Nugget's Nursery- Built in Desk back to Closet

This weekend I really started to make room for Nugs.  I needed to clean our room anyway, so I just went all the way and started some remodeling.  We had a built in desk that used to be a closet in our bedroom.  We never used it as a closet because we have that huge room that is holding all of our clothes. 
 
Step 1: Clear out the desk.  I realized I should have taken a before picture, but just take my word for it, it was a disaster.

The wood along the bottom held the desk part.  That has now been recycled into a shelf to hold our extra pillows and blankets.  I tried to unscrew the boards, but when Bill installed them, he made it for life.  I then had to remove all those stickers that I thought were so cute when I put them up.  It was a pain in the butt, my shoulders are still sore this morning.
 
Step 2:  Hang clothes

 
I have lots of different closet pieces to steal from the other room, I just had to find the ones that fit.  I started to steal a rod and it ended up being to short, so I had to take the longest one we have.  We installed it, then added the shelf right above it.  This actually holds much more than I originally thought.  Now there is still a ton of wasted space.  With a two bedroom house, I am not allowing wasted space anymore.

Step 3: Add more storage

So we stole some shoe storage and shelves from next door and made our own little closet system.  I utilized all the space above to store the millions of blankets and pillows we have.  Now this is not any where near all of our clothes, but it sure took away a good portion of them.  The next step is to paint and then we are going to purchase a closet system to hold the rest.  Dufda was very surprised at how much we were able to fit and organize in this little space. 

After making this closet all day, I realized that I can no longer go like use to.  I could barely stand up my back hurt so bad.  I was getting out of a chair like I was 40 weeks pregnant instead of just 16.  A nursery should just be put into your house the second you are married, I bet it would be a lot more fun to make then.

Pregnancy Calendar Review

I first got the Belly Book to track my pregnancy, but there were some areas that I didn't really like, or that could have been improved upon.  My sister then called me from Hallmark to tell me that she had found a pregnancy calendar and she was buying it for me.  She has already been pregnant twice, and says that she liked the calendar because she would hang it up and when she walked by it, she would write in it.  So when I go it home I started to flip through it and, I too, loved it.  It works nicely with my Belly Book.  The calendar also has super fun stickers that you add when things happen: Start a registry, hear the heartbeat, have a doctor's appointment, you get the picture.

The calendar is seperated by month, and has more room for writing then the Belly Book, but fewer places for pictures.  It also has a place where you can list the notes from your doctor's appointments, or create a to-do list.  They have cute prompts throughout that ask you: Maternity clothes yet?, Belly Button in or out?, How is the morning sickness?.  All of these are coordinated with what month they should occur in.

Near the end, you will get to write about your baby shower and the baby's arrival.  They also have a calendar that matches for after the baby comes.  I feel like this would be much better than an actuall book, because I am pretty sure that after two kids my parents gave up on the baby book with me.  Just hang to your wall and make notes when you pass it.

 

I really like having both, but I am also very tedious about tracking every moment of this pregnancy so I can remember it.   If you would like to purchase your own, click the here!

 



 

Introducing the Fur-Nuggets

Most people think we are crazy.  One of those reason is because we have three dogs.  They are a huge part of our life and I would never give them up for anything.  Dufda on the other hand took a little more convincing.  Dufda, being Muslim, was not raised with dogs in the house.  I get that it is hard to get use to but I honestly do not remember any other way.  Now that we are adding a new, non-fur Nugget to house, I know everyone is probably thinking we are even more crazy.  To be honest, I trust ours pups and think they are going to do great with a new baby.  I have nothing to base this on, so I guess we will just have to wait and see, as well as register for a ton of baby gates.  So with out further a do, here our the Fur-Nuggets:

 

Coco

 

I have had Coco the longest of any of the pups.  I received him from a grad student who no longer had time for him.  We had introduced him to my only dog at the time, Nala, and they got along great.  Coco became mine in February of 2009.  We think Coco is around 13 years old.  He is a mix of Chow Chow and Cocker Spaniel.  Coco has definitely been a handful ever since I got him.  Three days after he moved into our very full apartment (4 people, 3 dogs, 1 bunny, and a turtle), he got in a fight with one of the other dogs.  Out of instinct I tried to break up the fight, this sent me to the emergency room because Coco bit me.  Then while walking him, he latched on to the pants of some person walking down the street, lucky that person just tried to run away and never pressed any charges.  Flash forward to when I moved into my own house, Coco bit the neighbor when he came over to the house.  I thought that this was the last time, but still no one tried to do anything to Coco.  The next year on 4th of July, someone tried to break it our house and Coco bit them as well.  They did try to press charges, that was quickly stopped since they tried to break into my house!  So needless to say, my Beware of Dog sign outside of my house actually has meaning.  Coco makes me feel safe though, he has never tried to hurt anyone who was suppose to be here.  A couple months ago, he started to developed a growth in his mouth that we were unsure of.  After a second opinion at a different vet, we found that it is a malignant tumor.  I think at some point it will take over his mouth and we will need to make a decision then, but for right now, he is hanging in there.

