i think i'd like to bring this blog back to life. so keep an eye out for that.

a very long story about doors

there's no door to our room, just an odd-sized gap in the wall, and it became clear shortly after we moved in that something needed to be done. our cats are completely maddening at night and it would become an even bigger issue with a sleeping baby. so we started looking into our options. a regular door is impossible; we rent, and the gap is not a doorway, but really just a gap. it's about 46.5" wide and 96" tall, while a standard door is 36" wide and 80" tall. it didn't take long to come to the conclusion that accordion doors were the only option.

trouble is, accordion doors need a track along the top- something that we discovered after buying two of them- and doors are not generally eight feet tall. after brainstorming and arguing and being generally frustrated for a while, we decided that the best option was to have a piece of wood cut to size, paint it white, attach it to the walls with brackets at the necessary height, and nail the track to it.

the "doorway."

attaching the L brackets.

measuring. the combined length of the two tracks was too wide, so one of them needed to be cut.

tracks cut and secured!

hanging the door "frame" was the trickiest part and required both of us, so no photos of that part. fast forward to-

we have doors!

now, you might think that that's all there is to this story. alas, it is not. our first closed-door night was a disaster. you see, the cats were not pleased by this new development, and they were not about to let a pair of vinyl doors keep them out of the bedroom. mind you, their food, toys, and litter box are all in the living room/kitchen, so they didn't need to get into the bedroom. they're just spiteful.

the major flaw was the bottom of the doors. the handles secure with magnets a little higher than halfway up, and there's no track on the floor, so the doors can simply be pushed apart where they meet at the bottom. bit of an oversight on our part, i suppose. i pushed our old tv stand up against them, but it wasn't enough. i tied the handles together, no luck. as a desperate, last-ditch 4am effort, i wiped down the lower half of the doors with vinegar- cats hate the smell. when combined with other barricades, it worked! kind of.

notice that big red bookshelf next to the doors? yep, nickee hopped on top of it by way of the kitchen counter and jumped through the gap above the doors.

today we gave the tv stand away, so that's one less barricade. i punched little holes at the bottom of each door so that i can tie them together, and we pinned up poster board across the gap. the cats could pretty easily knock it down, but i'm hoping they won't realize that.

nickee and nono won't try to get through the doors as long as someone is in the living room with them, so i don't know if these new deterrents will work. i guess i'll find out shortly after i finally drag myself to bed.

my god, these have been a few extremely long days. i haven't been sleeping well so i've been forced to get by on a couple of hours of sleep here and there. it makes one day feel like four.

our weekend has consisted of shopping and projects. we finally got our tax refund on friday and it was enough that we could put some aside for important things and still afford a few luxuries, which are not common for us. naturally, i was extremely excited.

you see, i'd never been to ikea.

yes, you read that right. never! i've spent countless hours browsing the website, compiling wish lists, and imagining how i would decorate our apartment if i had the means. so when friday rolled around i finalized and printed my shopping list, and after a stop at home depot (more on that later...) we set out on the half-hour drive to ikea orlando.

i will spare you the play-by-play but let me just say two things:

1. my list didn't have a prayer.

2. shopping alone would have been dangerous- financially.

i was pretty satisfied with my self-imposed spending limit, but it turned out that ikea had the same effect on andy that it had on me. i was not expecting that. "look, this bookshelf is on sale!" and, "i know this one is more expensive, but it's way cooler." the flip side to his furniture enthusiasm was my weakness for accessories. i think we kept one another in check- or at least, he kept me in check. we ended up getting the more expensive shelf for our tv and an extra bookshelf to boot, but i didn't get the cushions or storage boxes that i wanted. sigh.

after an extremely stressful drive home with half of a large box dangling out of our trunk on the interstate (superb planning on our part, luckily our bed frame made it home) we began the long assembly process. we worked until the wee hours yesterday and until 3am today.

assembled: one expedit shelving unit, one lack coffee table, two lack end tables, one billy bookcase, and one leirvik bed frame.

to do: finish decorating, buy a box spring so we can actually use our bed frame, sell/donate all of the old furniture that is now cluttering up our tiny apartment, and install our new bedroom "doors"- again, more on that later.

progress!

