Tuesday, May 30, 2017

It's a Hard Love

Hold on tight a little longer // What don't kill ya, makes ya stronger
You can't change without a fallout // It's gon' hurt, but don't you slow down
Get back up, 'cause it's a hard love
But there's a reason that the road is long // It takes some time to make your courage strong

   This song called "Hard Love" by Need to Breathe makes me think about a lot of things, specifically the verses that I didn't add in here. But right now the chorus is making me think about being patient and positive while waiting the 13 more days until Emma's scheduled birth (Monday, June 12th at 12:30pm). The time has definitely slowed down this month since I haven't been working. I really like my job and miss it, and the people that I work with, but I'm keeping them up to date on their "Teletype baby". 

When the wolves come and hunt me down // I will face them all and stand my ground
'Cause there's a fire burnin' in me // They will see my strength in this love I found
   Zach came down with Peyton for the long Memorial Day weekend on Friday and stayed with his friend Edgard, but first stopped by our house (he hadn't seen it yet!) for a couple hours and we watched Finding Dory on Netflix with Michael until his friend got home from work. I also saw Zach and Peyton yesterday afternoon for about 30 minutes and we watched her climb all over a nearby "pey-pound" (playground) until they had to drive home.

  A few days ago when Michael was at work (maybe also on Friday?) I went through all of our bills and projected paychecks between now and mid January to see how much money we could put back in savings. We had been taking some out each month so Michael could work on his long project list, but I guess he decided we were spending too much money in a short period of time (I agree) and set a savings goal for us. However, after an hour or two of "crunching numbers", I let him know that after August we will barely have any money left over each month due to baby bills and daycare fees that we are not used to paying. In the words of Mrs. Molly Weasley, "We'll manage."

  Michael says he is already.. what's a loving word for "annoyed"?.. by how often I ask, "How much is that going to cost?" But at the same time says I am very good about paying all of our bills on time and keeping us on budget so that our savings account gets richer when possible. We started our grocery shopping for June already (mostly individually) and keeping track of them helps me make better choices. Michael went to Target to get some of his last night because he had a $25 gift card, and today I went to Publix. When I'm on a budget I usually go to Walmart, but due to needing turkey and cheese from the deli and knowing Triscuits were a BOGO this week, I went to Publix instead. I sacrificed my love of bakery sugar twist donuts and instead made s'mores pudding cups for dessert from a mix I already had from Dollar Tree last year.
   This morning Michael and I went to another high risk appointment to get Emma's updated measurements, but for some reason the ultrasound tech said the last one was on the 18th (a Thursday), but they have been done every other Monday. Whatever, we'll get the growth scan done in two days. But my growth is up to 133 pounds now!
   These pictures were from last night with me being 35 weeks and 1 day pregnant. Sometimes I think I look super pregnant and other times not so much. According to my Pregnancy+ app, a baby grows to about 2.2 pounds by 28 weeks, and 3.8 pounds by 32 weeks. So although Emma is for some reason five weeks behind, she is still the right weight for her size. But I have also heard and read that the estimates in measurement via ultrasound can still be off by a pound or two. The doctors told my mom that I would probably only weigh five pounds, but I was almost seven! So maaaybe Emma will actually weigh 4 or 5 pounds? As long as her lungs are strong, she can breathe on her own, and we can bring her home after a few weeks, we'll be good. That's what I'm praying for.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Gore Construction

  Project #2 of Many: This weekend Michael was working on building and painting wood valances to go over the top of the windows, and/or over the curtain rods. This is something he has wanted to do since we moved into the house last July. The previous owners had upholstered valances with a fabric that did not match our taste furniture, however, we do like the turquoise colored curtains they had in the living room and bought pillows to match! (We had red velvet pillows at the apartment before.) Our friend Lindsey hired Michael to build some valances for her house, which gave him the motivation to start this project yesterday. He finished hers today and the ones for our house will also be done soon.
   Yesterday Michael got all of the wood he needed from Lowes. He had his list of which size wood and trim pieces he needed and how many of each. Today he used a mixture of wood filler to patch all of the nail gun holes and any imperfections in the wood. Then he used three different types of sand paper and sanding blocks to make the wood extra smooth before painting it. He had Pure White semi-gloss paint left over from when we painted the kitchen cabinets and used that for the valances.
   In the photo directly below you can see two of the valances. The one on the left had been sanded already and the one on the right has the wood filler smoothed down.  He then caulked the pieces, then began painting. I will show Before & After pictures in a different post once our valances are completed and hanging up on the walls over the curtains. I didn't get a full picture of them, but Michael also made 1"x2" mounting brackets for each valance that will be screwed into the walls to help hold up the main frames.
 ^^ His extra wood stash.
   I am 34 weeks pregnant today, currently weighing 131 pounds. The next doctor appointment at the hospital is tomorrow morning at 7:30am. Michael will go with me to that, but I won't be writing about any baby Emma news from the previous appointments (this past Thursday and Friday) until later on when we have more information with hopefully more certain answers about her growth conditions.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Deck Stain

