Construction Has Begun...

So - we found our contractor (he's fabulous so far, btw) and construction started Thursday morning.  Things are a little crazy around our loft, as you can see.  Everything is covered in plastic.

But here's a great shot from our kitchen of the room being built out. 

Another one -

Mark (our builder - have I mentioned that he's been really great so far?!) is coming back Monday to do other builder-y things and hang the dry wall.

It's cool to walk around in the new room area and imagine how we're going to use the room - rocking Baby, feeding Baby - and even just how we're going to decorate. This really brings it home for me - it's hard to ignore (as if my ever-growing belly isn't hard enough to ignore).  Baby is going to be here very soon and we're finally getting to a lot of our final preparations. 

Hump Day Bump Day (1/27/10)

Posted one or two days late - but the picture was taken on the actual HDBD.  So there.  ;)

Only 8 Weeks to Nest!

Well, here we are at week 32 and Papa-Bear-To-Be does not have the nest all made up for the little one yet. In fact we have not even built the nest!

Nesting phase number 1 for the modern, soon-to-be-dad who lives in a 1 bedroom loft in the city is to put up a few new walls to store the baby within. When said soon-to-be-dad is not mechanically inclined or blessed with the ability to use power (or hand, for that matter) tools then he does the next best thing.... my 5 step process for building a room:
1. Call the contractors
2. Receive quotes
3. Put on the coffee
4. Relax
5. Some simple clean up and you are all done!
Quotes are coming in and I plan to award and start work next week. Small job, but whew... cutting it close.

Nesting phase 2 will include all the furniture. I have a jump start on this one...
Yes, it is a swing. Yes, it looks simple. But no, it was not. This was the most confusing thing I ever constructed. And the whole time I am worrying if it is sturdy enough and safe and not on any recall lists! Oh the stress. And I have not even begun the crib or changing table!!

At that point Amanda will be directing me on the standard setup of a nursery. Placement of furniture, paint color, decorations, etc. She has this all mapped out in that beautiful artistic mind of hers, and I just need to extract it out somehow.

Finally when all this construction is over then we get to the real business of nesting... learning what to do with this precious gift when we get Baby home! We have all-day classes on Saturday in two weeks and then again in three weeks to prep for the birthing and then how to take care of our little one. We are confident we could figure it out on our own, but welcome the opportunity to learn on the "Do Nots" to help us avoid any potentially stressful moments when we welcome Baby Bratschie home.


Any nesting advice you wish to share would be welcome!

Hump Day Bump Day! (1/20/10)

PS - if it looks like Baby is huge in my belly, that's because Baby IS huge! At our last ultrasound (yesterday), the tech estimated Baby's current weight at 4 lb 4 oz and at the 69th percentile. At this rate, we're guessing Baby will be 8-8.5 lbs by delivery. YIKES!

It's just a couple of walls, right?

Since we currently live in a loft condo space, we decided that building an extra room in here would be much easier than moving.  Especially since we really like our building, neighborhood and brick & timber condo.

Our buddy, Mike, drew up some plans for us to share with contractors while we're getting bids.  So far - we've only had one contractor out, but this already looks like it might be a bigger deal than we originally thought.  It turns out that the wood flooring went around our walls, instead of under them - if we move our current walls at all, that means we'll need to re-do the entire wood portion of our flooring too.  Sheesh!
 I guess if it was too easy, we would think something was wrong anyway - but did it really need to just about double the original cost we had anticipated?  {sigh}

I am VERY excited to have this room built out though - if for no other reason than I can start cleaning and organizing and putting everything where it goes.   I keep thinking that I'm nesting - but who knows?!  The only thing I really cleaned out was the junk email that I get everyday.  I managed to de-clutter my inbox from about 25 new "come-inside-our-store" emails a day to more around 4.  Not too shabby.

All this to say - I hope we get our room built out before Baby gets here.  Or at least that we agree on a rocker/glider to use in the nursery...

just a little longer...

we're officially at 31 weeks now.  Just a few more days and we'll be at 32 weeks - or 8 months for those of you that don't want to do the math...

here's a picture (courtesy of babycenter.com) showing what Baby is up to now - it's kind of cool to see that Baby actually looks more like a baby now.  :)

No wonder my belly is getting so big that I waddle!  And Baby weighs about the same as 4 naval oranges (3 lbs. 3 oz.).  Again - here's a picture for reference:

I feel like we're in the home stretch now - only a couple more months - 10 weeks tops and we'll be welcoming our bundle of joy into this world.  I CAN'T WAIT!  :)

Hump Day Bump Day! (1/13/10)

As you can see - Baby is getting pretty big now!  According to BabyCenter - about 3 lbs!  3 whole pounds!

And Baby isn't just getting big - but moving a lot too.  Yesterday while I was riding the bus I could see Baby moving WHILE I WAS WEARING MY COAT!  Now that, my friends, is an active baby!  (And a happy one!) 

More Milkshake Goodness...

