This is How I Roll

The time has come.  The doctors have taken me off my feet and I'm a prisoner in my own home.  A prisoner with a laptop, ipad, kindle, android phone, multiple remotes, and a really nice husband trying very hard to take care of everything at the house, that is.  Sad, right?

This came a little earlier than I was hoping, but obviously I am happy to do anything that helps get the girls here safely.  In order to maximize my working at home abilities I purchased a nice "over the bed/couch" table (aka, hospital food table) which promptly arrived in two days, courtesy of Amazon Mom free two day shipping.  It took a little rigging up to get it to work, such as the couch sitting on bricks, but I think it will do.  Perhaps it will also cut down on the amount of food I spill on myself while eating my 10 meals a day on the couch.

Despite all the technology I have found a few other old-fashioned activities entertain me:

1. Playing a game I call "catch the ice" which entails drinking water until I can snag a nice crunchy piece of ice to chew on.  With proper ice portions it is harder than it sounds and helps me get in the gallons of water I try to drink a day.
2. Trying to convince Jack to let me take his blood pressure.  Taking mine three times a day has become stale.  I need some variety in life.
3. Listening to Jack sing Queen, Bon Jovi, Mylie Cyrus, TI, Culture Club, or whatever random playlist he has picked out for cleaning the kitchen. (actually at the moment he is swiftering to "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me"....which almost beats the time 8 years ago when I came home to him vacuuming to "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy")
4. Timing how long I can keep my new ice pack over my eyes.  Big upgrade from the frozen lima beans.  Also courtesy of Amazon Mom free two day shipping. 

I'm afraid my actual new favorite activity may be online shopping.

Just as a side note, the night after receiving the bedrest news I had a very vivid dream that I lived in 1950's Communist China.  Don't you think my brain was taking the news a little too far?  Or maybe it was just because I fell asleep reading Lisa See's Dreams of Joy, the sequel to our book club pick this month Shanghai Girls.

And now, my latest growth progress.

As you can see I put on a few lbs in 4 weeks.  I took the latest pic a week ago and I think it is already outdated.  I am frequently asked if I am due soon.  Or I overhear a gas station worker tell a patron "that girl bout to pop".  It is truly hard to imagine how much bigger I will get in the next 3 months!

The nursery is coming along.  It is painted, there is a crib, and curtains/crib skirts are underway.  Pictures to come in a few weeks.

A good report, a dog scare, a hypocrite, a house, and a quote.

And....cue the time when you begin to understand the nonsense part of the blog name.

A Good Report
This part is not nonsense.  We had our visit with the specialist in Memphis yesterday and got another great report.  The girls are all growing and there is nothing causing the doctor any concerns as of now.  They did the anatomy exam and checked all the hearts, brains, kidneys, etc.  It was really fun to watch, but the girls are getting crowded in there.  I cannot imagine what it will be like in a few weeks.  You will be looking at one's head, and in the background you'll see four surrounding feet.   It looks like they are just clobbering each other, particularly Anna and Irene.

A Dog Scare

I arrived home from work today to find that the two crib boxes we are storing in the area where the dogs stay during the day had fallen over and Ginger was trapped behind them.  I'm not sure when it happened, but judging by the amount of cardboard she had eaten I would guess she had been there a while.  I'm pretty sure she was trying to squeeze past the boxes to look out the door and they somehow slid and fell over.  Luckily the laundry basket stopped the boxes from falling all the way to the ground, allowing her to have a little bit of room to move around and probably saving her from serious injury.

Here is a picture of the aftermath.  She was trapped on the far side by the door.

Poor Ginger.  She is already the most anxiety ridden dog that ever existed.  This probably did not help.  But at least she is okay!

A Hypocrite

A few weeks ago when asked about how I was going to decorate the girls' room I specifically said,  "I'm not sure.  I'm not really a girly-girl or a pink person.  Maybe I'll incorporate a little pink, but not very much."

Fast forward a few weeks.  I'm eating my words.  The evidence:  fabric I've purchased for their room.

 Just a little bit of pink in there.

 Speaking of pink, check out these cute monogrammed outfits from Honey (Jack's mom):

Honey and Meme (my mom) are already spoiling them.  I have lots of evidence.    

A House

The nursery project has caused flashbacks of moving into our house 7 months ago.  Feels like we have lived here much longer.  I figured before our house becomes a disaster of pink baby paraphernalia I should post pictures to remember what it looks like.  We really didn't have to do much to the house besides painting and cleaning, so there are no major DIY projects included here.

