Prepping for Peanut....Part 2

It has been a busy week in getting ready for Lil' Miss Peanut's arrival.  I am now 7 months pregnant. Today, I am 29 weeks pregnant. We only have 10 more weeks to go until she arrives. It amazes me that things are going so fast this time around.

On Wednesday, I went for my 28 week appointment.  Part of that appointment was the lovely glucose tolerance test that tests for indications of Gestational Diabetes.  If a woman tests above a certain number, they have to go through the 3 hour test to see if they do have GD.  Because of my weight and age, I am at an increased risk of developing GD.  I prayed hard that the test would come back without indications. My prayers were answered and my numbers were quite normal.  Yay!  Apparently, even my doctor was thrilled with the news.  :)  Other than that, we got to hear Peanut's heartbeat again.  Peanut is not too fond of the Doppler and loves to kick at it every time. Ginny never did that. She usually ran away from it, making it more of a challenge to find her heartbeat. Already, my daughters are opposites. LOL!

Finally, after working seven shifts in a row, my husband had a day off of work.  So, he got busy helping out with the nursery. I know I drive him nuts on this type of stuff, but he luckily understands my need to nest.  He rearranged a few more pieces of furniture with my supervision.  I didn't like how it looked at first so I had him change things again. Now I am quite pleased with the furniture arrangement. It even allows for room to put a small bookcase in the room. Whew!  My DH then went ahead and added the floating shelves after consulting me.  I can say that I'm almost in love with the room now.  Once we add the new bedding, bed, and shelves I will be head over heals, I'm sure.

Here are the current pictures of the room. If you would like to see the original set up then go to Prepping for Peanut...Part 1.

Picture of of the "whole" room from the door.

Straight on from the door. 

The far wall...
I have no idea what those "water spots" are. A weird light effect?

Plans for the Nursery/Girls' Room

In the couple of months, not only will we have a brand new baby to hold and love, but Ginny will have a new playmate, eventually. A few months after the baby arrives, she will be sharing a room with Ginny (first she will stay in our room). 

While we do have time until the nursery technically needs to be ready, I am in the nesting mood and want it done now!! As you can see at a previous post of mine:  Prepping for Peanut.  

Recently I discovered that it should be easy for my husband to move the toy chest (which is very heavy to lift) just by pushing it around.  So, once he gets a day off again (he often works 7 days in a row), he will be moving that as well as the changing table/dresser.  That will leave us with not much more to do regarding furniture movement for a while.  

However, I have been planning, via Pinterest, what to do in terms of decorating the room.  Here are a few things that I think will work:

Dream on Me toddler sleigh bed for Ginny, found at Babies R Us

Part of the reason I like the bedding set below is that it is pink, but without being outrageously pink! Also, the owls are so darn cute!!

Nursery-To-Go Sweet Dreams Owls 10-piece bedding set, Babies R Us.

ABC Toddler quilt for Ginny, Pottery Barn Kids

I think the quilt for Ginny would blend nicely with the bedding set for Peanut. I hope. LOL!  I just with they had an owl toddler set but can't find it.  They have it for a twin bedding set, but not toddler. Sigh.

Additionally, we would love to add a bookcase, but until we get the toddler bed, we aren't sure how well that will work. The room isn't very large, and we will likely run out of wall space.  

Luckily, Chris has the day off at the end of this week, so I will put him to work and update our progress then. :)

Prepping for Peanut...Part 1

Chris and I had always planned to have our kids share a room for the first few years at least.  We do have a third bedroom, but wanted to keep it as an office/guest room.  So, now begins the task of getting the nursery set up for both Ginny and her new sister, Lil' Miss Peanut. Since I feel the need to nest, it is only appropriate that we get started on this now.  Luckily, I have an accommodating and forgiving husband. :)

Here are some current pictures of the nursery (please excuse the blur):

"Full" room view

Straight on from the door to window

The far wall

We need to fit in a toddler bed to this room now. Ginny is currently 16 months old. We plan on having Peanut sleep in our room for the first 4-6 months. By the time the baby goes into the nursery full time, Ginny will be at least 22 months and ready for a toddler bed. Peanut will go into the crib (which will convert to a toddler bed in the future).

