Predictions

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I do set goals throughout the year, but they rarely have anything to do with January 1. That said, I thought I'd make some predictions about the upcoming year:

1. My little bundle of cuddles will become mobile and will no longer want to be a bundle of cuddles. Hard to believe that will happen so fast, but I'm stocking up on cuddles while I have them.

2. I will have more good days than bad, but the bad ones will probably be exceptionally bad.

3. We will revise our financial plan at least 14 times, but will still have an increase in net worth by the end of 2010.

4. I will introduce Kaycie to the beach. And she will probably hate it.

5. I will start many new books, and won't finish half of them.

6. I will grow more as a person than I ever have in a 12 month period.

7. I will blog less, but have more stories I wish I had time to sit down and share.

8. Kaycie's grandparents will be spoiled rotten by the end of the year. Oh wait, I can check that one off now.

We've been blessed more in the past year than I ever imagined, and I'm very grateful. I can only hope the upcoming year is just as good.

Odds and Ends

Thank heavens, my father got the external pins out of his foot today. They put on a full cast and told him it was healing faster than anticipated. His humor was good, which I find amazing considering his normal seasonal grumpiness and the fact he's been out of commission for two months. He goes back in 2 weeks. I hope he's back to being fully functional soon. I hate that his shop's been closed since November, but at least this is a normally slow time of year. Now the sooner he's about to get back open the better.

We did some random shopping today where I racked up on half price gift wrap and ribbon. I'm going to be so excited next year when I pull out my Christmas stuff and find all these items that I will surely have forgotten I bought. We were only stopped 3 times by people wanting to look at the cute baby. She slept through the entire trip, including dinner.

I don't want to take down the tree. Not so much because I dread the process, but because I think it turned out quite pretty this year and I like it when it's lit up at night.

We paid off the van this week, making us officially 100% debt free for the second time. We never would have financed half the van in the first place if I hadn't been 5 months pregnant and parinoid about potential complications generating big medical bills. Thankfully nothing went wrong and we were able to go ahead and make the payoff. We also opened up a savings account for Kaycie, which will eventually lead to an ESA and investment account. We've worked too dang hard to get here, I want to make sure her future is secure and we continue to practice the financial behavior that we'd like to see her follow one day when she's making her own choices.

Greg goes back to work next week. I have no words for how much that sucks. And he likes it even less. I suppose that's the down side of taking 8 weeks of man-ternity leave. I would, however, like to express my deep, deep gratitude that I don't have to go back to work next week. I think dropping Kaycie off at daycare on Monday would be the death of me. I know most of you do it or have done it and survived, and I would too, but by the grace of God and a fantastic husband, I don't have to experience it firsthand.

Now that we're settling into a routine and things are becoming more normal, I hope to start being social again. I'm meeting some fun folks for lunch tomorrow and have a tentative plan for lunch with another friend next week. I'm open for other invitations in upcoming weeks!

Trouble

You may recall that back in July Greg and I made the pilgrimage to South Carolina to visit my BFF Lauren and her family. We came home with a van load of baby gear, clothes, and toys that had previously belonged to Lauren's two boys. I spent the rest of the summer sorting out the toys into things she can play with in the first year and things she can't really play with until later. I have the first year toys strategically placed in the nursery.

At the end of Lauren's visit her family came to pick her up on their way to Hattiesburg/New Orleans for the holiday.. The boys, Edwin and Ian, were very excited to meet Baby Kaycie.

They wanted to see her room, so I took them back to the nursery. As they looked around both boys started pointing out toys and saying, "We have one of those at home!" And my personal favorite, Ian informed me that, "We have a toy like that, but it's a little bit different..."

Umm... No, it's pretty much exactly the same. I'd even say they were bought at the exact same time.

I ushered them out of there pretty quickly at that point. We told Lauren it was a good thing they were going to be traveling and having Christmas before going home because there was a very good chance they'd never remember the incident, otherwise they'd be in BIG trouble when the boys went looking for their toys that were just like the ones Kaycie has!

Christmas

I read something on one of your blogs the other day that got me to thinking. (Yes, I still read all of your blogs, I'm just generally too rushed or tired to comment!) As Kaycie gets older, how can I reconcile the insanity of the holiday season with the celebration of Jesus? I mean, if it's His birthday, why do the rest of us get gifts? I've been thinking about that a lot over the past couple of days.

In truth, Jesus was all about giving. He didn't want gifts, He wanted to give to others, whether it was giving sight to the blind, spiritual gifts to followers, or blessings to those of us who certainly don't deserve it. It makes perfect sense that we celebrate Jesus by giving, both gifts and service. With that in mind, Santa must love Jesus, as he gives to people all over the world!

For years I've heard people say that based on evidence in the Bible Jesus was more likely born during the summer and that our traditional Christmas holiday is just a random day assigned for convenience. The truth is we can't pinpoint any exact day that would be Jesus' birthday, so perhaps we should continue to celebrate the spirit of giving all year. And THAT is what I'd like to teach Kaycie. That and how to feed herself. And not eat her bib.

I stood in my kitchen making Christmas Eve pancakes this morning and listening to my husband play with our sweet baby girl and tell her how cute she is, knowing that I will wake up tomorrow morning thankful that I've been given everything I could have asked for. Merry Christmas!

What Day Is It?

I'm ready for a little routine and normalcy in my world. Not gonna happen any time soon, but I'm so off right now that I don't know what day it is. Literally. I figured out it was Sunday when Greg turned on an NFL game.

BFF Lauren was here for a few days last week and we had a great time. I'm pretty sure she didn't want to leave yesterday. She and Kaycie hit it off quite well. And based on how much Casper is pouting today, I think he misses her too. I sure do. I used to spend several weeks each year at their house in South Carolina and I miss hanging out with her.

Meanwhile, my child is huge. She's up to 11lbs. Her newborn clothes are piling up in the stack of things she can't wear anymore. We were in Vicksburg on Thursday and went by the outlet mall to buy her a few more long sleeve 3 month clothes, because that's what she's wearing at nearly six weeks! And because Lauren has never had the opportunity to buy baby girl clothes. Kaycie smiling and laughing at us quite a bit now, and she loves watching people. Especially her daddy. I should have a lot of new pics to post after this week. Her Aunt Misty is in town from Texas for the week and we're planning to spend Monday visiting with her and several other members of Greg's family that haven't met Kaycie yet. Then we will end up with some type of Christmas plan with our families, although I have no idea what that's going to be yet.

Greg goes back to work the first week in January. I'm dreading that. It's been incredibly nice having him home!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Thanks for the letter you sent to me. I didn't know who you were, but Mommy and Daddy explained the whole thing. I've been a very good girl over the past five and a half weeks. Well, even when I haven't been a perfectly good Tot-possum, I've still been cute! See:

I don't need much for Christmas this year. I'd like some more diapers, I use a lot of those. And a can of formula. And maybe some batteries for my mobile. I just got all new stuff for my birthday, so I don't need much. Oh, and my pup would like some new squeaks, too. I asked Mommy and Daddy what they wanted and they just said, "Sleep." I dunno why.

