Back to the Baby...

With all the kitchen excitement, I almost forgot that I still have a baby to blog about! Ha! Just kidding. Don't worry... nobody puts this baby in the corner. He has no trouble making himself known ;-) 

At 5 1/2 months, our little big man is becoming incredibly vocal and interactive. He demands our attention almost constantly, which can be trying at times, but I always remind myself that it's simply a reflection of his love for us :-) 

He enjoys nothing more than interacting with us, whether it's watching us make faces at him or chattering back and forth. A burp cloth or blanket pulled across his face is quite a thrill - he loves when his eyes are covered temporarily and giggles uncontrollably! He also loves wind in his face, whether it's an outdoor breeze or a quick puff of air from one of us. His back is super-ticklish, as are his chunky lil' thighs! 

Though he's still refusing to roll over consistently (he has done it a handful of times, but I don't think he knows that he can do it!), he's sitting upright very well and is starting to push up on his arms when laying on his belly. He's eating baby oatmeal like a pro these days, and the nightly tubby time that follows is one of his favorite times of the day (especially when Daddy bathes him). 

The most exciting development, though, is the amazing progress that we've made in the sleep department! 

I've been so hesitant to comment on it in the public sphere - for fear of "jinxing" myself - but it's just such a relief! The photo above was taken yesterday morning during his first nap, right after watching my little professional sleeper put himself right on back to sleep after waking up about an hour in (so mommy just continued to sip on that coffee for another 20 minutes)! And yes, he's napping in his crib! How are we doing it, you might ask? More to come on that. I think that the sleep learning process merits its own post (read: it's gonna be a long one)! Suffice it to say that he is now regularly sleeping through the night with one early morning feeding (which we're working on gradually weaning) and is having little to no trouble taking about 3 hours worth of naps per day in his crib. It's usually two naps, the first being the shorter of the two (1-1 1/2 hours) followed by a longer 1 1/2-2 hour nap in the afternoon, sometimes capped off with a little catnap around dinnertime to get him through the evening. And we have a much happier baby on our hands... not to mention better-rested parents ;-)

In other news, today I'm off to do some more Emergency Department shadowing, and lil' man will be spending the afternoon with his Aunt Tiffy! Poor Daddy has to work all day, which is great for overtime but sad for babytime :'( And we didn't win the Mega Millions. Sad. Welp, I think that's about it! Stay tuned for more on sleep learning!

Day Three! Oh. Em. Geeeeeee.

Day Three was far and away the most exciting day yet! Our cabinets went up... and I am in LOVE! Trying to remain calm, cool and collected all day while the guys were working wasn't exactly easy... but I didn't want to hover. And I didn't really want them to see the middle-school-girl-at-a-Bieber-concert-level excitement that was welling up inside of me ;-) 

In progress...

It took three guys from 9am til about 8pm, but all of the cabinets went up! 

I'm so happy with all of our choices! We went back and forth so many times, but it was absolutely worth it. The hardware goes perfectly, the cabinet color is gorgeous, the crown molding is breathtaking... I couldn't be more thrilled! The color scheme is coming together just beautifully - I can't wait to see the granite in the mix, too! Unfortunately the granite appointment is being pushed back until our special-order sink arrives (which should have been here days ago, but for whatever reason hasn't shipped yet), because the granite people have to take the sink with them to custom cut the opening in the slab. When it does ship it will be overnighted, so hopefully it will be here within the next two days or so.

You may have also noticed that that drawers don't have their hardware yet - the screws that the handles came with were too short to reach through the drawer fronts, so Anthony will be returning with new screws to finish that off. We're also operating without a kitchen sink for the evening, because the old sink (left behind for us, along with a small section of the old counter top) is now sitting up just barely too high for the existing water line and pipes to reach! GAH! That minor snag will be remedied tomorrow morning - no biggie.

I wish that the photos did it justice... it's like a completely new kitchen! It already feels so much bigger and more functional. I can't wait to start reorganizing my cabinets! As a matter of fact... what's stopping me?! Talk to ya later!

Quick Tip for My NFPers...

OVUVIEW.

If you're an Android user practicing NFP, download this app. It's kick-ass. I've been using it for several weeks and I can honestly say that I'm really happy with it. I've yet to find any major flaws, and I find it super-helpful to be able to record symptoms when my paper chart isn't handy. I've been trying to go back and fill in my paper charts periodically as a back-up, but the app also backs up to your phone's SD card for an extra measure of safety. My friend had to put that handy little feature to the test when her phone ended up in the toilet one day, and her chart was right there on her SD card when she popped it into the new phone! Data entry is quick and easy, there are several different views, you can add lots of different symptoms if you want to track more subtle things like mood, headaches, etc., you can enter in your own cycle history (longest and shortest cycles, earliest first day of temp rise, etc), and it has a whole library of different rules and lets you know which phase you're in based on each of those rules and your cycle history... it's pretty darn cool. I really like that last feature - it also rates how conservative each of those rules is so you can be extra-educated in your decision-making.

