I Smell Like Pancakes!

Last week, my milk ducts became clogged three separate times (spanning the course of about 5 days). Once I cleared everything up, my milk supply for Lauren had dropped a lot! I tried everything I could to get it back up, but none of the conventional methods were working, so I spoke with a lactation consultant who suggested I take fenugreek, an herb that helps increase your milk supply. I headed over to Whole Foods a few days ago and bought a bottle of fenugreek pills. I've been taking them for about 2 days now and one of the interesting side effects is that fenugreek makes you smell like maple syrup. Apparently it's an ingredient in maple syrup, so I guess this makes sense, but it's pretty weird to be walking around the house and notice the smell of pancakes and then realize - that's me!

More Firsts

This weekend Dan and I took Lauren outside for her first stroller ride in the neighborhood. The weather was nice (for Chicago in December, that is!). It was in the mid-40's, so it wasn't bitterly cold and the wind wasn't too bad. We bundled Lauren up and ventured out to Walgreens, Paciugo and Treasure Island, all of which are within 3 blocks of our home. I don't think she was a fan of the cold. She did okay at first, but on the way home she started screaming, which promptly stopped once we got inside our building where it was warm. I think she has my warm weather genes!

Lauren's other "first" last weekend was watching a Packers vs. Bears game with Dan. He put her in a Packers dress (a gift from Mike and Stacy) and fed her "dinner" while the game was on. Of course Dan insisted that I get photos of this occasion and he even made a sign to commemorate the event.

Mom's Photos of Lauren

While Mom was visiting, she took some great photos of Lauren. These are the latest, from a few days ago.

Our Christmas tree is up!

Last week when we got home from the hospital, we had a ton of packages waiting for us at home. One was our new Christmas tree, a 7.5 foot tree that looks as close to real as I imagine a fake tree can look. Dan assembled it, strung the lights, and then we put the ornaments on and placed gifts under the tree. Our living room is very festive now. We also have our Christmas stockings hanging up. I love the Christmas season!

Lauren's first bathtime

Dan and I gave Lauren her first bath at home last Friday. Mom captured photos as we sponged her down with warm water. She varied between being curious about the bath and wimpering a bit. I hope she enjoys bathtime more and more as she gets older. Playing in the water is fun, and we have lots of fun bath toys for her to enjoy when she can hold things.

Little Lauren Arrived!

Lauren made her debut last Monday, December 5 at 5:32pm. It has been an amazing week. We brought her home on Thursday afternoon. I have never experienced Dan driving so carefully (and within the speed limit)! He is enamored with little Lauren. She is such a sweet baby and very expressive with her hands and facial expressions. Below is a photo of her sitting in her car seat in the hospital lobby as we prepared to take her home. Her facial expression is priceless!

A new baby blanket and other weekend adventures

Dan and I had a very relaxing weekend. On Saturday afternoon we went downtown and finished our Christmas shopping. We stayed downtown for a delicious dinner at an Italian place Dan discovered last month when his friends Rich and Claire were in town. They hand make the pasta daily! I had squash and ricotta tortelloni with zucchini sauce. It was amazing! Dan ordered spaghetti with rabbit ragu. I didn't try it as it made me think of cute little bunnies.

Today our church held the second day of its holiday bazaar. After the 11am service, we perused the bazaar, which had a random assortment of handmade items and baked goods contributed by church members with all of the proceeds going to our church's community ministry efforts. We bought a word board game (developed by one of our fellow parishioners who is a game developer!) and a crocheted baby blanket. The blanket is beautiful! It is white with green trim and scalloped edges. I tried to take a photo of it below. It will be a great stroller blanket or just something for Lauren to cuddle up in when she gets a little older.

Christmas Gifts

Since Lauren will be here any day and I don't expect to have a lot of free time in December, I completed our Christmas shopping earlier than usual this year. I'm excited to spend Christmas at our own home this year, with a tree, pretty packages under the branches, and our new stockings. Although Lauren won't remember her first Christmas, we will take lots of photos and I want her to know when she is older that we had a happy home waiting for her!

I've wrapped most of our gifts (including our gifts for Mike, Stacy, Olivia and Graham, who will open them here in mid-December before heading down to FL) and have piled them in a corner of the living room until the tree goes up. It should be here any day...the expected delivery is this week. I'm hoping we can put it up this weekend.

I don't know why Blogger keeps turning my photo sideways, but anyways, check out all of our pretty wrapping paper!

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving week with family last week. Mom and Dad arrived on Monday night after their month-long trip to France and Jordan. Mom came with me to my 37 week doctor's appointment (no big news to report) on Tuesday. We spent that afternoon cooking things to put in the freezer for when baby Lauren arrives. On Wednesday, we hosted Dad's cousin Ken for lunch at our home and then that evening Jim and Lavonne came over for dinner. The following day, Mom and Dad flew home and we enjoyed Thanksgiving Day with Jim and Lavonne. Dan was in charge of the turkey, Lavonne made the pies (blackberry and pumpkin, yum!) and I took care of the side dishes (squash souffle, broccoli rice casserole, hot rolls and endive/pear salad). I used our fine china for the first time since I got it more than 10 years ago! I think the table was very pretty. I unfortunately forgot to take a photo, but I think Lavonne took a few so hopefully I'll manage to track one down.

