Monthly Archives: September 2012

Our new apartment: we are settled at last!

As you know, we moved on August 17th, and I’m happy to say that we’ve been 100% settled since Friday September 14th (just 4 days after the goal I had set). And even more–I finally have pictures to share!

Let’s start in the front of the house. We occupy the second floor of a 3-unit building, and after unlocking the door the first thing you do is come up a big set up steps under a skylight. As soon as I had my camera out and ready to take pictures, I heard a key in the door and . . .

. . . welcome home, baby!

Just in time for a little photo shoot. Because what everyone wants when they first walk in the door after a long day at work isn’t a hug and kiss as you may expect, but a camera in their face!

. . . right?

Anyway. The first stop for incoming people is the shoe bench (actually two of them side by side, courtesy of Ikea).

The front of the house is basically a big kitchen/living room/dining room area, which I tried to photograph from a number of angles to give you a sense of the space.

The dining room area is a nice size for our little round table (inherited during our undergrad days from a certain Darius Fong), but I wonder how a larger table would make it feel–cramped? We want a table that can seat more than 4 people, but we’re a little afraid that if we upsize, our guests will end up being packed into their dining situations like sardines.

Oh, and that door against the wall leads to a little balcony which my husband loves to sit out on. I’m still a little leery of spiders and getting debris and leaves on my bottom from those plastic chairs. But I’m working on my phobias as we speak.

We turned this rolling cart thingy from a coffee station (in our previous apartment) to a wine station.

And above it hangs one of my favorite paintings, from the walls of Mama Kitty and Big Jake’s house.

It reminds me of my Wisconsin roots and makes me feel . . . I don’t know. Good. Nostalgic. Peaceful.

In the dining area we put our big ole shelf:

Not a perfect fit for that wall, but close enough.

It houses things that delight me: my cookbooks!

Glasses and pictures!

And a bin at the bottom for Alice’s bibs and little utensils and such.

After a month of packing and a month of unpacking, having everything in its place and not a single box remaining anywhere to be seen feels glorious.

My husband and I are matched in this sense–we are creatures of order. We love harmony, routine, and our spirits have a much easier time being peaceful when our surroundings are peaceful.

So I feel like I’m breathing easier than I have for the past couple months. And being done with everything move-related is probably why I’ve been able to go from losing pregnancy weight to finally gaining some.

More shots of the livingroom area:

In these pictures, the fireplace/mantel area looks a little cluttered to me. In our defense, we had to use decor and furniture to cover a series of hefty cables coming out of the wall above the mantelpiece (originally there to connect a TV) and to the right of the mantelpiece (surround sound), as well an unsightly pipe coming out of the “fireplace.”

And in real life I don’t think it looks as busy as it does in these still shots, for whatever reason.

I have presented my defense, and I rest my case.

I’m so glad to finally have this painting out, since it represents Spain to me (the artist was a friend of my mom’s from her painting circle in Madrid).

And the framed cross stitch from our friend Kathy brings our church in Delaware (EP) to mind–and into my prayers.

This is my new morning devotional area:

It’s such a peaceful, wonderful spot for early morning meditation and prayer.

I love it.

As for the kitchen, I didn’t take that many pictures . . . maybe because we didn’t really do anything to make it look so nice. It was already nice. Which is an apartment first for us!

I guess in the above shot we were in the middle of dinner preparations, hence the slight disarray on the counters (i.e., the rice cooker). Please pretend in your mind that it’s all picked up before we move on. Thank you.

One of my favorite things is that the three hanging lamps above the bar-height kitchen counter are on a dimmer, so late at night we can have a nice, quiet glow coming from the kitchen area.

Alright! So if you can stand to see more, let’s move down the hall. Our first stop is what we call the 3rd bedroom/computer room/library/{insert name of guest staying with us}’s room. So far it has been John’s room, my mom’s room, Jon’s room, Ben’s room, and Julia’s room. Maybe we should simplify and just give it its own proper name. Like Harvenschtein. Or Hepselforthgard. Something with an H, definitely.

As you can see, we own a lot of books.

Which is why I love the wall shelving we got at Ikea–our tomes have outgrown our bookshelves, and used to be sitting in piles on top of them. No longer! Now they all have a proper place to sit.

I should also point out that those frames will not hang empty forever–I’m ordering prints from photos I’ve taken of Chicago, which should arrive semi-soon.

Rotating clockwise, we have the dual desk action area, with a writing desk for my husband . . .

. . . and, next to it, the smallest computer desk we could find for our desktop.

Next to which is a closet.

I’ll show you what’s in it!

All our instruments (acoustic, classical and electric guitars, djembe, violin), sewing stuff, games, our filing cabinet etc, all organized by my amazing husband. And apparently, a rotary phone on top of it all.

So that you can take a call in total privacy.

