Let's start with the Doctor and End with the Nursery

This is going to be a random post - the title was your first heads up. I love going to the ob/gyn now. I think it is fun to hear the heartbeat, I like that I can ask random questions, and it means that I am one step closer to having this baby. Today I had another routine visit. It was pretty standard - weight, blood pressure and pee in the cup to kick things off. I have officially gained 12 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight - so things have sort of tapered off in the weight gaining dept after my 9 lb debut in the first trimeseter. My blood pressure is normal and no problems with urine. I still get 'stage fright' when I have to pee in the cup.

After that, I had to climb up on the table and present the belly for the heartbeat. My doctor put the wand on my belly turned it on and there was the heartbeat! No searching at all. He commented that my baby is very cooperative. My response, "Let's hope he/she stays that way". This time the heartbeat was interrupted by little blips, which the doctor said were kicks or other movements. I thought that was awesome. He indulged me with a few more minutes of listening.

Then he asked me if we were going to find out the sex during our ultrasound in 2 1/2 weeks. I said no and then I asked him a zillion questions about how to guarantee that we won't accidentally find out. I wasn't so concerned with the actual ultrasound, but was worried that the sex would get recorded in the computer system and the next visit I would be greeted with, "So, you're having a {insert sex here}". He mentioned that the genitalia gets recorded as "normal" or "abnormal" and that's it so he doesn't even know the sex until I deliver. That way there is no possible way of a screw up. PHEW!

The only other question I had was how much the left side sleeping really matters because in terms of comfort right now it is stomach, back, right side, left side. He said that right now i don't have to worry about my sleep position and there will come a point when back and stomach sleeping will not be comfortable and then basically pick a side. The left side thing matters in 0.1% of pregnancies and even then the extra blood flow is neglible. PHEW again!

THEN THE KICKER. "So you're in the window for the spina bifida screen and that's a blood draw so you can head down to the lab after you leave". WHAT?! I was not prepared for this. Thus, I had NOTHING to eat or drink yet this morning. F*$*!
I went down to the lab. I asked the woman if I could lay down while she did the blood draw and she took me to a private room and the reclining chair. She was amazing and talked about fishing or something and literally I had no idea the blood draw was even over. (Granted the tube was TINY but still). I didn't even have the queasiness I usually do! PHEW x 1 BILLION!

So that's the 17 week 6 day checkup. I can see why people get the sonogram machines - it is so fun to hear the heartbeat!

In other news, my back has been pretty sore lately still and my husband gave me a really nice long massage last night. The baby was LOVING it - it was the most movement I have felt yet. I really felt like it was doing somersaults. I told my husband that he had to give me more back rubs because clearly even the baby loves it, ha ha ha.

In terms of the nursery, we also found a rug this weekend! At Lowe's of all places. I have taken to looking through the rug departments of all stores now and I happened upon this one, which was on CLEARANCE even and they only had one left. They didn't charge a restocking fee so we bought it to see how it would look. We love it! It was great to find a 8' x 10' rug for a reasonable price because at that size, rugs get pricey.

I also ordered fabric for curtains. There turned out to be drama with my original fabric selection - the Kokka pigs. Basically, the fabric was not going to be wide enough to do the cornices and then we decided that since the existing rods were already up and fine that it would just be more work to try to move those and re-hang cornices so we decided to go with regular curtains. At $16.95 a yard, the Kokka Pigs were going to be a bit much for curtains since the narrow width of the fabric would mean that I would need 8 yards at least of the fabric so we were back to square one. I was going through fabric online over the weekend and came up with several options that I had my mom, sister and husband weigh in on since they have all seen the paint. Thus, this is the fabric for the curtains:

It is Amy Butler's August Fields in Tangerine Home Decor Weight. Normally, this is $16/yard but fabric.com had it on clearance for $6.49/yard and THEN had an extra 30% off clearance fabric making it $4.54 a yard. WOOHOO! I love finding deals on Amy Butler fabric! Also, my husband also really liked it so bonus points for that.

I am going to use the pigs to make fabric bins for the bookshelves and nightstand like this:

Several tutorials exist for these, although the one pictured above is from etsy.

Then, I went to Juxt Home & Baby here, a store that I have always loved, because they were having their spring sale. The 50% off Dash & Albert rugs drew me in (this was pre-Lowe's, and all the remaining rugs were pink) but I ended up leaving with the CUTEST elephant bookend. I had to buy it. It is made of a light blue (similar to the wall color) seersucker fabric. I have a thing for elephants (and giraffes and penguins) so it called to me. The baby made me do it :)