Mommy said I may get to meet you next week at Aunt Jen's house. That will be fun! I'm really looking forward to my first Christmas!

Love,
Kaycie

4 weeks

Yesterday Kaycie was 4 weeks old. Tomorrow will officially be 1 month. Feel like longer. As of yesterday she weighed in at 9lbs 9oz. Gigantic. And still nocturnal. We'd been having serious reflux issues over the past week. The kind that require wardrobe changes 4-5 times a day. For both of us. We talked to her doc yesterday and with the addition of rice cereal I think we've at least reduced the amount of spit up.

BFF Lauren is coming to visit next week. I'm very excited. It'll be the first time she's come for a visit, it's always been easier for me to go to them since there were 4 of them and 1 of me. She's flying in to stay without the boys for a few days. They'll pick her up on their way South for the holiday.

Oh geez. Is Christmas that close? Geezum petes. At some point I have to go to a store and buy some stuff. I don't think I've ever been this unprepared for the holidays!

Whose Child Am I?

One of the questions I get asked the most is, "Who does Kaycie look like??" Um... I'm one of those people who think babies look like babies. I can't even pick myself out in pictures. I have no idea who she looks like. I did a little research and here are some exhibits for your consideration:

Exhibit A, Kaycie:





Exhibit B, Greg:


Exhibit C, Susan:



I happen to think the answer is obvious from these pictures, although I can see parts of both of us in certain features.

Three Weeks

We've survived three weeks as of today.

Just checking in. I'm still here, just taking things one day at a time. Kaycie has developed some erratic sleep patterns, which means Greg and I have no sleep patterns. I'm trying to keep her awake more during the day, but so far that's been a total failure. When she wants to sleep, she sleeps. And frankly, in the early morning after being up with her off and on all night, Greg and I also want to sleep. She had been giving us 3-4 hours at a time at night, now we're doing good to get 2 hours, then up for two hours, then asleep for an hour, then up again... We've been told everything from keep her awake to just deal with it for the first two months until she's alert enough to understand a routine. We have to get something worked out before two months. I don't know what I'm going to do when Greg goes back to work first of the year.

Backlog

While playing the odds on how many wet diapers I can change in a two hour period (so far we're up to 4, if anybody's counting), I realized I never did share one of the more hilarious moments from our stay in the hospital the day after Kaycie's birth.

The hospital phone rings quite early that morning. Greg answers it and a woman from scheduling informs him that she's calling to schedule our baby's circumcision...

Ummmm.

Now I'm wondering why my child is still awake. Aren't newborns supposed to sleep like 22 hours a day? She's been up since like 5:30. It's now 9:30. She's been fed twice in that time and should be in a milk coma. I put her down less than 10 minutes ago and now I hear her mumbling away in her crib. Seriously child. I hope this means she plans to sleep a loooong time tonight!

Adjusting

And in case anybody is wondering how the pup is adjusting...

And By the Way

Do you ever get the feeling you're being stared at? I don't care what they say, I don't believe for a minute that she can't see me from this far away. She is staring right at me...

Anyway, it occurs to me today, as my friend Nicole is in labor as we speak, that I haven't expressed proper kudos to the folks at Baptist Hospital for Women.

Those people are awesome.

We had terrific nurses, from our L&D nurse to our baby nurses, everybody took an interest in us and made sure we had everything we needed. When we went in for our new baby clinic visit on Saturday the nurse spent a solid hour with us talking through things and helping me with some nursing issues. Then she scheduled us for a follow up visit tomorrow, even though Kaycie is physically perfectly fine, to make sure the nursing situation has improved and that I'm feeling better about things.

I am starting to come out of the haze a bit. I may revert back when my mom leaves. It's nice being able to hand Kaycie off at 5:30am and go back to sleep without worrying about her waking up every ten minutes! But she's sleeping better, like 3 hours at a time during the night, and I'm getting more than an hour of rest between feedings. And did I mention that she's just so darn cute that really, who wouldn't want to hang out with her??

She's staring at me again. I swear she's thinking something vitally important. I also think she may be driving by next week. Sheesh.

Pictures

I've started uploading pictures to my Flickr account. There will more added over the next few days (and weeks...) but here's the link to the album.

Everybody is doing well today. Kaycie passed all of her first set of tests with flying colors. Doc said she's looking good. She's been super good. More awake than I expected, but not upset about much! We should be going home tomorrow morning. I'm sure her peacefulness will come to an abrupt end within 3 minutes of getting to the house...

Kaycie

Dude, that child is stubborn.

We had a long, long day and a longer evening, but Kaycie finally arrived at 6:16pm. It wasn't exactly fun, and whoever had the idea that the epidural wasn't really necessary was crazier than a bat. Kaycie was not only slow to cooperate, she was transverse and got the idea that sitting on a couple of my nerves was a good idea. Like the nerve that shoots pain through my hip. Whoever had the idea that turning off my epidural in the middle of all this was a good idea was even crazier. But we got it done. After two solid hours of pushing.

8lbs, 7oz. 21 inches. Amazon for a child who wasn't supposed to be very big per Dr. T.

But she's just as adorable as she can be. Waiting on her to get out of transition now, hopefully in the next half hour or so. Even though I was in a drug induced stupor most of the day, I'm exhausted. Going to work on getting some rest now.

Live! From Baptist Hospital for Women

I haven't been hospitalized since I spent a week in ICU with bronchitis in 2nd grade. I broke that streak tonight.

Have I mentioned that I really dislike having a needle installed in my hand?

So they started the cervidil about 8:45. They said I can eat if I want until midnight, but I can't get out of bed for 2 hours. You don't tell a pregnant woman she can eat but can't go pee. That's just mean.

On the nicer side, they have offered to give me drugs so I can get some sleep between now and 5:30am when the cervidil comes out. Normally I hate taking anything that's going to knock me out, but tonight I may take them up on it. I'm going to need the rest, and I don't see sleep in my future without it. Greg's jealous. I don't think he's going to get much sleep on the less than comfy looking fold out couch.

They've got me hooked up to all the monitors, which is cool. I've been laying here listening to the little Tot-beat. Sounds like a galloping horse. Greg thinks the contraction monitor is cool. He was wishing we'd had one of those at home.

They should start the induction drugs between 6:30 and 7am. That's when the party gets started. Lets hope the cervidil does it's job, because I'm still not dilated at all. I'm afraid if I don't get anywhere with this I'm going to end up with a C-section. If that's the case, I just hope they don't wait all day to make that decision!

I guess I'll go back to thumb twiddling now. Watching the mountian ranges on the contraction monitor and hoping the Broncos can pull off a Monday night win. And start counting down until I can get up and go pee. This is going to be a long night, and an even longer day tomorrow.

