It's Official, I'm an Idiot.

In preparation for my doctor's appt today, I intended on leaving at 3pm from work. I noticed that I was still at work at 3:15. No big deal, I was just trying to get home a little early prior to the appointment. Joe was home when I got there because he stayed home with a migraine today so I spent some time chatting with him then finally got around to taking a quick shower. While in the bathroom, I noticed the toilet was kind of dirty so I spent a couple minutes cleaning it up. I knew it was getting close to the appointment time, but typically, I'm waiting for an hour past my scheduled time so I figured being a few minutes late wouldn't be a big deal. My brain remembered my appt being at 4:45, yet when I showed up at the doctor's office about 10 minutes late, the lights were out and the door was already locked. Sweet. So, I guess maybe my appointment was at 4:30? I misplaced the appointment card when cleaning out the car we traded in and had forgotten to put the info in my phone this time around. I tried calling right away because I thought that I had seen one of the front desk girls inside still but it went straight to their after-hours answering service. So now, I've got to call in the morning, apologize profusely, and hope that they can get me in to see the dr in the next couple of days and I'll probably have to take off from work to get in as well. Boo!

Vroom!

Hooray for three-day weekends! I feel it's safe to say that our Memorial Day weekend was somewhat eventful. Started off on Friday after work by purchasing a Graco baby swing from Craigslist. I still check through the baby stuff on Craigslist here and there even thought there isn't a particular item that I have in mind anymore. Mostly just "maybe could be nice" items remain at this point, since we've got the big stuff covered. This particular listing had "Owl" in the title and I was nicely surprised to find that it goes with the Pack 'n Play, stroller and carseat that we already had. The swing itself isn't discontinued but the owl pattern is so I didn't even know that such a thing existed until I saw the ad posting. It barely fit in my car after half disassembling it so the next stop was the car dealership that we'd been to 5 times already. Ok, maybe we'd already been planning to hit up the car dealership too. You know what's scary? I suggest buying a car that you've only seen in pictures online!! We had test driven a similar model but it was pretty nerve wrecking to wait until Sunday to see if we'd made a good decision or had made a glaring judgement error. Happily, luck was on our side and our new ride is very sweet and very clean! We traded in Betty (my sensible 2010 Sentra that I bought brand new last year after my 2009 Sentra - that I also bought brand new - had been smashed into) for a 2009 RAV4 Limited with only 13k miles and all the "bells and whistles" we'd been looking for. Plus, it has lots of room to cart around baby stuff and still gets pretty decent mpgs.

On Saturday, we went to see a matinee showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie at our favorite theater downtown. There were less than 10 other people in the theater. The movie was ok, I always like Johnny Depp but I think the other Pirates installments were better. I enjoyed the heck out of some movie popcorn and fountain cherry coke though! I mentioned to Joe that probably the next time we go to the movies, we'll have had to hire a babysitter. My intention was to get a lot done around the house on Saturday but can't say we accomplished much, I guess lazy days are nice here and there.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday, like kids at Christmas, excited about picking up our "new" SUV! Little did we know that the dealership didn't open until 1pm. In the meanwhile we did some baby room organizing and laundry but really nothing substantial. We picked up the RAV at 1:30 and as mentioned, we were quite pleased with our choice; we finished up some remaining paperwork at the dealership and were on our way. After that, we met up with my friend Lori for some tasty ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery and a bit of gossip swapping. I miss working with Lori terribly! We didn't actually work together per se, but our cubes were next to each other and we kept the instant messenger busy fairly often. Somehow, Joe and I still felt that we needed dinner even after all the yummy ice cream calories so Joe grilled some yummy shish-kabobs, made just how I like them: fresh pineapple alternating with thick chunks of steak soaked in jerk sauce. Delish!

