Major Purchase #1: Stroller

Today we went to Baby on Grand (a great store with staff people that are so knowledgable and understanding that not everyone is an expert on strollers) and picked up our stroller! We have probably logged about 10 hours of internet research on strollers, so by the time we went to the store today, we knew exactly what we wanted. It was a present from my mom, so we wanted to make sure that we were getting something perfect!

We started our stroller search with an intense discussion of our stroller needs. Yes, when you are having a baby, these are the kind of sexy conversations that you have on a regular basis with your partner. We decided that our stroller needs were:

1. All-in-one. We didn't want to have to buy a stroller for when he is a newborn, for when it is a toddler, for when we are at the park, etc. You'd be surprised how many frigging strollers some people have.

2. No Winnie the Pooh. In fact, no licensed characters is kind of a theme for us.

3. Comes with a "boot." Now, you people who don't live in the frozen tundra with children may not know what this is. It is a little foot cover that you can latch onto the stroller's belly bar to keep baby feet and legs warm.

4. Folds up small. It has to fit in the "trunk" of the Scion, which is not really a trunk at all, but more of an oversized shoebox.

We began our research on a fabulous website, BabyGizmo. In fact, I should just go ahead and set Baby Gizmo as my home page, that's how often I look at it. And I actually get irritated if they haven't reviewed a product. I know, right! The best feature about BabyGizmo are their YouTube videos, and they had one for the stroller we had our eye on. May I present to you, the Inglesina Zippy!

She had us from the "one-handed fold" and the fact that it can stand up on end after it is folded up. We also love the light-weight factor and the super small fold is a breeze to fit into the Scion. We even fit it into the regular sized trunk of our other car today with 4 bags of groceries! I know, it's the little things that get me excited.

Here are some photos of us with the stroller in our living room. Although it was very tempting, we didn't put Sully in it.

The head-on view.

We call this the "no paparazzi please" setup with the winter boot and the large canopy.

Liz making some tight turns around the living room!

Close up view!

I am not sure if we'll be this happy when we are pushing a baby around in it and it's -15 degrees outside...

93% Done...

While Jude is still cooking, we're getting his room all ready. It's been sooooo fun to walk by every day and see the furniture set up in there. This weekend was the time to get most of the decorations up. We have vinyl decals of robots, plus a few other creations... As you can see, we're nearly done. We still need a few odds and ends: the changing pad, a diaper pail, a clock/CD/ipod player, to name a few. But it's really "Jude's room" now and I totally LOVE it.

Allow me to introduce you to Hirohito Shibainu and CHUCK (Lindsay likes to change Hirohito's Japanese name up every time and CHUCK talks with a crazy voice, just in case you're playing along.....)

Here's Jude's signature collage wall. We'll add to it/make changes as he gets older.

We found this idea online... interesting fabrics in an embroidery hoop as a frame. We love it and it's soooooo easy and cheap!

Sully cleverly camouflages himself with the new glider cushions.

We don't have a name for this guy yet. Alls we know is that he likes to hang from the shelf.
This is Shy Guy. He's more of an observer (and yes, he's blue, not black).
This Daddy or Folsom... we can't decide. And... well, um... that's just because.
Here's the changing table we so lovingly put together with the Drew triptych and Daddy/Folsom hanging out below.
This is Volt, keeper of the light switch (oooh.. see the dimmer switch we so handily installed? Are you admiring it's variable light levels?)
Elton... he thinks he's a Rocket Man. (He's also in the corner, which explains his funky shape)
And here's the rocket ship and Dumb Guy. We know, we know... he needs a new name, but he's Lindsay's least favorite robot so Dumb Guy works.
And just for a little perspective, here's the view form the glider and the view from the door. We're still waiting for the mobile to come in the mail and the decorations will be done!
As for me, I'm feeling good... save for some lower back pain and some AWESOME acne. Jude has been trying out all kinds of moves. There's somersaults, the bicycle and, his favorite, hiccups. Yay for month 5!

Does this picture make my stuff look big?

