Green

As an anniversary present to us last Wednesday, Kenny’s company decided they’d take away his job. I must say, I have gotten better anniversary presents. As crappy as the timing is, I do think this will all be for the best though, and he’ll get a job he loves. Let us know if you hear of anybody who needs a fabulous graphic designer...

Because of the unfortunateness, Kenny was home on Friday to help my mom paint the nursery. I was terrified that the color was going to end up being too neon, but I think it turned out lovely. It may even appear neon-ish in these pictures, but that’s just the camera’s fault.

On Saturday, we hung these fun lights which provide the only overhead lighting in the room. The grown-up bed will have to stay for a year or so because we'll continue to need a place for guests to sleep. Afterall, somebody is going to need to take care of that baby.

Last night we assembled the crib. Kenny and I did it together and I don't think anybody called anybody names or got up and stormed off. It was quite the success. The quilt was made for me by my grandma when I was a wee one. Of course we had to test out the sturdiness of the bed with a series of puppy tests. We tried to put Jack in the bed. That lasted .5 seconds. He jumped out with terror almost breaking himself the moment his feet touched the mattress. Leroy, on the other hand, was quite content and might have stayed all night if we had let him.

And whoops. Looks like I'm wearing this shirt again for the 3rd or 4th time in these pictures. Apparently it is a very Tuesday shirt. This is what 28 weeks (definitely 3rd trimester) looks like on Emo. I can still see my feet and don't quite understand how one gets to the point where they can't. So many things to still look forward to. Baby has become quite movey lately. As I am writing this it feels like somebody is running on an eliptical inside my belly. I also continue to confuse the kicking with tummy growling causing me to think I'm hungry. Hmm.

5-point Friday

Laziness has gotten the better of me this week. For that reason, you get a hastily written 5 point post.

1) Jack turned 5 years old on Sunday. To celebrate, Kenny gave him a Leroy portion of food and we got a new sweater for him out of the dollar bin at Target. People can tell me that dogs don’t need clothes all they want, but my little guy gets cold and appreciates a little something. He shivers and helps put his legs through arm holes like a pro.

2) Leroy got an expensive yet clean bill of health on Tuesday. A week before he was diagnosed with an intestinal infection--the kind of infection you get when you treat the neighborhood sidewalks like a buffet table.

3) On Wednesday, Kenny and I celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss. He gave me coupons for 10 minute back massages, dog walkings, and clean ____. I've given these to people before and they haven't used them. That will not be me. I will use every coupon and I will probably use them too quickly and then be sad I didn't spread them out.

4) I am 27 weeks as of Tuesday and this picture. According to 2 out of 4 sites I looked at, I am now in my third trimester. Ahhh! I finally got my hair cut but have not figured out how to style it yet.




5) My mother and stepfather, Jack, arrived for a visit last night. This is to be a visit-Kenny-and-Emo-and-help-nest visit more than a site seeing visit. By the end of the weekend we shall have a disturbingly green nursery with an assembled crib and everything. We've pretty much decided to not look at the contents of The Envelope and are thus committed to a gender neutral room. Do you think there's anything wrong with putting bright pink stars in what might be a boy's room? I, more than most people, think pink can go either way. For some reason, I really feel like some big pink stars will tie the room together though. We'll see.

Our lives in the new condo, quantitatively speaking

Every now and then I like to go through my Google calendar and count up things that have happened. This is probably only interesting to me and maybe Kenny, but this blog is where I record stuff so it gets posted. These counts are pretty similar to the ones here I did last year.

We have lived in our new home for 203 days or 29 weeks.

During that time...

We have had 12 visits from
15 unique people (3 have come twice)

They have spent
29 nights and
36 days with us

I have spent 13 nights and 17 days out of town on 5 trips
2 to St. Louis
1 to St. Louis, Hermann, and Kansas City
1 to DC
1 to Seattle and San Juan Island

Kenny has spent 15 nights and 20 days out of town on 7 trips
3 to St. Louis and
1 to St. Louis, Herman, and Kansas City
1 to DC
1 to Seattle and San Juan Island
1 to Green Bay

Meaning that about 27% of our days have been spent with visitors or visiting others

We have painted 6 rooms (one of those rooms we painted twice)

We have purchased 10 pieces of new furniture of which 4 were only new to us

We have treated 8 puppy eye infections (all 4 puppy eyes have gotten infected twice)

And I have posted to this blog 23 times.