Today, we installed Izaak's carseat and picked up some adirondack chairs from the grocery store (weird place to find patio chairs, yes? I agree, but they're perfect and our camping/beach chairs were getting too beat up from constantly being outside). We discovered that we could fit the two chairs in the car with a side table, the stroller, the Pack 'n Play, and groceries... with room to spare! This is very exciting if you're used to limited trunk space!! Joe finished peeling the "visible" linoleum from the kitchen floor today, quite a milestone considering how big of a project this has turned out to be. He still has to move the fridge, and washer and dryer to peel out the remaining linoleum and the pantry too but I don't think it'll take more than a couple more days to get the rest of it. The actual tiling of the floor really shouldn't take too long either. I don't know that it's going to be done before Izaak gets here but hopefully completion should be around the same time. Joe is going to take a couple days off (maybe a week?) of work for Izaak's arrival as well so he's thinking that he can possibly finish up the floor at that time if necessary. Let's hope!

I finally started one of the paintings for Izaak's room today too, it's one that I've had planned out for awhile but had yet to start. I had Joe put up the "octopus" painting in the living room that I started awhile ago. It's just a watery-looking background at this point - no visible octopus - but I actually like it pretty well the way that it is and am considering not adding the octopus. We'll see. I've made some decent progress on Izaak's painting and came into my office/studio/guest room to fetch some black paint when I decided to sit down and blog instead since some of the paint needed to dry anyhow. I setup in the living room to paint today so I could watch the Back to the Future trilogy while working on the art project and so Joe could listen to it too while working on the kitchen. We've seen the movies about 10 gazillion times so watching really isn't a necessity. Somewhere along the way, earlier this evening, I had curled up on the couch and fell asleep for awhile (watching paint dry truly is boring!) and Joe went to hang out with the barbecuing neighbors. I joined up a bit later but was getting eaten alive by the bugs so didn't stay long.

It's approximately 2 weeks until my due date and I have another routine doctor's appointment tomorrow. I'm going once a week now, yuck. I can't get used to being comfortable at the doctor's office. Every time I go, I still get anxious. Ridiculous! I tell myself to "grow up" and "deal with it" but I'm still a wuss. I had to have Joe cut my toenails the other day, reaching my own feet is no longer a comfortably accomplished task. Normal people probably go get pedicures but I keep on going back and forth on actually going to the nail salon as I'm not sure that I want to scare a foreign nail technician with my terribly sore and swollen Flintstone feet.

Anyhow, the house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be and I'm still behind on laundry (as if that would magically change? Who am I kidding, I'm always behind on laundry!!) but I think that I'd be ok if Izaak decides to make his grand entrance a little before the June 13th due date. Just putting it out there. Again, not that I really have any clue as to how to take care of an infant but I don't see how that knowledge is going to manifest itself in the next couple of weeks anyway. I read what I can but I think that hands-on training is what it's ultimately going to take. It would be so much easier if I knew the actual date of his arrival beforehand. I'm much better at budgeting time when I know when my deadlines are!!

Mini Freak-out Episodes

Just a quick post. Here's an email I sent to a friend yesterday:

I made the mistake of catching a glance of my full-length profile in the mirror this morning. HOLY COW!! How do I not just tip over?? I don’t feel so badly about waddling I guess! I can somewhat understand strangers’ concerns about me being “ready to pop” now too (even though they really don’t have to say anything about it to me, do they?). Surely I can’t get very much larger, I mean, I’m not carrying a litter – just one little, wriggly kiddo – who apparently takes up a rather large amount of space J And I dropped a pen this morning. It’s still on the floor.

It's funny, I have these little bouts of  "aaaaaaagh!!"... and then I'm fine again. This morning, I had a terrible time trying to find a shirt to wear. "Nothing fits!!" followed by pouting. The belly pushes pants down and causes shirts to creep up... nobody wants to see that, especially with my current proportions. Five shirt changes later, I'm clothed and ready to go. I'm fairly sure not sleeping much or well contributes to these mini freak-out episodes. But every day brings us closer to having Izaak in our arms (rather than in my belly) and I'm looking forward to the excitement ahead!!

