Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[HOUMedGal]

Ahhh, I love reading the updates from everyone!! So glad everyone is doing so well!!


YAAAAAY Bliss and LV - welcome to Team Pink!!! We've got lots of girls coming from the group of us that are fairly close together!! It is SO much fun daydreaming about girly stuff...I caved and went ahead and bought the cutest little dress the other day. It was on sale, and I figure I'm her momma, and thus allowed to buy her cute things whenever I please. Hehe!

And Lynnie - congrats on your sweet little boy!!! I LOVE the pics you posted...soooo precious!!

Noel, I haven't posted my nursery stuff yet, but I will soon....we don't have furniture yet, but we did get some super cute fabric (yes, I'm going to sew the crib skirt and a window topper, as well as some pillows probably) and then after picking out the fabric, managed to find a fuzzy blanket, receiving blankets, and crib sheets on sale at Carter's that match the fabric we picked PERFECTLY. It's super cute...mostly pink and green, with a little brown. I promise to post pics in the nursery thread soon!

I feel bad for not being able to write a longer post to everyone, but I gotta go rest. Busy rotation right now (but fun...level 2 nursery, all babies all the time, hehe!) so I'm pretty tired. The little one and I are doing well....just looking forward to our next scan (2 weeks and a few days from now) so I can see her again! We're 16 weeks along tomorrow. I check her with my doppler from time to time - it's so much fun to hear her movement! I am just starting to maybe feel some flutters, but when I listen with the doppler, it's patently obvious that she's squirming around all over the place! I love it!!

LOVE the updates, and LOVE the bellies!! You guys are awesome! Keep up the fantastic work, pretty mamas!!

 

[snlee]

LV and Bliss, Congrats on a girl! Looks like there's a baby girl boom on PS again!

I'm hanging in there on bedrest at 31 weeks. Can't believe it's been 6 weeks of bedrest already. I have my weekly NST tomorrow. I haven't left the house in a week so I'm pretty excited but I am hoping nothing interesting happens. I've been having some scares...painful contractions every 4-5 mins. They seem to pick up at night. I'm feeling better now that I'm closer to 34-35 weeks. Just need to keep her in for another few more weeks!

 

[noelwr]

for icekid - my anatomy scan photos were not as great as the ones at 17 weeks. here she is at the end of the scan, saluting the u/s technician good-bye because she had enough of being prodded and jiggled. the other one is of her leg and foot.

 

[noelwr]

21w6d

yay, so happy Team Pink is getting new members!

so does anyone else find it strange to be sitting on the toilet having a bowel movement and at the same time being kicked from the inside??? I find it oddly disturbing. DH says she's just trying to help.

tomorrow we're going to check out nursery furniture at a shop called Baby-Dump. yes, obviously the person who named this company does not speak English.

and here I am one day short of 22 weeks. I need to speak to the guy who cleans my house. he obviously forgot the mirror this week.

 

[Lynnie]

Hi ladies!!!
Geez, I feel like I've been AWOL for a while... so much news since I last posted here!!! Dang work/real life for keeping me away from all of you!

I'm gonna try to catch up with you all, going as far back as PS will let me...

Cara... 34 weeks!! Congrats on your shower! Hand me downs are definitely a plus! I just got two huge bags of clothes from one of my girlfriends. Oh, man, do I hear you on the naming aspect. Boy names are so hard! I do like Julian, though

Noel... You look great!!! I can't wait til my belly is past my boobs. My camera's charging now, so I'll post a pic. But you and Laila are definitely belly twins! ETA Ooooh just saw your u/s pic!!! Awesome! Haha @ the Baby Dump!

LV - Congrats on a beautiful girl!!!!!!!!!!!! So exciting!!!!!!!!

Bliss!! COngrats to you on team pink too!!!!!!!! I guess Michael is out, then?? Any names yet?

LV and Bliss... just curious... were your Chinese predictions right? Mine was.

HH... You look great!! Love the frontal!

Cat... Lookin good, mama!! You're long and lean! Your belly will have no where to go but OUT! So you're in the 2nd tri!!!!!!! YAY!!

snlee... That's right, keep that babe cookin! I'm sorry about your painful contractions, though. 6 more weeks til full term! I just know you'll keep her in there!

Lanie, I think you asked if our little boy resembles either of us... I have no idea. DH swears he looks just like him, though! I'm so excited to see what he'll look like. DH has brown hair now, but was blonde as a child. So I may very well have a little blonde boy... which is kinda odd to me, given both DH and I have dark hair. We shall see, though, right?

Icekid! How's the nausea? Has it finally subsided?? You look fantastic!!

