Our Baby

Wait, no way we have a blonde baby! I never ever thought I would have a blonde baby until I remembered that Robert and his siblings were actually blonde when they were little, and then my mom had a dream that I had a little blonde baby (her family is a strong believer in the prophetic power of dreams). Hmm, stranger things have happened...

But of course, the pictured baby is not really our baby, it's just my baby(doll). I picked up a bunch of my old toys when I was home for Christmas since my parents were cleaning out their attic. I've had that doll as long as I can remember, ahh memories. I also brought back a lot of my old books and I am so excited to read them again (books like Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie.) They are for older kids but I'm sure Julia will appreciate them someday. The cosleeper really is ours, it was given to us by one of Robert's bosses. Yay! So now the real Julia has a place to sleep, the other baby is just saving Julia's spot until she gets here.

Some Pictures of the House

I realize it has been months since we moved into our house and you may have all forgotten what the house used to look like (or even forgot we moved into a house at all), so finally, here are our after pictures. To view what the rooms used to look like and more pictures of what it looks like now you can visit the web album below.

Claremont House

Front Room

Kitchen

Downstairs bathroom

T.V. Room
Office
Upstairs bathroom
Bedroom
Not pictured:
Nursery- in the middle of being repainted and moving furniture in (this weekend!)
The "middle" room on the first floor- currently it is full of boxes of Christmas decorations waiting to be put in the garage and normally it has..well, literally nothing. We're thinking of moving the TV into the very large kitchen area (TV over the fireplace) and making our empty middle room a dining room and the TV room a guest/bedroom. The office and TV are eventually going to become bedrooms anyway once we start needing them for that.

2 Ups and 2 Downs

Our first post of the year! And the month is already half way over, oops. I guess its been a while since our last post.

Robert got me a new ipod for Christmas and I was really excited about it because I could load some audio books and listen on the way to work. I used to read a book on the bus, but when my morning sickness started I just could not read on the bus without getting more sick, and even though I have been feeling good the last couple months I still haven't been able to read on the bus again. So last week I sat down to load some audio books and instead discovered the podcast.
I love podcasts because they are all pretty recent stuff and its all free. It's like listening to a radio show and there are podcasts about every topic imaginable. So of course my favorite topic is pregnancy and parenting.

One of my favorite podcasts is called Pregtastic. They usually have a guest speaker (like a labor and delivery nurse-actually very interesting to hear her perspective- or author of a book) and a group of pregnant women to ask them questions and share their own perspectives. The women always start out by doing "two ups and two downs" about their pregnancy at the moment. So in honor of my new obsession, here are my "two ups and two downs!"

Up number one is that baby moves so much and I absolutely love it. She's not strong enough to ever kick hard enough to make me uncomfortable, so it is all good stuff. I could just sit for hours and feel her move and watch her poke at my belly. It makes me think, hey, there's really a baby in there.

Up number two other people may not consider an up, but I think I do consider this an up. I actually look pregnant now (and I mean really, there is no denying it, look pregnant)! It has been interesting the responses I get. My co-workers and ward members say "your finally showing!" My clients have just started to notice and say, "are you pregnant?" "when are you due" "do you know what you're having." It has become a favorite topic of conversation with them. It's kind of sweet how people respond. All kinds of people like babies, even the junkie homeless ladies and old single men. Even though I have been pregnant now for seven months I am just getting used to having the whole world know it too. But it also means I'm getting closer to the end and my baby is getting bigger and stronger, yay!

So now for my downs. I'm wrapping up the end of my second trimester and I've been feeling great, so I really don't have too much to complain about, but my first down is back pain. I have been getting back pain since November when I sit for too long, and of course it's not comfortable to stand for too long either. So I have to always be switching standing and sitting to stay comfortable. And besides just back pain I also get really sore like in my tailbone area when I sit for too long. I talked to my doctor about it and she made me take a test to make sure I didn't have an infection, but everything was fine. So unless I come down with a fever, its just another part of a healthy pregnancy.

Second down makes me feel kind of silly. I burp all the time! Who knew burping was a symptom of pregnancy. It's not like I have been letting out these huge belches, but more like lots of little tiny burps. It's annoying the way hiccups are annoying, so really not too much to complain about. And with those two complaints that's almost all the downs in my pregnancy right now, so things are going very well.

Here is me at 28 weeks, in our newly painted nursery

(I wore this dress because it is the same thing I wore for my last belly shot, but it is way too tight to wear to church anymore! It shows a little too much now.)

Oh, and Robert and I are now Uncle Robert and Aunt Melarie for the first time! Congrats to Robert's brother David and his wife Jen on the birth of their new baby last week.