Staying Busy

Patience has never been one of my strongest attributes, and it's being particularly challenged right now. I told James the other day that the closer I get to the end of my pregnancy, the slower time seems to be flowing. I was having a particularly hard day when I posted this:

At a prenatal appointment the other day, my midwife and I were discussing my upcoming labor. Her suggestions for dealing with early labor were a combination of rest and keeping busy. She encouraged me to make a list of things that never get done around the house that I could do during labor--"Make the list extensive," she said, saying to include things like washing the baseboards.

I realized that this was the answer not only to my labor, but to the next couple of weeks altogether.

I've started keeping a list of things I want to accomplish, large and small. And in my spare time, I turn to the list and pick something. So far today, for instance, James and I reinstalled the back seats into my newly-repaired car (we'd taken them out for our trip to Colorado) and then installed the base of Baby J's carseat. I then went shopping, to find a scrapbook for baby things (I'm tired of having my fridge cluttered with ultrasound pictures, baby shower cards, etc.) which will also mean an ongoing project for the evenings. Then I went to Lowe's to pick up some garden tools, so I can start working in the yard. (Mostly clean up. The amount of leaves that got trapped in our yard over the winter is somewhat ludicrous.)

The list goes on. I feel so much more optimistic about making it through the next couple of weeks armed with so many to-do's. It helps me stay focused on other things besides the overhanging questions of when the baby is going to come!

Our Ninja Nursery

Early in our pregnancy, James and I went out to dinner, and the wait time was 40 minutes or more, so we wandered down to Babies R Us to idle away the time. It was amusing; we scoped out cribs and rocking chairs and enjoyed the giddiness of prospective parenthood. At one point, we walked along looking at the bedding sets for cribs. James commented that all the little boy stuff seemed to either be cutesy animals or sports, neither of which he particularly cared for.

Some time later, when we began discussing what we wanted to do with Baby J's room, we talked about some different color schemes we could go with, but we kept feeling dissatisfied with our options. Footballs and whatnot were definitely out. I was thinking that I could resign myself to puppy dogs, but James was not satisfied with this, and I definitely was craving something a little more...unique. And through the course of our brainstorming, we found it.

Ninjas.

We began in January with painting the room. We had settled on red and black, but I feared that if the entire room was painted these colors, it would be overwhelming. So we decided to paint the top half of the room red, leave the bottom half the tan it was already, with a thick black stripe through the middle.

Getting started (the view from the door)

Getting started (the view of the door)

First coat of red

Now for the black stripe

We were anxious pulling the tape off, but it looked great! This picture doesn't do it justice.

It was amazing to me how much the color added warmth to the room. However, even though I wanted to hang out in the room all the time, it wasn't very comfortable with the uncovered window. (I don't like feeling like I'm in a fishbowl!) So next I approached my mother about making some curtains. (My mother is a curtain-making wizard.)

Turns out, Mom had already found some ninja-themed fabric online. She'd been hoping to find something less expensive, but nothing had turned up, and this particular fabric was just too perfect to pass up. In short order, the window was measured, the fabric purchased, the design decided, and Mom set to work. A few days later, this joyousness joined us:

Isn't this fabric perfect?

 
One of the most important parts of the nursery for me was a chair. Seeing as how I'm going to spend a lot of my time nursing, I wanted to create a comfortable space in the baby's room. I think I tried out every chair at RC Willey looking for "the one." You have to understand, because I'm short, a lot of chairs aren't that well suited for me--you know, I wanted to be able to have my feet touch the ground, which is sometimes a challenge! But I did find a chair that I loved (and it was on clearance, even better!) and though I was worried (rightfully) about the color clashing, I could not deny that this was the right chair for me. So we brought it home.

Fortunately, some of the color issue was mediated by the arrival of our next addition:

There is just something about having a crib in the room that really makes it start to feel like a nursery. Our beautiful crib came as a gift from James's mother, for which we are incredibly grateful!

Next came a purchase of our own, to match the crib:

The dresser, having been shipped from Amazon, was somewhat of an adventure to put together. LOTS of pieces. But it came together perfectly, and we love it!

The next addition (one of my top favorites!) came from Patrick & Shaylee, our brother- and sister-in-law, as a baby shower gift. Could not be more perfect for our ninja nursery!

But the best part of all came this week. A few months ago, I asked my dear friend Ashley Stubbs, an incredible artist, if she would be willing to create ninja "chibis" on the walls of our nursery. To my delight, she took on the project with great enthusiasm! On Wednesday she came over and drew the ninjas on the walls, and today we undertook the painting of them.

The fabulous Ashley Stubbs!

And here you can see the finished pieces:

"Ninja star guy"

"Ninja Guardian" peering over the edge of the crib

"Swingy guy"

"Kicky guy"

And behold, the finished product at last! I tried to get a couple of different angles so you could take in the full effect. =)

We are absolutely in love with our ninja nursery! Now it's time for our ninja baby to show up!!

