31 Weeks

We've passed the 31 week mark now. Her due date is just less than 2 months away. We couldn't be more excited and anxious and neither could our families.

The shopping continues on and on. Everything we see we need to have. Nana Nutley purchased the sleeper in the picture and we picked up the shoes and towels. Yes another set of shoes! She's never going to have a naked pair of feet.

We also picked up a nice collection of books that are going to decorate her little suite in our south wing.

Auntie Daryl has sent out invitations to the first Baby Shower of little Miss Nutley. For those readers not on facebook, it's going to be held November 6 at 1p

m at Auntie Daryl's house in Ferndale. All are welcome to attend so contact us for details.

Sam's feeling great, other than a cold that she went through last week. She's getting kicked constantly but she loves every minute of it. All is well with Mommy and Baby. KOW.

Here's a picture of Mommy at 31 weeks. (Almost 8 months)

Our "Great" Deal

Sorry about the lack of updates. Work has been crazy lately and so has our social life. We had a lot of different things to do last weekend and barely had a moment to relax.

Our little girl has been very active through everything and moving around a lot. There's moments where we can clearly feel her turning and tell which body part we feel. She also moves a certain way, lands on Sams bladder and then Sam immediately has to pee. That one's always funny.

We found a bassinet a few weeks ago through craiglist and went downtown to pick it up. It was a very good deal and almost in brand new condition. We paid the nice woman and brought it outside to load it in the car. Obviously we didn't think ahead and realize that the back seat of a Mazda isn't huge. No matter which way we turned it this thing wasn't going to fit. We needed an allen key to take it apart so I scoured the car for tools or anything the right size to turn that socket. Of course, no luck.

Our next option was to carry this thing up the street to a mechanic shop. Looking like we stole the thing, my wife and I walked through downtown Vancouver carrying the bassinet. We spoke with the mechanic who looked through all of his tools and guess what? NO ALLEN KEY! OK now I have to go back to the car and drive around looking for a hardware store so we can purchase something to take this apart so it can fit in the car. Off I go finding a store only a few blocks up.

Looking around inside I cant find anything. The store owner says, "Oh we don't have that. You'll have to go up to Dunbar Lumber." OK then, off I go again while my wife sits outside of a mechanic shop next to a bassinet looking like a crazy lady talking to her imaginary baby. I finally make it to Dunbar Lumber and find what I need. (In a tool store though I realize, "Well I may as well buy this good set that includes 45 different sizes and add this to my tool collection." Guess that's another thing I inherited from my Dad.)

Anyway, back in the car, back to the

mechanic, back to my crazy-talking-to-imaginary-baby wife. (She didn't really do that, it's just funny to imagine.) I take the thing apart and in the trunk it goes. Our great deal bassinet was still a great deal despite the hassle and the extra tools but hey, it gave me something to write about and some new tools!

Mommy went Shopping!!

This past weekend I (Mommy) went shopping in the states with Auntie Rachel, Auntie Daryl and Nana Bobbi and we had so much fun! This was the first official shopping trip meant specifically for baby items and from the looks of the pictures...baby girl did very well!

My original goal was to find an inexpensive crib mattress for her bed...which I accomplished, but I also found SO many cute items of clothing that I just couldn't resist!

One of my favourite things that I picked up for baby girl was the polka dotted fleece "snow suit" in the second photo...if you look close enough you'll see that it even has teddy bear ears on the hood! SO cute!

The adorable sandals pictured here were a gift from Nana Bobbi (along with a few of the items in the first picture above). You can't tell from the photo but these shoes are TINY! Daddy doesn't think baby girl needs any more shoes...but don't tell him both of her aunties got her a pair of shoes too! lol!

I think Auntie Daryl and Auntie

Rachel each got baby girl a few other adorable things too but I don't have any pictures of those things yet since we could only bring so much across the border! :-)

Thank you to both Aunties and Nana Bobbi for such a fun trip and for all of the wonderful things you bought for your niece/granddaughter!

Can't wait until we go again!