As an aside, I tried the Fertility Friend app for about two days and HATED IT. Not nearly customizable enough, and it immediately started making wacky, incorrect predictions. Now, in the app's defense, I'll admit that my cycle is rather wacky right now what with all the postpartumness and breastfeeding. I just disliked far too many things about Fertility Friend. You have to go through far too many clicks just to enter your temp! Download both... I bet you'll pick Ovuview :-)

In other news, there are three hulking dudes out in my kitchen working some magic... Squeeeee!!!

Day Two

Well here it is, renovation day two, and I thought I'd be regaling you all with tales of stubborn wallpaper and drywall damage and spackle-galore... but alas (or not!), the wallpaper removal went swimmingly :-)

 The wallpaper itself peeled away nicely in sheets, leaving the adhesive behind...

 Then, we sprayed on some lean, mean, glue-eatin'... stuff.

The glue literally peeled away in sheets, just as the wallpaper had done! It was that easy!

The miracle potion? Piranha Wallpaper Remover Liquid Spray from Lowes. Lucky guess on my part... it was the only wallpaper remover that Lowes sold, so I bought it!

What was left behind was nothing but bare-naked walls, just begging for a coat of fresh paint (and who are we to deny them?)

We (almost) finished painting the ceiling, save for these still-drying repairs from removing the giant fluorescent eyesore. 

We plan on installing some track lighting in the very near future, but for now the remaining lighting will suffice.  There's another chandelier (which will also be going, but for now it's tolerable and it's all we have!) as well as one recessed fixture above the sink. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, our kitchen was a lighting disaster. Truly. Three different fixtures within feet of one another? ICK.  

The walls got their first coat of paint... mostly. Again there were some wall repairs that took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to dry (no thanks to the uber-rainy weather we enjoyed today, not to mention the naturally humid condition of any space that's saturated with paint!), and we didn't want to have wet paint near areas that would soon be sanded. So there's some detail work to be finished tomorrow, and then we'll tape off the ceiling, slap a second coat over everything and call it a day! 

Ok fine, here's a preview of the walls...

It's the softest, warmest, most lovely-est gray ever, and I adore it :-) Momma hit another paint color home run, baby! 

Well, the mess is contained for the night and we're enjoying some decaf and dessert with friends. Peace out, and stay tuned!

Kitchen Reno - Day 1

I was shocked when our cabinets arrived right smack in the middle of the delivery window (and not at the very end!)...

 Here's a close up of the door detail...

Anthony and his helper made short work of our kitchen - they had it (almost) completely disassembled within about an hour and a half! They left us some counter top and the sink so we'd be able to function over the weekend.

The stove's looking rather lonely on the empty wall!

The refrigerator is resting comfortably in its new home...

Simple, brushed nickel cabinet hardware

Our pretty new faucet!

Now it's time to get our hands dirty...

Our assignment over the weekend is to remove the heinous wallpaper border around the ceiling and slap some fresh paint on the walls while the cabinets are out. Having the cabinets out will make the job way easier for us - far less cutting in. We also have to paint the ceiling, because the previous owners put semi-gloss yellow-y off-white weird crap paint all over EVERY wall and EVERY ceiling in the house. Who does that?! The ceilings look like crap, so we've been painting them as we do each room. We also plan on tackling the entryway while we're at it since it's adjacent to the kitchen. Long story short, we have our work cut out for us! I should probably bail out and get to work!

Demolition Prep

The cabinets are empty and the counters are cleared! Our contractor will be here at 10am to get started on the demo, and the new cabinets will be arriving between 9am and 1pm (gotta love the 4 hour range!).

Most of our kitchen-wares have been relegated to boxes, with a few essentials left out for some bare bones cooking...

Of course, the all-important coffee station remains in tact ;-)

Now I just have to hope that this whatever-I'm-coming-down-with is kept at bay with ibuprofen and healing baby giggles! I've had a scratchy, swollen throat and a headache for two days, and this evening I started getting pretty achey. Gross :-( Here's hoping for the best.

Stay tuned for more reno photos as they become available!

Our Old Kitchen...

As a result of the fabulous interest rate offered on a particular type of mortgage "rehab" loan, for which we qualified,  we were able to tack some extra money onto our principal for renovations. This type of loan was designed to help first-time homebuyers purchase foreclosures and older properties that need lots of work, but that situation isn't a prerequisite for qualifying (our home was built in 2002 and was in immaculate shape when we bought it!). Believe it or not, what we added onto our principal was more than offset by the lower interest rate on this type of loan (versus the non-rehab loan we were considering) as far as our mortgage payment was concerned - doing the lower-interest rehab loan and adding some extra to our principal actually lowered our monthly payment as compared to the regular loan with no extra for renovations. So we said, what the heck! Why not?!

We really didn't even realize what little counter and storage space we had, not to mention drawer space, until we moved in and tried to unpack our stuff. Even moving from a small galley kitchen in an apartment, we couldn't unpack it all! Some of it is still in boxes in the basement! As I mentioned in my last post, our original plan had been to paint the cabinets white and do new floors and granite counters, but we quickly realized that we needed a lot more cabinet space. And counter space. 

