We ordered our nursery furniture tonight!
We weren’t planning to order until June, but when I just so happened to go onto the JCPenney website to take another look at things (I’ve been researching this stuff for two months!), I saw that not only was the furniture on sale, but I could get free shipping, too. Considering free shipping saves us another $150+, it was a good deal.
We thought we were pretty settled on the Grayson Collection, but I kept having my doubts. There was something that just didn’t seem quite “right” to me, but it was still really beautiful, so I thought we were good to go. Then, upon seeing the measurements, it occurred to me to grab the tape measure and check things. As it turned out, the Grayson dresser is only 31″ high–which is SUPER short when you’re planning to use the thing as a changing table, too! That right there pretty much eliminated Grayson from the running.
So, back to the drawing board on the JCPenney site, I began to explore other options. There are so many pretty cribs that it’s hard to choose! But in some cases, we didn’t like the style of the dressers, so that helped narrow things down.
Finally, I came upon the Hartford Collection. I had admired it previously, and found myself coming back to it with interest. But then, a different debate began–the Hartford crib comes in both straight back and curved styles. Decisions, decisions.
After going back and forth, comparing them side by side, looking at my inspiration photos, and polling a bunch of people for their opinions, we came to the decision to go with the straight back crib. And tonight, we placed the order. It’ll likely be here very soon!
It’s just another one of those things that helps make this so much more real. We ordered nursery furniture. Oh my, we’re having a baby!
The crib and dresser (we ordered both in the coffee color):
I’m so excited (yet so overwhelmed) to start on the nursery! A big project to start in June…
At 20 weeks, we are officially halfway through the pregnancy! Wow!
Each new week of my pregnancy begins over the weekend, so I’m going to try to start posting these updates on Mondays. At the beginning of pregnancy, I took pictures of myself every Monday, but I slacked a few weeks and kept falling behind a day here and a day there, until I wasn’t taking weekly photos until Thursdays! Oops! Hopefully now, I’ll be back on track…
20 Weeks Pregnant
Aside from the increased movement that I talked about in my last post (only a few days ago!), the only other development has been that I can actually see movement from the outside now. If I lie down and look at my stomach, I can see little pokes or ripples in my belly when the baby kicks or moves.
It is so strange to know that there is something in there. I know I should be used to the idea by now, but I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the miracle of it all. It is such a wondrous experience, and when you sit back and really think about it, it’s actually hard to comprehend.
We have a doctor’s appointment on Friday this week, which is always nice. I like the visits, even though they’re quick and usually uneventful. It’s nice to check in with the doctor and be assured that everything is going as it should. I’m sure she’s going to tell us that we need to be looking into pediatricians! It seems early to do so, but I suppose it’s really not.
We also need to take some next steps toward finding childcare for the baby for after I go back to work. It is insane to think about this little person being here at all, and we have to find daycare for him/her?? My lord.
We’re planning to go start our baby registry this weekend. All I can say is: OVERWHELMING. I started to try to research the different product categories and it’s amazing how many choices there are. Thankfully, I have Baby Bargains and some great mommy friends to guide the way!
Throughout all of our travels together over the years, things have generally gone really smoothly. Sure, we’ve dealt with more car rental hassles than I would prefer, and I’ve had to whoop some ass a few times, but mostly, we haven’t had anything to complain about.
We’ve been particularly lucky when it comes to our air travel. (Oh, except for when ATA Airlines went under and we had no idea how we were going to get to Hawaii. That sucked. But at least we were able to work it out in advance of our trip!)
Anyway, our luck ran out yesterday.
Things seemed to be going swimmingly. Although it was early, we made it to the Miami Airport on time, made our way to the gate, and seemed to board and take off in a timely manner. The three-hour flight went by pretty quickly (I finished my book!), and we were soon in Detroit, waiting for our second flight.
During the hour layover, we grabbed some lunch and waited impatiently at the gate. We were both really tired and admittedly very cranky. We just wanted to get home.
Thankfully, we soon boarded our flight and we thought we were well on our way.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
So wrong, thanks to Delta Airlines. Shortly after all of the passengers took their seats, the flight attendant came on over the P.A. and said something along the lines of, “Alright, folks, we’re all set and ready to go, we just have to wait for the First Officer to get here. We can’t fly without one! We’re hoping he’s on his way.”