Hou... I am SO jealous that you can sew!!!!!!!!! I've been searching and searching for a crib set that isn't babyish (like, pastel blue or pastel green). I want something like a bright teal, or even a bright blue... I'd even like a bright red... plain, or striped. No animals or cowboys or clouds. (I'm so not meaning to offend anyone... I've just had this 'vision' that is seemingly impossible to obtain!). I figured we'd paint the room neutral, and do the curtains/crib skirt/wall art in a bright color, so it'd be easy to just switch out the accessories if the next one is a girl. But gah... so we may be falling back on a Winnie the Pooh theme.

Laila - I can't see your last post, but you look great, too!!!!!!! Such a cute belly!!!!!!!


As for me...
So one of my co-workers has a 4 year old, and she offered me her crib. DH and I go to her house to check it out. It's beautiful - solid looking, in a natural wood color. It cost her $500 at BRU 4 years ago. She co-slept with her daughter, and said the crib was barely used, and it really does look brand new. I really was so excited, and grateful - and my coworker wouldn't take any money for it, either. So we brought it home.
Of course, the first thing I did was look it up for recalls. And, just my luck, it had been recalled in '07. It's a drop-side, and as of '07 there were 6 injuries to children (no deaths) and 104 instances of the drop-side dropping unexpectedly (170,000 cribs in total recalled). The website says they'll provide a kit that you can install to make the drop-side fixed, so it won't move at all. And the kit has been approved by the CPSC.
So, I guess this is a WWYD kinda question. I mean, it's a beautiful, free piece of furniture. DH is handy, and I'm sure if the kit is CPSC approved, it's fine. And I wonder, since less than half a percent of 170K cribs had incidents, maybe those cribs weren't put together properly to begin with??
But, I'm still nervous... thoughts?? I keep going back and forth on it. I've ordered the kit. We probably won't be getting around to putting the crib back together for another month or so (gotta paint first).


Oh, thank you all on my team blue congrats!! I'll post a BPF later!!!

 

[Lanie]

Lynnie -- I have a hand me down crib from a coworker as well. It is a drop side, but we have the kit to make it stable. I think it's fine...I personally was a little weird about it until I started talking to other moms who are using their cribs from older children for their LO's that are coming up. I really think it was a thing where one or 2 kids out of millions got trapped or whatever the case is. I love my crib...it's beautiful, and I might get some slack from people, but I think it will be fine. We will have a monitor, so hopefully that will calm my fears if they creep up!

Also, I was in the same position as you regarding bedding. I wanted something fun and bright and not "baby", and there are a lot of options out there. This is what I ended up choosing, but I don't like the sheet, so I'm going to have my mom make me a bright blue polka dot sheet to contrast the stripes. I also don't like the comforter, but I only paid 60 bucks, so I don't really care. http://www.target.com/Sumersault-Baby-J ... em-display There are a lot of cheap options at Target that are SO CUTE. There's some cute stuff on sale at Land of Nod and PB Kids. I consider myself a guru of child bedding bc I researched the hee-haw out of it trying to find stuff. My personal thing was that I didn't want brown in my bedding, which is hard these days! Oh and bananafish has a lot of cute things too. Post what you end up finding!!!

Noel -- love the pics!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

*sigh* five and a half weeks to go until my EDD and I just NOW had my HR meeting to discuss maternity leave. I went in with a plan, all of the days I was entitled to written into a calendar and the woman basically threw it out of the window (for good reason).

Reason #1: I roll into my second employment year on 10/5, so I miss the FMLA eligibility *according to my interpretation** by 10 business days, so I've been anticipating an 8 week leave. She thinks that because I will be on leave when I roll into the new year I might be eligible for 12 weeks. I'm waiting on confirmation, but not holding my breath.

Reason #2: I was under the impression I got 6 sick days a year until year 5. Apparently you get six MORE sick days every year up until year five, so they compound and I get 12 sick days to use towards leave. YAY!

Reason #3: I was under the impression that our STD policy covered 6 weeks following a vaginal birth and 8 weeks following a c/s, but didn't start paying out until 4 weeks into the disability. So in the end you realize only 2 weeks or 4 weeks of STD payments. She said that we administer our own plan (we don't go through an outside company) and we don't discriminate by the type of disability. Our plan is we're receive the benefit for 30 days starting on the 31st day of disability. So after the waiting period we get 4 weeks at 66 3/4 pay. YAY!

So it looks like if I'm only eligible for 8 weeks of leave, between the 2010 time I have to use before 10/5, STD and sick time, I won't have to use ANY 2011 vacation time! If I'm eligible for 12 weeks I'll have to use some but not all of my vacation time from 2011. It's a win-win.

