Bedside tables for a room with no room!

Our new bedroom is working out marvelously.



It feels like a secret adult place in our totally kid house.



But...I like to read in bed, and drink water before I fall asleep.

So far, we've been reaching into the bedside "closets" to put the water down, but as I thought about breastfeeding in bed, I started to get nervous about how that would work.  Plus, with my giant belly, I'm having trouble sitting up on my own and it required a little reaching.

At ikea the other day, I saw the Ribba picture ledges and knew they would be perfect!

I bought 2 and wish I had bought more.



I don't LOVE the way they look, but they hold a glass of water nicely, my book perfectly, and require no getting up at all.

Plus, surprisingly, we don't knock them at all when we get up.

Quick easy solution.

Love it.

Homebirth Ready

We had a homebirth with T.

Last night was our team meeting with our midwives.   They all came over to our house, checked our supplies (we have to order a lot of supplies to have ready, along with preparing other things like coconut water, towels, sheets, etc), and we talked about our plan for when the baby comes.

I am a very internal birther.  It might have been because my last labor was so short, but I'm pretty sure it is also just who I am :)

This is the same team that cared for us while I was having T, so they have some experience.  I cursed out one midwife and actually slapped the other - I'm actually quite surprised they took me back :)

They joked a bit about how I'm a fire breathing dragon :)  I'm so grateful for my midwife team.

My instructions to my midwives (and husband and mother) were simple:

1. Don't touch me unless you need to for medical reasons
2. Don't talk to me unless for medical reasons or to warn me you are going to touch me
3. Keep T out of the house unless he is sleeping - no matter what.  If T needs comfort, I'd rather have Bubbs leave me than have T come into a room I'm in while I'm laboring.  If T is scared, offer to turn on Sesame Street - I'm sure he'll be fine after that :)
4. No internal checks if we can avoid it
5. If you have to talk to me, speak loudly and clearly - don't whisper or be gentle.

I've been anxious for this baby to come (though the pregnancy has flown by), but last night, as I poured myself a glass of milk with ice (I know), T was asleep, and I started reading my book, I decided I really needed to embrace this time before the baby comes.  I'll be exhausted for the next two years.  

Bubbs and I have a babymoon this weekend - the plan is to eat well and float in warm water all day long.  Can't wait.



This was a pic from 34 weeks.  I'm giant now.  This is the one pic we have of my pregnant belly :)

Let the Nesting Begin!

My maternity leave starts this week.

I usually shop during the week, alone,  but this morning, I needed help.  My list was two full pages long - I know I'll want to get my cooking on this week and I need to get ready for the massive cook and freeze fest :)

Season 3 of Sex and the City is downloaded, I have 20 aluminum pans, millions of gallon zip locks, and two industrial size rolls of aluminum foil.

So, Bubbs, T and I headed off to Trader Joe's this morning.

$320.00 later we're ready to make:

30 Breakfast Burritos (beans, eggs, chipotle, spinach, onions, peppers)
20 Bean and Cheese Burritos (beans, cheese, spinach, onions, peppers)
3 lasagne's (basic lasagne with tons o spinach)
24 Soups (I'll make the soup bases now (stock, celery, onion, carrots) and then make whatever soup tickles my fancy when the babe arrives).  The list now includes: kale, kielbasa, white bean; chicken barley; broccoli cheese; spinach; chicken noodle; and lentil.
Vegetarian Chili
42 Oatmeal Banana Muffins (no flour, butter, or sugar!)
4 pans of enchiladas (most likely green chili)

All this, plus, this week's food, TJ's frozen stuff for lunches, plus a dozen coconut waters for those very thirsty days after labor.

Everything is organic and free range except the cheese - hard to find bulk pre-shredded cheese that is from grass-fed cows.

The lasagnes are in the oven now.

