Coming together, slowly but surely

Putting together the bookshelf:

Putting together the crib:

Putting together the crib with a fake smile: Looking a little stressed - thankfully this is the closet door in the living room and NOT a crib:

Monkey at the top of the finished bookshelf:

The baby's book collection, courtesy of Auntie PC - one for every month of gestation!

Photos

Oh blogger. Why can't you post pictures in the order that I post them?

My MIL hosted a shower for us (oh, ooops, did I not invite any of you? Nope.)

Gifts:
Cake:

Favors - cookie lollipops with our photos (can you guess which is me and which is M?):

While tossing stuff in the baby's room, I came across my LIGHT-UP tiara from my bachelor (edit - bachelorette) party in Vegas. Oh it's classy! Also, post-haircut.

Last week (31 weeks and 5 days, I think). Also pre-haircut apparently.

I don't ever write anything anymore - I just post photos.

Coming next week:

- CCBL's Box O' Loot

- KLG's artistic gift

- Pictures of us working on the nursery (warning: there are a lot of fake smiles)

This is for Kelly

Someone has a good opinion of his appearance...he told me last week that he was looking REALLY GOOD and getting a lot of attention from the ladies because he had parted his hair differently.

And then Kelly and I mocked him mercilessly. It was awesome.

Photos from last week...out of order.

My mother-in-law asked to see pictures of the finished nursery. HARDY HAR HAR. Unfortunately she wasn't joking. Oh well. I sent her this.


The fan installed by my dad!

Mike and my dad working hard on putting up the fan. Also my dad kind of freaked when I took this photo. Apparently a flash going off when people are working with electricity can be frightening. Ooops.

Me at 30 weeks in my gym clothes.

That was last Monday. I've done nothing of note since then (ummm, except not eat solids for three days - thanks, Norovirus!). So not eating and not exercising - Mother of the Year.

Also, I obviously don't know how to put photos up in order today.

If you can't say anything nice....

Let's get the dying baby story off the top of the blog, shall we? New topic...

I've found that walking around with a bump means that people feel they can freely offer advice and opinions about pregnancy, deliveries and childrearing. They also feel free to offer opinions about weight gain and rub my belly (and we all know I don't like overtouching).

Maybe it's because I work with a lot of women...I have approximately 75 colleagues between my two positions and I'd say that 60+ of them are women. In addition, many of them are women in their mid50s which seems to be the prime age for comments.

My friend AMW says it is just a rite of passage...she's right but I still am taken aback when someone walks by and offers up an opinion. I'm sure I did the same thing before I got pregnant so I'd like to offer a blanket apology to my friends - you all looked gorgeous then and now!

So without further adieu, here are my favorite pregnancy comments (some mine, some others):
1. Are you sure you're not having twins? I think this is a pretty common one - another variation - are you sure there is only one in there?
2. You're having a girl because your face and ass have gotten bigger.
3. You're having a girl because you're really round all over (ha ha, this was to me - I told the woman that I was round and fat pre-pregnancy so then she got all flustered and said she wasn't saying I was fat)
4. You have another ten weeks to go? No way! Variation of this: you have ANOTHER three months??????
5. WHOA! Your girls are huge - you need to put on your coat!
6. Still here? you're ready to pop!
7. You're going to spoil your child.
8. Don't hold your child too much.
9. You should use a pacifier.
10. You shouldn't use a pacifier.


So here's my new rule: I'm limiting myself to simple phrases only. Namely "you look GREAT!".

Do not read if hormonal

Warning – this is sad.

I’m sure if you’ve seen or talked to me recently, I’ve shown you a picture of my little patient. I was his primary nurse and I was obsessed with him. I loved recounting every time he gave me a little gummy infant smile and the day he learned to laugh (just on Wednesday!). Here’s an unsurprising secret – babies think it’s hysterical when you make crazy faces and tickle their necks. Unfortunately, he started to go downhill this weekend and he was “redirected” to comfort care only (no interventions) on Sunday night.

I’m sorry to say that he passed away early on Monday morning. Fortunately, I was able to be at work that night and care for him. I promised myself that he would not be put down all night and I am so grateful to my coworkers that we were able to give that gift to him. I had another patient so we all took turns carrying him and snuggling him and whispering strong words to him as he got worse and worse.

Around 330am, he started looking worse so we took him into his room to have privacy and I called his mom to let her know it would happen soon and the doctor would call her later (parents were unable to be there). We all took turns hugging him and saying our goodbyes. Over and over, I just kept saying that I was so sorry – so sorry that he got the short end of the stick in so many unfortunate ways.

About an hour later, as I was snuggling him, he stopped breathing. His heart stopped beating moments later. I handed him to another nurse and went to get the doctor. He came in and declared that he had passed. We gave him a bath and created a memory box for his parents – some locks of hair and prints of his hands and feet. I know it seems strange that they weren’t there for the death but I know that they adored him so much.

I don’t think it’s super appropriate to discuss patient matters on a blog so I hope I got the essence of his life in words without compromising his privacy. I just felt it was important that I take a moment to remember him and share his short life with other people. I had never held someone as they died and I never thought I’d want that responsibility. But as sad as death is, I know that he was loved and that he is comfortable now. I’m glad I was able to be with him and that we were able to keep him warm and safe and snuggled through his last night.

Freecycle follow-up

I've talked before about the wonders of freecycle.

The downside? When you post a listing, you get emails that end with this signature:

Cloth diapering, extended breastfeeding, sewing, homeschooling and AP mama to X, Y, and Z. New baby girl Z coming soon.

Is it necessary to have this much information included in every email you send from your yahoo account?

Sidenote - I met a girl at a Super Bowl party who works for yahoo. I asked her if they walk around saying "Ya-hooooooooo-oooo!" at work. She looked at me like I was crazy. Oh.