D-Day Come and Gone

As of last Thursday, our little bean is officially overdue. I always assumed she'd be late so no one is surprised,  especially since I've had no real signs that labor is imminent. No real contractions, no plug lost, no dropping. Our NST this morning showed only 1 painless contraction and a very happy, comfortable baby. The closest I can get to pre-labor symptom spotting is an increase in Braxton Hicks and my breasts starting up the leaking routine again. Thankfully, her delay is giving us much needed time to work on the house. I can't believe I'm saying this at almost 41 weeks but we still have more electrical work to do and we haven't done the little extras like hanging towel bars, toilet paper holders or blinds. If you're standing on the street, you can see straight into the baby's nursery, not exactly a good thing when you want to walk around mostly naked. If baby wanted to give us another week, I would not complain.

Nooo more wires :(

The only really surprising thing about baby being overdue is probably how normal I feel. Yes I'm big, but I don't feel miserable, it doesn't generally hurt to move around and I feel pretty much the same as I felt in the second trimester, except I can no longer reach my feet. I've been making freezer meals, doing last minute shopping, washing and putting away baby clothes and generally trying to cram a whole pregnancy's worth of nesting and unpacking a house into a couple of days. Thus far I've got authentic Bolognese Sauce for 3lbs of pasta, Turkey Chili for 3 dinners with left overs and 2 lunches, Tuscan Chicken Soup for 3 dinners with generous left overs and Stuffed Shells for two dinners in the freezer. I'm planning on making some Baked Macaroni and Cheese with chicken and broccoli, some fresh green bean and mushroom casserole and maybe some meatloaf to add to the stash if I have time. 

My only real source of discomfort that I would love to see go away asap is not really pregnancy related. Our plumbers predictions of trouble with our laundry drain came true when I tried to run a heavy duty cycle and the poor little drain couldn't keep up. We were right in the middle of washing some really gross laundry so we'd used a more mainstream detergent than my typical chemical free variety. Since it started flooding the garage during the discharge cycle and I had to stop it to move all the electrical supplies and start bailing buckets of water, the clothes didn't get entirely rinsed out. I sent them home with my mother to rewash but one wash wasn't enough and there was clearly some soap left behind. When I tried to wear a long sleeved shirt from that load, I broke out into horrible, itchy allergic hives. While the pregnancy hormones are probably making it worse, it's unfortunately pretty standard for my skin so I can't count on it magically resolving after delivery. While the baby is being wonderful about letting me sleep, the hives wake me up at night when I catch myself raking at the rash on my arms and chest, even after taking Benadryl and dousing myself in Benadryl gel and Caladryl lotion. My belly was already itchy from so much stretching but thankfully seems to have been spared the hives thanks to the full panel on my maternity leggings. 

ugh

The rash aside, since 42 weeks is creeping up, the doctors have predictably started to talk induction. My only priority is to get baby here safe and healthy, but if I could pick, I would love to have a natural birth once baby decides she's ready. Her window of opportunity for that scenario is getting a lot smaller though, I'm 41 weeks this week and if she doesn't decide to make her entrance, we're going to have to evict her. I scheduled a second NST for later this week to keep an eye on her since we're officially overdue and if she continues to look happy and healthy, we'll give her until next week to come on her own. She's definitely head down, fluid levels look good and she's finally become so big that she's unable to turn anymore. Even if she wants to be stubborn, her body knows it's time too. Either way, whether it's on her terms or the doctor's, we're going to have this baby in our arms by the end of next week. 

House to Home: Part 1

I've been absolutely horrible about updating, mostly because we've been so busy that I've been falling into bed without doing anything at the end of the night. We have made so much progress though that you wouldn't recognize our house, or my belly lol, and it's starting to look like a real home. 

Last we left off, the walls had been washed, primed, ripped full of holes, patched and then the floors had been sanded.

Since then, our living room has gone from: 

To this:

To this:

Unfortunately this lovely clean room only lasted a night, as we moved a full truckload of stuff over and most of it ended up stacked in that clear bit of floor space. We're missing all electrical plugs but we do have the new LED retrofits in and a temporary switch so we have light. And the progress is not just in the living room. It's all the rooms! Except maybe the garage. 

The master bedroom has gone from this:

To this:

To this:

While our master looks pretty much ready to go, it also has no LED retrofits, electrical plugs or switches, not even a temporary switch, and until the house is a little more animal ready, we can't actually move our brood over and sleep there. 

The baby's room has had similar treatment which helps ease some of the crazy need to nest. I'm actually so tied when I get home that even my hormones are zonked and only heartburn or the need to pee can pull me out of bed. 

The pay off is worth it though :) The nursery has gone from:

To this:

To this:

The rest of the house has gotten quite a facelift too. The second door to the guest room was closed, the stairs refinished, the risers painted red and the front door painted grey. 

More photos are soon to come, there's still so much we need to finish before the baby arrives!