86'n It

When you have pnuemonia, don't you rake 24 bags if leaves??

Oh, no only Marc (and I) do that?

We lost about 2 weeks due to Marc not feeling great. He was finally diagnosed with pnuemonia and got some meds. We knew our hopes of finishing any kitchen trim before Franca's birthday party were dashed, so we decided to finally clean up outside and rake our leaves. It doesn't hurt that it was 68 degrees here!

We both took Tecnu showers after bagging all the leaves. Finger crossed we don't get poison ivy!

Well, I was all geared up for a weekend of sanding, installing, etc. but that didn't happen.
Marc wasn't feeling well this past Friday and it just kept getting worse, then better, then even worse, then a little better, the horrible. He's prone to fevers, so every time he felt a little better he'd try to do something, then end up with the cold sweats again. UGH.

It was also chilly out and kept raining on and off, so I just could not get motivated to sand. I did get a bunch of little stuff done:

• Side job's Online Store went down. Fixed that and did some other work on side job.
• Got envelopes, a heart-shaped hole punch and some stretchy-cord, assembled and then mailed Franca's birthday invitations. She loves the craft store Michaels. Tiny aisles all filled with weird, colorful junk.
• Finally installed the "repair kit" for her drop-side crib.
• Made Marc honey-lemon-ginger tea. (So good!) --->
• Re-tightened all the bolts on Franca's changing table. She wiggles so much getting her diaper changed that she loosened them!
• Made two crockpot recipes. (Curry Chicken (just ok) & White Bean Soup)  Made this Chipotle Beef last week. Delicious!
• Did two loads of laundry.
• Cleaned off a hand-me-down toy from the basement for Franca. Thanks Heather! She was so excited to ride on something. I pushed her all around the house on it.
• Helped friends move and hung out at their creek house a bit. (Bad idea, Marc started feeling worse.) It was nice to get out to the house and be near water though.
• Returns at Target, returns at Babies R Us. 
• Groceries (2 different stores, 3 times total)
• Reinstalled the old attic hatch and put Marc's closet back together.
• Bought Franca an early birthday present: the Little Tikes swing. I quickly set it up on the front porch. OMG. She loves it! She was squealing with delight. We are going to get more permanent hooks for the front and back porches for it.

• Repurged my closet. Wow. I think I had a serious shopping addiction. (Wait, I KNOW I did.) How did I have so many clothes? From his sickbed, Marc helped me conduct a ruthless repurge of my closet. He didn't like it = gone. I didn't like it = gone. It really helped.

Sadly, this is not a BEFORE pic.

More organized, but still.

How did all these clothes even fit in my closet???

• Continued my search for an upholstered swivel/rocker chair to recover. Found one that is a real La-Z-Boy and SUPER comfortable. Perfect for sitting and for nursing, which is very hard to find. They wouldn't budge on the $55 clearance price. I know $55 isn't much, but it had some cat hair on it and that makes me nervous. (It did not smell, and believe me, I took some long, deep sniffs.) Plus, it is ugly as sin. What do you think? Get it and throw a sheet over it until I reupholster it? Or keep looking?

Your husband's brand new birthday wine decanter shares the kitchen countertop with a bottle of rubbing alcohol, 2 spackle knives, 2 containers of epoxy adhesive, wads of dirty paper towels, and of course, some cooked spinach, roasted squash and a good-sized hunk of parmigiana.

Ah, it's like the good-old pre-countertop days again. :)

My arm didn't vibrate off, but it feels like it was trying to. I'm at about 65% with the bead board sanding. We still have to run them all through the table saw to cut off the tongue and groove sides.

As you can see, I have sanded them so they are nice, but we aren't going crazy getting them perfect. We like the arching saw marks on them and the occasional nail hole.

I have them laying out on the back porch to de-basement-stink them a little.

We need:

Look how organized I am! I've labeled them and everything.

Also for the record, I pulled all those inches and numbers right outta my head. Sick that I had that memorized.

We gave ourselves a deadline of Franca's birthday (March 3rd) to finish the kitchen trim-out. Marc is finishing up the in-wall cabinets and I started sanding the backs of the "reclaimed" wood beadboards for the wood wall. I figured out how many pieces I need and it is something like eleventy-billion. Actually, I think it is closer to 400 linear feet. My hand might just vibrate itself right off while holding the orbital sander! It could happen people!

But the real pressure came last night, when I finished our taxes (Love you Turbotax!) and discovered that not only do our refunds wipe out our remaining tax debt, but they leave us with a tidy little sum. Most of it is going into savings, but we decided to buy this bad boy:

It is the Zephyr Roma wall-mounted 600CPM vent hood. Marc did all the research on this and right before we hit "purchase" I had a slight freak out that resulted in an online search to:

a) verify that this wasn't too much money (um, the Ikea hoods are more $$) and
b) that I couldn't find it cheaper somewheres else on the interwebbies.

We ended up buying it from Amazon with free shipping. Delivery is estimated at Feb. 18-24, so that really puts the pressure on for us to finish the wood wall. My arm hurts already!

