Brrrrrrrr!

Well it's the second day of winter in Pittsburgh, and it definitely feels like it. We woke up to a brisk 3 degrees this morning!

Actually, the morning was quite chaotic. When I went into the bathroom to take a shower, no water ran from the faucet...at all! CRAP! Frozen pipes. Then I realized...it's kinda cold in here. I felt the vent, and there was air coming through...just not warm air. CRAP again!

So I had to wake John up (which I felt badly about because he got called at 9:00pm last night for a 2 hour delay this morning...and here I am waking him up at 4:30am!). Anyway, I went to our other bathroom, and thankfully we had water there. Our master bathtub is on 2 outside walls (ingenious arrangement by some brilliant architect!), so that explained the lack of water there and the presence of water in our other bathroom.

Fortunately due to John's 2 hour delay, he was able to fix our problems. He propped a hair dryer against the pipes to help thaw them out, which finally worked after 2 hours...now we have water again in our master bathroom! Then he went into the basement and cleaned our filter...which was disgusting apparently (guess we should make it a monthly ritual to clean that thing...probably a common oversight by newer homeowners). Now the vents are blow WARM air.

So now the outside temp has increased to a whopping 9 degrees! With the wind chill, it's still below zero....COLD!!!! I plan on remaining indoors today!

Wedged!

A few weeks ago, John woke me up out of a dead sleep to see if I was okay. Through my confusion and sleepiness, he told me that I was breathing funny and he was worried. Well, this has happened at least 4 times over the past 2 weeks. He concluded that as long as I sleep on my side, I am fine.

Then as I was reading one my pregnancy books, he was reading over my shoulder - right where it explains that at this point in the pregnancy that I should stop lying flat on my back for all the various reasons. And of course he boasts a triumphant "Told you!"

So, now he has stopped waking me up in the middle of my slumber when I unconsciously roll onto my back while sleeping. You would think that I would be content again -

No, he now has resorted to totally wedging me against my body pillow. I now wake up in the middle of the night to find that I have about 1 foot of room to sleep because he is right up against me to prevent me from having room to roll onto my back. WE HAVE A KING SIZE BED! We may as well sleep in a twin bed.

The thing is - it's really sweet that he is that concerned about me and the baby. Not only is he a a great husband...I know that he is going to be a great father!

Suckered into it...

Many of you may already be aware due to "friend requests" (or whatever they are called) that I joined Facebook this afternoon.

Apparently, half of my family is on...my sisters, brothers-in-law, and most of my cousins (1st, 2nd, 3rd...we are a close family!). My cousin Jackie is the one who really persuaded me to do it, and I caved...what a sucker I am!

I don't know how much time I will be spending on Facebook considering the fact that the time that I spend on this site has dwindled significantly.

We'll see....

Half way there!

This week marks the end of my 20th week of gestation. Only a mere 20 more to go!

I am optimistic to think that these last 20 will go a little faster with all of the stuff that we have to do. While browsing at cribs, we realized that it can take up to 16 weeks for the furniture to come in, which means that we have to order it by the end of the year. Not to mention all the time that I will be spending at Babies R Us for the registry, and then there is of course the shower. And after the shower - sorting through the gifts and preparing the nursery. With all of the excitement, I am hoping that time will fly!

We went for our ultrasound yesterday, and everything seems to be progressing swimmingly! The ultrasound tech actually was relieved that we opted to not find out the sex because she said that the baby wasn't being too cooperative as she was even having difficulty visualizing the base of the spine. That was fine by me, because if she would have hinted that she knew the sex, I don't know if I would have been able to stand the fact that a complete stranger knew the big secret and we didn't. Here is a new picture of the little bugger:

Baby Maz has grown quite a bit since the last picture we had. Oh, and my belly has definitely gone through the "pop." It still can pass as a large beer belly, but it's looking more and more like a baby belly every day. There are still people at work who are just finding out about the pregnancy...scrubs work wonders for hiding all sorts of things!

Think that this is a good picture for a Christmas card?

Totally joking!

Very productive evening

John and I made a plan: we were going to venture to Monroeville and do the shopping that we needed to do all in one trip...and we succeeded. We even made a list of the stores that we intended to go to along with the specific purchases at each individual store. I am not a shopper...in and out...that's how I shop: no dilly-dallying (especially during this time of year).

We we left our house at 2:30pm. We even strategized our route so that there was no back-tracking. We started at Giant Eagle to purchase gift cards for some of the stores that we were going to (hey - $0.20 in fuel perks for every $50 in gift cards - works for me!).

Then we were off of Pier 1 Imports because I love their Le Bien ornaments every year. My mom has been collecting them since I was in high school. Each year, they have about 6-8 different ornaments all dated for that year. Since my mom doesn't put a tree up anymore, she gave most of her ornaments to us, so our tree is filled with them, and they are beautiful!

Next was a stop at Big Lots to see how some Christmas decorations were priced. I have been wanting to put wreaths in all of our front windows, but never had the ambition, but this year I am determined. We weren't impressed with the selection - wasted stop.

Then it was a quick buy at Macy's and then to Dick's...success at both. Next was a pit-stop at The Baby Depot for a quite gander at their bedding. Their website says that they carry the bedding that I desperately want, but I don't want to register for anything before I have at least seen it in person. Unfortunately, they don't have in stock yet...bummer. (Here's a picture of it, in case you were wondering...comments?)

We even stopped by Cribs to Teens to check out their crib selection...quite impressive. Definitely found some good ones and John checked out the gliders for me...I wonder who is going to be using that more...hmmmmm.

Finally, we stopped at Michael's to see what their selection of wreaths was like - $1.99 each - SOLD! Hey, when you have 9 front facing windows, you need to be frugal.

In all, we had a great shopping venture...and we were home by 6:00pm! I was very proud of ourselves and now most of the Christmas presents are bought!