FINALLY!!!

Ever since Mallorey and I found out we were having a baby girl, which was in mid-June, the makings of her nursery began. And just now, well, let's just say the title of this blog says it all. After working on her room a little bit here and a little bit there, the nursery is 100% finished and we are ready for Kylar Marin Burns to be here!

Some of you have seen what the old computer room "used" to look like. And you may have even cringed whenever you stepped on the stained carpet and got a whiff of the musty smelling room. It had a pale yellow color on all four walls with finished trim along the base boards and doorway. There was absolutely no way possible that we were going to allow our daughter to spend her early childhood days in an environment like that!

The computer room quickly changed to a nursery after I applied primer and three coats of "Hint of Cherry" which we picked up from Lowes. Have you ever walked out of a movie theater on a bright sunny day and squinted your eyes to block the sun until you made it to your car? This is somewhat of an exaggeration here, but that's kind of how I would describe the way this pink paint pops out at you. So right away Kylar's nursery began to take its form. The first change that was made was replacing the four electrical outlets and the light switch in the room. But, I must say the most time-consuming part of the entire room was replacing the original carpet with laminate flooring. I figured it was best to apply the paint to the walls before removing the carpet just in case I made any messes. Once the spare room is complete we will have hard wood flooring throughout. That in itself makes it feel like this house has undergone a total transformation but nothing quite like Kylar's room.
Next came the quarter round which didn't originally exist. Cutting the angles and doing the measuring was a headache from time to time, but definitely made the floors stand out around the perimeter of the room. Of course, Mal wouldn't let me get by with just painting the walls and putting down the new floors. No, that would have been all too simple. So I tackled the closet which was a an astounding 4 foot by 2 foot work area. I felt like Bruce Willis crawling through the air ducts in Die Hard. But nothing a father-to-be couldn't handle :)

The closet walls only needed one coat of Apple green and, of course, quarter round at the bottom. I even used my MIT engineering skills and built a two-sided box to cover up the water shut-off valves to the house that were so conveniently located in the back corner of Kylar's closet. Seriously? Who came up with these blue prints?! We finished out the closet by installing a new rod and Mal applied white contact paper to the shelving. We finished the painting with three or four coats of ultra white along all of the trim in the room. Mal had an idea for using curtains instead of closet doors. She brought up the idea one night and showed me an example online. I was a bit skeptical at first, but after looking at the finished product it looks fantastic. And we won't have to deal with the annoying noises that closet doors can make when they are opened and closed! Especially, when she gets older, if she is anything like her mother, and cannot find anything appealing she wants to wear haha.

Once the cosmetic portion of the room was done, it was time to furnish it and put the finishing touches on it. The crib is definitely the highlight of the furniture. We had actually purchased it months ago, just never had a nursery to put it in until now! Mal had an excellent idea of putting together a tall bookshelf in which she could put all of Kylar's dolls on. I couldn't believe how many dolls she was passing down to her! The last thing we did was hang a mirror that Mal made with Kylar's first and middle name across the top. It looks really nice! And the canvas art that Mal made looks very decorative above the crib.

It feels like a great accomplishment that Kylar's nursery is FINALLY done. And much like a nursery that needed a crib, we are FINALLY ready for our baby girl who will fill that crib :) Only 38 days or less. We simply cannot wait!!!

The day of the swollen feet!

Last Thursday, I came home from work and my feet were sooooo swollen. Actually, not even when I got home, before I left work it felt like my flip flops were digging into my feet! It was one of the most uncomfortable things of pregnancy to date! Randy and I had dinner and then he kept encouraging me to put my feet up. He stacked some pillows up on the couch and made me sit and relax. He even wiped my feet down with a wet wipe and MY GOSH! That felt good. I had read some "tricks" on thebump.com to relieve the discomfort from swollen feet. Some of them were obvious, like elevating your legs, take off your shoes, etc. But there were a few bizarre suggestions that would take a lot of money to get me to try. One was stick your feet, one at a time, into the toilet and flush it. Um....no thanks! This person said it was like a cold whirlpool for your feet and feels "so good". No. Thank. You. Randy just wiped my feet and that alone felt heavenly! No need for a toilet bath! Thank goodness for sweet husbands!
This is what my feet looked like. If you have never seen my feet, you should know that they are normally pretty skinny. I think it was a trait both my sister and I got from our mom!! They are very boney! But not in these pictures! Ignore the toes in need of a polish change! And YES!!! That is the Soap Net on in the background and it definitely IS 90210!!