On Friday, Mike, Stacy, Olivia and Graham arrived and we moved into birthday celebration mode! Dan's birthday was Saturday and Mike's birthday was Sunday. We enjoyed a birthday dinner at Nomi on Saturday night and a birthday brunch at The Signature Room on Sunday.

It was a lovely weekend!

Dishwasher woes

For the past few months, our dishwasher has been running but something clearly wasn't right. The dishes were streakier than they should be and the dishwasher had to be re-set after every wash in order to run again. Not normal. Finally, a couple weeks ago, it just stopped working. Keep in mind this is a 1.5 year Viking dishwasher. It should run great for a LONG time!

ABT has been out three different times in the past 2 weeks to replace parts and after today's visit, it appears the machine is simply a dud. When you replace all the electrical on a machine and it still doesn't work, something is clearly wrong. Of course, Viking will continue to cover "repairs" but won't replace the machine, so we're taking matters into our own hands and will just buy a new one (and a different brand at that!). I think we're going to go with a Bosch. It will match the look of our other appliances and doesn't have a brand logo on the front, so it won't be obvious that we're mixing brands in the kitchen. Now I'm just hoping that we have a working dishwasher before all of our guests arrive next week for Thanksgiving! Mom, Dad, Jim, and Lavonne arrive early next week and then Mike, Stacy, Olivia and Graham get here next weekend. In the grand scheme of things, having a non-working dishwasher isn't that big of a deal (we used to wash dishes by hand at our apartment in NYC), but since we gut renovated our kitchen last year and intentionally bought nice appliances, it's definitely disappointing not to mention a big inconvenience. We'll see what happens as soon as I hear back from ABT today.

Whitney and Baby Greta's Visit to Chicago

Last weekend Whitney and Greta came to visit us. It was our first chance to meet baby Greta in-person and she is a sweet little baby. When she is awake, she is very curious and looks around taking it all in. She barely cried at all during the entire trip. Lucky Whitney! It's really fun to see Greta start to smile and laugh now. She giggled when we played peek-a-boo with her, which was fun.

During their visit we kept a pretty low-key schedule but we did manage to make it out to a few nice restaurants including La Creperie and Q (amazing BBQ). We also tried a Belgian Waffle shop for dessert one night and it was really good! Dan and I walk by it all the time and have never stopped in, but I'll have to take him back there for sure. After our lunch at Q on Saturday we walked around downtown for a bit so that Whitney could see Michigan Avenue. I took a few photos of little Greta right before we hopped in the car to go home.

Swollen Feet

I have been feeling so tired lately. Today I slept in until 10am! I've heard this is normal during the third trimester, but it is definitely zapping my productivity!

Today, my feet are so swollen I can barely put my shoes on. I will spare sharing photos of that...

Tonight our Bradley Method instructor returns for our second class, where we'll go over comfort techniques (things I can do myself as well as things Dan can help with). We learned so much in our first class with her, so I'm excited for her to come back tonight.

This weekend Jamie and Neil will be visiting us. I am really excited to see them. They arrive Saturday morning and will be there until Sunday early evening. Neil is currently living in Portland while he completes a one year fellowship. He is specializing in minimally-invasive liver and pancreas surgery. Jamie is still in DC working for the Treasury Department. I would find it hard to live nearly 3,000 miles away from Dan for an entire year, but they are making it work by seeing each other every two weeks and talking often. We are hoping to take them to play Big Buck Hunter tomorrow!

New shoes!

Today I walked over to DSW with two $10 Rewards certificates in hand (DSW sends you great coupons in the mail if you're signed up for their rewards program). They expire on Sunday and basically equal $20 for free, so I was determined to find something. Since I already have my new winter boots for this year, I found a really cute pair of flat shoes for next spring/summer in the clearance section. After my rewards certificates, the shoes were only $8.75. Not bad! Check it out.

I took this photo with our new DSLR camera, which I am enjoying using since I learned how to operate it last weekend during our date night photography class.

Dan gets home tonight after a whirlwind trip to Frankfurt and then Denver. I am sure he will be glad to be home, and I will be happy to have him here!

Winter Has Arrived & Other Updates

This week the temperatures dipped into the 40s. It's starting to feel like winter! As long as it's not too windy, it's still nice to be outside. I'm planning to go on a long walk today wearing my new winter coat.

Last night our Bradley Method instructor came over for our first class. We are so grateful that she is willing to meet with us on Friday nights. It makes it much less disruptive to Dan's work schedule. Our first class was immensely helpful. One of the takeaways for Dan was "your wife will not find your jokes funny during active labor, so don't even try!" He and I thought that was pretty funny because he usually resorts to jokes to lighten the mood, but I think he will try a different approach during birth.

Tonight, we are going to a photography class with our new DSLR camera. I'm really looking forward to being able to capture better photos with a faster shutter speed. I'm hopeful we'll leave the class tonight with a good understanding of how to use it!

Round 2: Finds for Toby and Greta!

