So Exciting!!!!

Well, I'm sure you've heard/read me mentioning how my best friend from grade school and I are embarking on this pregnancy adventure together. She is almost exactly 3 months ahead of me (due this Friday, Oct 1st). Well - now she is in labor, as we speak (and speaks very highly of some very awesome drugs too by the way - I think I'll give them a go when it is my turn). Mamie went into labor at 9:30 last night, got her drugs at about 8am today and I just received an update that she will probably start pushing around 2. Of course I cannot wait and the anticipation is just making the minutes slug along, but it will all happen soon enough.
I just can't believe that the two of us are going through yet another one of life's crazy adventures together (and yes, I plan to post an embarassing "before" photos if I can find them mwoahahaha)! Yay Mommy Mamie (and Dad Nick and sister Shelby)...we're rooting for you!!!

Me and Mamie at my wedding March of 2009

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of me with Mamie from her actual wedding day, but here we are two nights before out celebrating!

Then you fast forward about a year and 2 months...and you get the two of us 4 and 7 months along!!! (July of 2010)

Week 27

It is not easy to do these photos - they are never ever ever flattering, especially when you have a husband that for some reason has a knack for getting you from the WORST angle possible... either way - here is the best of the few that were taken, we are at 27 weeks! 2 days in to 3rd trimester:

How is it possible to leave in the morning when the cutest dog ever is doing this? I think this was her way of saying "don't worry Mom, I'll keep your spot warm for you while you're gone...unless you want to just come snuggle up with me!" - naughty puppy's not supposed to be in the bed, but seriously, do dogs get cuter than burying their face in your bed?

Lucky you!

You get two posts in one day!
So, I hit 7 months yesterday (Sunday) - and with that came the first of what I'm sure will be plenty of the 3rd trimester lovelies. Swelling!
My hands have been swollen, not bad, and I don't take off my wedding ring ever...well, now I don't know that it would come off even if I wanted it to! It doesn't seem to be cutting off circulation yet so I'm not going to worry about it, but it keeps getting buried further and further into the finger swell lumpy finger syndrome I seem to be acquiring.
My shoes felt a little bit tight this morning, oh well I thought, I sit all day anyway. Oh well was wrong - oh no is more like it! I sit all day, that means all the blood rushes to my feet and sits there. My feet hurt after lunch so I took my shoes off. Bad idea! I can't get them back on - well, I could, but I didn't want to make them hurt even more. Luckily I have a "spare" set of flip flops at my desk so now I am doning the latest HR no-no fashion trend - beach sandals at work! In passing, my boss (who has an excellent sense of humor forutunately) passed by and cared not to object when I said "ya know, I can't wear flip flops in the winter time - I'm just going to wear my tennis shoes if I have to..." half way joking. I may move myself to a meeting room or vacant office cube where I can put my feet up. If I had 2 foot long legs, I could do that here, but even sitting normally, my feet touch the adjoining wall to the next workstation!
So - on to shopping for a new pair or two of shoes, but I'll be damned if I have to buy all new ugly clothes AND shoes!
Moral for the afternoon: they don't make cute work shoes in "practical".

As the world turns

I use this title because I feel as though I am living/creating a real life soap-opera for myself and those around me -namely Jason and Massey (yes, the dog has sadly been the witness to most of my...ahem...episodes).

I was able to look past the fact that the baby's room wasn't going to be ready any time soon. Okay, maybe not look past, but I was at terms with it....or so I thought. I am not sure what set me off on Friday while it was just me and the dog sitting watching TV, when Jason called, still on the road, we chatted about the plans for the weekend. There was a one-day sale at USA Baby outlet, including a major discount on the upholstered glider that I want. My Mom wanted to take me to look at the chairs and she is/was out of town for the weekend. I was going to go just to make sure if there was a "have to have it" deal, that I wouldn't miss it. I think that is what led me to the part of our conversation where I felt as though I needed to justify the trip to Richfield... and then the episode began. Progressively the conversation led to me expressing how I just had to go look at the chairs because if I missed out on a really good deal, I would be upset because it would be one more thing I would have to wait on. ...The feeling of the baby's room not being ready until December was becoming more and more unsettling (queue where it is getting really hard to disguise that tears are welling up and my voice is getting shaky)... It was all I had just to keep from bursting into a breakdown on the phone - and all Jason wanted to know was what I had planned for the weekend. He of course remained perfectly calm which left me wondering, did he have just enough beers with Mike where he is that tuned and can tell that I'm upset, but didn't want to put salt in the wound so he just stayed calm for my sake, or did he have just enough beers with Mike that he isn't picking up on my anxiety???