 

Dolce





 

I got Dolce next, in August of 2009. I had just had Nala put down due to cancer the week before and wasn't able to cope well.  I thought getting a new dog would be perfect.  I had picked out her name before I got the dog.  I was sitting at The Summit, working on a Sunday.  What I was actually doing was looking at Petfinder trying to find a dog.  I found one in Pike County, Ohio.  The ad said 6 month old Great Pyrenees, I thought it was perfect.  I called the guy and told him I would be over after work.  The drive was long, and consisted of many dirt roads to get to her.  When I arrived, I was very shock to find where I was was going to be getting this dog from.  It was a true dog pound.  When they went in to find the dog that I wanted, they brought out a sad looking white dog that was incorrect.  I felt so bad for this dog that I almost took it home instead.  The guy went back and found the right dog, and she was great.  I put her in the back, the way back of my car, because she smelled so bad.  When I got her home, I gated off a small area for her, because I didn't want her interacting with Coco before we took her to the vet, which would be that next Friday.  At the vet appointment she was to be fixed and have all of her shots given.  Friday comes, I have taken vacation from work and was a nervous wreck to put my new puppy in surgery to be fixed.  I go to pick her up and find out that what I thought was a puppy, was actually at least a year old dog that was pregnant with 8 puppies.  I don't know what happened to the puppies, nor did I care to ask.  So Dolce is about 4 years old and is probably a mix of Golden Retriever and Great Pyrenees.  She loves to be outside and play with Coco.

 

Tasha



 

I was contacted in January of 2010 by Athens County Humane Society to see if I could foster two older dogs that had their owner die, and had no where to go.  I took in Tasha and her sister Sugar that night.  I had found a home for Sugar immediately because I knew someone who was waiting for a dachshund.  I ended up keeping Tasha.  She was super shy when I first got her, but after Sugar moved out and she got use to Dolce and Coco, she turned into a puppy again.  Tasha is no where near a puppy though, she is a 16 year old pure bread miniature poodle.  We found out that she has Cushings Disease, which means she has a brain tumor that causes a high release of cortisone into her blood.  This was concerning at first, but it has actually helped out Tasha in a big way.  We had to have knee surgery on Tasha because she was losing mobility in her leg due to arthritis.  This tumor was releasing hormones that were helping her cope and run around like a little puppy again.  People still never believe how old she is.  She is my little buddy, but definitely the most annoying dog.  She still wakes up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  At one point she even had to wear diapers at night.  We still love her though!

Nugget's Nursery - The Beginning Stages

This week I was talking with my great friend Bri  and we had this conversation:

 Me: "You know when we were younger, I felt people our age really had their shit life together by now."

 Bri: "I think you have done a really good job at getting your life together."

Me: "Umm really?  Because we are having a baby and we don't even know where we are going to put this thing wonderful bundle of joy."

So why am I telling you about some meaningless conversation that Bri and I had?  Well because it has to do with little Nugget's nursery!  As I was sitting in work on Wednesday, I came to the conclusion that I needed to make a nursery.  I then had to text Dufda to let him know what will be happening in our house.  This annoys the crap out of him, but I make most decisions like this.  He said "O.K," but we will see what happens when we actually have to start remodeling.  We were originally going to make the closet in our room into a crib space.  As seen here on Pinterest from apartmenttherapy.com:

Regardless of what we do, our baby will be living in a "closet".  This subject has been brought up by several people so far.  Dufda and I currently live in, what I refer to as, a one bedroom, one closet house.  When I moved into this house at the ripe old age of 19, my thoughts were not to make it suitable for family living, but instead to make it suitable for a 19 year old who has far to many clothes and a whacked out sense of color combinations.  This is all my mother's fault.  Growing up, my rooms was red, white and blue back till I remember.  I don't know if I chose this, but I grew to hate it.  Before that it was decorated in dinosaurs due to sharing with my older brother.  When I had my own house to decorate I wanted to make it fit my style, so this is what I created in what should have been bedroom #2.

