Week 34 - Christmas!

By Marnie:
Merry Christmas from the Overmans! I realize I'm writing this the day after Christmas, but since it's still the weekend, our tree is still up and we're continuing to enjoy the holiday, I thought it was appropriate.

I'm still feeling good and Baby Ov is as active as ever. As of my last doctor's appointment, she's head down, all ready to come on out. She moves so much though I swear there is no way she's staying head down, but I've been assured that babies rarely come out of that position this late in the game. We continue to work through what's now a dwindling to-do list of things to get done before the baby. I officially have every last possible item washed and ready for her. We still have a few little things to buy but if she came tomorrow (and we sure hope she doesn't - it's too early!!), we'd be able to get by with what we have.

Since I don't have much to update on regarding Baby Ov, I thought I'd just share a few pictures of our Christmas in LA.

This was the first year that Mike and I spent Christmas in Los Angeles. It was a little too close to Baby Ov's due date to make holiday travel plans so we spent the day celebrating with just our little family. Below is a picture of our tree - our place is small so we have a skinny tree which doesn't take up a lot of room. Notice the presents under the tree. This is the first year we've actually had presents under our tree. We've never exchanged gifts with each other and all of our other gifts were always shipped back to the Midwest so under our tree has always been bare. I loved having it filled with gifts this year although Stella (who likes to nap under the tree on the tree skirt) wasn't a big fan!

Stella got Mike and I obnoxious Christmas themed jammies to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Below is a pic of the three of us, all decked out in our Christmas duds. We're posed in front of my favorite gift from Mike. The photo is one he took of a well known 30's era bar next to the Pantages Theater. For the past few years, Mike and I have had season tickets to the Pantages and would stop in here before shows. I love their sign and about a month ago, Mike went and took some pictures around LA. He surprised me and had this one framed as a gift for Christmas. I couldn't love it more!


After opening our gifts, we made a smaller version of a Christmas feast. So much good food! We enjoyed leftovers today and I'm guessing we'll continue to enjoy them throughout the coming week.

We had a great day spending time together. We talked a lot about what traditions we'd like to start with Baby Ov and how much fun it will be to wake up with her on Christmas morning and see her excitement.

It was definitely a different Christmas for us being in sunny Los Angeles and not being with our families, but after four Christmases together, it was nice to celebrate it as our own little family. Although it is our last Christmas as a family of two (3 with Stella), it actually felt like our first Christmas.

Week 33 - 4 Years Ago Today...

By Marnie:
Four years ago today, Mike and I went on our first date. Tonight we went on a tour at the hospital where we’re going to have our baby. If you had told us on that first date that this is what we would be doing four years from then, I think we both would have laughed (and maybe been a little creeped out). I’m so glad that first date turned into many more dates. our marriage, and now our Baby Girl on her way in just 7 weeks!

We had a doctor’s appointment last week with another ultrasound. She’s getting bigger so they can’t get a good shot of her whole body in at once, but we saw lots of pictures of her face, hands and feet. Everything is looking good. The technician commented on her really long second toe - Mike has a crazy long second toe while mine is short and stubby. It looks like she has Mike’s feet! She also commented that she has hair! I don’t know why, but I have been envisioning a very bald baby - I guess I was wrong! Here are a few pictures - one is a profile of her face and her hand it waving (she really likes to wave!) and the other is a view looking directly at her face/up her nose. You can see she was yawning and sticking out her tongue. We think it’s the darn cutest thing we’ve ever seen!

The window for our crib delivery came and went with no crib. I was finally given a straight answer from the manager at the store where we ordered it from and it’s now looking like it won’t even ship from New Jersey (where the manufacturer is) until sometime in January, probably late January. We happened to order a very new crib for this crib maker which is why it took so long to make. It will be at the New Jersey location later this month but then our retailer has to justify the shipment so they wait until they have enough other items to ship which they’re guessing will be late January. I guess none of them understand that pregnancy is generally a 40 week endeavor and I don’t know too many people who run out and order a crib the day they find out they’re expecting. We ordered that thing not long after we told our friends and family that we were pregnant and even at that date, I felt a little weird ordering a crib. I wasn’t even showing yet! Oh well, it is what it is. We’re getting free delivery and set up out of the deal. Our baby girl might be sleeping in a dresser drawer for a bit, but I’m guessing she won’t know or care! =)

