The Sound of Crickets

First of all thank-you everyone for your bottle advice! I'm sticking with the playtex nursers for now and we'll hope the little one likes 'em!

We drove out to the land yesterday night to take some measurements for the building permit. It was about 8:30pm by the time we got there. I cannot tell you how peaceful it was out there. The only thing you could hear were the crickets chirping in the field. Not a single car drove by, the stars were blazing bright and it smelled so sweet of the hay and wildflowers in the field. I can't wait until we get settled out there. I grew up on 107 acres and I'd forgotten how much I loved living in the country (of course the road I grew up on was much busier than the one I have to look forward to.) And Jason said that ever since he can remember he's always wanted to live somewhere very rural where you can't even see your neighbors.

He can't wait to tend a vegetable garden! I'll do the flowers and he'll do the veggies. We sat over lunch the other day and a dreamed and made plans for all that we'll grow and what we'll can and how we'll teach our kids to do the same growing up. Yes, this will be good!

Calling All Mommies for Advice

So I just finished registering for all the baby stuff. Wow is that all overwhelming!

I need advice on bottles. What kind should I register for!? I will be nursing but when I go back to work I will need to pump enough and have enough bottles for the baby for two days a week.




I've always thought the playtex ones with the drop in liners are best because they are "most like mother". But there are like ten thousand different kinds of nipples to go with them, silicon, not silicon, orthodontic....yada, yada, yada. Also will it be too expensive having to buy all those liners or will it be more convenient because they're already sanitized? (anyhoo, these are the ones I'm registered for right now.)



Then there are these "nuk" bottles that have orthodontic recommended nipples that promote healthy teeth formation.



Then there are these kind of bottles that are tilted that are supposed to help with gas and ease of feeding. And then some of these tilted ones have this airvent flow thing that claims to be the best thing since sliced bread.




What do I get ladies? And how many of each size? And how many nipples and what kind of nipples? Please tell me!

Done Deal....Finally

After an unwarranted racket, and much waiting and wondering the deal is going through. We agreed to escrow them the money to get the work done from the people who gave the cheaper estimate (and actually knew what they were doing too.)

The good news and the bad news:
The bad news first. I'm really not happy about what we decided. I have this begrudging pit in my stomach from conceding to pay for work that I think is absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary. I'm trying to work on that. I also am worried because we really did not have a lot of wiggle room in our price. We priced it right because it is a bad market but we've only owned the house for 2 1/2 years. it's not like we're making much profit here,certainly not getting back all that we've put in over those years. We're just selling because we have to move for Jason's job. So this extra money that we're giving them from the profit to go towards bogus bum work is money that we really needed in order to afford our next move and our new little babe on the way. So yeah. Not happy.

But the good news is that things are solidified now. No more wondering if the deal will go through or not. And we thought about saying no or just offering them half, but to be honest we just conceded out of fear. Fear that we they would back out and we would then have to wait for another buyer, maybe not get as good of a price and maybe not move until way later which would be seriously bad for my stress level, and this little child. So now we know. We can move forward with our timetable and can be settled a few months before this little one arrives and have time to spend as a couple, savor the pregnancy and prepare for this big life transition. I guess when I think about all of that, those are really the more important things as far as our child, my health and our relationship go. I'm still just having some trouble with bitterness over the whole thing. So you can pray for that!

Also, we've found a place to stay while we're "in limbo". A friend of Jason's family owns a camp (a.k.a. extremely nice little gambrel house) right on China Lake. He told us we could stay there as long as we like if we paint the kitchen. Umm, heck yeah! We're like professional painters at this point! We'll have that done in no time. I'm gonna clean the place all up for him real nice too!

Happy Times

After my last posts I went and listened to some relaxation CD's and they put me right to sleep. I napped from like 2-5pm! Then, considering the last few weeks and certainly this day, I needed some happy time. So tonight we went to Burlington Coat Factory to register in their Baby Depot! So fun!

We did everything gender neutral except for the crib bedding and room decor. We've come to a great compromise with the room. We're going to paint it light green and the colors if it is a girl will be green and pink and if it is a boy will be green and blue.

