32 Weeks Pregnant with #3

I don’t have a super clear head today. Emotionally I think I’m just kinda catching up with myself. I think I’ve been so deep into this pregnancy physically, I haven’t really processed it, just lived it. So the last two days I kinda just feel like I’m steeping in some emotions I haven’t really had the strength in me to deal with before. Surprisingly they aren’t that deep. They are just weary. Just kinda motherhood and normal emotions. But then again I have some that are coming up as I realize “Woah I’m gonna have a baby really soon.” Because this pregnancy has felt like anything but pregnancy. So I haven’t had much of a chance to really connect the dots here and foresee a baby. It’s kinda overwhelming at moments to think another person is joining our family.

So that said, I don’t feel like I have a lot to come up with to share about last week.
I am feeling better. But I still do get queasy.

Let me go out of chronological order. Monday I had a prenatal check up. Baby’s head down. Which is what I thought, after my crazy ironing board event. (Baby seems to be staying put. Keep it up baby.) And everything is looking good. I’m finally measuring my normal. With the girls I basically always measured two weeks ahead. And two weeks either way is normal. But this pregnancy I’ve been like 3 to 5 weeks ahead much of the time. This week I’m back to two. I don’t know why I measure big normally and really big this time. But no one is worried. I read online (so no clue if it’s true) that sometimes after a c-section your uterus doesn’t shrink down as much from the scar tissue. Or maybe I just really roll with the stretchin out the third time around. Or maybe baby just had an early growth spurt -- maybe my grandma is right, that I’m just gonna have a long baby. (She said that’s why I feel so sick -- I don’t have enough room for this baby.) Who knows. But I was kinda glad to hear that this time I was normal (for me) -- especially since I have been feeling quite pregnant and was worried I’d be measuring 40 weeks already. But I’m not.
(Remember to pray baby comes at 38 weeks, please!)

In funny baby news. Baby has been doing this thing with their feet. You know how puppies or kitties will kinda kneed with their paws when they nurse? Baby’s feet have been feeling like that kinda often. Foot kneeding. Or maybe just foot tapping. It kinda cracks me up.

Anyway, I think the majority of last week was spent on Pinterest, and scooting stuff around my living room trying to figure out my official, official plan for our furniture.
     We had set our plan to trek up to IKEA over the weekend. And in true Lydia fashion I reworked, questioned and deliberated over what I was doing to our room all week before, just to make sure I could really make the most of my trip.
     I was SUPER nervous to do this trip. Like really, really scared. The last time I drove further than 20 mins I was so sick I thought I was losing the baby and really worried about my general existence as well. (Wow when I word it like that -- it sounds really stupid to ever get in the car again. But I did know I would have the chance to turn back or deal with things better this time.) So to prepare for this, I asked the internet what I could do to make this trip possible and the most realistic sounding idea for me was Dramamine. It’s deemed safe for pregnancy and apparently can even be recommended for pregnancy nausea itself.

So I got the less drowsy version and took one pill the night before just incase that would help more to have it already in my system.
I’m definitely not a fan of how it makes me feel mentally. And I had some pepsi with dinner (which I normally don’t do) so the caffeine surge plus drowsiness was basically the craziest feeling ever while laying in bed. I don’t recommend the combo at night.
The next morning we had all sorts of U-haul drama -- for some reason EVERY time we rent a trailer (which we’ve done a decent amount of times since our move, to pick up different furniture pieces) our stupid tail lights give us trouble (a new and different trouble) and they won’t rent the trailer to you until they work right with the trailer. Poor Blake. He had to deal with that, plus he had to deal with the crazy scared pregnant lady who was worried the later we leave the worse my car ride could be. (I get sicker in the evenings, so we had planned to leave as early as possible.)
 Eventually we got the crazy thing to work and got the trailer rented. We also loaded it up with some stuff to bring to my parents. And then finally hit the road.
I had popped another dramamine about an hour before we left. It definitely chilled me out (I was an emotional stress ball) -- but in like, a zombie way.

Anyway, it worked. I didn’t get queasy at all on the ride. I can’t say I felt great -- like it didn’t unpregnify me. I made sure to keep my eyes on the horizon. I really didn’t turn around to help the girls much at all, because I could tell that would make the motion sickness kick in. I wasn’t sure if I should succumb to the sleep urge I was feeling (less drowsy still is VERY drowsy. I’m sure the regular would knock me straight out. I would never drive on these pills) or if I should press on and keep my eyes on the horizon. I went with the later.

We dropped the girls off with my parents and kept on going (after a break) to IKEA.

Once we got there I had a hard time managing the very large revolving door -- dramamine makes me kinda weird. And then immediately you smell cinnamon rolls. So we hunted those down and I ate one. I told Blake he would need to help me make it through this trip because as hard as I worked to get up there, I was feeling so sedated I could have just sat at that table with the cinnamon roll for a couple hours and then go home without noticing I didn’t buy my couch.

After sitting for a little bit -- I just wanted to hold still for a while and get my bearings -- we headed up to the couches. I was fairly nervous that we would get there, sit down on it and find out it felt like a cardboard box that I hated. But no! We sat and I was shockingly surprised at how great it feels.