****

We broke down to get some help cleaning now, since I'm barely able to get my shoes on without help.  Pants, HA!  Hardly.  I've been trying to clean a bit here and a bit there, but we have dust bunnies hiding everywhere, I haven't vacuumed in over a week, and changing the sheets makes me double over in pain.  Hopefully this woman can help us out for a couple months until I'm ready to start cleaning for myself again.

I'm pretty uncomfortable and almost always having braxton hicks contractions.

I go to Kaiser tomorrow for my GBS screen and a ultrasound to check babe's position (my midwives want to be sure he's head down).

The following day is our "team meeting" where our midwives meet with everyone who will be at the birth and we go over the plan.  We have to have all of our supplies ready (newborn hats, thermometer, towels, ugly sheets, etc.)  for the meeting.

This S*$% is getting real.

I could have this baby tomorrow and feel prepared though.  I'd just like the laundry to be done before the baby arrives.  Wishful thinking.

Trader Joe's Shopping List

We live on a pretty limited food budget, but I think we eat pretty well.

In order to get healthy, organic food at low prices we shop in two places:

Trader Joe's and a small local produce market, Noriega Produce.

To prepare for our Au Pair's arrival, Bubbs' paternity leave and just needing extra help in general, I made a shopping list.

My hope for the list is this:
1) People will check off when we need to buy something  (We'll keep it in the kitchen),
2) If someone is shopping (other than me) they know the brand to buy or where to buy it,
3) I don't have to do much prep before shopping - I can grab the list and go.

I was searching for Shopping list templates and couldn't find one like what I was looking for, so I thought I'd add this one for you.  You can download this from google docs and then add your own stuff.

I added things to this list in the order my Trader Joe's and Noriega Produce is organized - so they aren't in categories but organized like how I walk through the store.  Feel free to categorize.

Note: There is no produce on this list - this varies depending on what's in season and what we want to eat that week.

In-Laws and Updates

• I have one week left of work before my maternity leave begins.  I couldn't be more thrilled.  The driving, even just once or twice a week, is really a bummer and most days I need to nap so badly. 
 

• My order of aluminum pans, gallon zip lock bags, and industrial strength tin foil came in so I'm ready for bulk food making.  Plans include: Breakfast burritos, bean and cheese burritos, lasagne, broccoli-chicken-brown rice something, breakfast muffins, mac and cheese.

• Our Au Pair arrives in three weeks.  AHHH.  Her room is looking lovely but we're still waiting on a few things.  T starts half days at school when she comes, which I think will help tremendously with his late late bedtime (we'll cut naps out completely).  I'm really really excited to have a couple extra days per week with him to do mid-week things with my mama friends (museums, parks, etc).

• There are employment changes happening in our household too.  I'm thrilled about this as well.  It might mean that we have two parents working from home, one au pair, and two kids in a two bedroom apartment.  

• Bubbs and I have an overnight stay in Calistoga planned for the weekend after my leave starts.  When I was pregnant with T we took a mini vacation and I loved every second of it.  We ate great food, window shopped, but mostly we floated in the warm hot spring pools at the hotel.  At 36 weeks pregnant, there is nothing better than swimming in warm sulfer water.  Nothing.  Plus, I found a great deal at Solage - pretty much the last time we do that ever.  T will stay with my mom.  The best Huevos Rancheros I've ever had were from a small restaurant in Calistoga - so I can't wait to have those again.

•  I never really thought much about having in-laws and what that would be like.  All of mine live pretty far away so I only see them about once a year.  Plus, my in-laws are from the south and I'm from San Francisco - and there are surprisingly a lot of things that make communicating difficult and uncomfortable at first.  Anyway - I don't feel like I know my in-laws very well, but I like them and I look forward to our once a year get together.  We've had a bit of a health scare in the last few weeks within the family and I cannot get over how amazing my brother and sister in law have been.  Until this point, I haven't felt "grateful" for marrying into such an amazing family because I haven't really known them very well - but Bubbs' brother and sister have stepped up in amazing ways, particularly taking into account that I'm two weeks from full term in this pregnancy and our family can't really step up like we would like.  But we were willing to.  Anyway - I'm floored at how much I actually LOVE my in-laws. I don't know if I could say that before, but this small health issue has made them my real and true family forever - pretty cool thing to realize.  I think Bubbs feels that way about my family already since they literally live upstairs from us - and I hear other people saying it all the time. 