I have no idea, but low-and-behold, guess whose idea it was to move the baby stuff we have already up to the dining room only to make room for the guest room furniture to be moved to his "man" area downstairs - and then to move the baby stuff into the room on Saturday??? We got everything shifted around the house AND we assembled the crib, together which pictures will have to follow. To put icing on top of that - he tore and cleared out (yes, as in - it's at least in the garage instead of the basement now) the remains of the one bedroom downstairs. Granted, he discovered more water damage in the process, but it was above and beyond what I had expected for the day. I have to choose my battles and being upset about more water damage (through to the outside stucco) in this stupid house is not one of them. It was no shocker to me as I'm sure it won't be the last issue we find.

Moral of the story (this is now a trend rather than an added bit to the blog): Either my freak-outs are not going un-noticed OR my husband has impeccable intuition and timing:). I love him to pieces for so many reasons, one which notably is his patience and tolerance. I shouldn't feel bad, any pregnant wife would put him through some sort of rigmarole...right?!?! Humor me - Yes.

Oh, so we have the beginnings of a baby room. Most things we have for baby (aside from the growing stash of diapers and wipes) are in the room, it's just a matter of getting the other junk (books, frames and other stuff on the various junk collecting surfaces which were well used) out of there!

So - Baby news. Baby's getting big!! I am pretty sure we had a growth spurt last weekend and the past week was a bit uncomfortable with the stretching of my innards accompanied by being tap danced and kick-boxed by the wonderful creature growing inside me. According to our books, we have (at minimum) an egg-plant sized baby whose lungs are prepared for being outside the womb...and it's hearing is getting better daily. Up to this point I thought I was just adjusting to being overweight and pregnant, but now I realize that at I have now reached adjusting to being pregnant - and 7 months at that!!! Can you believe it?!?! I promise we'll do belly shots this week. HA! At one point in my life, that would have been something people do during a crazy night out at the bars - not anymore, now it involves a camera and the distance left between me and the wall hanging we're using to meausre my growing buddha.

My first baby shower

Well, baby showers are definitely easier than bridal showers! At least for me this first one was. You have no choice as to what you end up with when having a baby - you get a baby. The Bridal Showers seemed to be a little bit more tense as I had to worry about the upcoming event and the result of what people saw, experienced, etc...
So, Julie and Steph planned the shower and Niki helped a lot too (can you say brownie+cookie=brookies...yum!). It was a relaxed time to eat, catch up and joke about weird things happening with my body. For the most part, a lot of the guests have had their own kids which is really fun because we all get to share in the new parenting experience together. The few that haven't had kids yet were equally as great to have there because, like me, they have yet to experience the new baby adventure. All in all though, it is so great to have friends who are so willing to lend advice on toys, blankets, materials, books, vitamins, diapers, etc... I don't know how the first few girls in our group did it without all the help I've been getting!!!
We got our car seat which is a huge deal - can't bring that baby home in my arms! We also got very cute blankets, outfits, books, toys, pacifiers, and many more essentials! We even got a surprise present from Baby C's Auntie Angela - who was Jason's favorite pick for presents (aside from the ball popper toy from the Hartingers, but that is in a different category) with her camo-boots for Baby C. I joked lightly that we didn't have to worry about deciding what the baby would wear home from the hospital!
So - next shower is at the end of October which just a few great girlfriends that I get to see all too sparingly....especially Baby C's Auntie Desh!!!

Big weekend ahead!