So now I have to go back and revise my plan/calendar based on the new days I have available to use

 

[Bella_mezzo]

YAY HH for the good news from HR and...


YAY FOR TEAM PINK! BBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS! You are going to be such a great mommy to your little girl! I just knew it! All along I knew it would be a girl

 

[blushingbride]

Congrats to LV and Bliss!!! TEAM PINK!!!! Very exciting!!!

Snlee - hang in there girly - not much longer to go and I'm hot on your trail!!!

Well, I'm 30 weeks and plugging along! 30 week pic below - now you ladies can't tell me at this point that I don't look like I'm carrying twins because I fee like I am! I'm definitely getting bigger by the day!

I also had my baby shower last weekend and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! My sister and sister-in-laws hosted it for me at a popular restaurant in downtown Manhattan located right on the Hudson. They weather couldn't have been more perfect and it was truly a special day with my friends and family. I posted some pics below so you can see. I don't feel comfortable having my face on here so, unfortunately no pics of my face, but you get the idea.

 

[blushingbride]

Here we are setting up before the shower. You can see me in the blue dress (can't miss the twin belly)!

 

[blushingbride]

It was a beautiful space for a baby shower - here's another shot pre-shower.

 

[blushingbride]

Here's a shot of the amazing cake my DH's father made for us - our theme for the shower was the two onesies and the colors were green and white (our invites were the same). My sister made bird houses as center pieces for each table (trying to stick to a summer theme as well). I also made a seating chart which we placed in a silver frame next to a guest book for guests to sign as they walked in.

 

[blushingbride]

This was our view from the terrace which wrapped around the room we had for the shower. Love NY!!!!

 

[blushingbride]

Here's a shot of one of the table settings. Another bird house made by my sis (she made about 7 different ones). We also had baby pics of DH and I at each table, along with a onesie cookie (which said It's Twins! in icing) and lemonade packs with whisks (which said, "Nothing is Sweeter than Twins" w/ a onesie graphic). You also can't see it here, but we had white roses behind the bird houses at each table as well. It all looked so pretty!!!!

 

[cara]

OH BB your shower looks so beautiful! And that is quite a belly you've got there! I've got one myself but with the just one and another month on yours. You look great!

Congrats on the GIRLS ladies! Slightly jealous I am... just a hint!

Lynnie, I'd just nail that drop side shut! Since you have the crib and all. I didn't want the hassle of dealing with not-new stuff, but future children will have to deal with used! Really if you make sure it is securely fixed I don't think its an issue. Especially if it is a solid piece of furniture with a solid fix rather than some wobbly thing made of particle board.

Thanks for the comments on the furniture, all! icekid, what furniture set did you get?

 

[Lanie]

BB -- what a classy shower! I love the beautiful pictures and that CAKE!!! I don't think you look big either...I love your belly. How special that you are housing 2 babies!!!

Bliss -- I forgot to say on my other post congrats on Team Pink! We need little girlfriends for all of the boys we have, so this rounds us out more!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Blushing - your shower was so beautiful!! I LOVE the birdhouses! And your twin belly looks beautiful too.

Hudson - YAY for the good news re: your maternity leave!!! That's super great!!

Lanie - I love the bedding you chose - adorable! I think I would have gone with an animal theme if I was trying to go boy or neutral.

Lynnie - I say use the crib!! Install the kit to fix the dropside, and you're good to go!! How fantastic that you will have a beautiful, barely used crib for FREE!!

Noel - I'm loving the belly! And the cute anatomy scan pics! And I'm LOL'ing at Baby Dump. HA! I hope you find some good stuff despite the unsavory name of the place.

Snlee, glad you're hanging in there!!! Don't stress too much, at this point, you're getting really close to a good safe zone. All the 34-35 weekers we've had in the nursery lately have gone home after a pretty uneventful week or so in the nursery. Good luck at your NST!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm 16 weeks today!! For today's BPF (and your viewing pleasure, LOL), I made a little comparison (in the same outfit) of my 8 week pic and today's 16 week pic. The belly is definitely presenting itself! I must admit, I'm a bit jealous of you ladies with cute round bumps....hopefully mine will look similar soon!

 

[geri]

Noel, LV, Houie and Bliss - Wow, I can't believe you are all having girls! How exciting. I'm so jealous. We have to wait another 2 or 3 weeks to find out. Given all the girls on here, I suspect we will be team blue but I was sure Bliss was going to be team blue so what would I know?!