Greetings from Puffy-Land!

If the title of this post brings about thoughts of the rapper aka "P-Diddy", so sorry, not where I'm going with this. "Puffy" are what my feet, hands, etc are resembling these days. When I have time to nap and keep my feet up on weekends, it's not so bad, but during the week my appendages reach ridiculous proportions! My ankles are seriously wider than the widest part of my feet right now. My toes are like Lit'l Smokies. The tops of my feet jiggle when I walk ("waddle" is probably more accurate) - it feels like I've got Jell-O molds on my feet! The swelliness in my lower half has been an ongoing issue for the past couple months but my hands have started their expansion quest as well and I finally had to take off my favorite ring yesterday too. Probably doesn't help that it's been in the 90's here, along with some lovely humidity to contend with. Happily, A/C is never far!!

Currently at a couple days past 37 weeks, another interesting side-effect of pregnancy that I've been encountering are a plethora of strange, vivid dreams. The other night, for example, I dreamt that Izaak had kicked through my left side (yes, specifically the left side!) and had his little foot sticking out. Initially, I just pushed the baby leg back in but he insisted on being stubborn and kept on shoving it back out. Not knowing what to do, I called the doctor and asked what should be done about this now protruding foot and she told me that I should just gently pull the rest of him out through the newly kicked out exit. I mean, really, at that point I should've been well aware that I was dreaming because getting my doctor on the phone so easily in the waking world would've been a miracle! Another weird thing is that mostly I feel his little feet on my right side. He's flipped around a bit but mostly he's been positioned head down, backside sticking out lunpily on my left and jabs from feet, elbows, knees, and whatnot on my right. He still hiccups quite a bit too. It's kind of fun to watch my belly jump around, looks like I'm carrying around the Loch Ness Monster sometimes :)

Joe and I looked at some more SUVs yesterday. We test drove a Honda CRV and a Nissan Rogue. Both were 4-cylinders and both didn't have the get-up-and-go that we're looking for. And I really wanted to like both of them! My current car has a 4-cyliner engine as well and while she's very gas-savvy, she admittedly does lack oomph at times. We also tried out ("we" in the case of these test drives means that Joe was driving and I was passenger-ing) a 6-cylinder RAV4.... there we go, much better!! I think we may be on to something... I'd still rather have a Lexus or Acura or some other "luxury" branded auto but the RAV can be equipped with all the features we're looking for and it appears that we (possibly) can afford one of the later models. Not talking about getting another brand new car - already been down that road a couple times - but an '09 or '10 doesn't seem wildly out of reach. Still need to do some more research. [SIGH!!] 

Joe went to see one of his favorite bands this evening at one of our local dumpy bars, all by himself. I've accompanied him before to see this particular band (Dillinger Escape Plan) when we first started dating and I'm sorry that I couldn't have joined him this time around also. Besides it probably being just too darn loud, I occupy a lot of space at this point and it wouldn't take much to knock me over since my center of gravity is somewhat shifted. I'm glad that he went though, he'll have a good time and it gives me the opportunity to work on some freelance projects and maybe get a painting sketched out! Or perhaps I should just relax, put my feet up, and enjoy the quiet that won't be around for much longer...

Belly Pictures?!!?!!!!

There have been some complaints about a lack of "belly" pictures. WELL... FINE! My belly button looks pretty weird so there are no pics that show much skin (trust me, it's for the best!!) but here are a couple from today and yesterday with typical work attire:

I did mention that I've expanded to astronomical proportions at this point, right?!

Am I really THAT huge? Why yes, yes I suppose that I am.

Joe has done his best to stay caught up with me... he IS puffing his belly out a bit here but we may need to cut down on some calories after bambino's arrival...