Checklist

Checklist:

Wash as much laundry as humanly possible - check
Wash every dish in the house so bugs don't move in while I'm gone - check
Make arrangements for the pup for tomorrow morning - check
Pack clothes, toiletries, more clothes, extra socks, and a book - check
Clear all camera storage devices and charge all batteries - check
Give up on ever getting a plan from my parents - check
Pack 138 battery chargers and assorted electronic device cables - check
Wash yet another load of laundry - check
Check all social networking sites for the 300th time today in attempt to procrastinate - check
Pack several thousand dollars worth of electronics to utilize chargers and cables - check
Wonder why I can't leave home without every piece of electronic equipment we own - check
Pack a bag for Tot - check
Wish Lauren and Nicole a happy birthday - check
Feel guilt for abandoning my poor pup for a week - check
Feel more guilt for what the pup doesn't realize is about to happen - check
Wish this was done so I wouldn't have to think about it anymore - check

Alright guys, finishing up preparations and heading to the hospital in a little while. Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll be posting pics of a freshly cooked Tot. In the meantime, depending on how bored I get and how miserable I am, I hope to post updates here and on FB. And pictures when we have something to take pictures of. Anybody that wants to come by the house and entertain the pup this week, feel free.

I Knew It.

Last week when the weather guy first mentioned that there was a random named storm in the southern Carribbean I immediately told Greg that I just knew Tot would be born during a hurricane. He totally made fun of me. It was way too far south and would be making landfall in Central America, there's no way it would get into the Gulf and make landfall, at least not before I was induced Tuesday morning.

Uh huh.

Would somebody please go check the weather forecast and tell me where all the rain is coming from Monday night and Tuesday? What? From some random late storm named Ida?

The lesson here, don't argue with a pregnant woman past her due date.

And by the way, Tot turns 41 today. I'm quite sad that she didn't arrive on her Uncle Bill's birthday yesterday. That would have rocked big time. But Tuesday is fine as well, although I'm afraid she may end up getting a restraining order against us to stop the eviction.

Enough is Enough

I've heard about crazy pregnancy dreams.

Some people have fun dreams. Not me.

Some people dream about their baby. Not me.

No, I have spent my entire pregnancy having crazy disturbing nightmares. You know the ones where you sit straight up in bed at 3am desperately wanting to call Grandma just to make sure it was a dream? Nine months of that.

This morning was the last straw. My psyche must have run out of variations for killing members of my family or my husband leaving me. I'd gotten a little used to those anyway, they weren't freaking me out as much as they used to. So it dug deep to come up with a large, creepy, very fast snake (which has been a regular feature of my nightmares since childhood) and my pup. It culminated in a frantic attempt to get to the vet which, as you can imagine, didn't end well.

I should apologize to my hubby at this point for stumbling into the living room a crying blubbery mess, looking for my pup who of course was playing outside at that moment.

I've decided to give up sleeping altogether. I won't be sleeping after the baby arrives anyway, what's a few extra days?

Some Days...

I took a walk today, because walking is supposed to help bring on this labor thing, and I took my camera because one of the houses on my street has a really cool tree and I wanted to take pictures. We think it's a ginkgo tree, based on the yellow color and shape of the leaf. I'd show you the pictures, but when I got down there I realized my camera battery was dead. So I came back home. Because I can't even seem to get something that simple done right.

Now I'm thinking if this walking thing is going to work I need to do a lot of it. I'm meeting my hubby and in-laws for dinner tonight. Perhaps if I leave now I can walk to meet them at UMC by 4:30. It's only like 25 miles. Not that I think it would help.

Ok, enough whining for the moment. I'm just getting a little tired of myself these days. Thank goodness Greg will be home for the next 8 weeks!

Notice of Eviction

Dear Ms. Tater Tot:

You are hereby served official notice of eviction. You have until Monday, November 9, 2009, at 7pm to vacate your current residence or else preparations will begin to evict you.

Sincerely,
Management


I really can't believe that I made it two days past my due date and I've progressed to nowhere. Dr. T actually said she'd call it dilated to 1/2 cm, a very generous 1/2 cm. Of course, that was after I told her to lie to me and she kinda said it with her eyes rolled. Sigh.

Unless Tot suddenly gets super motivated we'll go into the hospital Monday night. They'll start a procedure to try to force dilation overnight, then start the induction at the crack of dawn Tuesday morning. Hopefully we'll have a Tot by that afternoon. At this point it's all kinda surreal. I'm not looking forward to having to go in the night before. It's going to be a loooong night of contractions, waiting for the real party to start the next morning. And I can't eat after I check in at 7pm. Telling a pregnant woman she can't eat for hours and hours on end is not nice. Anybody walks into my hospital room during that time with food will be beaten and tossed out the window.

In totally unrelated news, my dad is having surgery on his broken foot Wednesday morning. I can't remember whether or not I mentioned that he ran over it with his back hoe last week. Of the 18 or so fractures he has two bones that need to be "fixed" through surgery. He's not happy about it, but finally agreed to have it done after Mom promised she'd still come stay with us for a few days after the baby comes. He'll be out of commission for 3 months. We're not sure how he's going to work, as he runs a machine shop by himself. This time last year he was talking about closing the shop because business was so bad. Last week he had to turn down a couple thousand bucks worth of work because he can't put any weight on his foot. I dunno what's going to happen, but I'm just going to keep praying about it. It'll work out. I don't know how but I feel certain he'll come up with something. He's already figured out how to get his coffee from the kitchen to the living room while on crutches, so I think he'll figure out how to work. Dad's just like that. He'll figure something out.

Memo to Tot

Memo to Tot:

Today's your day. Really. You're officially due today. We've been shooting for this day for a long time. But it'd be even better if you'd participate.

To make it easier, we all got together and agreed to add an extra hour to your day. You have 25 hours to arrive on your date. It's a little something we call daylight savings time.

I know it's getting tight in there. You're running out of space. But you can fix that. You have control over the situation. There's a lot more room out here to stretch and squirm. But it's up to you to make your move. We're just waiting on you...

Happy Halloween!

I'm refusing to participate in trick or treating this year. If I can't snack on the candy, I'm not having it in my house. Too much temptation. Not like the teenagers who go around our neighborhood will really miss out much!

That said, here's Tot's costume (unless she arrives in the next 36 hours or so, then I have a different one for her!)

And here's the punkin and the ghostie:

I'm There

I think I've been a pretty good sport for the past 39 1/2 weeks. Even when I was sooo sick those first four months, I tried to stay positive and tell myself it was all part of the package and wouldn't last forever.

I've decided I'm about done with this now.

For the past two days I've rather suddenly been feeling more and more uncomfortable. Tired. Really tired. More random pains, including occasional leg spasms in my thighs and night cramps in my calves. Contractions aren't any more frequent or consistent, but some of them have been a bit stronger. Walking (waddling...) has become more of a challenge, as is getting in and out of the car. Every time Tot moves she pokes something that hurts. I know, she's out of room in there and it's not her fault, but she could make some effort to hurry up!

