Nursery Pictures

Finally! We have our nursery together enough to not be completely embarrassed of our progress! We have this leaf thing that goes over the crib (the one from Ikea), and Derek had a heck of a time getting it up on the wall. We had to buy special screws from Lowe's to get it up there!


So here are some pictures:

This is a shot of our crib. We wanted to see if we liked the bedding. We're really happy with it so far. 

Here's a picture (albeit fuzzy) of the changing table. I put that together! Go me! :D Let's just hope it doesn't fall apart when we're changing the baby one day... yikes! 

Here's the dresser. You can see the curtains we have up in there for now. We're planning to get some green curtains that are thicker. 

Here's Maggie. She thinks this her room... 

I said I'd post a picture of me after I didn't look so dead tired. Well, I still look tired, but I'm wearing tighter clothes. Usually, I'll take pictures after work or something so I don't look slouchy. On most weekends, I wear  yoga pants and t shirts. I've been getting really hot lately, so tank tops have been my friend. 

As far as symptoms go, I feel okay. I have heartburn (typical) and I get tired. Last night, I didn't sleep well at all. I went and ran at the fitness center last night while Derek was watching football, and I woke up around 2 whining and complaining that my entire body hurt. I hadn't been running on a treadmill, or regularly for that matter, so I think my body wasn't ready for it. I had to take a Tylenol. That really sucked. I'm going to stick with the elliptical from here on out. 

I haven't said much about cravings lately. Mostly, I've craved cranberries. Maybe it's because it's Thanksgiving and one of my favorite things to eat - cranberry relish - is loaded with cranberries. I eat Craisins, and I even eat jellied cranberry sauce (usually, I hate this stuff, but it's a good quick fix). Right now, I'm craving eggs, and I think that's what I'll have for lunch - perhaps an egg sandwich or hard-boiled eggs. 

My face has cleared up a lot with this topical stuff my doctor gave me. It's made a huge difference. It's not perfect, but I'm not embarrassed of my face anymore. I actually feel okay not wearing make up out in public which is something I REALLY missed. I hate make up. I always feel so gaudy wearing it.

One new symptom: This morning at Mass, I felt terrible. It was really warm in the Church, and I was having trouble kneeling and standing up. I told Derek that I thought I was going to pass out. It was awful. As soon as I got outside, I felt better. This happened another time, too. The other day I was driving home from work, and all of a sudden, I had to stop the car because I told Derek I was seeing stars and I was convinced I was going to pass out driving. I felt better once I got in the passenger seat, but man, that was scary. I'm not that worried about it because on both of these occasions, I've either felt really, really hot or was wearing constricting clothing - or both. I wore tights that day, and I've decided to not do that anymore unless absolutely necessary. I think my belly has become too big to be comfortable in anything tight. So, sorry, BellaBand, you're now being relegated to depths of my closet. :(

And speaking of large bellies, I think it's amazing that Baby Ratcliff is the size of a cantaloupe! I believe it by the looks of my tummy!  :) 

Welp, I better get back to helping Derek with the household prep for Thanksgiving! We're trying to get our house in order before Mom gets here!! :)

Nursery Furniture and other rantings

So, we finally have exciting news! 


Derek and I ordered our nursery furniture the other day, and I hope it will be here very soon. We decided to go with a dark brown. I think it was described as "coffee." We ordered the crib, changing table, and a chest of drawers for the baby's things. 


The crib is convertible, and it will eventually make a larger bed for Little Kid Ratcliff. That makes us very happy because it saves us money in the long run. 


I'm very excited! After we put everything together, we'll take pictures and post them :) 


Things are going well otherwise. I'm almost 90% sure we're in the midst of a growth spurt right now. I've had a lot of stretching pain, and sometimes, it's so intense I double over for a second. Lots of stretching and lots of pain that shoots down my hips. I guess this is that new fangled "round ligament pain" I heard so much about.  My weight has been pretty stable, and I think I've gained about a pound this week. I've been weighing myself every day to try and stay on top of it. Overall, I've gained about 10 lbs - that includes the pre-weigh in, lack of running weight gain, too. 10 lbs isn't that bad. 


Another indicator that we're in the middle of a growth spurt is that last Saturday I was bragging about how great I felt and I ran for forty minutes. I tried running on Tuesday, and that failed miserably. I thought, "Maybe I'm just tired." Well, I tried again on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and all of those days ended in about 10 minutes of running and walking for the remainder of the workout. All of this round ligament pain makes it very hard to run. I had read on Runner's World that it's a good idea to get a Bella Band or a support band to wear when you run so the pain doesn't stop you. I think I'm going to try and pick one of those up today. 


I've been hitting the Wii Fit a lot. Makes me feel like a total weenie. I always just did the balance games for fun, but now, I'm actually doing the little lame workouts just to keep myself from blimping up. And I'm sorry, but that yoga is not yoga. Just for the record. 


Other symptoms have included more pregnancy acne. One of my coworkers recommended seeing a dermatologist since there are things you can take. I've seriously been considering it. I'm able to cover it up, but it just makes me feel mega ugly. Derek says it's not that bad and he doesn't even notice it. That's all that really matters :)


I've had a  few more suspect moments when I thought I could feel the baby move. I'm not sure, though. Apparently, you can have twinges in your stomach when your uterus is growing, so I'm not quite calling it movement yet. It could be a number of things: gas; uterus twinges; food digesting. In about 2 more weeks, I'll be 100% sure.


And speaking of being mega ugly, I'm going to a hair appointment today. That may sound like, "What? that's not a big deal." I do not cut my hair. Ever. For any reason. After the fiasco of April 2008 when that skank heifer cut all of my hair off at Fort Stewart, I've been skiddish of salons since. Today, I've decided that I will go and let someone trim my hair and possibly add "shape" to it. Whatever that means. I just want to wear it in a ponytail. I can't stand having a bunch of hair bouncing all over the place when I'm trying to run, or do anything constructive for that matter. I guess how this relates to Baby Ratcliff is that I'm really worried about having hair that will not be easy to wear after he/she gets here. I sound like my hair is low maintenance, but I spend a lot of time straightening it. I'm hoping that maybe the trim/shaping b-s they do will cut some of the nappy out and I won't have to devote so much time to flat ironing it. 


I'm definitely wearing a lot of maternity clothes at this point. It's not entirely maternity, but I'm sticking to either maternity pants or stretchy skirts I had before I got pregnant. I wear a lot of dresses because they're most comfortable. It hasn't been cool enough for tights yet, but I'm looking forward to that. I'd like to find some good boots, but I can't find any that I like for less than 300 dollars. With all this I hear about feet growing (and God forbid that happens to me with my size ten Fred Flintstone feet), I'm not paying a lot of money for boots and then not have them fit. 


Anyway, this is turning into something about me, and I don't want it to be. We'll post pictures of snazzy nursery furniture when we (I mean Derek) get it together. We're going to shop a little in Savannah today after my hair appointment, so we may pick up a few more things for Baby Ratcliff while we're out. I can't believe tomorrow is week 17! :) We're almost half way there!!