OMG!

I do not like to take the Lord's name in vain but is it in vain when you say, "Oh my God! Please stop crying."? I'm imploring of my maker to make his other tiny creation with not so tiny lungs to cease the constant wailing.

Gavin has been bestowed with incredible cuteness and incredible lungs. Or mediocre lungs and amazing vocal cords and a great diaphragm. He is quite the eardrum buster.

Tonight is my bible study night but we are not meeting because everyone is still scattered from the holidays but it is still my night off. I drove around Seattle for an hour and a half, visiting the places I used to visit when I first moved to the Emerald City. It was a nice trip down memory lane to see the coffee shops I haunted and the streets I strolled back when I still gasped in awe when I saw the city skyline and wondered if it would ever lose it's magical pull on me. (It has. I do not deny it is gorgeous but I don't pinch myself and think, "I live here!" anymore).

Ryan is upstairs with Gavin as I sit here and check my e-mail and make this post. I just polished off my first Hefeweizen since I became pregnant. If Gavin gets hungry before 10 pm he'll get another bottle of previously frozen mom juice. Yea for pumps!

I should head upstairs and take advantage of my last few minutes of time off and take a bath while I can.

Who knew bathing would be such a treat?

Christmas Came Early (to me)

It is too early to breath a sigh of relief or to make any excited proclamations but I can make excited proclamations about what I have already received. Two nights in a row.

Any guesses as to what I am so thrilled about?

Sleep!

Gavin gave his beloved Mommy 6 hours of sleep two nights in a row!

Woo-hoo!

I am praying it isn't a fluke. There is one wrinkle in his gift of sleep to me, however. It may come at a certain cost. Previous to all of the sleep being had by one uber-cute baby there was much crying, fussing and screaming being belted out for the duration of the evening.

Last night Ryan and Gavin's Nana Monten tested ways to soothe the little Grumpers. Nana walked with him in laps around her house facing outward. Grumpers turned into a docile lamb with eyes wide open staring at all of the lights. Ryan then took the G and made sure it wasn't just the Nana factor.

To further test their hypothesis that walking was the cure to the fussies Ryan would stop and sit on the couch. It only took a moment for Gavin to start wailing. Ryan let him get worked up enough to make sure the walking was the answer.

As soon as they stood up and started walking Gavin baa'd like the good little lamb that he is.

It was then my turn to change a variable in the testing. After walking with him facing outward (to make sure it wasn't the Nana/Daddy factor) and calming him down I sat down and let Gavin work himself up to a good cry before standing up and walking with him facing inward. That worked as well so long as he was able to see the lights.

My thoughts on the light fascination with babies is that lights to babies are like over the top Christmas light displays to adults (or children). It is just so nice to look at all of the twinkly lights against the backdrop of the dark sky.

I used to love staring at the Christmas tree when I was little and let my eyes go out of focus and all of the lights grew fuzzy with halos. Now all I have to do is take off my glasses and I see the pretty fuzzy Christmas tree lights of my youth.

Losing the fuzzy Christmas lights is the only wrinkle in my plan to get laser eye surgery (one of these years). Sorry, Swell & Sheepie. As grateful as I am to have glasses that enable me to see clearly I still HATE them. The lenses fog up in the winter when you walk in doors, they get wet in the rain, a gross film on them at the beach and they are so easy to lose. How do you find your glasses when you need your glasses to see? And don't say to only put them in one spot - if I was that conscientious in the first place I would never lose them and wouldn't ask the question.

Gavin is starting to stir so I should wrap this up before he realizes he is hungry.

Normal

Gavin just had his 2 month check up. His growth and strength are all normal, in the 50th & 60th percentiles. His sleep is not normal but not abnormal either. If he's still not sleeping well at 4 months then the Dr. said we should start giving him cereal at night to keep his tiny tummy full longer which will help him sleep.

I pray to the good Lord above that we don't have to resort to that because that means I will be seriously sleep deprived for 2 more months.

There is a church nearby my office (where I am right now) playing a Angels We Have Heard On High with bells. Those are some big bells because the church is almost 2 streets away and I can hear it through a brick wall. I wonder how many bells are in the bell tower.

