Under Construction

He's HERE!!!

Michael Truett (going to be called Truett) made his appearance yesterday evening a little after 8 pm to a very happy mom and dad. He weighs 9 pounds 2 ounces and is 22 inches long. JoyLynne and Chris endured roughly 29 hours of labor to meet their new little boy. All of the family are doing well.

Can you hear me?

This picture of my husband and my adult brother talking into Spiderman's and Doc Octopus' stomachs cracks me up. My other brother found these walkie talkies at a garage sale and picked them up for Chris. The only problem is that they only work when you are within hearing distance of the other person, otherwise you have to shout really loudly. This kind of defeats the purpose of having walkie talkies, but they sure look cool-and that is the main idea.

Week 40

Well, my due date passed me by, and no baby. I measured my belly this weekend, and it is 42 inches around at the widest point. That sounds totally crazy! A 42 inch waist!! I keep reminding myself that the date is just an estimate anyway. I do hope that I didn't stop working too soon, I don't want to waste too much of my maternity leave before he gets here. I feel pretty good right now, but I may be ready for a major pity party later on today-I have been swinging back and forth the last few days. The last couple of weeks were harder than I thought they would be though, and I don't think I could have worked for much longer. I wasn't sure if I could make it until this past Friday, but I did, and I think I managed to be fairly polite to people making dumb comments (for the most part anyway). The good news is that the swelling in my legs, feet and ankles has gone way down and my ankles no longer ache like they have been. I think sitting at my desk may have made the swelling worse. I have a long list of things I wanted to get done but was too tired to do while I was working full time, so hopefully that will keep me busy for a couple of days, and then maybe the baby will decide to make his appearance. First up on my list today is some last minute shopping and wrapping. Then I should probably clean out my car and install the car seat. After that maybe some cleaning, or maybe a nap first. . .

Sad news

This week one my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett announced that he has Alzheimer's disease. His books are so funny and so clever and so silly at the same time, and this is a tragedy for him personally as well as for everyone that loves his books. It took me a while to even start reading his books, because I was put off by the fact that they are "fantasy" novels, and I am not a fan of the fantasy genre but he uses his made up world to satirize and skewer modern day society in such a side splittingly hilarious way that I was immediately sucked in and started reading all of his books I could find. Chris was a fan of his way before I was, and it is fun to have an author that we can "share" (although it makes it a little hard when a new book comes out and we both want to read it at the same time). Alzheimer's is so scary, I can't imagine how it must feel to be diagnosed with it at such a relatively young age and to realize what was happening to you.

Our pastor said the other day that when the angels came at Christ's birth and said "Peace on Earth" it wasn't just sentiment, but was stating a fact. Christ will bring real peace on earth and with it will come the end of war, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and all the other products of the fall. There is a reason announcements like Terry Pratchett's make me rebel inside, simply for the reason that it isn't right, but we have the hope and assurance that some day things will be made right.

Waiting game

Ok, I know in my head that a "due date" is just an estimate, and mine isn't even until next Sunday, and that first babies are usually late, but lurking in the back of my mind is that my original due date was today so I couldn't help but hope he might be here by now. I am so anxious to meet him, and nervous about labor and ready to not be pregnant anymore and I just want it all to be behind us! I feel like we are playing a waiting game now. All weekend I have been doing stuff to distract me from the fact that I am still pregnant, but it is kind of impossible. So, in lieu of baby news, here are some shots of his room. We need to touch up the paint in a few places, and we want to put up a border around the top of the room but other than that it is pretty much done. It started out with just a multicolored stripe and blue walls, but in the last few weeks a Western theme has started developing in there. My mom found some cool cowboy fabric with the same colors as the stripe, and I used that to cover a lampshade. Then the boarder we found is also cowboy themed and my dad found some cast iron cowboy bookends. I love how his room has been a group project, my m-i-l and I painted it one weekend, my mom made the crib skirt and the curtains, thanks to my in laws he has a beautiful crib and changing table and the lamp base I used for his room is one that my Papa made. I am also in the process of gathering baby pictures of family members, so far I have one of my mom, one of my dad, and two of my papa. We need some Gosey/Jones pictures up there (ahem, ahem) and I guess one each of Chris and me. I think I want to hang them collage style over his crib or something. In the end I am fully aware that all this decorating is just for us, he won't care or notice one bit whether or not his room is decorated, but it is fun to get ready for him.
Cowboy bookend Lampshade

Quilting

My mom has always been really good at sewing, and in the last few years has had more time to take up a hobby that has always interested her. She really started quilting when my parents moved to Illinois 5 years ago and has made several beautiful quilts since then. She is working on a quilt for us, totally hand quilted made from this really cool civil war reproduction fabric. Her quilt guild was featured in her local paper and a picture of her (Susan Parker) working on our quilt made it into the paper!
This other quilt is one that she made for our baby, it has cool caterpillar and butterflies sewn all over it. He has such cool stuff, you would think he would want to come on out and see it all! Since he hasn't decided to make an appearance yet, we are using this (hopefully) one last weekend to continue our attempt to organize our house a bit. Today we got yet another bookshelf from Ikea to finish out our office. We still have a few books without a home, but no more wall space for shelves. I think we might need to go through and cull some of them. We also hung some pictures that have just been sitting in the closet for the 2 years we have lived in this house. Next up is some pantry re-organizing and possibly some more batch cooking. It is an exciting weekend here at the Gosey household.

37 Weeks

I can't believe I am this far along already-it seems crazy!! I have had such a great pregnancy, but the end is of course getting pretty uncomfortable and I would be okay with him making an appearance any day now! I have outgrown a lot of my maternity clothes, and without my mom's amazing sewing ability would have been reduced to wearing sweatpants weeks ago. I don't want to sound like I am complaining but in my personal opinion the last month is shaping up to be worse than the first trimester as far as physical discomfort goes (that could have something to do with the fact that my memory of the first trimester is being overshadowed by the fact that I am going through the last month right now). I am getting very excited (and nervous) about his arrival and about finally getting to meet this little guy! I am not sure if we are going to post his name on this blog, but if you are interested, shoot me an email and I will let you know. We had a great Thanksgiving, my family came into town. It was fun to have everyone here and we got our early Christmas presents from my parents-a venthood microwave (we haven't had a microwave in the two years we have lived in this house) plus the installation (which involved cutting into our kitchen cabinets and running the vent tubing through the roof) and a new kitchen table. There are pictures of the installation on our flickr account. My dad makes beautiful furniture, and while we had a beautiful table in the kitchen already-it was just too big for the space. Our new table makes our kitchen feel surprisingly big! I took a personal day today from work to run errands and get some rest. I had big plans for sleeping in-but of course on the one day when I can sleep in I was wide awake at 5 am. Oh well, I have lots to do today and I can always take a nap later.