And a parting shot with Joe sneaking Hudsy in the picture :)

Joe and I have been doing some more SUV searching. It's been frustrating, to say the least. For very automobile make and model out there, somebody has felt wronged and mistreated and they are sure to post online how pissed they are about it. I have a 2010 Nissan Sentra and I love it! It hasn't occurred to me to post online in a forum that I've had no problems with "Brown Betty", I love all the sweet bells and whistles that she offers and that she purrs like a kitten. Out of curiosity, I googled my make and model and discovered that there are people who've apparently not had the same luck with theirs. There weren't a ton of complaints but it's kinda scary that you can't really know exactly what you're getting yourself into with such a large purchase. Luckily, we're not hard-pressed to pick something right away and can leisurely shop and hopefully find something reasonably priced that we both really like.

Izaak has been squirming and jabbing today but a little more subdued than the past couple of days. I think he's running out of room to get much momentum out of his punches and kicks, hahaha! I've been rocking a monster headache today. I think it's a combo sinus/tension thing. I tried laying down for awhile after work but couldn't get comfortable enough to take a nap. I've been a little stressed about getting everything taken care of before the baby gets here. I'm also a bit miffed that I'm not going to be able to work from home for a month or two after his arrival like I had thought I'd be able. I detest the thought of putting him in daycare around 8 weeks old, but it looks like that's the way it's going to need to be. I do have the option to take off a little more time without pay from work or I can cut my hours for awhile, my boss is willing to work with me on it and isn't pushing for a decision right this second, fortunately. And Joe and I need to do some daycare tours. I'd prefer to find a place that's learning oriented besides the obvious babysitting tasks of feeding and diaper changes. I know 2 months old is pretty young to pick up a whole lot (Calculus and Latin may be out of the picture at this point) but I feel that every little bit counts!!

Let's end this post on a happy note. Today's good news is that my sister got the job she was going for as a high school English teacher in our old hometown, starting this fall! It's at the rival high school, mind you, but seeing as she'd been eking out her living by working a couple of part time jobs the past year, this is joyous news!! Maybe she'll be able to scrape together a couple bucks and come out to meet her nephew in the near future?! Zeke is doing his best to be directly in my way right now, I think he's trying to tell me to wrap this up and perhaps go snuggle with him on the couch. He keeps on pawing at the screen and "helping" me type things on the keyboard. Very helpful, as always!

"Is You Having Twins?!"

No, I am not having twins. But some lady I don't even know at work decided to ask me if I "is". [sigh]. This will all be over soon, I keep on reassuring myself of that fact. Not much is new since I last wrote, I'm still tired and puffy but excited about our future bundle of (crying and pooping) joy. I went to the pool this morning for a couple hours, I purposely went early enough to avoid throngs of people. The water is still a bit cooler than I'd normally prefer but it felt glorious!! Plus, my feet are at about a 50% puff-level now and I can somewhat make out ankle bones again too! Am I comfortable in a bathing suit? No. Am I ever? Same answer, duh! Luckily, I have a one-piece that still somewhat accommodates the burgeoning belly. I had to wear a bikini top under it to add some much-needed support but otherwise I think things could've been much worse. I put on sunscreen and I'm definitely not burned but the white stripes where the bathing suit straps were indicate that I did get a little color today and some much needed vitamin D.

I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday, everything is progressing fine and Joe wanted me to ask if he could cut the umbilical cord when it was time and the doc said it probably would be fine - assuming all was going well. I'm not sure if I mentioned but there are two doctors in the office I go to. The guy doctor is much more formal than the lady, I hope she will be the delivering doctor since she seems to be a much warmer person but I'm confident that either will do a fine job.

