It’s week 33 and we’re finally ready to start decorating the babies room. It’s taken quite a while to figure out what we want to do, but now that we know it will be pretty painless. We’re doing a split-theme, with most of the room being jungle-themed. We will paint the bottom few feet of the walls with pastel green paint, border this with a dark brown border, and apply large jungle animal “stickers” to the walls above. We have reserved one wall, however, to hang my guitar collection and some music-themed artwork. We look forward to having a house next year where we have the room to give the baby his own theme, though I don’t think he’ll object at this point. And anyways, what’s wrong with playing music in the jungle? I dig the idea …

It has truly taken a lot longer than I expected to baby-proof our home and get everything in place for a “renovation” of sorts in our second bedroom. We’ve moved, adjusted, and re-moved nearly every item we own and we finally have everything nicely arranged. The baby’s room is still littered with baby purchases waiting to be stored, but we don’t have the furniture yet. The grandparents are making a large contribution to our registry by bringing a crib and dresser for us in the next couple of weeks. More assembly.

We made our first large purchase yesterday and brought home a nice stroller/car seat combo. We did some research and chose what we thought would be best for our needs, our child’s safety, and long-term durability. There was an enormous sense of pride carting that huge box out of the Babies-R-Us store that I think both Tina and I felt as we waddled our way to the car with it.

Tina’s last day working is January 16. Thankfully, she won’t have to endure hours on her feet every day running around a large retail store serving customers who are ignorant of her condition. I think about the families whose mommy can’t quit work and my heart goes out to them. We are truly fortunate to live the life we do.

Tina went to the doctor for her final intermittent visit today. From February 1 until delivery, she will be visiting every week to check the progress. Everything is normal and healthy for now. We’ve reached the time to pack that infamous hospital bag and prepare for labor at any minute. What a wonderful feeling of apprehensive, nervousness, and joy. Tina’s doing and feeling pretty well still, though I can easily tell she’s starting to become uncomfortable with herself. I fall asleep each night with her curled up next to me, and I wake up to her snoring on the couch. Shocking? Not so much. She warned me.

Last Saturday, we attended Diane Ellen’s childbirth training class. It was quite shocking to see how many misconceptions there are, and wonderful to walk away with a good bit of confidence about what will shortly be a big part of our lives. Thanks Diane!

We’ve selected a pediatrician for our baby. There will be another “orientation” type class we will be attending soon with them. We will also be going to the hospital on February 1 to view and tour the maternity area where we will spend three of the most important days of our lives.

If you know me, you probably know that the creative wheels are spinning in my head by now. I have some really cool photography projects I’m planning. I can’t wait to share them (but you’ll have to wait until after the baby is born).

As I promised in my last post, here are a few pictures of babies room so far. All we have done so far is cleaned out the room, painted the bottom half of the wall, and played with the border. We’ll be applying the jungle border and decals tonight. We’re still hard at work but will have most everything decorated this week. You can see the completed product next week!