small step in the right direction

Andrew's bilirubin levels were tested again on Tuesday, he's down to 16, from 18 the day before. Pediatrician is letting us take today off - yay, no blood draws! - and we'll follow up with an appointment Thursday morning.

Final construction update:
Last Wednesday, as all the baby excitement was beginning, the contractors were here to wrap up our bedroom (aka office/playroom) addition. Of course it needs lots of finishing touches like blinds and artwork, but that will come later! I snapped a few pictures before heading to the hospital that evening:

are we there yet?

Pregnancy status: 39 weeks 2 days..... 5 days until our due date. We're surprised to still be waiting - but grateful, as we've been able to tick a lot of things off our to-do list in the last few days.

I'm at +19 pounds and still experiencing irregular, mild contractions. I didn't have much of that with Evyn, so this is new (and nerve-wracking) territory for me. Baby made a turn late Monday night, I'm no longer certain what position s/he is in, so keep your fingers crossed that s/he is back to anterior!



Construction status: Final inspection is scheduled for Friday. Siding is halfway installed on the exterior of the room & covered patio. Electrician comes today to finish the recessed lighting in the room and the patio, and install a ceiling fan in the patio ceiling.

Scott was home Tuesday to install the carpeting - looks good! Evyn was his "scrap girl," she loves getting to help us with projects.




We're still trying to figure out where to put all the toys & furniture (wow, did the room fill up FAST) so I'll take one more set of photos when it is completely finished. Hopefully the inspector will be understanding of our time crunch and overlook the fact that we moved things into the room before inspection.

Evyn & I had lunch at Oregon Dairy Tuesday afternoon, likely our last chance to do so for a while! Which was a little sad for me, Evyn and I often had lunch at restaurants, just the two of us, something we've both really enjoyed.

Today I WILL (!!) finish packing my hospital bag. Then maybe we'll make time to get a little rest - I think we could all use a nap day :)

paint, paint, and more paint

We were determined to get the new room painted over the weekend (as well as car seat installed, bags packed, nursery cleaned, and a dozen other things!). Scott's Dad even got in on the act, helping paint the trim. We didn't get the window seat finished, but the rest is done and ready for the carpet to be installed on Tuesday.





Evyn's one complaint was that there was no purple in the room. So she picked a shade of 'grape,' and helped her Daddy paint the inside of the window seat.

sickies, snow, and the big color reveal

So in retrospect, I realize that Evyn had the Flu.

She didn't have any of the stomach distress that I usually associate with the flu, and her fever was rather low (100) most of the time, with the exception of Monday night when it went up to 102+. She was so pathetic Monday night - really out of it, it was a sad sight. But she woke up Tuesday morning feeling much better! Not great, by any stretch, but better.

I've written many times about how disappointing this winter was for Evyn, who had been waiting for a *big* snow since, oh, last June. Monday morning, the worst day of Evyn's sickness, the snow started falling - big, fat, beautiful flakes. Poor kid stared out the window longing to get out in it! We ended up getting about 5 inches.

Tuesday evening, after much of the snow had melted and Evyn was feeling better, her Daddy took her outside for a little sledding.





In construction news, the new room was connected to our heating system on Monday. Tuesday morning Guy came to trim the room - windowsills, closet doors, window seat, etc. It's starting to look like a real room!





In life B.C. (before children) Scott and I liked to watch those cheesy home-improvement shows like Trading Spaces. Invariably, the show would climax with what we called "the big color reveal," when the designer would crack open a can of paint and the homeowners would either "ooo" or "eww."

We had our own color reveal moment Wednesday evening when we opened the paint we'd picked out for the new room - wow is it bright! I think it will look great when the whole room is done, and not contrasting against the white primer.


Here it is - what do you think?




It's actually lighter, and a bit brighter, than the background color of this blog. But pretty similar!

the home stretch

The construction project & our pregnancy are in a race to the finish!
Saturday Guy (aka Grandpa B.) came over to help Scott paint the new room, garage, and the holes throughout the house with primer.



Evyn 'helped' too, and then took a picture of her "masterpiece."



Grandma B. stopped by too, to help us get some cleaning done. Afterward she & Evyn watched a movie and played a bit.



Evyn's cold got dramatically worse on Sunday. She still isn't eating, is spending all her time in bed dozing off & on, and has quite a bit of chest congestion. Poor kid! This means we are housebound (again), which puts a new wrinkle in our plans to wrap up all the things that need to be done before baby arrives.

I'm 38 weeks pregnant today - officially 2 weeks to go! My belly is so much harder and sore than it ever was during my pregnancy with Evyn. I can't imagine going another two weeks. I am at +19 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight and no longer able to sit or lay comfortably, as the weight of the baby is making it difficult to breathe easily.

day 37 - patio continued

3rd day of the patio work:

the patio

A picture of the patio progress, from yesterday - day 36 of the overall construction project.

no (baby) news is good news

We're in the final - and dirtiest- phase of the construction project: finishing the drywall. 3rd coat of patch to be applied Wednesday, then sanded on Thursday. the entire house has a thick layer of white dust throughout, by Friday it will be double. So we're quite glad that the baby hasn't threatened to make his or her entrance just yet! The plan is to clean like mad over the weekend. The baby can come any time after that (but please, baby, wait until then).