Cute bellies Noel and Houie. I'll have to take another pic soon but I definitely have a little belly now at just short of 15 weeks. It just seemed to happen very quickly and I need to do some clothes shopping asap!

 

[fieryred33143]

Welcome to Team Pink LV and Bliss

You're going to love being a mom to a little girl

 

[dani13]

Congrats on girls LV & BLiss!!! How wonderful!!!

BB- you look WONDERFUL!!! Look at that belly!! You're pics from your shower are so lovely (may I ask where it was at)? Love the view!!!!! I hope you got lots of great things!!! Keep it up, girl!!!

 

[CatLuver]

LV, congrats on your baby girl!!! So wonderful that everything looked good, too! That’s great news that your risk kept decreasing. Hopefully it’s usually that way and not the other way around.

Bliss, yay for team pink!! So exciting!!! I can only imagine how happy you must be. You’ll be a great mommy to a little girl! I admire your convictions re: not working – I’m not quite there yet but I already feel like once I lay eyes on my baby, everything else will feel so trivial, including work – despite all the time and hard work I’ve put into it. Thanks for your nice words. My boobs are already huge to me, but they were small to begin with, so they don’t seem big to anyone except me (and DH). I don’t do yoga or pilates regularly; I used to do ballet pretty seriously as a pre-teen which built up my lower body muscles a lot, and they’re still around even when I don’t exercise much. I haven’t been to the gym since 6 weeks but I used to do minimal cardio and weights. Care to post a pic of your new baby belly?

Icekid, being short I think our ribs will be getting kicked a lot! Hope you get to see your baby at work DH has an US machine in his new clinic, but he has no idea how to use it.

Hou, I’m envious that you’re so crafty. I would love to be, but I already have a history of unfinished or failed projects…jewelry making, sewing, gardening…Glad everything is going well.

Lynnie, re: your crib Q – I think it should be ok as long as you make sure the side is absolutely fixed. But, just for anyone who is interested I came across this article on the upcoming ban on: drop side cribs a couple days ago: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies ... 2_CV_N.htm

BB, your shower looks so nice.

 

[noelwr]

we went to the not-so-smartly named Baby-Dump shop yesterday and spent a fortune on furniture, the stroller and the Isofix car thing. at least, we got a free car seat and a free box (here we call "box" the thing that looks like a crib but you actually put in your living room for your baby to hang out/sleep in during the day). see pics below.

Blushing - your baby shower looks nicer than my wedding! did your FIL *make* that cake??? amazing.

HOU - your belly's looking so cute. by the way, I wanted to ask regarding your jack & jill test... how do they do that? do they use YOUR blood from your NT scan?

geri - how is married life? pregnancy kind of takes over your life, so we almost forgot about our anniversary in 2 weeks.

Lanie - I'm a little sad SYTYCD is finished. I thought this season was great with highly skilled dancers. Alex is still my favorite, but out of the last 3 that were left, I thought they all deserved it. for being so young, they were all hard-workers, grateful and so modest. how cute was the 7-yr old tapper?

and here's what we bought yesterday. the Stokke stroller with carry cot (0-6 mths) and seat (until about 4 yrs). I like that it's high so you don't have to bend over so much and can even be used as high chair. you can also face the seat towards or away from you. the Stokke crib converts to a bed until 3 yrs old and you can buy additional parts for up to 7 yrs. the changing table can be converted to a desk later, though we didn't buy the desk shelf.

 

[Mara]

yay CONGRATS to all of you having girls!! last year it was a BOY wave so it's good to see some ladies making their entrance soon!

re: the stokke crib... i looked at it but the price tag totally put me off of the products...however my friend has it and LOVES it..she has a very small house and a shared room with a 4 year old boy so it works great for them--they just rolled it around to wherever they'd need it. perfect for small spaces.

re: drop sides, i was not a fan in general but if you have an older crib, just have it inspected (or you do it) to make sure it's still safe. also that the slats are not too far apart, etc etc.

noel...the box sounds kind of like a 'pack n play' or a playpen?

BB...you look fabulous and amazing shower. i cannot believe you are 30 weeks already!!!

 

[curlygirl]

Congrats to all the team pink mamas!

BB, was that Bridgewaters? What a gorgeous, elegant shower. You look fantastic! Can't wait to meet your twins!!!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

So as of tomorrow I will be 35 weeks with 35 days to go. I feel like if I say 35 weeks it's longer than saying 35 DAYS!!! That just makes my head spin. I guess I'm really and truly in the home stretch, but I just don't 'feel' like I'm that pregnant or ready.

