Baby Gear Party

Last night I went to a baby gear event at a boutique in Lincoln Park. It was put on by Bump Chicago and featured TheBabyGuyNYC as the guest speaker. It was sort of funny to listen to a gay man with no children give a crowd of pregnant ladies advice on the best (and worst) baby products, but he clearly knew his stuff and I found the event extremely helpful. Plus, he had a great sense of humor, so the evening was a lot of fun too.

I learned about a lot of products I hadn't heard of, and a few things I thought I needed were items he said not to bother with. After his presentation, everyone mingled about the store trying out products and meeting with brand reps. Most of the big baby gear brands had sent reps to meet with us and answer questions, which was awesome. I ended up talking with the Baby Jogger and Baby Bjorn folks the most.

The event gift bag was a nice way to cap off the party. I went home with some helpful stuff including a Stokke Table Top, a SwaddleMe, a Baby Bjorn cup, and some other odds and ends for bathing and feeding. This was my first Bump Chicago event but I plan on going to another one in a couple weeks. They host monthly events with different themes, yay!

The Crib is Assembled!

Yesterday we went over to our friends Jason and Jessica's house for brunch. They have a 13-month little girl named Sophie. She is just adorable. We had fun playing with her while we caught up with them.

In the afternoon, we put together Lauren's crib, which is the last piece of furniture we needed to get assembled for her room. It was relatively painless. I tried to document the process with my camera, but the assembly was a two-person job most of the time, so I mostly managed to get before and after photos. Dan has been wearing his Packers hat whenever working on things for Lauren because he wants her to look back at these photos and associate the Packers with lots of love. We'll see if she turns out to be a football fan! With our genes, she has a 50-50 shot.

Dan reading the assembly instructions and wearing his Packers hat cock-eyed!

On the floor working on the first piece. (excuse the mess in the background)

We're done!

I'm not sure why Dan chose to pose with his Packers hat on his arm, but the crib is in place!

Painting and Baking

Today Dan started working on a painting for Lauren's room. He is creating a "Wisconsin landscape" scene with a colorful field and some rolling hills and trees in the background. He set up his easel in the basement and worked on the painting for about 3 hours today. We had a "picnic" together in the laundry room downstairs for lunch. Here's a photo of Dan with his "liquid inspiration" and wearing his Packers hat!

Meanwhile, I wanted to bake something today and decided to try a twist on banana bread. First, I put in a combination of 1 banana and 2 peaches (which I peeled and mashed up). Then, instead of baking it in a loaf pan, I turned them into muffins so that Dan can easily grab one for breakfast on his way out the door this week. The banana overpowers the peach flavor for sure, but I like the taste and it's nice to do something a little differently.

And, in news from yesterday, I found another cute Hanna Andersson dress for Lauren! Check out this green/blue wool dress (for Winter 2012/2013) and these cute Janie & Jack khaki pants for next summer:

Lots of Updates

It's been over a week since I last posted, so I have lots of updates to share!

1. We've put together Lauren's room (for the most part). The bookcases arrived and the dresser/credenza was delivered over the weekend. Dan and I assembled the bookcases on Saturday and rearranged the furniture a bit. Now, we're just waiting for the crib and the furniture in her room will be complete! Then on to the artwork...

2. Last week we had dinner with the priest from our new church. She is just the most fun and warm person. We really like her a lot and feel grateful to have found this church community. Dan and I are planning to formally join the Episcopalian Church within the next year and probably sooner (this will involve taking some classes and going through some other formalities...the timeline is a bit up in the air since we have to wait until the church has new sessions start up). Anyway, we're happy to have found a religious "home" in our neighborhood and continue to feel more and more like part of the community as we get to know fellow parishioners.

3. I met a fellow pregnant lady in my Active Moms Club exercise class who happens to live one block away from me AND is due within 5 weeks of when we expect Lauren to arrive! We're planning to do walks around Belmont Harbor together soon. It will be nice to know someone nearby with an infant about the same age as our baby.

4. This isn't really an update, but I think often about how lucky and fortunate we are. I feel that Dan and I are so blessed to live the lives we have, to be healthy, to have such wonderful and loving families, and the list goes on... Of course, I thought about this before I became pregnant, but now that I think (daily!) about bringing another human being into the world, it occurs to me even more often that we are truly, truly fortunate. I hope we instill that feeling in our children so that they do not take for granted the many blessings that we have in our lives.

Dan Felt Lauren Kick!

Lauren comes out to "play" at night when I'm ready to go to sleep. I've been feeling her kicks for about a month, but Dan hasn't been able to feel them until last night. I think he was really excited. He got to feel her kick 4 or 5 times. She's a little soccer player in there!

Today I'm heading over to Chic Antique - a cute little shop in my neighborhood with refinished antique pieces - to look at a dresser that might work for Lauren's room. My plan is to start putting her room together this weekend. On the one hand, it seems early, but when I look at the calendar, there aren't that many weekends left before she arrives and we have a busy fall calendar with visitors, baby prep classes, a few weekend trips and more. So we'll start this weekend with assembling the crib and getting the closet organized. I'll take photos when things are in place!