Well, I have my first official baby shower this Sunday. I must admit I think I truly am lucking out for the timing of my awesome upcoming showers. One a month for 4 months all with smaller groups of friends and family. Ahhh - the thought of not being bombarded with 40 people to talk to at once, that is a great feeling and much less anxiety provoking! Maybe it's just easier this time around after the bridal shower experience turned out to be fun - as opposed to stressful:).
Tonight we are going to the Twins game with the Zwebels, tomorrow is possibly some morning wedding planning fun with Niki, then D's 1st Birthday party (which I would express how excited I am but I will refrain because it makes me cry knowing that they are leaving for ND on Monday). Sunday is the baby shower and then I get to bring all of the reality home to share with Jason! Fhew!
So, I told Jason, here I go being bossy again, last night that he HAD to reserve the weekend of October 15-17 for me and him. No work, no hunting, no nothing. He didn't seem to thrilled becauase I know October is busy for him as far as side work. Scarily enough, I literally went through every weekend up to the second weekend of December and all have something going on. The thought of having 1 possible free weekend left to spend with my husband before it is baby crunch time is very - um, sad (?). I am not sure if sad is the right word, but it really is sad. One weekend. That's it before I could potentially have a baby. He had "that look" when I proposed the idea, but really - he can't get mad at me. I did say later on that if he had to do side work to make some money, I would understand and he replied with "no, I'll keep it open for you". I don't want it open for me, I want it open for us! So...my master plan (mwoahahah) is to plan something out of town. Even just up north an hour or two - so that we are away from the housework, laundry, lawn, errands, etc... and have no other option but to spend time together.
I'll update with how awesome my weekend and shower was on Monday!

did I share about the movement?

I get on these rants like I'm doing "dear diary" all the time and forget the true purpose of this blog. To share this "journey" with others and to have it all logged to look back on some day!
So, in getting to the baby news and updates... we have a karate kid! That or I'm not kidding when I say dance party, we're talking true Cletis moves, high kicks and all. Last week I was sitting watching TV and I felt the usual movement...then I saw it - and it kept going and going! I ran downstairs (having just eaten 2 pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting probably played a culprit in this too) to show Jason his wild child. We literally sat there staring at my stomach being bongo-played from the inside out like as though in the movie Alien for at least a half hour. More often than not, it is facing in towards my spine so I feel the movement, but don't see much. Every few days though it will flip around and do it's calesthenics and remind us all that it's in there!

Letting him down...

Alright - emotional feeling day yesterday/today, but I'll get through - raging hormones aside. So everything and anything could have set me off yesterday. Just telling cute stories made me well up- not even baby related. I think this may have stemmed that on Saturday night, as I was driving Jason home from a friend's party (and yes, he had drank a few) he was "loose" enough to tell me that something I did bothered him a few nights prior.
sidenote: We have some renovations that are being awaited in order to move furniture around in order to get the baby's room set up. Yes, we could just move the guest room furniture downstairs into the living space for the time being, but I would much rather get the bedrooms torn and emptied out to get the bare minimum fixes done just to get the guest room furniture set up in one of those rooms. I don't care if we have carpet in there, just get the old stuff torn out and into a dumpster, dri-lok the concrete half walls and floor - and we'll call it good for the time being!
back to the story: I was given the impression over a month ago that this could be accomplished by the end of October. As of last Wed, this was now not going to be done until at least the end of November if at all by the time the baby is supposed to be here - and even so it would only be one room because the other room involves the wall to the bathroom that has to be completely torn out and rebuilt. Not that I want the whole thing done so quickly for the purpose of having it liveable, I want it done to the point and drills, hammers and dust will not be an issue with a baby in the house - or moldy walls to top that all off!
What I did wrong: So - last week he was talking about doing some side work and bits a pieces with work around the house and I pointed at the baby's room. I didn't say anything, but I must have given the look as though I was saying "do that or else"! He apparently took this as me being pushy (I know, shocker, me being bossy) and it annoyed him. I'll spare you the rest, but instead of getting defensive when he eventually told me about his feelings, I got emotional. I didn't cry, but probably should have because it just made me feel bad that I had let him down, or annoyed him or whatever it was. I briefly explained - while having my back to him so I wouldn't start bawling like a crazy prego lady - that I am 99% consumed by this pregnancy every day, all day and it is all I think about. No, we don't have to have the entire nursery done by the time baby gets here, or even months in advance, however - it gives me anxiety thinking of doing that last minute. I don't want to walk in to our house with a new baby that I have no idea what to do with...wishing that this or that would just be done.
Okay - so yesterday we're watching a super trashy TV show because nothing else is on - Jerseylicious. Alright, I was watching it and Jason was shaking his head in disgust at it. One of the scenes was a guy visiting this private preschool for his toddler. He was saying "well this better be good for my son for 14 grand a year....." all in his New Jersey accent. Jason and I looked at each other in shock - $14k a year?!?!?! I guess we never thought of it that way. In all reality for us - we will be spending much more than that the first few years with the average prices in the Twin Cities. Yeah, we're looking at $15,600 or more. Yahaaaahhhh!!!! How the heck are we supposed to do that?!?! So, then Jason starts saying how maybe he should just plan on not working and just doing his side work and we can at least do a few days a week day care and just not do full time so he can stay home with the baby... Queue the water works!!!!!! So stressful to think about that money and him being "stuck" at home with the baby all the time while I'm off at work. I use stuck lightly because what if I want to be "stuck" at home with the baby?!?! Not saying that I will for sure, but I don't want to put that all on him as though I'm our only source of income!!! Ugh - too overwhelming at that moment so I just started crying. He was so sweet and I told him I was just having a moment, he made me feel better and understood that aside from the shock of dollar signs blaring in my head, we would make it work - people do every day who are in worse shape than us, some in much worse shape.
Moral(s) of the story: save your pennies and don't be bossy....or hold your pregnant tears in, after a while you just can't fight them.
Lesson learned: I love my husband and I should just keep my mouth shut, because he still has yet to let me down on anything - nothing, he's never let me down on anything. He always comes through for everything, and calmly at that. He never expects anything in return so I shouldn't expect so much so quickly. I love him, sometimes just thinking about that makes me cry!