That's right -- it's a boy! And since we aren't keeping that a secret, we can also tell you his full name (we're planners). It's Jude August Heyer.

The pictures are incredible, but they don't do justice of what it was like to see the baby move on the screen! You can see his hands, fingers, unbelievable.

The nurse spent about 45 minutes with the ultrasound machine showing us all kinds of different views of the baby. We were able to measure his waist (15cm) and his head (17cm). And we could see all four chambers of his heart and heart his heart beating at 168 beats per minute (bpm to those in the biz).

The technician took all of the measurements that she needed to take while the baby showed off his left and right profile. Third time's the charm, and he was a wiggler again. He did an entire somersault during the ultrasound. You could watch his body move in real time as Liz was feeling it.

Here are the photos from our ultrasound. Of course, he looks beautiful to me.

Okay, so the technician said that it was like he was sitting on a glass table and we were looking up from the bottom. So, those aren't his full legs, and it is a little misleading.

Don't you think that is a REALLY cute foot? Not just any regular foot, right? I know. He's a foot model.

A great detailed picture of the baby -- you can see how cute the profile is! Liz and I think that is his ear (the white part where an ear would be), but the technician said no. Hmph.

Cute, right?

Check out these two photos of Liz we took last night. Look how cute and pregnant she is!


"Hey, you see that bump? Do the horizontal stripes help?"


"There's a BABY in there!"

I think it's gonna be the most important day so far in my life.

Tuesday is the day that we find out whether Smalls is a boy or a girl. Hopefully, unless Smalls is being private and modest like Owen was when they went to check on him. I am pretty convinced that it is going to be the most important day of my life so far.

Not because Smalls is going to be dressed in blue with sports or pink with princess hats. No matter how much I support gender neutrality, there are still some things that are going to be different in my life depending on the news that I get on Tuesday. But nothing significant comes to mind. The things that I can think of are what color gdiaper covers I am going to get. Or if the storage boxes will have flowers or another pattern.

What does come to mind is the common threads between what I want my son or my daughter to be like.

Funky
Intelligent
Passionate
Independent
Free-spirited

Either way, I am going to be completely overwhelmed with anticipation waiting to find out if it is going to be Jude or Nora.

Smalls is One Lucky Duck

Smalls is only 19 weeks and the size of a large heirloom tomato, but one thing is clear - Smalls is one lucky baby. We've already been given so many special gifts already... here's a sampling:

(Super squishy soft activity center)(Frenchie little lovey with snail)(A little reminder of our Northern California days...)(A spoon that stores the baby food then squeezes it onto the spoon.. genius!)(Custom-made Dixon, IL onesie!)
(Snuggly flannel blanket - I wish it was in my size!)
(Hooded towel... perfect for bathtime!)

We are lucky, lucky moms and it feels so amazing to have so many people who have already made our baby so welcome into this world! Thank you!

And now we nest.

I never understood the word "nesting." You know, people throw it around all the time like everyone should know what it means. Nesting blocks, nesting mothers. I never understood. Now, I understand.

For the past three weeks, Liz and I have been nesting like fools (not quite like the insane birds in our tree outside our window, but pretty close. Not as loudly or as early in the morning.). This nesting has included:

• Two trips to IKEA
• Two Craigslist purchases
• One trip to Loews
• One overflowing garbage can
• One trip to the reupholsterer
• Three bags full of clothes to donate to goodwill
• Several nervous breakdowns
• Countless hours spend internet searching

The exciting part is that the fruits of our labor are beginning to show. Oh, yeah, that Smalls fruit is starting to show, too, but I was talking about the nursery.

Since we decided that we would stick with the bright green (Shrek green) that Dana so lovingly painted about 3 years ago. I mean, the guy basically used a watercolor brush to get that paint as perfect as possible. (Sometimes I worry that it may have some impacts on his sight later in life - I mean, the color is really bright - and I wouldn't want to take that for granted.) We just wanted to add black and white and have a color instead of a theme baby room. Like, it's not animals, robots, trains...it's green, black and white.

