Now THAT looks like a nursery!

When Tripp went home yesterday for lunch he found that the Fishy bedding had arrived, so last night he drove to Atlanta to pick up the furniture which arrived last Friday. Tripp picked up the crib (un-assembled) and the dresser (assembled) and I bought the crib mattress at our local baby store.

It didn't take very long to get it put together,
thanks of course to Kaya's professional supervision.

And now we have a crib! Yay!

In other news, our first batch of cloth diapers arrived yesterday as well! I ordered 6 small diapers in butter yellow for use at night and when out and about. I've also ordered one dozen Kissaluvs diapers for use during the day when I'm at home. The Kissaluvs are not waterproof but will be much cheaper than buying all Happy Heinys. Totally exciting stuff!

We Have Finally Decided!

Ever since we found out this little bean is a boy, we've been looking far and wide for the perfect crib bedding set. You'd think it would be easy - we were expecting very few choices compared to girls' bedding - but we were all wrong! Your choices are quite literally endless and that only adds to the frustration when two otherwise reasonable adults cannot come to a compromise! He doesn't want it to be too baby-ish, I want it to be cute. He wants modern, I want timeless. Ugh! We went back and forth with emails and pictures,

Me: "What about this one?"

Him: "Too girly"

Him: "How about this one?"

Me: "Not quite right"

What a mess! I never thought we'd agree. But today, it finally happened! After weeks of back and forth, I instructed Tripp to choose his top FIVE sets and I would just choose one and that would be that. So this morning, while he was at "work" he finally narrowed down his choices. And ONE that I liked made the top five. (That's right, ONE, sheesh.) Anyway, I'll keep you waiting no longer. We have finally ordered this!We found it on sale at JCPenny.com and just couldn't resist! How could two dog people say no to the cutest dang dog bedding out there? Let's just hope it coordinates with the crib itself!

And just to prove how seriously in the tank we are for this kid already, Tripp found yet another set this morning (see what I mean?) on super-duper deep discount at Overstock.com and we agreed it was too cute to pass up and ORDERED IT TOO!I can hear my mom now, "Oh for heaven sakes!" and I agree, it's insane. But seriously, it was really cheap and got rave reviews (on Amazon.com too) and considering the little guy will be born in winter but still sleeping in his crib next spring/summer, we wanted to have something fresh and bright too.

I know. Spoiled rotten before he even arrives. What can I say?

Furniture!

Yesterday we went furniture shopping! Tripp discovered "the largest specialty baby store in the southeast" last week so we just had to check it out! Georgia Baby and Kids is about an hour away from Athens, just outside Atlanta in Norcross, Georgia. And they definitely had a LARGE selection. They carry some of the harder to find furniture brands and some designer baby bedding, like NAVA Designs, a company that sells they're stuff for over $1,000! HOLY COW! Anyway, we shopped around online and in a few stores and found that we really liked the quality and longevity of Stanley Furniture's line of nursery and youth furniture called Young America, and when we found out Georgia Baby was selling theirs for 45% OFF we new if we liked what we saw we'd be getting it from them. And we did. We looked through the entire store multiple times and kept coming back to the 4 Seasons Serenity Collection in a Cinnamon finish. We ordered two pieces at 45% off retail (no shipping) and bought two pieces off the showroom floor at 55% off retail, so we're very happy with what we got for the money.

This is the crib we bought (without the drawer on the bottom). We purchased the conversion kit as well, so we will be able to turn the crib into a full-size bed as the baby grows.

This is the dresser/changer. We did not buy the $200 changing station that holds the changing pad; we'll just lay the pad on top and secure it from behind.

This is the dresser/chest.

This is the nightstand.

The crib and dresser/changer will be delivered to the store in 3-4 weeks (maybe sooner) but the other two pieces are in the baby's room already! I will post updated nursery pictures soon - it's raining and dark today so I'm afraid they wouldn't come out very well.

The thing that we really like about Young America is that they sell so many more pieces than just the crib and dresser suites you see with many baby furniture companies. We will be able to expand the collection in the future if necessary to include a desk or bookcases or who knows what. Plus, it's very high quality furniture (and the chest is even made in the USA!) so we know it will last a long time. Like, forever, if we're lucky! We even found the collection we'd like to get if our next child is a girl, if you'd like to have a look. Overall it was an exciting day and we can't wait to get the crib set up and fill it with cute baby bedding and someday even a BABY!

Happy Birthday!

While I was out of town Tripp worked (literally) night and day to turn our guest room into a true nursery fit for our little king! You cannot truly appreciate the workmanship from mere photos so you'll all have to wait and see for yourself in person someday! What a wonderful birthday surprise! Click here for the transformation!

The results are in!!!

That's right folks - for the first time ever in "public," our little man is exposing himself to the world! It's a boy! Tripp and I were just happy to see the baby - growing well, again measuring ~1 week ahead - and were thrilled to learn that come November the Almy household will welcome a BOY into our rag-tag mix!

Coming in for the closeup!

Much to my chagrin, I'm still not feeling any movement, but I anticipate feeling it very soon. My placenta is low-lying and anterior (that means towards my belly button) so the little guy's tiny kicks are still hard to differentiate from gas or other tummy rumblings. But as his strength improves, I expect to start feeling the first bumps and pokes any day!

As I said above, he's measuring about 1 week ahead (9 days) and while that is considered within normal limits (Ultrasound tech said 8-10 days doc said 14 days difference) we would not be at all surprised if he makes his grand entrance a little earlier than first predicted. Only time will tell!

I'm sorry that I can't post more pictures right now; my html editing software is loaded on my work computer. I hope to have more pictures up first thing Tuesday morning when I return from visiting family in Illinois for the 4th of July holiday.

Our next appointment will be our regular prenatal visit with the midwives on July 9th.

July 1 Stats: Heart rate 142bpm, ~12oz.

He's lookin' at you!