She promises they don't just boil water.

I am suddenly feeling very behind. I have just 1 or 2 weeks left of the 2nd trimester depending on who you ask and we have not selected a pediatrician, signed up for birthing classes, found a daycare, or created the nursery. Ahhh! I tried signing up for some classes yesterday only to find that they were already full. Fail.

We did cross one important thing off the list and that is finally getting the nerve to break up with my doctors and switch to a midwife practice. The doctors had been either patronizing or defensive with every question I had asked about the birth. I’m fairly confident that I could have maybe succeeded at having the birth I wanted with them, but it would have been a lot more stressful and non-automatic.

Several weeks ago Kenny told me he would end my bagel in bed service until I finally made a decision about all of this. He followed through with his threat, and I’ve had the hardship of making my own bagel for several weeks now. We did some research (i.e. read several online reviews) and found a midwife practice within a hospital (see Dad? It’s in a hospital!). I had a consultation with the director of the practice last week and it was amazing. I had a mental list of questions for her, but by the time she finished describing their prenatal and birth philosophy and process I was in love. Every “silly” thing I had asked my doctors about is just how they do things at this practice. It was as if I had written down a description of my ideal environment and care ahead of time and given it to her to read. She said she would do the breaking up with my current doctors for me, so I even got to skip that awkward step.

And finally, me at 26 weeks still in need of a haircut and this time with a really weird smile. That giant thing in front there? Makes my back hurt lots.

Adventures in Medical Land

I feel like the only thing I ever do anymore is go to doctors. I go to the allergist, the dermatologist, the dentist, and the baby doctor. My boss probably thinks I am making up appointments. I had a baby doctor appointment on Friday. I first had to convince the nurse that I was 24.5 weeks, not 23 weeks. This was the first time I met her and she was rather indignant when I countered her claim that I was 23 weeks. She asked me where I had come up with 24.5 weeks. Had a doctor told me that? Yes, a doctor had told me, that but come on. I am also constantly aware of what week I’m at. I post a weekly picture. I read no fewer than 90 pregnancy week-by-week thingies each week. It’s on my Google calendar. I don’t know what her source was, but she refused to believe me until I told her my due date and she got out her little slide chart thing and told me that yes, I was in fact 24.5 weeks. She then realized that I should have been scheduled for a glucose screening at this appointment but it was too late in the day. She went on to scold me about how I better pass the test when I did take it or I would be punished by having to come back in for a 3-hour test. I asked her how I go about passing it (I’m thinking..maybe by not having gestational diabetes?). She said I better not come in with a Starbucks full of sugar, and I better stay seated during the test and not try to sneak out and go shopping or something.

Things only got better when the doctor came in and told me that he was sorry, but he was going to have to rush me. He had a patient who was 9.5 centimeters dialated. Now, the office is not in the hospital and is at least 10 minutes away. He congratulated me and Kenny on being pregnant. I couldn’t remember any questions I had for him and forgot to even update him on how I had been failing to breath a few weeks ago and how my allergist had changed my medication around. I was too concerned about that woman who was about to give birth and maybe wanting her doctor to be there. He listened to the baby’s heartbeat and commented that I was definitely pregnant (whew!). He didn’t argue with me or try to do any procedures twice though, so I will give him that.

I went back Monday morning for my glucose screening. They gave me about 10 oz of a very sweet Kool-Aid like drink and told me to tell them to take my blood an hour later. Much like telling us we can’t have cold deli meat, I’m pretty sure this is just one of those things they do to screw with pregnant women. I was in a nauseous, sleepy sugar coma until after lunch time.

And of course, the belly. 25 weeks. 15 more weeks? Where? How? My head will return to photos when I get a haircut. If I like it.

My last two weeks, the Cliff's Notes version

I spent a good many hours enjoying this view last weekend. This is the view from Kenny’s sister Robin’s cabin in San Juan Island (near Seattle). The island was just full of beautiful—hills, moss, Puget Sound, lots of trees, a view of Canada. If you walk down the hill from where this picture was taken you come to a cliff overlooking the water and where there are sometimes whales swimming by. Sunday morning we went to a pumpkin carving brunch at an equally beautiful wooded area near an adorable cabin.



