26 Weeks

Somehow, I feel this picture makes me look smaller than last week's. Maybe the lack of stripes? 

Ignore the litter box, please. I am too lazy to crop and repost.

This weekend I kept Todd on his toes. I made him break out the Home Depot card, claiming we could pay it off real quick after we close on refinancing, and purchase some stuff so that I could start getting things done. We bought the kids' closet organizer and some storage bins. Their closet is about 5' wide, the package for the organizer claimed to fit closets from 4-9' but in small print informed us that anything under 6' required hanging poles to be cut. We altered the appearance a bit, the right side is about 6-8 inches from the interior wall and is wide enough to just fit a couple of folding chairs. Perfect, without fear of the chairs falling over onto Jack's head while he plays. I apologize for the dark photos; they're taken with my phone and I didn't open the curtains in Jack's room to allow for more natural light.

Fancy closet organization

Board games are in their closet for now, but I would like to move them and install drawers for more clothing storage. I anticipate little girl tights, booty covers, and ruffly socks will overtake Jack's "just socks" drawer. The lower three shelves will likely remain toy storage. The black Ikea bins fit perfectly in the cubby holes. Might have to pick a few more up when we go back to Ikea for more curtain rods for our bedroom.

New and improved kids' room. Penguin is trying hard to compete with the rocking giraffe.

I didn't do too much to their room. When it was just Jack's room, the changing table was where the crib is and the crib was approximately where Jack's big boy bed is (which I made JUST to take pictures, please ignore the crowded crib in which I have placed every stuffed animal Jack owns until I figure out what to do with them.) Under the crib are storage bins that I have filled with books; we took the bookcase out of their room to provide a bit more play space. I will probably have to find an easier home for them, though, as Jack lacks the necessary upper body strength to pull the heavy bins out. There are three in total. That's a lot of books! I rehung the shelves above the changing table and next weekend our goal is to move Jack's letters over the top of his bed. Having them off center is driving me bonkers. 

Now that we have their new and improved space, I am once again motivated to do laundry and hang and fold their clothing. I know I have some stuff coming from the grandmas and I can't wait to hang some more girl stuff in the closet. The bedding that we have chosen for Nina isn't purchased yet, but from the pictures should complement Jack's coloring nicely without looking too girly or babyish. The walls will stay blue. I like the softness of the color and the vinyl cloud decorations are fitting for both a pirate and ladybug theme. The blue tape border will probably come down because I don't think we're going to end up doing a pirate border anymore. 

I have an actual OB appointment tomorrow (as opposed to just a BP check with the NP). There's not much we need to go over beyond how I'm feeling, my BP anxiety, and how well baby is doing. We've scheduled a 3D ultrasound for the 20th, to confirm that Nina is still a girl. I'm very excited about that, because we get to see her again and because Jack has SO MANY ultrasound pictures I don't want her to feel like we just didn't care. My doctor talked me out of one with Jack by scaring me about a possible correlation between too many ultrasounds and autism and then my blood pressure skyrocketed and we had an ultrasound every 3 weeks for three months, plus additional random ones when Jack wouldn't cooperate during my NSTs. Thanks a lot, doctor, I'm not sure how much difference one more ultrasound would have made. So far though, this pregnancy is turning out to be completely normal (read: constipation, gas, tossing and turning, nausea, heartburn, and every other random "normal" symptom I didn't have with Jack) and probably won't require a third trimester ultrasound unless something funky comes up.

14 weeks until Nina arrives. So long to go, but so quick to come. Can't wait to meet you, little one :)