More Shoes than Carrie Bradshaw...

Our little girl's closet is growing and we haven't even gone shopping yet! As you can see she's already got a decent size wardrobe and most everything she owns is thanks to her wonderful aunties and grandparents so far. Her shoe collection is growing too...as you can see from the photo, she's got more shoes than Carrie Bradshaw already! (I had to check with my wife on this reference as I'm definitely not an avid Sex and the City watcher.)

This next photo is of the beautiful sweater that Nana Nutley made to keep baby girl warm. Although she probably won't be big enough to wear it for a while, we're sure she's going to love it.

Mommy is making her first official "baby related" shopping trip to the states tomorrow and she couldn't be more excited to pick up a few practical items but also some "VERY cute outfits". I'm sure there will be another post early in the week documenting the items that she picks up.

Anyway, thanks so far to everyone who has bought gifts for our little girl. We (baby included) are very lucky to have such caring and generous friends and family!

Daddy won some money!

Our first wedding anniversary was this past weekend so we decided to spend Saturday night at the River Rock casino (where we stayed on our wedding night). We got a nice little package deal that included a room, dinner, breakfast as well as $10 in spending money for the casino.

We unpacked our things, put on some nice clothes and went for dinner. Apparently we were over dressed as the gentleman sitting next to us was wearing his best tye dyed "Cheech and Chong" shirt.

After dinner we went walking around the casino and decided to play our spending money. I put $10 into a slot machine and pulled once. Wow I won $5. Pretty cool. Pulled again and nothing. Pulled a third time and 4 koalas driving taxis appeared on the screen. What the hell is going on? Some computer animated coins dropped from the top of the screen and my credit count rose up.

Doing the quick math in my head I thought "Wow I've got $30 now". Pulled a few more times and didn't win so I cashed out. As the ticket came out of the machine, my much more intelligent wife figured out that I had just won $300. May not sound like much but it's easily the most I've ever won at a casino.

I figured the good luck must have come from my little girl so we immediately went to the gift shop where I bought her a stuffed animal. Then we went to a bar where I bought myself a few glasses of nice whiskey and Sam some sparkling water and we enjoyed the rest of the night. So in the end, The River Rock paid us $50 to stay and eat there. It makes me smile that our little girl can look at that stuffed animal and know her daddy got that for her on his gambling winnings.

Eggplant

We went grocery shopping last night and while walking through the produce section Sam said "The baby is the size on an eggplant this week. Lets see if we can find one." So we looked and looked and finally saw it in the section of weird fruits. It's huge! What a jump in size. No wonder the baby's kicks feel like a hammer. She's a strong one.

Speaking of that, yes the baby is kicking constantly. Sam loves every minute of it and hasn't even come close to complaining once. A few weeks ago I started feeling them when they were little flutters. The other night I felt a bunch of kicks and punches where I could almost feel the shape of the tiny little foot or hand. If I lay down and look at her stomach like a horizon, you can see the little jumps her skin makes around the kicks. Not quite as much as the zombie baby in the Dawn of the Dead remake but thats probably a good thing. No zombie baby for us, KOW.

Her suite at the end of the hall is 99% done now. We put together the crib last week and hung some picture frames on the wall. We don't have any pictures yet to put in them but I'm sure there will be a thousand in the first week. I've started drawing something for now.

The long weekend is here and we're not going anywhere. Sams got a wedding tomorrow and I've got a Whitecaps game on Sunday so we're staying in town and having some fun. Next week is our 1 year anniversary. How things have changes since this time last year.....It makes me very happy.

Room with a View

It's been a busy week in our little girls life. She's been moving around a lot and constantly kicking Sam. I can feel it all the time which is really cool. I've even tried talking to her which still feels weird but I know its a good idea so she's used to my voice too.

We've made a lot of progress with her little room too. She has a lovely little spot in the South wing of our townhouse overlooking a majestic view of...the rest of the townhouses. There's a pigeon outside of her window so hopefully that doesn't bug her too much.

