Pregnancy Sleep.

Coming to you live at 6:23 a.m., it's me! Tired and confused over broken sleep that abruptly ended around 3:30 this morning. Yep. So I've been surfing the internet and washing dishes. I've heard this nonsense lack of sleep in a random unfathomable pattern is nature's way of ensuring I'm accustomed to the sleep deprivation that is new parenthood. Well, colour me used to it. I am, in my way. Don't much care for it, but I can deal.

I'm not really expecting to enjoy motherhood at first. I'm not doing this because I think 2-month-olds are charming and fulfilling companions. Oh, I'm sure I'll love my baby, but what I'm really looking forward to is having a smiling baby who is learning words, and more than that, a child, one that can walk, talk and dress him or herself and say silly shit. This is not the fun part, and nor will the immediate future be either. I consider it all an investment in my future joy.

Yesterday I found a glider rocking chair on Craigslist for $200. I haggled it down to $175 and the Dude picked it up and now it's in our nursery. I'm too lazy right now to take a picture of it in the room, so here's the picture from the ad:

It also came with a matching ottoman.
Chair normally retails for $500 before tax.

I have this lamp en route:

From Lamps Plus.

And this nightstand will be the last item I require.

Sears item. Handy for holding my water, snacks and Kobo reader.

It's taken a lot of work to find sales, but the savings has been somewhere in the neighbourhood of $600+. Not to say we'd have spent more without sales (We wouldn't have), but we would have had to sacrifice quality. We've borrowed a few things, like a Jolly Jumper and a bouncy chair. McPal gave us his old rug. The diapers were a sale item, as was the crib, car seat and lamp. The stroller was both a gift and sale win. The glider is possibly my biggest coup. I feel very satisfied with my shopping, all of which, and this is no exaggeration, was done online. I don't know how anyone can haul ass around the city looking for sales and not lose time and patience (and of course the best prices). I love the internet.

Today is the Dude's birthday. There are literally no special plans afoot. He wants to order in Indian food, watch TV and open a present. That's it. I'll make him a morning coffee in a couple hours and also some pancakes. Maybe we can have nachos for lunch. He's not much for his birthday, but he certainly enjoys a day of having nothing to do. Since those days will soon be behind him, I can understand the day of laziness he's asked for. I was hoping we'd go out for steak, but it's not my birthday.

In order to have today be free of responsibility, he re-organized the kitchen yesterday. I can't even believe it. The fridge, once a haven of expired random shit now looks empty and gleaming. Under the sink is now debris and garbage-free. The cupboards are clean and organized. There's actually storage space available now. Someone's nesting in this apartment, and it ain't me.

Handy Dandy Friends

The nursery! My friends! They came together in a blaze of glory last Friday night and the result is the baby's room actually looks like a baby has any business being there. There were three things to assemble: crib, hutch and dresser, all of which could have potentially destroyed my marriage to the Dude.

McPal was there, along with our college friend and her husband and her college roommate. We're a happy pack of people who enjoy good food and being crass together. Mostly I shake my head at the crassness. But who am I kidding? We enjoyed some tasty Indian food and cupcakes as well and when they went home we were all stuffed with yummy goodness and general satisfaction.

Here are the fruits of their labour. And I say their because I sat on the sidelines and ordered food and tried to stay comfortable while they made the magic happen.

IKEA dresser.

IKEA hutch.

Sears crib.

It's still in need of a gliding rocker, a bedside table (basically a nursing station) and a rug. McPal has offered us his old rug no longer in use, and I really think it'll tie the room together. Heh. That so never gets old. We also need some crib sheets, a toy box for the stuff you see in the crib, and I want some wall decals.

And in the window we have the handcrafted gift from the Dude's stepmom:

Lovely.

We spent the following Sunday organizing our baby things and putting them into the dresser and hutch.  The clothes and blankets and diapers are all put away. We got a lot of disposables at the shower, which will come in handy for a newborn. The BumGenius 4.0s I bought would be excessively bulky on a wee thing, and the disposables will leave room for the umbilical cord. So, once we run out of those, we'll transition over. And that'll save us laundry while we get used  to the ohmygodwe'reparents first couple weeks.

I'm officially at 34 weeks.

Taken in the bathroom at Windsor Arms a couple days ago.
Classy!

