Andi’s exciting life.

Here’s a photo of some of the stuff we have for the nursery so far. We’ve decided to keep the blue walls. Today the window shades and rug came in. Also, we got the sample of the border we are thinking of using, which is taped to the wall under the window. I really like it, but I think I want the version that has brighter colors instead of the pastel colors. Everything else we have is in bright colors, so the pastel doesn’t exactly go. Other than that, I love it. The pictures standing up along the wall are pictures of little dog sculptures made out of fruits and vegetables. I actually took them from a calendar, but I have had them framed and waiting to be hung in our future baby’s room for probably about two years.

I guess the next step is painting the trim around the windows and the door trim and doors and then hanging the border (if Matt approves it) and the window shades. By the time we get that done, it will probably be the end of June, and I’ll go order the crib, dresser, and glider.

Today I am 15 weeks along. I’m showing a little, but still not significantly so. I’ll post a photo of myself in a couple weeks when I start to look legitimately pregnant. I’ve been feeling good for the most part, though today I have a killer headache. I just finished my work for the day, so I think I’m going to lie down now to see if my head feels better.

I realize that I didn’t post an update on Wednesday, but this has been a boring week. I kept waiting for something exciting to happen to write about, but no such luck. We got our crib bedding this week, and it’s gorgeous in person. I love it. I ordered a matching rug and green gingham window shades to go with it. Of course, all this stuff is just going to sit around unused for a couple more months, but since the pattern is discontinued I needed to order it while it was still in stock.

Since the crib and dresser I want said 12 to 15 weeks for delivery, I decided to go ahead an order it this week. I went on Wednesday, and it turned out they have what I want in stock. Since I don’t need it now, I’ll just go back in a month and either order it then or put it on hold (they will hold it for three months). The lady kind of told me I was way too early to be getting furniture, so I felt stupid for going in at all. I don’t see why she cares how proactive I want to be, but hopefully I’ll be taken more seriously if I go back next month. This is the crib and dresser that we are going to get, but in white instead of sage.

Despite my previous post shunning Babies R Us, I had to break down and start a small registry there too because a few of the things on my list are only sold there and not at Target. It’s not that I expect people to buy these things as gifts; I just feel organized if I have everything picked out and kept track of on a registry. My current first choice stroller is the Inglesina Zippy. This is subject to change since I change my mind quite frequently about the stroller, but I test drove this one yesterday, and it is really nice.

I told you this would be boring! Choosing baby furniture and gear is immensely fun to me but probably not very fun to read about. It’s just the only thing remotely like news that I have this week.

Remember all that stuff I said about the stripes and the murals in the nursery? Well, forget all that. Matt confessed to me tonight that he is having second thoughts about the murals and basically convinced me that they would look ugly. So, now I have to return the mural kits and pay a 25% restocking fee because they print the pattern especially for every order. I shouldn’t have been so hasty I guess, but I thought we were sure.

That was fun when I thought we had the nursery planned. Now we’re starting over basically. Here’s what we have so far: We know we’re going to get a white crib and matching changer/dresser. I ordered the bedding today, and we know we are going to get an upholstered glider, although I haven’t chosen a fabric yet.

I guess we have some plans, but we just don’t know what to do with the walls. Frankly, we should repaint the whole room, but we just don’t want to. We both like the color now, a deep blue, but it doesn’t go with anything and isn’t really suitable for a baby’s room if you ask me. At the same time, I would love to keep it if we could decorate around it because it is a nice color. I just don’t know. I want the nursery to look really great, and I’m tempted to just copy a Pottery Barn room as a sure thing. We’re still going to move everything out of there this weekend and next week, so maybe it will be easier to come up with an idea when the room is empty. I hope so.

Well, today is the last day of the first trimester for me, which I am very happy about. It’s hard to believe I’m a third of the way done already. The coming weekends are going to be spent getting the nursery ready. This weekend we’re going to clear most everything out of there. We have a TV and a futon to sell, and two big bookcases very full of books to move into the dining room.

Next weekend, we’re going to paint wide, light-blue, vertical stripes on the two big walls in the room for the background for our murals. We ordered two paint-by-number mural kits that should be here next week. They are big patterns with a backing kind of like carbon paper. We just have to tape the patterns where we want them on the wall, trace over the picture and remove the pattern, and then fill in the lines left on the wall with acrylic paint. It’s going to be a lot of work, but it will be worth it if the murals turn out well. I can’t wait for that room to start looking like the baby’s room!

So, I have been eagerly wanting to go to Babies R Us (BRU) since I found out I was pregnant, but I was trying to hold off a while until it seemed like a reasonable time in my pregnancy to go look at baby stuff. After our excellent ultrasound on Thursday and since I’m about to be in the second trimester, I decided to go on the voyage to the store in Redwood City.

Well, I think that will be last time I go to BRU with this pregnancy. I was mainly wanting to look at furniture, and I hated every single crib they had available. Well, one was acceptable, but not good enough for me to want it for our baby. I hate the way most cribs are made because they have very obvious screws in prominent places on the front of even the well-made cribs. I think it looks ugly, and I’m determined to find a crib that doesn’t have any exposed hardware. So, looking at furniture was a bust.

They have about 10 choices of bedding there, and I don’t really like any of them. Well, OK, some of them are cute, but I want my baby to have something more original and not the same thing that every other kid has. Yes, I know the baby won’t know the difference, but I will.

I will admit that they do have a lot of strollers and car seats on display, and I did get to try out in person the stroller that I had already chosen online. That made the trip worthwhile, but I wouldn’t drive back down there to get it when I can just order it online and not pay tax or shipping.

I was so disenchanted by my visit that I deleted the small BRU registry I had started online and just added those items to my Target registry. Target has all the same stuff without all the hype, and the stores are much more convenient.

Now I just need to figure out where to get our crib…

You could say I’m a little behind on this journal, say about 12 weeks behind. Matt and I our expecting our first baby, and it is due in November! I didn’t announce this here at first because we didn’t want to tell anyone until our first ultrasound at 7 weeks. Even after that, I was still terrified of miscarrying again so delayed announcing it. Well, it’s time to start talking. We’re having a baby!

Yesterday we had another ultrasound, and it was really amazing. It was a high resolution machine so that they could make a very tiny measurement of the amount of fluid behind the baby’s neck as a test for Down’s. This meant that the image was very detailed, and we could see our baby very clearly. We could see the individual vertebrae of the spine, tiny ribs, the hemispheres of the brain, the stomach and bladder — it was truly amazing! Our little one looks perfect and is actually measuring three days ahead. (You can click on the photo above to see all of our ultrasound photos so far.)

Next Wednesday I will be 13 weeks along, and that means I will start the second trimester. I’m very excited about that. I can’t wait to start looking pregnant (and not just thick in the middle) and to feel the baby move. I will probably post updates here on Wednesdays since that is the day a new week of pregnancy starts.

Our next ultrasound will be on June 26, and we are very much hoping to find out the sex of the baby that day. As long as the baby cooperates, it shouldn’t be a problem. I can’t wait to find out if it is a he or she!