The room isn't particularly large, but I figure it can be done. One of the first things we did was remove the book shelf.  The plan is to replace the bookshelf with floating shelves and possibly a narrow, small bookcase. I'm getting very excited about moving things around.

Last night I was able convince my lovely husband to move some of the furniture around. Here was the result:

Straight on from the wall

As you can see here, there were no major changes along the wall; however, I plan to move the changing table/dresser against the wall right next to the window. The toy chest, that Ginny's Grandpa Scott made, will be moved to the wall where the changing table currently is.  I believe this will be a better fit over all.

The far wall

Here you can tell that the book case has been removed. We intend to move the table and chairs out of the room (unless we can find a new spot for them) and put the toddler bed there.









The room is just at the beginning stages of change.  I'm hoping to put up the floating shelves soon. As the title suggests, this is only part 1.  I imagine I will have several more updates on the room in the future.

A Birth Plan?

In just 12 weeks (more or less), I will be delivering Lil' Miss Peanut via a scheduled c-section.  I know this as I have known it since I was 24 years old. Ginny was delivered by c-section and so will this new baby.  The date of the c-section hasn't been set and will likely not be set for at least another 6 weeks. I do know that my doctor likes to have a scheduled c-section when the patient is 39 weeks. I will be 39 weeks on November 3rd, a Saturday.

One thing I heard a lot about when I was pregnant with Ginny was having a birth plan.  Most birth plans apply to those who are having a vaginal birth. It is understanding why women (and their spouses) would want to have a sense of control over the birth of their child.  However, how could I have a birth plan? I'm having a c-section after all. I did learn that some women do go into a c-section with a birth plan.  It amazed me, especially considering this was a surgical procedure.

My options during the c-section are severely limited due to my prior abdominal surgery in my 20s.  For example, some women request dissolvable stitches. I do not have that option. When I heard of that, I asked my doctor about them. However, she didn't feel that they would hold well enough over prior stitches, etc.  So, I had to go with staples because they hold things better. Honestly, they weren't that bad and didn't hurt much coming out. I found, through my experience, that I was fine with how my doctor planned the delivery as well as my husband and my role in it. I did NOT want to see the baby delivered. I can't handle seeing that much blood and didn't want to see my belly all opened up. No thank you. I'll pass on that. My DH didn't want to see it either and was happy to pass on cutting the cord to the professionals.  He didn't feel like he missed out in any way.

Chris was able to watch as Ginny was measured and weighed. He even had the camera and took pictures so I could see it later.  Once Ginny was cleaned up and her eyes treated, Chris held her next to me until they finished up on me. From there, the nurse handed Ginny to me and rolled me to my room.

The hospital we will be having Peanut is the same one where we had Ginny. They are very breastfeeding focused and family-centered.  Heck, all their nurses in the birth center are lactation certified.  Again, this leaves me with little concerns adding requests to a birth plan. Not only do they make your room the pre-op and recovery room (so no changing rooms, period), they also make sure they get you started breast feeding right away with assistance, once you are in your room again.

So, our birth plan has taken on a different tone. Our birth plan deals with arranging what we want and need to happen before we go to the hospital and when we come home. Of course, I can't make concrete plans until we know when I will deliver our baby girl.  However, my parents will be coming up to help out with the new baby and Ginny. They will be here at least the day before I deliver and will stay a few weeks to help out. They are left hanging in limbo right now due to not knowing the date of my c-section.  I've told them that I wouldn't be surprised if we had this baby on November 1, based on the fact that my doctor does most surgeries on Thursdays.  However, we do not know if that will be the date or not.  We are quite grateful that my parents will be coming though. It will be nice knowing that Ginny will be taken care of while I'm giving birth and that Chris can be with me.

Our biggest concern and issue is what happens if I go into labor before the scheduled c-section??  Will I have to go into the c-section alone, without Chris? After all, someone needs to take care of Ginny. The closest family from us are some cousins and aunts and uncles who all live at least 2 hours away.  We have no close friends in the area either. We don't know what we'll do if that happens. Chris wants to be with me to see our new baby and to support me; however, without someone close to look after Ginny, I may be forced to give birth alone.  All I can do, I suppose, is pray that this baby doesn't decide to come early.