Above is a picture I took courtesy of the full length mirror and flattering light of the Windsor Arms Hotel. My friends and I went to Twilight Tea there on Monday, which is essentially tea time for dinner, and as usual had a scrumptiously good time. Having a baby is definitely going to impact my now-easy ability to do these sorts of things. One, the expense may not work into the budget, and two I'd have to leave bebe with the Dude and some expressed milk, as I'm not the sort of person who'd bring a wee one to a quiet tea room. Three, no more Twilight tea, only Sunday tea because the Dude has a wonky work schedule that can't be relied upon on weeknights.

As you may imagine, I'm soaking up the freedom now.

Nursery 1.0

You know how everyone says babies are expensive? Well, babies are expensive. I can actually see why people have more than one because the more use you get out of all the stuff you acquired, the cheaper each subsequent kid is going to feel. Ha!

Today the Dude and I organized our baby gifts, taking things off hangers, clipping tags, throwing away boxes and packaging. The room we're turning into the nursery had been slowly losing control, slowly being suffocated with baby things, looking like it was about to vomit a daycare any second. The closet, full of mostly the Dude's things, was spilling out and could no longer close. Basically total mayhem.

Now? The Dude set to work after we finished sorting everything. It's finally starting to look like a proper room. Linens, toys, safety items, toiletries and clothes are all unpacked and separated. The scary closet is now a work of elegant Tetris. The floors are swept and mopped. It's prepped, and now I feel more at ease.

Some of our friends are coming over in several days to help us assemble our crib, dresser and hutch. And even then we still won't be done. We're still missing stuff we need, and I need to rent a birthing pool as I'll be giving birth at home. I'll get more into that later. It's definitely been a conversation starter and it'd be better to devote an entire blog post about it.

Anyhoo, pictures!

The organized closet,
and the unassembled crib & mattress in boxes.

All the stuffed animals, plus the hand-painted carousel horse.

We'll have to put gates up eventually.
The paint cans are temporary.

It's obviously going to be open-concept. Down the hall, past the closet, is the bathroom and then our bedroom. We're going to get a funky rug to go over this hard floor, and all those toys will likely go in the hutch. The dehumidifier keeps the temperature up and moisture down in there, not to mention it could easily double as a white noise machine. There's only the one small window, but it gets decent sunlight, unlike our bedroom, which despite a larger window, faces our neighbour's wall to the south. 

A part of me feels a little bummed we don't have our own house. But this is Toronto and homes are running for 600k and up these days for small places that likely wouldn't give us any more space than we currently have. Plus, you know, we can't afford 600k. We can't afford 400k. So here we stay for several years. We'll see what happens after that.

We have a room for our baby, we have a yard out back, our neighbourhood is safe and there are parks all over, daycares, easy access to the TTC, and the Dude can walk to work. Not owning a home when we start our family is more of an emotional bummer, not a practical concern.

I bet once I see the nursery finished I'll feel even better.

Two weeks till 30

So, I'm turning 30 in a little over two weeks. TWO WEEKS (and change). Oh, what a world. With gray hairs sprouting, fine lines developing and a bun in the oven, I'm approaching the milestone year with a relative amount of acceptance, if not unaccountable bewilderment. You go through life feeling like you'll never get old, that somehow an exemption will be made in your case. Not so. Though, like my godmother said, aging beats the alternative.

I'm not sure what the plans are. The Dude said he would sort something out, so I'm leaving it to him. So strange to have named my blog after this pending birthday and now it's approaching at an inhuman speed.

One thing I realize I forgot to include back at Halloween was a picture of my costume!

I posted this on Halloween:

Bumble bee minus antennae.

This is an old costume from 2009 that somehow still fits thanks to the powers of spandex. The Dude threw on his Super Grover costume and we sat out on the porch and handed out candy. Or at least we tried. We actually got snubbed by a lot of families! Heck. I mean, it's free candy.

Then at the McPal party the following weekend I had on my real costume:

Greek goddess, and yes, the Dude is Mugatu and loving it. 

Now, when you're pregnant, no matter what you dress up as, it's going to be seen as a pregnant something or other. There's really no escaping it without being a pumpkin. Pregnant nun. Pregnant witch. Pregnant Cookie Monster. So, you roll with it, and thus what was I the goddess of? Fertility.

The party was, as always, a great time and had a record turnout. It's really awesome to be out and about, enjoying my friends. Time is really ticking for me on the hang out freedom front and it's important not to take this time for granted.

The Dude started painting the nursery and we've ordered the crib. Inch by inch I'm growing and piece by piece we're putting together our new lives.