MiniM.E.!!

Finally the baby arrived Saturday night at 10:09!  Everything went really well until after she was born.  There were some complications, but I'll post that separately as some of the details are pretty gory- plus, not everyone wants to read a traumatizing birth story.

Recovering... but so happy to finally be a mommy!  She is perfect!

Dear Baby,

I'm sure you're pretty attached to the "house" you've been living in for the last 9 months.  I mean, who wouldn't want to live in a comfy warm hot tub?  You don't have to worry about food, you can sleep whenever you want, you never have dirty diapers, no crazy ladies are pinching your cheeks telling you how cute you are...

We love you already, so don't take this the wrong way, but GET OUT.  Yes, it's loud and bright and cold and scary out here.  You'll have to cry to let us know you're hungry or wet or tired.  But it will be worth it.  There are great things out here like Daddy and toys and blankets and food you can taste.

So be a big girl, suck it up, and come out.  Or you're grounded.

Love,

Mommy

Not yet...

Yesterday was not "baby day" either.  We went on another super long walk at the Saratoga Park, which was beautiful, but did not encourage her to make an appearance :(

Today... more baking and cooking and cleaning... I'm running out of things to "nest," so she better get here soon!

Today's (probably not) The Day!

October 7th.

I should be having a baby today.  Am I?  Not yet.  Still hopeful though.  I like the number 7.  And now that everything's done, I'm pretty anxious for her to arrive.  But despite the entire pineapple I ate last night, nothing but some serious acid reflux (pineapple is really acidic!) and some "I ate way too much pineapple" stomach cramps.

We'll see though.  She still has another 13 hours or so.

Maybe if not today, then this weekend...

I DID find another project to keep me busy this morning.

Introducing.... Project : Baby Mobile!!

Using digital images of the jungle animal artwork on the wall, I printed out three sets of my 7 favorite animals.  With a couple of wooden dowels painted pink, some embrodery floss, and a few pieces of foam core, I now have a mobile full of high-contrast images for New Baby to look at.
(Also, for people who walk into the room to look at, as seen in the two photos above.)

The coolest part of the mobile?? This is what it looks like if you are lying in the crib.

Note: I did not actually get into the crib to take this picture.  I probably would have broken it.  I just set the camera on the mattress.

Nesting: Day 1

So I've heard that towards the end of pregnancy most women experience "nesting".  (Read more here)

Well, today was not the day for hoarding newspapers, scrubbing floors or even finishing the last of the unpacking.

It was a day of cooking like a mad woman.

I went to the store, bought 4 lbs. of ground beef and spent the day in casserole making oblivion.

Four frying pans, five spatulas, 3 casserole dishes, 5 other ceramic dishes I dug out of the back of a cabinet, and the rest of my ziplock containers later, my freezer is now stocked with meals for after the baby arrives.  And I have dinner for two more nights this week.

Unfortunately for any other frozen food that wants to reside in my freezer, things will be kind of cramped in there for a while...

I *Think* I'm Finally Ready...

It took a couple more days of hanging shelves, arranging, unpacking, cleaning, organizing and feeling a bit like I was losing my mind, but I *think* I'm finally ready for the baby.  I *think* the house is pretty much done (aside from that box of clothes I don't have any space to unpack, which is okay, because they don't fit right now anyway seeing as how there is a watermelon growing inside my ever-expanding stomach).

The nice things about being ready?  Well, obviously, any time the baby comes (which according to the doctor I saw today could be tonight or in two weeks.  Thanks, super helpful...), I won't have a zillion things on my "To Do List," so maybe I can actually spend some time with her.  I have more time on my hands for awesome things I've been forgetting to do my whole pregnancy--like napping, and also more times for things I haven't done much of and wish I didn't have time for--like worrying.  About EVERYTHING.  But I've saved a few projects to keep me occupied during the next week (or two, or three...) while I wait for the arrival of... *gulp*... a real, live, crying (but hopefully also cute and squirmy) baby.

And probably the most exciting thing about being unpacked and finally at home for blogging is that my camera is set up and I can get all my pictures onto my computer and POST THEM!!!

As promised, here are pictures of the baby's room, complete with crazy jungle mural!

The crib bedding is totally thanks to my awesome mom who sewed everything with a couple sets of Target sheets.   It's really hard to find awesome material that coordinates with a brightly colored, jungle-themed room!

