Introducing...

Emilie Helen!

I have a few minutes to post before we have to rouse our little angel for her next feed so I thought I would fill you all in our new arrival! She was born at 38.5wks after an induction (definitely more on that at a later date). I was induced last week on Saturday March 5th, which just happened to be my 32nd birthday, and she was born at 2:34pm on Sunday March 6th.

She is everything that we prayed for and more. Not to say that this parenting business is not hard, because man, it is HARD, but when she looks at us with those beautiful big eyes, and gives me a gassy little grin when I'm ready to burst into tears for the second time that day everything was worth it. All the dildo cam visits, the failed Clomid cycles, the tears, the injections, everything was worth it to be able to hold my little girl.

My only prayer is for those out there that are still struggling to not give up hope, and that your dreams will come true as well.

So here are a couple pictures of our little girl:

Emilie Helen
March 6th 2011 at 2:34pm
7lbs, 9ozs
approx 19 inches long (they didn't measure her in the hospital I did)

Peanut's room is almost complete!

My last blog entry showed some preliminary pictures of little Peanut's bedroom. Well since then we have been hard at work. My goal for the bedroom was to have the furniture in there, and all the newborn, 0-3month, and 3-6 month clothes washed and put away before our shower on February 5th. My mother and I also managed to get some art hung on the walls as well, so it's really starting to look like a nursery. I'm really happy with the final results!

Here are some pictures I snapped of the nursery just this past weekend.

The view from the doorway of the room.

The crib. We're doing the "bare" crib thing for now, with just a fitted sheet. I had to show off the blanket that my grandmother made though, so it's hanging on the back.

Storage in the corner of the room. A basket with bibs and other little things. Then our stash of cloth diapers to try out (more on that later), our collection of receiving blankets most made by my grandmother, then some of our blanket collection. We have so many.



The change station. We're starting with disposable diapers, so the basket is stocked and ready to go.



What has to be the oldest item in the room. This picture was made by my great-grandmother Helen for my youngest sister Lise at least 20 years ago. Now it hangs above the dresser. It will be a little reminder of Peanut's namesake since her middle name will be Helen.



Right now we're still deciding on what we're going to put above the crib. We think we may have decided on something from the Uppercase Living Catalogue though. My parents have decided to buy us a glider for the nursery, so as soon as that arrives the crib will move down that wall farther from the window and we can then hang something on the wall. Until then we're just waiting on Peanut!





Peanut has a bedroom!

Right after Christmas we started with the big Peanut related purchasing. Andre's parents had been very generous with us this year starting with a cash gift for our Anniversary in September, and then another cash gift this Christmas. We decided that instead of using the money for something for the house, we would put it towards Peanut. So Boxing Day we actually went shopping and picked up the crib (Graco's Lauren crib), and then the following weekend we went out and purchased the dresser at The Brick.

The day the dresser arrived mother nature decided to co-operate with us (in a way) and start snowing, so what better way to spend the day then huddled up at home assembling a crib?! I have to say that I am so proud of Andre and I. We have a horrible track record of bitching and moaning while assembling furniture, but we were so great assembling this crib. Not one curse or negative word was uttered. We worked so well together!

We haven't finished the nursery completely, but we have a pretty good start I think. The only piece of furniture that we still have yet to put in the room is a glider. My mother has decided that she is going to purchase this for us.

Here is a before of the room after clearing everything out, and then a couple pictures of our furniture, before we cleared recycled all that cardboard (oh the cardboard!!):

We haven't put any bedding in the crib since we have a cat, and we didn't know what Mikey was going to do with the crib in the house. Thankfully he hasn't figured out how to jump into the crib, but that might change once there is a glider right next to it. We have some artwork for the walls, but I need to get some picture hooks first, and figure out exactly where we want the crib to go on the one wall. I think for safety reasons we might end up putting the glider in that corner and moving the crib farther along the wall towards the closet, who knows.

We still have 6-8 weeks to make those final decisions, and get a ceiling fan hung (sitting in the box next to the dresser), and purchase a blind for the room, and decide once and for all if we're keeping the current drapes. At least for now Peanut has a room, and a dresser full of clothes already, and we haven't even had a shower yet!

Making room for Baby M

It's funny how well people know us, either from real life, this blog, or a combination of the two. When we announced on Facebook that we were pregnant, one of my friends commented that this must mean some more home renovations. Boy did she call it.

The plans for making room for Peanut included the following:
-removing the hideous wet bar in the basement
-capping all the completely unnecessary plumbing that was included with said wet bar
-scraping all the "popcorn" texture that was on the wall in this area (yes you read that correctly)
-repairing the walls, then priming, and finally painting the walls
-finding a suitable floor covering for the bare cement floor that the space the office would occupy
-finally move all the office furniture that is in the office on the 2nd floor down to the basement

There were days that this list would stress me out to no end. It just seemed like so much to do in our limited amount of free time (ie weekends). So we did what anyone in our situation would do. We asked for help. Mainly for the things that we just didn't have the knowledge to do which was the plumbing, and for the things that I just couldn't physically help with, which was the demolition.