It is a little bit excessive.  Dufda has only the far left corner, so he is definitely not the problem.  I made a huge step last week and went through my clothes and shoes.  This produced three bags of clothes and one bag of shoes for my super cute cousin and definitely the best dressed member in our family, Hilary.  I felt like the time where you don't really fit into your clothes and you feel fat and nasty during pregnancy was a perfect time to preform this task to yield a higher clean out.  I still have way to much stuff, most of which I do not need.  So what should I do to make this room into a nursery?  Recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Week 15

How far along? 15 weeks

How big is Baby? Naval Orange

What did I do with last week's fruit?  (This is a new addition which will get fun when the fruits starting getting weird) Nugget's Lemon was turned into lemon water.  I have to drink so much water that I am always looking for new things to add, or new alternatives.  Post your suggestions below!

Total weight gain? Same as last week, sitting at 121lbs.

Maternity Clothes?  Either those or sweats, depending how great I feel.

Best moment this week? Getting a pumpkin spice coffee from Get-go.  I know that sounds silly, but when you have done without coffee for so long, this can really make your day. Also I had a husband-less weekend (that wasn't great) but what was, our house got clean for the first time since I found out I was pregnant!

Miss anything? Running, hopefully it cools down so I can get outside and pick it up again.  The Pittsburgh Marathon is May 5, 2013, do you think I can do it?!

Food cravings? Powerade or Gatorade, I never liked these before, but now I love them!

Anything making you queasy or sick? I was so exciting to make this chicken dinner that you cook in foil.  I took one look at it and couldn't eat anything.  I then wanted spaghetti for weeks, ate it, then it made me sick all night.

Gender? I am leaning towards boy.

Belly Button in or out? In

Movement? Not yet, but I hear it is soon.

Wedding rings on or off? Back on when I leave the house, off when I am home.  It is very surprising when I tell people that I am pregnant, they look right to my hand to see if I am married.

Happy or Moody most of the time?  I had a really great week, but my weekend was still full of morning sickness : (.

Looking forward to? 20 more days till our first ultrasound!!

Dufda quote of the week?  "Today I wanted a girl from about 12:37 to 2:45, but then I wanted a boy again."

This week started out very awful with my trip to the emergency room.  I bounced back really quick and had a wonderful week at work.  The weekend then went back to being crappy.  Then Dufda came home and took me to get Taco Bell and donuts and everything got a little better!
Dufda went to Athens this weekend, which gave me some time to start reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth.  This book is fabulous, Ina May runs a birth center that is more of a community called The Farm.  She is the ultimate midwife and I would love if I lived in Tennesee for her to catch our baby. She has birthed about 2,900 babies herself.  The book starts out with birth stories from mothers who used the midwives at The Farm to have their babies.  I am really enjoying it, and definitely suggest it if you are planning a natural birth.

Pregnant? Link your update with us...

Nugget sends me to the emergency room

So Nugget sent me to the emergency room for the first time on Monday.  I am sure it is not the last trip we will make together.  Monday was also Labor day, nice way to spend the holiday, huh?  So the whole ordeal started the day before in the morning. 

 I am on pills for nausea, so I haven't been throwing up all that much.  Weekends seem to be harder than the actual week because I am no longer on a schedule, so I don't get up and eat right away.  I really couldn't keep food down, but I could eat so I was not very concerned.  I started to have a throbbing headache in the afternoon, after round two with the big pink toilet.  

We had planned to go to a party over my aunt's to celebrate my Uncle's 63rd birthday, but nothing was going right for us.  Dufda tried to give Coco a bath because he was covered in blood.  He has a tumor in his mouth that will be the demise of him, but he is sticking in there for now.  Well the water scared Coco so bad that he passed out, and Dufda didn't know what to do.  He woke up and was fine, but I thought we were going to have to cancel our plans to go to the party, to take Coco to the vet.  Anyway, we end up going to the party, where my aunt was making homemade pizzas in their pizza oven.  They were fantastic!!  There was also plenty of other yummies to snack on.  What I have found is that I never feel well after a party type eating situations where you mix a a lot of food.  

My aunt lives an hour away, so the ride home, in the back on my dad's van was hell.  Riding in his van is comparable to that of a ride at Kennywood, but worse. I got home and that is when my day went from bad to worse.  I tried to take my medicine and some Unisom, but my body wasn't having it.  On another note, if you ever throw up Unisom, it numbs your whole mouth.  I went to bed, woke up in the morning, and went to breakfast.  From that time till about 1:00pm all I did was eat, then eject.  I called the midwives on-call number around 12:30 and they told me that I needed to go in to the emergency room for dehydration.  So Dufda and I get ready and head to Jefferson Memorial Hospital, what a bad choice that was.  

