Just Keep Swimming A wife trying to keep a positive outlook on male-factor infertility

The past few weeks since I last posted about closing on our house have passed by in an absolute blur!  Combine that with the fact that we haven’t had internet access for a few weeks and you get almost a month without an update from me.  Sorry about that!!  In that span of time though, we have accomplished A LOT.

The house is almost completely painted.  All major rooms are finished, and left to be done are the hallway, 2nd bathroom, and foyer, as well as touch ups and trim in a few places.  I’m 95% happy with the colors we chose – the whole process of choosing paint colors was ridiculous and took us weeks to think through.  We ended up with a patchwork of 7 different samples of brown in our living room before we could finally decide which one to use! My only complaint is that two of the colors we chose are a little too close to each other.  We’re also finding out the quirks of our house, like the fact that only two doors in the entire place close properly, and that there are a ridiculous number of light bulbs and outlets in each room.  We installed a new dishwasher, and already had our first major catastrophe with a busted valve in the garage that gushed hot water all over me for twenty minutes while Bobby ran around the property trying to figure out how to shut off the water.  That would probably be a good story to tell you later.

We had this brilliant plan to move in slowly over the course of a month, painting first and bringing over a car load of laundry baskets at a time.  Well one day last week, my apartment manager called and said hey… if you can have your stuff out by the end of the day, we’ll give you a refund on the last 12 days of your lease, and I’ll pay to have your apartment cleaned for you.  It took me all of two seconds to decide that a $350 savings as well as an 8-month pregnant lady not having to scrub bathroom tile was SO worth it.  So I rushed home from work, grabbed Bobby and a few empty boxes, and got busy.  8 hours and 4 carloads later, our apartment was empty and we were both exhausted.  We finished up work around 10:30 – waaay after my bed time!  But it’s done, and I’m actually kind of glad to just be in the house instead of still trying to go back and forth between here and the apartment.

The one thing that I left off that list is the nursery.  The door to the nursery is currently closed so I don’t have to look at it or think about it… I lied when I said all the major rooms were painted.  The walls to Noodle’s room are still blank, and his closet is packed full of shower gifts still in their bags and boxes.  His dresser is sitting in the garage, only halfway stripped and sanded.  We did go to Ikea this weekend and bought a crib and changing table, but they are also sitting in boxes.  I need to get the rest of my house livable before I can even think about the nursery!  The good news – my best friend is coming to visit today!!! She lives 6hrs away and hasn’t been to visit me in a few years.  She’ll be here for four days, and painting the baby’s room is on our to-do list.  I’m glad that she’s coming and that I have a fun project to work on with her.  I’m also thankful that this week is spring break and I’ve been home to work on all of these things.

Noodle’s doing just fine, he’s been giving me lots of hiccups and gentle pokes and wiggles.  He’s not a big kicker, which despite my doctor’s repeated assurances still worries me a little bit.  Hopefully it just means he will be a quiet, peaceful baby.  I’m 35 weeks today, and trying not to think about the fact that there are only 5 weeks left before he’s due to arrive!  Even more so, trying not think about how he really could show up any day if he decided to.  I’m not ready for you yet!!!  We met with a doula yesterday who is going to attend our birth, and that was cool.  Which reminds me, I need to post later about our experiences so far with planning a natural hospital birth.

I guess I’ll go ahead and wrap things up now, for those of you who made it to the end of this long and not very exciting post!  Hopefully I’ll find the time to update you again soon.

We closed on the house today!  I wish I had the energy to tell you more than that.  A few highlights:

• Banks suck.  We’ve already extended closing twice, and it was still literally down to the hour before we knew if we would be able to close today.  They called today – at noon – to say they still needed paperwork that we had sent them back in January.  We found out our closing costs AT closing.  Thankfully we had estimated correctly and had enough to cover it.
• After it was all over, we felt so happy! But Bobby’s working tonight and he had to attend the closing in uniform.  His belt with gun and radio didn’t even fit in the chair, he was so uncomfortable.  So we went back to the new house for like 10 minutes and just walked around and looked at the walls, then Bobby had to go to work.  Very anticlimactic, but such is our life.
• I’ve already met my first two neighbors.  One we ran in to as she was coming home, and the other actually came to the door to introduce herself.  She said she had already heard all about us, from who I have no idea.  But she was so excited that we were young, and that I was expecting because she is too, and she was very friendly.  She also admitted to her and another neighbor prowling around the house over the weekend to see if the previous owners had left anything that they could take.  She decided to leave the hoses because she figured we might need them.  Thanks…?  She then dished on every single neighbor on the street – who’s married, who’s expecting, what each person does for a living, etc.  Bit of a gossip, but she seems sweet and genuine.

It has been a stressful week, and I’m exhausted.  I’m going to bed. Peace out.