Auntie Rachel stopped by this week with a present. Yes a little jean vest just like her Daddy. We'll have to get her some Fred Penner and Big Bird patches.

Little Miss Nutley!

Well, it's official...she's a GIRL!

Yes we finally found out. Originally we were planning on keeping it a secret but we soon realized how hard that was going to be. We first made the appropriate phone calls to our families and close friends before it was released to the world of Facebook. I'm not sure if Twitter has gotten wind of it yet but she's definitely a popular little girl so I'm sure it wont be long.

We went to a clinic called UC Baby (www.uc-baby.com) where we got a 3D ultrasound. The two images below are from that. We have a disc of a lot more as well as a DVD that we need to look through. It was a great experience getting to watch the whole thing on a flat screen TV. Auntie Rachel and Auntie Daryl came in and got to watch too. Of course we all laughed when the technician said "No penis!".

Honu U'Uku

We're back!!

Had a great time in Maui. Lots of sun, good food and drinks. Spent lots of our time laying around relaxing. Took a day trip to Molokini to go snorkeling, I went surfing one day and we also fit in a luau.

Here's a link to the Facebook Album for anyone to take a look at the pictures.

Sam is doing great. We're up to week 21 now which is past the halfway point. It is now the length of a banana. Apparently the rapid growth stops and the changes in size will be much smaller than they were previously.

It is also Sam's birthday today so we're going out tonight to celebrate.

P.S. Honu U'Uku is the Hawaiian word for "Tiny Turtle" which we added as another nickname on our trip.

Little Baby Skeletor

We had the ultrasound done this morning. Everything is great and the baby is very healthy. I was able to see it kicking like crazy like it was trying to swim. It moved around a lot and was hard to catch. Quite an amazing thing to see.

Unfortunately they wouldn't tell us the gender of the baby which came as a shock. Oh well, we'll find out in a few weeks.

Since an ultrasound doesn't show the skin too well, I've nicknamed the baby skeletor.

We were also able to tell that the baby has really big hands and feet just like me.

We're up to a size of a mango this week which, for me, is a huge jump from last week.

This might be the last entry before our Hawaii trip since we leave on Monday. I may have a chance to update while we're there but it might be hard getting around to a computer when there's so much else to do.

Sweet Potato

Our little Nutley is the size of a sweet potato this week. I don't even know what a sweet potato looks like so I can't picture the size and therefore I have no jokes associated with it.

Thanks to Nana Nutley and Grandad Paddy, we now have a baby stroller and car seat. Above is a picture of me assembling it on a sunny afternoon hence why my eyes are closed and I look like an idiot.

We've finally got the ultrasound tomorrow morning. We're going to find out whether its a boy or girl but no one besides the two of us, Auntie Rachel and Auntie Daryl are going to know. If anyone else finds out, I'm going to break their thumbs. Just kidding...hahaha.

No I'm not.

That's a bargain

Well my wife is now definitely a Nutley. She got the deal of a lifetime due to smart shopping and she's very proud of it.

We were looking for a rocking chair for the baby's room and had found a nice one at Sears in Guildford for $300. She wanted a green or white fabric one with darkwood. They didn't happen to have that exact one in the store so we decided that we would order it online that night.

Well we forgot.

The next day we headed down to the States to visit Sam's family. On their way to the mall, Sam and her Mother spotted a rocking chair outside of a thrift store. They swerved the car to the curb and jumped out. It was the exact chair that we had looked at in Sears. It was even still wrapped in the plastic.

As you can see by the price tag, we got a hell of a deal.

Oinniún

Ha! That's the Gaelic way of spelling onion. Don't even ask me how to pronounce it.

Back to the doctor yesterday. Everything checked out fine. We heard the heartbeat again and I managed to record it. If I find a way to post that I will.

The summer has finally hit Vancouver and the last couple of days have been very hot. My wife hasn't complained and she's just dealing with it. All of the windows are open in the house and we're lucky that we have a pool in our building.

We're going to look for a gliding chair this weekend. Once we get that and the crib in the baby's room, it should look pretty complete.

