37 weeks and a break.

Since my appointment on Thursday, my body has given me slow down signs. With contractions and other symptoms, I know the end is near (although we would love to make it at least one more week). I feel excited and giddy at the idea of not being pregnant, and getting to do the non pregnant things I love (ie, sushi, wine, etc). At the same time, I want a bit more time to unpack the 10 or so boxes we have left. I labeled a few boxes as 'odds 'n ends' and those are the ones Im afraid to open. Ill have to keep that in mind for next time, not a good label. Oh wait, there wont be a next time. Mark my words.

Dave and I had a few errands we wanted to run on Saturday morning which were all related to house things when Maggie sent me a text inviting us to the Apple Orchard. I responded with a noncommittal 'we will see, we have a few things to do today.' She quickly suggested how good it would be for Sullivan, with that and the end of the pregnancy in mind, I conceded. We bagged all of our house errands, what a great decision that was. Sully had a blast. He is happiest holding Isaac's hand, chasing Isaac, or tormenting Anna. Such a little character already. We came home for his nap and went to the park as soon as he woke. He slept 13+ hours last night, a sure sign he had a great day. It was so nice to soak up some family time before Dave goes back to work, and while we are still just a family of three.

We had a quiet day today, like I said, I have not been feeling that great, so I needed a day to veg. We slept in, took naps, watched a bit of TV, etc. It was just what I needed. It was so nice to take a two day break from all things house (Dave did a bit of work today, however). We dive back in tomorrow with the painter, electrician, and landscaper arriving in the morning. We finished the nursery the master today, just waiting on curtains. Ill post pictures later this week.

Strapped in and so excited. 

Isaac, Sully, and Anna.

Look closely, Dave was chasing the train around trying to capture the moment,
it was hilarious.

Sully and his #1 buddy. 

Picking pumpkins. 

Family photo.

Obligatory pregnancy pic. 37 weeks along. 

Loving park time with daddy. 

Strippers.

The house is coming along...we hit a solid three day hold on painting due to the incredible amount of wallpaper we had to strip. Let me tell you, it is a very tedious project. Paul, our painter gave us the green light to work ahead of him which has been great. It is so rewarding to see him come through after all of the work we have done and put a fresh coat of paint over it all. The house is gradually starting to feel like it belongs to us, one wall at a time.

The moving trucks came on Monday, and we also had two showings. I was literally following the movers around with vacuums and scooting them out of the house as realtors and their clients pulled up to the front of the house. Dave and Sully were at the new house with the cable guy and doing some unpacking of their own. How exhausting. It was so nice to have the day behind us. We have been unpacking boxes ever since, and I think it is safe to say that we are down to the last dozen or so, I am just out of steam. Instead of unpacking them, I keep restacking them so they look more organized. I need to get to it, maybe tomorrow.

I have had a steady stream of stripper help. My mom dove in a few days ago in the dining room and has hardly been able to keep herself away. She shows up first thing in the morning and leaves when she has appointments to get to. It has been great. Not only is it awesome because of the amount of work she has completed, but also because we just like having her around. Maggie also spent a morning here last week and Dave chips in every chance he gets. Jeff Oliver even peeled a strip or two. I have to admit, its kind of fun, especially when we see progress.  All strippers welcome!

On a completely unrelated note, I saw my doctor today. I will be 37 weeks on Saturday and everything looked pretty good. The baby's heart rate did dip while she was checking me, so I had to stay and be monitored for 30 minutes following the appointment. The baby did great. Its baseline heart rate was in 140s. I am 50% effaced and 1cm dilated. So, we are on our way, the baby will be here before we know it!

Maggie, strip tease. 

Mom, getting aggressive.

Upper hallway. 

Hallway after.  

Stairway. 

Stairway after. 

One week in.

As of today, we are one week into homeownership of the new house. We are still spending nap time and nights at the old house, but spend most of our days at the new house. I really wanted to wait until I had some completed rooms to post, but I don't want to wait too long and I want everything documented, so, bare with me. I think ultimately I will be happy to have more posts than less.

Dave had all of last week off and I feel like we took great advantage of the time we had to work together. We are gradually moving things over and unpacking. The moving trucks come on Monday and I would love to have all of the nick nacks moved over by then in order to minimize the movers work and time. Sullivan has been a trooper, we have a room of toys and a few snacks at the new house, so he keeps himself pretty busy for short periods of time. My mom has been helping during nap time, which has been great. Its amazing how much we can accomplish in two hours with all of our hands free. 

