Progress!

Seeing as we are now in single digits of weeks left (9 weeks and, given the time of day I'm writing this, almost 4 days until my due date) I'm getting a little frantic now about finishing things up. We're running out of weekends! And with the OB freaking me out yesterday when she told me we would basically be preparing for labor to happen at any time starting with 32 weeks, it only made me more frantic. So it was time to return to the checklist of things to do and see if we could get a couple more things checked off.

• Speak to Dr. C about being baby's pediatrician. I have an appointment with him for this coming Wednesday.


• Schedule Maternity Tour. Well, I tried to do this. I contacted the hospital yesterday to see if I could go next Saturday since their website says they do tours on Saturday mornings. They responded saying that they don't have tours every Saturday and that I needed to tell them my due date and then they would let me know if they had anything available before then. :-/ So it looks like we'll be going on May 14th. I hope Peep doesn't decide to come before then. As it is, I *still* don't know how to get to this hospital, but I know even less about where L&D is.


• Choose Daycare. I'm done reviewing the daycare centers we decided to tour. I will be calling the director at the Children's Learning Center this week to set up a time to sign a contract and put down the required $210 deposit. I still don't know how we'll pay for it every week, but I guess I have until August to figure that out entirely. Somebody has to watch Peep, after all!


• Buy dresser/armoire. Originally, I thought my mom was doing this in addition to the crib, but I found out when we went crib shopping a few weeks ago that this was not the case - so this was a late addition to our list. We decided to go looking at used furniture stores this weekend in hopes of finding something suitable and cheaper than the case pieces that go with the crib. We also had considered unfinished furniture, but there's not much time left and Brian isn't all that great about finishing projects. We did find a set that was reasonably priced and well-constructed (even dovetail joints on the drawers!) but the color didn't match enough to make Brian happy. So we went to his Mom's house to see if she had anything at her house, since she had a lot of his grandparents' furniture from when they passed away. She did have her dresser from when she was a child, but it REALLY didn't match the crib at all. It was at this point that she offered to buy a matching case piece, saying she didn't know what to get us anyway. I couldn't believe my ears! (Well, I could and I couldn't... Brian's Mom is *extremely* generous, almost the opposite of my mother... but I had figured that by now, she had purchased whatever she would purchase and I didn't expect her to offer to buy us furniture.) She let us pick any piece that matched, so we went with the 5-drawer chest (pictured below). She's putting in the order Monday. This does mean that the chest will probably come in after Peep is born, but I think we can make due until then.
  


• Rearrange Peep's room to accomodate crib and dresser. I really got to work on this earlier in the week because I was eager to get a dresser in there this weekend. This also ended up resulting in some changes in our plans. Brian's desk and computer went to the kitchen where the pack 'n play was. I figured it would be easier for him to use it there without having to worry about disturbing Peep. We also decided recently to get a mini co-sleeper for in the beginning since I do plan on BFing. This meant that we really didn't need the pack 'n play at all anymore since we mainly purchased it to use in the beginning (without realizing what a huge behemoth it really was!). So instead of trying to squeeze it into our apartment elsewhere, I went to Babies R Us on Friday and returned it. That was quite the ordeal in and of itself since I didn't have the box anymore. But after they were able to see that all the pieces were there and that the PNP obviously hadn't been used, they let me return it - minus 20%. I took the loss, figuring there was no way we'd get our $160 out of it anyway if we kept it. The refund ended up being how much the mini co-sleeper costs, so I exchanged it for that. Soooooo... in the meantime, I have the mini co-sleeper in Peep's room to keep me from cluttering up the spot for the crib. But it also definitely fits in our tiny bedroom, so it will work (but I kept the box, just in case ;) ).

Rearranging Peep's room led to some nursery envy, though. I've seen all these beautiful nurseries developing in the forums I visit, yet I couldn't do anything because we rent our apartment. There was ugly dark paneling in that room and surface wiring for the light and light switch. Not at all pleasant. But Brian and I saw something pretty cool on TV the other night that sparked an idea. So we headed off to Jo-Ann's Fabrics this evening, found some suitable fabric, and went to work. Not bad, although I'm hoping I can find some more fabric to extend it a little bit. But at least the "alcove" is covered:






It's kind of hard to tell, but the fabric on the ceiling has little stars all over it. I'm not sure how great it will look with the crib set we purchased, but at least it brightens up the room a little bit and makes it more cheery.

So I guess I can say I accomplished something. I don't have much tangible proof of it, but at least there are a couple more check marks on my list.

EDITED TO ADD: We just got a call from my MIL asking if we would like the changing table that goes with the crib and chest, too! Like I've said, she's always been extremely generous, but she's totally outdone herself! We don't even have a bedroom set (our mattress and box spring are on a free frame and my dressers were freebies leftover at a house Brian's uncle purchased, his was his father's from his childhood), while our child will be totally outfitted, thanks to his/her Grandmas (but most particularly, Brian's mom!). What a lucky kid!

(The changing table is the combo dresser on the bottom, without the hutch [that's a separate purchase].) All I can say is "Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!"