Thursday, June 27, 2013

Strawberry Party

I haven't gotten around to having a strawberry party in years. June gets so busy so fast.

Here is my menu:
  • Strawberry soup, recipe from Victoria Magazine july 2009
  • Prosciutto, manchego, & strawberry crostini, recipe here.
  • Spring greens, chicken, strawberries, Marcona almonds, & chevre salad.
  • Strawberry lemonade
  • Strawberry shortcake with whipped cream
I set the table with a vintage strawberry table cloth; being able to use this cute thing is half the motivation to have a party! The weather has been hit or miss this week, mostly rainy and I've been putting it off until we get some clear skies. Tomorrow is supposed to be 90 though and i know that will be far too hot for us to be outside. I think this is our first official outdoor meal of the summer.

The cold strawberry soup is so nice and refreshing, the mint and vinegar helps to cut the sweetness. Our Little Helper loved it and said this was his favorite soup I've ever made for him. He's so sweet, I know that's what he said about the St. Joseph''s Day soup, my carrot soup, and pumpkin soup. It is nice to cook for someone who appreciates what you are making.
 
 This crostini is a new recipe to me, but I'm not a girl to turn down prosciutto. Mr. W had recently taken the boys on a walk and stopped at Cheese Bar for a treat; of course he had to bring home goodies too. One of the cheeses was a smoked Gouda which we substituted for the Manchego. This was a big hit with everyone.


Baby Boy had been sneaking strawberries the whole time I was preparing dinner and was full by the time we sat down. He was only interested in the pink lemonade. He wanted no part at all of the strawberry soup.
 
The next course was the salad. I added chicken so it would have a nice mix of savory and sweet. I got so full by this point that we ended up skipping the strawberry shortcake for dessert. we'll do it tomorrow for sure.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

37 Weeks

My dr is an idiot! Even though he insisted on 39wks exactly for my RCS and scheduled it with me two weeks ago, he didn't follow up with the hospital.  At last weeks apt when he was on vacation the midwife in his practice who saw me asked if I had a c/s scheduled. I told her yes and she said okay good, I don't see it in your file, but if he scheduled it with you I'm sure everything is fine. Nope!

This week he asked me if we had scheduled a c/s (!) when I told him yes, but that he needed to tell me when to arrive. As I was driving home from the apt I received a call from his office; I learned that the hospital was short staffed that day and it needed to be pushed back to Monday. Well, duh! It is 4th of July weekend, I didn't think it was a good idea to deliver then! Which means he never followed through with scheduling it with the hospital two weeks ago. Dummy!

I actually am not too mad, I wanted a bit more time between the holiday and the birth for the future planning of parties. Not to mention I wanted to be more of a mid way point between 39 and 40wks gestation. My c/s is now scheduled for July 8th!

We had my grandfather's funeral last weekend. I've worn this dress too many times to funerals in the last weeks of pregnancy. :(

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Side table makeover

On the way home from our end of the summer camping trip last year we drove down Powell Blvd and I spied this 70s era side table outside a second hand shop. I went back a couple days later with the boys; it had the right amount of detail I wanted for a bedside table in our guest room. I was hoping to find something for under $50 and they wanted about $85 for this which was way too much considering how many pieces of trim were missing or broken. Conveniently Mr. F called me in the middle of the hard sell and I walked away. That was just what I needed for the salesman to drop the price down to $60.

Fall passed and I never seemed to have the time to get out to sand and fix the table. I was hoping to get it together in the spring before Mr. & Mrs. K came out to stay with us for Easter, but again I didn't do it. As I was envisioning the new nursery I realized this pie crust top table would be the perfect side table for a nursing station. It is large enough to hold a lamp and any drinks and snacks I need. I had a can of Benj Moore Cameo White that was an extra from a project when I was working which is a nice  neutral off white that will go with the antique white crib and changing table, but could easily transition to a side table in our Master Bedroom in the future.

We had a few nice days at the beginning of May so I was able to get out and sand the table down. There were a ton of nooks and crannies so I used a chair since I was already big by then.

The top of the table was pretty gauged up so we'd need to use wood filler to even those out.
During the sanding process I realized that the underside of the table top was delaminating. We used wood glue and clamps to fix that.

This little broken bracket also had to be glued back together.
This weekend there was finally a break in the weather, not rainy, not too windy, not too hot, and we were not too busy for Mr. W to use the paint sprayer to prime and paint the table this weekend. Pretty nice considering it was Father's Day weekend. I really appreciated it though, I'm getting antsy about finishing the nursery in time. It looks a thousand times better even with just the primer!
 After letting the paint cure for a couple of days I was finally able to set up my nursing station table with the newly made over lamp and side table.
 I love all the detailing in the table legs. And this Cameo White color helps to set it off with the stained wainscot behind it.
 And if I take the photo just right you can see how well the incised circle pattern shows through even after being painted.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

36 weeks

My dr is on vacation this week so instead I saw a midwife in his practice. She asked me if I felt the baby moving and I replied that I feel it moving all the time, but I've never been able to distinguish which body parts were which. As she was feeling around for the baby she commented on how much amniotic fluid was in there, which is what I had heard from last week's appointment.  She then told me the baby was breech and did something no doctor has ever done before, which is shocking to me since I"m 36 1/2 weeks with my third child. She put my hands on me and showed me how to feel the baby's head. She described how you can tell the difference between head jerks and bottom wiggling. I hate my dr so much, why can't he ever share info like this with me. She even said that in his notes from last week that he thought the baby was breech, but couldn't tell for sure. He NEVER mentioned that to me! That would have made a lot more sense to me when he was pushing for my c/s being scheduled at 39 weeks and not 40.