The man we hired to remove wall paper and paint the walls for us started last Wednesday and has made pretty incredible progress. At his current pace, the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms will be complete by the end of the week. Dave and I did the carpet ourselves, and what a pain, literally. My body hurt in ways I didn't know possible, even my finger muscles were sore from pulling out staples that had been in the wood floor. My sister, Liz and her boyfriend showed up just in time to relieve me of any further carpet duty on Saturday, and they were a Godsend. The floor under the carpet is in decent shape. It definitely isn't perfect, but with furniture and rugs down, it will be fine until we are able to have them redone with the larger remodel next year. Dave and I went back on Sunday to do some cleaning before furniture delivery which happened yesterday. So far, everything is happening just as planned.

Below are some before and during photos.

Master, before. 

Master, during.

Dave, hard at work, safety first.

Master, before.

Master, during. 

Nursery, before. 

Nursery, during. 

Nursery, before. 

Nursery, during. 

My current state, 35+ weeks pregnant.
Imagine what I looked like on the floor
pulling up carpet. Ugh. 

Celebrating on the move.

Dave and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary yesterday with lots of activity. The painter started removing wallpaper and I met with a landscaper, and a decorator. I also had about half dozen friends stop over to check out the new place. It is four floors (including the basement and attic), so as you can imagine, after all of the tours and talking, my body was aching. We tag teamed Sully in order for each other to make appointments and before we knew it, we were sitting at the dining room table eating take out and talking house plans. Not overly romantic, but at the same time, a pretty great day.

I for see a bit of stress in our future, although I am really happy with the progress so far. Dave and I definitely have different opinions on some of the house priorities, but overall, I think we are doing a good job of trying to stay on the same page. After all, that is very important to both of us, and I think if we can keep plugging away as we are, things will go just fine.

As we crawled into bed last night, exhausted and full from dinner (at 9:30pm), I apologized for not getting him a card. Dave's response was somewhat vague, but I didn't pry as he was snoring within seconds. When I got back into bed at 2am (after my second trip to the bathroom), I felt something under my pillow. I pulled it out and it was a hand written note on his personalized National WWII Museum stationary, the header is: "Mr David Munce, Charter Member." How romantic, he knows just how to make my heart patter ;).

In other news, I had my OB appointment this morning, which went great. I will be 35 weeks on Saturday. My blood pressure was amazing and the baby's heart rate was 144. Pretty consistent with the last few checks. We are good to go for two more weeks.

I hope to post soon on some house progress, stay tuned.

Our first photo at the new house. This was taken after
our closing on September 24th. 

Nowhere to nest.

I have found myself itching to do things, I don't even know what, I just know I can hardly sit still. From work to a full day of weeding to tomato sauce producing and random errands, I have being on the move mastered. I am definitely 'nesting,' but don't really feel like I am in the right place, mentally or emotionally. Our house is still on the market, and I am ready to focus on something else. We are a few days away from closing on the new house, which is so exciting, I can't even stand it. I want to be in, I want to throw a coat of paint on the walls, I want to set up a crib (or two) and settle so we are in a comfortable place before the baby is born. I have been antsy for time to fly by and as soon as we sign those papers next week, I will want it to halt so we can get projects done. What a weird feeling. 

We went over to the new house last week to chat with the current owners. Buying this 91 year old home is almost like having a child (another child??!). It is run on a boiler system which is new to both of us, and has all other sorts of quirks that we need to familiarize ourselves with. I think it was our 5th or 6th stop over to ask various questions in order to make for a pleasant transition. As I walked through the house with most of the furnishings gone, I couldn't help but feel a bit emotional. A family with five children was raised there, all of whom are in their 40-50s, so it has been years since babies and little feet have run the stairs and hallways. I chose the nursery and stood there, imagining our crib and glider in the room, trying to envision the perfect color for the walls. I did the same in Sullivan's new room and in the master bedroom. On Tuesday we will breathe new life into this big gorgeous home that both Dave and I feel privileged to call our own. Yikes, here come those emotions again. I can't wait, I get to nest until my heart is content, and then some. 