Below are a few select pictures.  All of the "before" pictures were taken when we were looking at the house, complete with renter furniture which adds a little to the dramatic effect (even the dogs in the "before" pictures belonged to the renters, they just happen to look like ours).  Most of the "after" pictures were taken with my cell phone so the quality sucks.

The Den:

 Den Before

Den After

Side Den/Breakfast Room:

 Side Den Before

 Side Den After

Kitchen:

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After (to be fair, nothing really different here.  Just a better shot)

Guest Bedroom:

Guest Room Before

Guest Room After

Guest Bathroom:

 

Guest Bathroom Before

Guest Bathroom After

Master Bathroom:

Master Bath Before

Master Bath After

Porch:

Porch Before

Porch After

A Quote

If you have managed stayed with me through this post, I'd like to end with a quote from our niece Sarah Beth.  Sarah Beth is Melanie's (Jack's sister) youngest child and she is a sweet, adorable, and funny 3.5 year old.  Melanie always points out Jack's office building when they drive past it in Memphis.  Today when they drove past Sarah Beth said "That is where Aunt Sage's boyfriend works".  She cracks me up.

Line Judging

You know when you are in line in the grocery store and you can't help but do a little cart inventory of the person in front or behind you?  And depending on what you see maybe you pass a little judgement - stereotype them as a junk food junkie, a health nut, or just plain bizarre?  Don't deny it, you know you do that too.  I think I received a taste of my own medicine yesterday.

Yesterday's cart contents:

fruit loops
whole milk
mayonnaise
cake frosting
black beans
juicy juice
Ensure
ice cream
pickles
sour cream
US Weekly and People
not pictured:  artichoke

Just some things I thought I needed.  This is apparently what happens when I go to the grocery store without a list and without any real plans to cook, since that is not an activity I enjoy these days. 

I'm pretty sure people could look at me and reserve passing too much judgement, but I decided I needed to go sit in the car rather than wait in line, so any line judgers were probably not so forgiving to Jack.

It's not Parsley, Rosemary, and Thyme

Thanks to those of you who made the suggestion though!

As much as we have grown attached to the affectionate names A, B, and C, we've decided on real names for the girls.  We both love family names and decided to go that route, and had lots of great names as options.  In the end, we wound up with:

 Anna, Irene, and Brooks

Full names:
Baby A - Anna Carolyn Nichols
Baby B - Irene Margaret Nichols
Baby C - Elizabeth Brooks Nichols

We've had these in mind for a few weeks and decided that we love them.  I'm in decision making mode.  Watch out.

Relief

Relief #1:
We had really good doctor visits this week and the girls are all doing great.  I managed to remain relatively calm since our visit two weeks ago, but by the time we were driving to Memphis yesterday morning I started to get a little worked up with anxiety.  Jack can tell when I get like that because I only speak in one word sentences and stop talking about anything remotely fun.    I feel like a lot of people say "poor Jack" these days.  What is that about?

Babies A & B still have a small weight variance, BUT they grew equal amounts since last visit, which is awesome news.  The doctor seemed much less concerned.  Baby C, as usual, is just hanging out doing her thing.  All good news.  We are just taking it two weeks at a time until the next doctor visit.

Relief #2:
I am no longer living in fear of disgusting food commercials.  This is a good thing because I watch a lot of TV these days....actual TV with commercials, not just the DVR.  Whoever makes TV commercials for chain food restaurants is clearly not catering to early pregnant women.  I never noticed the absurd number of commercials that show up-close shots of non-appetizing food until I was in the fragile state of my first trimester.  Some days it was all I could do to make it through work and crash on the couch, only to be immediately confronted with this:

Or this:

Or possibly the worst, this:

Pay attention - it is like every other commercial.  I can laugh at it now, but it seriously would send me into hours of nausea.  Biggest offenders:  Applebees and Red Lobster, hands down. 

In other news, this little munchkin is coming to see me this weekend.  Very excited for some Frances time.  Just can't get enough.

Other than that, I'm just seeing how many paint and fabric samples it takes to push Jack over the edge.  I'm well into the double digits with no sign of him cracking yet.   Surely a person cannot have this much patience.  I figure this is a good test for what is to come. 

A view of one of the sample walls.