This could be due to the fact that I have lived with a cheap Target couch (we bought back when we lived in Iowa -- because it was good enough, cheap enough, and easy enough to get to our home, for our needs then.) The Target couch is comfortable enough -- but it’s kinda weird, the springs are in the cushions, not underneath the couch like normal. I was ok with it, but knew it was kinda strange. So I was kinda expecting IKEA’s couch to feel like that. Or I feared, worse than that.
     But it actually feels nothing like the Target couch. It’s made with springs underneath like a normal couch. And while it’s firm, it’s in a good way -- at least to me. I might be bias towards firm with this big ol' belly that makes me sink in too much on very soft surfaces. But either way I was thrilled with how it felt.
   So we had them print up a paper for us to buy one at the register and kept on shopping.
I had a bunch of other things I thought about getting. And I don’t know how well I was shopping on Dramamine. But I only got a few kitchen things besides the couch. A couple frosted glass canisters (for our rice and noodles) and a strainer. Everything else I had sorta picked out online, we kinda didn’t feel so drawn to in person.
Like I had thought I would get the RAST dresser (so many ways you can hack it) for our bedroom. But then it felt so light weight I just couldn’t commit. I figured I’d hold out for something better -- craigslist/thrift store style.

Anyway, we bought our sectional. Got it loaded up. And tried to go to a nice restaurant, but it was an hour wait. So we hit up Portillos -- which was still exciting since we don’t have those by us. I took another Dramamine to get home as I was feeling kinda generally more pregnant queasy anyway.

We spent the night at my parents and drove home the next afternoon. I took a Dramamine to get home too. And by then I was apparently used to it enough to not really get groggy.

When we got home though I had to lay down because I was very queasy. Thankfully I wasn’t in the car. But once home I felt rather like I’d gone back to second trimester (or first for normal people.) But I was just glad to have gotten the whole thing accomplished and figured I was just worn out.

Since then I’ve alternated between taking it easy to recover and putting the couch together. It’s actually quite easy to do. And shouldn’t have taken too long at all. But I’m pregnant and feeling that. And Blake’s been wrapping up the semester at work and also needing to fix some stuff at our rental house. So the couch got put together in bits and pieces of time when I was up to it.

I actually wound up putting the whole thing together myself! I’m quite proud. (Don’t freak out. While I should not be lifting a couch at this point, I was only lifting parts of it at a time -- it was very doable.) I’d say the worst part is actually getting the cushions into the covers -- those babies are FITTED, as in extremely tight.
I got a cover that is machine washable, because, kids. But man oh man, I don’t wanna have to take those off much! I hoping they stretch just a bit after being on for a while -- a couple of the cushions look a little too round from the tight fit.

I had to do the hack where you use the little mid century legs instead of the Ikea legs.
We got the legs from Lowes (after a failed attempt at Menards -- out of stock in the right size.) (I was picky and really wanted the 5.5” legs, not the 7.5”. I’ve seen people use either, but the 5.5” look better to me, and are closer to the height of the normal ikea legs.)
And after some deliberation went with Golden Pecan stain.

I thought it would look nice to match our piano’s lighter color. (We also might buy another piece of furniture in that same color family.) And I thought it would look nice to keep the legs lighter with the darker cushions. Plus, I know mid century pieces come in every shade, but I most associate mid century with that golden tone.
After using it, wow am I smitten with Golden Pecan. I don’t know if it’s a backlash from really liking dark stain for a while or what. But it’s just delicious looking.

(Blake did add the metal plates these legs screw into, onto the couch, for me. I can’t take every shred of credit for this couch.)

Part of me would really like to do the tufting on the pillows hack too. But I don’t have any extra fabric to cover the buttons. And I’m a little worried that would mean I can’t wash the covers so well (you can take the buttons back off and sew them back on. But that’s kinda a pain.) So I figure I’ll live with it for a while, let the covers (hopefully) stretch out a bit, see if we have a spitter-upper-baby, see how much we use that couch in general, and then see if I still have the urge to add the buttons.

As far as the room goes…
I said I wanted a chaise down at the end of the room. But after much thought, pins, and furniture arranging, I just couldn’t say yes to it. That back corner is still a mystery on how to use it. Those french doors really do a number on what makes sense down there.
We might buy an antique mid century radio cabinet, which Blake wants to retro fit to work with current stuff, and put it down there. And if we do that, I’m inclined to attempt to build our own retro style couch or chair to go next to it. We will see. I’ll likely change my mind 70 more times. lol.

But I am loving the sectional. A lot.
So happy we pulled that trigger.

(The pillows are place holders I had laying around. I don’t know the full color palette of the room yet. And the table needs to be refinished. You know I’m leaning Golden Pecan on that too. And someday I’d like to get some rugs, when I figure that out.)

Flash back for good measure:

 

I’m feeling the nesting urge yelling at me to finish the room. But I don’t really have the look nailed down yet --- so I’m trying to stay calm and style on slowly. The guitars need to get hung up on the walls soon.

And in other house news...

My parents, Blake, and I came up with some preliminary plans for our entry way walls and stairs. So I think that’s what we are gonna tackle when they come down to help. And WOW if we can get that done…wow….our house will be transformed. Mostly because this is the first thing you see when you come in, and it’s really gross at the moment. So it would be so awesome to get that knocked out. We will see! It’s a big undertaking. But I’m excited to think about how cool it will be!