whine. complain. blah, blah, blah

Oh I'm getting crabby. I left work today early because I had this anxious feeling - got all shaky inside and my palms were sweating and I just couldn't sit still. I came home and did some chores - nothing major like deciding to iron my curtains or something equally as uncharacteristic...I felt like 100% better as soon as I walked in the door but before too long that anxious feeling returned. There's a few things contributing to this, I'm sure.

1. I'm tired of doing this now and I want this baby to get here
2. Nick pointed out that my shift in attitude came when the doctor said "any day now" - I've been quite impatiently waiting for that "any day" to be NOW
3. I'm rapidly approaching my due date and every one that knows me, knows I'm impatient and hate to wait. I want what I want when I want it. Hey, what can I say? I'm a product of my decade of indulgence...

I have exactly 2 weeks from today til my due date. I feel like this part is taking forever. I was certain, convinced and would have bet my life on the fact that he was going to decide to come over Thanksgiving break. I mentally left my job and it was so hard to go back. Every day is a struggle - I keep trying to be ready to have a baby and stay at home and take care of him but apparently he's just not ready to come out yet.

I'm trying SO hard to have patience and just wait it out but dang it that's easier said than done. I know d-day is right around the corner and even that isn't an exact date of when that happens. I think that right there is the crux of the problem. It's just a waiting game. The 16th is his estimated arrival...he could come tonight. He could come tomorrow. He could come next Thursday. He could come on the 18th. We just don't know and I HATE the not knowing.

Had my weekly check up on Monday. I hadn't made much progress dilation wise - I was at about a 2. Doctor did a procedure where she stripped my membranes (if you don't know what that is, you can google it - I'm not going in to it here). It was quite an uncomfortable feeling but nothing that I'd absolutely refuse to do again. So far it hasn't worked. Apparently if it is a successful attempt, baby comes with in 24-72 hours. We're at the end of 48 hours and NOTHING. I've had a few - far between - contractions but nothing to write home about. So. Sigh. I'd also gained 2 more pounds so he's chunking up in there.

Poor Nick is avoiding making plans. He's on full red-alert. Eric invited him to the BSU game this Friday and Nick passed - not wanting to be at the game and get a call that I'm in labor. We're just both so ready to get on with the next stage...but the key player has stage fright.

Oh well. In non-whining, non-bitching & moaning news. ha. Susan ordered me the CUTEST baby book that came today. I spent quite some time filling out all the spaces I can right now. I've got to go stick it in the diaper bag to take with us to the hospital (if I ever GO to the hospital...oh...wait...that was whining s'more...whoops). Nick ordered us new phones (we were both due for an upgrade). I have the coooooooolest new phone - it's a Samsung Exclaim. it's got one of those slide out keyboard dealies and I can get on the internet on it and join the rest of the 21st century. ha! Nick ordered himself the Blackberry Curve. it's preeeeeety. So we've been spending all evening playing with our new phones.

So that's my update. Nothing much but a bunch of whining. We're just waiting. And we all know much I just LOVE to wait.

oh baby

Well let's see what's happened since my last bloggityblog post. I've had 2 more appointments (I'm seeing her weekly now). At my 1st of those appointments she did the Group B Strep test and checked to see if I'm making any progress. At that time (this was last Friday, the 20th) I had gained 4 pounds, was 1 centimeter dilated and 3/4 effaced. I hadn't experienced any contractions at that point. Today I haven't gained any more weight, I'm 1 1/2 cm dilated and 90% effaced and the GBS came back negative so no antibiotics needed for me at delivery. I've had a few contractions (a couple on Saturday, a couple on Sunday) and then major back pain all day yesterday. My pelvis is so sore, I'm walking like a duck and I'm getting cranky.

Right now I'm kind of bummed. I was hoping I'd made more progress (dilation wise) since Friday. I know my due date isn't for a few more weeks but I'm at the point where I'm just done now. I'm ready to not be pregnant any more, I'm ready to get this baby out and get on with the next phase of our lives. I'm tired, I'm sore, I'm uncomfortable, I can't eat (there's no ROOM) and I just have the blahs.

But enough with the crab-fest. :-) On the up side, his room is pretty much done. All that's really left to get is the night stand, but since we swapped out the teeny bookshelf for a more regular sized one, it's serving as a night stand for now and works just fine. We got our diaper contraption last night. All we need is a little boy to put in there!

