Savvy Shopping!

Y'all didn't know I was pregnant in that last post!  Best birthday present ever. At that time I was starting to feel queasy and could not eat half of what we cooked. By the next week I wasn't really eating anything at all! This time around I have felt super sick. And tired. To the point where I would come home from work and just sleep. It has been a rough 8 weeks :-) But as of now we are 13 weeks and 4 days and starting to feel better.

I recently went to Boston for work. I did a presentation and celebrated the arrival of the proofs of a book we have been working on for a while. My partner (Patrick Connelly of Smith College) and I focused in on one particular decade in the history of student unions but the whole team worked on everything too. I was way excited to meet them in person as for a year and half we connected through email and conference calls! It was like meeting a long lost brother! During that trip I started to feel a bit better. Mainly due to doses of Zofran, an anti-nausea medicine and lots of Tums. Yay calcium!

Now, I am starting to eat more foods again and getting some energy back as a result. We saw the baby a few weeks ago (there are pics below) and we heard the heartbeat yesterday. All levels looks good, all parts are functioning, and we have a due date of October 12! And thus begins the hunt.

I refuse to buy most baby related things brand new for several reasons. They are ridiculously overpriced. You don't use them that long. There is so much out there you can re-use! Why keep using resources and creating products when you can find them used for way cheaper? If it still works and is in good condition I'm game. I like garage sales, church re-sales, children re-sale shops, and of course the beloved craigs list.

Our strategy includes going to the big stores- Babies R Us, Buy Buy Baby, etc- and playing with stuff. We don't go in to buy. We go in to browse. We pull stuff off the shelves and display tables and try them out. This way we can figure out what we like and don't like and see what current prices are. Super helpful later when haggling :-) And we always clean up and put stuff back! Do I feel guilt over going in with no intent to buy? Nope. Why? Because we'll be back later for diapers. I think that's fair.

Just in case we aren't successful with the bargain hunting and hand me down phases, I sign up for all of the emails and list servs, directing it all to a junk file where I sort through later for coupons. I buy the Sunday newspaper, and actually read it, then cut more coupons. And sometimes I'll call and ask when the big sales are coming. I appreciate Babies R Us for doing that event where you can bring in your used car seats, strollers, and other baby equipment and they responsibly dispose of it while giving you a 40% off coupon for anything in the store. It's a small pain later when I have to go and un-sign up and take my name off the lists, but for all we save I consider it worth the time.

As you can imagine, Cass is VERY in to being a big sister. I laugh because she doesn't like to share me now with Matt, she really is not going to like sharing me with her sibling! But for now, she talks a lot about the "baby in Mama's tummy" and tells everyone we meet she is going to be a big sister.

Matt's research was approved by the IRB peeps and he is starting his interviews today. This is beyond excitement and more like relief because the end is truly near! He has 15 interviews to complete, several of which are already scheduled. Then he writes those up and writes his conclusion. Done. He thinks he might be able to defend in June or July depending on his committee's schedule, landing an August graduation date and a possible Reno trip in December to walk across the stage.  He is working hard!

And that's about it in our world. Hope all are doing well!
XOXO
Team Smith

Check out that profile! Such a cute nose and cheeks...

You can see the baby's foot, ankle, knee, leg, bottom and hand!