Ray was pretty proud that he put the crib together in just under an hour. Afterall, everything we’ve read and been told had us worried it would take NASA to set it up. Its perfect. Exactly what I wanted for my baby even before baby came to be. This nursery has honestly been the first room in the house where the planning of it couldn’t be going smoother (knock on wood). I normally am so indecisive on colors, layouts , etc. but one day I walked in that room and said “this will go here, crib there, armoire there” and in my mind it all fell into place.
I love how this looks now and it’s not even dressed up with the bedding yet. The armoire goes in with the help of a neighbor who can assist Ray in moving it in. Solid wood furniture isn’t lightweight and I”m definitely worthless right now in the moving department. But I can make up for it with shopping and decorating :p
The furniture is from the Babi Italia Pinehurst Collection in espresso.









Because I”m using this journal to also document my journey towards motherhood, I’m going to write up the events of last night.
Around 7pm I started feeling symptoms of a UTI, but thought perhaps the time had come where he weighs enough that he’s constantly pushing on my bladder thus giving me the signal that I have to tinkle. But then I started feeling dull aches similar to a menstrual cycle and after a 3 hour nap woke up to a horrible radiating pain/cramp that only affected the 1/2 half of my torso. Literally from my spine , across the right and stopped at my navel. Baby boy wasn’t moving and I felt my uterus tense up. Naturally, I became worried after moving about 30 minutes and he wasn’t. My next door neighbor came over, who’s a nurse and checked my BP for me while I took a few minutes on the phone talking to my best friend who went thru a checklist with me of symptoms. Ray was trying to get ahold of the on-call Dr. and that is a whole story in itself but ultimately after 1 hour of constant pain we opted to go to the ER. It was midnight by then.
So there we go, in the car taking the drive into Austin. I thought to myself “this is what the drive will be like when I”m in labor, but 10x worse.” Thankfully we got there in under 30 minutes. I’m rolled up to the L&D and they strap me up to get the baby monitored. There is that sweet sound. 155 bpm. Normal. And now he hears the sounds of his own heartbeat and starts to kick and kick. The nurse tells me she must give me an exam to see if my cervix is dilated to determine pre-term labor. Oh and a catheter to see if I have a UTI. Someone shoot me. I HATE catheters. I’d rather be stung by bees.
Well after many attempts and failures nurse #1 is unable to reach my cervix and calls in another who after much searching determines that its way back and very closed. No pre-term labor. Thank God. Catheter is done in a matter of 15 seconds, but again give me bee stings anyway. UGH. Ray held my hand thru the entire ordeal talking to me and distracting me from the immense pain I was under. If I had any second thoughts of having an epidural they’re now officially squashed. I WILL have one. If they’d let me have two I”d take both.
They kept me in the L&D for 2 hours for monitoring all the while baby boy can’t sleep because of the monitor loudly echoing his heartbeat. I nap here and there and Ray’s trying to catch some z’s too , but everytime baby boy kicks the sound is so loud it wakes us both. So , the results. No UTI, no preterm labor, no infections. They don’t know what it was. Great. They advise me to call the on-call Dr. tomorrow (today) after 9am because “she’s probably asleep tonight and that’s why she’s not answering.” Don’t EVEN get me started on how I felt about that. Must be nice. We get home around 4am, woke up today at noon and all I want is bbq and a backrup.
I”m grateful that he’s ok, that it may have been a ligament stretching or just some crazy cramp or pinched nerve. but what a scary night it was there for a while. Just writing it out has made me tired again.

