I told Greg I think it's probably time for me to seriously stop running so hard every day. I need to be still more, start resting. I'm not good at that these days, but I don't have a lot of choice. I just can't go like I could even a couple of weeks ago. Won't be long now, I guess. Couple more weeks, max. Maybe she'll get motivated before they have to induce. I've been very patient every week when the doc tells me we've made no progress. Not in a hurry, she'll come when she's ready. I'm ok with that. I've waited this long, I can wait a few more weeks. I think I've reached that point where I'm past that. I'm ready. Her official due date is Sunday, let's hope she pays attention to deadlines!

La Dee Da Dee Da...

Sorry folks, all of you who are anxious for Tot's arrival are just going to have to wait. We have so little progress that my doc went ahead and penciled me in for induction in two weeks. We'll make that official next Tuesday. I have no control over my child. She's going to do whatever she wants until they yank her out kicking and screaming on the 10th.

She's either going to end up absurdly laid back or incredibly difficult. I can only hope it's the first!

Mid Life Crisis.

Tot turned 39 on Sunday. I fully expect her mid life crisis to kick in any minute now.

You thought I meant my own mid life crisis, didn't you? HA! Not me, but the pup may be about to have one.

Going to see Dr. T today. I've been going on Wednesdays for 9 months, and this week they could only get me in on Tuesday. It's a miracle I remember. I'm not expecting any earth shattering news today. I haven't been having many contractions over the past week, so I don't imagine she's moved much. Doc said last week that we needed a few more series of stronger ones to start moving her down more. Still five days from "due," and another week until she's jolted into reality whether she likes it or not. There are a lot of people anxious for her to get this show on the road! (The pup isn't one of them.)

Time To Move

There was a snake in my house tonight.

In my laundry room, where I walked past it three times before I noticed it. Smack in between me and the door. Yes, I screamed. Loudly. Greg thought my water broke. Oh no, that wouldn't be nearly as traumatic. I nearly hyperventilated right then and there.

Greg is my hero. He coerced it out the front door after much effort. I may not be able to walk out the front door tomorrow. If it wasn't for Greg I'd probably still be trapped in the laundry room, standing on top of the washer.

I was about to go to bed, but now I'm thinking that's pointless. Perhaps I will start searching house listings online. I can deal with most creatures, even mice which I really don't like. But I can't deal with snakes. At all. Especially not IN MY HOUSE.

Getting My Money's Worth

I made the decision before we bought our new DSLR camera that if I was going to drop that much money on a camera, I was darn well going to learn something about how to use it. I've been reading a lot over the past week about the technicals of manual settings and composition techniques. I know I won't ever be a "real" photographer, and I don't want to be, but I like photography, find other people's work interesting, and want to get the most out of the equipment I have.

I think it's fairly obvious that I'm not going to be in a position to take a formal class any time soon, so I've been going through a couple of online tutorials and doing the assignments to play with settings and composition techniques. I'm going to upload some of the better pictures to a set on my Flickr. I haven't even contemplated post-processing at this point, they are all raw pics sampling different specific techniques. Not even cropped. I'll work on that later, when I don't feel much like hauling a tiny Tot all around town.

The original files are too big to post a lot of them here, but here are a couple I particularly liked (resized to a reasonable file size!):

This one was part of an assignment dealing with aperature and utilizing points of lights to make those fuzzy circles of light as part of an overall blurred background. My old camera wouldn't do that. The full sized version shows the detail much better.



I was actually working on an assignment involving shutter speed and capturing motion in a fountain when I switched targets to this flag blowing in the wind. It wasn't really a better subject for shutter speed, but it did fit and also covered another assingment involving flow of motion and composing with lines (in this case an S-line). I also thought the colors turned out particularly vibrant on these if you look at the originals. This is one of those I really wish I'd shot with my old camera as well, just to compare.

Christmas

At the rate we're progressing, it'll be Christmas before I give birth.

I just knew we'd be told I was at 1 or 2cm today, but no. Nothing. She's moved "a little bit" down. Still have a long way to go. Dr. T was even talking deadlines today. She said they won't let me go more than about a week late, and if she doesn't get a move on we'll be scheduling for November 10. We go back next Tuesday. Dr. T didn't even suggest that she'd see us next week unless we come in before, she didn't see that happening.

She guestimated Tot was about 6.5lbs, but that's a big guess. Said she should be putting on about half a pound a week, so I could be looking at an 8lb or so baby.

In all honesty, I'm not in a rush. I'm probably the least anxious person when it comes to her arrival. I've waited a long, long, long time, a few more weeks won't matter. And I'm not miserable; I feel pretty darn good for 38 1/2 weeks. I'm willing to wait until she's ready or until Dr. T says it's time to force her out.

Evidence

Yes, I'm a posting fool today. Enjoy it while you got it, cause I have a feeling there may be a drought in the near future...

That said, I suspect most of you are very familiar with my lunatic pup, Casper.

Exhibit A

I get home from an errand this afternoon and let him in from his adventures in the back yard and find this:

Exhibit B

Really, it doesn't do it justice. There is black soot all over his neck, face, and feet. I held him down and scrubbed his face with a wet washcloth and got some of it off, but the minute I went for his feet he freaked out and started running laps around the house. Our guess is he was playing under the grill. That's his favorite naughty place to be. And this whole time he keeps telling me he hasn't done anything, he doesn't have any idea what I'm talking about. The evidence speaks for itself, you nutcase pup.

And you don't even have a clue how your world is about to be rocked. Just wait.

Practice

I knew better than to make the comment that I'd all but quit having Braxton-Hicks contractions yesterday.

They started back with a vengeance about 10pm last night. Apparently Tot decided she needed more practice. Lasting longer this time, anywhere from 30 seconds to over a minute, and kept going off and on until after 3:30am. Usually I can sleep through them, they don't hurt they're just uncomfortable. The problem last night was that every time one started to end Tot would spend the next two minutes kicking the daylights out of me. She wasn't liking it. Nobody in our house got much sleep last night.

When we went to the doc last week I wasn't really surprised to find that we hadn't made any progress. If we get that report this week I'll be very surprised. My belly seems farther away than it did a few days ago, although from this perspective it really is hard to tell. Seems like I'm feeling more pressure lower in my abdomen than before as well, and she doesn't seem to be kicking right at my rib cage now, but a bit below it. Surely she's dropped at least. And with all the contractions and kicking last night I would expect to see a little dilation. We'll see tomorrow at the next doc visit. I know it could still be a week or two before she gets serious, but I hope she doesn't make a habit of nights like last night in the meantime.

Perhaps I should put some more thought into packing a bag...

Can Someone Explain...