I just reread my last few sentences in that story about the crib and realize that it sounds like I’m completely fine with this delay. I will say that is certainly not the case. When the manager of the store finally told me that it would be late January or early February before we have our crib, my eyes welled up with tears and I started crying right there on the phone talking to this poor woman. My post last week was about how I haven’t really experienced some of the typical pregnancy symptoms, but one that I’ve had pretty strongly from the start is nesting. Within a few days of finding out we were going to be parents, I printed a calendar and wrote on it how many weeks until our due date. On each weekend, I had projects we had to finish around the house before baby came. Pretty clearly marked on last weekend was “D-Day for baby’s room being done.” It’s difficult for me that that goal is not done. I really hate walking upstairs, seeing her room and not seeing a crib.

My need to nest is helping in other ways. I’ve been making and freezing food so that we can actually eat without a lot of effort after the baby’s born. I started last week and made a casserole, then made lasagna last night. I’m hoping to have a decent stock pile of food ready to make our first few weeks a bit easier. I also washed all of her clothes and blankets. It was so much fun folding up all those little onesies and other cute outfits!!

We hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Week 32 - We're fully trained parents!

By Marnie:

Week 32 and I feel great. We finished the second and final day of baby class yesterday. We feel informed and prepared on a lot more baby related subjects than we did just a few weeks ago. We both enjoyed the classes a lot more than we thought we would. There were many other much more clueless parents to be than us in the class which in a sad way, made us feel even better about what’s to come. One of my favorite examples was the dad-to-be asking about if their baby didn’t seem to be getting enough milk and wasn’t gaining much weight at first, would it be okay to give him “another milk like substance, like gravy.” Whew, we at least won’t be feeding our newborn gravy! At this point, we’re stellar parents!

We took a quick picture this morning – this is how I’m looking these days.

I realize I still have a month and a half to two months left of this pregnancy but I thought I’d comment on some of my expectations of pregnancy (or what people told me it would be like) vs. my reality. Overall, I feel pretty lucky that I haven’t had any of the more unpleasant side effects of pregnancy although I know that the next 8 weeks could bring on lots more of the “fun” stuff!

Nausea – I know that the level of nausea varies a lot from woman to woman and I certainly didn’t feel wonderful during my first trimester, but I was never super sick which I’m ultra grateful for!!

Emotions – I’m not saying that I haven’t been emotional at all, but I haven’t been as emotional as I expected to be. You can ask Mike, though. He may have a different opinion on this one. =)

Cravings – I was really looking forward to this one and unfortunately, no cravings for me. I did have some comfort foods that I turned to during the first trimester when I didn’t feel so great, but they weren’t really cravings. I thought it would be fun to send Mike out for late minute grocery store runs to pick up some random food combination for me. He lucked out on this one.

Getting Huge – Don’t get me wrong, my belly is definitely getting huge but I also had some expectations of a few other things a bit north of the belly getting bigger. Sadly, I have not had this experience. Argh!

Tiredness – So far, I haven’t felt overly tired. I did have days during the first trimester where I was pretty tired, but I was also serving as a juror on a murder trial during a lot of that time. I think getting up early every day, taking a train downtown, sitting on the jury, taking the train home and then catching up on work in the evening did more to make me tired than pregnancy actually did. I haven’t gotten the wave of tiredness during this last semester yet either. That’s a very good thing –I have way too much to get done over the next 8 weeks to allow myself nap time!

Heartburn – I had some heartburn before I was ever pregnant and it’s increased a bit over the last month or so but nothing terrible. I haven’t invested in Tums yet.

Sleep Issues – I’ve had moments of sleeplessness which have mostly coincided with other stresses going on with life or work so I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights due to pregnancy. I certainly hope this continues!

Ladies room visit frequency – This is one where I absolutely have experienced what I expected. The bathroom is my new best friend and it’s getting annoying.

All in all, there are many things about pregnancy that haven’t gone like I thought they would or like everyone told me it would. In general, my personality is such that if anyone ever tells me how I’m going to feel or how something will be for me, my internal reaction is something along the lines of “you don’t know me, you don’t know this will be for me, please don’t tell me how I’m going to feel.” I guess I'm a bit defiant. My body must be keeping in line with how my mind typically works…

Here's to the last 8 weeks going as smoothly as the first 32!

Week 31 - T Minus 2 Months!

