Crib Fiasco

When it comes to large purchases -- I research everything! I like to only buy things once so I want something that is worth the money and will last.  For a Baby this includes just about everything!  It took me weeks to find the perfect crib, weeks. The week after we found out the Baby's gender, we went to Babies 'R' Us to register and buy our Crib. I feel so bad for the registry guy who had to tell me that they were completely out of stock in the store and at all of warehouses.  I had JUST checked that morning. I was heartbroken and would not listen to Corey who tried to talk me into the another crib. I was set on this crib, in white and no one was changing my mind.  Isn't it gorgeous?

DaVinci Jayden 3-in-1 convertible crib

Real wood, convertible to Toddler Bed, Day Bed and then a Full Size.  Non-toxic paint.  And didn't look like a mini-jail when converted from a crib!  I spent almost an entire day searching and searching for it online, for anywhere. I soon discovered that my very reasonably priced crib ranged up to $700 at other stores!  Thankfully, the next day a co-worker suggested diapers.com.

Of course they were out-of-stock as well but I was finally able to discover why! A new model had come out and it wasn't even on DaVanci's website yet!  Meet the Cameron.

DaVinci Cameron 

The Cameron met all of my checklist AND had a drawer, Diapers.com even had a coupon for new customers, SOLD!  I placed my order and was told it would take 3-4 days to ship since it was a larger item.  This was three weeks ago and we still have not received it.

What has happened since has been nothing but the worst online shopping experience.  After not receiving a shipping notification by the end of the week, I logged on to my account. It said my crib had shipped but did not have a tracking number. I called and was told that they were out of stock, not sure why it said shipped, had no idea what to tell me and I should just call DaVinci. Excuse me?!!? I ordered from you! DaVinci does not have a phone number on their website so I was forced to email.

Two days later I received an email from diapers.com saying that DaVinci assured them my crib would ship out the next day. This was April 2nd.  I FINALLY received a tracking number and email on April 7th.  Wouldn't you know the tracking number did not work.  I gave it a day and emailed Monday morning.  They responded immediately, claiming to get back to me later that day. I emailed again yesterday and was told they were "working on it."  Finally this morning I received a phone call to arrange delivery tomorrow.

I have very low hopes that my crib will arrive without damage, and won't be surprised if it is the wrong crib entirely. This has been the worst customer service experience of my life. I was so excited about all of the amazing things I had heard about this website, but I will never been ordering from them again.

Spicy Tomato Cream Chicken Rigatoni

Ingredients: 

Chicken tenderloin

Rigatoni 16oz

Marinara sauce 28oz (we use our homemade sauce, recipe coming soon)

Sweet onion 1/3 cup

2 cloves of chopped garlic

Olive oil 

¾ cup of chopped orange bell peppers

3 Tsp of chopped jalapeno 

2 Tsp Italian seasoning 

1 Tsp crushed red peppers 

1 Tsp salt 

Pepper to taste 

Chopped fresh Basil 

1 cup heavy whipping cream 

1 Tsp sugar 

1 Cup of shredded Parmesan Cheese 

*if you do not want this spicy you can leave out the Jalapeno and red peppers, but you may lose some of the flavor.

• Coat the Chicken in olive oil and Montreal steak seasoning to rest while you are preparing your sauce. 

• Coat the bottom of your pan with Olive oil and let the Oil heat up until it is "crackling."
• Sauté the onions and garlic until the onion are almost cooked through, about 2 minutes. 
• Add your Bell peppers and jalapeno, continue to sauté for a few more minutes. 
• Add in your tomato sauce and your heavy cream. 
• Mix in your basil, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. 
• Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. 
• While your sauce is simmering prepare your noodles and chicken. 
• Thinly slice your chicken and place in a pan with some olive oil on med high heat.

• Cook chicken for 3 to 6 minutes depending on how thin you sliced your chicken. Remove from heat.

• Once your sauce is done simmering add in 1 Tbl of sugar and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. 

• Toss in your cooked noodles and chicken in your sauce and enjoy. We tossed in warm pan and found that really combined the flavors well.

This recipe was inspired by an Episode of Diners, Drive-In & Dives.  We've made several changes to fit our tastes but the idea looked so delicious on tv we just had to try!

14W2D update

Lots to update on after catching you all up on all that happened while we were hiding this big secret :-).

Last Thursday I had my 13 week appointment, which was actually 3 Doctors appointment and THE longest Doctors appointment of my life! I was at the practice from 11am until 3:30pm!  I am happy to have knocked it all out but it was definitely a long day.