 

[Loves Vintage]

HH, Wow, only 35 days to go! You've mentioned that you haven't felt ready or that time was passing too quickly before. Do you think that there are things you can do to help you feel ready, or is it basically that you will NEVER feel ready no matter how prepared you are? Do the birthing classes help?

I felt a bit panicked this weekend when I went in a Carter's store. YIKES! I felt the next 18 years of my life pass before my eyes! I promptly left the store and went into the pet supply store across the way -- ahh, pet stores -- so comfy and knowable!! But, seriously, I saw this very cute thing at Carter's, like one of those sleeping bag with arms things. It was white and had a "furry material" on the outside, buttoned right up to the neck. Cute as can be, right? I'm like my baby could die in that thing!!! Won't she get too hot?? Do babies actually wear those? And, then just racks and racks of crazy cute clothing. I HAD to GET OUT!! I don't mind shopping for furniture or my constant CL pursuits, but for some reason, all of that clothing . . . I don't know, but Yikes!

Noel, Love that Stokke crib! I didn't realize that they were adjustable into different sizes. The infant size is just toooooo cute! It must feel great to have a bunch of big items to check off the list. Did you get bedding too?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

LV- It's crazy because I feel like at this point I should physically feel ready, but I don't. And I don't really feel mentally ready either. But it's a different kind of not ready. Earlier on it was like I wanted to hit the rewind button and get myself out of being pregnant because I questioned whether I was ready. Now I just have a hard time imagining that in 36 days more or less I could be holding Aidan. I don't think many people ever feel mentally/emotionally ready. Sure they might be DONE with being pregnant but that's usually a result of the pain and lack of sleep. Knock-on-wood I'm not having any of that. Not that I'm wishing for it either, I just feel so good it's like I could keep going and let this little one bake to the point of being extra tasty crispy.

Birthing classes help a bit I guess, but it's sort of surreal. For one, we're the second latest due date. I remember feeling like we were late signing up, we won't complete them until 37 weeks, but there are others in the class who are a few weeks ahead of us so they'll be right up against 40 weeks when they're done. One woman looks like she could squat, grunt, and pop out her kid at any moment. She's huge and is so low. But again, you're there learning this stuff (last week we focused on medical interventions and pain meds), but it's hard to imagine being in the position to be experiencing those things or making decisions relating to them. I guess I can compare it to when you're trained in a new job and they make you sit through hours of classes and observations but you don't actually "get it" until you're actively doing the job for yourself.

 

[Loves Vintage]

HH, I see what you mean, and I'm sure I'll be there soon enough too. I met a mom of three this weekend, and she said that we'll basically be like, "what am I doing???" until like 6 weeks into it, and then you're like, "ok, we're actually doing it now, it's ok!" That makes sense to me. Same as your new job analogy, really. So funny about your birthing classes! I have no idea why people wait so late. My husband wanted me to sign us up for a class this month, which actually didn't sound like a bad idea to me, except it's on Thursday nights , and I want to hold out for a weekend class. Seems much more manageable. I have to see if they offer any parenting classes, because really, I have no idea!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Re: timing of classes. We didn't really have a choice for when we could do the classes. Basically we filled out paperwork and provided our due date and schedule preference (once a week for 5 weeks, 2 Saturdays, etc) then they scheduled us into an available class. I suppose they might group people together who are close in due date, but we signed up around 27 weeks and didn't start our classes until 31-32 weeks. We went with the one night a week for five weeks class because this is our first and we wanted to have a relaxed experience vs trying to cram everything into one or two days. We also live in a town where we don't know many people so being in class with the same couples for 5 weeks provides an opportunity to get to know people and make friends.

I still need to sign up for CPR and breastfeeding.

 

[noelwr]

22w2dh

HH - extra tasty crispy...hehehe. ooh, 35 days is just around the corner! I feel ready for our daughter to be here as I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from her. I haven't done much reading on parenting; I figure I'll learn it on the job. however, I am no where near ready for giving birth. I am trying to put off thinking about that until we start the classes in October.

Mara - thanks for letting me know what your friend thinks of the crib, as I don't know anyone else who has it. then again, I haven't really asked or done much comparison shopping. I saw it and liked the rebuild feature and figured why not just get the stroller of the same brand. the free car seat was a bonus so we didn't have to go find out all about that either. anyway, I'm glad you say that the crib is easy to roll from room to room as we also have limited space and living in an apartment, we can just roll her into the bedroom!

LV - I got the mattress covers (one pink, one white) as they are oval shaped and the bumper and canopy thing for over the bassinet. they said we could just use regular sheets and blankets and tuck it in underneath, so we will do that, especially as my mom has knitted a blanket.