I Make Humans

I saw this image on Facebook this morning, and it made me happy:

Baby J is due in less than a month, and I have to tell you, I am counting down the days. If I'm honest, I will tell you it's a pretty balanced combination of A) excitement to meet our ninja baby and B) I'm sooooo ready to have my body back.

Don't get me wrong, I've been doing well. Pregnancy has been fairly kind to me. We've had a couple of scary moments here and there (placental abruption? no thank you) but overall things have been going smoothly.

It's interesting to me how people respond when they see me doing some of the things I do. For instance, when I performed with my demonstration team on Saturday, I got an absurd number of comments. Some were "Way to go!" comments, but many of them were more along the lines of, "I can't believe you're still doing that!"

I get similar remarks almost every day at the studio. Moms will come up to me and say, "Wow, I can't believe you're still teaching at this point..." or "I can't believe you're still able to [kick, do forms, etc]."

Of course, there's the opposing side, too. My boss will be the first to tell you that she was teaching aerobics and playing intramural softball nine months pregnant. To her, it's totally normal for me to be doing taekwondo a few weeks out from delivery.

After all that, here's my point: pregnancy is a powerful thing. Sometimes it feels completely debilitating. But for me, personally, when I really stop and consider my condition, I feel totally empowered. An entire new person has formed from nothing inside of me. He kicks and wiggles, and very soon, he will cry and coo and poop and smile and it will only get more exciting from there.

Yes, my body is awkward right now. Yes, I am often uncomfortable. Yes, it can be frustrating not to be able to do so many of the things that I am accustomed to doing. (Touching my toes? Jumping? Rolling over in bed without moaning?)

But I am making a human. A little person whom I am so incredibly excited to meet and introduce to the world. It is with that end in sight that I press through the next few weeks, torturous though they seem at the outset.

Tournaments, Seminars, and Vehicular Adventures

Well, it was an adventurous weekend.

Saturday morning we went up to West Jordan for the Friendship Open, where I competed with our demonstration team. James is still out because of his internship (which finishes this week...wow, time flies!) but I was grateful for his morale support! This was our first performance following the latest round of auditions, and it was definitely trial-by-fire for the newbies. Sans a few mishaps, the demo went well, although I was feeling VERY pregnant! James is planning to start back up in April. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get back to the team relatively quickly after Baby J is born. We'll see how it goes!

 

We left the tournament immediately following the demo team competition, and made our preparations. Saturday afternoon we drove to Colorado so that I could attend a USAT referee seminar there. We arrived in CO around 12:30 and settled in for the night. We had decided to try sleeping out in our car, and it turned out way better than we expected. We had taken the seats out of my car, and piled the back with couch cushions, camping pads, sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. We were very comfortable (which was a concern, considering my prego state).

The referee seminar was great. I attended the CO seminar last year, and enjoyed the experience, so I was glad it worked out for me to go again this year. The seminar was taught by Master Bob McKenna and Master Linda Kimmich, both of whom I had met previously at Nationals, and whom I respect a great deal. I was glad to get updated information, and spend time with some great referees.

We left for home after the seminar. It's an 8-hour trip, and we took turns driving for about two hours at a time. We were only about 50 miles from home, down Spanish Fork canyon, when a couple of deer darted out in front of us. James was asleep at the time. I was able to dodge the first deer, but the second smacked right into us, and then went under the car. It scared the living daylights out of me, and James woke in a panic, not knowing what had happened. I pulled over, my adrenaline going like crazy. Some guys behind us swerved around the deer and stopped; they came back to check on us, then moved the deer out of the road. Once my heart had stopped pounding, we continued on our way, but only for a few more miles before the car gave out. The radiator had clearly been damaged, and was leaking fluid.

We called for roadside assistance. (Thank goodness for cell phones!) It took ages for the insurance company to coordinate. Thankfully we had all those blankets in the car with us! But because we were in such a remote area, the cost of towing was prohibitively expensive. James ended up calling his family. To our extreme relief and gratitude, James's brother Matthew was able and willing to come get us. When he arrived, he was able to tow us a few miles down the canyon to a rest stop (those few miles were pretty terrifying, not going to lie!) and then drove us home. It was about 4:30am by the time we finally made it! James got about an hour of sleep before he had to be up again to get to work in Salt Lake.

This afternoon was spent dealing with the car. James's brothers, bless them!, rented a truck and went back down the canyon for my car. They picked me up and we took it to the auto shop. Fortunately our insurance covers a rental car, so I was picked up at the shop by the rental company. We're still waiting for our insurance appraiser to evaluate the estimate from the auto shop, but we're hopeful that the car is not totaled, and we'll be getting Roxanne back soon. Fortunately, I also had a prenatal appointment this morning, and everything was fine with me and Baby J.

We are grateful that we were not hurt at all, and we are so grateful to James's family for their help and generosity, and we are grateful for insurance, and we are grateful to be home. Ironically, we're headed back to Colorado this weekend for their state championship. You can be assured that we'll be praying for an uneventful trip!!