Introducing Eleanor

Keith and I are proud and happy to announce the birth of Eleanor.
Birth day: Sunday, July 20, 9:14am
Weight: 8 pounds, 2 ounces
Length: 20.5 inches
1o fingers, 10 toes, a fabulously developed set of lungs!

We're now at home, getting settled into the new routine. Expect many more posts and pictures in the coming days!

Bereft and Directionless without Satellite

I like to claim that I don't watch TV that much. I pretend like it's all Keith's fault that we have a big flat panel TV and fancy satellite dish. Although I will admit that even I cannot live without DVR anymore. You know, for when I want to record the Jane Austen series on Masterpiece Theatre.

But apparently, all of my posturing about not needing to watch TV is a pack of lies. Because our satellite is not currently hooked up, and I'm in a corner, twitching.

To take off the old roof and put on the new roof, the roofers had to remove and reinstall the satellite dish. Fair enough. But they don't actually reposition it properly—we have to call the satellite TV service to take care of that.

The satellite TV service wants to charge us a $50 service call to reposition the satellite. We're not big fans of that. So Keith wants to try repositioning it himself first. Being "fiscally responsible" (aka stingy), I approve of this plan.

Except. I'm home all the time now. And I don't have a whole lot of energy. All I really want to do is flip on the TV and watch other people do things while I knit a baby blanket for my sister or fall asleep on the couch. But Keith won't be able to try and reposition the satellite until probably the weekend, at the earliest.

I'm a little surprised how disconnected I feel without the TV. I know part of it is KNOWING that I can't turn the TV on, even if I wanted to. Well, I could watch a DVD, but I can't watch actual television programs.

I'm listening to NPR, which I often listen to all day at work, and it's surprisingly dissatisfying. I miss the moving pictures! Maybe I'm just going through the withdrawal, and by tomorrow the need for TV will be lessened. Maybe this will bring on labor, because I don't have anything else to amuse me.

Incommunicado

Last week, the rules about communication with my immediate family changed. I think it happened after my last doctor's appointment, when I eagerly called everyone and told them the doctor thought I could go into labor any day now.

Suddenly, my phone calls "just to chat" were no longer welcome. The person on the other end of the line would invariably answer with nearly hysterical excitement in her voice. But as soon as I said I wasn't in labor, the excitement was gone.

Now, no one wants to actually talk to me. They just want to hear that I'm in labor and they should hurry over to the hospital. The ironic part is this only afflicts immediate family—the people that would actually get the call to come to the hospital for the birth. I'm still allowed to call other people just to catch up, it's just those closest to me that find the sound of my non-laboring voice so very disappointing.

So I've stopped calling people over the past few days. If my mom or sisters want to find out how I'm doing, I let them call me. Which is another way that the rules have changed. Normally, I don't feel the need to rush and answering a ringing phone. If I'm in a store, I send it to voicemail. Or if I'm in the middle of something, I might wait and see who is calling and give him a call back at a more convenient time.

But those days are long gone. Because now, if Keith or I don't answer the phone, I feel certain that the caller will immediately jump to the conclusion that we're engaged in much more important activities. Like having a baby.

So I make hardly any outgoing calls. But I obsessively answer all incoming ones. I'm guessing this will be the new routine until I actually have reason to make The Call.

We love to cut it close

Well, the roofers arrived this morning. Our house was originally on the schedule for last week, which I thought would be great. Definitely finished by the baby's arrival time.

Except then, because of weather, it got pushed back to Monday. And then to today. And when they weren't here by 8 o'clock, I was afraid that they weren't coming at all.

But they did roll in around 9 .... half of a crew, instead of a whole crew. And informed me that, instead of being a 1-day job as I was originally told (2 at the outside), they're expecting it to take 3 days. Meaning that they would finish on my Thursday, July 17. You know, my due date.

I don't really know what to think. Is this normal? Is this to be expected when you're having a large job being done where the schedule is weather dependent? Should I be annoyed and arguing with the main office about the scheduling? Or should I just take it in stride?