They're also working on constructing the roof over our patio, which we will enclose down the road - perhaps this summer - with screening. Then the contractor is done, and our work starts in earnest. Guy (Julie's stepdad) will be helping Scott trim the new room. Scott will be doing the carpeting, and the painting - not just the new room but also repainting spots in the hallway, kid's bathroom, powder room, living room, garage, and stairway. That's a lot of work!

Evyn & I have been squeezing in a few extra playdates with friends, but otherwise mostly hibernating during the day, and enjoying these last few weeks of just the two of us. Scott is wrapping up the Philly job (that we thought would never end) this week, and then has two weeks of work in Ephrata - conveniently just minutes from the hospital where the baby will be born. Still lots to do, but we're finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

drywall

Day 32 of the construction project, drywallers arrived to put the walls & ceiling in the new room, plus cut & box around the kids' bathroom skylight.

Facing the front of the house (street side):



Facing the back of the house (yard):


Kids' bathroom:


Adding the skylight didn't visually raise the ceiling like we'd hoped, but it does add a LOT of much-needed natural light, which is great! Admittedly, it's a very small room for this kind of skylight, but we're glad we did it. The old window (on right, above the toilet) has been drywalled over, and hopefully we have some leftover tile packed away in the basement that we can add to match the rest of the pattern.

Drywallers are coming back Saturday to add a new ceiling to the garage (directly below the addition). Building code requires a fire-resistant board between garage & living areas (inspector is also requiring us to hard-wire smoke detectors in ALL the bedrooms, which we were more than a little steamed about! So far this "simple little addition" has resulted in work being done in 8 out of the 12 rooms in our house (counting garage & basement). 66% of our house that needs to be patched, painted, and cleaned..... sigh...... We keep reminding ourselves that it will be worth it in a few months, when everything is done & touched-up.

Any suggestions for carpet & wall colors? I'm thinking maybe a pale lime paint on the walls, but not certain. We already have every shade of tan/off-white imaginable on other walls in the house, grey in our bedroom, blue in Evyn's bedroom, and yellow in the library. Ideas needed!

lights, camera, door!

I got a chance to see the new room from the inside. Tuesday the hallway was cut open and a new door installed, so we now have access to "the room." (I'm thinking we should start calling it the office, but somehow it doesn't seem to fit until the office stuff is in there - funny)



Also on Tuesday, we had lights installed in our living room. It had always been a dark room, and difficult to light. When the patio roof goes up, the room will be significantly darker in the daytime, so extra lights were a necessity.





In baby news, my appointment with the surgeon went well. As expected, nothing new came out of it, but the surgeon- Dr. Frederick- spent a considerable amount of time discussing options with me and reassuring me that, in his professional opinion, there is no reason why I can't pursue a non-medicated birth. Yay! I explained to him that the communications I've had via phone with the OB's office led me to believe they would be slightly less supportive (although, in fairness, there are quite a few doctors at that practice, with a wide range of opinions and professional styles), and Dr. Frederick offered to contact the OB on my behalf to lobby for our original birth plan.

We also discussed follow-up... as I've mentioned, I already had some issues left over from when Evyn was born... and Dr. Frederick agreed to do some surgical work in the future, after this baby is finished nursing. So, a bit of a wait, but good news nonetheless!

My blood pressure as of yesterday had dropped back down, closer to my pre-pregnancy levels - 104/68. Dr. Frederick also gave me the go-ahead to stop taking the prescription pain medications, which was what I was hoping for.

This afternoon I have my 36-week prenatal appointment, I am eager to hear how baby is progressing. I am starting to see signs that we're getting close. I really need to get those hospital bags packed!

windows, a roof, and a date

Third week of construction wrapped up with the crew finishing our roof replacement, adding windows to the new room, installing the skylight over the kids' bathroom, and placing the posts for the screened patio.







Friday night Evyn stayed at her Grandma & Grandpa B's house so Scott & I could go out to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a late dinner at Iron Hill Brewery (thanks for the gift card, Grandma & Grandpa B!). We used to drive down to the West Chester restaurant for pizza in life B.C. (before children). Who knows when we'll get the next chance to dine out without kids in tow!

shedding the coats

Temperatures were in the 60's on Wednesday and we were feeling a bit of spring fever so we took a short drive to East Lampeter Park.










When we got home, Scott was tidying up the patio from all the
construction debris, and Evyn decided to check out the 3 ft. post
holes dug for the coming patio roof. She was in mud heaven and
crowned herself "The Mud Queen."





Construction update: the crew took 2 days off due to weather forecasts calling for rain, but returned Thursday morning to continue replacing our roof.