   It is nice to see Michael's To Do list dwindling down, as he seems less stressed as each project gets finished. Here he is completing Project #6. Ever since Michael and Brian built the deck over Christmas break, he has mentioned to me that it would eventually need to get stained, preferably before the summer months. Last week, after checking with me that we were fine on money, he picked out the color "Douglas Fir" from Sherwin Williams and began staining the deck on Sunday. First he rolled the top,  then used a paint brush to get between each board, then rolled a second coat after work yesterday.
 I love when I can say something that makes him laugh, because he is so good at making me laugh.
  All of the pictures shown above, as well as the last post's pictures were taken on the Canon with the 50mm lens, which I have enjoyed using more recently. The few pictures below were just taken on my iPhone 7. The Before and Afters ~ can you spot the old puppy?
   Tonight after work Michael said he is going to work on renovating Emma's closet. As of yesterday I was asked by Dr. Greves to stay on bedrest until delivery (rather than going back to work next Monday as I had planned). He said they may still want to deliver her at 36 weeks. I'm not sure if that will make Emma's birthday Sunday June 4th, when I am exactly 36 weeks, or a few days after that?  But when they did the anatomy scan at the hospital yesterday, she had grown 7 ounces since May 1st, averaging a total of 13 grams gained per day. Now she measures exactly 28 weeks, when she was measuring 26 weeks and 3 days on May 1st (when I was 31 weeks pregnant). So that is progress for sure! She is only growing at about half of the rate of a "normal baby in the third trimester", but obviously that was enough to keep me pregnant a little while longer. If she continues on that path, she will be right at 3 pounds at 36 weeks, so hopefully she won't have to stay in the NICU as long and we can still bring her home by July 2nd! :)

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Pinterest Projects

  Have I mentioned how Michael loves keeping busy most of the time and since we bought the house, almost a year ago, he is constantly finding new things to improve on? Some of the projects Michael has been wanting to work on include (1) converting Emma's closet into a changing area, (2) building and painting valances to go over the curtains, (3) making an area on the side of the house by Emma's room called Foxtail Cove, which involves planting grass to cover up all the dirt and adding a couple palm trees so he can hang our hammocks for extra relaxation, (4) decorating the dining room and building or buying a small cabinet that can hold our fine wedding china, which has remained unopened at his parents' house for the past four years.. I'm sure he has even more that I forgot or he hasn't mentioned yet. But this weekend is for projects (5) painting the front door and adding a wreath, and (6) staining the deck. I am still off from work for another week, mostly on bed rest/ couch rest, but was able to get some pictures of Michael working because sometimes I feel like his pictures are not on my blog enough. And I don't think he minds one bit when I brag about his multiple talents! ;)
   First Michael sealed off the door area with a garbage bag and painters tape. I really appreciate him using this "cheap" method since it saved money compared to covering it with heavy tarps or cloths. I never realized how much sound the door blocks out until cars were driving by and it rained for a few hours! He took the door of the hinges and began working in the garage. After he took the old kickboard off, we learned that the previous owners once had a taupe colored door, which would have looked so weird considering that is the color of the rest of the house.
  Project (7) includes planting more/ better flowers since these are the only yellow ones left of the five we bought in January. They keep dying and originally we thought it had to do with the cold, but now it hasn't been cold in almost two months.  I really like the purple ones, but he also wants to put some kind of trim, possibly with bricks around the flower beds to make mowing a little easier.
   Even when Michael is doing all the work, he always finds a way to give me credit. He's so sweet like that. He reminded me that I was the one who picked out the new door color from Lowes: Dragonfly. It was several months ago when he first mentioned wanting to repaint the door because it was kind of dark, and dirty. I found the color in one of the pamphlets and driving home thought it looked too much like the color that the door already was, but putting the sample next to it really looked a lot brighter.
    Last month Michael sent me a bunch of pictures from Pinterest of some ideas that he saw of wreaths over blue doors. On Thursday when my mom was here, after taking two naps during the day, the three of us went to Michael's craft supply store so my husband could pick out fake flowers to put together. I thought he would just buy a premade one, but apparently those are uber expensive (around $150), so this way cost us about 1/3 of that. One of the pictures we liked a lot had a cursive decal that said "hello" above the door handle, but he liked the wreath better that had the letter of the family's last name, so he picked up a white G.
Taaa Daaa ~ the finished product!! He says we need a new welcome mat to match better now. Also since it rained for a few hours today, he found about five spots in the patio ceiling that need to be caulked since they were leaking, but he says that is an easy fix. And now he is working on trying to re-wire Emma's bedroom light (after watching an instructional YouTube video) since it can currently only be turned on using the pull string and the flip switch on the wall does nothing. But it works for the fan part of it. *shrug*
   Two other small projects that were completed last week: Michael replaced the two ceiling lights in the back hallway and installed a new faucet and shower head in the guest bathroom. Recently the faucet had rusted into the "shower only" position, so the tab could not be pushed back down for "tub mode". He learned that the hard way, ha! The only "projects" I have been working on include (1) unnecessarily buying more clothes for Emma from a resale shop called Once Upon a Child, (2) upping my calorie, protein, and calcium intake in hopes that it results in Emma's growth, and (3) trying not to stress out about how I will have already used 3 of my 12 weeks of FMLA by the time I go back to work. I'm trying to take that one day at a time and the woman in Human Resources reassured me of an extra option if I run out of vacation and sick time to use. Luckily, with the baby clothes, Michael has agreed that a few of the onezies and little dresses that I picked out are really cute. These are the ones he likes:
    Oh, another quick Emma note: she grew 4 ounces, according to measurements from the ultrasound that my mom came with me to on Thursday! But the doctor said the measurements are most accurate with a 2 week comparison, so I'll go back again on Monday, which will be 2 weeks from the anatomy scan they did on May 1st when I was admitted to the hospital. It's so nice to be out!