Martha Metzler.com

That’s right folks, I’m officially full term! I can’t believe it. The belly is feeling bigger and bigger every day but I’m still feeling great energy-wise. The biggest changes are that I’m peeing every 5 minutes, tossing and turning in my “sleep”, and it took me 30 minutes to paint my toenails last night. I’m pretty sure  that I looked like I was inventing new yoga poses. Most of my expectation/hope is focused on Sam getting home but as soon as I see him and get to hug him, Daughtry has full permission to make his way down. Otherwise, he’s totally grounded for the rest of his life.

Here are some pictures I snapped in my backyard this weekend. The weather was GORGEOUS here in Washington. The sun was out and it was 75 degrees! Roy and I went for a long hike down to the water where Roy hurt his little paws on some barnacles. He’s been breaking my heart tip-toeing around the house. I can tell his paws are just so raw. Of course I included a picture of him so you can pity him as much as I am…

Hope you had a great weekend! Mine obviously did not include putting on lipstick before taking these pictures.

One of my best friends Kate had her baby this morning! She is such a champ and kept sending me hilarious texts after 10 hours of labor like, “Whoever said the second child is supposed to come quicker was a liar!!”  I finally got a text with a picture early this morning and he is absolutely gorgeous and I just want to meet him and squeeze his little cheeks!

Welcome to the world Bennett Paul! I love you already!!

I’ve been working on a lot of things around the house and I decided to make a “photo wall” in our master bedroom. I didn’t feel like buying a bunch of frames that were the same color so I took all of our extra frames and painted them white. If you ever wanted to do a photo wall on the cheap, I’d definitely recommend buying a bunch of frames from the dollar store or Goodwill and just spray painting them! It worked like a charm!

I cut out shapes of all of the frames and started placing them on the wall. I stared at it for way too long and changed it a million times. While cutting out all of the shapes was time consuming, it was worth it otherwise my wall would have looked like swiss cheese.

Then I took the frames and I sanded them all down and start spray-painting… until I thought my kid was going to grow a tail so my brother took over.

We let them dry for a couple of days and then finally put the frames back together. I’ve got them up on the wall but I haven’t put all the pictures in that I want so I’ll show you the final “after” picture by Monday!

Today I got to sleep in, eat cereal, and make my “nesting list” for the next couple of weeks. Hubbs gets home TWO WEEKS FROM TOMORROW!!!!!

This is how I'd be celebrating if I wasn't 9 months pregnant!

I’m so excited but for some reason, now that it’s closer it’s seeming to go SO SLOWLY. I’m just ready to have him home. There is still a lot I have to do to get ready even though I’ve been working hard on the house (with the help of my family of course). I want it to be such a special place for him to come home to so I’m really trying to get things right. My brother put the crib together yesterday so I am starting to get the nursery ready. Have I mentioned how screwed I would have been without my mom, dad and brother this past month??

I can’t believe my due date is in three weeks.

Here is the list I’ve been working on… I’m sure I’ll be adding to it as I think of things. Thanks to the interwebs I’ve already been able to cross things off. Thank you Al Gore.

infant car seat adapter for the stroller
weather shield for the stroller
crib mattress
waterproof crib covers
hand sanitizer
swaddle me velcro swaddlers
make wreath on front door
make mobile for nursery
take stuff to recycling center
3 more tubs for garage storage
get rid of excess furniture in garage
put pictures in frames on photo wall and around house
clean rooms
move the stroller to garage (which actually means cleaning trash out of garage)
file claim for damaged goods from movers
make my soundtrack for labor
type out birth plan
put together labor book
finish Baby Wise
frame my GCTS diploma & Sam’s barrister thingy
make fabric hoops for nursery
finish up thank you notes
make button for blog (if anyone can help, I’d appreciate it… I apparently am button incompetent!)
side table for nursery
organize console in bedroom
get my dining room chairs and pillows delivered (we got them recovered!!!)
pack hospital bag
oh yeah… finish the nursery
wash baby clothes and bedding

Anything I’m forgetting? What’s that you say? Keep sitting on the couch and drink tea? Alright, if you insist…

This is going on right now in my garage… I have the best brother in the world!

It’s been a whirlwind the past 2 weeks but a good one. I’ve decided to combine the 35 and 36 week post mainly because both have come and are almost gone! It’s hard to believe I’ll be full term on Thursday!

Weeks preggo: 35 and 36

Weight Gain: 17 and 18

Cravings: anything cold, loving my lime Dole fruit bars and grapefruit

Exciting things: My mom has been here and my brother just got here last night!!! He worked so hard painting the glider for the nursery because apparently it was a terrible idea for me to try and do it… despite wearing 3 masks. After 15 minutes of spray painting outside, I ran for cover and yelled “I QUIT! My baby is going to grow a tail if I’m around this any more!”

It’s definitely becoming real that this babes is coming soon. I can’t truly go there in my head yet until the hubbs gets here but it’s definitely becoming more real! Here is a collage of pictures from the past 2 weeks!

I’m still having an amazing time with my mom here. We’ve been slaving away around the house and shopping like mad women. She is seriously a house genius. I’ll post pictures when it’s all done because the woman is incredible. She has made this house gorgeous and thought of things that I would have never thought to change!

Anyways, Roy and I had a glimmer of sunshine yesterday (still 50 degree weather) so I took him for a walk on a trail near the house. It started out nice and sunny.

Excuse the camera phone shots...

The trail goes along the Puget Sound and it was gorgeous. Then half way through the walk, it started pouring down rain out of nowhere. And by “out of nowhere” I mean, this happens everyday. So I decided to keep walking and just laugh in the face of rain. Because after all… isn’t that what life is all about?! Laughing in the face of rain and happy hour at Sonic.

Happy Tuesday folks. I have had an interesting morning of a high and a low. I’ll start with the low first so I can end on the good note.

When I went to my doctor’s appointment yesterday, I was supposed to get checked out and then transferred to midwifery care. Well, turns out, this is my lesson 1 of 100 that things don’t always go as planned. Luckily, the OB was sweet and understood my birth plan and told me everything looked great with the baby. When I went to the midwife desk, the lady with a stone-cold face told me that they were not taking any more clients. Period.

I began loading my bow with twizzlers that I had constructed into arrows and let out my best tribal cry… but I decided being arrested by the MP wasn’t on my list of things to do that day.

Then I tried to explain how important my birth plan was, how specific it was and I felt that midwives were my best option and such a strong desire of mine.

“Ma`am, I was serious. We are not taking any more mothers for June, we have a waitlist.”

“Oh alright. I WILL SHOW YOU A MOTHER!! MOTHER #$%#%^%^&!”

Just kidding… I didn’t do that, please call off the guards and the holy water.

So, I’m breathing. I said some prayers and know that things don’t go as planned, especially with birth. I’ll just have to be more vocal with my birth plan (totally easy during contractions), have Sam be more of an advocate, and have my doula really speak up about my desires.

Any other mamas who had a natural birth in a hospital and have good tips? I’m typing my birth plan on one sheet to give the staff and bringing a doula.

GOOD NEWS! My mom is here for the week!!!!!!!! WOOT!!!!!!!!!! She is interior decorator extraordinaire, supportive and encouraging woman of the year, and so fun. So we’re having a ball just exploring and working on the house and laughing about what her labors were like. She’s already given me great breastfeeding tips and so much encouragement about parenting.

So my posts will be scattered this week because I’ll be soaking up all my time with mama!

Mom and I at the beach... how cute!

I’m trying out a new button for the blog! So much to learn… I’m a total rookie people!