10w 4d nursery

I'm overwhelmed by the desire to decorate the nursery. I actually picked out the theme(s), and the curtains have already been shipped. The nursery is going to be yellow gingham and jungle animals (specifically "Jungle Play" by NoJo. See the image at the bottom of the post.) This can't be the start of nesting already. I just have a problem.

But this did lead to the start of our Wal-Mart and Target registries. We're not even eleven weeks pregnant. I definitely have a problem.

It's going to be so wonderful, though. I'm going to make my own artwork for the walls (painting wood squares and gluing on felt cutouts of the jungle animals). I might even buy new knobs for the dressers and paint them to look like yellow gingham.

I drew up a floor plan for how to arrange the furniture in the nursery, and I left it where Andy would see it when he got home at 2 a.m. from work. He woke me up just so he could laugh at my illustrations. I think it was the fact that I actually drew and labeled things like "furnace vent" and "baby wipes." But the good news is that he agrees with the design, and he'll hang my curtain rods.

10w 2d koopa

Yesterday, everything changed. My world shifted in an instant, shifted permanently, and I'm filled with more love than I thought a body could contain. Using the words of Stephenie Meyer in Breaking Dawn:

All the lines that held me to my life were sliced apart in swift cuts, like clipping the strings to a bunch of balloons. Everything that made me who I was... disconnected from me in that second – snip, snip, snip – and floated up into space.

I was not left drifting. A new string held me where I was.

Not one string, but a million. Not strings, but steel cables. A million steel cables all tying me to one thing – to the very center of the universe.

I could see that now – how the universe swirled around this one point. I'd never seen the symmetry of the universe before, but now it was plain.

There was nothing but good news at the doctor appointment. My blood pressure was 90/50 (higher than previous visits!), I'd lost a few pounds (thank you, nausea), and I received both the flu and swine flu vaccines.

Reading and writing about our baby's development – its size, arms, legs, hands, facial features – is a wholly different things from actually seeing our baby's face for the first time, watching the rapid beating of the heart, seeing how it moved and twisted and turned right there inside me, in real time.

I am amazed. Stunned, overwhelmed, and deeply in love.

And now it's picture time. :) The doctor gave us three pictures to take home. Here is each of them as is, plus each of them zoomed in and turned 90 degrees clockwise with captions. (title of blog... obsession...) *Please note that my illustrations are somewhat guesswork. You may see things differently.

PHOTO NO. 1 – The Face of Baby Schultz. Andy pointed out last night, as we lay in bed with our heads together holding the picture up and pointing out all the little parts, that Baby Schultz bears strong resemblance to a Koopa Troopa from Mario Bros. Andy feels that this has baby name potential. Hmm. The dark spot under the head is the heart beating.


PHOTO NO. 2 – The Profile of Baby Schultz.


PHOTO NO. 3 – Talk to the Hand. The head is tilted down and baby's right arm is sticking up. Baby is in the process of turning away, but with that little hand up (right under the right eye) it looks like it's saying, "Talk to the hand." You'll have to look close to see it.

[Return to introduction post.]

9w 6d novel

It's the first day of NaNoWriMo, and although this year's novel is progressing well, I feel incredibly scattered, like about 289 different thoughts are vying for my attention at once. Baby Schultz remains foremost, so now I'm wondering if I should've somehow incorporated pregnancy into my novel, rather than a heroine with an almost-one-year-old. I don't have the energy to rework my entire outline, though.

A moment ago, I thought to myself, Oh no, tomorrow is Monday. But that thought was followed with, Yea, the day after Monday is Tuesday! And Tuesday is when we go to the doctor again. Thank you, Baby Schultz, for making some of the unhappy parts of life happier.

I spent the entire day in sweatpants and my favorite sweatshirt, and I haven't even stepped outside. I have candles burning and a loaf of bread baking, and life is good.

...

I actually just zoned out again and I have no idea where I went. This lack of focus doesn't bode well for the novel. So many thoughts coupled with so much fatigue... Must. Go. Write.

From "Where the Lines Overlap" by Paramore:

I'm not used to it
But I can learn
There's nothing to it
I've never been happier

No one is as lucky as us
We're not at the end
But we already won
No no, no one
Is as lucky as us