Welcome to the world, Miles Andrew Champion!

Miles joined us after about 16 hours of labor on August 11, 2011. He arrived on the scene at 23:24 (I write it in military time because I like the sequence, not because I'm that engineer-y), weighed 7 lb 15 oz, and measured 20 1/2 inches long. He's not quite the chunker I thought he was going to be, but perfect in every way (including his bodacious cone head complements of being stuck at 3 - 4 cm for most of the day.

It was a long day, but not too painful or unpleasant. We got moved into a mother-baby room around 2:00 AM, and promptly sent Miles to the nursery so that Mom and Dad could get some much needed sleep.

We came home from the hospital yesterday, and have been working on figuring this parenting thing out. Miles is working on learning to sleep at night and not sleep during the day.

Izzy's attempting to help at every opportunity...

Beau-rito, Baby Benny, He-who-hasn't-been-named

Tomorrow Beau and my life will change. I'm being induced at 5:30 AM. Hopefully everything will be uneventful and our duo will become a trio.

I've been preparing myself for the last 3 weeks to be induced at my doctor's direction. I have gestational diabetes, and a relatively mild case of high blood pressure. I've been off of work and on home rest since 7/22. I don't like to call it bed rest, because that would imply that I was in bed the entire time; something I'm incapable of doing. Beau has been great at meeting my every need, and attempting to keep me calm and relaxed. He has watched horrible TV with me for hours on end, and even some pretty painful movies.

The rest of the world seems to think that I should be/am terrified of how my life is about to change, but I'm really not. Anxious? Sure. Nervous about how much this is actually going to hurt? Of course. But not scared. I've always said that God put me on this earth to be a mother, and tomorrow I get to start that journey.

Sorry for the totally disjointed post. I just felt like I should write something before my baby boy arrives.

Countertops and More

Our countertops will be installed today. Hopefully everything goes well, and there's a follow-up post this evening with pictures of a nearly complete kitchen. Beau has the applicances scheduled for delivery tomorrow, and the plumber lined up to take care of some small things. After that, all that's left is back splash.

I can't wait to have my kitchen back. A few weeks ago, I was instructed by my doctor to cut-out carbs to help manage my blood sugar, which I've done before, and it's totally managable... with a kitchen. Eating grilled chicken with vegetables from various take-out places around town has gotten old.

A lot of progress has also been made in the soon-to-be nursery. Mom came over last week and helped us move furniture out of it. Beau pulled up the carpet then painted and put down laminate wood floor. Thanks to Miranda for color selection, and Nathan, Michael, and Chris will the flooring help. It was quite nice to leave in the morning for a day at the spa with Miranda and friends and come home to a room with new flooring in it! Beau put trim up in the room this week, and we've been working on filling and caulking it. For obvious reasons, the kitchen has taken priority.

Hopefully pictures will follow soon!!

NEW ADDITION!

NEW ADDITION

As most know, Beau and I are expecting our first child in August. We are both very excited, and in typical Jenny-fashion, I’m thinking about all the things that need to get done before the little one arrives. Of course normal baby preparation isn’t good enough, and being the over-achievers that we are, we’ve decided to over-haul the kitchen too. This post will be long, so I’ve split it into “Baby Thoughts” and “Kitchen Plans.”

BABY THOUGHTS:
Beau and I found out we were pregnant on Christmas Eve 2010. Appropriate, I guess, since 5 years prior we had decided to start our family by getting engaged. I find it funny that I didn’t even consider I could be pregnant until a girl-friend accused me of messing with her cycle. Oops… I guess her body knew before anyone else.

Frankie has dubbed the baby “Beau-rito” and our friends have been very helpful with name suggestions. We appreciate them all and they’ll go onto the list once I can convince Beau to discuss names. He says we have to wait until we know whether it’s a boy or girl, which will be the end of March.

We’re both very excited, and I’ve had a very easy first trimester. I hope it continues as nicely as it started. I’m constantly worried, because I don’t feel “pregnant” and haven’t had any of the less-desirable side effects (no morning sickness… heck yeah!). Beau explains it best by saying that I “think I’m doing this wrong.”

There have been requests to see the 1st sonogram (10 weeks) and I tried to scan it in at work, but failed. I guess eventually I’ll do the old-school "picture of a picture" to put it up. I’m currently at 15 weeks, and the baby is the size of a navel orange. There are conflicting reports on other sites that it’s the size of an apple, so decide what you will.

Here’s a “your baby is the size of (Insert Fruit here)!” ticker. Maybe this HTML will work...



That's all the baby thoughts I have for now. On to more fun, immediate things... THE KITCHEN!

KITCHEN PLANS:
Ever since we saw our house for the first time, we've had plans to redo the kitchen. Everything functioned pretty well, but it wasn't pretty (By 2000's standards). I'm glad we lived in the kitchen for 3 years before re-doing it. It helps you understand what you like and what you hate. The impetus for starting now is the flooring (and the fact that we have enough money saved). The existing flooring is vinyl/wood laminate combo that's glued down. I'm sure when it was installed it was beautiful, but over the years, things have leaked under the flooring, causing it to peel and come off. It's pretty ugly and grosses me out a little.

Yesterday, we ordered our new, porcelain 18" x 18" tile and it should be arriving sometime next week. Because we didn't want to be out of our kitchen for longer than necessary, we haven't done anything to prep for it, and will have a whirlwind weekend packing and maybe doing some cabinet modification. I'll have to say good-by to my avocado green, 1972 fridge, but the environment (and my electric bill) will thank me. We're replacing it with a Kitchen-Aid french-door stainless model.

High level plan is: All new appliances, move the fridge to where the in-wall oven currently is. Install a slide-in gas range where the cook-top is. Install new cabinets with lower pot drawers where fridge currently is. Replace cabinet doors, paint cabinets. The furdown was removed in Gustav recovery. Install a hood (OMG! I haven't had a hood since we moved in because we felt it would be easier to just throw-away the old hood than to clean it. It was disgusting.). Install some sort of tile back-splash. New solid-surface countertops (we want soapstone, but may end up with a man-made product). 18" x 18" porcelain tile floor, set in diamond pattern. Remove the mini-wall between the sink and the bar.
I think that's it. There are some side projects (a new pantry, bookshelves where the phone jack is) that may or may not happen.

Contrary to the blog title, Beau will not be doing everything. He and I both recognize what our skill sets are and aren't, and will probably be contracting out some of the work. Hopefully we'll keep the blog updated since we'll have an active project happening.