In non-baby news, my Christmas shopping is pretty much done! I have a few things I ordered online that I'm still waiting for to be delivered and I still need to shop for Susan's birthday (or give her the stuff I got for Christmas for her birthday and get different things for Christmas for her). I took today off from work (office was closing early and I had a mid-morning doctors appointment) so I've got several plans running through my head.
I'll either wrap my presents and get those that need mailed ready to go or...
I'll clean my house (I don't believe this is nesting...it's practical - I'm home, it's messy and I have the energy during the day to do it that I don't have in the evenings after work) or...
I'll decorate for Christmas or...
I'll end up playing on the computer all day and do nothing. HA! No, I have to do something. I've got to bake my pie for Thanksgiving dinner tonight so something will get done.

Let's see, what else. Nick finished his fall quarter and gets just about 2 weeks off before winter quarter starts. Don't know the grades yet, but I'm hoping he did well again. On the super, super, super, DUPER good news side - this is the first quarter in over a YEAR that he doesn't have any Saturday class!!! Nick has a feeling he'll get this quarter and next with no Saturday class and then he'll have them again....just in time to ruin camping season this summer. Let's hope not! I'm not thinking that far ahead yet and am just so excited that we get our weekends back!!!! Plus, this time next year we'll be celebrating Ben's 1st birthday AND Nick's graduation from the bachelors program AND NO MORE SCHOOL!!!

Last weekend I took Connor to see New Moon. I have to say, it was pretty good. I really enjoyed the books, I thought the movie of Twilight was way cheesy and borderline stupid (even though, yes, I've watched it multiple times). New Moon was just over all better. I'm tempted to ask Nick to take me to see it again - watching it with Connor was fun but I had no idea he was such a chatterbox during movies. He kept me entertained, but I missed stuff I'm sure. And yes. I'm still Team Edward. Jacob is cute but dang. He's a baby. :-)

So I think that's pretty much it! We're just twiddling our thumbs....waiting for this baby to make his appearance.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's November!

I feel like I actually have something to write about for once! I probably will write two lines and then be stuck. ha ha.

I had my 2nd to last 2 week appointment this afternoon. I've finally gained enough weight to put me at my prepregnancy weight. I asked the doctor how he should be positioned - I'm trying to figure out what it is that I'm feeling when he stretches and kicks me. He is head down and he's butt up - his butt is right under my ribs, so that's probably what I mostly feel. He's over on my left side a lot (hardly ever on my right) so that's probably feet. From the feel and length of him, she guesstimated he's between 6 and 6 1/2 pounds. She asked how much Nick weighed as it's usually the paternal side that babies follow. Yeah. Um. Nick was 10 pounds. She said, and I quote, "Oh, boy"....so I'm probably going to have quite the chunk. So much for my hopes of a slender baby with skinny shoulders and a tiny pin head. She also thinks I'll go before my due date, which brought me to my next random question - what happens if I go into labor in the middle of the day when she's got appointments booked? She said that I am her priority - she'll reschedule her appointments to come deliver. Yay!

After that I got my swine flu shot. Ouchie. The seasonal flu didn't hurt one BIT, this one is still stinging. We're gonna go out to the free clinic tomorrow and get Nick all doped up, too. We ordered our rocking chair last week and I just got email from Walmart that it's here already!! We'll go out after dinner and pick it up! SO excited!!!!



All that's left on my "absolutely must have before he's born" list is the bedding set which a little birdie has hinted might be delivered via UPS on Tuesday..... :-) Then all I have to do is fill it with my non-essential essentials. Stuff that we don't really need to have but that I really want to have.

Just under 6 weeks to go! He'll be here before we know it!!

We finished our birthing class this week and all in all I'm glad we went. I was a bit horrified and disturbed at the videos but in hindsight, I'm glad they showed them to us. I would have liked to have seen a delivery video of a woman that had the epidural, to compare to the videos of woman that had natural child birth, but that's okay. We learned a lot of really good information.

So that's my update. I feel like I'm missing something, so you might see another blog sooner than usual.

Hope your November is off to a good start!

oh, p.s.
There's fresh snow at Bogus! Winter is coming!!

October Part Two

Well hello again. I feel like I've taken an internet sabbatical the last week and a half. My computer decided it no longer felt like functioning. I saw the dreaded Blue Screen of Death for the first time in years. My hard drive just plain crapped out. Nick wiped it and started fresh. Now I've got Windows 7 (ooo fancy) but my wireless card isn't playing nice. I have Nick's and he's "borrowing" one of our neighbors unsecured networks until he can find a wireless card that will work with our computers (he put my card in his computer and it still doesn't work).

Other than that, I can't say anything terribly exciting has been happening but what else is new? our lives are pretty even-Steven. I did go to the cardiologist and they did give me a monitor. I have it for a month and then if it's not better, they'll do an ultrasound on my heart. Wouldn't ya know that it's pretty much stopped doing that thing now? Oh well.

