Posts by Caitlin

,

Late Night Wake Up Call

,

One of the random side effects/symptoms of pregnancy, is bloody noses.  Weird, right?  Of course there's a totally logical reason for it, but it's still an annoying and odd thing to have to deal with among all the other changes your body is going through.  One of the suggestions that doctors give you to deal with them, is to get a humidifier.  A humidifier also happens to be one of the only things you're able to use to treat a cold, which I came down with this past week. 

So off to the store we went last weekend to buy a cool mist humidifier.  We'll likely need one for the baby anyway, so it seemed like a smart investment.  I used it mostly at night, and it was actually working!  I think I only had one bloody nose this week (trust me, that's a huge improvement) and my cold passed pretty quickly too.  I was hooked.

,

What Do You Do When it Snows?

,

So we have some snow.  A lot of snow. 

A few days ago we had no snow on the ground and now we have almost two feet.  For a while, the snow had been light and fluffy, which was helpful for shoveling, but not great for playing.  Finally, one night Tom came running into the house.  I'd been napping, and he'd been out shoveling. 

, ,

The Dinosaur Penguin

, ,

Alternatively titled, "Anatomy Scan: How I Scared Tom Half to Death"

Ultrasounds - An exciting experience where you get to watch a TV screen showing your baby moving around.  Or the time to figure out any and all genetic problems, health issues, and life ending debilitations. One of those is a lot more fun than the other, but the reality is, both are true.

,

The Magic of Ikea

,

Remember when I shared some pictures of our dining room chairs?  And at the end of the post, if you had been paying attention, you would have realized I had no idea what to do with the wall behind the table.  At the time I was hanging cards on it, utilizing three screws that were already in the wall when we moved in.  It kind of worked, for then anyway, but it definitely wasn't meant as a permanent solution.  

, ,

Stop Dancing on my Bladder

, ,

So after the last, not so encouraging ultrasound, Tom and I were ready for a do over.  That chance came when we were given the option of doing a down syndrome test, which requires an ultrasound.  I'll be honest, I just heard ultrasound and said I was in.  Especially because it was at a different office where they had the new, high tech ultrasounds.  I knew we'd be able to see a lot more, and have a much better chance at hearing a heartbeat. The results of the test meant very little to me compared to that. 

Heading into the appointment, I was mostly excited and just a little bit nervous.  I knew things were probably okay, but I still really wanted to hear that heartbeat as confirmation.  Then I checked the website and looked at the pre-appointment instructions... and that's when I became very nervous.  

, ,

The First Heartbeat: Sort Of

, ,

Alternatively titled, "How I almost gave Tom a heart attack."

So the first appointment I had was with a midwife, and was supposed to be mostly a checkup for me, and gathering a medical history.  It was in the middle of the day and Tom had to work, so I went alone.  I'd already gotten all the medical information from him, so it wasn't a big deal.  At the very end of the appointment, the midwife decided to try and do a quick ultrasound to check and make sure it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy. 

,

One More Thing to Cross off the List

,

Slowly but surely, it's happening.  We're moving in a bit more, decorating and making things feel like home.  For a while now, I've had a stack of picture frames littering the office floor. Waiting to be put somewhere or hung up. 

Finally I found myself with a free day, and decided to start hanging them on the wall by our stairs.  Originally I had a plan to map out where everything was going to go, but I realized that was causing me to delay starting the project since I wasn't sure how to do it.  In the end I just grabbed the drill and started hanging things. 

, ,

Pregnancy: The Symptoms

, ,

I mostly didn't know what to expect for pregnancy symptoms.  I figured I'd be puking in garbage cans left and right and making Tom go out in the middle of the night to buy me pickles.  (Again, thanks movies).  I've seen friends and family members pregnant before, and it didn't seem that bad?  But as I soon found out, most of pregnancy is about suffering in private. 

Seriously, who decided that the worst pregnancy symptoms would happen at the beginning when you're not supposed to be telling anyone you're pregnant!?  It's the worst cruel joke nature could play on you.  I was lying and faking my way through life while feeling like I was going to die at the same time.  I was also feeling a bit dramatic haha. 

