A blog about babies: the babies I lost, the babies I never had, the baby who made me a Mama.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Big Projects, Busy Weekend; or The Nursery, Part 1

How were everyone's Memorial Day Weekends? Relaxing, enjoyable, and full of sunshine, I hope. Mine was definitely the latter two though not so much the first because we were BUSY.

Busy doing what? Going to the movies and dinner with friends and family. Cleaning up our roof deck in preparation for summer planting. Attending baseball games. Dropping off donations at a local thrift store. And, oh yeah, two big things: Starting a Registry (!) and Beginning to Prepare the Baby's Room (!!)

We went to Gi.ggle on Saturday afternoon to check out strollers and cribs. We wound up choosing a different stroller than I had anticipated walking in after we compared weight and ease of collapsibility, but we're both excited about it. And we started our first baby registry, stocking it with little clothes and toys and a few decorative items.

We didn't actually register for or purchase the stroller and crib yet. One will be a gift from my MIL. The other apparently only takes four weeks to be delivered and we are nowhere near ready emotionally or space-/planning-wise to be setting up baby furniture yet. But I'm glad we looked at a few options and made some decisions.

I have to confess that afterward, as we ate lunch in SoHo, I began to completely freak myself out about what we'd just done. Even though we hadn't actually bought anything, I still started to worry about jinxing things by registering before 24 weeks. Right now, that's the magical safe point in my mind, even though I know rationally that a) it's not all that safe and b) I have no compelling reason yet to worry about reaching it. Something about this month (weeks 20-24) is really amping up my stress and fear, though, and I'm over analyzing every cervical stab, weird back ache, and uterine twinge. I ran to the bathroom at the end of lunch to check my tp for spotting-- and it was clean, as it has been the entire pregnancy, despite my conviction that I'd felt myself bleeding.

My anxiety's calmed a little since then, though, so much so that Lawyer Guy and I were able to tackle our second big get-ready-for-Smudgie project of the weekend: clearing out his giant desk in preparation for selling or donating it. People, we uncovered some real crap during the process. I'm talking about receipts for $15 sushi lunches we had TEN YEARS AGO! Credit card bills from 1999 that somehow made the move to two different apartments. Tax returns from 1997. Actual credit cards that expired in 2008. Not to mention dozens of weekly, two page response papers from multiple English classes I took as an undergrad. Altogether, we collected two giant garbage bags of paper, old batteries, dry pens, and corroded rubber bands to chuck and made a neat little pile of important documents and useful office and stationery supplies to transition to the new, smaller desk we plan to get for the living room.

Which leaves Smudgie's (hopeful) future room looking like this:


Yeah, it's a not so impressive Before picture (and yes, Bella is a permanent fixture of this room and will be less than thrilled when "her bed" makes the trip to the big furniture warehouse in the sky). But we made a start, at least, which is something. Over the next month we'll dispose of all the furniture in there, find homes for the books and CDs and knickknacks that clutter up the place, and then we can begin the real work: renovating the closest, painting the walls, and putting up the window treatments.

We'll get it done in time, right? Don't answer that.

13 comments:

  1. Hooray for decorating! It sounds like such fun! I can't wait to decorate Penelope's first bedroom.

    And yeah, the TP checks? I'm STILL doing them. After 2 years of the habit, I find that it is hard to break! :)

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  2. Look at you and your rockstar weekend! I'm curious, what stroller did you settle on? I'm with you on the high-anxiety of actually doing things and wondering if an actual real, live baby will be there at the end of this...but, all signs point to yes, so we have to keep moving forward and trust that it is truly going to happen. Big hugs as you and LG continue to prepare for Smudgie's big debut.

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  3. Oh, you'll get it done. It's hard to get past that self-inflicted block of not wanting to do too much, too soon. Anxiety, blah...

    Congrats on getting started, though! Clearing out the clutter is a great thing.

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  4. WOOHOO!! At some point, we have to start acting like this is real, even if it feels like we're totally lying. Sounds like some good progress was made. Way to go, girlie. :)

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  5. Wow. Check out that...prog...ress?

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  6. Yay for Giggle! We registered there, too :)

    The purge feels so good, bit it is hard work! B and I went on a frenzy and got rid of some seriously old crap. Can't wait to hear and hopefully see the progress as it happens!

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  7. You are definitely making some progress. Slow and steady wins the race and you WILL make it to the finish line!!

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  8. So much exciting progress going on with you, Sloper! Happy 21 weeks, registry opening, room prepping!! Yea!!

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  9. OMG, how freaking embarrassing that i'm mentioned in that article!!! i'm sooo embarrassed.

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  10. It sounds like LG holds on to stuff like I do! :) DH is like "Throw it out!" every time things start building up. But it sounds like you're off to an awesome start! I can't wait to see how cute your nursery looks--and how awesome that you started a registry. That's a HUGE step, I know, but that means it's REAL :). xoxo

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  11. I think a start is wonderful - and it's going to be a great baby's room. Amazing the stuff we collect, isn't it? We're going through things for our move and even though we're not, er, collectors...it's still fairly stunning.

    It does feel like this runup to 24 weeks is tough. I've also had some fears of the so-close-yet-so-far variety. But you are very nearly there:)

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  12. Love Giggle, we registered there and BBB. :) I know what you mean about feeling SO WEIRD spending money and doing concrete things to prep for the baby. It's surreal and anxiety-inducing. But your little Smudgster is doing AWESOME and is a'coming so it's def time to start prepping. I'm proud of you and can't wait to see it all come together!! xoxo

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  13. Girl, you are so safely on your way to 24w and far beyond. I get the worries--we all do!--but try and remember that things continue to look great. And that Dr. W is a voodoo goddess. ;) xoxo

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