Fun Weekend and Final Baby Shower

This weekend has been really great. Yesteday Joe woke up early and snuck out of the house to get Fluffy Fresh donuts - they're the best! So I woke up to the smell of super fresh donuts for breakfast, yum! After being lazy for a bit, I did some light cleaning around the house (trying to keep it decent!) then Ashley and I went to get our nails done. I went straight from there to get my last haircut and highlight sans baby. What a nice afternoon for being pampered! Joe picked me up from the salon, and we had an early-ish dinner at Cheesecake Factory, during which he surprised me with a beautiful pearl necklace! We had seen it at a jewelry store a few weeks back while we were browsing at pieces made with the February birthstone, and it really stood out to me (not that pearls are the birthstone) and as Joe let me know, this wasn't a "push present"... I guess he just loves me! I haven't taken a picture of me wearing it yet, but it's really pretty.

We split two pieces of cheesecake, which I'd been craving all week. Ok, let's be honest - when doesn't cheesecake sound like a good idea?? 7 was really active all through dinner and I think I was having a few practice contractions, but we decided to go ahead and try to catch a movie, since this *could* be our last weekend without a baby. We made it to the theatre just in time to see "Edge of Darkness" - the new Mel Gibson movie. It was decent, but definitely not as good as it could have been.

After the movie, we headed home, took the dogs for a quick walk around the block, and went to bed - what a fun day!

Today was the annual Groundhog Run, a 5K or 10K run through some underground caves in KC. We've been doing it for the last few years, and I thought about getting up for it, but decided just to stay in bed when the alarm went off. Joe went and ran the 5K with a few friends. This afternoon we finally bought jumper cables, so Joe could get my car started (the battery died a few weeks ago). I was still using the battery that came with the car when I bought it 6 years ago, so it was definitely time to be replaced! He took care of that while I got ready for the baby shower our friend Danny and neighbor Carmen threw for us.

This wasn't like any old baby shower. It was a couples' shower, and we played a few fun games that everyone got into and there was plenty of booze flowing for all but the mama-to-be. The first was a "guess the baby food" game, with 9 jars lined up, sans labels. Some were easy, like sweet potatoes and peas. Others, tasted odd or good, but somewhat un-identifiable... mac & cheese, and bananas to name a few. The meats were the worst - turns out pureed chicken and mashed veal are just awful! I posted a bunch of pictures on my facebook if you want to see the reactions. We also played a mad-libs version of nursery rhymes, and there were definitely some creative answers! We got a bunch of cute baby clothes, swaddlers, a humidifier, rattles and more - we really have some great friends!

Now we just have to wait for the fun to really begin. My next doctor's appointment is tomorrow morning, where hopefully we'll find out if I've made any more progress. It certainly feels like it, but with my due date still 12 days away, it's hard to acknowledge that in all reality it could be 3 weeks or more before we meet the little guy!

And now my texts should show that i wrote it instead of Lauren.

Testing the text to blog feature. If it works, it will be way easier than mass texting or trying to navigate the web browser on my phone.

- Joe VI

Joe's first post

Ok. This is my first post. If any one will be able to update the blog during labor, it will be me. I guess that means I need to figure this out.

We just finished our last baby class. We can now effectively hee and hoo.

7 is due 2/12/10, which is 2 weeks from friday. I have been claiming 2/02/10 for quite some time now. That is one hand from tomorrow for those of you keeping score at home. Of course, he may also hold out to be Kenny's favorite nephew by beeing born on 2/13/10, Kenny's birthday. Let's just hope he doesn't try to kiss up to Kyle and wait until the 21st.

- Joe VI

Maintaining Status Quo

Today was our 37 1/2 week appointment. I wasn't sure if the doctor was going to do another internal exam to check for any new progress, but she did. And there wasn't any. Oh well. I've really started to experience a lot of pressure down low, but still getting kicked up high. While it appears from the internal exams that the baby has dropped (and my belly does look like it's sitting a little lower), the baby still is kicking my ribs and now pushing way down low... sometimes it feels like he's playing around in my groin/upper thigh area with his hands! I keep reading that baby's movement is supposed to slow down at the end, since they've run out of space to move. Someone needs to send that message to 7, b/c he certainly hasn't slowed down at all. In fact, as I sit here typing this, he's moving around non-stop, and has been for the last 25 minutes. Little pushes, shoves, rolls - actually, they're not that little either!

If Joe's original prediction that the baby will be born on Feb. 2, then we're only 8 days away. We're all ready at this point, so hopefully he doesn't make us wait too long!