And if you visit, there are even hangers, and some space for you to hang your clothes! So c’mon by. Or something. You’ll feel right at home in Hepselforthgard!

As long as your spine doesn’t object to our bony futon.

Next up is the guest bathroom, which I found an awesome shower curtain for at Target.

My husband made sure to equip the bathroom with a clock, in case you get distracted by your intense grooming rituals and need to know exactly how much time you’ve spent plucking your left eyebrow.

Next up in our trek down the hallway comes Alice’s room on the right, but you’ll get pictures of that tomorrow–that room deserves its own post.

I didn’t photograph the laundry area (I figured you guys had seen it before), but there are a series of bookcases we moved into the widest section of the hallway because, let’s face it, they just weren’t going to fit into the 3rd bedroom.

Believe me, we tried.

Hence, our ‘media’ bookcase with DVD’s and some CD’s:

(from Ikea! And the laundry area is behind the doors to the left)

(and in case you’re disoriented, I turned around to snap this picture, so we’re facing towards the front of the house, and the door you see on the right goes into the bathroom we just visited) (metaphorically speaking)

And, turning around again to face the back of the house, here are the bookshelves (the door at the end of the hall is our back door) . . .

. . . that precede the final door into our bedroom.

Yes, our books have yet to be organized and alphabetized and such, but don’t worry! With my husband in charge, it’s bound to happen. It’s only a matter of time.

Finally, we have our bedroom! It gets so much lovely morning light.

Which makes getting up so much easier . . .

. . . though not easy, mind you. Nope, not at this stage of pregnancy.

And if you like the bedding, you must know that it all came from Rummage. I love, love, love shopping for bedding at Rummage.

And at risk of being repetitive, we LOVE that the big light hanging from the ceiling (which came with the place) is on a dimmer. It makes night time reading extra fun and cozy.

We’re loving our bedroom set from Ikea, and I think my husband made a great choice with the bedside tables and lamps.

As you can see, my night time reading appears to be all about . . . well, food.

We’ve decorated our bedroom pretty minimally, and for the time being we’re really enjoying that. There’s a lot of empty wall space, but I don’t feel moved to fill it up. For now, we’re keeping it simple with a few pictures of us.

I love this open space.

And the dressers were 100% necessary to house my clothes . . .

. . . which, at our old apartment, used to live in a closet in our 2nd bedroom.

No more! I love having my clothes in my actual bedroom. No more naked dashes across the hall . . . at least none out of strict necessity.

Sorry–was that way too shocking? I can’t quite tell. Hunh. I’ll have to remember to turn on my self-censorship/propriety gauge system tomorrow, because obviously I failed to do so when I got up this morning.

We even have a built-in hidden shelving area in a nook by the window, mostly used by my husband. Since it’s invisible from most areas of the room, it doesn’t necessarily have to look matchy matchy . . . but if it ever starts to get under my skin, I reserve the right to go hog wild and purchase 20 matching bins.

May I highlight the current bin action happening?

Thank you.

I neglected to photograph the master bathroom connected to our bedroom, so I’ll just refer you to this post to refresh your memory. But having a bathroom right there is so awesome–I can’t even believe it.

Thus endeth our tour. Tomorrow it’s all about Alice’s room!

37 Weeks

How far along: 37 weeks, completed 9/18/2012.

Weight gain: I saw the midwives on Tuesday morning, and I’m up to the magical 150 (3 lb gain in the last 2 weeks), for a total pregnancy gain of 17 lbs. Much better!

Clothes: There are only 3 pairs of pants I can wear at the moment, 2 of which are uncomfortably tight. So make that 1, since I’m never in the mood the choose the uncomfortably tight ones first thing in the morning. So what I’m really trying to say is, if you see me wearing the same things over and over again, just . . . you know, roll with it.

Purchases: Well guys, there was a big one. Saturday we bought a car.

*pausing in disbelief*

*was this a dream or did it really happen?*

Yes, it really happened. We have been carless and LOVING it for our 3 years in Chicago, but with little Alice joining us, we decided it was time to become vehicularly empowered. We don’t plan on driving a lot, but for out of town trips to see our parents and friends, it just didn’t seem possible to coordinate our usual bus/train/bum-a-ride combo with a baby that needs to ride in a car seat for safety. We’re still pretty freaked out by our wheels, and mostly the car has just sat in our parking space looking way too shiny and intimidating. It’s funny, because the sales guys that sold us the car were more excited about us owning a car than we were. We were of the “necessary evil” mentality, which they just couldn’t wrap their minds around, bless their little car-selling hearts. But I know it’s going to be so useful . . . like for getting me to the hospital when it’s The Big Day! Or for getting to Stevens Point for Christmas with my family. Or for getting back to Dominick’s where I hope to find goat milk yogurt. Anyway, we’re thankful for God’s provision of this car, but don’t expect to see us driving all around tomorrow or anything. We’re easing into it.

