Monday, August 20, 2012

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.

11 comments:

  1. Where on earth did you find the placenta bear -eek - love the creepy caption - please say you weren't researching where to have your own one made, hehe !!

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  2. Um, ick. You're right, I can't unsee that. On the other hand, have you seen this store before? http://www.thewhitecompany.com/baby-elephant-collection// They offer free shipping on orders over a certain price, and I am IN LOVE with everything on this page!!! I'd like 2 of each item, please!

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  3. OMG! I just want to know where they got the placenta? Did someone walk up to a groggy new mom and say, "Excuse me ma'm, can we have your placenta since you won't be needing it anymore? We'd like to make a teddy to scare the children" Yikes!! Beyond the icky teddy - I totally agree with the yellow clothing and bedding. I have decided to buy a bunch of white things and just write ironic quotes and quips on them in fabric marker ;-) Good Luck with your "in between" time. Hoping the next update comes quickly for you!

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  4. hang in there guys...it's looking like things are moving along nicely!

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  5. Ok..the icky placenta bear has took me under...oh my...Good luck with the waiting and the in law room!

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  6. I knew my nursery was missing something... Gotta put placenta bear on the registry.

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  7. erm i think i'll give the placenta a bear a miss :) lol where did you find that?! happy decorating, looks like you guys are full steam ahead, hoping the month pass's by for you quickly x

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  8. OMG! I will have not be able to close my eyes tonight thinking in the evil placenta teddy bear ... ahhhh!
    BTW, I could not agree more in the color issue ... dusty yellow, dah! ... as Joann & Brian we will go for the white (we could always turn it yellow with extra detergent)

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  9. Gosh that Teddy is quite disturbing. I can understand where you're coming from regarding the house renovations. We're in the same boat and we're not even pregnant yet. Keep working through it. As the birth approaches, I'm sure you'll find some new found energy to get it all done!

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  10. Oh that's exciting that we are so close in pregnancy dates! Glad to hear I'm not the only one frustrated by not knowing the baby's gender. Seems the frustration hits at around 16 weeks as the reality of pregnancy sets in but you can't fully visualise what it will be like without this gender knowledge. Oh well. :) c'est la vie!
    Hadn't thought of yellow, I like mint green that was my bed sheet colour - and yellow too actually when I was younger. Perhaps we will have white to start then when we return to the UK with a 3-6 month old then we can get some or my parents can sort it for us before we are back. Glad to hear others are tempted by baby clothes this early on, hubby thought I was being premature in decorative bits i got! I don't like the placenta bear yuk! When's your next scan? Sr :)

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  11. Not knowing the gender sucks when you are so distant from your pregnancy. I found lots of yellow, apricot, pale green, and white clothes at our goodwill in the 0-3 mos size. It was an inexpensive way to buy enough clothes to take to India, and when we got home, I bought more gender-appropriate stuff. (However, I thought those colors were really cute on an infant, particularly one with SE Asian coloring.) They grow out of the infant clothing sizes so quickly; you don't really need a lot in any one size. We did our nursery in apricot and pale green, but you could go with one of those colors and then add in blue or pink accents when you get home -- apricot/blue, apricot/pink, green/blue, green/pink are all nice combinations.
    Congratulations on reaching the 15 week mark! Wishing you an uneventful rest of your pregnancy.

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