As soon as I heard the word “hoping,” I had a bad feeling about all of this. And although I kept telling myself, “He’ll be here any minute,” the minutes turned into 15 minutes. Then 30 minutes. Then 45 minutes. Then an hour. I was getting extremely pissed off that we were just sitting on the damn plane! When the flight attendant finally came back on only to say that we’d be de-planing, I cried. Call me tired. Call me impatient. Call me emotional and pregnant. All of these were true.
At first, the airline employees tried to blame the problem on weather in Tennessee. They said that because of the severe storms there, a lot of the airports were “closing down,” and perhaps our First Officer was stuck there. All any of the passengers wanted was answers, but no one seemed to have any.
A particularly determined passenger became the advocate for all of us, and she really pushed the airline employees to get on the phones and figure this shit out. Meanwhile, she looked up all of the Tennessee flights and found that all flights into and out of Tennessee were on time. So much for their severe weather theory keeping our co-pilot away, right? Damn liars.
Time continued to tick by. They kept stringing us along, saying we’d have an answer soon. People tried to make alternative flight arrangements, but we were all told that there was essentially no hope of getting us to Buffalo (or anywhere near Buffalo) anytime soon, as everything was booked. Oh man, I was a mess. We’re talking about a freaking 42-minute flight. FORTY-TWO MINUTES. But we were stuck, and the airline employees did not seem optimistic that we’d be getting out of Detroit. There was talk of food vouchers and overnight stays at area hotels.
Still, we continued to wait for answers. They said they couldn’t begin to make arrangements for any of us until the “final call” was made about our flight–meaning they needed to decide whether we were just going to be delayed, or if our flight needed to be cancelled.
Tick tock; tick tock; tick tock.
Finally, we got word that they were “pretty sure” they had located an alternate co-pilot, and that one of the airline employees was going to go greet him and guide him to the gate so we could all get the hell out of Detroit.
Lo and behold, the man arrived at the gate, boarded the plane with the rest of the crew, and we were able to board shortly thereafter. After waiting for what seemed like forever for them to pull away from the gate, and then waiting longer on the runway, we finally, FINALLY took off.
And you know what? We never did get any answers. We have no idea what happened to the First Officer that was scheduled to be on our flight, but it appears that perhaps there was a scheduling problem, or the guy simply did not show up for work. Either way, it seemed completely unacceptable and I am absolutely livid with Delta Airlines.
In the end, we were “only” delayed for three hours, but our biggest problem with the whole situation was that there was never a reason. We don’t know why. It’s easy enough to accept that you can’t fly in a blizzard, or lightning storms. It’s understandable when they discover you can’t fly because there’s a mechanical issue with the plane. But it makes absolutely ZERO sense to lose the co-pilot. And not only did they have no clue where he was, but they allowed us to board the plane as if everything were normal, and did not realize the problem until it was time to close the door and pull away from the gate.
What the hell, Delta? What the hell.
But we are home. HOME SWEET HOME.
I definitely felt a bit more pregnant this week. I think I’ll probably feel like this every week, but hey, it’s true.
This week, I was wearing different clothing than I’ve been wearing–a lot of t-shirts and tank tops because of the warmer weather. Those things are just naturally tighter than a lot of other things I’ve been wearing at home, so it seemed to make the belly more prominent in everything I wore. I wondered if I’d get my first stranger comment, but alas, no one was brave enough to assume that I was anything more than a little round around the waist. I got a lot of wear out of my cute maternity capris and things I bought during my shopping spree a few weeks ago.
Even though I planned to take a photo up against a wall for consistency, it never happened. Instead, this will serve as my official belly pic for the week!
And a little closer up:
19.5 Weeks Pregnant
I felt the baby moving around a LOT this week. He/she is obviously getting bigger because I am feeling it more frequently throughout the day, and the kicks/punches are definitely stronger. Still, baby is most active at night. Especially with all of the walking we’ve been doing–when I lie down at night, it’s like the baby’s party is just beginning. But I’d also feel him/her when I was still at other times, like lying out by the pool, or sitting at dinner.
Feeling all of those punches, kicks, and somersaults definitely makes it feel more and more real! I really have a baby in there… wheee!
Next week, I’m going to try to get back on a normal weekly schedule, instead of this “.5” stuff. So stay tuned for another pregnancy update post early in the week!
Well, well, well. Surprise, surprise.
Yesterday, I mentioned that they were forecasting for rain today. It said that we had a 100% chance of precipitation, and the hour-by-hour forecast looked like crap. We were not happy, as we’re heading home tomorrow. We were hoping for one more day of spectacular sunshine.