 

 

Aside from the swollen feet, nothing new. We had a doctor appointment on Friday. Kylar is measuring right on schedule and my doctor was very impressed with my blood sugar numbers. She asked about a version if she is still breech. We told her we did not think we wanted to do one. She said since that is the case, she is going to push our ultrasound back from 34 weeks to 36 weeks! Dang. We should have said we were undecided so we could see her sooner!! Our next appointment is on 9/18, which will be 33 weeks! 7 weeks before we will have a baby. And that will just be a quick checkup.

I am heading up to Chicago this weekend for a Baby Brunch my mom and sister are throwing for me! I cannot wait. That 5+ hour drive is miserable, so we decided instead of me driving and being miserable, I would fly up there! Less wear and tear on the car, plus a more comfortable trip for me! While I am gone, Randy should be getting the few final touches together for Kylar's room (curtains, bookshelf, etc). There is not much left to do, thank goodness!! We got majority of it done this weekend. And we will be setting up her crib this week before I leave for Chicago!! I cannot wait! Her room is actually finally starting to come together as a nursery! And I could not be more proud of Randy and all the hard work he has been putting in! It is difficult because we rarely have a FULL weekend to work on the room. Normally just a few hours here and a few hours there. But slowly but surely, we have been making progress! Once we finish Kylar's room and lay the laminate flooring in the spare room, we are DONE with home repair projects until the spring! I am putting my foot down! When spring hits, it is on to repainting the living room, our bedroom and both bathrooms! Then eventually the outside will get tackled! Anyone know how to remove trees safely??

Here are a few belly pics we took 9/2. Which was exactly 31 weeks pregnant! Oh, and did I mention? Since starting this gestational diabetes diet Randy has been extremely supportive! He only eats what I am allowed to eat. And can you believe it? As I gain weight, he loses weight! What the hell!?!? It should be illegal for husbands to lose weight as their pregnant wives gain!! Maybe I should take a belly pic of him to show his progress!

 

 

 

Less than 10 weeks???? That is now single digits!!

Wednesday I will be "exactly" 31 weeks pregnant! Pregnancy is 40 weeks! That is only 9 weeks left before Randy and I are officially parents!! And all I have to say is:
HOLY CRAP!! WHERE DID THE TIME GO??

It seems like only a few weeks ago we were sitting in the doctor's office and heard him say, "Young Lady....You're pregnant!!" But, in actuality, that was 5 months ago!! And we still have a lot of  work to do in Kylar's room. Randy has done a great job on the room. But with going out of town and Randy's work schedule it is hard to get it all done. I am just glad we have the majority of it finished.

Kylar is doing great! She is kicking up a storm! She has been breech the whole time. The doctor has mentioned a few options if she doesn't flip on her own. The first is to try an external version at 36 weeks to try and get her to flip from the inside out. Unfortunately, they preform versions in a hospital in case baby goes into distress and they need to do an emergency c-section. That seems like a bit risky if you ask us. And the success rate is only 50% and even lower since this is the first time I have ever been pregnant. And, even if the version IS successful, there is still a chance she will flip back over. It just doesn't seem worth it to risk our baby going into distress for a less than 50% chance it will work. The other option is to just have a c-section at 39 weeks. We are going to have an ultra sound in 4 weeks to check her position and growth.  I don't want to curse it or anything, but we are pretty sure she flipped. I am feeling the kicks a lot higher now than before. Maybe it was her daddy encouraging her to flip every night? Maybe it was her Grammy "dragging" us :) on a 2 mile walk around Mundelein? Maybe it was her mommy jumping around in one of those air filled jumpers? Who knows!! But hopefully if she has flipped, she will stay that way!

As far as how I am doing. I am great. I feel like I am growing more and more each day! I love just sitting there and following her little kicks on my big belly. I even put the phone or remote on there to see how long it will take her to move it! That is an entertaining way to pass the time. Unfortunately a few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It is nothing serious or anything. But all the extra hormones and everything going on in my body, make it too hard for my pancreas to turn sugars into insulin. And if this goes untreated, it can cause large babies and some other issues because she will get all that sugar in her system. I am on a pretty strict "meal plan" and I check my blood sugar levels 4x a day. So far I have my sugars under control and it doesn't look like I will need medicine to produce insulin. Randy has been extremely supportive with all this. He will not eat any sweets in front of me and he only eats things that I am able to eat. And he is great when I have my occasionally sweet tooth breakdown. They haven't happened very often, but sometimes it is just a little sad not being able to have something sweet if I crave something sweet. But he is great about reminding me that it is only a short time left and it benefits our beautiful baby girl.

Well, I do not think there is anything else that I wanted to mention. I am sure Randy will be completing Kylar's room within the next 2 maybe 3 weekends! And that will include everything from the flooring to rearranging the furniture. So hopefully he will be blogging about that soon!!