Dr Update from earlier today...

So, no big deal - for now on the heart palpitations. I have been directed to have more water and to limit sudden position changes. Her guess without testing is that it is fluid shifting with as much as the baby is growing right now, my heart is pumping in overdrive.
She said to not go for walks or do any exercise for this week to see if that helps. If I get any pain or shortness of breath, I have to see an internist.
I'm just glad that she didn't say "eh, probably nothing" or the other bad answer from the other spectrum "you need to see a Dr immediately" and then it probably still would have been nothing!

back to work...

Labor Day weekend was great, exhausting but great. These days it doesn't take much to exhaust me, but I do know one thing for sure - two nights away from my bed and one where I didn't reach my bed until midnight will surely do it!

I felt great this weekend, very relaxed - except for these dang heart palpitations! I have a call into my Dr just in case, but for the most part all I can find for info is that they are very normal. As long as there is no dizziness, pain or shortness of breath of course. I used to think that a random stronger than usual heart beat meant nervousness or the supersticious side might think it means something significant (possibly bad) just happened somewhere. Nope, just an excess of blood pumping through the ole' body! I have timed them out pretty much to where there are about 1-2 a minute for anywhere from 2-3 minutes to 15-20 - with about any variance of time in between "sessions" as well. The nurse was going to check with my Dr to see if there should be any reason for concern and call me back.

Back to the weekend update: Friday Jason and I...and Massey, drove up to the cabin and had a wonderful cool few days with the entire family. As always the boys (young and old) were entertaining - to say the least. Max did great and it was so fun to get to hang with Emma...and Donna...and Colleen!

I drove back on Sunday by myself to go to the State Fair with Nicole, Christian and Meggan. Pictures will tell a thousand words - we had a great time! Ever realize how few pregnant people you see at the fair??? Maybe it was just because we were there later, but man - my feet hurt, but more than that, my hips were so sore!!!! I felt like I had just walked 60 miles...in flip flops. I slept great, although Massey was sure not to let me sleep in past 8.

Yesterday was filled with hours upon hours watching movies on TV and a brief trip to Cub - where I managed to spend $117 on who knows what. I did save 27% with coupons though! Back to the house it was for laundry and single batch of zucchini bread. Nutella on bread and a peach were about all I could muster up for dinner (energy wise) and an early 8:30 bed time did me well!