Just over two weeks until Hawaii. We're both definitely looking forward to that. I have trouble trying to relax on vacation and not trying to do everything I can while I'm there. I'll just load myself up with Pina Colada's and Zombies so I'll have no choice.

L'Oignon

Baby Belly Picture #1. I guess I should have started this a while ago. As you can see the baby is definitely noticeable and has been for a while.

For those who don't speak French, our baby is an onion this week. 17 weeks to be exact.

Sam is doing very well. We're going to see the doctor this week and hopefully hear the heartbeat again. I'll try to record it this time. Ultrasound in another couple of weeks.

For those who don't know, my sister Rachel has started a baby pool through Facebook. You can check it out there or for the non-Facebookers, you can comment here or contact either of us or our parents to put in your guess of the date and weight. $5 buy-in, winner gets half the pot and bragging rights on being a wizard who can predict things.

Beautiful Mommy

I had to upload this, look at my beautiful wife.

Avocado

Little Nutley is the size of a large Avocado. Unfortunately I've got no joke to go with that. I'm drawing a blank.

We purchased our first piece of furniture. This lovely changing table features an espresso finish, multiple shelves, a slide-out drawer and best of all a seatbelt.

This is me still calm and before the swearing.

Finally done.

And set up in the baby's room.

Besides that nothing much else new. Sam is doing very well. We've been eating very healthy for the last few weeks. Lots of protein, fruits and vegetables. Lots of new recipes which have all turned out really good.

Fathers Day

Well I went through my first Fathers Day. I received a nice new Cordless Drill from my loving wife. I think I got it just so I would have something to put the crib together with.

Had a good day spent relaxing and then over to my parents for a BBQ.

My wife is doing very well. She made it through a cold without complaining too much. Rather than risking anything harmful, she decided not to take any medicine at all. Good girl. Very brave.

Apparently we've moved up to an orange. Looking back at the first post, the size was an orange seed. Our baby had grown the full life of a piece of fruit. That's weird.

Lemon Meringue

Our little Baby Nutley is a Lemon. Well not in the sense that we've realized it's a dud. Just the size. I really don't understand these sizes. Isn't a peach bigger than a lemon? Whatever.

My wife is doing very well. She's handling everything beautifully and taking it all in. Her little belly is growing and she's definitely starting to look pregnant. She's heard it a few times now from people.

We bought a video camera last weekend so we can capture events. Funnily enough the camera is barely bigger than the baby. I'll try to interview my wife and post a short video here soon. That is if she'll actually let me record her and not run away from the camera.

It has a heart

It's now confirmed, our baby has a heart. No tin man for us. Along with Auntie Daryl, we went to the doctor yesterday for the next checkup. After the typical weigh-in and pee-in-a-cup, we went into the exam room. The doctor asked Sam to lay down and used a device called a Doppler to find the baby's heartbeat. Within 5 seconds we heard the very loud 'baboom-baboom-baboom' beating at 150 bpm. In terms of rock n roll that's almost as fast as Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin. That's completely normal and very healthy. The baby's heartbeat will gradually slow down as it gets closer to 9 months. I was all ready to record the sound using my phone but I was too awe-struck and speechless as soon as I heard it that it didn't even cross my mind. It was one of the most exciting moments in my life.

We also got our ultra-sound booked for July 21st so we can see the baby, make sure everything is looking good and maybe even find out the sex before going to Hawaii.

I also picked up a present from the Whitecaps game on Wednesday.

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for me....

Now we've got a little peach in there. Hard to believe it's grown all the way up to that size already.

We've just made it past 3 months now which is a big step. The doctor's appointment is on Thursday where we get to hear the heartbeat. I'll try to record it on my phone.

Other than that it's just been a lot of planning on what the baby's room is going to look like. My wife has got the whole thing planned out in her head including colour schemes and decorations. I can't say I've gone that far but it'll be fun to put together a room. It'll feel like we're running a Bed & Breakfast. Except we don't get paid and they never leave.