UPDATE: I just got home from Chic Antique and bought this white credenza to use as a dresser:

I love that it has little cabinet doors on both sides. That will be perfect storage space for larger items. The shop is going to do a few touch-ups on the piece and deliver it next weekend. That gives us this weekend to get the room organized and ready for it!

More Thrifty Shopping for Lauren

After my visit to the kids consignment boutique in Lincoln Park yesterday, I was inspired to look for another one. However I can't find any others in the city of Chicago. There are a few out in the suburbs, but I don't want to drive that far. On Yelp, I read a positive review for the Salvation Army in Lincoln Park that said it has a decent kids area, so I decided to check it out today. I scored the deals of the century today!!

All of the baby/kids clothing was on sale for 47 cents today! Everything! It didn't matter which brand. And they had racks and racks of stuff to sort through. It took a while because there was a lot of junk or stuff that just wasn't my style, but I ended up finding some really cute outfits, including a Hanna Andersson dress. For 47 cents! I couldn't believe it. Then I went over to the toy area and they had bags of toys grouped together with a price for the bag. So you couldn't select single items. You had to buy the bag. I saw one that looked promising and for $3.06 I bought it. I was a big spender today - my grand total was $9.03! I can't believe it. Like C, W and Mom, I love to bargain shop and today might have been the best deals ever. Here's what I got:

 

C, W and I will either pass on our love for bargain shopping to our children, or they'll rebel and hate it. We'll see. I had fun today!

Baby Consignment Finds!

Today I didn't have any conference calls scheduled so I headed out to a kids consignment shop in Lincoln Park that I've heard great things about. It did not disappoint! The store mostly carries clothing. There are a few toys, books, music, games and other products (they had one crib, one bouncer, etc). But the vast majority of the store is clothing. The prices aren't dirt cheap, but it's about 50-60% off retail, depending on the brand. A number of items still had the tags on them (brand new) and everything was in great condition.

Lauren will be a winter baby and it's been hard so far to find warm clothing for her. Winter baby clothes aren't in stores yet. And despite all the amazing hand-me-arounds she's sure to receive from her cousins Greta and Emerson, they were both born during the summer AND do not live in as cold of a climate as Chicago. So I figure the really warm winter stuff will be high priority on my shopping list.

Today, I found some great winter pieces for Lauren at the consignment shop:

This is a Hanna Andersson dress for next winter (2012/2013). The white applique is so cute!

These are 0-3 month cable knit outfits for this year. Both are so warm and soft!

 This is so cuddly and warm looking! The outside is a cable knit and the inside is a white fleece.

 This is Lauren's "Ralphie" winter suit! It is so nice and warm and in perfect condition. It comes with little booties and wrap-around hand warmers that are attached to the main bodysuit.

Hats!

After my trip over to Lincoln Park, I swung by my favorite thrift store to see if they had anything new and exciting in stock. I found 4 baby items for a grand total of $3.29 including tax! Check these out:

 Another bodysuit for nighttime during the winter.

Cute shorts for next summer and a pair of pants with darling little front pockets (it's hard to see in the photo).

The Bradley Method

Tonight at my pre-natal exercise class I found out that the three other women in my class have already completed or are currently enrolled in Bradley Method classes. I had never heard of it! So tonight I did some research and am so glad I heard about this. In a nutshell, the class teaches you and your partner how to have a natural birth based on understanding how the body works during labor. They claim to teach you how to work with your body to reduce pain and make labor more efficient.

Although I am not opposed to a receiving an epidural if the pain becomes unbearable, it certainly can't hurt to learn more about natural pain relief techniques and become better educated about how to handle labor in the most efficient way possible. The classes are 12 weeks long (wow!), which seems a little ambitious for our schedules. So I reached out to a Bradley Method coach tonight to inquire about having her do a private class for Dan and me in our home. She'll condense the class into 2 three-hour sessions. One of the women in my fitness class told me she did the private class and enjoyed it. We'll add this to our jam-packed schedule in October. Starting in early October, we have baby prep classes of some sort nearly every week for about a month!

Trip to San Diego

Last week I flew to San Diego for a work event. It was a fun trip, despite the fact that I was fighting a bad cold the entire time. Whenever I am in Southern California, I have the feeling of "life doesn't get better than this!" I stepped out of the airport into 74 degree weather with no humidity. It was glorious. I really miss SoCal weather. Someday, I hope Dan and I can enjoy it again.

I came down with a cold on Wednesday, the day before I flew to San Diego. Thankfully it's not the worst cold I've ever had, but it wasn't fun to work all weekend while being stuffed up and having a sore throat. On the plus side, I was well taken care of! Because I had organized an expensive event at the hotel, the staff there were exceptionally nice to me, bringing me a pot of hot water, lemon and honey every 2-3 hours during my stay, even throughout the night. It was very nice.

I flew home last night and enjoyed the evening at home with Dan. We ordered in Indian food (a rare treat as we just discovered the only nearby Indian restaurant) and caught up on two of our favorite TV shows.

Baby Lauren has been moving and kicking a lot in the past 24 hours. I will take another baby bump photo this week as my tummy continues to grow!