My fear is that something will come up. If everything goes exactly as according to the estimate I originally signed, there's no need for Keith and me to be around and accessible. But what if things change? They find decking that needs to be replaced that wasn't covered by the original estimate and they need us to approve the additional cost of changes? I'm guessing it would be rather difficult for us to discuss roofing issues in-between contractions.

But anyway, let's focus on the good news: They have started. Even if they don't finish until Thursday, the forecast predicts no rain until Sunday. And, even if I go into labor today—as soon as I finish this post?—once I give birth and stay in the hospital for a few days, everything should still be finished before I come home with Little L. I'm just going to block out the racket above me, and focus on the positives. Or try.

Officially in Waiting

So, I'm done working. I have a "To Do" list around the house, because it's a physical impossibility for me not to ... but everything on the list is mentally marked with an asterisk that says "if I don't go into labor first."

It was very strange to clear off my desk last week, knowing that I wouldn't be back for months. I had originally offered to work from home this week, depending on how I felt. But it sounds like HR doesn't really approve of people working from home, and I don't want to go back into the office after I've officially gone on maternity leave (so anticlimactic, you know?) so I guess I'm pretty much done with work.

Today I plan on going grocery shopping, cleaning up around the house a bit, working on curtains for the nursery maybe (one down, three to go). My little sister, who is just starting summer vacation from school, is going to come and hang out with me, so maybe we'll sit on the deck in the backyard, sipping iced tea and admiring the lovely tiger lilies, as photographed by Keith above.

I'm excited for a relaxing, laid-back day. But I'm also hoping that my plans change suddenly because Little L has decided it's time to make an appearance. As I told Keith this morning, I've never been so disappointed to get a good night's sleep as I was when I woke up and realized dawn had broken without me going into labor. I know it's still a few days before my due date, but I'm an impatient person! Any other items are my list are just marking time—giving birth is really the next (and only) item on the REAL to-do list. Hopefully I can distract myself enough with the other, less-important tasks, so the wait doesn't seem so long.

Seriously Counting Down

Sorry my posting has been so sporadic lately. I expected July to be bad, but my lack of posts in June caught me by surprise. Apologies!

But seriously, I need to warn you that I might be disappearing off the interwebs very shortly. The due date for Little L is July 17, but who knows? I go to the doctor every week nowadays, and for the past two weeks they've waved me off with a cheerful, "See you next week, unless you give birth first!"

This is my last week of work, I'm very excited to report. I have been pretty tired lately, so I'm looking forward to being able to take it easy during the day next week, just keep the house basically clean, read a little, nap a little, etc ..... assuming the countdown is still ongoing, that is. If I don't go into labor until the 17th or after, early July should be great for my post count. But if you don't hear from me again after this, wish me, Keith, and the baby all the best! Many, many pictures will be forthcoming, I'm sure.

Finally Unveiled: The Nursery!

I know it's been a looong time since I alluded to this, but I'm finally posting a few pictures of the finished nursery. We're very excited with how it turned out. And not a moment too soon!

Items of note: The purple blanket on the edge of the crib is one I knitted myself for the baby. I'm also pretty excited about the basket of books that is on the floor, next to the glider rocking chair. And many, many props to Keith and my dad for hanging the fabulous white trim that separates the brown stripes and green solid color below.

It is a wonderful room. I love the light that fills it in the morning, and I think the colors are very welcoming and soothing. As our guest bedroom, we never spent much time in there. But now that it's the nursery, I know we'll both be in there day and night!

Our Pizza Box Holder

We haven't been very good about cooking lately. Partly because we've been busy, and I've been extra tired. And partly because we know we won't have the discretionary income in a few weeks to be ordering out all the time.

I've started referring to the stove as our "pizza box holder," since it seems to be doing more of that lately than actually being fired up. I hope we're not making it harder for ourselves to adjust after the baby arrives. Falling into bad habits now that will be hard to break later.

But I figure, any habit we have now is irrelevant post-baby. I don't really think we can assume that anything will be the same when we get home from the hospital. So even if the stove is a pizza box holder now, I think we'll be able to see it in a whole new light with Little L around.

It will be the surface on which we slap together peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.