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Maternity & Parenting Center

Mommy Preparedness Party

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Well, today was our “Mommy Preparedness Party”! For those of you currently wearing a puzzled expression and trying to figure out what the hell a “Mommy Preparedness Party” is, it was our attempt to do something baby-shower like without calling it a baby shower. In the Jewish tradition, there are many superstitions around babies (and celebrating babies and birth prior to the actual event), so most people still do not have baby showers. They wait for the bris or the baby naming after the baby is born. However, in recent years, baby showers are growing more common among Jewish circles. We debated for a long time about whether we should do anything. Elliot was very disinclined to have a shower, and I was on the fence. After I ended up in the hospital at 28 weeks, I panicked about not having anything for the baby. So, we decided that if we didn’t call it a shower, and if we didn’t bring any of the gifts into our home until after the baby was born, we thought we were okay with the whole idea.

Elliot, however, strongly objected to calling it a shower. So, my mom and Heather put on the “not-a-shower” today (and my friend Niki made party favors for everyone) and it was wonderful! We only invited a small group of our closest friends/family because we did not want to make anyone uncomfortable. It was great to see everyone, and I had a lot of fun. It was so exciting to actually be looking at and touching baby stuff, and we got a lot of wonderful gifts to start us out. They also requested that everyone bring their favorite baby book as part of the gift, so we now have a wonderful collection of books, too! I’m so excited to actually have things for the baby now! My mom made a gorgeous afghan and a sweater and 2 hats for him. We won’t bring anything in the house yet, but it is nice to know that we have access to the things we might need at my parents’ house.

In other news, we also got a call yesterday that our baby furniture is in! I’m shocked – I really didn’t think we’d be getting it before the baby arrived (since we ordered it so late), so it is a relief that we can have it at any time. The only thing that isn’t in yet is our glider, and the store will give us a loaner until it comes in, if we want it. Elliot isn’t sure if he wants to get any of the furniture delivered before the baby arrives, so we’ll see what we decide to do. At least now we know my Dad could arrange for delivery while I’m in the hospital if that is what we decide to do.

We have couches!

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Well, we now have furniture and a tv in the living room! We still have to mount the tv on the wall, and we have to dump some of the boxes. On Tuesday, the final piece of furniture will arrive. I’m ready to clear out the boxes and start putting up artwork. It is really starting to feel like a house! The blinds come on Thursday, and hopefully the dining room table and couch for downstairs will arrive sometime next week. Elliot needs to get his bedroom clothing in order, and we have more things to buy to finish putting everything away, but I’m finally feeling like we’ve made significant progress.

Dancing Baby

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Tonight I am sitting here and watching my belly . . . the baby is making my belly dance!! He seems to be kicking and punching, and my big ole’ belly is moving all over the place. I’m quite amused by this, and I can’t stop smiling. Now if we can just get him to play when my mom is in the room, he’d have a happy Grammy!

What else can I report? We are finally making progress with our house – for the first time, I have hope that it will be finished in the next few weeks. We have ordered the baby furniture, and we are actually planning to go and start registering for stuff this week.

Other than that, I’m feeling well, but still not over the morning sickness completely. Suddenly, this week the indigestion has kicked it back into high gear, and every time I eat anything, I’m feeling over-full, like there is just no room in my tummy anymore. I have my next appointment in two weeks, and I’ll be having the gestational diabetes test done. After that, I start going in for appointments every 2 weeks!

It’s all about furniture

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I might just be in the early stages of nesting. I am not sure that I completely understand what nesting is, but if it is this overwhelming urge to get your house and life in order, then I’m nesting. This week, I’ve been making phone calls and appointments, making decisions, and generally trying to clean up both my surroundings and a whole lot of loose ends. Some days, I feel the need to quit my job so I can work on getting my life in order!

As you may know, we are in the process of renovating Elliot’s house, and are hoping to move there in the next few weeks. At present, we have been crammed into my townhouse, and the mess and *stuff* has taken over. I had previously given up any effort at order or cleanliness, because we have been on the verge of moving for 3 months now.

This week, however, I hit my limit. I have been all over Elliot to clean up all the crap that has taken over our lives at my house, and I’ve been all over him to come with me and make decisions about furniture for his house. I think it dawned on me that it can easily take 8-12 weeks to get furniture once we order it, and with that time frame in mind, we’re running out of time before the baby arrives. On Thursday night, we went up to Great Beginnings to look at furniture. We have it narrowed down to 2 possible bedroom sets, but we just can’t decide which of the two. This is definitely progress, however – we do know that we will purchase one of the two sets! The first set I think is far more interesting in terms of wood texture and design, but the second set is a little less expensive and simpler (which a boy might prefer). I’ll post the pictures here for any comments/feedback – but note that the pictures do not necessarily reflect the pieces we are considering:



We also finalized which car seat we intend to purchase, we think we may have decided on a stroller as well, and we narrowed down our bedding options and glider options. Here are the 2 different beddings we are considering:



You would think with these big decisions out of the way, I would relax a bit, right? Of course not! I then felt the need to point out the baby’s room is only ONE room in the house, and we still need to deal with replacing the dining room table Elliot broke (long story short, he thought ironing on the glass table was a good idea – until he left the iron face down on the table and walked away without turning it off – naturally, the glass top splintered, and we do not currently have a functional dining room table), and we need new couches for the living room and the basement rec room. So, Elliot humored me, and today was furniture shopping day. We went to Marlo and Top Drawer (and we will be hitting Crate and Barrel tomorrow) and I think we have it narrowed down to 2 different couches – one from Top Drawer, and one from Crate and Barrel. We need to figure out exactly which pieces will fit in the living room, and the best shape for the basement rec room, but we think we are all set in our selections. We also found a new glass table top at Top Drawer that we can purchase to replace the broken one.

Not bad for a weekend, right? I am hoping to order the couches this week, and then I’ll focus on accessories (we’ll need a new coffee table, a plant stand, perhaps a filing cabinet and some storage shelves, and I’d like to get a storage bench with a cushion to serve as a window seat in a few of the house’s alcove areas). So . . . I’d say we are making progress! If we can just get them to install the toilets and finish the cabinets and lighting, we could actually start the process of moving!