Wesabe

So, since we decided to start a family, I have gotten more....well you could say obsessed with saving money. Since Jeremy and I both have good jobs and we keep our expenses modest this should in theory be easy...and yet some how it's not just that easy. To better track how we spend our money - i.e. where it goes... I created an excel spreadsheet where I track monthly expenses like groceries, dining out, gas, and other misc. categories. This really helped to see where our problem areas were. So each month I would download my bank statement and do this manually. Anyway, along with that I like to read articles on msn.com's money section on saving tips and there was this article on "how to save $10,000 in 2009" - in reading it, it suggested a website - www.wesabe.com. This website is awesome! Basically, you are able to upload your bank statements and then assign titles to your expenses and it tracks them for you. (It doesn't link to your bank data to keep it secure, since you upload a statement you have saved on your computer) So for example every time the program sees that I spend money at Giant, it puts it in my groceries category. I can then also set a spending target for any of my categories to more easily gage where I am month to date on spending in that area. After you get it going, and place the appropriate category tags on your expenses, it really does all the work for you! It saves so much time for me, rather than going through my statement and highlighting all my grocery charges and then adding them up and putting them in a spreadsheet. It has a lot of other great functionality as well, too much to list here. I totally encourage anyone to check it out. www.wesabe.com
Its my favorite 2009 find so far... :-)

34 weeks and the Flu... Really??

Well I went about 10 years since the last go round I had with the stomach flu, and now 34 weeks preggo - here we go. I got it yesterday, and it has been awful. I am just able to drink some Gatorade and eat crackers now. Having the flu and having a baby kicking you in the guts is a particularly unique experience. It came on really fast as I felt ok all day yesterday until about 4:30 and then by 8:30 all heck broke loose. We had to leave Infant CPR early and we are missing baby care tonight, oh well, all my mind can really process right now is the decision between the couch and the bed. I am just hoping and praying Jeremy doesn't get it now....

So what do you recommend?

I am looking for comments/advice from all of you moms out there as to which diaper brands you like best for both their effectiveness and/or price. I am still planning on using the all in one cloth diapers that I have as well as G-diapers but recognize that I will be combining these with disposables. In addition, I plan to use disposables exclusively at first until the baby grows into the cloth diapers I have (at about 12-15lbs). SO I would love to hear the expert opinions out there!

34 weeks and growing

So this may be the last time this shirt is able to appear in the belly picture.... we shall see.

Prepared Childbirth

Wow - I just realized it has been quite a while since I posted anything...The start of 2009 has been a busy one thus far at work, so when I get home, my motivation to be on the computer is not high. Some updates from before: Angel has stopped leaking/dripping urine on her new medicine, but sometimes she playing the old and lazy dog card at night and not peeing when it is cold and snowy out so, we have had a couple of lovely and wet surprises a couple of mornings. Now Jeremy has to go outside with her at night and make sure she actually pees. The furniture protection plan came through and they repaired our urine soaked couch at no cost and we are fully furnished again in the living room.

Anyway, the benefit of it being so busy is that I have magically gotten to 34 weeks pregnancy this week. I can't believe how fast the last 8 weeks have gone. This past weekend Jeremy and I attended "Prepared Childbirth" class in State College. The class went from 9am -1:30 pm both Saturday and Sunday and has a 2 hour follow up class on Monday the 26th. We have also been to meet the pediatrician night and this week we head to infant CPR and Baby Care class.....

All in all, this weekend's class covered both a lot of information I had already read about and also some information that was new and will I am sure be helpful. Because the course was not based on any one method/theory of childbirth, it was very eclectic and covered everything from natural childbirth, comfort techniques, Lamaze breathing to pain medication options. I liked this part the most, and I came away with some good tips and info that will help me better organize myself and be prepared whenever the day arrives. One new piece of information that I did glean was that in order for me to be able to have my baby at our local community hospital I have to be 35 weeks or more. Before learning this, I really didn't have any specific fear of having the baby early as I more likely predict that my luck will be having to be induced because I am late... But after learning that if he comes before 35 weeks, both of us would have to be transported by helicopter to Geisinger or Hershey Medical - now I feel like I have a countdown on to get past the 35 mark so I don't get flown 90 minutes (by car) away to have the baby without my own doctors. Thankfully I will be 35 weeks in a week and a half so hopefully that milestone will pass easily.

Pregnancy has really been great so far. I feel like my belly growth has been exponential in the last 3 weeks but my comfort level has yet to decrease as rapidly...I know, I know - I still have 6 weeks left :-) But overall, I still feel really good, there are of course a few "pregnancy joys" that I will won't mention here that have been less than pleasant but they are nothing in comparison to the wonderful feeling of feeling the baby move or seeing him on the Ultrasound. Which by the way, I don't think I mentioned..... a couple of weeks ago at an OB appt the Dr was curious as to which way the baby was laying so she gave us a very quick peak with the ultrasound machine that was in the room. He was head down on my left side and laying on his left side. And everything looked good. Of course he has flipped and flopped several times since then and even just today I felt hiccups at the top of my belly (for the first time in a long time) so that was interesting. A nap and several jabs in the ribs later and the hiccups are back in my pelvis and feeling as weird as ever down there...

I think when we get into February I am going to be anxiously and knowing me, impatiently counting the days and waiting to hold our little guy. 34 week picture to be posted soon, just as soon as I find a shirt or a pose that doesn't make me look like a tank...