When we arrive at Jefferson Hospital, it is filled with the best of the best of the Mon Valley.  We had to wait about 2 hours to be taken back to the room.  When I finally do get back there I am hooked up to an IV and given fluids, while blood was drawn.  The doctor was asking me questions about my care, and I tried to explain to him that I was seeing a midwife.  This doctor did not understand this nor seemed like he had ever heard of this type of care.  He kept telling me I must have an OB, and I would tell him that I didn't.  He took the Midwife Center's phone number to call them to make sure that this is in fact a real establishment.  He may be an ER doctor but I think he should be educated on different areas of medicine.

I look so pretty

  In that time period, another patient was yelling and screaming in the next room over.  She was very vocal about not wanting anyone to touch her, and that everyone was doing everything wrong.  Then, said patient tries to escape from the hospital, obviously she was not in her right mind.  Her escape route went right in front on my bed.  I honestly felt like I was on one of those first 48 reenactment shows on Discovery Health.  The hospital cop tries to stop her, but the patient turns around and hits the cop right in the face.  I only have a sheet as my wall, no actual room.  They end up having to tackle her right into my area.  She is then restrained.  This only started the screams from her that her hands were turning purple and that she needed a doctor.  This all didn't do much for my throbbing headache.

My doctor comes back and tells me that I am severely dehydrated and he is was very glad that I came in when I did.  I was hooked up to another bag of fluids and given Zofran intravenously.  This is when he started to question me about not having an OB even more.  I had to sign some form that said I was refusing prenatal care from a doctor, I went with it because I was exhausted and Dufda had left to feed the dogs, so he wasn't there to explain.  So after the second bag was done, they came over to discharge me.  I had to go through the same conversation with them about the midwife.  The nurse said she had to put a real OB on the paper to follow up with, I signed and left but I still felt like crap.  Lesson learned, go to Magee next time.

Week 14

How far along? 14 weeks

How big is Baby? Lemon

 

Total weight gain? Down one pound from last week, so about 6lbs.

Maternity Clothes? Ordered a whole box off of a Facebook resale group today.  Went to target and bought just about the whole Liz Lange line, I think I am set.

Best moment this week?The beginning of the week was by far the best, although a huge tease.  I really thought I was feeling better, then Wednesday hit and it went from bad to the worst it has ever been.  So much for enjoying a long weekend.

Miss anything?  Sleeping all night, which I suppose I should get use to.  I do think that it is cruel that when you are pregnant, you have to wake up everyone two hours to pee.  Everyone who is not pregnant, who has already been pregnant, or just has an opinion tells me this, "You should sleep now, because you will never sleep again." NEWS FLASH:  You can not store sleep, nor can you be pregnant and be without a bathroom for more then two hours.

Food cravings:  This week I finally have energy to cook, so we are eating normally.  I haven't had any unusual cravings, but I made some killer steaks at the beginning of the week and my mom made steak again on Wednesday, and I couldn't be happier.  Actually I guess my craving has been the chicken ceasar sandwiches from Panera Bread, I've had two of those this week.  But I also really like fruit, like an insane amount of fruit.  I'm pregnant, I am hungry and I don't care if you are 3.4 ounce little nugget, you better eat up so I don't get to fat.

Anything making you queasy or sick?  Does the fact that my husband says I smell count, that makes me sick.  I love him so I don't care if he tells me I smell, but what about all the other people who aren't telling me I smell.  I shower and wear deodorant, I swear!  Another is that I have the most wonderful dark black hair growing in a line down my stomach.  My sister wanted a shout-out so here it is: My lovely older sister, Tracy, was a teenager when I was born, I here she wasn't to excited about this.  What she was excited about was the fact that I looked like a monkey when I was baby, so much so, she has told almost everyone I know that she would brush the hair on my back it was so long.  Now I don't totally believe that story, but I was born with long black hair, and I still have way to much dark hair on my arms for most peoples liking, but really, how I am going to take cute belly photos with a black trail of locks on my stomach.

Gender? The old wives tale say boy, but we still have around 25 days before we can find out.

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On, but I had an awful dream that my fingers were so fat that it stretched my rings and I almost lost my diamond, so they may come off again to prevent nightmares.

Happy or Moody most of the time?  I think I am so happy, I have been jamming in my car, cooking dinner, and staying up past 9pm.  This statement was wrote at the beginning of the week, today I would rather just sleep then do anything.

Looking forward to: Our first ultrasound!! 28 days to go!