By Marnie:
Our official due date is exactly two months from today. Wow, has time flown by! I'm sure the next two months will go by even more quickly than the last two. I went into this pregnancy with a grand plan that I would be going into the last two months nearly 100% ready and prepared both at home and at work. Let's just say that plan hasn't quite panned out. It's going to be a crazy whirlwind and I hope that Baby Ov cooperates as well as she has up to this point!

We spent all last Saturday at baby class. We were excited and dreading it all at the same time. First off, spending eight and a half hours in a class on a Saturday wasn't overly thrilling. Second, I was worried that learning more of the details of the birth process would start to freak me out. Thankfully, it was a great day and it didn't put me over the edge. I've been unstereotypically calm and not worried about the birth and was sure that getting into the nitty gritty during class would snap me out of that. It certainly didn't, at least for now! We are both excited and feel more prepared for the arrival of Baby Ov. Next week's class covers infant CPR, care for baby, breastfeeding, and generally caring for baby after the birth. We'll apparently be confident parents in less than a week's time...

I apologize for this fairly uneventful post. Everything here is pretty status quo. I'm still feeling great. The crib has yet to make it's arrival. We're chugging along, getting excited and doing what we can to get our ducks in a row.

Week 30 - Going Strong!

By Marnie:
We're now at Week 30 - Baby Ov is apparently around 3+ pounds and will grow around a half a pound each week from here on out. Woah. She has been particularly active over this past week - she must love turkey and pumpkin pie!! There have been days where I've felt like she hasn't stopped moving for even a minute all day. I was slightly worried that maybe we'll have a non-sleeper on our hands, but the baby blogs I read have all said that pre-birth activity patterns aren't necessarily indicative of post-birth activity and sleeping patterns. Whew!

The test I mentioned in last week's blog came out a-ok. I figured it would and wasn't really worried, but would have been pretty bummed out if I had to go back for the 3 hour glucose test. Yuck!

We got lots of adorable clothes for Baby Ov at the showers in Minnesota and my boss was wonderful enough to ship them to me. They were delivered yesterday and Mike and I had a great time looking at all the cute little outfits our gal will be wearing. Here is a pic of them spread out on the (soon to be departing) bed in the baby's room.


I spent some time separating out all the clothes we have so far into ages and storing everything over 3 months in bins in the baby's closet. It was so strange packing away outfits for 12+ months and thinking about Baby Ov wearing them in well over a year!

I also worked on a few art projects for the baby's room this past week. We have a painting I did of our dog Stella a few years ago already hanging in the room so I decided to do a few more with other animals. I finished them on Friday and Mike hung them tonight. Here is a pic of them, prior to being hung on the wall.


We're starting our birth/baby class next Saturday. We chose the two full Saturday option as opposed to 5-6 weeknights. It sounded like the obvious choice at the time, but now that it's here, I'm not all that excited about sitting in a class from 9-5:30! I'm excited to go, though and hope we learn lots!

Still no news on the crib. Those jokers have two more weeks to call us and say that it's in before their quoted timeframe is up. I'm quite anxious for it to come in and had such high hopes it would be here before Thanksgiving or at least some time this weekend. Here's to the hope that by the next time you read this blog, I'll have a picture of Baby Ov's crib in her room!!

Week 29 - We're Rounding Third!

By Marnie:
So we're at Week 29 which means we're officially in the third trimester. I don't really understand how they figure the breakdown of the weeks, months and trimesters. They seem a bit off to me when you think about the fact that I have less than three months left to go and am just now starting the third trimester, but oh well!

It's been a very busy last couple of weeks so I apologize for no updates. We're all still doing well. I'm definitely feeling more pregnant now but continue to feel great. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday afternoon and took the glucose test (drank the sugary orange drink, waited and hour, then had my blood drawn). They didn't call me which either means I'm in the clear or they don't have the results back yet. I'm really hoping I don't have to go back and do the more extensive test which sounds like no fun at all! I also got a shot of Rhogam which helps to make sure my blood doesn't attack the baby's blood. I'm a negative blood type and apparently the negative blood types don't really play well with positive types. This is the first shot I've ever gotten in my backside and for some reason as the nurse was about to give it to me, I got a case of the giggles. How mature is that? Am I sure I'm ready to be a mom if I can't get a shot in my rear and not start giggling?!

I spent last weekend and part of the week in Minnesota visiting friends and family and taking part in some training for work. While I was there, I was thrown not one, but two baby showers! I had a wonderful time at both and enjoyed spending time with friends, family and coworkers. Most everyone shipped us gifts ahead of time and we promised not to open any of them until after I got back. We took a picture this morning of me with all of the boxes in our dining room.


