Wow - I missed shopping!

For our year of IVF's I was on a strict budget. Which meant no shopping of any kind really. I missed it. I love shopping, and try not to overspend, but buy things we need for the house etc. There used to be always something I could need for the house. I would go on my days off and browse and then purchase the things that screamed to me. I stopped doing that when I was not allowed to actually buy those screaming things because it was more a tease then anything else.

Well, I am back in the game. Now just in baby mode. I am really having so much fun furniture shopping, yesterday was the glider. My sister and I went up to a baby warehouse. I told myself not to actually by any stuffed animals, rattles, toys or clothes until after the baby shower, since people will be getting me lot's of this, but it is so much fun to look! I take mental notes of things I like and I suppose right after the shower I will be back in the stores taking some fun things home.

We still have debt, more then I hoped for going into pregnancy. But there really is not much else we can do at this point. The baby needs things. We will continue to pay down the credit card as much as possible, hopefully when the baby does arrive we will be almost there.

I will still deprive myself of things, I have learned to live without dinner out, movie nights, pedicures and manicures, but I will not deprive the baby. There will be a time again I can enjoy the things I once did, but not until the debt gets paid off. We are under 10k now... hopefully next year we will be back to zero and we can officially cut up the card!

Operation baby mode has begun

First, we sold our 2 door car in order to get me a more child freindly mode of transportation. The sale went off without a hitch, we assumed it may take a couple of months to get a buyer, but a week after deciding to place it for sale rather then a trade it someone called and was interested in it. Not a week later he handed us over FULL asking price (we priced it a bit higher thinking we would have to meet half way... nope!).

The adventure to find a car did not go as smoothly. Man is it stressful. First, we are a used car family. No need in buying something spanking new out of the factory since it loses almost half the value upon leaving the lot. We looked for something with low mileage and 2002 or higher. So we went to about 10 different dealers and most small SUVs had way too many miles on it or were just peices of crap. Then on our way home we were driving and we saw her sitting all pretty in a lot just about 2 miles from our house. We had no clue this dealer existed. But he did and had the prettiest greyish blue Hundyai Sante Fe sitting there. Perfect condition, one owner and under 70k miles... but the price was $1500 more then we could afford. Scott pulled him aside and did his thing and talked him down $1000... Done deal! I have a mommy car.

I was sitting in it last night and it all hit me, in a few months Dillon will be all nice and calm in the back seat as we are driving home from the hospital (hey it is my daydream - he can be calm)! I am so happy and am so in love with my mommy car - it feels like I am a grown up for the first time in 37 years. Weird.

Next up. Scott is on vacation this coming week. Time to fix the hole in the wall move out the computer and paint the nursery! That is his one goal for vacation.
My goal is to get registered, I will go one day when he is fixing the wall because he hates me hovering and micromanaging and I will start the registry. Yep it is happening!

I know I haven't been the best of bloggers. I think I like when things are too non eventful to write anything! But now that we are in full baby mode expect some pics of the nursery and furniture as we begin the journey to Welcome home baby mode... T minus 17 weeks and counting! GULP!

Ugg the room the room

We have spent the entire weekend clearing out the room. The room we have collected everything in now for 7 years. The room that had odds and ends, futons, spare sectional sections. Computer desk, games, JUNK. It made sense at the time just to throw EVERYTHING in here. Now that it is time to take it all away, I wish I had second thought it to begin with. It is cleared though, all that is left is to decide what to do with the computer.

That has been a subject of debate now for about 3 months. He wants it down in the basement. We have a small finished off area down there, but it is not heated yet. Umm honey winter is coming and we can not really afford to place a heating system in there at this time. How about upstairs, the area of the house that is heated but the wiring is not upgraded yet... nope can't do it. The living area? It would be too cluttered with one more thing in there. Hows about I just buy an inexpencive netbook? Nope, maybe for Christmas... I can not live without a computer for 4 months! Okay put it in the basement, I will use a space heater for the time being. It shouldn't be THAT cold until December anyway. So, that is the plan. By next week I will be stuck in the basement nesting away. At least at this point it is cool down there.

Next comes paint - I destroyed a forest and collected paint chips of every possible shade of every possible color I was debating. I have now narrowed it down to a smokey blue. I will get some paint samples this week and see which I like.

Scotty has to repair the hole in the wall. Tear down the 70's wallpaper still in the closet. Then it is on to painting the room. The furiture should arrive shortly after that. I still need new shades and a rug. I am searching the internet as we speak for the perfect rug. Debating the color of that as well - chocolate brown or a cream color... hmm.

I will post pictures of the progress as we go!

