Laundry Room, Part 2

I owe you an update of the laundry room renovations, which you may remember was described as a Level 1 project (so, no electrical or plumbing and less than 100 trips to Home Depot). Even though the duration on this project has been relatively short, I have to admit that it has still been a surprising large pain in the arse. Those sticky vinyl tiles, though self-described as "The Easier Floor You'll Ever Install," were actually majorly time consuming and challenging to align. Plus, they aren't all that durable, so the corners were easy to bend and the edges were easy to chip. And even before that, we attempted to level the terrible floor with some self-leveling compound, which turned out to not be all that successful. You can see how terrible the floor was on the kitchen side of the room. It...was...gross.

But Wilson plugged away, and eventually covered it all up. Here's a photo, pre-trim.

Overall, the room looks better. It really does. But I'm not really in love with the floor. I think the color is ok, but the tiles still feel cheap to me, and the foam underlayment we added below the tile gives it a sort of squishy feeling that I don't really enjoy. The thing that I LOVE though, is the wall that Wilson built out behind the washer and dryer. It looks AMAZING.

We picked up a big cabinet from Craigslist last night, which I plan to stick in the corner behind the door, after I paint it (of course). I want the cabinet to hold various mudroom things, including: cat litter and supplies in the bottom, swimming stuff, disc golf stuff, camping stuff, seeds and gardening hand tools, etc.

33 weeks

49 days to go, folks.

Here are some updates on the important things.

Sunny Meadow's Heart:
Our follow up ultrasound with maternal fetal medicine at the Children's Hospital went as well as it could have. The tech looked at the heart for what seemed like forever, and when we consulted with the doctor, she was highly reassuring that his heart is just working it out, and that he'll be fine at birth or shortly thereafter. There are no structural issues - he's just having trouble keeping a rhythm going. So we're not so worried anymore. Also, he had the hiccups during the ultrasound (and has them now, incidentally) and it's really tough to watch a fetus with the hiccups AND an irregular heartbeat. You just feel so bad for the poor guy.

Food:
Food and I have been getting along famously. I haven't run into anything lately that I haven't liked. Everything tastes good, and I have been eating a lot. My favorites have been vanilla granola, frozen cookie dough, bagels with cream cheese, and apple juice. No real cravings lately, just a general taste for...well...everything.

Weight:
Despite the food situation, I'm holding steady on weight gain, thankfully. I get out of breath walking to and from the car, so I need to keep the weight down just to make it through the next few weeks. BabyCenter says I'm right on track.

Brain (mine):

I am getting a touch crazier, I think. I cried in the car last week when the Mumford & Sons guy's version of The Boxer came on the radio, and I think I've picked up every accessory in our home and moved it to a new location. I also can't seem to stop washing all the baby things, even though I know they'll get cat fur and dust on them between now and 2 months from now. 

Work wise, I'm feeling pretty checked out. I need to start transitioning my stuff to other people so that I can mostly take off the last couple weeks prior to my due date, but it's hard to relinquish control of things, especially knowing that it'll all be messed up when I get back. Last time, I hardly passed anything to anyone - I just left and came back to it three months later. I'd like to do a bit better this time, and perhaps get some things off my plate permanently. 

31.5 weeks

Here's a belly shot from Thursday in the work bathroom. I don't think I look that big, but people have already started suggesting that I'm going to deliver next week. I'm up about 22 pounds but that has held steady for a few weeks now. I feel like my weight gain has been good and I hope to only gain another 8-10 before my due date. Of course if I go late, I fully expect to put on ten pounds of misery weight fueled mostly by carbs and cookie dough.

Accent belt!

While Wilson was out of town this week, I had a pretty solid scare when my regular midwife appointment discovered an arrhythmia in the baby's heartbeat. She immediately referred me to the hospital and I spent several hours hooked up to the heartbeat machine with Sam in tow, stuffing herself on graham crackers and watching cable. The diagnosis turned out to be fetal PAC, which is a somewhat common and usually benign heart thing. It will likely resolve itself before birth or shortly thereafter, but of course, now we're gonna worry about it for two months. All things considered though, I'm very thankful that it isn't something more serious. And I'm thankful that Wilson is home, hopefully for the remainder of this pregnancy. 

Laundry Room, Part One

So, apparently we're renovating the laundry room now. I just can't keep seem to keep Wilson away from demolishing things.