Body: I still feel pretty much the same as I have. I was expecting to be bigger at this point, but I feel like I’ve been holding steady at roughly the same size for months.

On that note, the midwife said my fundal height (according to wikipedia: measurement from the top of the mother’s uterus to the top of the mother’s pubic bone in centimeters) hasn’t changed since my last visit two weeks ago, and ordered an ultrasound to make sure little Alice is measuring what she should. The midwife didn’t seem too concerned and said my long torso may be the cause, but she just wanted to be safe. So that’s where I’m headed next Tuesday, after reshuffling my regular appointment to Wednesday.

And because I can’t stop now, here’s the belly in all its glory, followed by a still fairly successful disappearing act.

Sleep: Sleep has been marvelous this week, which is a welcome change from last week. I feel really tired in the morning and don’t get out of bed with the vim and vigor that I used to, but I’ve been passing out quite easily on my body pillow when 10:30pm rolls around.

Best moment(s) of the week: Finalizing Alice’s room. Every time I walk past it now, I gaze in at the order, at the beautiful quilt hanging from the crib, at the framed Alice in Wonderland paperdoll, and my heart thrills that our soon-to-be little roommate now has a bedroom ready and waiting. And it’s so much prettier than I thought it would be (I can’t wait to show you guys!).

Movement: Same as last week–she’s head down and will in all likelihood stay that way until delivery, so her movements are now twists from side to side, stretches and squirms. Every now and then I reach down to find a foot or her bottom, and just connect with the fact that she has this little body that is inside my body. WILD! I know I don’t get to have her in here much longer, so I’m treasuring every squirm!

There’s also a lot of pressure on my bladder and the floor of my pelvis. I wondered if that meant she had dropped, but according to the midwife, it ain’t happened yet.

Food cravings/aversions: Now that I’ve been off cow dairy products for a week and a half, it’s getting a little easier. I’m starting to enjoy my coffee black (probably healthier for me anyway), and the project of avoiding cream and cheese made with cow milk and the like doesn’t seem as daunting as it was. The biggest challenge was when we were at a dinner party Saturday night, and I had to say no to some farmer’s market Greek yogurt over top of a fabulous homemade apple tart. The tart was awesome (and, let’s be honest, may have had a little butter in there), but denying myself those piles of heavy white glorious yogurt . . . sad, sad moment.

I’ve also started freezing meals! As of now, I have a bag of Chicken Marsala, two bags of Split Pea Soup, and two bags of Indian-Style Chicken Curry. And it’s just what I envisioned–flat stacked freezer Ziplocs all in a neat pile, marked with the name of the dish and the date I made it, looking orderly and wonderful.

Symptoms: Increased pressure in my pelvis, which feels painful sometimes when Alice moves in certain ways (almost like she’s scraping my bladder with her tiny nails or something–though I’m not sure if that’s even possible).

Emotions: All of them. Peaceful, overwhelmed, excited, peaceful again, tearful, in disbelief, cool as a cucumber, freaked out . . . yes.

Hopes and dreams: We finally put our hopes for the birth down into an official birth plan Monday night, which I went over with my midwife and she approved and filed away. We wrote a nice big disclaimer at the top: “Barring any unforeseen problems or emergencies, we would prefer . . .”

I know the unforeseen will probably happen, at least in some small ways if not big ways. So I’m trying to plan and dream while still holding loosely . . . but while still having a clear idea in my mind of what I want and how we can accomplish that.

We also made a big logistics master plan for my husband, which has a list of everything he needs to remember on that big day, all in order: the phone number for the Midwife Group to call when I’m 3-1-1 (contractions 3 minutes apart, 1 minute long, for at least 1 hour). Request a volunteer doula to be there when we arrive. Call our mothers. Call my insurance after I’m admitted. All that kind of stuff, which I’m sure we will both appreciate having in writing when our minds and emotions are running all over the place.

Next on our list: figuring out what all we want in the hospital bag and packing that bad boy up!

What I miss: Nothing comes to mind at the moment . . .

What I’m looking forward to: Seeing that sweet girl’s little face. It’s unbelievable to me that soon I will get to see what she looks like!

Husband update: Tuesday night he decided to work on a playlist with songs for Alice’s bedtime. I love that he’s already thinking about how to share the gift of music with her, and putting time into thinking what tunes might make a tiny girl sleepy.

All in all, I feel like we’re both going back and forth between different emotions–feeling peaceful and prepared, feeling sad about the end of our days as “just us,” feeling excited about going from couple to family, feeling like we can’t wrap our minds around what’s about to happen, and sometimes even feeling totally up for it.

After writing out the birth plan, when I asked how he was feeling he said, “let’s do this thing!”

In fact, at this exact moment I’m feeling ready to “do this thing”. . . but my answer may be totally different in about 30 minutes.