It's hard to believe Christmas is just a few days away. This week used to be the longest week when I was a kid. Almost every night I would have a dream that it was Christmas and I would wake up in the morning all excited just to be disappointed that it was still 5 days away only to get excited again because we were one day closer to Christmas.

Christmas dinner with my extended family was so much fun. We would open presents at home in the morning with mom then go to Grandma & Grandpa's in the afternoon for a huge feast with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone who didn't have a place to go. My favorite foods to eat were black olives (somethings haven't changed) and fruit salad (made with whipped cream). When it was dark out the grandkids opened presents from all of the aunts and uncles and at some point in the evening we would go sit on the side walk and watch the boats with Christmas lights sail through the channel in the bay.

Now Christmases are a little more stressful. Alternating families and traveling across the great State of Washington to make sure we see everyone. This year we will go to Belfair on Saturday and drive back to Seattle on Sunday, host on Christmas Eve and go to the 'Couv on Christmas Day and back home the same day.

At least we will get to see everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Snub

I just realized I didn't put mauigirl's blog back on my site after I updated my blogger account. Sorry. It wasn't a purposeful move - I only had enough brain power to add the two then I petered out. I'll add it back soon. Promise.

I have nothing else to post about. Sure I could post about the cutest baby EVER. But that's got to get old. Although he has started to coo a bit. Now if he could just try to sleep a bit at night that would be fan-freakin'-tastic.

Ryan had baby duty on Saturday night. I had pumped so Ryan could feed Mr. Fussers when he woke up frequently demanding food. It was the first time since I got pregnant that I slept 8 hours. Glorious sleep! I could have slept another 8 hours but we ran out of pumped milk and I was going to explode - and I'm not talkin' about my bladder. Ouch. Gavin was needed for some decompression.

Because Ryan had the G-man on Saturday I was able to go to church on Sunday. It was Gavin's first day at church. Ryan slept. I spent most of the service out of the service feeding Gavin but it was still good to get my foot back in the door of the church.

Now I'm going home (I'm at my office in West Seattle as I was running errands). Maybe I'll get a few minutes of sleep. Maybe I will fold one of the 4 or 5 baskets of clean laundry in the dining room. Maybe I'll sweep up the bushels of cat and dog fur billowing around the house. Maybe I'll make dinner.

Most likely I will feed Gavin and change his diaper 3 or 4 times before Ryan gets home and watch a lot of Law and Order while Sweet Pea is happily nursing with his eyes closed.

C.P.

Poor Gavin. He is not going to know what his name is since Ryan and I call him just about every name under the sun but his given name.

I definetly take the cake as far as variety of names are concerned. Gavin is Sweet Pea, Cutie Pie, Honey and Little Mister when he is cute and alert. Today I came up with C.P. - short for Cute & Precious.

Ryan calls him Buddy, Little Guy, Big Guy, Big Eyes, G., Gavey.

When my Sweet Pea Cutie Pie Honey Little Mister C.P. is less than adorable he becomes, Fussers, Grumpers, Dude, Little Dude and C'mon (as in C'mon already, stop crying and go to sleep please).

This morning after Ryan went to work at about 9:30 or 10 Fussers woke up. I fed him and changed him and C.P. fell asleep on my lap. Making sure he was in a deep sleep I sat on the couch with him gazing at my Sweet Pea before transitioning him into his co-sleeper so I could sleep in my bed (I would have slept on the couch but the dog yacked on the floor next to the couch and I got my sleeping bag in it - gross). I layed Little Mister down and Grumpers woke up.

To get the Dude back to sleep it took a hair dryer, space heater and mini fan with the noise and heat they create to lull him off to sleep. Each time he drifted off to dream of milk filled boobs he would wake up after 15 minutes which is just enough time for me nod off. After 3 of these attempts at sleep he finally stayed in slumber land for about 2 hours.

You think I'm kidding about the milk filled boob dreams. He nurses in his sleep. It is freakin' cute! He did it the entire time I was in the bath tub yesterday (he was in his bouncy chair next to the tub) and when I climbed out of the tub and grabbed the camera he quit. Lame. It's as elusive to the camera as is his smile.

Gavin's 2 month check up is next week. I wonder what percentile he is in as far as his growth is considered and what the doctor will have to say about his sleeping patterns.