Organic Non-Toxic Baby Supplies

So, since we got pregnant with T, we've been on a health kick.  No BPA in the house, no microwaving in plastic, and almost 100% organic vegis, with all free-range organic meats.

One thing we read which we found really convincing was that the SIDS issue was partly caused by flame retardants in baby mattresses.  Most people buy new mattresses and the babies, when they sleep on their tummies, breathe in the toxins all night long.

We bought an organic mattress, and we were particularly glad when T made it VERY clear at a very young age that he was a tummy sleeper.  We tried to get him to sleep on his side, on his back, on our chest, but eventually we gave in.  Dude liked to sleep like a little roasted chicken with his booty in the air and his face in the mattress.

We bought him a crib mattress which at the time seemed a little excessive price wise, but as we're about to use it with our second baby - we're so glad we made the investment with our first!



T slept really well on it, even with his excessive vomiting (pretty much his entire life) the mattress looks good as new as we took it out of storage.  When we did our garage clean out/moving baby things into the house again move, we realized one thing we didn't do well - the changing table.

Baby T actually did spend a good bit of time there.  Bubbs would play him guitar, he had stuff to look at, and was generally happy, but we didn't think about the fact that the changing pad was made of plain OLD foam.  We had inherited it from my sister, and at the time weren't as aware of the dangers of foam decomposing.  After being in our garage for a year, it was in even worse shape, so we tossed it.  Strangely, there weren't a lot of alternatives to the poison foam ones!

Once again I did a search for naturepedic (since we had such good luck there with our crib mattress) and ended up purchasing the contoured changing pad as well.

While I usually prefer to buy things used, I couldn't find this used at all!

We dropped a few more dollars on this than we had originally planned, but our little guys are so important to us and anything we can do to increase their safety and health, we're in for.

I'm still going to handmake a changing pad cover once my leave starts (in 7 days!), but for now, T likes to put his dolls on it (it fits perfectly on our ikea expedit shelves too!).

*the links included in this post are paid advertisements - I wouldn't endorse them if I didn't love them and truly believe in their benefits.

Au Pair Room Status Update

I have to keep reminding myself that I won't be seeing this room again for about 2 years once I'm done decorating it!  It doesn't need to be perfect - at 22 year old is living in it :)

We're almost $1000 into the decor (including bedding, fridge, microwave, rug, bed, frame, etc) - which I have to admit is a bit more than I was planning, but I like for my guests to feel comfortable - and our Au Pair will be a guest.  Plus, I'm doing everything I can to make it feel less like a room in the garage and more like a cool little apartment.

I'm really liking it and thinking that this is what we should have done from day one - the room is SO much more functional - even without a ton of "running' room.

Before:


After:




Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before:



After:

Demo Begins!

After some really frustrating experiences with contractors, we found someone we really like.

He also lives next door to the house!  Don't worry, we checked references.

We meet with the architect to help us draw up plans for the county on Saturday, but we've had him start demo on the carpet, drop ceiling, and floors so we can see what we're up against to get a better idea of budget.

This guy is great because he's really helping us stay in budget (the other two quotes we got were from guys who do amazing finish work, but were about 100,000 over our budget - this is a cabin for us, not a palace or full time home).

He sent a picture today as the work got going.

Before Demo:


After Demo:



The goal is to drywall to the cathedral ceiling and then just spray the ceilings white and keep them open like that. 

This will be a sleeping porch for kids and a sun room on days when the sun gets high enough to pass through the redwood trees. 

We're thinking of a floating engineered hardwood floor in here as well as new windows (these ones are single paned and don't exactly lock).

Hopefully lots of daybeds, board games, and lego activity will happen in this room!