So - as part of my craving, I decided to try to track down the best chocolate milkshake I could find.  Now that we're back in Chicago (post-holidays), there are plenty of Potbelly's to be found.  YAY!  Potbelly's is perfect for milkshakes.  My all time favorite used to be their Oreo milkshake, although I've been known to order the orange creamsicle milkshake once or twice.  Until this past week, I've never had just a plain chocolate milkshake from there.  It was high time I did.


How does the milkshake rate?  Again, using my 5 point scale, I'd say this one is at a whopping 4.  That's the highest rated chocolate milkshake so far!  The only reason I couldn't give it a straight 5 is because it really didn't seem very chocolatey.  The texture was great.  The flavor was creamy and smooth - but not chocolatey.  Don't get me wrong - I still enjoyed it, but we're getting serious now on the science of the perfect chocolate shake.


So I went home and told Don about this latest rating.  He came up with a brilliant idea for us to make our own milkshakes at home.  YAY!  And yes, so delicious and satisfying!  Not only could we mix it to our own liking, but as you might assume, Don got creative and started adding other stuff - I don't even know what - but it was SO yummy!
I tried to make a milkshake the same way when Don was out of town for work and my milkshake was watery and just not as good.  Oh - the troubles of being me...  ;)

Seriously though - if anyone out there has some good recommendations for a chocolate milkshake here in Chicago, just say the word!   Don has promised to keep this craving at bay while we continue to search for the 2nd most perfect chocolate milkshake in Chicago.  ;) 

Hump Day Bump Day!

I know it's been awhile, peeps.  And quite frankly, we're just not as disciplined about the HDBD photos as we should be.

Here's the latest and greatest - from today.

CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKES ROCK!

For the past few days, I've been craving - and I do mean CRAVING - chocolate milkshakes.  I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with all the calcium that I need right now for Baby.


I think I'm going to start rating them on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best.  Here are my first two reviews - in order of devourment:


Steak 'n Shake - 3.5
It wasn't very chocolatey at all (hence the 1.5 pts taken off), but it was so creamy and good and I absolutely LOVED the whipped cream and a cherry on top.  YUMMY.  Plus, we got it at half price because apparently Fridays between 2-4 is happy hour at Steak 'n Shake.  Who knew?


Sonic - 3
This milkshake was very icy - the texture was closer to a slushie or slurpee than an actual milkshake, but it was so chocolately that I almost didn't mind.  almost.  I couldn't bring myself to give it a 4 though.  Sorry, sonic.  It's not fault of your own, I'm sure.  I've just never had a sonic milkshake before and didn't know what to expect. 

Nesting?

Today is our very first baby shower and we get to have it with our Ohio friends/family.  I'm SO excited!  Don is helping get food ready and has forbidden me to be anywhere near the kitchen.  That's pretty much the standard for us...

So, while I'm waiting for 3 o'clock to roll around so that we can get this party started, I'm watching even more HGTV.  I've been watching it all morning, actually.  I thought originally it might mean that I'm officially nesting - apparently that's a perfectly normal and expected part of pregnancy.  But I'm only at 7 months and 1 week (29 weeks for those of you that don't like figuring out the math) and I think nesting usually happens in another month or two.  But that part that convinces me the most that I'm not actually nesting yet is that I'm not doing anything - I'm just watching TV.

But Don is hard at work in Momma B's kitchen - and I feel like I should be doing SOMETHING.  So - I'm collecting ideas for decorating our nursery.  And here is what I've come up with so far:

Like the tree that's on the wall?  Yep - me too.  So since our nursery colors are going to be similar, I think this one is a go.  Now - we just have to build the walls.  ;)

Now we are cooking - another Daddy post!

One of my favorite squashes is butternut and today baby is about the size of one of these golden delicious nuggets of the Earth! God has blessed me with some cooking skills, but He is REALLY blessing Amanda by growing that Baby to enormous vegetable sizes! We are getting so excited and I feel like the roller coaster just went over the top of the first hill. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Amanda is doing well but she sleeps a LOT! We are in Ohio for the holiday and she slept for 12 hours the night we got here. And it is not unheard of for her to take as many as 3 naps a day! It gives me time to do one of my projects which is to find every reference in the Bible about how God wants us to raise our children. The project is slow and let's be honest - I will probably never turn it into a book, but I am learning.

We just bought our first real baby item. A car seat! And as you well know, we do not have a car so there is a bit of irony there. However the carrier will fit into our desired stroller - the Bob. I took a week off work (first time off in over a year) and spent most of the time in my new polar bear pj's hence my choice of modeling attire for the pic...

Apparently there is some sort of kickback scheme going on with all these baby product companies because only certain
carriers fit into our chosen stroller and most of them are exPENSive! But we outsmarted the system and got this compatible 30/30 (which will go to 30 lbs or 30 inches) by Peg Perego on EBAY! It was like half price and all the parts that baby can make smell funny are washable. Which is really cools since someone elses baby could have made this one smell funny. We are not ashamed to take second hand stuff, especially when it is such a good deal!

Our Ohio shower is tomorrow and I get to hang out with an entire house full of women. I get to cook for them and wait on their every need. This makes me perfectly happy.