, ,

The Nursery Round I

, ,

I wish I had a better 'before' picture of this room for you.  Something more than a half painted wall to show you what it looked like.  I don't even have one from the walk through I don't think - it was the previous owner's daughter's room, and they didn't post any pictures of it on the listing, and I never took any.  Once we moved in, it was always just an empty room, so we never went in there.  The walls were a dusty rose (or as I call it, dirty pink) and the only room of the entire house where I hated the paint color.

I think in the back of our mind we always knew it would be a future baby's room, whenever that happened to be.  In fact I often referred to it as the baby's room.  It was better than "the extra bedroom that isn't the guest room, and isn't the craft room, you know the ugly one with the gross pink walls?"

, ,

Pregnancy: The First Few Days

, ,

For another post about how life is different from movies, let's explore what we did after finding out I was pregnant. 

In the movies, this is a huge turning point!  Lots of things happen very quickly! Symptoms start immediately.  A visit to the doctor is planned for the next day.  Funny things happen.  People are told.  In reality, none of this happens. 

, , ,

I Suck at Registries

, , ,

Maybe it's because I'm pregnant and don't have a ton of energy.  Or maybe I'm just not a registry person.  After all, we never really did a wedding registry.  We had a super small one that we did online.  We never went to a store to pick things out.  Either way, setting up a baby registry was a nightmare for me!

I'd been putting it off for a while.  For some reason it didn't sound fun.  Even though I love shopping and I love babies, something about the registry made me want to avoid it at all costs.  It was Tom who finally convinced me to go.  Convinced, begged.. same difference. 

,

Basement Update

,

There's a reason you're always supposed to get multiple quotes when you're having anyone do work on your house.  One of those reasons is, you never know when the first company you talk to is insane, even if they seem like the most well know and popular choice.  

Two weeks ago we had Brian from Total Basement Finishing/Black Dog Builders come by to look at our basement.  Brian's was a contractor, not just some creepy sales guy there to make us spend the most possible.  I told him from the beginning that Tom and I were numbers people, and that was what was going to be important to us. 

,

We The People

,

I'm not going to lie, I've questioned whether this is the greatest time to bring a child into the world.  Our political climate scares me, and it makes me scared for our future children.  What type of world will they grow up in?  How will I teach tolerance and love and equality when the leader of our country preaches the opposite? 

, ,

How I Told Tom I was Pregnant

, ,

If you've been on pinterest (or anywhere on the internet pretty much) lately, you know that finding a unique and special way to tell your husband you're pregnant is very much a thing.  However, it always struck me as odd.  Wouldn't you find out together?  How could you keep a secret like that from your husband?  I pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to pull something like that off.  

Plus in my mind, it would go something like this:  One day we'd be talking and maybe I'd notice I missed a period, or I'd throw up randomly, or otherwise feel off.  And we'd both look at each other and go, "Oh my gosh! Could you/I be pregnant!?" and we'd run off, buy a test, and wait for the results together.  As a totally unrelated comment, I think I watch too much TV and movies haha. 

,

We have SNOW!

,

Although it's snowed a few times already this winter, I'm declaring this our first official snow storm of the new house.  Topping in at around 7 inches at our snow stake, I'm pretty sure this isn't going to disappear overnight like the rest of the show we've had this season so far. 

While I'm not a huge fan of snow, I will say that having a house makes me enjoy it a lot more than living in an apartment does.  I'm not sure Tom will agree with this, since he has the added task of shoveling, but just look how pretty it is! 

, ,

Coming Soon

, ,

Okay, confession time.  We've been hiding something. 

Not well, because most of you know, but still not actively talking about it online anyway.  That's not to say I haven't been writing about it, because I have.  They're all just stored in draft form, and will slowly be shared with you over the coming weeks. 

,

How Not to Finish Your Basement

,

Does your house have a basement?  How much time do you spend thinking about it?  I guarantee it's not as much time as Tom and I have spent on our basement since moving into this house.  It's not very big, or very useful (yet), but boy does it take up a lot of our time. 

If you were to eavesdrop on us randomly, there's a pretty good chance you'd here us debating basement flooring options, or radon levels, or something else basement related.  Mostly, we just want to get it to a point where we can put our shoes and coats there.  It doesn't seem like much, but boy is it taking us a while!