Just a note, no companies gave me any free stuff for these reviews. These are all my own (and Marc & Franca's) opinions.

• Bradley Classes
• We took local Bradley Class (husband-coached birthing) once a week for 12 weeks. Best thing we did. We were so prepared for the birth that we really weren't that nervous. We took our classes from Susan Mooney who is hilarious, honest and a really great teacher. 
• Doula
• While we didn't have a doula this time around, I'd like to use one for the next birth. Simply because at the end of my 48 hour labor, both Marc and I were pretty loopy and it would have been nice to have another sane person in the room. (Susan also is a doula.)
• Eat Your Protein
• A big part of the Bradley program is nutrition. I never realized how much protein I wasn't getting! Great non-meat sources are: eggs, lentils, peanut butter & greek yougurt. Seriously, a 6oz container of it has 14g of protein!
• Exercise!
• I think when a lot of women see that double line on the tester, then take it as an indicator to sit on the couch and eat bon-bons for the next 9 months. Honestly, not a good idea! Do your kegels! (and if you are crazy like me, run 17.5 miles when you are 16 weeks along.) I really do credit my rapid weightloss post-baby to the fact that I kept exercising (and the breastfeeding).
• Put Down the Pregnancy Books
• The best tip a friend gave me was to put down the pregnancy books and start reading about child/infant care. Even if you've babysat your whole life, there are things you can learn from books. The ones I liked best were the controversial Babywise book, which honestly, we only used parts of (schedules, EASY, reading your baby, etc. not the cry-it-out method). The one we really loved is the Baby Whisperer Book. We used this method with Franca and she is a great sleeper and very easy to put to bed/ down for naps.
• I think the best thing we learned in newborn care was how to read Franca. For the first couple of months, she was like clockwork. Wake up, nurse, awake for an hour, at the 3rd yawn, back upstairs to sleep for two hours, repeat. The best advise I got from a friend/nurse was to feed her every three-four hours. I've never been envious of the people who say their newborn slept 8 hours, because I always imagined that sometime after that, the baby was upset because it missed a feeding and got all out of wack.
• We used this Total Baby app to track her nursing, diapers, sleeping, etc. I know people thought I was crazy, but she never cried for naught. I always knew what she was due for!
• The best thing we learned in infant care was to run down the list of five things: diaper? hungry? gas? bored? tired? It was almost always one of those things that she was crying for.
• Baby Showers
• If you are lucky like me you will have great family and friends that will throw you amazing baby showers. My advice: don't take the tags off of anything! You have no idea if you will have a 10lb baby (goodbye newborn clothes!), your baby will hate the swing/bouncy/sling, etc. If you don't love it, take it back and get store credit. Then later, if you want it go buy it back with the credit!
• Baby Quilt
• By far, the best gift I recieved was the handmade baby quilt. I can't write to much about it, or I'll turn into a big, sobbing mess. Hands down, the most thoughtful, touching gift ever. 
• Second Hand Stuff
• Like I said above, you have no idea what your baby is going to like, so the best thing you can do it get a bunch of stuff second hand. Most things will be just fine, but if you get something second hand and the baby loves it, then feel free to go buy a newer pretty one if you must! I got SO many things second hand, clothes, swing, crib, changing table, changing pads, blankets, sheets, bottles, spoons, the list goes on and on!

• Our Maxi Cosi Foray stroller. LOVE this thing. Not everyone needs an expensive stroller, but with the amount of walking that we do, it is perfect! I will concede that it is a knock-off of the more expensive strollers. (but for 1/2 the price!) Large storage underneath, fits in the back of the mini, cup holder, adjustable recline (required for infants), sunshade, rain shield, air-filled rear tires, handle extends for tall mommas and dads. Plus, the great thing is, the seat comes off and this carseat snaps right in:
• Maxi Cosi Mico Carseat. A great seat. Terrific colors, safe, lighter than most, and of course, fits in the mini!
• While I'm on carseats, this is the convertible carseat we got: The Evenflo Momentum65. We like that it is wide so Franca isn't squished and can have her legs not jammed together in the warmer months. It is also a complete breeze to put in and out of the Mini.
• Franca loved her bouncy seats! We got one second hand and she loved it so much, we got a new one for upstairs. We never used the vibrating part of it because we were saving it as a "last resort", but never needed it. We got the Fisher Price Woodland Animals Bouncer. Great colors, cute animals!
• I've had a little bit of a love/hate with Franca's humidifier. We got the Crane Frog one. Our first one started making a horrible loud noise, so I'm in the process of getting a replacement. We bought a second one mostly because it is a) affordable, b) doesn't require filter or extra stuff. It is quiet, shuts off automatically, and is only a slight pain to fill.