I should probably head upstairs soon. Tonight is my night off. I've been meeting with my bible study every Thursday since I moved to Seattle 6 years ago. Now it is a place of refuge. Ryan made a comment tonight before I left that my girlfriends haven't seen Gavin in a while. Nice try! If my girlfriends want to see Gavin they can come over on a night that is not a Thursday. I don't get a day off or even a half of a day. I get 2-3 hours. That's it. It is long enough to make me miss the little guy, though.

Yep. It's time for me to return upstairs and give my C.P. a kiss since I ran down to the basement as soon as I got home effectively telling Ryan I wasn't ready to go back on duty.

Hanging in there

Just checking in here to let everyone know all is well since I haven't been Ms. Social as of late. I don't pick up the phone when it rings because I usually have Gavin physically attached to me and I can't reach the phone. I don't e-mail because as I sit on the couch I have to angle the laptop and type with one hand because I'm feeding Gavin. One handed typing at an angle on a couch while the laptop is perched precariously on the dog kennel gives me back spasms.
I have been told that soon Gavin will sleep through the night. Of course I was also told that when the baby reaches 10 pounds he will sleep better. Gavin is weighing in at over 12 pounds now. I suppose he does sleep better, closer to 3 hours than 2 hours but it is still a struggle to keep him asleep when you go for the super slow motion transfer from your lap or shoulder to the swing/cradle/co-sleeper/bouncy chair/car seat (what ever you think and pray to God he will sleep in).
As I write this it took 4 attempts to get him to go to sleep and stay asleep. I started after he was given a clean diaper and fed. He fell asleep after eating his fill of mom's super food but woke up as soon as I put him in his swing and was none to happy about not being in my arms. I held him again and lulled him off to sleep and tried the car seat. Failed. I lulled him off again and put him back in the swing. Nope. This process took 2 hours. Next thing you know he's hungry again. This time I fed him and put him in his cradle and after mild fussing he fell asleep and is still sleeping. I put the monitor on him and made my way to the basement so I could check e-mail and write this on the desktop since the laptop is having issues staying connected to the Internet.
The little guy is smiling now. OK, he's not smiling right this very second but you know what I mean. His toothless, open mouth smile is so CUTE. It's also very elusive when the camera comes out to capture it. One of these days we will have proof of the adorableness that is my son's smile.
We can't wait for him to laugh. A baby's giggle is just about the most precious thing there is. God knew what he was doing when he made them so darn cute. Even as Gavin cries we laugh at how cute he is with his bottom lip jutting out and at how perfectly he forms the 'W' when he wails. My mother-in-law was saying she has never heard a baby actually make a 'waa' sound when they cry like Gavin does.
Alright. He is starting to stir a bit. That means the clock has started. He should be awake within the hour. I have a few minutes to go eat something since I chose to sleep instead of eat dinner tonight while Ryan was able to watch him before he went to bed.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season.

C-U-T-E

Can you believe how cute this little dude is? We didn't take a picture of him during the actual bath. He was still cute but not so happy to be naked and wet. Bath time is very traumatic. As is having a diaper changed, not being fed fast enough, getting dressed, being put in the car seat, being taken out of the car seat, being taken out of the bouncy chair, being taken out of a swaddle, being put in a swaddle, not being swaddled. There is so much drama when you are a month old.
Right now he is starting to stir from a nice nap in his bouncy chair. Ryan put Gavin in the bathroom in his bouncy chair while he took a shower. There is nothing more soothing to him than the sound of the fan, running water and bright lights. It puts him out every time.
I'm going to have to pony up some milk any minute now. Our house has turned into a dairy. I'm the cow. Would that make me a heifer?
The little G-man, as Ryan calls him, is one month old today. We can't imagine our lives without him and he's only been here one month. It feels like so much longer but maybe that's because I carried him inside of me for 9 months. He is already holding his head up. He usually holds his head up when I put hold him against my chest. He knows food is nearby.
OK, gotta go. Time to feed my sweet pea.

6:14 and not ready for bed

It's 6:14 and my thoughts have not turned towards bedtime yet. Wow. This is the time I start to think about going to bed. 7:00 is when I start to get ready and 9:00 is lights out.

