The Latest and Greatest

Hey guys! 

I know it's been awhile but I go through periods like that where I just don't really feel like blogging. Mainly I didn't want to just complain about the same shit over and over. 

I've really been ballooning out. It's like every day I wake up and I'm bigger than I was the day before. It's a bit depressing. As most of you know I have prided myself (falsely) on remaining fairly small throughout the duration of my pregnancy. And it was true. I loved hearing it from people. Needless to say, I don't hear that often anymore. I'm gigantic and uncomfortable. See below

 

This is how I feel 100% of the day. Large and not in charge. Know whose in charge? My baby girl, she's the one calling the shots around here. 

Let's take a snapshot of where we stand: 

How far along am I: 35 weeks

How many days left till Due Date: 4 weeks and 5 days

How big is baby: almost 6lbs in there, the size of a coconut

My latest and most awful symptom is this pregnancy induced carpal tunnel. It started last week with numbing and loss of sensation in my hands. Mostly my left hand and mostly the thumb, forefinger and middle finger. I have found zero help in any different position. With pillow or without pillows, drinking lots of water or drinking minimum water, cutting back my salt, using an ice pack before bed, stretching....NOTHING WORKS. NOTHING. 

I went to the chiropractor for it today. It's not an expense we necessarily needed but I can't keep it up. I am LUCKY to get 4 hours of sleep and that includes waking up every hour to shake out my hands and wake them up. I told her all of my symptoms. She told me I have a large amount of swelling, particularly on my left side. She worked out vertebrates 5-8 in my neck and worked extensively on my left hand. I still have numbness, even as I write this, but it felt amazing just being there. I love the chiropractor's office: it's a combination of adjustment and massage. (I may need to go get a massage actually soon too!) She showed me how to try and help with the swelling on my hand by pushing back the fluid up toward my heart and out my wrist. She showed me how to stretch out my shoulders using a door frame. She told me I need to wear my wrist brace at night, but seeing as it's the one from Target, it's unlikely it's high enough quality to really do much. But I'm going to give it a shot.

 I mean, this whole thing is literally giving me anxiety about sleeping. How awful is that? When bedtime comes, this exhausted mama-to-be is SCARED to go to bed! Imagine that you guys, imagine you are scared to lie down because the loss of feeling in your hands wakes you up and then it takes hours for the feeling to come back...if it comes back 100% at all. It's terrifying. Repeat that feeling every hour.

I told my doctor/OB-GYN about all of this and he only had one real answer to give me: 

"Having a baby is the only way this is going to go away, I'm afraid" 

Gee, thanks Doc. So I'm just supposed to suffer with lack of sleep? 

I thought I would be proactive. I figured I'd find a knowledgeable chiropractor to help me and see if there is anything that she can do. I'll have to see after tonight. But I'm seeing her again in a week. I'll keep y'all posted. 

My last day of work is June 27th which is this Friday. I'm happy and relieved. I don't know or have a clue what my disability pay will be, but I am really crossing my fingers it's equivalent to what I made at my job. This job was minor pay that I took because we needed something after my last job ended. It was a job we were and are grateful for. But it's not a job that matches my education or abilities or intelligence. If the disability pay can come within 50 or so bucks of my weekly pay, we will be OK until I find something more corporate. Cause Lord knows we don't want to stress about finances when we have a baby coming in WEEKS. That's stressful enough!

On a happy note here are some images of the baby showers I've been so grateful to have thrown for me and our baby:

These were delicious. I ate like 4.

This sums up my beautiful best friend and I relationship. She's the godmother to our baby girl and she is the most amazing person I know. I couldn't have asked for a better host.

DIAPER CAKE!

 

And here are some photos of my Los Angeles Shower with my peeps from down here: 

 

I have some beautiful friends and I am so blessed and grateful to have all of these women in my life. I felt so much love and emotion from both of my showers and the ladies who showed up made me feel like a million bucks. A huge thank you to EVERYONE who helped plan it and was there that day. I truly do feel like it takes a village to raise a child and all of you women are in my village!

So after Friday...we wait....and we wait....and we blog...and we wait. 

Last thing, I NOW understand why women don't get scared of labor after a certain point. After a certain point, you lose all anxiety for actual labor. You just want control of your body again! I'm there. Shoot me up with an epidural and I'm ready! 

Any questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me hear them! 

XOXO

Have you smiled and laughed today?

Nothing in depth or thought provoking today, just a little something to make you laugh.

This is how I feel when I think about my Labor and Delivery of baby Savannah in approximately 10 weeks

At my parents last weekend: 

Me: I'm going to have a slice of apple pie

Mom: That's a lot of sugar at 9:30pm at night. Why not have fruit?

Me (below) 

Me at night laying down:

I feel like my pregnancy should be an indicator about how my baby is going to be. (EASY) However, the internet seems to feel like this:

 

And lastly, some mornings you just feel like this Boston terrier on a Roomba.

Hope this gave you a little giggle today! 