The nursery planning has begun!

I am so excited and going out and shopping hit home that this is coming and coming fast. I am at the half way point today. 20 weeks!!!

My mother and I went shopping for the crib and combo/changing table yesterday. My mom was generous enough to offer to buy the crib. My aunt and uncle kind enough to give me money towards "what ever I needed", so all of this helped a ton! I was concerned that shopping with my mother would become a struggle, she likes what she likes and tries to make everyone else like what she likes as well. I lectured my mother on the way up there that my tastes might be different then hers, she said she understood and I could get what ever I wanted. Well, turned out my mother does have similar tastes in furniture as I do and getting a darker wood piece was not an issue.

We walked up and down the aisles about 5 times. Always stopping at the same one. Then the sales person asked if he could help us. "I think I like this one, but I am not sure". Mom rolled her eyes and said to walk around again and get back to her. I did, and it was the one!! I loved all the detail on the spindles, legs and headboard (the picture does not do it justice).What I liked most is that it turns into a pretty impressive full sized bed as well. I did not want something that looked like a crib trying to be a bed since this will be lifetime furniture for my little one.

The delivery is due in about 10-12 weeks, although "usually sooner" as the sales person said. I can not wait to see it in the room! When I got home and showed Scott he said he loved it and would start clearing out the room this weekend. Looks like my strategy of having something tangible about to arrive worked to get him moving! Next week I will order the bedding and when it arrives I will pick out the paint color! I am so excited to finally change the would be nursery into a real nursery. It has waited long enough!

So it is official!

We were trying on boys names for the last couple of days. The list was in my previous post. We decided on Dylan at first, although I was not sure how to spell it, Scott said he didn't have a preference either way. Dylan is feminine to me - something about the Y that does it for me. Not sure, it just is. I know many people spell it with a Y and Dylan is the more popular spelling out of the Dillon/Dylan debate (if that is how your son is spelled, please do not take offense). But it bothered me a tad...

So H called me from work yesterday and asked me to send a email with the u/s picture to him. I titled said email "Hi daddy, it's me Dylan"

Next thing I know I have an email in reply. "Shouldn't it be Dillon?" Well, see you DO have a preference daddy! Wasn't that easy? He said the same thing I said, Dillon looks more manly, to him. Done!

So... Hi world, it is me Dillon Richard B.!

What's in a name.

I have become indecisive in choosing my boys name. Before we knew it was a boy we both liked Christian. Then I thought of it some more and became iffy on it, mostly because he undoubtedly would be called Chris more then once in his life time. My name is Kristine, called Kris more then a 1000 times in my life... next.

Scott's dad passed away. Richard Scott Br... Wait! While it is a wonderful tribute to his father, he already has a namesake. Rick is Scott's older brother. I am not crazy about Rich or Richie and mostly Dick. I could call him Richard, but again people will call him Rich or Richie. I thought long and hard, I know it is important to Scott, but I just can not hate my son's name. So what does any pregnant woman do when she is torn. She cries like a two year old. Childish? Yes. Selfish? Perhaps a tad, but I am trying to picture little Richie in my head and I just can't. You know the scream across the room test "Richard Scott Bre. get over here" ... insert record scratch...

So as any married couple does, we compromised. Richard will now be his middle name. Still honoring his father.

So here are now the contenders:
Nicholas Richard (last name sounds like pressure in a Boston accent with a B instead of P)
Michael Richard
Dylan or Dillon Richard
Evan Richard

Right now we are leaning towards Dylan or Dillon. As Scott said in a few days I will change my mind... Out of all the names I *think* this one is the best option for us, Michael is still overused. Evan initials will be ERB like Herb. Nicholas is a great name, but not when he may be a Christmas baby.

So what do you think about Dylan or Dillon? As you can see I am not sure how I like it spelled. The Y looks feminine to me, but it is the more popular spelling. Decisions Decisions.

I'm having a boy!

So it took a few days for everything to sink in. For the past couple of months I was picturing a girl in my head, so when we saw the goods it was more shocking then I thought it would be. I had to change around my whole thought process and was a teenie tiny bit disappointed because all the day dreams I had were of a little girl.

That all changed last night as I was watching America's Funniest Videos. There were so many cute boy clips and I can not wait until I get to play catch in the yard and tickle him and even have him catching me gross bugs!

I am deciding on his nursery and am falling in love with a jungle idea, I know a lot of people pick this theme, but there is just way too many cool things to not love a nursery there! Of course there is a turtle/sea theme I am also caught on. Wow only 4 more months before the holidays and 5 EEK before the baby arrives... I need to get moving!