Note: sweet books in German and adorable kitten

Target has these super cute mini box shelves (above changing table and between closet doors).  I highly recommend buying at least 3 for your house. 

The rest of our house turned out pretty well too.  Maybe I'll turn photographer this weekend and walk around taking awesome pictures of it since the next week will probably be the only time until we move out that it will be clean and organized.  It's on my "To Do List."

And as a final photo, here is me (in the baby's room--it's so cute I just want to live in there myself) almost ready to pop!

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Or for us, our last weekend of time to hang out together with no house to work on or baby to take care of...

Not that we're not thrilled with all the new changes coming up, it's just going to be different.


So I'm hijacking Bob's computer to post a post with pictures!!  All our stuff is scheduled to arrive a week from Monday, so hopefully after that, I can post more often.  Well, for a few weeks anyway...

Let me fill you in on life since returning to America with the following:

Finding a House:
-I looked at a bunch of condos/townhouses while here on my own
-I found one I liked and put an offer on it
-The offer was accepted... we almost have a house!!
-(Bob liked it when he got here)

The Kitties:
-Love having carpeting (no sliding on the hardwood into walls)
-Love chasing each other up and down the stairs

-Got a new kitty condo as a present for moving back overseas

-Like exploring and sleeping in the sun

Austin, Texas:
-we used to live there
-we went down for a week as soon as Bob got home to check out our condo
-we thought we were just packing up a few things a touching up some paint
-we ended up spending the entire weekend cleaning, scrubbing, steam cleaning and painting :(

-we saw a really cool owl

The Baby:

-I'm getting ginormous

-Found a good doctor and a good pediatrician

-Bought a ton of stuff for her

-Made my own crib sheets

-Just finished painting the mural for her room

This Weekend:

We have lots of plans to enjoy this weekend since next weekend we'll (hopefully) be in the house and have lots of projects to work on until the baby arrives!

Last night we went to the Saratoga Park to walk around.  It was also the evening of a Journey concert, so we ended up waiting in line just to get into the park and had to park at the golf course, which really didn't put us near the walking/jogging trails, BUT we did get to walk around a bit and hear Journey from afar.

Today we went apple picking.  I haven't been in YEARS!! and I was so excited to move to New York just to go apple picking.  This was the first weekend for apples in New York, so there weren't hay rides yet (one of my requirements for a good apple picking experience), but there were tasty apples, apple cider and hot donuts, so I was a pretty happy camper.

Here is the most recent picture of me... only one month left!!

This weekend is the last weekend of the races at the Saratoga Race Course, so there is live music downtown.  We'll go see a concert and go out to eat at a restaurant that isn't kid-friendly.

Tomorrow we're going to the races, playing mini-golf, relaxing by the pool, and anything else fun we can find to do.

Monday is supposed to be stormy, so we might check out the local YMCA, which looks pretty awesome.  Or we could sit around on the balcony at our apartment and watch thunder storms.  I love thunderstorms.

Hopefully next week will be full of closing on the condo, starting to move in and completing some projects!

Computer, how I miss you...

8 weeks left until we expect the baby to make her appearance, and to be honest, I'm kind of flipping out a little bit.  I was sick all week after taking a trip to Austin, TX to fix up our condo so we can rent it out.

Being the crazy person I am, I thought I would add a little more stress to my life by deciding to sew my own crib sheets and make homemade birth announcements.  AND I still have to finish (and probably start) the mural for the baby's room.  AND we still have to close on the house, do a couple DIY projects when we get in, and move all our stuff in.  ACK!!

I'm missing my computer because I can't post any pictures, it would be really handy to have it since my mural design is on there, I want to work on promoting the children's book, but I need to do some internet research, and of course, I can't post nearly as often.  I CAN get the internet on my iPod touch, which is nice for keeping in touch through e-mail, but doing much more than that on the teeny tiny screen is more than I can handle.  I applaud all you fantastic iPod and iPhone users... I just can't get the hang of it.  Maybe my fingers are too big??

Anyhow, I thought I would post something since I haven't posted in a while.  And hopefully I'll figure out a solution to this lack of computer/internet situation and can post some pictures soon!!

Home, Sweet Home... Almost

So after months of stressing about the overseas trip and temporary housing and house-hunting, I'm finally sort of settled in Saratoga, NY.

