Nursery Progress

I'm so excited about all the progress happening in the nursery!  I think my nesting phase has definitely hit me.  My sweet husband has been hard at work painting the plank ceiling, crown molding, closet doors and baseboards.  He bought a paint sprayer, and after working out some kinks, has decided it was worth it.  I can't believe how much cleaner and brighter all the white makes that room feel.  I must admit, I was getting slightly nervous that painting dark green on the walls might make it feel too cave-like in there. But after seeing how the white brightened things up, I'm convinced again that a dark green is the way to go! Just look at how good the bold greens look with the bright white closet doors, crown molding and plank ceiling.  

  

We've narrowed the wall color down to two different greens.  Behr's Solitary Tree is on top and Behr's Exquisite Emerald is the bottom color in the picture below.  Solitary Tree has a bit more yellow in it, while Exquisite Emerald has a bit more blue.  I honestly love them both and we're having some difficulty deciding.  Adam painted the samples Saturday night, so we're going to check in on the room throughout the day on Sunday to see how the different light throughout the day works with the colors.    

Since there's painting going on in the nursery, we've put all the baby stuff we've collected so far down the upstairs hallway and in one of the guest bedrooms.  Things are looking a little crazy around here, as evidenced by the photo below.  

I love the cribs we ended up getting!  I like the simple shape and the gray finish.  My parents ordered them through Kohls.com, so we wanted to make sure none of the pieces were damaged when they arrived on our doorstep.  Adam and I got the bright idea to assemble them in the guest bedrooms to make sure all the pieces were in good shape.  We also thought we could just move them into the nursery once the painting was done.  Well, we didn't think to measure the opening of the door before we put one the cribs together.  Turns out, they are wider than the door.  So we now have a crib assembled that we will have to un-assemble in order to get it into the nursery.  Oops.  At least we got some practice putting it together.  

I have been collecting artwork to hang in the nursery for awhile now and I'm pretty excited about what we'll eventually hang up in the nursery.  The gray giraffe cutout and the "Let Them Be Little" piece came from Hobby Lobby.  They were birthday purchases from my mom.  (Thanks, Mom!)  The "You Are My Sunshine" canvas came from the clearance aisle at TJ Maxx a long time ago, even before I was pregnant. And the Noah's ark crosstitch was actually made by my grandma and given to my parents when I was a baby.  How sweet is it that it will now hang in my babies' nursery?  I also plan to get baby pictures of both Adam and me to hang up there.   

We also found a dresser on Craigslist that we are going to use as our changing table.  It is solid wood and in really good shape.  There are a few scratches on the top, but since we plan to put the changing pad on top, it's not really a big deal.  We're going to keep the wood tone it has, which I think will give the nursery some warmth.

Things are coming together!  I'll keep you posted on the progress!  

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is here, which makes me super happy!  I love all the budding trees, blooming flowers and green grass!  This weekend Adam and I spruced up our yard a bit and got into the swing of spring.

Let's start in the front yard, shall we?

I always do some pots on the porch and driveway that star my favorite plant: elephant ears.  I like to add some color to the pots since it takes a little while for the elephant ears to grow.  So I headed to Home Depot on Saturday, along with everyone else, and got some flowers.  I was tossing flowers in my cart left and right.  When I made it to the cashier, I was a bit surprised by the $57 total.  Sorry, Adam, but don't they look pretty? 

Once I had my flowers, I grabbed the rest of the supplies I would need.  I made sure to wear gardening gloves so I wouldn't have to worry about getting toxoplasmosis.  (Toxoplasmosis is some sort of parasite that's found in soil and cat feces you have to worry about when you are pregnant, but for most other people it isn't a big deal.)            

I potted the two pots that sit on the stairs to the porch and one that sits on the porch.  Along with an elephant ear in each pot, I added some impatients and petunias.  I have found that both impatients and petunias do great in both shade and part sun.    

The hanging baskets each have a geranium in the center, circled by impatients and petunias.  

The big pot in the driveway got in on the action too.  Along with an elephant ear, I added spikes, verbena, petunias and creeping Jenny.  I'm especially excited to see how the creeping Jenny grows.  It's that light green plant on the right and it's supposed to travel down the side of the pot.  

Adam and I (mainly Adam) spent Friday night adding new mulch to the beds in front of our house.  The new mulch definitely cleans things up and makes everything look fresh.  

We decided the side of our house that we added a planter bed to back in June didn't need any new mulch, which saved us some time and money.  The peonies, irises and hostas we planted there are already popping up!