We found this SUPER cute girl bedding that is pink with green. It has froggies and turtles and ducks on it which I love because I didn't want frilly flowers or anything. So if it turns out to be a boy, we'll just return that bedding and buy this other SUPER cute boy bedding that is blue and green with froggies all over it and the room will be camping themed. I'm excited about both options! Here is what they both look like.

And here's my baby belly at almost 21 weeks! The other picture is from just two weeks ago! See what I mean by a belly explosion!?

No Mold...Still a pain in my rear.

So here's the verdict on the mold. It is exactly what we said it was and what our house inspector said it was. It is old, it is dead. There is no moisture problem. The air quality in the house and the attic is very good.

What's the problem then you say? The problem is that the buyer's agent is still saying that it needs to be taken care of. They brought in Trembley builders, THE MOST expensive people in the state of Maine and they said that all of the insulation needs to be removed, all of the wood needs to be cleaned, sealed and then primed and they gave a ROUGH estimate of 5,000. YEAH FRIGGIN' RIGHT is all I have to say to that.

My question is this....the mold expert lady said there WAS NO LIVE MOLD. She said the air quality was GOOD. So WHAT then, needs to be "taken care of"?

So we are getting a second estimate by people that are recommended as good at cleaning mold but are half way sane about their pricing and such. HOWEVER! Just because we are getting a second opinion (AT OUR EXPENSE BY THE WAY!) does not mean I think that we should or am willing to pay ONE CENT of that because there IS NO ISSUE and therefor no need to FIX a NON-ISSUE!

Can you tell I'm super thrilled about the whole situation and not angry at all!?

It's a Girl....rock lady thinks....maybe.....maybe not....

So let me just start out by saying that the 20 week ultrasound experience was one of the biggest let downs ever. Perhaps my expectations were too high but I think not. It all started when we got an ultrasound technician with the personality of a rock. She had the worst bedside manner and literally DID NOT TALK. She just moved the little thing around on my stomach while she madly clicked away at the computer. She did not tell me what she was doing, looking at, looking for, what I was seeing. So after a while I decided this was unacceptable and I just starting asking her. And quite honestly I hope I was a big pain in her A**!

I was all. "What's that? What's that? What's that? What are you doing? What are you doing now? What are you looking for? What are you measuring? Is that normal? Does that look good? What's that?" You'd think she'd have gotten a clue and started volunteering the information on her own, but no. And she only took like 3 of the 3d shots and they were all the exact same shot so she really only took ONE! Uggghhh! So frustrating!

Then here's the best part. Apparently the child was not in the best position to determine the gender. So she tried to determine the gender like twice. (not for very long and not with as much effort as I would have preferred. There was a lady in before me that had an awesome technician that was like trying all these tricks and having her drink water and do all these things so that the baby would change positions.) And this is what she said. "That's not a very good shot. I don't know. I think it looks like a girl. If you go out and buy any pink, just save the receipts." And then she turned off the machine. AWESOME! Thanks a lot. For NOTHING! ROCK LADY!

Here are the pictures rock lady did get for us. I think they're pretty self explanatory.

Suprise!

So, the people had the house inspection today and their guy said he thinks our attic is filled with mold. (AND JUST TO BE CLEAR, THERE IS NO PART OF OUR HOUSE OR ATTIC THAT LOOKS LIKE THAT MOLD OVER THERE.)

The real story is this. When our house inspector inspected the house when we were buying it he saw the same thing but told us that the house had most likely had a moisture issue in the past before the vent fan was installed which is what the discoloration is from. However, he said there was no current moisture issue and no live mold.

But, they are having someone come out tomorrow to test for mold. So lets hope all goes well because if this deal falls through, I might lose my mind. And I just read about how constant or chronic stress increases cortisol in your body and can lead to lower birth weight in your child. At this rate I'll be giving birth to a 4 pound baby. So you can pray for all of that!

Also, our 20 week ultra sound is tomorrow which I've been looking forward to for a month, but am now having a hard time even thinking about it or being excited about it because it's in the morning and the mold test is at 12pm and all I can think about is all the "what if's" that that whole situation holds. Hopefully that will all melt away for at least 45 minutes when I see our baby on the screen!

Right now I'm doing a surprisingly good job just praying about it, hoping for the best and continuing to tell myself that there is nothing I can do about it and we will have a lot more answers tomorrow at 12pm.