Yesterday I opened my kitchen cabinet to grab one of my favorite glass mixing bowls when I noticed this:

Do you see it? Notice the bowl in the middle. There are three smaller bowls nested on top and a larger one on bottom. But then there's the middle one...

The entire bowl isn't shattered, just the rim, all the way around. The other four bowls don't have a scratch on them. These are heavy bowls. They have to be to survive in this house. Nothing fell on it. And it was nested in the middle. I showed it to Greg when he got home last night and he said he'd heard something make a racket in the kitchen Sunday morning but never could find the source of the noise. Anybody got any ideas on what the heck could have happened? I'm baffled.

Mars and Venus Prepare for Baby

I don't think it's a big secret that I fell victim to the nesting urge. I was mostly focused on organizing, but at our house that involves a LOT of cleaning. Ok, so vacuuming the ceiling fans was just plain fun, but that's not my point.

I realized today that Greg has been man-nesting. What is man-nesting? Well, apparently they have their own ways of preparing for baby. In our case, that means buying electronics and gadgets and such. I didn't think that much about it when he insisted we were buying the new vac. We needed it even though I kept coming up with reasons to put it off. He didn't want Tot hanging out on our yucky carpet any more than I did, we bought a new vac. When he flat told me that if we were going to buy a new DSLR camera we needed to go ahead and do it before the baby arrived so we'd have it at the hospital I made a token arguement about waiting a while... until we found exactly the one I'd wanted on clearance at Best Buy. (Did I mention we bought a new Nikon D40? I have to be careful not to drool when I use it.) Skip ahead to this weekend. It was determined that we need a video camera. I pointed out that Tot won't actually do anything for several months, just lay there and sleep. But we have to video her coming home for the first time. Ok then. At least we found a refurb silly cheap we could order...

Man-nesting. I had no idea. I hope Tot gets here soon, before a new flat screen TV arrives.

Resistance is Futile

Target. Dollar. Bin. Can't. Resist.

All Clean

Tot should be all clean now. We had her last Tot Wash on Friday at Greg's office.

It was a diaper and wipes shower, which was GREAT considering that after three big showers we had received exactly zero packs of diapers or wipes. I'm not kidding. It was weird. But fine, because we knew we'd be having this one and be set. Greg find it weird that every time they have one of these at his office they make them open all the gifts - even though it's pretty obvious what they are. I had some fun with it. I kept getting a bag or a package and trying to guess what was in it. "Ummm... I think this one might be... well, it kinda feels like... No, wait, it's diapers!"

When I went to put all the packs of diapers away on the top shelf of Tot's closet I had a minor diaper-lanche. Thankfully it wasn't the wipes.

Meanwhile, we've decided that she doesn't like the cold weather. Even the Braxton-Hicks contractions have stopped. I think she's decided to hibernate until Spring. I don't blame her.

Patience

Seems I have a very patient child. That or she's convinced the way out is by climbing my rib cage. I keep telling her that's not an exit, but she doesn't listen.

But she's growing. Which I already knew. She's getting heavy.

And that sums up the results of my visit to the Tot Doc today.

Oh, and I would just like to confirm that after watching that show about the family with 19 kids last night, I have no intention of deciding at the last minute to have a home birth. No way, no how. I want my kid surrounded my doctors and nurses and very expensive medical equipment when she arrives. I am in no way qualified to determine if she's perfectly healthy aside from counting fingers and toes. I'll gladly pay somebody with more education than I every wanted to give me that report.

Party Time

Dr. T. told us that Tot would be considered full term at 37 weeks. That's today. She's starting to make an impact:

We celebrated the beginning of the end of this stage yesterday at our 3rd Tot Wash at my parents' house. I had a great time, and was so very glad to spend some time with my cousins who came from out of town to host the event:

Lynn and Bonnie are awesome, and I was so thankful for all the work they did! I always wish we all had more time to hang out when they're in town, but they have so much family to see and things to do that it's usually hard to pin down more than a couple of hours. This time I monopolized them for an entire day!

I can't describe all the great gifts we got yesterday, but I thought I'd share two. Greg's convinced that Tot will arrive on Halloween and thought she needed to be a little pumpkin. Now she can!

t

The award for "Most Popular Gift," as voted on by 4-8 year old boys in attendance after the shower, was by far the jungle play mat:

I'll probably post more pics on my Flickr, but since I have 212 so far (I haven't gotten the ones off Mom's camera yet) I'm being a little selective here. But I'll share one more. My dear sweet brother is a little scared of pregnant women. If he makes one more comment about me being fat he will have good reason, but as it is he's afraid I'm either contagious or that I'll go into labor in his presence. That'd be a little too much for him. This was the only time he let me get this close the entire weekend.

I'm totally determined to have this baby November 7 just to hijack his birthday. I'd have the upper hand the rest of my life...

Things I Never Thought I'd Blog About

I don't think I ever mentioned that we bought a new vacuum last week. Our old one wasn't really dead, it did a decent job, but it didn't have attachments. At all. And I really wanted some attachments. I did my research and then almost talked myself out of buying one. That's when Greg stepped in and informed me that I was going to buy one.

In truth, I think Greg understands this nesting thing better than I do. He gets many bonus points for that. Or else he was tired of listening to me whine about it. Either way, we went and bought a new vac.

No, I didn't buy a Dyson. I couldn't do it. I spent less than half the price of the Dyson I wanted and can sleep at night knowing I didn't deprive my child of her college education. I'm not that hard to please. Most importantly, it has attachments. I knew I wanted them, I just didn't realize how much I wanted them!

There are parts of my house that are cleaner right now than they have been since the day I moved in. I vacuumed baseboards and corners and crevices and vent covers of every imaginable variety. I broke out the motorized pet hair tool and went to town on the pup couch. And it works on bare floors, too. I've never had one that I could use in the kitchen/dining room. Best of all...

I have this serious phobia about mice in my house. I never had a mouse in the house until they started construction on the new library in my back yard. We've had several mouse issues since then. I hate cleaning up mouse poop more than just about anything in the world. I would rather just not use certain drawers in the kitchen than face it. But guess what vacuum attachments will do? Suck up the mouse poop without me having to get anywhere near it. Maybe I can use two of my kitchen drawers again! (After using copious amounts of bleach to finish the job...)

Over all, I probably vacuumed up three or four dogs worth of hair today. And I'm not done. I just wore myself out and started getting overheated. Every time I ran the vac and the AC cut on it blew the breaker. After the second time in different rooms I just turned off the AC. At least it's not the middle of summer!

I've worn myself out every day this week. Tomorrow I have to take it easy, it's a travel day. And I need to be rested for Saturday's Tot Wash and much quality time with the extended family!

Apples

I have never before in my life had a doctor roll her eyes and tell me to quit snacking on apples. Apparently they have, "practically no calories at all..." Sigh. Tot likes apples. And pineapple. And I thought fruit was healthy? And what about that apple a day thing. Guess that's not really working, as I'm seeing her once a week now!