I met with the Genetic Counselor, my OB, ultrasound and gave up 6 vials of blood at the lab.  I am totally in love with my OB and know I made the right choice.  It was amazing to see how much the Baby has grown in the few weeks since my last ultrasound.  Lots of movement, showed off his/her hand and did the "thinking man pose" for us. It was adorable! I am kinda glad I can't feel anything quite yet though because s/he was super active. I finally heard the heartbeat, up until now we could only "see" it beating but it was at a strong 158.

My Nausea is slowly going away but still having the breathing issues and massive food & smell aversions.  I have an appetite again though so that is good news. I have gained back almost all 5 pounds I lost over the Holidays (think this is the only time in my life I will be happy to gain weight).  I am still 3 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight but I am not too worried. Something tells me that soon I will have to hold back how much I eat.

My Doctor is having me keep a journal about my breathing issues and I am supposed to call her so we can discuss it and decide what to do.  We did move my bike trainer back in the living room, hoping that doing at least a few minutes a day may help -- especially with being able to sleep. I have a dream of being one of those super fit pregnant women but right now I don't see being able to even do a full workout.

Waving hi!

Nice Spine you've got there.

Look at that little tongue sticking out!

8w6d and first OB appointment

As I mentioned and promised in our big reveal post, I have actually been writing posts while we have been keeping this secret.  While we weren't ready to share with the entire world, I still wanted to document the entire process. I admire those in the blogasphere that shared their positive news from the beginning..  I "stalked" those blogs within a few weeks of my pregnancy. I love knowing what is to come from other IFs.  The below post is from December 17th, my first OB visit.

Today was my first OB appointment.  It feels SO weird to not be seeing Dr. L anymore.  I am so happy that my OB did her Residency with him though, makes me feel like she will have the same high level of patient service care and knowledge.  My first appointment, however, was not with my actual OB.  Because I did not graduate from the RE until 7 weeks and most initial OB appointments are at 8 or 9 weeks, they just could not fit me in. I have been going to this practice for about 12 years so as an existing patient they were able to have me seen by a Nurse practitioner at another location.  I have to say, this was my longest Doctor's appointment ever.

First up was the Ultrasound.  I walk in and one of the Nurses is a friend! I had completely forgot she works at this other location. At first I was excited to see her and then I was petrified she would tell someone. She assured me she couldn't and would never anyways.  The ultrasound tech was so nice and explained everything she was looking at.  Baby Bell is measuring right on target at 8w6d.  It is so weird that I saw the Baby just 2 weeks ago and all it was just a "yoke" and a heart beat.  Now Baby B has a head, arms, legs and cute little butt!  She also confirmed again that it is just one little baby and actually showed me the other eggs, where I ovulated from. I'll have to do some research on how that works and where they go.  Ugg why did Sex Ed not teach us these things!??!!

Next up was a short interview with the nurse. Since they already have my family history it was mostly about what has happened since my last visit back in July and going over the notes Dr. L sent.  Apparently the HSG had to be added to my surgical history, good to know!  Since I am of Eastern European Jewish descent (and some other risk factors in our background) they recommended meeting with the Genetic counselor along with a few early test.  As part of one of the test I get to prick my finger at 10 weeks and send off the blood to compare to my levels today and at my 12 week appointment. 10 weeks just happens to be Christmas day, fun!

After that I had a Pap (Intrauterine Ultrasound and a Pap in the same day = not fun for an Endo girl!).  My Cervix is bleeding a lot but she assured me that is totally normal and everything else looked great. She answered a lot of my questions, gave me a ton of great information and samples. She also put me on a secondary Nausea med and asked me to add Calcium & Vitamin D to my Vitamin regimen.

I was happy to hear that as long as I am struggling with Nausea I get to eat whatever I can stomach, do not worry about calories. If I had to guess though, I would think I am eating 500-800 a day which is not normal for me at all!  Once the Nausea passes they recommends only adding 200-300 calories to my diet, no eating for two! There goes my Cupcake a day plan! haha.  She suggested eating 3 full meals and a small healthy snack in-between each.

This all still feel surreal but each appointment brings me closer to reality. I think once I start seeing a Belly it will sink in more.  I feel a lot more at ease armed with all of this information and plan to take several of the classes my practice and Hospital offer.  Right now I am struggling with how to tell the remainder of our close friends and family and working on our big Blog & FB reveals.

Almost forgot! Also got our official due date!  July 23rd, 2014!!!!  Corey's Birthday is the 21st so I have promised him he will still always get his Birthday celebrated as well, we don't want to be one of those families that ignores the parent's Birthday, plus I just love celebrating Birthdays!