It probably helps that my mother-in-law was here today and I got to go back to bed for 2 hours after eating breakfast that she had made for everyone. The in-laws who went straight from our house the Sunday after Gavin was born to Arizona just arrived back in town last night and they came straight from the airport to our house and started working again! Craziness.

Ryan goes back to work tomorrow. Officially back to work. Because Gavin arrived even earlier than anticipated Ryan had to work almost a full work week his first week off (from the dining room table) and make many trips to the office and field office. The second week was a little better and I think this upcoming week his work load will have finally died down - just in time for Gavin's due date.

Gavin is getting some chubby cheeks; at his two week mark he has gained back all of his birth weight plus a half a pound so as of Thursday he was at 8 pounds 1 ounce. : ) Yea for fat babies! I hear they sleep better. Two more pounds to go to see if 10 pounds is the magical weight that will allow his tummy to stay full longer and allow his mommy to sleep longer.

p.s. I am wearing pre-maternity clothes! The jeans are the biggest size I have but still - they aren't maternity! My regular jeans zip up but it's just not very attractive right now.

That is all I have the time and energy to write about for now. I'm glad the first two week are over. It has been quite an emotional roller coaster being new parents, sleep deprived and hormonally imbalanced. Since I don't want to jinx anything (I'm really not superstitious) I'm not going to write that it feels like life is returning to 'normal'.

Arrival

Thursday, October 18th at 2:46 pm is the day mine and Ryan's life forever changed. We welcomed a sweet, super deduper cute baby boy into the world. We waited several hours before naming him. Our little boy is Gavin Douglas Jahns.

I really wanted to name him after my dad who died in October 1981 (Douglas Dewayne Haas). My little brother is going to do the same. He gave me the idea as he wanted to do it when he has a son; I asked permission before using it, though. I think it's no big deal if cousins share a middle name.

So here is the birth story of Gavin Douglas Jahns:


My water broke. in the wee hours on Wednesday. Sort of. It was hard to determine. My midwife ran some tests that came back ambivalent to negative. That afternoon I called her with updates and just as I was going to call again with another update she called. She re-ran a test that she did that morning because it becomes more accurate as the sample has time to dry on the slide. It was positive.

I asked kind of nervously, "So, what does that mean?" even though I knew exactly what it meant because the same thing happened to my sister-in-law Jenny. They would have to give me antibiotics and induce me.

"Well, my dear. It means you are going to have a baby. Friday morning at the latest you should have him."

That just seemed so real that I almost started crying. Not tears of joy. Tears of fear and apprehension.

She had me go to the hospital for my first round of antibiotics and first dose of medicine to 'ripen' my cervix. That was at 2:30. She called me just as I was on my way out the door to Baby's R Us to buy some more essentials.

While this was happening we had a crew working in our back yard attempting to remove an old oil tank that leaked and contaminated the soil. It involved a huge flat bed truck and a tractor moving down our street lined with cars thereby reducing it to a one lane road.

The young guy on the crew came to the front door to ask if they could disconnect our phone line for some work they were doing. I had just hung up the phone and was in a state of shock and was frantically trying to pack my bag for the hospital using the check list that was in a book we received at one of our classes.

Poor guy looked like he was 18. He just wanted to know if he could disconnect our phone and a frantic pregnant woman answers the door with eyes as big as saucers. I told him I would have to call my husband and ask because we might need the phone because I had to go the hospital to have my baby.

It was his turn to have his eyes bug out of his head. Ryan said they could disconnect the phone so I opened the kitchen window to tell the guy in the tractor (yes, a tractor was in my back yard) that they could do what ever they needed with the phone. Before I opened the window I read the lips of all of the crew (who all had eyes popping and jaws falling): "Baby?"

The guys were so sweet. They offered to drive me to the hospital. I said I could drive but thanks. I packed and took my bag outside and went around to tell the guys one last thing before I left. The owner of the tank removal company put my bag in the car and offered again to drive me to the hospital. He was very concerned. I thanked him again and told him I wasn't in labor but they were going to induce me because my water broke. Maybe it was too much information but he was so concerned I didn't want him to worry.

At the hospital I received my first ever IV. Ouch. It hurt. It was nothing like giving blood or receiving a shot. It hurt and continued to hurt. I figured that pain was going to pale in comparison to what was coming.

