In Limbo...

This is what our house looks like as of this afternoon. Pretty much since we moved into our house (almost 3 years ago) we have talked about replacing the wood floors on the main level and staining the concrete on the first floor. So after talking about it for 3 years, we decided that now, 7 weeks before the baby is due, to go ahead and do it.

Because of all the dust and chemicals and general insanity of these two projects, we have had to move out of our house for 3 weeks. So this weekend, we moved everything that was downstairs into the garage. Fortunately, our hardwood floor contractor moved all of our furniture for us, but we had to empty out the furniture first...so all the books from the book cases, china and crystal from our china hutch, etc. had to be moved upstairs (or downstairs). We emptied out the fridge (since that had to be unplugged for the floor work), and moved ourselves and our animals into my mom's house, where we'll be living until the first weekend in July. When we move back in, we'll have gorgeous new floors on two levels of our house!

Until then, Bryan, Thea, Wylie, and I are making ourselves at home. Thea is loving the HUGE backyard to run around in, and since my brother is frequently over with his dog, Moe, she's getting lots of play time with him (and Thea has a total puppy crush on Moe!). And Wylie enjoys having two beds to go back and forth between at night. It's really nice to have family close by so that things like this are much easier to coordinate. Thanks, for letting us crash for a few weeks, Mom!

In case you hadn't noticed...

...I'M HUGE!!!

Bryan took this picture of me right before our baby shower last weekend. When I first got pregnant, I told Bryan that I had a really hard time imagining myself getting really big. Well, the time has come that I no longer have to imagine it. I experience it every day. And I must admit, it's not exactly pleasant. It takes me a long time to go from sitting to standing (or standing to sitting). It is very difficult to be comfortable in any position. Baby Payne has grown enough that he is pushing on my diaphragm. Or sometimes thinks my lungs make a very nice pillow. Which means it's often difficult to breathe, or feel like I can just get a good breath in. And when not sleeping on my lungs, apparently my bladder makes a great punching bag!

Walking (which more appropriately should be called waddling) has become slow and difficult. And walking too much or too fast has started to bring on occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions. I'm still working full time, though it's definitely getting more and more difficult to do. Fortunately, most of my coworkers are very understanding. One of the VPs of my division stops by my office pretty much every day to ask how I'm doing and how things are going...I think she remembers what it was like to work full time during her third trimester. And for the most part, I manage to get some sort of dinner on the table in the evenings, though I'm enlisting Bryan's help more and more often. He's such a good sport, and pitches in with no complaints!

I don't necessarily want it to seem like I'm complaining too much. I realize that, overall, this has been a rather easy, uncomplicated, and smooth pregnancy. I don't really have any complaints outside of the sort of universal third trimester complaints that almost any pregnant woman will have...I'm big, it's hot, it's difficult (and sometimes painful) to move, and it seems like I have to pee every 10 minutes. But given all the changes my body is going through to carry our son, these seem relatively minor.

Of course, I'm still looking forward to being "not pregnant."

Picture Testing

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Originally uploaded by psycling

Here's a picture from our baby shower last weekend. If Baby Payne takes after his dad, this teddy bear is sure to become a favorite!

Hopefully everyone can see this picture now that I've disabled the passwords, but let me know if there are problems. I'd hate for you to miss out on the pictures that are sure to be coming in another month and a half...

Who Needs Security?

It seems as though the password protection that I setup on this site has been problematic for people from the beginning. Some people can't see the pictures that we post. Some people can't subscribe to the blog in their favorite blog reader. And some people just forget the password :-)

So we've decided to go ahead and remove the password protection. I'm more concerned about friends and family being able to stay up-to-date on Our Growing Family, than I am about some random Internet stalker. From this point forward, you won't need a password to connect to the blog. And hopefully everyone will be able to see the pictures. If you still have problems, just send me an email and we'll get it sorted out.

Shower Time!

Last weekend, we had our first baby shower. It was lots of fun, mainly because we had such an interesting mix of people. There were long time family friends (who have known me since before I was born), friends from GA Tech, friends from church, neighbors...yet despite such a diverse group, everyone seemed to get along really well and have a good time.

We played a couple of games...both of them guessing games. For the first game, 19 "baby essentials" were stuffed in baby socks and tied off. The object of the game was to guess what was in the sock based on feel...these baby essentials included things like spoons, pacifiers (and pacifier clips), aspirators, diaper rash cream, etc. Some of these things were easier to guess than others, but it was fun to try to figure it out.

The second game was a name guessing game. We have picked out a name for Baby Payne, but we are keeping it a secret until he's born. So, index cards were passed out and people were asked to write to write down their guesses for Baby Payne's first and middle names. To make the game a little more interesting, my mom is throwing in a $50 prize. Anyone who guesses the name will get the money. Full kitty goes to anyone who guesses both the first and middle name, though a smaller amount will be awarded to anyone who guess one or the other. Bryan and I have already looked through the names, and it was really fun to see what everyone guessed. We're going to put all the guesses in our Baby Book. I think it will make a great memento, and it will be interesting for Baby Payne to look back and see what sort of things people guessed his name would be.

We got a nice variety of gifts...clothes, blankets, stuffed animals, toys, books, baby bath supplies...Baby Payne is already starting to get a little spoiled! But we appreciate everything, and look forward to reading to our son, bathing him, and playing with him. And it was great to have so many friends join us in celebrating our new baby, and helping us prepare for his arrival!