Since Izaak's arrival is fast-approaching, I finally tried to get on the ball and sign up for a tour of the hospital. I called last Saturday and asked what we needed to do and the lady said that they absolutely do NOT give tours to people who just walk in off the street due to security reasons and that they only had one opening on June 2nd for a two-hour tour. Since I'm clearly a poor listener, we stopped by the hospital under the guise of submitting some pre-admittance paperwork later that afternoon and were offered an informal tour of the birthing wing by the lady I tried to give my paperwork to. June 2nd might've been fine but it seems awfully close to my due date and who knows when my little kicker will make his grand entrance so we were very appreciative of the nurse who showed us around. It should help make the actual day a little less overwhelming. I got a bill in the mail already from the hospital too. I was under the impression that my insurance would be paying for 90% of my hospital costs yet they've already let me know that I'm going to need to pay over $800 when I walk in the hospital doors. Ouch. I think I'd like an itemized bill please, maybe we can cut some corners on extra blankets or a pudding cup or something??

Also, along the same hospital vein, is it odd that I don't want visitors in the hospital right after shooting out a baby? I realize people would be coming to see the baby but we'll be back home in a very short amount of time! I've never had to spend any time in a hospital bed previously but I just feel that I'll be better equipped for visitors once I've arrived at home. I'm fairly sure that I'm going to be an exhausted wreck and little guy will be just as (or even more) precious a day or two later. I don't know how everything is going to play out, I just dread adding stress where it's not needed! I might be fine with visitors after a little bit, it'll depend on how things are going, who knows!

We picked up a bouncer seat thingy from a Craigslist ad last week, it's the one pictured at the top of this blog. It's at least 50 bucks in stores and is way too adorable! The one we got is used but you can barely tell, everything works (and it came with the (4) D batteries it requires too, I might add!!), and it was only $15. It's tough to justify spending a bunch of money on baby gadgets that our kiddo may or may not even like. I have high hopes for this one at any rate though! Speaking of baby-stuff-shopping, I've got some odds and ends to pick up and was trying to motivate myself out the door when I sat down to write this. I'm also considering getting a pedicure while I'm out with all the money I saved on the bouncer, hahaha :)

Today's REAL POST!

Greetings! Here we are, less than 6 weeks until Izaak's due date. The baby surveillance system arrived yesterday and the dresser appeared, magically - of course, at our doorstep today!! Joe is assembling it as I'm writing this... I have him pretty well trained (see picture!!) ;) Last week ended up being buy-lots-of-stuff week; we also picked up a diaper pail, breast pump, and contoured changing pad... all on sale or via coupons, I might add!

Does 9 months sounds like a really long time to you? The past 8 have really felt like a long time to me!! As nervous (and excited) as I am about our upcoming role as parents, I must admit that I'm fairly certain that I'm ready to no longer be an incubator. I'm not saying I regret this decision - to bring a new life into the world and to be a mommy - just weary of the wear and tear is all! I still feel that we're going to have no clue as to what we're doing but I think (and hope) we're up for the challenge. I'm pretty sure that our kiddo could do much worse in the parents department, regardless of our idiocy.

My last doctor's appt was fine, I'm a little heavier than I should be (darn you, milkshakes!!) but the doctor didn't seem too alarmed and after some belly-squeezing said that she didn't think the baby would end up more than 9 lbs by his delivery. Yes, let's hope not! The only other issue was that I sort of got a nail jammed in my toe while trying to forage for a glass of water in the middle of the night. Joe is still in the middle of pulling the linoleum off the kitchen floor and one of the wood trim pieces was sticking out with a pokey-side up nail that came in contact with my shuffling feet. As result, the doctor suggested that I go get a tetanus shot. My last one was probably in 2001 and you're supposed to get one every 10 years anyhow. The nail wasn't rusty, the puncture wasn't too deep, and I haven't been experiencing lock-jaw or anything luckily.

People, more specifically: complete strangers commenting on the apparently immense proportions of my belly is getting a bit irritating. My *favorite* one so far: "I remember being big when I was pregnant but I don't recall being THAT big!" Nice. The odd thing is that these people who approach me with their precious thought gems have no qualms whatsoever about their bluntness and I think the small talk is actually well-meaning somehow. I do my best to grin through gritted teeth but it's getting to the point that I don't want to go to the grocery store anymore simply so I don't have to pretend to be sociable. Let's face it, currently I'm tired and a bit cranky!!