Antibiotics were administered and an oral medicine to speed up the process of labor was given. Heather, my midwife and great friend, switched her office and on-call day with another midwife in her office so she could be there to deliver my baby. I was so happy! She came in to check on me and told me I could leave after they finished with the monitoring. I was to come back at 9 for my second dose of induction medicine and antibiotics that I would receive at 11 pm.

I heard come back at 11. Oops.

Ryan was at work during the first trip to the hospital. I told him to stay there; nothing was going to happen and if it did I would call him. I picked him up from work on my way home. He helped Gordy, his step dad, prepare the basement for carpet to be installed (carpet that I ordered the day before). I rushed around upstairs packing up as much crap as I could from the baby's room. I managed to pack several boxes, eat a little dinner and take a very brief nap.

Heather called sometime after 9 to see if I was coming in. Uh, yeah at 11 like I was told. : ) I looked at the discharge papers and found that I was told and it was written down as come back at 9. No big deal though. It just meant that I would have to stay at the hospital until 1 am instead of 11pm. That actually worked better for us anyway as it gave us 2 extra hours to work.

Nothing exciting happened in our second trip. We were given the option to stay and be admitted or we could come back at 7:30 for my last round of antibiotics and receive the 'real' stuff if I wasn't in labor at that point. I opted to go home because it would give me a few more hours of sleep in my own bed and I was hungry. If I stayed they wouldn't give me any food.

My last meal was a Jack in the Box hamburger. My plan for breakfast was eggs - protein would fill me up and have to last until the tyke was born.

At 5:30 am the contractions were such that I could no longer sleep through them. That and my water broke a little more. I woke Ryan up and told him we had to go to the hospital. Now.

My water really broke in the car.

Gross.

Contractions took a turn from mild to vicious at that point.

Normally you have a contraction that lasts about a minute then there is a rest phase of about 5 minutes (in the early stages of labor like I was in).

Not so much with mine. I would get three contractions with no break in between and the break only lasted a minute or two.

Ouch.

I held out for 2 hours before receiving the godsend known as an epidural at 7:30.

Sweet, sweet relief. I hadn't felt that good since I became pregnant. Nothing hurt. Nothing. Hips, feet, knees, back, shoulders, ankles were all pain free. I was also kind of loopy from the drugs at first and I was able to drift in and out of sleep.

So beautiful. Before the epidural I could only focus on the pain; I wasn't able to see beyond it to the birth of my son. No.

After the epidural I was able to get some greatly needed rest and focus with joy on the arrival of my son which was anticipated to be late afternoon or early evening which later changed to late evening, like after dinnertime.

My contractions did slow down so they gave me pitocin to speed it back up. If I concentrated I could feel mild pressure to indicate I was having a contraction. That was helpful to the nurses because I changed positions frequently and as a result was moving the contraction monitor (I was hooked up to monitors for the whole labor because of the induction).

I was checked around noon or so and was found to be at 5 cm. I told Ryan he should get out and get some lunch and stretch his legs while he could. He suggested he run home and help Gordy unload the carpet. I thought was a fabulous idea.

About 1pm I started to get nauseous (which is a sign of low blood pressure and also a sign of the impending birth). I had extremely low blood pressure. At one point it was 80 something over 32 or 36. But that was a little deceptive because it was taken on my top arm while I was side lying. My blood pressure did hover around 80/40-48. I obviously received a boat load of IV fluids to keep my from bottoming out.

Needless to say I called Ryan to tell him I wanted him to come back because I was feeling sick. (I think I knew it was going to happen sooner than we anticipated). He was on his way back.
Half an hour later I called him again. He was en route.

My last call was just as he was walking through the door to my room. That was at 2:00.

Just before my last call to him I requested a bolus of the epidural medicine as I was starting to feel contractions and they were getting more painful.

The pain medicine kicked in just around the time Ryan returned. And it wasn't a moment too soon. Twenty minutes later I started to push (I was able to feel when to push)!

Twenty-six minutes later Gavin was born.

A nurse said it was the most beautiful birth she has seen in a long, long time. Heather said it was a picture perfect labor (my water breaking in the manner it did was the only blemish). I had an 8 hour labor which included 26 minutes of pushing.