My pumpkin is the one on the left that says BOO. It also has a sadly misshapen witch's hat on the left side out of view. Robin carved the next two. Our friend Carri who lives in Seattle and joined us for the island adventure made the cyclops. Kenny made the roboty one, and Robin's boyfriend, Jason, made the horned fellow on the right. I love Halloween, but this will probably be the extent of our Halloween celebrating for the year. Lame.

We spent the last two days of our trip in Seattle. We were going to stay with Carri and her husband Derek, but Derek had to go and get the flu or some such illness. Apparently asthmatic pregnany ladies should avoid getting the flu and other such illnesses, so we stayed at Robin's Seattle studio for one night and a hotel for the last.



This is of course the belly at 24 weeks + the Public Market + Puget Sound. Apparently I am just going to keep getting bigger. Our hotel was hilarious. It had black hallways and giant black and white pictures of rockstars on the doors. It also had a pillow menu. I dialed zero and requested a body pillow. Will now have to buy a body pillow for home use and hope there is still room for Kenny in the bed in addition to me, my belly, the pillow, and two dogs who sleep attached to me.

And last, but not least or even chronologically last, a report on the 2009 3Ms conference:
We all enjoyed milkshakes when they arrived last Friday night. Saturday we bravely headed to Ikea. Something like 5 hours later, we emerged. Megan bought herself a nursery (pictured below in the 4 big boxes at the right. The cart is also hers. Did I mention she flew to Chicago? Molly wins the Ikea restraint contest. She is holding her one purchase. Kenny and I are responsible for the cart on the right. We (read Kenny) somehow fit all of this and 4 people (plus 2 half people) into our Corolla.

When we got back from Seattle, etc. there was a large box waiting for us in the foyer. The crib we ordered from Target a few days earlier (the one that said it would take several weeks to be delivered) had arrived. I am now pretty convinced we are having a baby because there is now a bed in our house just for it. Feels kind of like it did when we bought a crate before we got a puppy. The boxed up crib is living for now along side Megan's boxed up nursery furniture in our guest room. Sorry Kenny's parents who are coming to stay in that room this weekend!

I guess I never finished discussing the rest of the 3M weekend, but now that I've already come back to present tense, it seems confusing to do so. Have a good Halloween!

I break dresses

All the fun was indeed had last weekend, but I’ve been trapped under something heavy all week and unable to tell you about it. Yesterday was the last of day of our giant 3-day all member annual conference. Our wonderful bosses gave us today off, which is great because I need today to clean the house and get ready for our trip to Seattle. We leave tomorrow morning and some friends come to stay with the puppies. In other words, I will also fail to tell you about last weekend today.

Because of the conference I had the challenge of dressing in business dress for three days. I do not own 3 suits that can fit around the belly, so I had to get a bit creative. For two of the days I ended up wearing two non-maternity dresses that happened to have belly space. Everything was going swimmingly until the third day. I was sitting in a session and the, um, upper part of the dress (actually it was a jumper) was a bit snug and inhibiting my breathing. I was at the back of the room so I decided I could unzip my breath and have a little reprieve. The session was ending so I went to zip back up. I couldn’t reach so asked my friend/coworker, Lisa, for help. The zipper got stuck. She tried for a few minutes with no success. Another coworker suggested that standing up might help. Meanwhile, around 400 members are sitting in the rows in front of us learning about investment risk. Standing up did not help. A managing director saw what was happening, and he came over to help as well. Zipper. Would. Not. Budge. Lisa and others tried to convince me that it looked like a style feature of the dress. I went to the bathroom to survey the damage. From far away it did conceivably look like an intentional feature. Really though, it looked like I was walking around with my dress unzipped. I took the jumper off completely to see if I could fix it. Nope. Zipper looked tired and angry I had forced it to close earlier.

I ended up borrowing a suit jacket from a coworker to hide for the rest of the day. When I got home I handed the jumper to Kenny who promptly zipped it up in about 15 seconds.

And now, the poor belly, pictured here at 23 weeks trapped under two layers of spandex. Not its best look. I blame Kenny's photography.