Excavation in the Original Basement (March 29 - April 27)

With all the bad weather we've had out here lately, Larry and the boys have been focused on getting things moving along in the old basement.  It's been progressing along down there for a while, and they've gotten a lot more done in the last few weeks.  The main things to do in the basement are create new footings and move/replace the support posts (done a few weeks ago), tie into the new basement in the back of the house, and redo the plumbing/drainage system.   It's the plumbing work that's the reason for the basement being so torn up right now - the original plumbing was poorly laid out which was giving us weak water pressure and slow drainage.  The plumbing still isn't completely finished but we've already seen a huge improvement in both of those areas throughout the house.

Excavation on March 29, digging out a trench to access the old drain pipe under the basement floor

Click "Read more" to see lots of pics of the progress in the basement over the past month.

Pinhole Kitchen

With the wall full of holes covered by plastic sheeting in the temp kitchen, Emily and I noticed something pretty cool that happens on sunny days.  The size of the holes and the distance to the house next door make the perfect conditions for a sort of pinhole camera effect, where an image of the window from the house next door is projected onto the plastic inside our house in front of each of the holes in the wall. 

Changes in the Temp Kitchen (Mar 28-Apr 4)

Over the past few weeks the temp kitchen has been changed around a bit, with cabinets coming off and going back up, walls and ceilings being torn out, and temp drainage pipes being run through the open space.  Part of this has been to prepare for plumbing changes, both down in the basement and for the future new bathrooms upstairs, and part has been to start tying in the new back of the house into the existing house frame.

The same weekend the sisters were in town, we came home to find that the walls and ceilings in the temp kitchen had been torn out, and a new (temporary) drainage pipe had been installed alongside the big pantry cabinet

More pics after the jump...

Belly Mapping

Last weekend Alan and I started looking into 'Belly Mapping'. It was something the teacher in our childbirth classes mentioned and you can only do it in your last two months. That makes us the tiniest bit early, but we figured we'd try anyway.

I learned quite a bit, like what I thought was his head and would often pet is mostly likely his butt. Whoops. At least I got his little arms and legs right!

We thought we'd be able to feel him out because he isn't in the normal 'birthing position' yet with his head down, facing my back. Our little one won't settle for normal and instead usually lies crosswise in my belly, with his head on one side and his butt on the other and his tickly little hands and feet facing either up or down. He rolls a lot still and is big enough to give me a lurch when he abruptly changes position. When he's changing position, he's moving from that horizontal position to the far right side of my belly. Apparently that is the place to be. Often I'll look down at my belly and find it completely lop sided. When I touch my belly there's a rounded, hard spot (his butt not his head!) in the upper right just under my ribs and then a longer solid part down my side (which is his back). On the left side there is no baby, so it is soft and you can push your fingers into it a bit.

His little limbs have gotten long enough to poke into my back a bit and up and down. Sometimes I'll find a little foot (or hand, I can't tell them apart yet) poking at my back and you can feel it from the outside! That of course is always only on my right side.

As a side note, all directions are from MY perspective.

Baby Development Facts

There are so many fascinating things related to baby development and pregnancy, I thought I'd post a couple of the things I'm learning here.

• Breast fed babies have a lower rate of childhood obesity. The theory is that they have to work for the milk where a bottle fed baby essentially gets milk poured in.

• At 29 weeks (where we are) the vocal cords are completely developed, but the baby can't make any noise in the womb because he's breathing in the amniotic fluid (getting those muscles ready for air!).

More after the jump...

The Stretch

Although I have no evidence, I think the baby started a growth spurt a few days after the ultrasound (so starting a week and a half ago). Where before we could feel kicks and I felt some little bit of internal movement, then it turned into an odd lurching sensation that I could feel inside but you couldn't feel it on the outside. Then, suddenly one day we could actually FEEL a head or sometimes a little limb - I really can't tell arms and legs apart yet. He presses all the way to the left and you can see my tummy get lop sided and feel the solidness of baby on one side and no-baby on the other side. Then he'll roll and suddenly he's all the way on the other side. It's pretty amazing to see and feel and really odd to experience.

That's the cool part about his growth spurt: the more obvious movements. Soon we'll probably be to the point that I've heard others talk about where you see a little foot or hand move across your belly.

The less cool part about his growth spurt: my belly _hurts_ when it has to grow as fast as he can grow. It's not terrible, but it certainly isn't fun. And I feel a little like a wuss complaining about it considering I'm going to be experiencing labor pains in not too long and I'm sure that's much stronger. But complain I will anyway! Just this little guy alone is growing a half pound a week. At 2.5 pounds (as of 2 weeks ago), that is quite a lot of percent body growth! Can you blame my poor tummy for complaining about the stretch?

Support System

In the last house post, I showed some pictures of the house up on jacks.  That setup only lasted for a couple of days though - they rebuilt the north wall frame and sill on top of the foundation and set the house back down all in one day.  Over the course of the next week they inserted new steel support beams and posts in the basement to change where the house distributed its weight.  In the process of doing this they leveled out the floors and the house as a whole.  The difference between the old supports and the new ones is noticeable right away throughout the house - not only is it more level but it just feels much more *solid*.  The floors and stairs don't really creak when you walk around anymore, and the house doesn't shake when you run the laundry or step too heavily.   The slight downside is that because the house had been slouching for so long a few parts had a tough time adjusting to the new leveling.  We have cracks in the walls all over the house now.  Some are tiny and barely visible but some look a lot worse.  Contractor Larry assured us that the cracks are all normal and expected and can be easily patched up later on.

See pictures of the new frame, support beams, and wall cracks after the jump.