So, this weekend was the first time that we started to assemble things in the nursery instead of just dumping things up there like some sort of baby fairy is going to clean it up. And man, I am EXCITED about the progress we made. The beginning started a little rough. The IKEA directions showed the picture of a man with a rumpled mouth because he had questions about what's in the box. But we weren't scared, because we are true experts at putting together furniture. It all started back in '04 with putting together the sideboard with Erin.

Soon, though we were into it. Railings were already in place, and all we really needed to do was slap the pieces together. No need for rumpled face after all!

All of the animals helped us put together the crib...especially Sully. Now, he thinks it is his bed for sure.

With the crib finished, the room is actually starting to look like a real nursery! We think that our $99 crib from IKEA (of course, approved by Consumer Reports...I told you, countless hours doing research) looks pretty good! Next stop, ohdeehoh!

The first of Liz's crib sheets she is making is finished. We've bought several black, white, and green fabrics and found a great pattern to make crib sheets. The first one is hippo fabric from IKEA...I think that she did a fabulous job.

And then is our first Craigslist find, a black and white table for next to the glider (which we dropped off at the reupholsterer on Friday). I think that it is adorable and I love the $6 Ikea Light on top of it! Smalls and I are going to have some great times next to that table. Late, great times.

Before we collapsed, we put some of Smalls' stuff up on the shelves. Can you believe how many books Smalls has already? I know, you can hardly tell that one of Smalls' moms is a teacher.

More pictures to come soon, in the next episode of As the Mommies Nest.

The Nose Knows

We have had a major turn of events - Liz's sense of smell has developed a life of its own. I have heard before about the heightened sense of smell that many women develop when they are pregnant, and, like pickles and ice cream, I always thought that it was a myth. That is, until now that I have my very own pregnant woman.

Yesterday, our neighbor was grilling outside, and Liz couldn't stop talking about how it smelled like fish. Important note: it didn't really smell like fish. I couldn't even tell that it was fish at all.

This morning, Liz decided that our house smelled bad. "The whole house?" I asked. "Yuppers," she said. "The whole house." It didn't.

Liz is now like a bloodhound. My very own bloodhoud that will sniff out barbequed fish or regular house smells from a mile away.

Fruit? Is that all you've got?

I know that babies grow at a very fast pace, and it is all the rage for pregnant ladies and their partners to follow their baby "week by week." We, of course, always trying to be on the edge of what is fashionable for pregnant ladies, have signed up for these week-by-week emails from babycenter.com. We look forward to getting the email every week and learning what should be going on -- how E can expect to be feeling, different quizzes we can take, naming suggestions for Smalls, all that fun stuff.

What I can't understand is the weekly update on the size of the Smalls. It is amazing to me the details that they know about Smalls' development, so why can't they find something better to compare Smalls to than small fruits, legumes, and nuts? This produce aisle extravaganza started in week 4!

Week 4: Poppyseed. Really, like the size of those annoying things that get stuck in my teeth? C'mon.
Week 5: Seasame seed. I was hungry for bagels this whole week.
Week 6: Lentil. Just one lentil? Like A lentil in the soup?
Week 7: Blueberry. I want to know what happened to lima bean. Where's lima?
Week 8: Kidney bean. Phew.
Week 9: Grape. Green, red, globe? Who knows.
Week 10: Kumquat. We've moved into exotic fruit now. And I always thought that a kumquat and a grape were the same size.

I wonder if this is where they get they saying that giving birth is like trying to push out a watermelon. Do you think by the end of this fruit salad we'll arrive at watermelon?

We've got a wiggler!

So, Smalls is a wiggler. We had our very first ultra sound today, and Smalls moved around so much that it was hard to get a picture of her!! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until much later, but obviously, Smalls is active.

I am not sure if E has told you where the name Smalls came from, so I wanted to test my best multi-media skills and post a video for you. Keep in mind, this was all Liz -- and yes, she regularly quotes the movie "The Sandlot."



We are so excited to begin the next part of our lives together. I can't believe it is real!!