Nelly

Hi guys...we've been busy!!

In the months that have gone by, we have:

• Purchased a new dishwasher
• Procured a bunk bed for the boys
• Adopted a kitten
• Put up curtains in the boys' room
• Decided to have a baby

...and that's where Nelly comes in!!

Our "guess date" is June 5, but I'm not holding that to anything.  Damien came 11 days before his due date, and Connor was born the day before his due date.

Basically I'm done with the "due" date thing...my kids have minds of their own from the very start and arrive precisely when they mean to, and not on my timetable.  I totally felt like I went overdue with Connor because I was anticipating another early arrival.

Thanks for the lesson in patience, Squishy.

Like my previous pregnancies, I prayed and hoped and wished that I wouldn't be plagued by early pregnancy symptoms, like 90% of women are.  My mother was part of that 10% that didn't experience nausea, nor did she get stretch marks or anything else.

Me?  Not so much.  I fall into the 33% of women who experience all-day sickness.  What is this "morning" sickness thing?!  HAH.

Thankfully I started to feel more human (perhaps thanks to following my allergen-free diet) shortly after Christmas, and at 24 weeks, I am mostly nausea-free every day.  I consider myself very, very fortunate not to experience sickness all the way through my pregnancies.  However, because my blood pressure is nice and low normally, random fluctuations (like standing in the shower, or walking around for too long) cause me to feel woozy and yucky, so I'm one of those mostly sedentary pregnant ladies; combined with hot fudge sundaes, this probably explains my crazy weight gain in my last two pregnancies!!

Enough about pregnancy, though.

Or, maybe not.

With less than four months looming until that guess date, and the weather starting to warm up enough to allow for windows to be left open, we have started preparations on the nursery.  It's somewhat slow since Joe gets to do all the work without his favorite partner (that would be me, and yes that is a necessary statement if you know us and Joe's work partners!), which means things get done at half the pace.

While I have taken "before" pictures of the nursery before, I don't know that I've actually posted them.  I'm hoping that the "after" pictures will be an incredible difference!

Outside the bedroom...note the "strange" carpet.

I want to know what they were thinking when they added the tiny window.
"I HATE LIGHT, let's make this room as dark as possible."
"Okay!"

What isn't visible are the roof tiles (just like in the other bedrooms), but I figure we've all seen enough fiberglass to save us the view.  The TINY windows are the bane of my existence, especially with all the lame wall panelling!  I do not understand was loved about it.  It makes the room so, so dark.  I can't wait to get them out of there!  I've started pinning ideas for a gender neutral nursery (we chose not to find out!) and so far I'm - apparently - loving the idea of beige or gray walls with white trim, and adding cheery pops of color so the room doesn't get boring.  Some will probably come before the baby, but a lot will be added after to make the room his or her own.

Team Green at 24 weeks: Joe and I haven't really decided what we think the baby is.  D and C think it's going to be a baby sister.  C has made it clear that we need to "return to sender" anything that isn't a girl!