The baby's head was on my left side, so it is actually sideways right now.  But with 3 and a half weeks to go before my c/s and all this fluid in there odds are baby will continue to move several more times before it is go time.  She said it is like baby is swimming around in a swimming pool there is so much amniotic fluid.Since I know I'm going to have another repeat c/s I'm not too worried about what baby's position is.

She swabbed for group B strep and skipped the cervical check. It was a nice and short appointment, especially since my mom was babysitting the boys for me.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

35 weeks

This was the week that I was supposed to start getting cervical checks at every appointment, but since my dr's office was running an hour late as per usual, and I had both boys with me since school is out I told the nurse I was going to decline it. An hour is way too long for little boys to wait around so the last thing I wanted to do was be half naked trying to keep them from attacking each other in the exam room. My mom will be out for the summer by next week so I'll be able to have her watch them for me.

We set a date for my repeat cesarean section. I was hoping to split the difference between his preference (39wks) and my preference (40wks.) I thought it would be cute to have the baby on July 7th because then this baby's birthday would include the birth years of all three children ('07, '10, and'13. 39 weeks would be July 5th or 6th depending on whether one goes by the date of the IUI or the early dating ultra sounds. I suggested pushing back to mid week to him in case he had other things he wanted to do that holiday weekend. And I almost had him agreeing to a mid week surgery.
But then he changed his mind and went back to insisting on taking the baby at 39 weeks. He said the follow up ultrasound I just had showed that I have excessive amniotic fluid. He said there is a risk of uterine rupture with too much amniotic fluid, so it is better to take the baby early. I don't knwo how much I trust this explanation. He let me go to 40 wks with Baby Boy and DH said the OR nurses made a big deal out of how much amniotic fluid came out of me, and I didn't have any rupturing then.

As a result, I'm disappointed to have to deliver at 39 weeks. On the other hand I'm freaking out. Just this weekend I was telling people I am due in 5wks, but in reality this means I have less than 4 weeks! Holy smoke!

Here's a pic from Sunday:
 

Monday, June 10, 2013

Final decisions made for the nursery.

We got so much accomplished this weekend, which I wasn't expecting, but I'm feeling such a sense of relief about it! I had received an email that Stars Antique Mall was having a sidewalk sale this weekend so on Friday I took Baby Boy over there to scout for high boy dressers. I really wanted to work with a CLer who refurbishes furniture in shabby chic style, but she has a 6 wk lead time and she doesn't respond much to email; I decided she wasn't reliable enough for me at this point. I really need to be able to unpack baby clothes and things into the nursery so I can have a sense of relief.

I really wanted an ivory colored dresser for this room to coordinate with  the rest of the nursery furniture, but I feel guilty about painting real wood or wood veneer.  These are a couple dresser options she sent me, and admittedly they would be super cute painted, but they don't look like they are in horrible shape so I'd have some guilt.

 

I found this dresser at Stars, which was cute and I loved the shape and amount of drawers, but it was pink, and I hate pink. I certainly wouldn't feel guilty about painting this one, but frankly I don't have the time for that right now. I have enough work cut out for us just getting the side table painted and finished. And I really shouldn't be sanding questionable paint right now.
We realized we needed to pull the trigger on everything, so we decided to go for the oak highboy dresser with attached mirror which I found at City Liquidators and that we'd go with the new glider from Good Night Room. It is admittedly dull and doesn't have a tufted back like I was looking for, but I'm running out of time and need to commit. We bought the dresser first to be picked up later that day and then headed to suburbia.  I was delighted to learn that they added a few new fabrics to their selection and one of them was a plum colored twill. Not only does this fit into the color scheme of the room best, I was starting to get disappointed I'd have to settle for a practical neutral in there, but it will be less likely to show the dirt than a cream colored one. The only downside is that it has an 8 week lead time and we've put this decision off till the end. That's okay though, even though it will arrive approximately 4 weeks after baby arrives, I will still spend plenty of months nursing in it.


Here is the dresser freshly cleaned and oiled. I had a chance to sort all the baby clothes too so I'm feeling good about everything.
 
One other thing that needed to be accomplished was finding some sort of cabinet or wardrobe to store all my table linens which had been occupying the closet in the guest room. Now that it is the boy's bedroom I need to be able to move all their clothes over from the closet in the nursery.  While driving to my dr apt this week I drove by a yard sale and saw half an Eastlake dresser. I stopped by on my way home to investigate. It is in really rough shape, but they only wanted $20 for it. The lock escutcheons are original, but the pulls are dreadful 60s era hammered pulls. I'm sure I can find a set of antique hardware to fix this up, and I might eve have it refinished at some point, but for now, $20 is exactly what I need to solve my linen storage problem.