I need your opinions

To give you a little background, our baby's future room will also be doubling as an office. We will no longer have a spare bedroom and my jewelry making supplies will either be moved to our bedroom or to an area in the basement. I had to choose between keeping the jewelry table or the computer table in the nursery and I chose to keep the office in the nursery due to the small beads and components that are involved in making jewelry. So, I need to incorporate both a nursery and an office into one room. Here are the pieces that I have picked out.

Crib - from C&B It's called the Straight Up Crib

This dresser is from Ikea - part of the Hemnes collection. I would switch out the knobs to something more whimsical once the baby arrives.

Finally, this is a desk from C&B that folds up and looks like a dresser when you're not using it. Inside, there is a sliding keyboard shelf, a sliding printer shelf, a legal/letter size filing drawer, and a place for a cpu. Unless I get a laptop, my black flat screen monitor would sit on top, along with my speakers.

I hadn't planned on doing both white and black furniture in the same room, but I'm having a hard time finding a white computer cabinet that doesn't take up a lot of space. I think I can make it work - I see people combine white and black in the same room and they pull it off just fine. What do you think?

A tribute to my first trimester

I've graduated to the second trimester and would like to share with you some highlights from my first trimester!

November 22, 2007 – 9dpo – First Craving
We were celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and I had no idea I was pregnant at the time. I went off on my mom about throwing out the relish tray because I wanted some of the pickled vegetable medley and marinated mushrooms! My aunt Helen even asked if I had something to tell the family!!!

November 28, 2007 – 15dpo – Positive pregnancy test
Believe it or not, I only took one pregnancy test, a digital one, to confirm my pregnancy when I was three days late.

December 22, 2007 – 7w4d – Told Roger’s family and received first baby gift.
Roger used the 2x4 method to tell his family that we were pregnant (his dad’s words!). He basically waited until everyone gathered in the kitchen and then just non-chalantly said “and Christie’s pregnant”! Claire gave us our first baby gift, a colorful toy lion that attaches over the baby’s car seat.

December 27, 2007 – 8w2d – First ultrasound
The baby measured right on track and a due date of August 6th was given. The baby’s heart rate was 167 beats per minute.

December 31, 2007 – 8w6d – Told friends officially
I made the announcement on our blog and emailed friends.

January 4th, 2008 – 9w3d – Food aversions seems to be passing
I had Chicken Chardonnay with my mom today at Roberto’s followed up by a chocolate lava cake and spumoni ice cream!

January 17th, 2008 – 11w2d - First prenatal yoga class. It was amazing! We do a lot of breathing techniques with the poses and I can definitely tell that I am benefiting from the stretching and relaxing!

January 22nd, 2008 – 12w4d - Second ultrasound. Roger was in town for this one and we were both amazed to see how much the baby had grown in four weeks. The heart rate was good at 155bpm and you could see individual fingers and toes. The baby was shadow boxing and kicking it’s legs all over the place! A new due date of August 1st was given.

January 24th, 2008 – 12w6d – Had a craving for fried pickles so I asked around and found a place in South County that serves them. I made Roger go with me after yoga class!!!

And onto the second trimester!

Bella Band

I'm going to have to break down and buy one...a bella band that is. I wore khaki pants yesterday and I was so uncomfortable when I sat down and tried to lean forward! I've been lucky enough to be able to wear jeans and yoga pants throughout the pregnancy so far and with jeans being cut with such a low rise these days, the waist sits well below my growing belly. Yesterday, I wore khaki pants that were cut with more of a mid rise and the waist band was not my friend! I know that maternity pants will be generally hard for me to find. I wear a 35 1/2" inseam and most "long" maternity styles at places like Gap and Old Navy are 34". If this bella band works out, hopefully I'll be able to get another month or two out of my pre-pregnancy pants. You wear the band with your pants unbuttoned and even unzipped. The idea of having my pants undone makes me a little nervous, but we'll give it a try!

First Maternity Clothes

Even though I don't need them yet, I couldn't pass up an awesome sale at Ann Taylor Loft! I got these three tops for $44 including shipping and tax! They arrived on my doorstep today and I think all three are going to work in the future. I tried them on and then shoved a towel up under the belly to simulate another couple months growth!

12 week appointment

I'm movin' on up! I know this won't sound like a big deal, but I was supposed to be at 11w6d based on my first ultrasound and the baby measured at 12w4d, a full 5 days ahead! My new due date is August 1st! The ultrasound was a traditional "belly" ultrasound and because I'm not *that* far along, the pictures aren't nearly as clear as my first ultrasound, which was an internal one. The heartbeat was still strong at 155bpm. The heart rate peaks around week 10 and then levels out to somewhere around 140bpm by 15 weeks.

I'm going to explain these pictures because, admitedly, it's very hard to tell what's going on here! The first two pictures are looking down on the baby from above. Imagine standing above someone and looking down so that you see the top of their head and maybe some arms sticking out to the sides. If the person was seated, you'd also see the top of their legs and maybe their feet.

The first one shows a picture of the top of the head and the right arm, bent at the elbow.

This picture was my favorite for some reason. It shows the top of the baby's head and you can see it's legs crossed at the ankles! It's arms (which are very hard to make out) are up on each side of it's head - kind of like it's camera shy!The last picture is a profile picture and it's just really hard to see what's going on here! Everything is labeled and while it was clearer on the screen, both Roger and I had a hard time making everything out!

Eleven Week Update

Eleven weeks along and nothing really looks different yet!

Weight:147 (-1 pound)

I've been dealing with an insurance issue that probably has me a little stressed out and could explain the weight loss. I'll explain the story below the picture...