• Franca loved her swaddle blankets. We used these Halo Sleepsack ones. They were the only that she could not bust out of and didn't require an engineering degree to get her into. In warmer weather, we used the Summer infant swaddles which I also like, but she could get out of more easily.
• I love my Ergo Baby Carrier. It is very comfortable, feels secure and is safe for the baby!
• I like Carter's clothes. You can find them everywhere, the are durable, comfortable and affordable! Sometimes, the girl stuff is too stereotypically girly for me, but this year's spring/summer stuff looks good.
• For diapers, we use the Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive. We thought of doing cloth, but I could not get over the idea of having to clean poopy diapers that have been brewing in a plastic bag for 8 hours at daycare.
• I like the Gerber Soft Bite Infant Spoons. Most of the plastic spoons are too deep and to big for a baby's mouth, IMO.
• We held off on using a paci for 4 weeks, and don't regret at all using one since. I like the Advent ones, and recently got some MAM that I like too.We mostly use it at nap and nighttime, and Franca is a great self-soother. One great thing is that once she started to kick them out of her mouth, I got some "glow in the dark" handled ones that she could find and pop back in.
• I got great recommendations for the Dr. Brown's bottles. Unfortunately, Franca didn't like them. She needed the ones that "look more like a boob", so we went with the Tommee Tippee. Love them! My sister tried just about every kind and her daughter would only take the Playtex Ventaires. My advice in this area: Don't buy too many bottles until you find out what the baby will like!
• Formula. I (reluctantly) have started to use formula. I highly recommend the Earth's Best brand. It is less gross than the others and it's first ingredient is Organic Reduced Whey not Corn Syrup Solids like most of the others!
• One of the coolest small things we bought for Franca is the Boon Grass Countertop drying rack.

Yesterday was my last day pumping in my office closet. My original goal was 6 months, so I feel pretty great about making it to 11. I'm done, but I'm not sure exactly how to feel about it just yet.

I'm glad I don't have a constantly worry about not getting enough milk or not having time because someone scheduled me meetings, but I'm sad because I'm turning to formula. My feelings about formula are very complex and not yet resolved.

I'm glad to not have to sit in the closet anymore fearing someone will walk in, but I'm sad that I will no longer have a break to stream 'Say Yes to the Dress' on Netflix. (Even though I only discovered it was possible a month ago, doh!)

I feel relieved, but guilty I guess. I'm still nursing night and morning, and pumping has made me really cherish that time and direct contact with Franca. Ugh. Forget renovating a house, motherhood is by far the most complex endeavor I've ever undertaken.


While I'm on a tangent here, let me say a word about breastfeeding. Well, two words: Do It. Actually, you know what? Strike that, I don't want to tell anyone else what to do, I just want to share my own thoughts:

I guess I always figured I would breastfeed because I was breastfed and my sisters did. Plus, Asheville is a very breastfeeding friendly city. Not that I was without reservation. It is weird to think about before you are in the throws of motherhood. It is weird to think of breasts that are so often sexualized to the brink of insanity being used for something so innocent and amazing. And it is HARD. At least for me it was. You figure you will "just know" how to do it and the baby will "just know". Ha.

It is truly amazing though. Every time I do it, even now, I just get this sense of Ha! I work! Look at me! Look at these little 34As that have caused me so much personal doubt and feelings of inadequacy. They totally do the job. I think I finally feel like a woman, and that is something for a person who loves demolition and spends half her days on a dirty job site talking about toilets.

I am woman, hear me roar! Actually, hear me anything as long as I never again have to hear the whine of a breast pump. (Well, at least until kiddo #2. Maybe by that time, we will actually have the kitchen trimmed out, right?)

This past weekend it only took us 2 naps (!) to complete our attic's transformation from bird poop world to a fluffy white paradise. Ok, ok, paradise might be overdoing it, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Of course, the cosmos decided that this should be the weekend of amazing 60 degree temperatures. Any other January weekend I would have welcomed these temps with open arms, but just not the weekend we had to spend in the attic. Actually, I still welcomed it. We decided just to work the cooler morning naps only.

 First layer down. (R-19 6-1/2") This was the most difficult layer. It involved me crawling around at the narrow parts of the roof like Smeagol with a stick in one hand and a box cutter in the other. All while wearing Marc's awesome LED hat. (For real, I can't recommend this hat enough. It's amazing for steady light while working in gross places.)

I would like a little kudos for my estimating on this first layer. All we had left was about 6' of a roll. Out of twenty 39' rolls, I'd say that is pretty good!




Second fluffy layer! (R-30 9-1/4")Having now worked with formaldehyde-filled and formaldehyde-free insulation, I can also highly recommend the formaldehyde-free. It is still fiberglass so it is itchy, but it is way less so! The up-charge was also minimal. In fact, we could not even find a combination to make it the formaldehyde-filled batts work for us.

We needed R-38, but ended up with R-49 with a very similar price to what a double layer R-38 combination would have cost.

My estimating was a little off on this one, out of thirty-one 25' rolls we have 3 leftover. Whoopsa. Those need to go back to Lowes.

Here they are hanging out in the guest bedroom prior to going up the attic hatch. Speaking of attic hatch, that is one last little detail that is *gasp* unfinished. Good thing is, it is a one-man job and Marc is going to take it on.