Lake Wobegon Update

So I’m overdue for an update but today seemed like a good day to get caught up. We had another doctor’s appointment and ultrasound. Wobegon is at 19 weeks and 2 days so we’re nearly halfway there! Yikes!

The doctor’s visit
Wobegon appears happy, healthy and quite wiggly. S/he is pretty much right in the middle of the “normal range” for all the measurements. So all is well.

My Waist
As steve mentioned, I crossed over into “officially showing” while on the cruise. Our super friendly maid was the first person to ask about Wobegon. A lady at the airport on the way home was the second mention. And as of 2 weeks ago, I’m officially into maternity clothes. They’re still a bit big (some are much to big at this point) but they zip so they’ll work! Very much looking forward to doing some much needed shopping next week when we’re back in the states!

Cravings
Nothing in particular for cravings. They seem to change every couple of days or so but they can be odd. I’ve got a craving for Hawaiian punch but we can’t get it here, so that’s another thing to save for next week. Last weeks was cheese curds and no, I can’t explain them. The last time I ate them, I was little and we were probably living in Wisconsin. I don’t even know why I thought of them. Crazy. Oh, and sugar is constant. I love sugary things (not sure that has anything to do with pregnancy though).

Dreams
What I’ve been lacking in interesting cravings, I’ve been making up for in crazy dreams. In the last week, I’ve had these 3 dreams (which are tremendously shortened to spare you the details- Steve gets all the details and it makes him crazy that I have to tell him every last thing I remember). Anyway, here goes:

• I dreamt my college car was impounded in a lot on Mt Vesuvius. As luck would have it, it started erupting while I was on my way to get the car so I was trying to hurry so I could go find Steve who was off hiking somewhere.


• I dreamt about a huge display of Hawaiian punch at our local grocery store- but all the labels were wrong.


• I dreamt that Steve wanted to get a vacation house here in Qatar. We rented one for a couple months and on our first visit, Steve woke up early to run an errand but I slept in. I woke up later when our house was being towed away. Apparently Steve signed us up for some sort of regional tour where they move your house while you sleep. Anyway, I kept trying to call Steve because I worried he wouldn’t know where they moved us to!

Steve has always thought I had crazy dreams but my latest dreams are apparently a new level of crazy!

Names
We keep getting asked about names. We’ve not picked the names yet- we’re still going through “40,001 baby names” with highlighters…

Nursery
Yep, we’re thinking about the nursery. We’ve got lots of stuff picked out- just not much done about it. We started with the “theme” and decided the traditional barnyard animals or fluffy bunnies just wasn’t going to work. We also nixed pastels nearly immediately. What we’ve come up with is some paintings by August Macke. We've chosen 3 or 4 pictures- they’re quite vivid and seem nice for a child’s room (see example below).

With that in mind, we set about choosing bedding only to discover that apparently pastels are the only option for baby bedding. That’s when my sister kindly stepped up and offered to make us the bedding- bumpers, bed skirt, baby blanket and even a quilt for the wall (she makes beautiful quilts). She’s also trying her hand at sheets since she didn’t think white sheets would go well with the fabric I chose. I’m grateful she’s in a nesting mood (and due in 6 weeks!!!) and looking for a project. A couple of the fabrics I picked are on the left (I want the green to be darker but right idea):

We also got the crib purchased mostly unintentionally. The first crib I picked out was only available to be shipped from the UK and it would take 15 to 17 weeks. Of course, they couldn’t guarantee it and Steve and I have had enough experience with “enshallah” to know that if we wanted the crib before Wobegon turned 5, we should investigate other options. We went to pick up a catalog from another store to find out that what they’ve got on the floor is our catalog. Turns out, the one we liked was the last one like it. So we now own a crib.

Registry
Yep, we’ve even started a registry. It’s incomplete since there’s only so much you can add online, but it’s a start (for the interested, it’s at Target). We also couldn’t register for electric things (110 vs 220 or whatever) and the big things like the car seat and stroller we’ll buy here where we can really pick it out. We anticipate having lots of suitcases on this trip for all the crazy baby impulse buys (thankfully my company will cover the extra baggage fees). Oh yea, all the packages are set to ship to Scott and Melissa’s house since my company also picks up the tab on another air shipment. Scott and Melissa are our favorite post office:>) Anyway, we’ll probably make that shipment in late November or early December to make sure it gets to us in plenty of time!

Expat Party
We went to a bbq to welcome all the new expats and to reconnect with all the wives who’ve been gone all summer. The fun part was that my pregnancy was news to them and they all told me how cute I was. It was a nice ego boost:>) The not so fun part was that it was in the 90s and humid- yes, the bbq was at night. Everyone was sweating like crazy. I’m sure all the new folks are thrilled with their new location!

Steve’s New Trick
This isn’t actually a new trick- Steve’s been doing it for a couple months now (since my little belly started barely appearing). We’d go anywhere and he’d point out women he thought were pregnant (i.e. women with tummies). Thankfully he never outright asked any of them but it was pretty funny trying to explain “no, I think that woman’s just tubby.”

I think that’s the update (quite wordy- sorry). Anyway, we’re off to the states for our friends’ wedding and we’ll be back in a few weeks! Hopefully it’ll be cooler then!