30w3d

today, at long last, we got our tax refund. this means something wondrous- new living room furniture! SO excited.

taking a stab (no pun intended. just kidding, pun completely intended) at embroidery. this is my first (incomplete) attempt and i have absolutely no clue what i’m doing. i didn’t have any transfer paper so i just dove in, freehand, and i’m pretty sure it shows. haha. but i’m having fun with it.

if anyone knows of any good embroidery tutorials/resources/inspiration/what have you, please link me!

needing no justification for baking funfetti cupcakes at 2am is one of the many perks of being pregnant.

a teensy scarf for a dear friend's daughter. tonight i'm going to venture into the world of embroidery for the first time. productivity!

andy and his friend andrew, with whom he’s in a band, recently decided to participate in “february album writing month.” and by that i mean that they wrote and recorded it all in one day, in our bedroom. (mind you, our bedroom is not a closed off area, it’s open to the living room.)

i guess it's meant to be a sort of return to their roots- and their roots are weird.



pictured: andrew, hand drum, cymbal, ukulele, musical saw, bongos, large drum, mic & stand
not pictured: andy, pan flute, xylophone, tambourine, what i believe is a toy accordion, kazoo, bewildered cats, and various other bizarre instruments that i can’t identify.

needless to say, it was a noisy day.

all of my knitting needles/looms/yarn/etc have been stuffed up on a closet shelf since we moved. i think it's time to drag all of it out and attempt to be productive.

wordless wednesday.

andy's brother and sister-in-law gave us a babies r us gift card a while back and we've held off on using it, unsure whether we should use it for fun things or save it for post baby shower necessities. we probably would have held out until after the shower, but on a whim i went to babiesrus.com today and found that they were having a huge one day sale with free shipping over $75. who could pass that up?

it took hours to decide what to buy, but we finally settled on:



this diaper bag, which matches the graco "little hoot" travel system and pack-n-play we're planning to get, and...


our first baby wraps! i was planning on ordering just the chocolate moby, but andy said "what if one is dirty? how will we carry him? we need two!" i could have pointed out that we could use our arms or perhaps a stroller, but i'm just glad that he's excited about babywearing, too.

the gift card is nearly used up, but we saved $30+ on the items and $18 on shipping. totally worth it. i'm so excited for everything to arrive!

some babywearing inspiration:

so fawned
babywearing dads on tumblr
adventures in babywearing
ethnic babywearing flickr pool

i've been feeling pretty lonely lately and it was starting to weigh on me. last night, however, brought a pleasant surprise- two of our closest friends from new port richey visited orlando. seeing them was such a comfort.

they and a few other friends met us for pizza, ice cream, a long conversation about dragon ball z, and a heated debate about whether or not monkeys can juggle. (the jury is still out on that.)

oh, and the vortex amazing.



what's the vortex amazing? yeah, i didn't know either.



frankly, i still can't explain it.

after the vortex we all came back to the apartment to play things (the game) and a telephone/pictionary hybrid game.

the basics:

we had seven people, each with seven index cards. everyone writes a phrase on their top card (some of ours were: the four horsemen of the apocalypse, jumping the shark, like taking candy from a baby, and so on) and passes the whole stack to the right. you then read the phrase you've just been passed, put that card on the bottom, and draw the phrase. the stacks get passed again, but this time everyone looks at the drawing they've been handed and writes what they think the picture represents. this goes on, alternating between drawing and interpreting, until each person has their original stack back, at which point you can see what your phrase has devolved into and how it got there. highly entertaining, to say the least.

this has run a bit long so i will wrap up today in photos.

orange blossom honey from the farmer's market.

goodwill love.

i have acquired oreos (DOUBLE STUF!) and all is right with the world.

also, for good measure:

28w4d/6.6 months

things are chugging along here. money has been super tight lately, which means our entertainment options are pretty limited, but we do our best to keep busy.