Im excited to post before and after pictures as we tackle the various projects we have chosen to complete prebaby. We will then take some time off (with the exception of wall paper removal, which will probably continue to take place over the next several months) and do a larger project in the winter of 2015. Im also excited to post something (hopefully sooner rather than later) about the sale of our favorite little house on 6th Avenue (did I mention we dropped the price this week? Hopefully that will help). 

In the mean time, here are some of the things I have been doing to occupy my time. 

Making tomato sauce. 

Harvesting Grandma Banana's fruits and veggies with Maggie.

Soaking up my Sully time.

Peaches, fresh from the peach tree. 

Sully and Mama

Dave spent the majority of last week in Montana visiting his friend John, which meant Sully and I were on our own. I had a lot of anxiety as to how four days on my own would go considering I'm 32 weeks pregnant, but it actually went great. Im not going to lie, I was in bed by about 9pm every night and my body ached, but we got through.

When Dave brought up his want to go, we both knew his window of time was very narrow, it was pretty much now or in a year from now (considering the upcoming baby, move, and remodel of the new home). So, he went. He had a great time, and lucky for us, he was ready to come home (in my almost four years with Dave, he has never admitted to being ready to come home). Turns out, there are a couple of favorite faces in Sioux Falls, and one of them happens to be pregnant with another favorite face, just one we have not seen yet.

Sully and I kept busy, morning walks with Kenzie, Courtney came over one morning so I could get out, and a get together with a few friends one evening as well. We had our daily stop over to the Oliver's, which was perfect. We packed up after nap time and ate dinner with them each night. Isaac continues to love on Sully every chance he gets, and Anna continues to be a diva :). We picked Dave up from the airport on Friday morning and I put Sully down with the idea he would run to him. He took three steps forward, then turned around and headed right back to me. This was a first, he generally prefers Dave to me. I soaked it all in and then gently encouraged him to go to Dave, which he did. No need to worry, things are back to business as usual around here, and Sully is back to being a daddy's boy.

We are glad to have everyone under the same roof for the next several months. The next item of excitement is the house closing, which will be here in no time. Yay!

Happy Sully

Giggles with Mama.

My sweet baby boy.

Mumford and Sons

One of my favorite friends called me in early February to ask if Dave and I would be interested in meeting them in Troy, OH for a Mumford and Sons concert over Labor Day weekend. After checking dates and schedules, it looked like it would work, so we booked. Little did I know, I would be exactly 31 weeks pregnant! Oh well, it was still a blast. Sullivan stayed home with Courtney, our babysitter and they did great. No issues whatsoever, thank goodness.

We flew out on Friday morning and arrived in time for an afternoon nap before Stacy and Dave arrived. We stayed in Dayton, which is also where Dave (Winters) went to college, so we had our own personal tour guide. Upon their arrival, we went for dinner with them and another Creighton couple who were also in town for the concert. We turned in early and slept like rocks, Dave even slept in until 10am, something completely unheard of for him. The guys dropped us off at the mall for shopping and pedicures while they went to The Air Force Museum.  After shopping, we ate, took naps (again) then made our way to the concert.

The concert was amazing. The town of Troy has a population of 25,000 people and they basically shut most of it down for the concert. The main streets and surrounding areas were roped off and everyone was celebrating. Unfortunately, it did rain a bit, but that didn't scare off any of the 35,000+ fans. We found our way to the bleachers and settled in. I will admit, going to a concert in a completely sober state was a foreign concept to me, but it was great. I had an absolute blast, hopefully we can do something similar when we I can enjoy some of the specialty beers and whatnot ;).

Stacy and Dave dropped us off on their way out of town on Sunday morning after brunch. We were able to catch an early flight and get home to Sully shortly after he woke up from his nap. I wont be leaving him again until I go into labor, which is actually a really good feeling. Dave turned around and went to Montana yesterday for the rest of the week, so once he returns, we will be put until baby number 2 is here.

It was great to spend time with Stacy and Dave. Dave and Dave have a lot of similar interests and share a lot of common knowledge, so they are good entertainment for each other. Stacy and I have been friends forever and are good about keeping in regular contact. We have no problems picking up where we left off, which is great. Looking forward to the next rendezvous!

Group photo, pre concert.

Here comes the rain, and a really flattering
poncho at 31 weeks pregnant. 

Suzie and Stacy

Dave and I at the concert.