Getting Ready ... kind of

People ask me all the time if I'm ready for the baby.  I realize there are at least a couple ways of interpreting that question, and usually I choose to answer an enthusiastic 'yes!'  Because we are ready, so ready to meet this little girl and have our lives totally change and be focused on her.  We've been ready for it to be about someone else for a long time.  So yes, we are ready and do not feel anxious when some people say "oh everything is going to change, life will never be the same again!" like that's a bad thing. 

But in another sense of readiness, the more tangible sense, we are not *quite* there.  You can see what the nursery looks like as of tonight, at 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  I'd like to say that these are the before pictures.  I know of a couple who waited and struggled several years to become pregnant, and their nursery for their long-awaited baby was beautiful, you could see the excitement they had transformed into hours of loving work.  I think I've gone in the opposite direction.  For the first 3-4 months, I didn't quite believe that this was really going to happen and work out, that I was actually going to have a baby and things were suddenly just going to be okay after so long.  I didn't buy anything for the baby.  Maybe I didn't want to jinx it, maybe I was just in denial (despite all the sickness & crazy pregnancy symptoms).  Then we went away for a month in the summer, then we came home and life & work got crazy busy and I started sleeping even worse than before, which increased stress and totally decreased any productivity.  And here we are, a month exactly away from the due date, and you can see what the nursery looks like.

We'll get there.  I don't feel the nursery needs to be perfect when the baby arrives; she'll be sleeping in our room in the bassinet for awhile anyway.  We're hoping to paint the room next weekend and go from there.  Oh, and we did finally decide on and order a crib a couple days ago, so it's coming ... slowly ...

Day 4 of Quarantine

This is what life consists of this week.  Clem and I have both been sick, him since Monday late afternoon and me since Tuesday.  It's definitely the longest amount of time we've been confined to the same place without any other human interaction (except my very generous parents who have dropped some needed supplies at the door!).  I am happy to say that so far we have not been driving each other crazy!  Not much cabin fever either, but that's also because we're too weak & sick to want to do anything else.

It's all much less frightening than earlier this week.  When Clem went from more or less feeling fine to having a high fever and serious cough within a couple hours on Monday, it was scary.  It was especially scary because of how similar it sounded to a couple friends we know who have had H1N1, and because of all the stories about otherwise healthy women in the third trimester landing in ICU with flu complications.  I did start feeling sick the next day, and my OB put me on tamiflu immediately.  It's scary to take anything while pregnant, but thankfully the tamiflu has kept me from getting seriously sick, and Clem is certainly suffering more than I am (he can't get the medicine because he's not at high risk for complications).  Neither of us can eat much, his fever is still high (mine thankfully never got up there), and we're both just really weak and worn out.  I can't believe that he's had this since late Monday and still isn't even starting to feel better!!

For the record, we don't know and will never know whether it's H1N1 or another flu, but it does seem unlike other bugs we've had in the past.  I am just thankful that we're able to stay home and get better rather than facing any scary complications.  Soon enough life will resume again and we will resurface!