After seeing the deals they had at the Babies Tots n More Consignment sale, Whitney sent me a shopping list for Greta and Toby. I headed back to the sale this afternoon when most of the remaining stuff was marked down by 50%. What deals we got! So much of the clothing is practically new and some still have the tags on them.

Here's the haul for Toby:

And for Greta:

A big haul for Lauren!

Yesterday I went to the semi-annual Babies Tots n' More Consignment Sale. I had won a VIP pass to get in early to shop (the sale didn't open to the public until today). It was amazing! Most everything was in great condition (some stuff was new with tags still on it) and marked down to about 25-35% of the original price. Having access to the VIP sale was a huge advantage because even in the time I was there, a lot of the best stuff got scooped up.

I left with a lot of great finds for Lauren. I bought three non-clothing items:

Dwell Studio bouncer, with cute little elephants! I like that it's not too baby-ish or girly.

Phil and Ted's Portable Traveller Crib (we'll use this instead of a Pack n' Play)

Inflatable Duck Tub

I also found a ton of cute clothes! Here are the photos:

Tea Collection and Dwell Studio outfits

Baby Gap finds

Cute winter dresses for 0-3 months. Both come with bloomers!

The outfit on the left is cashmere! The one on the right is super soft.

Shirts and pants for next winter (12-18 mo. sizes)

I love this shirt and sweater! Both are 0-3 months

A peacoat for next winter (12-18 mo)

The zip-up sweater on the left is for 0-3 mo. The outfit on the right is Tea Collection for 6-9 mo.

9 pairs of Hanna Andersson tights for next winter (12-18 mo)

Sweaters! The top 2 are for this winter. The bottom one with the green appliques is for next winter.

Busy Week!

We knew it was coming, and now it's here - our calendar is officially "very busy" for the next few weeks. Between some big work projects I need to wrap up this month and baby classes, pre-natal exercise classes and other events in the evenings, there is a lot going on!

Last night I went to a Bump Chicago dinner event where the guest speaker was a sleep expert who gave us tips about creating a good sleep environment for your baby and helping them get into a routine by 8-12 weeks. She had some helpful advice. I hope we can figure it out when Lauren arrives! I sat next to Lydia and Ena, my pre-natal exercise class friends who also happened to be at this dinner last night, so that was fun.

I'm really excited about tomorrow night, though! It will be busy, but great! First, I won a VIP pre-sale pass to the semi-annual Babies Tots n' More Consignment Sale (thanks to a raffle hosted by the Neighborhood Parents Network, which I recently joined). The sale doesn't open to the public until Friday, but I'll get in at 4pm on Thursday along with all the volunteers. Yay! Apparently this sale is amazing, so I'm excited to go with my list and see what I can find. Then a few hours later Dan and I are going to our first baby class at the hospital - it's part 1 of 2 of a newborn care series. I think it should be very helpful. I have no clue how to change a diaper, so I need to learn that pronto!

In the past day, Lauren has been bumping around and kicking a lot. I don't know if she is changing her position or just keeping active in there, but it's fun to feel her move around. My next doctor's appointment is Friday, Oct. 21 and after that I start going every 2 weeks until the final month. We're nearing the final countdown!

Christmas Stockings

Today I bought Christmas stockings for Dan, Lauren and me. This will be our first Christmas in our own home vs. spending it with our parents, and I want things to be festive and homey for Lauren's first Christmas. I love the monogrammed needlepoint stockings C, W and I had growing up (and they are still in use at Mom and Dad's house). I looked around online and found some beautifully made wool needlepoint stockings with velvet backs on Land's End. This morning Dan and I selected one for each of us and will have them monogrammed with our names. They should arrive by the end of October.

Dan chose the polar bear stocking for himself (left), I chose the sleigh ride stocking (middle) and Dan selected Santa with his sleigh for Lauren (right). 

Baby Bump Update - 30 Weeks!

Lauren is growing and getting ready for her debut in about 2 - 2.5 months! I took this photo of my bump today. It's pretty incredible to compare to the last photos I posted in mid-July.

October 3 - Week 30

July 30 - Week 20

July 15 - Week 18

Dan's new closet

When Dan and I moved into our place, the closets in the master bedroom left a lot to be desired. My closet wasn't even built out, so that became priority one. Dan's closet had probably been organized decades ago and was not optimized for hanging space. Plus, it has this weird "nook" on the side/back of the closet where shelves hung, but were pretty much useless. Now, nearly 1.5 years after our move, it's clear Dan simply needs more space. I drew out a new closet design a few weeks ago, ordered the parts, and today our handyman came and put everything together. It is so much better!

I forgot to get true "before" photos, but here are work-in-progress photos and the finished product (two levels of hanging rods and a bank of drawers that are actually accessible!).

The shelves (from the side nook and the top) are down!

Here's a glimpse at the weird nook in the back of the closet as well as the hole in the wall where a chunk of plaster fell out last year. That was repaired today, too!

The finished product! 2 levels of hanging space, drawers on the bottom left, and a top shelf.

Plus, hooks on the right (Dan loves to hang his shirts here during the week).

And hooks on the left wall for hats and smaller stuff.