Nursery? Done.

I have to thank my lucky stars sometimes for giving me the best friends.

Remember how I said I had nothing ready for the nursery? Well, Krista heard the call, and as a last minute trip, decided to come to Houston to help us paint. And by us, really I mean Jon. Poor Jon has been stretched so thin lately, taking care of me, Rocco and the monkey. So when Krista offered, we more than jumped at the offer.

Ultimately, we picked a blue shade that honestly, I would've never have gone with on my own. That's what I love about Krista; she really helps expand your creativity. She has such a visual eye. That same day, Jon and a friend of our's went to pick up this awesome modern crib I found on Craigslist for $200. Not only did we save $300, but we didn't have to wait a tortuously long three to four weeks to have it delivered.

While Krista and my former coworker and friend Kristina painted away, I lounged around like Cleopatra. Ha! Afterward, Jon made everyone a steak dinner. It was the least we could do to say thanks.

In the end, it all came together rather nicely. I can't believe we finally got it all together. Thanks, no doubt, to the fantastic friends we're so lucky to have.

Owls and deadlines

At 34 weeks, you'd think I'd have everything set. Nursery in perfect order, clothes thoughtfully put away... But no. In fact, we just came up with a nursery theme this past weekend.

I got the inspiration from HGTV's website. We're going with a retro modern owl/bird theme, as seen here. Now, I have to be careful with this theme since it could verge on creepy, so I've made it my mission to try to find all things woodsy yet modern.

We finally bought a dresser last weekend, a modern two-toned white and wood dresser from Ikea. We plan on ordering the crib shown in the picture.

As usual, I've proven to be deadline-oriented. And as such, I've found my latest obsession, albeit a little late--putting the nursery together.

Bedrest

I've been meaning to write this entry for a while, but I've been so busy doing nothing!

That's right folks; I'm on bedrest. I knew this day would come, and quite frankly, I'm ok with it. I really did need a week off from work.

However, the circumstances around it were, once again in true Giselle fashion, a bit dramatic to say the least. Last Thursday, I was chatting with my coworkers at their cube and as I was walking back to my cube, the room started spinning and I started seeing dots. Great, I thought to myself, here we go. I quickly walked over to my friend Kristina's desk and asked her to call 911. Just as I was saying that, my knees buckled and I fell to the floor. Fortunately, I didn't quite pass out, but I was pretty damn close.

The EMTs came pretty quickly (and btw, they were not as hot as the first EMTs in Austin) and once the loaded me up and took my blood, informed me that my blood-sugar levels were at 58. A normal glucose reading is over 70. Moreover, my blood pressure was 168/110. (again, a normal reading is 120/90)

My doctor came over to the hospital right away and by that time, I had been stabilized and was fine. But, she knew what was going on. I was too busy to eat that morning, just like every morning, and the stress from the job was getting to me, particularly because of my work load and the fact that we have a writer leaving. "What you need is a week off of work. Bedrest. For a week. I want you to do fun stuff, not work," the doc ordered.

Great. Boss is gonna love that.

After the initial shock of, "Wait, I can't miss work!! We have a writer leaving at the end of the week!" I thought to myself, "You know what? Eff it. The job can suck it. This is so much more important. And it's not like lives are dependent on my stupid, lame-ass job." Besides, I hate that job.

So here I am. On "bedrest," which is a total misnomer. I'm not confined to bed, thank god, but instead was instructed not to do anything stressful, like groceries or, well, work. I've done a lot of laying around, which has helped tremendously, but I've also just taken the time to do things I wouldn't normally be able to do, like wash all the baby clothes and organize baby stuff.

Next week, I'll probably work from home just to get a paycheck. But if I find my blood pressure going up then the doc will most likely yank me off of work. And I'm ok with that.

Being deadline oriented

Here we are folks -- the 32 month marker. Which means I now have six weeks before this baby gets here. And what have we done to prepare? Absolutely nothing.

Ok, well, I shouldn't say nothing. We did buy a bassinet, and fortunately we've had two baby showers --one from my co-workers and one from my girls in Austin. However, everything is still in its box, nothing's been washed and perhaps the most distressing of them all, we have yet to order nursery furniture. It seems like every time we think about ordering furniture, we go on vacation instead. Denial much?

Yesterday, however, it hit me like a freight train. So I started researching furniture online, and at our weekly trip to Target yesterday, I bought a few things for the hospital. Oh, and some diaper rash cream, which so far is the only medicinal baby thing we've bought. On one hand, I don't know why I'm freaking out since, speaking from experience, babies really don't need that much when they're born, really. As long as you provide them with some sort of food and a warm place to sleep, they're fine really. And so far, we have both (the bassinet and my boobs).