there are actually a surprising number of free events around here, if you look hard enough. we tagged along with some friends to a john lennon art exhibit in winter park (and went window shopping down park avenue- oh, to be wealthy) and attended a free acoustic performance by yann tiersen in the most wonderful cd & record shop, park ave cds. soon i'll drag andy to one of the zillion farmer's markets in the area.



we even took a trip to the library where we acquired our very own orange county library cards. i checked out two prenatal fitness dvds (cardio & pilates/yoga), kafka on the shore, and ina may's guide to breastfeeding. i left disappointed, though, as all of the natural childbirth books i'd been looking for were checked out. share the wealth, crunchy pregnant ladies of orange county.

andy has been going through his induction/training this week. he's there all day every day, being brainwashed with sales techniques and smart phone jargon, which not only means a lot of bonding time with the cats (they don't really want to bond), it also meant that i had to go to my 28 week appointment at the birth center all by my lonesome yesterday. despite my dislike of driving, i actually don't mind the 40 minute trip. the roads aren't busy, the route is scenic, and i can turn up the decemberists and sing loudly and enjoy the anticipation of being back at the birth center. the chickens that i keep seeing wandering the streets of downtown oviedo are pretty entertaining, too.

at this particular appointment i had blood drawn for the gestational diabetes and hemoglobin tests. they called me today to let me know that my glucose was fine but that i am still slightly anemic- as if the bruise from the blood draw wasn't indication enough, ha. if only cookies were a good source of iron.

my midwife also helped me map my belly to find out what position the baby is in. he's left occiput anterior, which means that he's head down, facing my spine, with his back along the left side of my belly. this is the best position for birth. of course, at only 28 weeks along he could still change position, but he's been head down at every ultrasound since 12 weeks so i think he's just comfortable that way!

oh, and the natural birth books that were checked out at the library? my midwife had two of them, and lent them to me! so i've added natural childbirth the bradley way and the thinking woman's guide to better birth to my reading list. still missing ina may's guide to childbirth but i may have to just order that one.

anyway, this post has gone on long enough. we're getting our tax refunds soon, and that means new furniture! expect a post about my living room redecorating plans soon. :]

wordless wednesday.

we've been in orlando two weeks now and we're more or less settled in. the move itself went smoothly, no disasters, and we were unpacked pretty quickly.

orlando is nice. it's different. there is a lot to do but we're still pretty broke from the week andy took off work, not to mention all of the moving expenses, so we stay in mostly. i'm alright as long as andy's around, but if he's at work or out without me it becomes difficult to ignore how lonely it is here. it will get better, right?

sleep has been elusive lately. suddenly i'm unable to sleep through anything, and the cats have taken it upon themselves to destroy everything they can get at as soon as the lights go out. at this point i'm so paranoid about what they're doing at night that i wake up when they're doing normal things- eating, scratching in the litter box, playing with their own toys. oh, and i have to pee at least five times a night. so... that's fun.

anyway, i had a consultation at heart 2 heart birth center in sanford on monday. it was really lovely. the birth rooms were so beautiful, everyone was friendly and welcoming. it was perfect. i'm trying not to get too set in a birth plan (because that's the best way to be disappointed) but i'm crossing my fingers for a natural, complication-free delivery at h2h.

tomorrow (today now, actually) is our last full day in new port richey. early wednesday morning we'll pick up the moving truck and load it (and andy's dad's truck, and andy's car) with our boxes and furniture and cats and selves and head out.

i am stressed out about every aspect of moving- the chaos of our current apartment, the transport (and possible destruction) of all of my possessions, the fact that i am going to be driving andy's car to orlando alone, getting everything up the incredibly narrow staircase at our new place, and of course, figuring out how the hell everything is going to fit in an apartment that is half the size of our current place. andy is much less stressed than i am, but that's his nature.

i hope these next few days go by quickly and easily.

i really need to post more frequently, it would prevent long rambling posts (like this one).

the level II ultrasound at tampa general went incredibly well, if you exclude the part where andy and i got lost in a parking garage. really though, trying to drive anywhere near the hospital was horrible. who puts a hospital on an island?

