Happy Fourth of July

It is with great excitement that I announce the arrival of ... our bathroom window! No sign of Campbell yet.

My friend and colleague who has had three babies told me since day 1 that I would be pregnant for 40 weeks and probably a little longer (my baby book said the same thing is common for first time moms). She's been right about everything so far, but that one I could not believe. Over the past year, I have yet to know someone who has gone the full 40 weeks; all my friends have delivered early. So from my perspective I thought having a baby at 38 weeks or earlier was the norm.

I have come to the conclusion that our little one is perfectly happy where he is. With 9 days left till my due date, I really hope we don't go past July 14th! We can't wait for Campbell's arrival, and now it's just a waiting game. On the positive side we may actually get the bathroom finished (see June post Home Improvement Projects). The window people called on July 1st to say that our window was ready - finally! By 7 AM this morning, the window was installed and the tile team is coming tomorrow at 7 AM to begin the process of putting our bathroom back together. I guess Campbell knew better than we did that it was probably a good idea for him to stay put a little longer.

Plus, it gave us a chance to see fireworks on the 4th. I love watching fireworks, and we have not seen a 4th of July show since we lived in Nashville. I convinced Brad we needed to take advantage of the moment, so last night we ventured out toward the river. Our goal was to get as close as possible without actually going into the French Quarter. We stopped at my favorite ice cream shop - Creole Creamery (the best!) - got cones and headed downtown. Brad in his driving awesomeness found a way on the other side of the convention center. Next thing I know we are under the Mississippi bridge with a perfect view of the Go 4th on the River Dueling Barges fireworks show. We illegally parked the car, jumped out and stood under the bridge, watching the beautiful fireworks display. It was a great night!

Little boy, we're ready when you are, but till then, we'll keep making the most of the minutes we have left till you arrive.

Father's Day at the Pool

We finally pulled the trigger and joined the JCC. There is an uptown location 5 minutes from our house and most importantly, they have a pool. Last weekend, I could not take it any longer. I put on my bathing suit, grabbed a towel and told Brad we were joining. We showed up at the JCC in our swimsuits and asked what we needed to do to join. The very nice person taking our membership application asked if we would like to go on a tour first. Tour? I'd already seen the only thing I needed to see - the pool!

It was fantastic. I floated and swam and loved every minute of it. Then I got pruny and had to get out. Thus began my attempt to climb the ladder out of the pool - probably the least graceful thing I have ever done. Wow - super difficult - going from near weightlessness to gravity yanking Campbell down. I wish I could have floated in the pool all day. But it was Brad's weekend - first Father's "To-be" Day, and we had US Open coverage to watch!

Happy Father's Day, Brad!

Brad took this with his iPhone during my water break. Ironically swimming can make you very dehydrated!

Updated Bump Picture

Today's June 14th - one month to go till July 14th due date. Here's a picture from 34 Weeks (June 4th) - We're getting close.

Home Improvement Projects

What better time to renovate a bathroom than when I'm 8 months pregnant. We moved straight from the baby room to the bathroom. Brad bought tile weeks ago to retile the bathroom floor and around the tub. It took forever to get bids so while we waited on tile bids, we decided, what the heck, let's get a bid to replace that giant wood window that's in the shower.

So we got the new window ordered. The window guy assured us that the tile guy could tile around the existing window and then replace the window later when it's ready. Of course it never fails... I had a bad feeling about this one. The tile guy ripped everything out of the bathroom and then said, "lady, I have to have that new window to tile around it correctly." Of course you do. That's what I thought to begin with. And how long does it take to manufacture a custom window - 4 weeks. So now our week long retile project is indefinitely stalled until the new window gets here. And how many weeks do we have till due date. 4 weeks - we're cutting this one a little close.

Brad trying to assure me it would all be okay (can you tell this was his idea!) offered this calming notion - hey babe, at least the demo is done. Worse comes to worse, Campbell will probably just sleep through the tiling. Here's hoping!

Fun trick - if you look down the side of the tub you can see straight through the subfloor to the ground. During the hottest time of the year we have a huge opening in our house for all our A/C to flow through. Why did we think this was going to be quick and easy?

Beach vs. Baby Room

Brad's last vacation week of 3rd year was Memorial Day week - May 31 - June 4. He had "bookended" weekends to0, which meant he was off for a really long time! So the big debate was should we go to the beach (last vacation before baby) or work on the house (aka start and finish nursery). With the massive oil catastrophe happening in the gulf we thought maybe beach was not a good idea. Plus we already went to the Cayman Islands in January - skiing was not an option this year. With the due date fast approaching we decided to work on the house.

The study had to move to the entryway - a significantly smaller space than the study. So thus the big clean out of the study. With all our crazy moves across the country, usually done without much planning, we had tons of stuff to go through. Receipts from the co-op from college, bank statements from accounts we don't have any more, not to mention all the athletic and sports gear that was stored in the closet. I'm pretty sure shotguns and shells should not be in the baby's room. We finally cleaned it all out, which forced us to put a lot of stuff in the attic. Which meant we had to clean out the attic - I should say Brad had to clean out the attic - he was very sweet in insisting that his 8-month pregnant wife should not be going in the attic. I have no idea what's up there or how it looks, but I am grateful that it's done.

So finally the fun part. The nursery. We have never started with a blank slate and decorated a room from top to bottom. Our usual process was to try to unpack as many boxes as possible in the few days that we had off from work and worry about what it looked like later. So here are the pictures of our nursery. We plan to spend a lot of time in this room, and we wanted it to be nice. I think it's my favorite room in the house. Waylon likes it too - he especially loves rolling around on the brand new rug and licking all the stuffed animals!

One of my favorite pictures! We followed the instructions carefully - Brad held the heavy parts while I fastened everything together. We finally finished putting the crib together and realized Brad was stuck inside!

After hours of priming and taping, I critiqued Brad on his taping skills. I was the next thing to be taped!

So close to being finished! We're waiting on a cushion for the rocking chair and another table to be ready.

Prenatal Class and Chic-Fil-A

We finally have a real Chic-Fil-A in New Orleans. Ok, so technically it's in Metairie and technically there has been a Chic-Fil-A in the mall food court. But one would seriously need to have a major nugget and waffle fry craving to go to the mall, find a place to park (there's never good parking!), and walk to the food court just to get Chic-Fil-A. I always forget it's even there, so it doesn't count.

So, like I said, we finally have a Chic-Fil-A. It happens to be located blocks from the hospital. My doctor's office is in the same complex as the hospital and our prenatal classes have been there too. Brad would argue that the best part of prenatal class is the chocolate milkshake from Chic-Fil-A that we get after class. I have to admit that I totally agree with him! The hospital offers a series of three free prenatal classes. Good basic info and I usually learned a lot, but Brad usually already knew most of what they covered. Thanks babe for sitting through each two-hour course looking interested! We have signed up for another birthing class that will hopefully give more info on labor and what to expect.

PS - You may have noticed from our last blog entry that Brad's blogging style is a little different from mine. It probably goes without saying that I'm more verbose. Regarding the Tahoe, we sold his 2007 and bought a 2004 - eliminating our car payment! Big accomplishment that was a little scary. I kept wondering if we were making the right decisions. When Brad got the new car, he showed me the temporary plate. It expires 7/14/10 - my due date! What are the odds of that. I took it as a sign that we made the right decision!

Making Way for Baby Campbell!

We're definitely in the proverbial "nesting" phase. The study has now been permanently relocated to our entryway, the yukon is sold, and the house is looking as good as it has looked since it was under 6 feet of water. Oh yeah, and the bump is growing daily!