Cooking Marathon

In anticipation of not feeling like cooking, or having the time to do so once the baby arrives, Joe and I figured we should start stocking the freezer full of prepared meals. We had been talking about buying a small freezer for the basement, as our side by side fridge doesn't leave much space for casseroles, frozen pizzas, etc, and consequently, when things go on sale at the grocery store, we aren't able to stock up simply because we don't have enough usable space. After looking around and weighing our options (new vs. used off craigslist, upright vs. chest, etc) we decided to go ahead and get a 12 cubic foot upright freezer. Nebraska Furniture Mart had them on sale, so we went yesterday afternoon, picked one out, bought it and scheduled it for delivery... today! Perfect timing, as I had decided that today would be the cooking marathon day, and was getting nervous about trying to rearrange the freezer once again to cram as much in as possible.

After the freezer was delivered at 8:45am, 15 minutes earlier than our 2 hour time frame we were promised (when does that ever happen??), I started my grocery shopping trip, hitting up Aldi's, then our local grocery store, the Dollar Store for disposable foil containers, and Walmart to round out the shopping. I started cooking around noon, and it's now 5:15 and my feet and back are demanding a break. I still have a few more recipes to make before I'm finished.

I found this website, www.onceamonthmom.com that has menus planned so that you can do a lot of cooking all in one day (or weekend) and stock the freezer. I combined a few of the months to make my own schedule, along with a few of our own favorites, and have been pleasantly surprised at how easy most of these recipes are - not too much cooking, but rather a lot of prep, combine everything, cover with foil and voila! Ready to cook meals! I decided to do a handful of typical dinners, a few breakfast foods, and some quick to heat snacks/lunches, since everyone who has had babies recently said they looked for easy to heat/eat with one hand foods during the day (and night)!

Here's what I've made so far...
2 8x8 pans of Farmer's Casserole (a breakfast/brunch eggs/potato/ham dish)
2 8x8 pans of Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole
2 large pans of Chicken Cordon Bleu
8 servings of Asian Chicken Salad for pita sandwiches
1 9x13 pan of Green Chile Enchiladas
8 Chicken Taco Wraps (with more to make... I ran out of tortillas!)

Here's what I have left to make...
2-3 8x8 pans of Beef and Cheese Manicotti
2 8x8 pans of Baked Ziti
2 8x8 pans of Chicken Parmesan
2 Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Coffee Cakes
some muffins, yet to be determined - maybe apple strudel, maybe blueberry & lemon.... we'll see.

I'm hoping to have the dinners finished tonight, and if I still have energy I'll bake the coffee cakes and muffins. If not, I'll save those for tomorrow.

The best part? Between the savings of shopping at Aldi's and some great sales on chicken and beef, I'll have spent about $115 on the groceries and supplies for everything listed above - not too shabby for the number of meals we'll have ready and waiting for us to eat!

Full Term!

Well, we've made it to 37 weeks, which is considered full term! At this point, we're waiting (somewhat impatiently) for the baby's arrival. It's rather frustrating knowing he could arrive any day now, or completely miss his due date in 3 weeks and make us wait another week or more! At my doctor's appointment this past Monday she did her first internal exam, and determined that I'm only 1 cm dilated, but 60-70% effaced, and that the baby is at a -1 station. What does that mean? Not a lot, as he'll come when he's good and ready. What she was willing to say was that it was good progress for being as far out from my due date as I am, and that she usually doesn't see patients with this progress at this stage go overdue. Usually. No promises though!

So on the advice of my friend who had her baby 10 days before her due date, I'm drinking raspberry tea twice a day, trying to go for walks daily, may start eating eggplant parmesan every few days, and if necessary, will send Joe to the store for a mini trampoline and jump rope to see if we can't just shake this baby out! :) (I'm kidding about that last part) I'm also trying to keep the house clean and in order. We really only "live" in a couple of rooms, so I figure if I spend a little time each day cleaning one room, the next day cleaning the next, etc. I won't get too tired, and that will keep any one place from getting too messy. With two dogs, the house is never perfect, especially while all of our 23" of snow continues to melt and turn into a muddy slushy mess that is apparently really fun to run and play in.

In all honesty, while it's exciting to know we're so close to the due date, it's really starting to get scary knowing we're going to be parents so soon!

Drumroll, please...

My 36 week belly... it's getting big!
And Joe's 36 week belly! Not as big. :)

You have all been patiently waiting for months, and now we can say the nursery is 100% finished! Our vision for the perfect Dr. Suess nursery is complete. Ok, we still plan to hang pictures over the baby's crib (once we have pictures) but we didn't want empty frames hanging on the wall, so that's still technically something to do in the future.

This is the south wall. I'm taking the picture basically standing in the doorway to the room.

The other angle of the south wall. Joe's putting the swing together right now, and it will probably temporarily live in the corner next to the crib until we figure out the best place for it. This way, it'll stay free of dog fur but ready for use!