As it turns out, we got it. Not only did it not rain (not a single drop), but it was never even cloudy. The vacation gods were clearly looking down upon us today.
Upon waking up to the gorgeous weather, we pretty much immediately went downstairs and right out to the pool. Even when it’s summer and nice out at home, we don’t have much opportunity to lounge around a pool, so this is sort of a special treat for us. Love, love, love.
Between all of the reading I did today, and our trip home tomorrow, I’m definitely going to be finishing my book! I probably should’ve brought a second one with me. Whoops. Anyway, book recap/review will be coming soon. :)
We took frequent dips in the pool to cool off, as it was pretty hot out there! I love to swim. I wish we had access to someone’s pool at home so I could enjoy it more often!
The beach, just across the boardwalk from our hotel.
At one point, since the weather was so nice, we took a walk out to the street so I could take a few pictures of Miami Beach.
Back at the pool, I ordered a virgin strawberry daquiri. Perfect refreshment on such a beautiful day!
After spending pretty much the entire day at the pool, we went inside to get cleaned up and to figure out what to do for dinner. We wanted to go someplace nice, and we wanted to try out some Cuban cuisine. We ended up choosing Lario’s on the Beach, which I guess is owned by Gloria Estefan. Once we discovered that, I couldn’t stop singing “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You” in the shower. Oh, Gloria.
Before we drove to dinner, we took a quick walk on the beach. We took some photos, one of which is going to serve as my official belly pic for the week. But I’ll post that separately so that I’m sure to document the week appropriately! :)
Palm trees in South Beach, across the street from Lario’s.
A funny story about parking in South Beach for dinner: We wanted to drive down because it was a pretty long walk, plus we had to go straight from the restaurant to the stadium for the baseball game. Our concierge told us that it would cost us $5-10 to valet park at Lario’s, and that we shouldn’t bother trying to park elsewhere because there’s no way we would find street parking or anything. We thought that $5-10 sounded reasonable for the convenience, so we went with it.
When we pulled up in front of the restaurant, the valet came to the car. I got out, preparing to give him the keys, and he said to me, “It’ll be $20.” I was surprised. I know South Beach is expensive, but $20? For AN HOUR? PLUS TIP?? I guess I’m cheap, but I immediately said, “No thanks, I think we’re going to check out our options for street parking” and we got back into the car. I made our next right on a side street, and wouldn’t you know… we immediately found street parking. We fed the meter and paid all of $2 for parking for like an hour and 45 minutes. Our spot was literally half a block away from the restaurant. SCORE.
As for dinner, the food was good, but the service was only so-so. Our waiter took his merry time to do everything, and the restaurant wasn’t even busy since it was pretty early. We saw him hanging out with other waiters on the street instead of worrying about clearing our plates or getting our check. Lovely.
South Beach.
Soon, we were on our way to the ballpark. Because of traffic, it took us a bit to get there, but it wasn’t too bad.
(BOOOOO Dolphins!) Shortly after arrival, we discovered that it was “dog night” or something… everyone was allowed to bring their dogs to the game! It was pretty hilarious to see all of these dogs walking into the stadium. It made us miss Tessa!
We had pretty decent seats. We were in the first row, right behind the bullpen for the visiting team. I’m not surprised we were able to get tickets like this, considering it seemed like NO ONE was at the game. I guess Floridians don’t really give a crap about the Marlins. It’s OK; I didn’t give a crap, either. The funny thing is that Michael isn’t even a baseball fan. He has just started some kick about wanting to visit as many professional ballparks as possible, so I get dragged along. I’ve not complained about the games in the past (Giants and Cubs were both cool), but the MARLINS?? C’mon, man.
I was pretty damn bored. Especially since the Marlins quickly fell behind by 5-0. I tried to keep myself busy with my BlackBerry.
Look, even these guys are bored. And they were winning!
But Michael seemed to enjoy himself, which I guess is all that counts.
Sun setting outside of Sun Life Stadium.
We left at the beginning of the 7th inning. *YAWN* We got a little turned around and confused getting back to the hotel, so it took us much longer than it should have. Ughhh, I hate getting lost. It was aggravating.
Now, it’s packing and off to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow to get to the airport and get home. Although I don’t want vacation to end, there is always something to be said about being home, don’t ya think?
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
