Happy 27th Birthday, Alexis! Also, in other good news.. happy birthday, Meridith Blue Folmar. It was really exciting to hear that my good girlfriend, Lauren had her second daughter via ceserean section yesterday morning. :) To my knowlege, all is well and mommy and baby are doing great. Here's Meridith. I love the name. I've always liked it.. Mere/ Mer.. such a cute nickname! Love it!
First off an update! My back is feeling excellent! I'm on a 6 week, 2x/week treatment with my chiropractor. Last night I got adjusted again and went on the traction table. There were a lot of cracks at last night's adjustment! haha. I'm sleeping better and waking up only 1 time a night now to pee. So it's worth it! Next week I start massage therapy.. which is covered! 1 hour massage for like $14 after insurance. Not bad! Thank you BCBS PPO. I'm half way through treatment so I'll receive a 1 hour therapy massage on December 23rd, December 29th, and January 3rd. Heaven! Then Dr. B will evaluate where I'm at and what she recommends for the rest of my pregancy. Tomorrow I'm at week 20!
Last night I finally did it! I went through all my clothes and seriously lost 3/4 of my wardrobe! I'm proud of myself. I'm donating a bunch to Good Will, right down the street, and put all my size M/L, 8-10-12 clothes aside and ready for storage in hopes to wear it again after hard work and losing baby weight! I'm merging my bedroom closet and bedroom drawers with everything in Georgie's room. Y-i-k-e-s! In our townhouse, we have 2 bedrooms with 2 large closets/bedroom. It's not very organized right now! Yet! I'm doing my part and merging my 2 closets into 1. I have a lot of stuff for scrapbooking, quilting, wrapping presents, and so much stuff from our wedding! What to do what to do! Dave will have to do the same as I insist on Georgie's room being Georgie's room. I snicker and snear at the thought of it. LOL. It's a lot of work and Dave just has so many clothes and not enough time to do it all but I don't know what he wants to keep and lose. One closet is full of his suits/professional gear/supplies for his PrePaid Legal business and the other one is full of Gym teacher apparel and his everyday clothes. He's got his work cut out for him! I'll hope to help him out and not piss him off. I'm hoping he donates a lot it if he is unsuccessful at a garage sale in the spring. We'll see. :/
So this week I was able to reach out to some loved ones for assistance on pediatricians. My mother in law recommended 2 pediatricians, my husband's aunt recommended one in Naperville, and another friend on facebook recommended one on Martin's Avenue in Naperville. So that's 4 to interview! I did some research on thebump.com about newborns 0-6 to see what vaccinations they would need. I printed off a vaccination schedule and description , side effects, prevent descriptions of all shots, and at what ages Georgie will receive it. I also printed off 'what questions to ask when interviewing a pediatrician'. I can now compare my insurance coverage vs. Dave's to see which one Georgie will be on. Even though we both have BCBS PPO.. apparently it may be better to go on Dave's policy. My HR manager said something like when his daughter, Rainn got all her inoculations that it cost like $6k out of pocket because it wasn't covered. It made me worried so I need to prepare myself for the financial cost and budget what Georgie will need. Another blogger on thebump.com said she added up her 1st year expenses and said it costs $6,100 to have a baby and get the nursery ready. I think that's really light! We're budgeting $10,000 for Georgie for 2010! aka No vacation for 2011 and probably 2012!
All vaccinations I researched look good to me and sound familiar to those I received as a child so I'm all for it. I've never broken a bone and I've never had the chicken pox and I've never been in a hospital! I consider myself to be really lucky and I had all vaccinations! I think there's debates and many novels to read for the pros/cons of vaccinations. At this point in my life, I figure I'll be a sheep and follow the masses and go with vaccinations. I may not be knowledgeable about it but I certainly will not blame autism on vaccinations. I think you get what you get in life and you really can't help it. I just hope Dave and I have healthy babies.
Our nursery room is 11x14 so we are only going to purchase 2 pieces of furniture. This is our nursery set we are going with: http://babysdream.com/ViewCollection.aspx?cid=10 I viewed our crib and 37"wide dresser we will purchase at Cribs to College, in Naperville. They have a promo this month for $100 off $1,000 purchase and a free mattress. Woo hoo! We should anticipate receiving the convertible crib, crib rails, and 5 drawer dresser in 8-10 weeks which will bring us to March and 2 months before Georgie comes. We are deciding on Paprika (like a cherry color) or Caramel (like a honey color). Both colors look nice and rich and the quality of the furniture is solid wood. I hope this furniture lasts a very long time for Georgie. I'm hoping the bedroom is big enough for Georgie to play in as that will be her/his primary, dog-free, gated kid-friendly area. Besides, it's MUCH warmer upstairs and the downstairs is awfully cold for a crawling Georgie in winter 2011. Haha! Georgie will have his/her own bathroom and in that bathroom we'll put the changing, countour pad and keep all the goodies like diapers, wipes, & medicine!
Here's the nursery set we've registered, at BuyBuyBaby, to go along with our furniture!
We'll have to have a garage sale over Dave's spring break, in March.. and open up the windows and start painting or decide what to do. I've always thought yellow and white stripes in a nursery! We'll see though. I may want to keep it more neutral for our 2nd attempt at the real estate marker in Spring 2012!
We bought the ceiling fan for the nursery and one for the living room. We are in negotiation and receiving bids for installation. Thank you http://www.servicemagic.com/. We'll see. We figure it'll upgrade our townhouse a little bit while providing much needed overhead light and circulation! I'm hoping to get both fans installed in 2010 as we did 0 upgrading to our townhouse this year and I prefer spreading the home improvements out each year.
We also are receiving bids for upgrading our kitchen sink (double basin) into a single basin sink! We don't know any plumbers and we have to re-do plumbing for the 2 to 1 switch because of the dishwasher and code reasons of not being able to have a garbage disposal if you have a single basin sink. I think having an 18 gauge, stainless steel, single basin Moen sink is 1.) an upgrade to our townhouse, 2.) will make bathing an infant easier, and 3.) bathing Bert and Ernie a hell-of-a-lot-EASIER! I can't wait for a hose! We currently don't have one and I think it'll be such a time saver and a lot easier on my back. We probably won't do this until closer to May as the sink will be a home improvement and we may re-carpet Georgie's bedroom as well.
I think in 2012 we for sure are re-carpeting the rest of the townhouse before we re-list it. It stinks how the single-family-house market is kind of flatlining (in price) but the condo/townhouse market for sure continues to decrease. This week I spoke to my financial advisor and realtor, I bought my townhouse when I was 24 in 2007 for $197,500 and someone has their end-unit (same model) currently on sale for $152,500 and it has a ton of upgrades that Dave & I don't have. OK I'll stop stressing... and digressing from Georgie to the economy.
I'm lucky to have what I have!