Woah! That's a lot of boxes! We have some pretty amazing, thoughtful and generous friends and family. We were shocked at how often UPS, FedEx and USPS stopped at our house over the past few weeks and blown away by the generosity of everyone. I had a great time opening all the creatively wrapped photos of our gifts while I was back in Minnesota and Mike and I were giddy today as we finally opened all of our boxes.

Now that our house is filling up with baby stuff, I'm doing my best to figure out where in the world it's all going to go! I don't deal well with clutter and am not a "stuff" kind of person. I know that this is all needed for the baby and I'm so thankful to have it, but it's making me start to freak out a little bit. =) I go by the saying "there's a place for everything, and everything should be in it's place" so once I figure out where I want everything to go, I'll be a much calmer and happier lady.

Besides the showers in Minnesota, I also got to see my friend Jen and her sweet little baby boy Henry! He was 5 weeks old when I was there and cute as can be! We think he and Baby Ov will probably hit it off and get married someday. It's been nice to have a friend who is a few months ahead of me and can give me some pointers and warnings of what's to come! Here's a picture of me with Mr. Henry about 5 seconds after I walked through their door! (He looks pretty happy to see me, don't you think?!)


We're still waiting on our crib to come in. As of yesterday, it has been 11 weeks since we ordered it (they gave us a 10-14 week window and I was so sure they were exaggerating!). I'm really hoping that it gets here soon! I'd love to walk into the baby's room and have it actually feel like a baby's room. Maybe we'll get lucky and it will come in this week and we can pick it up over the long weekend ahead.

That's all that is and isn't happening around here. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Week 27 Update

By Marnie:

We're at Week 27! Baby Ov is due to arrive 3 months from yesterday. I think the last time I updated, I was impressed that she had reached the pounds. She's now over 2 lbs! She's been a busy gal! She can also hear us now so I like to have little chats with her while I'm driving to and from work. I also read in one of the baby books that she has more taste buds now than she will have at birth or any other time in her life. That means she can definitely taste it if I have something spicy and will let me know!

Baby Ov has been busy in the past few weeks and so have we. We spent a great long weekend in Kansas City visiting the Overman family. I ate my weight in the best ribs, brisket and baked beans with burnt ends that every existed. Mike became the favorite play thing of our niece Noelle. It was fun watching him down on the floor, playing with whatever toy she brought him and wanted to play with. One of her favorite things was to sit on his back while he did push-ups. I think it made Mike realize that he should pick up his workout routine before Baby Ov gets here!!

After KC, we were home for a night then headed out for our annual trip to Big Bear. We had such a great time relaxing in the cabin we rented, cooking great food and doing plenty of hiking. I'm happy to say we hiked just as much as in prior years and I was able to keep up. I wasn't as fast up the mountains as in the past, but I made it to the top! We got back on Halloween and hoped for some trick-or-treaters but got none. All the more reason for me to devour loads of the candy we bought...

I left the next day for a two night work trip to San Francisco. The night I got back, we went to an Elton John concert at a small, standing room only venue. It was an awesome concert, but for the first time in this pregnancy, I got to experience what felt like Michelin Man legs! Thankfully, they went back to normal after a good night's sleep. I was quite happy about that! I'm headed to Minnesota next week and fear for what my ankles and legs will look like after that long-ish flight!

While we were in Big Bear, the the baby store where we ordered the glider/rocker/recliner called to say that it had come in. It was an exciting day yesterday when we went to pick it up. We're leaving it in the living room until the crib comes in and we clear out the bed in the spare bedroom. Here is a picture of Mike and Stella enjoying the new chair, watching a rarely televised on the West Coast Chiefs game (notice the sheet covering it - I'm doing my best to keep it as free of dog hair as possible and since it's become one of Stella's new favorite places to sit, I'm glad I covered it!!)

Lastly, here is an updated profile picture of me. My belly is definitely getting bigger. I honestly can't imagine it getting as huge as I know it will. Mike commented this morning as I got out of bed to go to the bathroom, "that's a lot of body to get up and out of bed." I know he was recognizing that it's probably more difficult for me to do some things, but I keep focusing on the "that's a lot of body" part. =) He made it up to me by making his made-from-scratch pancakes! That's been a weekly treat in our house since I found out I was pregnant and I'd been missing them the past few weekends!