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!