the results tomorrow. My mom remembers 2 out of the 6 of us had it, but she doesn't remember which 2 LOL! So I have a 1 in 3 shot of having the antibodies :D Here's hoping I either have the antibodies, or just didn't catch the Fifth!

Cole's Crib has been purchased - again!

The BonaVita Peyton Lifestyle Crib in white:



and it should be here in 2-4 weeks!

Yes, I'm slacking on the crib. Well, not really. I ordered the Sorelle Gia 4-in-1 in mid-May. After 2 back-orders, I canceled and planned on ordering it from another site. I had to re-shop to make sure, again, that the Sorelle was the perfect crib... when I again came across the Peyton. I had taken it off the list when shopping a few months ago, as I couldn't stomach the price. After all, who knows if Cole will turn out to be a beaver and destroy the crib?

Suddenly, the price had dropped more than $100! I could manage it. Still a tad over, but I can do it... until you add shipping. The lowest shipping cost was $125, while the Sorelle had free shipping. Oh, and forget the price - even if it were a million dollars and I could afford it, I CANNOT afford an 8-10 week delivery time. :sigh: Looks like I'd settle for the Sorelle. It is a beautiful crib, so I really can't complain.

Until I called our local high end baby store on a whim.

Not only did they carry Bonavita, but they carried the Peyton Lifestyle. Oh, and they had it in the store (in the wrong color) but I could go see it and feel it. They did have one in white in the main warehouse, so it will be in in 2-4 weeks... or less.

Oh, and it's $50 CHEAPER than online, with NO SHIPPING OR DELIVERY COSTS, we can pick it up at the store when it comes in.

:::swoon::: Oh how I love you, Just For Kids. You might be Amish and carry NO HOURS on Sundays for church, but I. LOVE. YOU. Almost as much as I love the creator of Nexium.

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