The other side of our house is shaping up, as well.  We also have peonies there, which have lots of little buds ready to bust out into big puffy flowers!  And we planted some hydrangea bushes there.  They look more like little sticks right now, but I'm hopeful that a couple years down the road they will turn into bushes.  Blue hydrangeas were our wedding flowers, so they hold special meaning to me.    

In the backyard, we added some daises along our back fence a couple weeks ago.  (Thanks, Paula!)  They will grow big and tall, so I think they will add some beauty to the boring stretch of fence and rock.  

Our diy cedar planter box is going to look a little different this year.  One of our lovely neighbor's cats thought we had made them a nice litter box last summer.  Since I don't want to risk getting toxoplasmosis, we decided not to plant any herbs to eat in there this year.  The mojito mint came back on it's own, so we decided to let that stay.  Adam can enjoy some mojitos this summer without me.  We added some zinnia seeds to the other two sections.  (Thanks, Dad!)  They should get plenty of sun, so I hope to be able to fill my house with bouquets of zinnias soon.   

After all that gardening, I put up the hammock in our backyard.  It hangs between two trees and is the perfect resting spot.  Jazzy, the babies and I enjoyed a little rest after all our hard work this weekend.  I plan to spend lots of time out there from now on!    

 Happy Spring! 

3 Hour GTT

One of the things you have a higher risk of developing if you are pregnant with twins is gestational diabetes.  Because of this, usually you are screened earlier than people who are pregnant with one baby. So at my last appointment I was given the screening.  I had to avoid eating and drinking simple sugars throughout the day.  Then an hour before my appointment, I had to drink this glucose drink.  It basically tasted like super concentrated Kool-Aid.  The first sip was kinda good because it was so sweet, but then it was disgusting by the end of the bottle because it was so sickly sweet.  The next step is to have your blood drawn.  A few days later, a nurse called with my results.  I had failed!  Bummer!  

Since I failed, I had to do the more intense 3 Hour Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT).  I guess this test gives a better idea of how well your body actually processes glucose, or sugar.  There are a few different steps to this test.  

The first thing you have to do is fast.  I wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink past midnight on the night before my test.  I was pretty surprised that I wouldn't be allowed to drink water.  I even called back my doctor's office and double-checked with them about that.  I was told that I can only have a sip of water.  This didn't really make sense to me since I would have bloodwork done the next day.  Typically you want to be hydrated so your veins are nice and plump.  But what do I know?  I ended up setting my alarm for 11:30 so I could drink a bunch of water.  Of course this made me wake up two times afterwards to go to the bathroom.  Needless to say, I didn't really get a very good night's rest.  

The morning of the test, I made my way to my doctor's office.  The first thing I did that morning was have my blood drawn.  The gal who did this asked me if I had been drinking water and I told her that I was told not to.  She rolled her eyes and said that was wrong and that she should figure out who I had talked to.  I was a bit perturbed that I was gypped out of water, but I wasn't too thirsty.  I guess you can drink as much water as you like before the test, but after the first blood draw, you can't have anything more than a few sips.  

After my first blood draw, I had to drink a sugary glucose drink.  It wasn't very good, but I managed to get it down.  The nurse marked down the time I finished, 8:46.  Now I would have to wait another hour to have my second blood draw.  A nurse asked me if I wanted to lay down in one of the exam rooms for the next three hours.  I was very excited about this idea.  Laying down is much more comfortable than sitting for me at this stage in my pregnancy.  Someone keeps pushing on my ribs...

So I happily laid down in one of the rooms.  I had brought a bag of things to keep me entertained since I wouldn't be allowed to leave the office between blood draws.  I had my phone, my Kindle, a book and some magazines.  I managed to keep myself busy until 9:46, which was when I had my second blood draw. I was still doing okay at this point and was still managing to find things to keep me busy.  

10:46 rolled around and it was time for my third blood draw.  It turned out that my right arm had bruised up from the second blood draw, so the nurse decided to do the remaining blood draws on my left arm.  I was over all the blood draws at this point.  Plus, I was really thirsty and the sips weren't cutting it.  And I was starving!  I eat a surprising amount of food by 10:46 each morning.  

The last hour of waiting was the hardest.  I was getting bored.  I walked around the little office and stared out the window.  I did some stretches.  Eventually 11:46 rolled around.  It was finally time for my fourth and final blood draw!  Yipee!  I was so glad to get that test over with!

I had to wait two days until I got the results.  It turned out that I passed the 3 Hour GTT!  My blood sugar levels were in the appropriate range for each of the four blood draws.  I'm not sure why I didn't pass my first screening, but I was happy to hear I didn't have gestational diabetes.  I'll have to do the screening again later on in my pregnancy, but I'm not going to worry about that now.  Now I think I'll have a cookie...