I don't know what she was complaining about. I gained two pounds this week. And when they pricked my finger my sugar was 113, well below the 140 limit. Not dilated any, but Dr. T thinks her head has moved down. In other words, right on schedule for 36 weeks.

This weekend is Tot Wash #3 at my mom's house. I'm looking forward to it, I get to see some family (including BFF Lynn) who I haven't seen in well over a year. And my brother's girlfriend is coming, which should take some of the attention off of me, thank goodness. This should be our last trip out of town until post-Tot. Since our next (and last) shower is a diaper shower, I should have an idea of what we have and what we need to get after this weekend. Maybe.

I Dunno...

The #1 most frequently asked question I'm getting these days is, "So, what do you still need..."

In all honesty, I dunno. I've never actually done this before. Other than the basics, which we have, I don't have a clue what we'll need!

I've made a list of things I think we need to have before Tot arrives, but it's mostly things other people aren't going to buy for us. Like an extra car seat base. Or a garbage can. And I'm absolutely NOT requesting people buy me breastfeeding supplies! I'll take care of that myself, thanks!

We've gotten so much stuff already, and there really isn't that much that we need in the first place. There are some things we haven't gotten at either of the two showers so far that I've found strange. Like no diapers. At all. This doesn't concern me, as Greg's office is having a diaper shower for us on the 16th. We'll be set. Just weird that nobody's given us any after two showers. And only one set of bottles. Which also doesn't concern me, as I have no clue what type of bottles Tot will be willing to take or how long it will be before I actually need them if I'm able to breastfeed. But between the stuff Lauren gave me, the "extra" stuff Jen gave me, and the first two showers, I can bring a baby home right now and be fine for a while!

On a slightly different note, I realized that while we've taken a lot of pictures of me since I got pregnant, we hadn't really taken any of me and Greg. So I had my MIL take this one at the Tot Wash this past Saturday:

Looks like I need to lay off the beer.

Perspective

I bought a half gallon of milk this week.

While making my bowl of cereal this morning I noticed that my milk expires on 11/15.

Tot will be here before my milk expires.

Oh my.

Yawn...

My doc appointments have gotten so boring I don't even get in trouble for not gaining weight anymore. Things should liven up from here on out, though. We start our weekly visits next week and should get an idea of how anxious Tot is to make an appearance. My rule is that she has to wait until the 17th, as I have 3 more baby showers between now and then! Gotta get her good and clean before she arrives. Technically, she'll be considered "full term" at 37 weeks, which is... gulp... next Sunday, October 11! Um, that's really soon.

Anyway, feel free to start a betting pool on the date at this point. Greg is saying Halloween. I'm thinking it needs to either be Oct 12, which is BFF Lynn's birthday (but still, entirely to soon for my nerves at this point!) or Nov 7, which would devastate my dear brother. That's his birthday. Not only have I been forbidden from giving birth on that day, I've actually been forbidden from giving birth the entire month of November. He told me I had to wait until December. Preferably the end of December. We won't discuss the comparrisons that were made to elephants at that point, but I did threaten to cry on him if he wasn't nicer to me. That scares him more than anything else.

Of course, I've also been given lists from several of my friends of dates that are not acceptable, as they will not be in town. If I combine all of those, I have about 3 days during October and early November that are acceptable. Somehow I don't think Tot is going to be that accomodating.

Happy Anniversary!

Greg and have been married 3 years today! I couldn't ask for a better husband.

I don't remember much of anything about the actual wedding, but I know we left with rings and a piece of paper making it official. And that my motto of the day was, "I'm not in charge of that." I didn't care if the photographer was late, I didn't care what was going on with the reception, I didn't if a single guest showed up. I didn't want to know if my brother was drinking beer in the back of the church. I wasn't in charge of that. I only cared that at the end of the day Greg and I were married.

I'd say it worked out well. =) Love you, honey! Happy anniversary!

Busy Week

We have quite a bit going on this week. In addition to the usual boring things I need to do, we have an appointment with Dr. T. for a Tot checkup on Wednesday, which also happens to be our anniversary. Woo! Not only did Greg take off work on Wednesday, he took off the rest of the week as well. This will be the first year we haven't traveled somewhere for our anniversary. We had talked about taking a quick road trip to Memphis for a couple of days, but decided that instead of spending the money for that we'd stay home. Ok, the truth. Greg offered to stay home Thursday and Friday and help me nest. There. I admit it. I'm nesting. Sorta. It feels more like an "Oh, crap, I have to get some stuff done and I'm down to just a few weeks to do it!" But I guess that's what nesting is, huh? Anyway, my wonderful husband has offered to help since I'm more or less brain dead at this point. So then Saturday is baby shower #2 and an evening of fun with some friends. Sunday will probably result in me collapsing somewhere in the house and not moving for hours on end.

Anyway, back in June and early July I was faced with the task of cleaning out the office/storage room to make room for the nursery. Our house doesn't have an attic or much storage space of any type, so I had basically used the 3rd bedroom as a makeshift attic/office since I bought the house some six years ago. Moving all that junk out was no easy task. After giving away 5 large bags of clothes, throwing out more bags of garbage than I can count, getting rid of a big farmhouse table and an elliptical machine, filling up a hallway closet with buckets of craft supplies, and finding new homes for a handful of other items, everything that was left got shoved into the guest room until I could figure out what to do with it:

Yes, those bins are stacked 4 high. The time has come to figure out what to do with it. Thursday and Friday of this week is going to be dedicated to finding a place for as much of this as possible. I think almost half of it is Christmas decorations. And we somehow own a pile of luggage (much of which is actually under the bed and in the closet in this room AND our bedroom). I spent last week cleaning out our bedroom to make some extra space. I need to clean out the shelves in the laundry room as well. Did I mention that I have even more Christmas decorations stored in the laundry room? I'm going to need more garbage bags.

Blog Exclusive

Ok, I admit to being a blog slacker. Let's face it people, there isn't a whole lot of new and exciting things going on in my world at the moment. We're just... waiting.

That said, most of the things I've been posting here I also post in a shorter version on Facebook, particularly Tot-related items, since I have a lot of interested friends there who don't know about the blog. However, since you guys have stuck around I thought I'd give you blog exclusive, which will not be posted on FB at least until after Tot arrives. In honor of Tot turning 35 yesterday (WOW, 35!) I finally got her bedroom door decoration put up:

I'd like to point out that after painting the letters the first time I had to go back and swap two of the colors around because I realized that I had LSU vs Florida going on and the last thing I needed was an SEC rivalry stressing out my infant!

Originally I was just going to do her initials in one color and put them up on the wall by the closet, but her daddy suggested I do her name and put it on the door in different colors. I point that out because normally when we have conversations on these types of matters he either smiles and nods with an "ok" or says something like, "You bought a shower curtain???" I thought I'd give him props for a good idea on this one. =) And yes, I hung them all sidewaysish because I figured it would hide the fact that I'm well beyond hanging anything strait at this point. Somewhere between pregnancy brain and being off my ADD meds for over a year now, it's a miracle I can find my way to the bathroom.