XOXO,

Amy

Adventures in Nursery Painting!

Here's the conversation Joel and I had Friday about our plans for Saturday: 

Me: Let's get the nursery painted and done this weekend. What do you think?

Joel: Yeah, that sounds good. Let's wake up early Saturday and we can go to Lowes and get the paint stuff, then go get Daisy hay, then we can come home and I'll do some yard work while you run errands and when you get back, you can help me figure out what to paint first and I'll ask Eric to help me paint the room when we are done taping. (Yes, I realize that was a long run-on sentence he had. I just wanted it to be authentic) 

Me: Ok, sounds good. 

Joel: I'm excited!! 

SATURDAY ROLLS ALONG

Joel: C'mon wake up we are already behind schedule! 

Me: Grumble Grumble GRRRRRR ARGH

So off we go around 9:30am to my preferential home do-it-yourself store (cause c'mon, Home Depot is for contractors and dudes. Lowes is set up for us women! All nice and decorated and much less orange inside...)

 

Now this is where I focused my efforts when I was looking for our paint choices. I had already pre-picked out the colors for the nursery and with Joel's help, we had narrowed it down to the two we chose. Which you will see what we chose below!  

Why did I choose Valspar? No idea. No specific reasoning other than I was drawn to those colors and ultimately when we narrowed our choices down, they both happened to be Valspar Signature paints. 

So the paint lady (whose job actually seems kind of cool and maybe in another life would be kind of fun to work in the paint section of Lowes ) asks us what kind of finish do we want. Do we want Matte? Satin? Semi-Gloss? Gloss? 

Me (to Paint Lady): This is for a nursery. What do you think is best ? 
PL: Oh you are gonna want Semi-Gloss or Gloss. It's easier to wipe down and clean. 
Joel: Done, semi gloss it is.

So Paint Lady begins to mix up the colors of paint that we had given to her (after we had a lengthy discussion about prices.) Let me sum up for you the discussion. Given the paint we chose, a gallon was $29.99. We chose our main color and went with a gallon of that and then our accent color we chose a quart which was $15.99. There were only two options. Quart or Gallon. A shitload or juuuuust enough. Those are your options.

Back to Paint Lady, while she is mixing up the color for us, Joel and I wander the paint section looking at other things we are going to need to paint. Drop cloth, painting tape, paint brush set, etc. My husband has to analyze everything though so we go back and forth discussing the pros and cons of each thing. Which kind of sounds like this: 

Joel: Why is there a difference between this brush set and this other one? They are the exact same and same price. They have the same amount of brushes and everything

Me: This says that this is microfiber and the other one isn't.

Joel: So? I don't get it.

Me: I don't know! I'm not Paint Lady..I don't know jack about this stuff! **PUSHES CART AWAY**

Joel: mumble mumble mumble I don't get it, this is stupid. Same price, different set? Blah blah blah

He did get me to smile with this photo though...although when the camera wouldn't focus fast enough he was like HURRY HURRY I LOOK LIKE A DORK. 

Yes, yes you do. But you are MY dork.

 

So here is what we went with size-wise. Big gallon of Valspar Paint + Primer Ultra (whatever the hell that means) and a quart of the Valspar Signature Paint + Primer.

Here is a few images of the former makeup room, I mean nursery before the paint. 

Joel mumbled and grumbled the entire time he was taping.
"I hate painting, I said I'd never paint again after the Culver City house, this is so stupid blah blah blah" 

But here he is, hard at work!

And the finished product! 

I adore it! I love the turquoise accent color so much. If you are wondering, it's called Reflection Pool. The purplish lavender is called Floral Vista. 

Joel wanted to put together what little baby items we have so far. We have the co-sleeper on the far left, then a little rocker thing in the middle and a Tommee Tippee diaper genie-esque thing on the right.

Proud Papa standing in his hard days work!  He's excited now that it all is coming together!

I love it! Like seriously, it's the best looking room in our house so far. I'm inspired to paint more rooms/accent walls. Joel does not agree on that idea of course...seeing as we do rent and not own. I agree on that account, but we are going to be here for another year and 5  year months so we may as well enjoy our home while we can. We can always hire some manual labor to repaint it the ugly yellow color when we get ready to move. 

It's amazing what a little paint can do. Not only to a room, but to a man who up until this point hasn't really had much to do (pregnancy-wise), so this is huge. He's so proud and he deserves to be proud. His excitement is contagious. His smile at the nursery lights up the whole room. That's what matters. 

On a side note, Savannah was kicking up a storm yesterday. It was the first time I could actually see her movements from the outside. Which was FREAKY. Like OMG-THERE-IS-AN-ALIEN-IN-THERE-CAUSE-THAT-MOVEMENT-WASN'T-ME freaky! Sometimes she can kick me in a weird place where I'm like "OOOMPH!" Was that my bladder she just kicked? Is she playing soccer in there? Practicing kung fu? Ease up girlfriend...Momma is still getting used to this. 

And lastly, I feel super fat today. 

THE END