The crib bedding from Joe's mom. It's all the Dr. Seuss line from Pottery Barn Kids - isn't it adorable??

The crib all dressed up. The mobile hanging is a bunch of fish that kind of resemble the "one fish, two fish" fishes, and we found it at IKEA during our Thanksgiving trip. We have another mobile that attaches to the crib, so we weren't really sure how low or high to hang this one, so we compromised and it's in the middle (it can always be moved!)

The most complicated wall... The Lorax. We decided to use a changing table pad on top of the dresser, instead of getting a changing table. Hopefully it'll work out fine.

So that's the nursery. We're all set for his arrival now - the house is staying in a more clean state, the guest room is totally ready for visitors, the car seat is installed in Joe's car and my bag is packed. I'm sure he'll be late since we're ready for him to show up 4 weeks early!

Little Updates

Things are progressing nicely, albeit slowly, toward the pregnancy finish line. This past weekend I worked the KC Boat & Sportshow with my parents, and Joe helped out quite a bit too. You know how they say a pregnant woman shouldn't be on her feet too much? Turns out, that's true! Although I felt fine mentally, physically I needed a lot of breaks, and ended up with some serious cankles at the end of each day. Luckily, I'm back to feeling fairly normal - my sciatica nerve pain is gone, and other common pregnancy ailments aren't that bad. I haven't had to worry about lack of movement, even as he gets bigger - I get swift kicks to the ribs and bladder, and what I assume are elbows and knees rolling across my belly all the time!

This week I've been working at Joe's office almost every day, as I recover from the boat show and get back to work on our store's website. Joe's been busier through December and January than they expected, so I figured there's not much difference between sitting on my couch at home with the dogs working and actually getting up, getting dressed and answering a few phone calls while working. It helps to keep me feeling like a "real" person, although I definitely don't mind the days of sitting back in our recliner couch seats, laptop balanced on my belly and the arm of the couch, getting work done in pajama pants!

As far as the nursery goes, it pains me to tell you it's 99% of the way done. I won a crib skirt off ebay - the same one they show in the PBK catalog with the Dr. Suess bedding, but half price! It showed up two days ago, so I remade the crib yesterday... it definitely looks finished now. The goal tonight/this weekend is to put the air registers back up, hang the mobile, sweep/mop the floor, and take final pictures, because that's all we have left to do! I even spent some time yesterday pulling 7's 0-3 month clothes out of the closet and washing them. They're all nicely folded in his dresser now.

Other big things on the agenda for this weekend? Packing my hospital bag (I think Joe's going to go crazy if I don't get that done, now that we're at the 36 week mark), cleaning the house (we're trying to keep it in a ready to go state from here on out), cleaning both our cars and putting a new battery in mine so we can install the car seat bases, and cleaning out the garage so we can actually put a car inside it! If we're really feeling abitious, we may start cleaning up the basement too - Joe is trying to redo his work bench, and we both know that our free time will go from somewhat valuable to non-existent in a few weeks, so if we can get that project finished, it would be great!

Another teaser picture

Although the room is essentially complete, Joe wants to wait until we finish some last details before posting full pictures. So, to keep you amused, here's another wall section!

Goodbye Christmas...

Winter in KC this year has been off the records. So far, we've received 18.5" of snow... to put that in perspective, St. Louis, only about 200 miles away, has received 3.5" of snow. And many places to the north that would typically get considerably more than us have received 10" or less, including cities in Montana and Wisconsin! We're set to get another batch of snow this week, although it may not be too much more. The bigger problem is the temperatures - we haven't been above freezing for over a week, and this week the morning high temperatures are in the negatives! Talk about a cold, snowy winter! I think Molly's the only one who enjoys it when there's this much snow and cold weather outside.

In other news, the holidays are officially over at the Jeppson house. Yesterday while Joe was working in the nursery, I took the ornaments and lights off the Christmas tree and put the rest of the Christmas decorations away. Luckily, I hadn't put that much out to begin with, so it really didn't take too long. Since the nursery is *almost* finished and the dining room had become the storage unit for baby stuff, prior to Christmas, it was really nice to get the room all cleaned up - it looks so much bigger now! We also managed to strip the Christmas tree and take it straight to the tree recycling drop-off, which is 2 blocks from our house. Much better than 2 years ago, when it took us until June to get rid of the tree!

While I was cleaning the house up, Joe spent most of the afternoon finishing the detail work in the nursery. I helped touch up paint and finish the trim... now all that's left is to put one more coat of paint on the air register covers, install them and hang the blinds on the windows! I'm deciding whether or not to add a small bookcase to the room, which I know will come in handy down the road, so I guess we're not totally finished, but after we get the windows and registers done, we can certainly call it finished! Pictures to come tomorrow!