21+1 weeks

This was QUITE a week.

I turned 36 years old on Tuesday. I always take my birthday off from work and this year was no different. I love to take the day entirely to myself, with no obligations at all. Tuesday's goal was to create a baby registry, since my baby showers are happening in the middle to end of September. I got that accomplished, which was a great relief. 

Hubby and I had no registries for our wedding. We'd been living together quite some time already and didn't like the idea of "stuff" - so we asked guests to make a donation to a charity and tell us about it. We learned the hard way that people don't like to do things out of the ordinary.

This time around, even though we live together, we have almost nothing baby related. So we are taking advantage of the baby registry idea to get the items that we need. But it was causing me some stress that I hadn't started the process. On Tuesday, I spent about 4 hours and got the job DONE. It felt good.

Tuesday was also the day I made a Facebook announcement. Some friends had accidentally dropped lines on my page (that I asked them to delete) about me being pregnant. And last weekend, after a lovely outdoor concert, a friend posted pictures of me - looking pregnant. I untagged myself.

It was really important to me that any FB announcement paid homage to the difficult journey it took us to get here. So that no other infertile, upon seeing my announcement, would assume it came easily and get sad. I hated the idea of someone else wanting to throw her computer or break something else because of our news. So I made clear reference to the length of time, amount of losses, and need for medical intervention. The response was overwhelming - over 100 actual comments and over 200 likes. Then I got personal messages from people offering their support and love. It was a very special day.

I'm feeling great, but for a few minor problems.

Symptoms:

--- FEET HURT SO MUCH
--- heartburn kicked in this week
--- I am needing to eat more regularly or else I hit a wall fast and need desperate intervention

The projects I told you about last week all got done:

--- driveway refinishing - check
--- touch-up painting - check
--- blinds cleaning - check
--- window and screen cleaning - check

This week was HECTIC around the house and it exhausted me. We were supposed to be camping this weekend with friends - plans we've had many weeks. We left home with the car packed around 7pm on Friday night and got about 90 minutes into the 2 1/2 hour drive before I told hubby I had to turn around. I couldn't get comfortable in the car and was really anxious about not being comfortable all weekend. In the tent, on the camping chairs, anywhere. I have to go into work on Sunday to finish up some projects and the idea of getting home tired, only to go into work, and then to work hard Monday and Tuesday before my mother arrives, then to take a one week vacation (leaving home, meaning I have to pack stuff up), was just too much for me. I needed to go home and have this weekend at home.

So around we turned. I slept on the trip home, which only took about an hour because there was no traffic by then, and crawled into bed right away. I slept better than I've slept in weeks. Woke up Saturday around 8, walked the dog, then got back into bed and slept another 90 minutes.

Once we were both up, today was a busy project day.

We went to REI to choose a running stroller. Hubby is a big runner and the idea of him being able to take the girls running (i.e. him getting a break running and me getting a break from them) sounds delightful to us both. We chose a BOB running stroller, which my mother has asked to buy us.

Then we went to some local furniture stores. Hubby has sanded and refinished our bedroom furniture - it was his uncle's in the 60s and now we are making it into the girls' bedroom furniture. Which means we treated ourselves to new bedroom furniture. We have been searching for a few weeks but today we found some "Made in Oregon" in our pricerange and we ordered it. Should be here in about 3 weeks, which excites us, because we have hubby's guy friends coming over on August 24 to help move all the furniture in the house around.

Here's a photo of hubby doing the final staining:

Finally, we found a braided rug to go on the floor of the nursery - ordered that.

Hubby's mom and step-dad have asked to buy us our cribs, so we did some online searching for that. They're visiting next weekend so we'll go shopping with them when they're here.

On the baby bump front, I am still growing. In fact, one of the local furniture stores we were in today, the guy looked at me and said "you don't have 8 weeks left, do you?" when we were discussing how long the rocker would take to come in. I look much bigger than someone pregnant at 21 weeks with a singleton. It's pretty fun, actually, although I am slightly mortified and freaked out about HOW big my belly will get! For now, though, here's my belly (taken at 21+1 because we were rushing at 21 exactly to get our houseguest to the train station):