Still Pregnant

Hello. I am still pregnant. There are 6 weeks left. I'm ready to be done, but I'm not ready for the baby yet, so I guess it's good that I'm still pregnant.

I'm excited about the baby shower. It's in 2 days and there will be 3-legged races! I hope everyone has fun.

We finally heard back from the Building Department on our permit (after 3 weeks). There are a couple of drawing revisions to make, then I have to resubmit the drawings. It's not looking good for getting the project done before Junior arrives.

In the grocery store yesterday, Tristan saw me getting 15 cents in change. He asked, "Mama, can I have that money because I need to buy a present for Dorian for his party on Saturday?" I thought it was very cute and sweet. So of course I gave it to him, along with all my other change. He and his Grandma wrapped his present today... I have no idea what it is.

Dorian likes to stretch his legs all the way out sometimes. Then my belly looks kind of like a giant horizontal football. He gets irritated with his hiccups and kicks and punches all over the place like a bony octopus every time he gets them.

My ligaments are loosening up in preparation for the big day. The other day I was dusting and my right leg kept feeling like it was just going to fall off. It kept coming loose in it's socket. That was a very weird feeling that I don't remember ever having in my previous pregnancy.

Mother Hen is in the Nest... Nesting

Here we are with only 7 1/2 weeks left to go, and NESTING has definitely kicked in! I made a list of things to get accomplished last week and when I finished that list I made a new one. Most of the items on the list are cleaning/fixing items and then there are the organizing and inventory items too. I brought in all of the baby stuff from the shed that we saved from when Tristan was a baby and cleaned them, killed the spiders that were trying to live there and have been slowly trying to find places for them in our over-flowing house. Tristan rediscovered many of his old toys and thinks that they are fun and shouldn't be for baby Dorian.

Eric is nesting too. He just replaced the fan in our bathroom and cleaned out the drain trap in our bathroom sink. He also rewired the bathroom outlet that he installed last year so that it was grounded and is now a GFCI outlet. I also caught him cleaning the plastic tray that holds all our silverware in the drawer. :)

Eric and Tristan picked two buckets of Italian plums from the tree in our backyard and I made 2/3's of one bucket into a pie today. They picked apples last week and my mom and I salvaged a pie's worth out of those. The plums are beautiful this year, but most of the apples were very wormy.

It seems like I have less energy and still have as many things to do. So, I haven't been spending very much time with my friends, even ones that only live a few blocks away. I have been feeling guilty about that, but my mom tells me that they understand. I've been trying to at least call or email people lately so that they know I'm thinking about them even though I don't want to get up off the couch at the end of the day.

UPDATE ON THE GARAGE PROJECT:

• I haven't mentioned it for a while. Let's see, we didn't work on it for most of the month of June because we were waiting for Eric to have time to do the electrical work which he wanted to do. He finally got that done over two consecutive weekends. Then we scheduled the electrical inspection.
  
• The inspector told us all the things we needed to change, which wasn't much, but he also told us that he couldn't actually sign off on the inspection because we didn't have a building permit. He told us to apply for one as if we hadn't started the work yet and told us to claim that it was enclosed storage and not an office space. I told Eric that I didn't want to lie about anything, and he agreed that we shouldn't.
  
• So then the next two weeks (one week was the C.O. visit) I worked on completing the drawings (approx. 30) to submit to the city of Seatac for a building permit. During those two weeks I called the building department countless times asking questions to make sure I was doing all the correct drawings. [[I had started the drawings back in October with the intention of getting a building permit, but when I went to their website they had online permits available for small projects and I went through that process instead and ended up with an electrical permit and no building permit. So I had about 10 drawings finished back then, that were still in good condition even though they had been stored on our table under the table cloth for 9 months.]]
  
• I submitted the drawings and the permit application stating that we are converting the existing detached garage to an enclosed storage/office space. When I was at City Hall submitting them, I had the lady connect my electrical permit with the building permit application number. She asked how I had an electrical permit without a building permit, so I explained it to her and how the electrical inspector told us to come get a permit. She said that the same thing has been happening to a lot of people ever since they started offering online permits. Then she asked if we'd already started the project, and I told her that we had. She also asked if I was an architect because she thought my drawings were great. That made me feel good since I'm not an architect, despite my architecture degree and 6 years experience, not to mention the fact that I haven't worked in 2 years. It turned out that she and I knew people in common in the architecture field, and we had a nice chat. She said that it would be 1 or 2 weeks until I heard anything from them... Tuesday the 18th will be 2 weeks. And I haven't heard anything yet.
  
• So, that's basically 2 months of not working on the garage. And it's so close to being done! It's been so close for 2 months, which is really quite frustrating. My mom moved in with a friend 2 weeks ago so that she didn't have to live in our living room out of a suitcase anymore. (I would've gotten tired of that after 2 weeks... she handled it well for almost 3 months!) She'll move back in as soon as we finish the room. Hopefully we can get the permit with no trouble.

What else? Well, I'm getting huge and it is getting harder, in the evenings especially, to bend over or to get up out of Tristan's bed after I read stories to him at night. One night I sat next to his bed in a chair to read his stories, and he was ok with that when I explained the reasons. He's a nice little boy. Soon we'll have 2 little boys... woah! That realization hits me occasionally and I don't know how to feel, it's a whole other unknown world that is about to open up for us. Eric and I talk about it, but we can only guess at what it might be like.

Photos to start month 8

Tristan has to hug me on the side otherwise, this happens! :)

7 months down, 2 months to go!

We've been busy around here! Sorry, no picture again this week, but I'm so late in updating for the week that it's almost time for next week's entry.

Dorian figured out how to crawl up into my rib cage and kick me so that it HURTS! It was happening consistently for a few days over the weekend, it kept me from sleeping Sunday night, but it hasn't been happening during this week. I was literally standing and pushing him down out of my ribs, then I'd lie down again and he'd work himself right back up there.

Tristan held my friend Roshae's baby today. He's 2 months old. (He holds him often). Today, though, he was holding him and kissing the top of his head, then he rocked him back and forth and sang "Rock-a-bye Baby" to him. It was very sweet. I read today that Preschool age children (like Tristan) are nurturing and helpful with a younger sibling, whereas toddlers are prone to be displaced and jealous. I think Tristan will do just fine.

The hospital where Dorian will be born offers a "Child-Friendly Tour" that we signed up for today. It allows 3-10 year olds to accompany you on the hospital tour. Our tour is in September, and will remind us where to park and check in and will let Tristan see where we will be, so that he can be mentally prepared.