Speaking of boobs, here's a freaky and TMI fact: I'm already starting to leak stuff out of them. They're not gushing or anything, but I noticed it the other day after I got out of the shower.

The other thing I did to "prepare" is start putting together my hospital bag, which mainly consists of toiletries. Ladies, here's a tip for you: Forget about packing cute PJs and the like because you WILL NOT use them. You'll find yourself in the hospital gown the entire time, and if you have a c-section (which you most likely will), nothing screams pain like a pair of pajama bottoms cutting into your waist. So you're better off sporting the gown. I find all these hospital packing lists laughable. Music? If you're not being prodded and probed by hospital staff, you'll want to be sleeping. Robes? The nurses don't care about your decency and honey, they've seen it all, so no point in trying to cover up. Reading material? See music.

I can't explain why I'm so nonchalant about this whole thing. Maybe because this ain't my first rodeo. What is different this time around is that I'm mentally prepared for this little guy, something I can't necessarily say for the first (no offense to my little monkey).

Symptoms this week: bloatedness, numb hands (that's a new one), extreme exhaustion (probably from the 30 lbs I've gained so far).

Iron woman

I finally got the results of my gestational diabetes test back last week, and I'm happy to report that I passed with flying colors! I was a little worried for a second there, simply because I have been eating ice cream like it's going out of style.

However, I'm anemic, which would explain my extreme fatigue and just sheer laziness. So the doc prescribed some iron pills for me to take until who knows. Ugh, these iron pills are disgusting. They really upset my stomach.

Anemia aside, I've never felt so heavy before in my life. Now at 30 weeks along, I am full-on waddling and breathing heavy. Sleep is becoming more and more uncomfortable since I can't seem to find a good position to sleep in. Or, as has been the case some nights, I'll wake up to a good hard kick in my gut. I've also discovered another unfortunate pregnancy symptom--snoring. Man, I must sound like a bear, because some nights, I wake up startled by it. Poor Jon. I don't know he copes with me sometimes.

Happy birthday, Jordan!

I can't believe three years have passed since Jordan's birth. Man, has it flown by! And in full parental form, we threw him the mother of all birthday parties. So far, anyway.

We rented a bouncy house/waterslide and created a whole Cars theme around the party. Cars 2 had just come out the weekend before, and yes, we were there. Not quite first in line, but second. Jordan handled his first movie experience like a champ. Never once whined or cried, or got restless. Instead, the entire time, his eyes were glued to the screen, and at one point he exclaimed, "This is the best movie ever!" It was adorable.

But, back to the party. So we got the bouncy house/waterslide, and the minute it was up (which was less than 30 minutes), Jordan was in there, bouncing away in his PJs. Jon and I, in the meantime, were running around like chickens with no heads. Fortunately, my brother had decided at the last minute to fly down to Houston to be here for his birthday, and thank God he did, because there's no way any of the stuff we needed to do would've gotten done. That aside, I really appreciated that he had decided to come at all.

All in all, Jordan and his friends had a great time. The final tally of guests came out to close to 35. Everyone ate, drank and was definitely merry. We had ordered a sandwich tray from a corner deli and gotten his cake from HEB (decorated with Cars characters, of course). Even though we did little cooking (which is really unlike us), there was still a lot that had to be done that day. But fortunately, we got it all done when the first guests arrived at 11 a.m.

At one point, when we were all singing happy birthday to Jordan, I looked around and almost got teary eyed. He's so loved, I thought, and it touched me that he was surrounded by his friends and family that day. I truly believe the hardest yet most important and pivotal part of being a good friend or family member is just showing up. And boy, did they show up. Happy birthday, little monkey. Here's to many more.

Making change

Something’s seriously wrong with me. It seems that I want to change everything lately. My hair, my living room décor, our bedroom linens, even my nails.

Is it nesting? I don’t know. It’s funny though because I haven’t gotten one thing for Baby #2’s room. The majority of my extreme makeover urges are mainly focused on my things. Maybe it’s the second child nesting syndrome, where you know you’ll be so consumed with everything childrenesque that you won’t have time to do anything for yourself.

My latest obsession has been my hair. Lately, I’ve been thinking I need a change. Plus, my hair is just driving me nuts. At one point, I thought about getting it cut into a bob, but backed off after thinking it’d make my face look fat. Now, I’m thinking of getting it highlighted and colored (something I haven’t done since before Jordan was born three years ago) and getting my bangs cut again. As if I’ll have time to maintain all this hair once Baby #2 comes around.

Seriously, they say having one child is hard and that you’ll never have time for yourself. That’s just not true. Sure, you have to make some accommodations, but all in all, it’s been pretty easy having one kid. Two kids, on the other hand, frighten me. Well, actually, make that three, since we’ve taken on a puppy.