Since we've pretty much taken care of picking up the "big" things that we've determined the baby needs, we also figured why not preoccupy ourselves with another big-ticket item... perhaps a bigger car?! Ok, so maybe that wasn't the exact thought-process but we have been looking at mid-sized SUVs. There's so many options to choose from and we're not really in a hurry to pick anything but who knows!!

Let's Pretend I Remembered to Post this on April 27th...

I wrote the following a week ago... but forgot to post. Having "Baby Brain" is super!!

Hoppy Easter!

I'm very glad to report that Joe came back from Kentucky in one piece!! He did return with a cold but luckily I didn't pick it up and he seems to be on the mend. And as if things weren't presently busy/hectic/etc enough, one of the kitties decided to require the services of a veterinarian. Poor Hudsy somehow acquired a urinary tract infection, he had been leaving some "presents" nearby the litterbox and we noticed some blood in his urine so I asked a lady at work where to go for vet services and she suggested Northwoods Vet. I was very impresseed with the service we received there, the veterinarian even called me later the next day to let me know about the lab results... my doctor doesn't even do that! As result, we've been force-feeding Hudson daily pills, it takes both of us to hold him down and (usually) multiple attempts at prying open his mouth and dropping in a rather large, smelly pill. He's not thrilled about the process, who could blame him, but seems mostly unfazed afterward. Sick-kitty-requiring-pills meant that we had to wait until Saturday to go to Myrtle Beach for Easter and had to go back fairly early on Sunday. We had a nice time regardless, it was great seeing everyone and we enjoyed some yummy food too! Izaak's youngest cousin, Aydan, is walking now and has lost a lot of the chub that he had the last time we saw him. He's looking more like a little boy and less like a baby already!! Izaak seems to prefer riding in my ribs (meaning: he's kicking/pressing on my left side near my ribs until I'm cranky and can't think straight due to ouchiness) during car trips however so I think that'll be the last longish trip I take until he gets here. I was wiped out from being so uncomfortable! Even the ride to work and back seems to encourage unwanted rib-jangling. Right now he might be swimming laps while hiccuping - that's what it feels like anyhow :)

I'm currently 33w 2d along, and my next doctor's appointment is tomorrow- just a routine check-up. We've been trying to check off items on our To-Do-Before-Baby-Arrives List this week. We stopped at Barnes & Noble on Monday and picked up a couple of baby instruction booklets (and dessert from the cafe!). We still need to meet Izaak's pediatrician (we picked one based on a recommendation from a coworker and discussing the choice with my doctor), we'd like to do a hospital tour (and I still need to finish filling out the hospital pre-admittance paperwork - it's been on the kitchen table waiting for me for a little while now), and we need to pick out a daycare. Yesterday, Joe ordered a video monitoring system - he put a lot of research into finding a decent one and it's technically a "security system", not a baby monitor, but reading online reviews of other people who've used it as such seemed pretty positive. It's seems that some companies, in general, are taking shortcuts and producing crappy baby merchandise for inflated prices simply because they know they can - none of the actual video "baby monitors" seem like they're remotely well-built. And I finally picked out and ordered a changing table/dresser! I was fed up with Craigslist not having what I want (the nerve!!) and admittedly, I am a bit picky, so I did some more online perusing and found what looks like the perfect piece on Amazon. The price seemed a little steep though so I searched a bit more and found it for a substantially better price at a different website... yay for my bargain-shopping skills! Now we have to wait for it to ship and hopefully arrive in beautiful condition, awaiting Joe's expert assembly skills. Plus, Joe's parents have offered to pick up the tab on this purchase, BONUS! of which we are very excited and grateful for!!

In other news, my hair is getting long and heavy so I'm contemplating cutting it into a shorter 'do again. The convenience of the much-loved ponytail is the only thing stopping me at this point!