Roger started a new job with Continental back in September. For some reason, his company does not provide medical insurance for the first six months of employment. Therefore, I researched some short term insurance options for the two of us to get us by. Through a company called ExtendHealth, I found a great BCBS policy and was even able to add a maternity rider. During the entire time, I was very clear with the sales representative that this was a short term policy (with Continental insurance taking effect March 1) and that I was not pregnant at the time I was calling, but would like to try to get pregnant and would therefore need maternity coverage. I asked the sales representative to double check to make sure that the maternity rider didn't have an exclusionary period and that I would receive maternity benefits on day one if I needed them. He assured me that there was no waiting or exclusionary period (it's very common that there is one, that's why I had him double check). I pay $110 a month additional for the maternity rider.

So, fast forward to today. I have a second ultrasound (at 12 weeks) scheduled for January 22nd. Because an ultrasound at 12 weeks is not common, it can be questioned by insurance companies. I called BCBS directly to give them codes to check to see if it's covered. Apparently, I do not have ANY maternity benefits for the first 12 months of my policy. Yes, that's right. I've already been in for bloodwork once at 5 weeks and had an ultrasound done at 8 weeks, all without insurance. Also, I have yet to received a bill from either one of these appointments or it would have been completely obvious that none of my services were being covered.

I am livid with the ExtendHealth representative. I called them to try and track him down and apparently he was only with the company for three weeks!!! I had another representative help me and the first line of the maternity rider states that maternity benefits will not be paid for the first 12 months of the policy. Now why the original moron representative couldn't read that is beyond me!

I'm kind of devastated at this point because I've been put in this horrible position of trying to have to budget for necessary care for our child. I have to count my blessings that at least I will have permanent insurance that doesn't exclude maternity coverage for any length of time - I called the three big companies that Continental offers insurance through (Aetna, Cigna, and BCBS) and they will cover me from day one even though I'm pregnant now - come March 1, at which point I'll be about 18 weeks. I just hate that I am in this situation because I did so much to try and make sure that this didn't happen. I can't tell you how many hours (literally) I spent calling insurance companies to make sure this wouldn't be an issue if we wanted to get pregnant.

So the battle continues today. I'm in the process of trying to receive a refund for the three months of maternity coverage that I paid for to help offset the cost of the doctor's appointments and ultrasounds that I will paying for out of pocket. Basically, I will have 4 appointments to pay four out of pocket (the two that I already had, one at 12 weeks, and one at 16 weeks) before our new permanent policy kicks in. It's not the end of the world, but what really gets me so riled (is that a word?!) up is that some random moron from Salt Lake City (where ExtendHealth is located) is making this so difficult! What did I ever do to him?! All the planning and researching in the world doesn't make up for the ignorance of some people!

Vent over! If you made it this far, I really am thankful and grateful to even be pregnant in the first place and this is just a little bump in the road. We'll get through it, the baby will get through it, and as long as it's only a matter of money, all is good in the end!

The name game

In honor of Jenny's request, here are some names that we've at least discussed and weren't disliked. We're FAR from deciding though!
Girl - middle name will be Lynn (we seem to have a lot more girl names)
Brooke
Katy
Ali
Taylor
Malia (this is sort of a running joke because I have loved this name forever!)
Avery (I loved this name when a character on Felicity was named Avery. However, I think it's become too popular in the past few years and it's all of a sudden a "trendy" name.)

Boy - we have not discussed boy names at all!
Scott
um, yeah, that's it for boys!

I'll get back to you in a few months on this topic! A friend (Krissy) dropped off three name books for me to reference over the coming months so hopefully the list will be a little more encompassing next time!

More decorating

More random decorating ideas!

I like these three sets from Maddie Boo

Carson

Kirby AveryThis set by NurseryWorks called Set Sea Holly Rose

These two sets by Beautiful Baby:

Retro Dots

Disco Dots

And this set by Caden Lane

Hayden

And finally, I saw this idea for a name sign. I thought it looked relatively easy to diy and I would incorporate the colors of the bedding (once I finally come to a decision!) in the sign.

Decorating ideas (first of many to come I'm sure!)

The hardest part about not finding out the baby's sex ahead of time will be decorating the nursery. I've decided that I definitely want the nursery to look gender specific so what I'm planning on doing is painting the walls a green color similar to what's shown below. I'll wait on buying bedding and accessories until the baby is born. Some other features that I like about the picture below are the dresser (how it looks like a normal piece of furniture and not something baby specific) and the round mirror.

In addition to painting the walls green, I would like to add a plate rack style moulding about 2/3rds of the way up the wall and paint a stripe pattern similar to what's shown below. I'll incorporate the green color in the stripes, but again, I'll wait until the baby is born to determine what other colors will be included in the stripes - pinks and oranges for a girl and blues and turquoises for a boy.

For a girl, this is one (of probably many to come) of the baby bedding ensembles that I like. I definitely will be going with solids, stripes, dots, or other geometric patterns as opposed to a character theme (like Disney, etc.).

An option for a boy...

And this is the crib style that I will be going with. I never thought I would have a preference on cribs, but here is what I like about this style: The front is the same height as the back (meaning that it doesn't convert to a full size bed like some cribs do that have the higher headboard and lower footboard styling) and the sides are the same height and don't flare out like a sleigh bed. I like the clean lines of this crib. I think we'll be going with a white crib, although I would love to get my hands on a "distressed" or "antique" white crib if I can find one.

As far as a changing table goes, I purchased a dresser for $15 that is in desparate need of refinishing! I'd love to pull out a color from the bedding and paint it to coordinate. Again, I like the idea of using "everyday" furniture as opposed to baby specific furniture so I'll just be using one of those countoured changing pads on top of the dresser as opposed to buying a changing table.