anyway, my absurdly awesome friend ashley and her very nearly one year old daughter evie accompanied us to the ultrasound which was really exciting. the sonographer was easily the nicest medical professional that i've encountered thus far in my pregnancy (but i guess that isn't saying much). she went out of her way to explain what we were seeing on the screen, chatted with us, and- to my absolute surprise- showed us the baby in 4D! i had suspicions that, being a higher quality machine, it would have the capabilities but i just assumed that since the scan was for pretty specific medical purposes we wouldn't get such an opportunity. it was amazing. and beyond all of that she gave us seven photos, including 3D.

isn't he handsome?

on the orlando front- we have an apartment! it's smaller than what we're used to but it's cute and affordable and only a mile from UCF. we couldn't ask for more. as andy is meant to start working on the 30th we couldn't wait till the first of february to start a lease, but luckily the current tenant was already intending to leave early and we were able to buy the last week of his rent. it's ours starting the 22nd.

our current apartment is a complete mess of boxes and there are these strange bare patches- there's nothing on the refrigerator door, our tall bookshelf is gone (it wouldn't have survived the move), shelves are bare. the strange combination of clutter and complete lack of clutter is really bizarre to me.

stressssss.

andy has been officially hired at the best buy in waterford lakes and is set to start on the 30th. this means that we need to move by then. we are about 75% sure that we have an apartment but everything is so short notice and jfdsaklda. i hate moving.

my appointment at tampa general is on monday, and the follow up for that as well as my next regular doctor's appointment are towards the end of this month- at which point we'll already be in orlando, and will have to come back to npr solely for the appointments. so that's kind of inconvenient.

i don't even know. picture?

22w4d
my last day at target.

it has been a while since i last posted. a lot has been going on and every time i sit down to write it all up i get impatient with the length of it and abandon the task altogether.

so, a summary:

-went to the ER with the worst migraine of my life and no peripheral vision in my left eye. turned out to be an "atypical ocular migraine" and i was sent home with a prescription for vicodin that i never filled.
-the hunt for a place to live in orlando is ongoing. we found a really lovely little apartment that we could afford but it doesn't look like we're going to get it due to andy's best buy transfer not being complete. sigh.
-christmas was nice and, overall, uneventful.

yesterday at 1pm was anatomy scan attempt 2. it went much better than attempt 1. the sonographer was a bit friendlier, took lots of measurements and photos, and confirmed that we are indeed having a boy. after waiting to see the midwife for nearly an hour she greeted us with "so what's going on with baby's kidneys?"

um, excuse me? we were not aware that anything was going on with his kidneys.

apparently the sonographer thought that she spotted fluid around- or in, or on, i honestly don't even know- the baby's kidneys, and there was also something mentioned about dilation. now this all may seem imprecise, but this is literally the extent of the information that we were able to glean from the midwife. (eta: his kidneys were mildly dilated.) she had no idea that the sonographer hadn't mentioned this to us, nor did she know what any of it implied. which was incredibly frustrating, because obviously we had no fucking clue what it implied either.

we were hurried out- i barely had time to tell her about my trip to the ER, let alone ask any questions like i should have the opportunity to do at my monthly doctor's appointment- and sent up to the front desk to schedule my next appointment, as well as an appointment at tampa general for a level 2 ultrasound. apparently pasco county is completely devoid of decent ultrasound machines and perinatologists. the midwife went off to find some kind of literature for me but returned empty handed, stating that she didn't want to freak me out.

i was not freaking out before that.

at this point it was nearly 2:30 and i was meant work 3-9. i thought that i was holding myself together fairly well until, right after arriving at work, my supervisor asked if i was alright and i immediately started bawling. i hid in the women's room for half an hour and then went home.

anyway, the internet has since told me that this kidney issue is common in boys and usually resolves itself by birth, so i'm feeling pretty reassured. the midwife probably should have just told me these things in the first place, but apparently she thinks i'm a moron.

beyond these events, we also had to deal with several thousand dollars worth of stolen electronics (not ours, but i don't want to go too much into it) & the investigation that went along with it, and the madhouse that was our apartment building following the death of one of our neighbors.

it was a very eventful day.

21w
sorry about the gross mirror.