How'd it go? It was better than I thought. But then again, I was expecting the worst...

Plane Trip Overseas With Cats:
They were a lot better than they were on the way over. I think they actually slept, and even when they were awake, the noise of the plane drowned out the meowing. The only hitches? The mean-looking man across the aisle who was apparently a cat hater, and when one of the cats bit my mom (who was awesome enough to fly all the way across the ocean to help bring the cats back) through the carrier. Apparently animal bites are pretty painful, though that was a week ago and my mom is now fine.
I think I was more upset about being on the plane than the cats. I was uncomfortable and the baby kept sticking feet in my ribs and I had heartburn and my left leg swelled up so I looked like elephant woman.

Temporary housing:
Awesome. With air conditioning. But no computer or business center. Pardon my lack of posting, but the iPod is NOT a computer...

House-hunting:
Stressful. The second day here in Saratoga I looked at a lot of condos we had seen online, but nothing lived up to my expectations. The last place we looked at, which hadn't really been on our radar was perfect! Things moved super fast, bit we're on our way to having our perfect new family home!

Bob gets here Friday and I can't wait for him to see it.

While we wait to get in to the house, I'll be working on paintings and sheets and other projects for he nursery!

Q

The Effects of Construction...

by MissKris
Last week we saw a sign on the elevator door about something going on in our building.  This happens pretty frequently, and I usually stare at the sign, pick out a few words, note the dates and just assume what's going to happen.  Usually that works out alright for me.

Like the time I figured out electricity, meter, please be at home + date and time.  The meter reader came and all was good.

This time, however, I didn't do quite as good a job, and this is probably the one time I really needed as much time as possible to process the information in said sign so as not to lose my schnitzel.

I figured out construction, noise-intensive, sorry for the inconvenience + date.  This lead me to believe that Monday would be a day of loud construction noise.

If only I'd read a little further... Monday starts the day of loud construction noise, which will likely continue until the middle of August.  THANK GOD I'm leaving in 20 days.  So far it has been 3.2 days of construction noise and I'm ready to throw myself out the window.

Let me explain...

In Germany, the walls are built of reinforced concrete and brick.  This must be the most effective sounding board ever, because though the construction is two doors down, it sounds like it's right here in my apartment.  Pair that with our 6 story staircase (also concrete and brick) which acts as a giant megaphone (that's one of those cone things you yell through, right?) and you have the same noise but once right after each other and twice as loud.

This is NOT ordinary construction.

It begins at 6:30am.

If I had to be at work at 7:30, maybe this would be incentive to get out of bed.  But such is not the case.  Currently, I am pregnant and trying as hard as humanly possible to save up my sleep for after the baby comes (okay, I know it doesn't work that way, but let a woman dream!).  This means I get up in the morning and usually decide it's too early and go back to bed for a few hours.  Or maybe take a nap in the afternoon.

Not. Anymore.  Thank you construction men...

From now on I will be up at 6:30 and will not sleep again until nighttime.  For a normal person, this is probably fine, but I'm TRYING TO SAVE UP MY SLEEP!

In addition to the ungodly hours these men work, the noise is reminiscent of road construction.  No ordinary hammers, nails and drills here.  They're going all out with jackhammers and other vibrating power tools.  Plus some sort of industrial sized sledge-hammer that sounds like an army is about to pound through the wall of my kitchen.

I might be okay with the noise if it was constant.  Maybe I would get used to it.  Like the noise the refrigerator makes, or that weird humming you hear when you have a new electronic item and it bothers you for weeks until you figure out what it is, but then you forget about it.

But to add to the fact that I'm not a super huge fan of loud noises and I would probably be driven batty even if it was constant, IT ISN'T.

It's a BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz (the little z's are the echo) BZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz BZZzz BZz .....          ... BZz BZz BZz BZz BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz .....  ....  BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz.... BZZzz.  (approximate 5 minutes of jackhammer noise)

Seriously.  This.  Is.  Freaking.  Ridiculous.

If I were not a pregnant woman I would be driven to drink.

Wait.  I think it stopped.  Shh... don't let it know I know.  Maybe they're on break.  Maybe I can sneak in a 15 minute nap.  Or do the dishes in the kitchen without wearing earplugs.  Or think clearly without my thoughts being inter--- never mind...