There will be more this week, I promise. If nothing else, there will be an update from Dr. T on Wednesday, as well as a special holiday!

Progress

Tot turned 34 today, which is kinda overwhelming to me. It just seems like I'm a lot closer to the end all of the sudden. I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions most nights, which is also a little startling. I just keep thinking we're still two months away, but that's starting to seem like not so far away...

Meanwhile, last week my parents bought us a glider for the nursery. Today we got around to assembling it, which got me motivated to move some furniture and hang some things on the wall. See:

My shower curtain art (above) went up on the wall above the glider and the big flowers my MIL gave me (below) went above the crib.


(Ignore the stuff in the crib, it's currently storage for baby gifts!)

I also finally found a steal on curtains last week. All four panels were a total of $14. I've debated between hanging them this way or hanging them in stripes (pink/green/pink/green).

The other wall is the closet, so not much to do there. Got a couple of other things that will need a home on a wall, but I don't actually have possession of all of it yet, so I'm not sure where it will all go.

Tot Update

We saw Dr. T today and for once I didn't get in any trouble. Gained 2 pounds, so I'm up to +13. She confirmed my suspicions that I've been having a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, guess Tot's practicing for her big debut. Dr. T also said they'd be able to get a better idea on size in about 3 weeks, but that right now I'm measuring right on schedule - about 33 weeks. She doesn't think Tot's going to be a particularly big baby at this point, which is good news to the one who is planning to give birth to her!

Our next appointment is going to be on our 3 year wedding anniversary, September 30. After that I think I'll start going every week. We're getting closer...

Deja Vu

We go back to see the Tot Doc on Wednesday. Tonight I'm sitting here watching The Biggest Looser while trying to pack on an extra pound be eating my second bowl of chicken and dumplings and a ration of BBQ potato chips. I need a couple of pounds this week to make Dr. T happy, and I have to find it without eating extra sugar. Now that's just a pain in the rear.

I'm dying to know how big Tot is now. We haven't gotten an update since June, when she was "pretty darn big." I figure they'll start making guesses when I get closer to 36 weeks, but my curiosity is killing me.

Tot Turns 33

We celebrated Tot's 33rd week of baking by making sure she was nice and clean. I've posted several pics on my FB account, and a few of those are also on my Flickr, but here's an updated pic of Tot from today:

We had an AWESOME shower. We had a lot of fun and it was one of the few showers I've ever been to where there were no duplicate gifts at all. The food was fantastic, and I even snuck a cupcake. Cupcakes associated with a baby shower have no sugar in them. It's a rule.

We go back to the doc on Wednesday. We'll see how much trouble I get in this time!

A Little Flu Humor

I totally stole this from my friend Danielle's Facebook status:

What is the difference between the bird flu and the swine flu..... the bird flu requires "TWEETment" and the swine flu requires "OINKment".

I'm so adding that to my very short list of really bad jokes.

And here's a little something my MIL sent me this morning that I also found hysterical:

A little flu humor for your weekend. I'm getting psyched up for the first baby shower on Sunday and waiting on my mother to make a decision about when she's actually going to show up at my house. Could be any time between now and Sunday at 2! Good thing she raised me to be the flexible type. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Hopefully I'll have some new pics of Tot from the shower to post next week, just to prove I really am getting larger.

Graduation

We officially graduated from baby class tonight. Got our certificate and everything. Guess that means we're officially approved to bring Tot home when the time comes.

We got a tour of the new hospital facilities tonight as well. The bathrooms on the postpartum floor are awesome. Seriously. I should have taken pictures. I'd seen the rooms and the nursery and everything when BFF Jen was there back in February, but I never went in the bathroom. It's bigger than both the bathrooms in my house combined. And they have hair dryers and robes and slippers and everything in there. The nurse said we got to take the slippers home, even. Dude.

The rooms also have small fridges and its the only floor in the hospital where you can custom order your meal trays. They even have a photographer contracted to come in and do newborn pics while you're in the hospital. Ok, I find that a little over the top. I mean, it's neat and all, but don't you have enough people coming in and out of your room at all hours of the day and night at that point?

Anyway, the facilities are really nice. All of the nurses I met during the classes were super nice. I feel pretty good about the whole thing. Now we just... wait.

A Post In Which I Discuss Laundry Detergent

Yes, I'm posting about laundry detergent. It's my job now. I do a lot of laundry, therefore it's what is on my mind.

My laundry detergent has disappeared. For many year's I've used All brand because it's half the price of most others and works fine. And comes in the super small bucket. Greg is very sensitive to laundry detergent, so I buy the Free & Clear version. Everybody's happy. Then we bought our front loader high efficiency machine last summer. Wanna guess how many places sell All Free & Clear in an HE version? Kroger. That's it. Found it once at Walmart, but never again. Not a problem. A little more expensive at Kroger but still cheaper than Tide and Kroger likes to send me coupons for it.

This week I discovered that my Kroger no longer carries it. I sighed a big sigh and went in search of another brand I could use. I found plenty of HE options. And plenty of Free & Clear options. Unfortunately, manufactures haven't caught on the combo yet. Nothing. Not a single scent free HE laundry detergent, not even Tide. I've checked every place in Clinton I can think of, nothing.

I figure my options at this point are:

a) drive all over town in search of somewhere within a 30 mile radius that sells a scent free HE detergent that's not ridiculously priced.

b) give up and start making my own homemade laundry detergent (which are typically low suds, making them fine for HE machines).

c) stop washing clothes.

I haven't made a decision yet. I'm leaning towards option C.

A Less Than Information-Filled Update

So we had a doc appointment yesterday afternoon, but I have nothing to report. My sugar was fine, they didn't even stick my finger (so HA!, Greg, I was right about chocolate cake that is associated with a birthday being sugar free!). I broke even on weight again, which didn't make her happy but didn't exactly get me yelled at. I think I was technically up half a pound. She wants a few more, but I got 8 more weeks to get there! Other than that everything is running along as planned.

In other ironic news, yesterday was the first day we had to wait due to baby deliveries. Apparently Dr. T delivered 3 babies yesterday. Why do I find this ironic? 'Cause it was Sept 2! I know more people born on Sept 2 than any other single day of the year. I think I ended up with a total count of 5 yesterday, and I suppose you can add 3 more now! I've decided it's a Christmas/New Year's thing. Gotta do something while waiting up for Santa.