Shall we take the 360 tour...?

Luckily, we're starting out with relatively new (2009) stainless steel appliances, so that major expenditure is already taken care of!

We will be adding cabinets (top and bottom) and counter tops where the refrigerator is now, adding much-needed food-prep space near the stove!

We plan on adding a rolling cart/movable island that will live up against the window and can roll into the center of the kitchen for extra prep space as needed. The neutral linoleum flooring will remain for now, but we plan on replacing it with ceramic tile as soon as we're able.

This cluttered corner will be the new home of our refrigerator, as well as an extra-deep cabinet above. Don't ask me where all that stuff is going... 

Plain, icky off-white formica will be updated to granite...

This heinous wallpaper border is history!

The divided sink (in which it is impossible to wash anything larger than a dinner plate!) will become one large undermount sink, 30x18x9, and the squeaky, stiff, boring faucet will be replaced by this lovely brushed-nickel one...

And those builder-stock oak cabinets will be replaced with custom 39" medium-brown maple cabinets. Wish I had a photo of them...

...But they're being delivered tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to add a photo before they're even installed! Oh, and one more disclaimer... those sweet window treatments came with the house. NOT my taste ;-) My ideal plan would be to add white plantation shutters on the lower half of the wall and make two solid fabric shades for the top half... maybe with a cool geometric fabric like this...

It's a super-easy project that I first learned about on The Nate Berkus Show. If you don't already watch it, you should. TONS of DIY ideas and they're almost all super-cheap. But I digress.

We also plan on doing a back splash at some point, but that's a relatively inexpensive and simple project for a weekend when we have some extra cash to blow (ha!). 

So, the big project is scheduled to begin tomorrow with delivery of our new cabinets and demolition of the existing cabinets and counter tops. Then we'll be painting over the weekend while the cabinets are out, a nice neutral greige, after we remove the wallpaper border (gulp!). The new cabinets will go in Monday, and then Home Depot will be out to take final measurements for the counter tops before the stone is cut. I hope that isn't going to take too long, or we'll be without counters for a while! 

For now, we need to get to work on clearing out the cabinets and getting everything out of the kitchen. We should have budgeted for all the take-out we'll be consuming over the next few days... wish us luck! More photos to come as progress is made!

This, That and the Other

I refuse to blog about our sleep issues, because I'm convinced that I'm just jinxing and un-jinxing myself over and over with all of this public chatter about successes and failures. When we've got it all figured out, I'll give you the whole blessed story! Suffice it to say that we're working on it, and the situation seems to be improving little by little.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for an upcoming post on our big kitchen reno'! This project has been months and months in-the-planning, and involves new (and more) cabinetry and hardware, new (and more) counter tops, and a new (uber-spacious) sink and faucet! We're also relocating our refrigerator to make room for the new cabinets and counters. When I post the "before photos", you'll understand why we were in desperate need of more counter space. I mean, most people would say that they could use more counter space, but our kitchen is seriously hurtin'. Not to mention, we have ONE (yes, you read that correctly... one) drawer in our entire kitchen. And it's tiny. Our new cabinets will be 39-inchers (topped with molding to take them to the ceiling), which will add another entire shelf of storage all the way around. We had originally planned to paint the existing ones, but when we decided to add more cabinets and realized that we could really use taller ones for more storage, it became clear that we'd have to amend the plan somewhat. Unfortunately that meant that we had to let go of the flooring and back splash for now, but those are projects that we can tackle on our own later (with a little help from some handy family and friends).

In other news, I've started doing some clinical shadowing. Last Saturday I shadowed an ER doctor, who was very into teaching and kept me very involved. It really was a great experience - just the reminder I needed as to why I'm putting myself through this. I even got to don a pair of sterile gloves and help out with a central line placement (understand, I use the term "help out" very loosely... but it was still pretty cool)! I not only got to see some patients and observe procedures, but I also got to spend some time talking to him about the good, the bad and the ugly of the day-to-day stuff. I'll be shadowing a pediatric gastroenterologist friend of mine (from my time with the CF Twin & Sibling Study) this Friday.

As for Ben and the baby... they survived ;-) I fed him and put him down for his nap before I left, around 10:30, and he didn't eat again til about 4:30. He didn't want the rice cereal that Ben offered him, unfortunately. Our pediatrician told us that as long as he is otherwise eating well, he can go without fluids for 6-8 hours without it harming him, so we shouldn't force a bottle if he doesn't want it. Apparently he was alright, because he wasn't even squawking for food when I got home! They took a nice long drive down to my sister-in-law's house to give Eli a little nap and keep him distracted for a bit. In summary, Ben just had to deal with some crankiness as a result of insufficient napping (welcome to my world!). It wasn't too bad. Hopefully as he gets better with the cereal and we work on the napping issues, this whole leaving-the-baby thing will get easier on everyone.

With that, I give you more cute photos...