Our main complaints with the laundry/mudroom are mostly aesthetic, with a bit of complaint about lack of storage. Luckily we're not planning to move anything around, so this project shouldn't involve any electrical or plumbing. Normally we'd consider this a Level 1 project, but given that it will likely involve multiple trips to Home Depot, I'm going to assume it'll jump to Level 2 pretty quickly. 

Our goals are:

1. Replace the flooring - We're going to peel up the existing sticky vinyl tiles, leave the asbestos tile below and just replace the sticky tiles with different sticky tiles to the threshold between the kitchen and the mudroom.

2. Paint - Obviously, my favorite part. I still love the wood plank walls, and of course I love the white, so I'm just going to give the walls and trim a fresh coat of exterior white paint to freshen things up. 

3. Build out wall behind washer/dryer - The plumbing for our washer/dryer comes up from the basement and just basically hangs out directly behind the washer and dryer and looks awful. There's no washer connection box, and the dryer vent pipe offsets the dryer forward 6 inches from the wall. It's just a nasty space where dryer lint, unmatched socks, and spiders live, and so we're going to block it out with framing and an access door of some kind. This will also provide a nice place for a small ledge behind the washer/dryer to hold detergent or whatever.

4. Remove open shelving and add closed cabinets above washer/dryer - We'll likely get these from Ikea. I don't hate the open shelving, but I think closed cabinets would be cleaner and there's nothing special about the open shelving that makes me want to save it.

5. Add storage - This will probably also be an Ikea ordeal. I'd like to add a closed cabinet for storage behind the door, which would be modified to also serve as the cat litter depository. My vision is that it would be storage for several things that don't currently have a home, namely: swimming/pool stuff, disc golf stuff, tools we need on a regular basis,road trip supplies, and camping supplies (as if). I'd also like to add an open upholstered bench under the window with a bit of shoe storage - I plan to keep it open rather than built in, because there's a heater vent and an electrical outlet centered on the wall and I don't want to upgrade this project to a new level.

6. Build in the beer fridge - Ok, so probably I'm the only one who cares about this, but the drip tray for the kegerator sticks out ever so slightly into the door and I swear one day Sam is going to slam into it and need stitches. We need to shave a tiny bit off the window molding and then it can scoot back against the wall so the drip tray is recessed. And of course I'd also like to paint it white with appliance paint, but Wilson might kill me.

7. I have a few miscellaneous requests for the room which will be no big deal once we've got the big stuff done. I'd like a place to hang clothes/swimsuits/bras to dry. I'd like some kind of rug which will catch the leaves that blow in from the deck. I'd like to replace the storm door with a fabulous screen door to improve circulation. I'd like cornices for over the windows. 

But for the most part, this looks like some pretty basic weekend project stuff. Huzzah!

27 weeks

My "What to Expect" app says I'm in the 3rd trimester, which seems a little wrong to me, but I'll take it.

I feel better this week than last week. Sunny Meadow is becoming more active, but is less in my rib cage with his feet and that is more pleasant. I've learned (finally, because I am dumb) that I can't eat as much as I want to at meals because it makes me feel miserably uncomfortable for hours afterward. Instead, I have to spread out the food throughout the day. I'm up about 14 pounds, which is right on track with the recommended curve.

Last week I had another silly prenatal visit. It was supposed to be the one where I got screened for gestational diabetes - they make you drink a 12 oz. horrid warm flat orange crush drink and then test your blood sugar an hour after to make sure your insulin is eating the sugar. With Sam, I just barely failed and then had to take the 3-hour fasting test (way worse) and I was super miserable for the whole day and for no real reason. This time I declined the test, and I'm really glad I decided to stick up for myself. Everything else at the visit was fine - normal heartbeat, normal size, normal weight gain, etc. My next visit is in 5 weeks, but I'll likely skip that one if everything is still ok and instead go back around 34 weeks.

I'm going to go ahead and throw in my due date guess to get the party started. Feel free to play along! The actual due date is October 28th.

Date: Monday, November 4th
Time: 8:15pm
Weight: 8 lbs. 5 oz.

Here's a picture of me looking nervous and Sam looking skeptical.

From where I stand ... (Ok, where I SIT) ...

Looks like the last day for this shirt. If the button even makes it through the day. 

Belly - nearly 25 weeks