We had our birthing class last Tuesday. They showed the video of births, as I expected. And, as I expected, I was the ONLY girl that looked horrified. Me and the men (except Nick - I swear we are the opposite couple) looked stricken at the end of the movie. Other than that, it wasn't bad. I learned a lot of stuff, some terminology that I'd heard but didn't really know what meant or stuff I'd never heard of before. It was helpful already that we went. Thursday morning I woke up at about midnight in just absolute pain all across my ribs. At first I was thinking I was having some sort of contraction, but I took two Tums and drank a gallon of water and within about 20 minutes it went away. Nick remembered from the class about how dehydration can bring on contractions and I have to confess I'd hardly had any water that day. Coupled with the burrito supreme from Taco Bell I had about 10 minutes before bed (ha), I think I just had a wicked case of indigestion. Lesson learned.

I'm starting to get uncomfortable like all the time. A couple of weeks ago, I was boasting on how much I just loved being pregnant. Now I'm starting to reconsider that. I have just under 2 months to go and I have to admit that while I'm terrified of the whole labor process, I'm so ready to just have him already. Not that I'm in any rush to have him early - all in due time - but okay, you know how you feel after Thanksgiving dinner? You're just stuffed to the point of bursting? That's how I feel almost all the time. Like I've got a basketball stuffed in my stomach (which, I sort of do).

It's been really hard to pinch my pennies this month. We didn't count on Nick's work withholding his first two weeks of pay, so he won't get paid from his new job til the end of the month. That means we've been living on JUST my paycheck this month and it's been hard to make it stretch (ugh and we're only at the half way mark). I'm DYING to go get my rocking chair and my bedding set. My mom got me a ton of super cute sleepers and then I finally went through the old baby clothes that Carin had set aside for me and picked out a bunch more stuff that wasn't girlie. So that made it better, I have new stuff to wash and admire and put away.

I'm making Nick contribute to the blog. I said "do you have anything you'd like to add?" and he said: I'm excited for my paycheck. That's apparently it from Nick.

So this is all. Not so exciting but now you've been brought up to date on our FABULOUS lives.

October

Not so very much to post but I noticed it's been awhile since I blogged. Of course, Ben is pretty much the focus of our lives (okay, at least MY life - I assume he is of Nick's too but you know, Nick isn't carrying Ben so.... ha) so if you're tired of reading about what we're doing for his arrival, then I suggest you skip this one.

Life calmed down a little after the shower and Susan's trip out. Our September was pretty packed, I don't think there was a weekend in September that we didn't have something planned. October is getting off to a more laid back feeling. Nick started his new job on the 1st and so far seems to be enjoying it fairly well. I think it's a little boring for him at the moment, but the longer he's there and shows them what he can do, the more responsibility he'll be given. We are SO loving his new schedule. We're getting up at the same time, are pretty much home at the same time - we get to spend 3 out of 5 work nights together which is AWESOME.

Had another doctors appointment today and things are looking good! I didn't gain any weight this time (muahahahaha), my blood pressure is fantastic and Ben's heart is right where it's supposed to be. My heart, on the other hand is having a bit of a hiccup. For about the past week my hearts been beating funny - skipping a beat - so doctor is sending me over to a cardiologist some time next week and I'll probably have to wear a holter monitor again (did this before when I was in high school and my heart was doing it's weird racing thing - SVT, you can google it if you wanna). It's not a huge deal, she didn't seem super concerned, but she does want to know what exactly is going on and if it needs treatment.

Got a bit more work done on Ben's room. We found a dresser, got a tiny little book case (we'll build on it, it's part of a system that you can customize with the pieces you want, so we'll probably expand at some point), the crib mattress, changing pad and cover and some books. Next big ticket items to hunt down are the rocking chair (and I have my eye on a nice set from Wal Mart - really reasonably priced, got great reviews on the site (and mention in my Baby Bargains book) and it's free shipping if I have it set to the store) and the bedding. We have plenty of time and I'm sticking by my goal of having it done by the week before Thanksgiving. I'm dying, of course, to go buy everything right now but I know I have family that's planning on getting us stuff for his room closer to Christmas and if I get it all done right now, then what will I do until he gets here? It's more fun to spread it out and have fun along the way.




I'm also working on my goal of having all my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving. I say this every year and I never do but this year I really do have a good reason. I don't know when Ben will decide he's ready to come out and I don't want to try to shop hugely pregnant or end up having him before I can get all my shopping done. I have a couple of things bought already, so hopefully I'll reach my goal!

So that's about it as far as I can think. Nothing too terribly exciting, just more baby planning and gettin' on with life. :-) Hope it's going good for you!