We started the project in October with the demolition of the wet bar. To remind you all of the tackiness that was the bar here is a picture:

It's not the best picture, but the only one I have on this computer. It was the mid 1970's at it's best. We never used it. The only one in the house that regularly used this space is in the picture lounging around. So I asked my friend Pam if she could help us with demolition. She used to work for her uncle's construction company before becoming at SAHM, so she gladly came over and showed that bar who was boss.

 Here was what was left after she was finished:

She took out all of the bar that was not tied up with the plumbing. For that we had someone else come in to help. This is just a part of the garbage that we had to haul to the dump.

Then my friend Heather's husband Dave came in to fix one of the light switches that was not working in the basement, and cap all the plumbing for us. He also took out what was left with the bar. Once he was done this is what we were left with:

The mess on the wall is what happens when stupid old owners decide to glue plastic backing for glass shelving on the walls. In short you end up peeling part of the drywall off the wall. Major pain-in-the-ass!

And this is how the space just kind of sat pretty much until December when I decided that if we were going to finish the space the week after Christmas I really should get my butt in gear and scrape off that stupid popcorn texture, and repair the walls. Now for anyone who has read how to remove this texture which is typically on ceilings and not walls, you are suppose to spray with water, let sit for a few minutes then scrape off. Hahahahahahahaha. They make it sound so easy. What they don't tell you is that this does not work some of the time, ie. our basement. In short we were left with a freaking mess. A freaking mess that I spent hours trying to smooth out afterwards. It would have been easier to just have someone come in and re-drywall the space, but honestly, we were on a shoe string reno budget and that just was not going to happen.

So after hours of filling, drying, sanding, filling, drying, sanding, the walls were finally ready to prime and paint. This was a breeze compared to the prep work required. To go with our shoe string budget we opted for Rona's low VOC recycled paint. At about $15/gallon, we honestly couldn't go wrong. Friends of ours had used it and had been happy with their results, so we decided to go for it. They don't have a huge selection of colours, but in the end we're happy with the finished product. So here is the area right after paint:

For the floor we measured and thank goodness the area rug that was currently in our guestroom was just a touch too big, so we rolled the excess carpet along the wall where the desk would go, and voila! We have flooring. The best part is that is was neutral as well, so it all kind of ended up going together really well. We still need to go through the crap that is on those shelves so I can use them for scrap booking materials, but for now, it's okay.

Then came the fun, er, hard part, hauling all the contents from our office which is on the second floor all the way down to the basement. Thankfully Andre is amazing, and quite the trooper and did most of the grunt work. Aside from walking the really light stuff down stairs I really didn't do too much aside from walking up and down stairs.

We still don't have everything down from the office, and are going to need some help to haul the really heavy fire-proof filing cabinet down to the basement, but for now you can see that we have a functioning office at least:

So now at least the hard part is done. Now we can tackle the nursery!

The big update!

Everytime I logged on to Google Reader, or even just went on Facebook for that matter, the thought would run through my head about how it had been a long time since I had blogged. Then I would immediately become distracted, or the thought would just disappear from my head all together (gotta love placenta brain) and then I would go on my merry way again. Then I actually checked when my last entry was yesterday. Wow, it's been a looooong time.

There's been a lot going on, but at the same time not very much to warrant an exciting blog entry you know? Andre and I have been busy with work, and preparing for the holidays, and for little Peanut. The belly continues to get bigger, as does Peanut. She is moving more and more, and is currently having a love affair with my right side. My right ribcage to be exact. Her little head is there as I type. I continue to check my blood sugar multiple times a day, as well as injecting myself with Insulin daily right before bedtime. I'm being monitored very closely, and both Peanut and I are very healthy. As a nice little bonus with the reduced carb diet I have lost around 12-15 pounds. I'm too lazy to actually figure out the exact number. Don't be worried though, I continue to meet with my dietitian (and midwife, and OB, and diabetic nurse, and Endocrinologist...) and along with eating a balanced diet, both Peanut and I are both very healthy.

Preparation for Peanut was pretty much on hold over the month of December. With work, and Christmas shopping, and all that jazz, we were both just too overwhelmed to add one more thing to the mix. This week since both of us were on vacation things have shifted into high gear and preparations have once again begun. Among the necessary minor renovations to free up the smallest spare room to make room for a nursery, we finally purchased the crib, crib mattress, and car seat. Thanks to some very generous family, friends, and clients of mine Peanut also has quite the collection of new and gently used clothes. She will be quite the stylin' little girl! I've also started to purchase a little stash of cloth diapers to try out as well, but I will save this for another post!

As a reward for all of you faithful readers that will read this entry, I will finish off this post with our latest ultrasound picture of Peanut from December 20th at 28wks, and a belly picture of me from December 24th at 28wks.