Week 15: Keeping Occupied; Apples & Oranges

Month-long waits between scans suck.  Two week waits (other than the first) were bad, but now you really have keep yourself occupied.  Depending on the baby guide you look at, at week 15 your baby is the size of an apple or orange - roughly 4 inches (crown to rump).  Things are progressing quickly and (thankfully) smoothly.

I'm never one to prepare.  I usually fly by the seat of my pants.  But something is happening to me. Suddenly, I want everything done before the baby comes.  I want to have everything we need ready to go so when we bring the baby home, there's nothing to do except feedings, changing nappies, doing laundry, and losing sleep.

HOUSEWORK

This weekend John began work on the bathroom floor of the in-law apartment (it suffered from termite damage) -- a task that would be lost on me.  If I was doing that by myself, I would have filled the gaping hole with cement and covered it with linoleum.

I moved out of my office/pet sanctuary into another room, so that I can begin work on the nursery.  I cleared the room of almost everything, grabbed a pencil, and began sketching the 360* mural I'm going to paint on the walls.  The good news: I'm a better artist than I thought.  The bad news:  this is going to take more than a few weekends and a LOT of paint. Good thing I'm starting early.  And if it turns out horrible, I can simply paint over it.

CLOTHING

We're getting quite a wardrobe going.  It's mostly my fault for having no self-control when I see baby clothes.  What clothes do you buy for baby before he/she arrives?  Baby clothes sizes: premie, newborn, 0-3m, 3-6m, 6-9m...ugh.  From what I've been reading, don't buy anything premie or newborn.  Chances are they will never fit (if newborn does fit, it won't after a week).

I think I should put an end to buying & receiving anything in newborn size.  If we need it, we'll get it in Delhi.  Perhaps concentrating on necessities in the 0-3m size would be the better path to go: white shirts, onsies, socks, etc.  0-3m outfits are cute, but maybe those should also stop (unless they're unbearably cute) until after the baby is born; that way we can get gender-specific outfits.

INVENTORY:
Newborn size: 4 onsies and 3 sleepers.
0-3m: 5 sleepers, 1 onsie, and 2 gowns.
3-6m: 1 sleeper.
Misc.: hats (one 0-3m, two 0-6m, one 3-6m, and one 0-9m), 1 pair of booties (6w-3m), 1 bib, 2 pairs of scratch mittens, 3 burp cloths, 4 receiving blankets, 2 other blankets (one thick, and one thin).

A VISUAL VOCABULARY:

ONSIES

SLEEPER (OR SLEEP 'N' PLAY)

A RANT ON GENDER

I hate not knowing the sex of the baby.  In India, there is a law (and I believe it is perfectly fair) preventing the doctor from revealing the sex of the baby to ANYONE.  They sign-off on every scan that they have not intentionally revealed the baby's gender to any party.  That being said, we want to know!  We hate surprises, and we are in very different circumstances than why the law was put into place.  But the law is the law.

I don't think we're the only one in this boat either.  I get why some people want to be surprised, I do. But I think most Americans find out what they're having (although I may just be reading the wrong forums).

Let's go to the store:

SALESPERSON: "Can I help you?"
ME: "I'm just looking at clothes, thank you."
SALESPERSON: "Are you having a girl or a boy?"
ME: "I don't know, it's a surprise."
SALESPERSON: "Oh, how exciting!  Let me take you to our yellow clothes section."

Okay, I love what we have in clothes so far, but is yellow the only gender-neutral color now?  Where did mint-greens and apricots go?  I mean, they're there, but they are hard to find in stores.

Never mind clothes, setting up a nursery becomes more difficult as well.  You walk by all the blue & pink nursery set-ups in the stores, and tucked away in the back of the store is the dusty old yellow bedding set.  For the color-blind, you can tell by all the return stickers and "reduced to clear" labels on them.

(END OF RANT)

AND LASTLY...THING'S YOU CAN'T UNSEE...

Will you be my friend forever and ever?

This cute & cuddly little fella is made from human placenta.