Nesting

So Jeremy and I both had the majority of the last two weeks off of work. The first week we spent in Michigan and this past week we we just stayed home did work around the house and really relaxed. It was SO nice since we are well aware this is the last hurrah before our little guy arrives. We wanted to make getting the nursery done a priority since our time will be limited over the next month with baby prep classes etc. And while I still have some energy, I really don't want to count on having to do a lot around the house over the next 6-8 weeks, especially after working each day and prepping for my maternity leave at work.

So we really got after it and I am happy to say we got it done! I couldn't be more happy with the results, I love the room, every time I go upstairs I go in and look at it. It was the last room in the house to get painted and was pretty much a blank slate. Jeremy has actually been working on the priming and paint throughout December and he finished it off last week. I think it is the only truly finished room in the house because we put in laminate hardwoods throughout last summer and we still have trim work to do this summer, but Jeremy did all the trim work in the nursery so it would be complete.













I went with a kind of puppies and polka dots theme although there are other little animals etc in there as well. The colors as you can see are a spice red, brown and cream. The room has a huge closet that had really old and bulky doors before, so we took those off and made it part of the room, it will now house our changing table/dresser as well as provide store age. Overall we did really well staying on our budget. We have had the dresser, which we bought at goodwill, for a few years, I just gave it a wipe down with some black paint so it would better match the black brown finish on the crib. We found the bookshelf at a furniture outlet store in State College that sells dents, dings and mis-finished items. The day bed was a garage sale find from a couple of years ago that I painted brown. My thought is it may be nice to be able to sleep in the nursery at least for a few weeks when midnight feedings are numerous. That way Jeremy may catch a little more shut eye as he will still be teaching then. I even made some of the art with my mom. We bought the brown and white puppy pics at BRUS but I bought the fabric for the red tiles at Joann and my mom and I covered some cork tiles I had to make some additional art that I can also pin pictures on. I think the biggest expense was in the closet shelves and bins and that wasn't too bad.

I also washed ALL of the baby stuff over the last week - there was a lot! But now it is all ready to go. I have just a couple of things I need to get over the next few weeks and I need to paint the giant paper "R" that I found at Joann's for 5 bucks. I definately feel good about all that we accomplished.

We also got a lot of other random things done around the house that have been on "the list" for a long time. It felt like we were both "nesting" a bit. It's funny but it still doesn't seem quite "real" I guess it will be soon enough....

Home for Christmas

We made the journey home to Michigan again for the second time in 4 weeks for Christmas last week. Travels were good on I-80 which can be touch and go this time of year so we were very lucky. Of course when we got to Michigan it was a complete winter wonderland,the first day we were there we got about 6 inches of snow, and that was in addition to the foot already on the ground. The worst part was the 40 mph winds and the -30 wind chills, we spent a lot of time just hanging out inside at Jeremy's mom and dad's that weekend. We spent a few days in Mt. Pleasant with mom and dad Rellinger and went out to dinner at Mountain Town and we also caught "Yes Man" at the theater. It will be the last time we see the fam until Rece arrives so it was nice to have a few days to hang out. I do have to say though I did miss having a glass of wine (or four) sitting next to the fire to celebrate the holidays. I have already "called" the holidays for 09 so to speak, meaning I will be partaking in the festivities next year and Jeremy will be on baby duty :-)

Then we were on to Jackson to see my parents. On the way there we went to Babies R Us in Lansing and spent gift cards and got a lot of the items on my "need before the baby comes" list. We spent the actual Christmas holiday in Jackson (pictures below) it was a lot of fun and great to see the whole Dawson crew.

We headed back to State College on Saturday the 27th because I had to work on Monday the 29th. When we arrived home we found that Angel had positioned herself between two of the dining room chairs we had laid on the couch to keep the dogs off the couch when they were being dog sat over vacation. While she was on the couch she urinated. Of course she urinated on the part of the couch that is the largest piece, the chaise lounge. The foam and batting is completely ruined of course and I am not sure about the cover. Luckily when we purchased the couch, just a year ago we purchased the protection plan that also covers bodily fluids from pets. So when the company re opens tomorrow the 5th I have to call and see what will and what won't be covered and then we will go from there. But after a great trip and travels home, this was the last thing I wanted to see, it kind of ruined the trip for me. I was upset to the point of balling about it. Basically because I thought it stunk that we go out of our way to have our dogs taken care of in our home, so they aren't kenneled and we allow them to be in the house rather than keeping them cooped up in our utility room on their beds. To do this we cover our furniture with other heavy furniture and somehow our geriatric stubborn Rottie fits herself there and demonstrates her incontinence on our 1 year old couch....it just doesn't seem fair.....

So then we began the battle of the urine. Angel has begun to leak and pee freely and unknowingly in her sleep. She is 11 and a large dog so these problems of old age shouldn't be a surprise, but with a baby due in 8 weeks or less, it is a problem. Part of my break down also included thoughts of dog urine all over my house when I am going to be welcoming an infant to it shortly.

So we went to the pet store and bought her a doggie diaper which she proceeded to soak through the first two nights. Then came the trip to the vet. He said at her age this is a common issue especially for dogs that had been spade. He gave her some pills to help tighten her "sphincter" and they have worked great! Within two days the dripping completely stopped and no more wet diapers at night! This is a major relief as I did not want to be diapering a baby and a dog.

All dog issues resolved, besides the fact that our couch is now short one end piece, we began working on the nursery (separate post) and we celebrated the new year. We went downtown to see the ice sculptures again this year and went to lunch and to cold stone for dessert. Which as you can see from the Christmas pics I probably don't need at this point, but oh well....

All in all the last two weeks without having to go into the office much has been great I will be very sad to see it end :-(
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year!