Insanity and other frivolous matters

I have plenty of darn near miraculous things I could talk about today like the way God spectacularly answered our prayers about the whole amniotic sheet vs. band thing, and that most definitely deserves its own post and a post that is of higher importance than this one. But today my brain is in a frenzy, and I'll be sharing about much more frivolous matters, like diving in headfirst to the commercial side of parenthood.

First there was much researching of strollers. That one's still ongoing. Last night I moved onto trying to plot the nursery I probably won't even be able to put together until after our move, potentially months after Baby Girl is born. But I need to start figuring out what to register for, and a nursery seemed like a natural place to start. We'd already settled on a kind of nature/woodland/forest type theme. And, well...I'll let the email I sent out to Olivia this morning (unedited) do the rest of the talking. It will be sure to make up for the last several months of my inattention to silliness on this here blog.

Enjoy. Don't judge.

Subject: These are the facts of the case.

And they are undisputed.

Happy Birthday to your man!!!!!!!

Now onto my real reason for writing. The facts.

1. It is currently 6:38 a.m., and I am awake.

2. I actually woke up at 6:12. (I think. That one might be disputed.)

3. I was up until 12:15ish.

4. I was up until 12:15 after endless hours of searching for the perfect bedding.

5. There are waaaaaaay too many options for crib bedding on the market. And even with that, Justin and I still couldn't settle on the "perfect" set.

6. Justin was actually giving me some feedback, but I'm pretty sure he started to think I was crazy after what may have been hour #4 of sending him links.

7. I found a wall print a few days ago with the lyrics of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" and suddenly I couldn't get a version of that song that Justin introduced me to out of my head. It reminded me just how fitting that song was for this time in our life and for our little girl. (You can listen to the song here: http://blog.pagecxvi.com/post/10440429648/his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow. Please do! I love it.)

8. Sometime during my marathon search for bedding, I saw this line but determined it was not at all gender neutral and that it would force me into too many pink and purple nursery choices, even though I do find it very pretty: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/Search/Search.aspx/sparrow/baby/_/N-1z1412k?AggBy=0&dim=1&grid=20&nty=1&sstr=sparrow. However, it did inspire me to search for sparrows!

9. Sometime much later in my marathon search, after Justin and I had seemingly come no closer to making a decision, I showed him the sheets I just showed you. He loved the sparrows in particular and deemed these sheets his favorite. At last! Progress. But I still wasn't sure I could be girly enough to commit to those colors.

10, I proceeded to consult the one site I hadn't yet scoured--Etsy.

11. Etsy is not the site to go to when one has already been on the computer for hours on end and it should be bedtime. Seriously. Pinterest should probably also go on that list should I ever join.

12. I found some fabric with sparrows that I love and that Justin likes just as much as the pattern we'd looked at, and I found sellers who would make what I wanted a reasonable price.

13. I finally went to bed content.

14. I woke up at 6:12(ish) a.m. day dreaming about said fabric.

15. Then the cat started running all over the room with far too much energy. I took it as a sign, gave up the fight, and got out of bed after concocting the following idea.

Okay. You may now have paragraph form. It can't be that difficult to make a blanket, a couple sheets, and a crib skirt can it? (And maybe a changing pad cover?) Do you think Joann's would have a class on that? Or maybe it's something you could already show me how to do? (Assuming you'd have the time to do that.) And at the very least, I would love to see what you think about which fabric to use for which particular piece, along with potential wall colors, etc. Will you let me know what you think? (If I don't hear from you tonight, I will assume you got lost somewhere in this meandering email. Or that you had more important things to do. Like celebrate your husband's birthday or keep William from doing cartwheels off of his scooter.) Here is the fabric: http://www.hawthornethreads.com/fabric/designer/joel_dewberry/aviary_2, the first collection being my/our favorite.

Thank you! Maybe I can actually go back to sleep now (Now that I've unloaded this heavy fabric burden onto you)!

17. I am not responsible for the coherence/silliness of anything written prior to 7:15 a.m.

Updates

I don’t really want this blog to become all about our baby, but I guess that’s what it’s going to be for a little while. I just wanted to give any of you who may be interested the latest update. **Warning: This post contains words that might make some, particularly those of the male persuasion, squirm. If you can’t tolerate the word cervix, then you should probably skip over this post.

Oh yes, I’m sure you all know this already, but I haven’t said it yet on here that we found out we are having a girl! At that appointment, our midwife, Monica, told us two things. First of all, she said that my cervix was measuring just a millimeter shorter than the range they normally like to see. They weren’t concerned at this point, but they needed me to come back in a couple of weeks to make sure that I wasn’t dilating early. That would be bad news and potentially mean bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. Monica also said they noted something “academic,” meaning something that was benign but worth noting for the mere fact that it was something they hadn’t really seen before. She said they noted an “amniotic sheet” and made a clear point of saying that it is NOT an “amniotic band.” She repeated this, she said, so that I would not go look up “amniotic band” and become concerned. (This point will become relevant a little later.) Other than that, she said that our baby girl looked completely healthy!

Fast forward to my next appointment, which was last week. This appt was really only to measure my cervix, so we didn’t see as much of Baby Girl. My understanding from what Monica had told us was that my cervix would either be the same length, or it would be shorter, shorter being bad. My cervix measured 12 mm longer. I don’t know whether that was a fluke or a miracle, but whatever it was, it was a definite answer to prayer. It was even more of an answer to prayer than I realized because they told me that I currently have placenta previa, which means that the placenta is partially covering my cervix. If I actually were dilating early, that would be particularly bad news because it could lead to hemorrhaging in addition to a preterm delivery. But praise the Lord that is not an issue for now!

However, that amniotic sheet I mentioned earlier? The midwife I saw at this appt, Jan, said that whoever reviews the ultrasounds classified it this time as an amniotic band. She said that the band is not currently an issue because it is away from the baby. If it is actually a band, though, it is a fibrous string that can restrict her growth if it interferes with her. From what I have read, it can cause deformities like a club foot or cleft palate, or worse, it could amputate one of her limbs or kill her if it wraps around her head or umbilical cord. Even if this band isn’t near her for now, I know she’ll start to take up every available space by the time I get into the third trimester. I’m supposed to meet with a specialist in a couple of weeks, and my understanding is that this doctor is supposed to shed more light on whether this is a sheet or a band and then possible next steps.

So that’s the latest. I’m not fretting for the time being, just waiting out the time until our next appt. Prayers are appreciated, as always, and on that note, I want you all to know just how blessed we feel to know how much so many of you have saturated our little girl in prayer, even before she came to be. Is there any better way to start a life? I can hardly wait to see the answers to those prayers come to pass in her life.

And in more lighthearted news, I felt her move for the first time on New Year’s Day! And Justin felt her move last night! I was surprised he could feel her this early. Despite feeling her move and starting to show, I still feel remarkably normal. I still haven’t moved into maternity clothes, but I am starting to feel some aches and pains. We forgot to take a picture this week, but I’ll leave you with the most recent.