As a side note, Tuesday night was baby class. We got to meet and interrogate one of the anesthesiologists. And yes, I just spelled that without looking it up. Anyway, the doc was a hoot. He explained everything, took lots of questions, and made the big needle sound less scary than it did before. He brought all the needles and stuff for people to look at if they wanted to. I refrained. I was the only one in class who didn't want to see them, but for me sometimes ignorance is the best policy. That aside, my two favorite quotes from the Q&A session:

Guy in class (after doc talked about potential problems and how they can fix almost all issues): "What can't you fix?"

Doc, (rubbing his hand over his shiny head): "Baldness..."

and my personal favorite:

Greg: "What reasons are there for not getting an epidural?"

Doc (who already admitted to being a big baby about pain himself): "I can't imagine one..."

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to BFF Jen!

And to my friend Melanie...

And Danielle...

And Allison's mom...

Anybody else???

I hope all of you, but especially BFF Jen, have fabulous birthdays!

Wow.

I just realized that I ran all over Jackson today wearing white shorts with bright blue underwear. Seriously, I only have a few brain cells left, I'm trying to conserve them as much as possible!

Susan: Taking stupid to a whole new level since 1975.

Tot Turns 30

So Tot turned 30 this past Sunday. She's growing up fast. However, I have to admit that despite the fact that I've felt pretty good the past few months, I'm about to the point of wanting to be done with this. I've definitely turned the corner into the third trimester.

The sudden exhaustion is back. Yesterday I walked to the bedroom to do something and woke up when Greg got home. Pretty sure I didn't walk down there to take a nap, I was simply attacked by the bed monster.

The back pain that had actually improved dramatically since I left my job is back with a vengeance. Sometimes I feel almost crippled when I first stand up.

When I have an hour to sleep, I'd like to be able to sleep instead of wasting half of it squirming around trying to get comfortable. Comfort doesn't happen. And inevitably when I find a spot that's less uncomfortable, I immediately have to roll out of bed to go pee.

I want to be able to walk 2-3 miles again instead of getting to the end of my street and thinking, "Ok, I'm done. Can I make it back or should I just sit on the curb until a neighbor drives by and takes pity on me?"

I want my thermostat back. I nearly passed out in childbirth class on Tuesday night. Literally. Hot flash hit me out of nowhere and I got so dizzy the nurse teaching the class was very concerned. I ended up having to go sit in the lobby drinking water until I felt like I could stand up on my own again. I just want to know I'll be cold all the time like I used to, instead of jumping from hot flash to freezing ten times an hour.

Having said that, I will admit that it could be worse. I haven't seen much of the emotional roller coaster that can come with the pregnancy hormones. Perhaps they're just saving up for after the birth. Woo. Something to look forward to. And I'm sure the back pain will get worse at Tot continues to grow over the next 9 weeks, but at least I haven't gained 40 pounds. I'm sure that would hurt worse.

I know it'll all be fine. And it'll be worth it. As I've said from the first day the nausea hit me, it's all just part of the package. Remind me of that when I have a screaming infant, haven't slept in 4 days, and my postpartum depression drugs haven't kicked in yet.

Preview

We finally found and purchased a chest of drawers for Tot's room this weekend. That said, I took some preview pictures of a couple of things:

The new chest of drawers. Needed somewhere to stash Tot's growing collection of clothes!

The crib, finally fully assembled! I love the color and style. And since it survived both of Lauren's boys, I know it's safe and sturdy.

And finally, the shower curtain art, which I finally finished. I'm taking volunteers to actually come hang it on the wall. I'm not so good at even, straight, and level! We'll get it up eventually. I suppose Tot won't care if it's even or not.

Conversation of the Day

While getting lectured by Dr. T regarding when to notify the office if I start having contractions:

Me: "You know I won't know a contraction until it walks up and introduces itself, right?"

Dr. T: "And it will..."

That said, I had a good (enough) appointment today. Gained about 3 more pounds, which puts me in double digits total. My glucose test was acceptable enough. The actual word she used was "borderline." Basically they take 4 readings. If two or more come back with a number they consider high, you're screwed. One of mine was rather high (190), one was very borderline (within 1 or 2 points of "screwed") and the other two were low enough, 90 and 135. They did do another finger stick today and it was 141. They want it to be under 140. Dr. T. said she'd let it slide, but to knock off the sweet tea and desserts. I told her we'd already banned sweet tea from the house and I was only drinking it if we went out to eat. She'd like me to limit that as well. She said the magic words, though, "You don't want to have problems with the baby's sugar..."

I felt ok about that until Greg got home and told me that he'd been talking to his boss when I sent him the text about it today and Dr. G said he thought the 140 limit was generous, he would rather see something under 120! He asked Greg if diabetes runs in my family. Why yes, it does. In multiple people. Alrighty then, I'll get it under control. We went out to eat tonight and I had a salad with water. The hardest thing is going to be finding lower sugar snacks. I like dried fruit. And oreos. And cake. But I'll just say no. 'Cause it's for the Tot.

Quote of the Day

From last night's childbirth class, "The best thing you can do for the baby at this point is sleep."

Can I get an amen?

Unfortunately, that's easier said than done these days. I don't sleep well most nights. Tot is a bit of a night owl, as soon as I get still she gets riled up. The need to pee every 90 minutes or less doesn't help. The inability to sleep in my two favorite positions - on my back or stomach - has made life difficult. The inability to roll over without three tries and the use of a crane doesn't help much either. And yes, I know it's only going to get worse. I have ten and half weeks to go.

That said, I'd like to have a moment of appreciation for the fact that if I don't have to go into an office every day. Yesterday I got really tired in the afternoon and took a nice nap, mostly so I could survive through class. But when I don't sleep at night, it's wonderful to be able to sleep a couple of hours in the morning or afternoon while my little boxer-girl is quiet.

I'll be trekking back to the doc this afternoon. I don't expect any real news, other than maybe getting my glucose results. I'll be flying solo today since Greg's office has him running all over creation for meetings all week. Guess I should find a book to take.

Busy Busy Busy

This is going to be a bit of busy week.

Tonight is our first childbirth class. I hope we get to meet the stork.
Wednesday is my doc appointment. Maybe I'll get my glucose results.
Thursday night Greg's bowling team starts up again. I don't bowl, but I like to go watch. They're funny!
Friday I have a breakfast date with a friend and lunch date with my hubby.
Saturday we're hopefully going to do some shopping for a chest of drawers or dresser for Tot.
Sunday I want to visit a different church in Clinton

And speaking of busy schedules, I realized yesterday that the calendar I keep in my purse with all my stuff on it runs out at the end of September. It was an academic year calendar I bought when I was working at UMC and it worked well at the time, but now I'm stuck with three months left in the year and no desire to go buy an entire 2009 calendar. Make that three very busy months, as I'll be having more doc appointments and, well, A BABY. Hmmm. Do I get another academic calendar or suck it up and buy a full 2009 and start transferring information? I need to do something, as one of my cousins called with a preliminary baby shower date this morning, and of course it's in October! I almost told her I couldn't schedule it for October because my calendar ran out in Septmeber, therefore October doesn't exist.