Ryan and I cried when we saw Gavin. The nurses put him on my chest as they cleaned him off.
We had a few minutes together before the took him (he still stayed in the room) and weighed him and did their nursey stuff.

I ordered lunch and hoped in the shower as soon as the nurse would let me. I ate like a starving woman and fed my baby for the first time.

We went home on Saturday. Thank God for Nanas! Nana Jo was here on Saturday and Nana Jo arrived on Sunday. Yes. Two Nana Jos. Ryan's mom in Mary Jo and my mom is Jo (Betty Jo but calling her Betty Jo is a surefire way to put yourself on her bad list). Mary Jo doesn't want to be called Nana Mary Jo because it doesn't exactly flow off the tongue. I thought they should be Nana M and Nana K for their last names. Oh, well. They can duke it out if they want to. It hasn't been an issue so far; you know in the first week. : )

Ryan and I can't stop staring at him. He is SO CUTE! Everyone who sees him gushes and gushes about how incredibly cute he is. The first cute baby comment is obligatory. After that it's true. We are not biased. Everyone has reinforced his cuteness. He is even cuter in person.

Gotta go. I think the cutest baby ever has a dirty diaper.

p.s. The picture of his is all bundled up on our bed amongst pillows and comforters. It was just a convenient place to bundle him up. We don't let him sleep with us.

Feeling

I have a feeling Jr. isn't far from making his world debut. Mostly feelings of odd cramps in places I've never felt cramps before. That and a few other unmentionable signs leads me to believe that it could happen any day now.

I was able to get into have my ultrasound this morning. Monster Jr. is not such a little monster anymore. He is now in the 66th percentile and is weighing in at 7.1 pounds, about a half a pound larger than average. That would put him at about 8.5 pounds if he came on time - a bit better than a 9 pound baby. The thing I was most concerned about was the amount of amniotic fluid - it's on the high end of the normal spectrum. Whew.

Really shocking was the hair the kid has! It was clearly visible on the ultrasound that he had hair on the back of his head that was waving around in the amniotic fluid. I was a bald baby. I'm sure Ryan was a bald baby.

Since the painters have started at our house I am not staying there until they are done and it airs out so I'm staying at my friend/midwife's house tonight. What better place is there to crash than your midwife's house? : )

I'll keep you posted.

One Day More!

To get the full effect of the title of the post you have to know the song from Les Miserables (I don't know if it is entitled One Day More or not but that phrase is repeated throughout the song). It is a song about revolution and how everything is going to change and as the song progresses it picks up in intensity.

There isn't much in the way of revolution going on in the Jahns household but painting of the basement begins tomorrow at 9am! That is worthy of celebration! And here is the real shocker: we may not have carpet ordered and ready to be installed by Thursday and I'm OK with it.

Let that sink in.

I'm not freaking out and the only reason I'm not freaking out is because Ryan promised me that all of the stuff I don't want in the baby's room, save the guest bed, can be stored in the laundry
room until the carpet is installed. Whew.

That means I can get the baby's room ready (I think I would like to move the twin bed upstairs and store the double bed in the laundry room as to make arranging the baby's room easier).

Church was great today. We visited the church plant for South Lake Union that is currently meeting on Capital Hill. It is super convenient for us. 10 minutes to church tops. It is quite an unconventional church. Once a month the service is a breakfast and people congregate around round tables by the neighborhood they live in. We sat with some friends who used to go to the parent church and who are also in my bible study. We were the only South Seattle residents in the West Seattle/South Seattle table, though.

We met some new people at our table and ran into some old friends (Ryan's old roommates from his college days and dating April days). After church we lingered and chatted with old and new friends. It was great.

The format, from what I gathered is such: breakfast one Sunday a month, 'regular' sermon twice a month and once a month there is no service but outreach ministries where the congregation goes out in small groups and serves the community.

The size was pretty small, I'd say there were less than 200 adults there total. There were lots of babies, toddlers and soon-to-be in the world babies (I looked the closest to popping). One woman scored major brownie points when she was said I looked, and I quote: "tiny" for being 9 months pregnant. Appearance all depends on the clothes. Some people tell me I look (and I quote): "huge" and comment: "are you sure there is only one in there?" or "did you calculate your due date right?". Hmpf.

I don't really mind the first time some asks if I calculated my due date correctly but I bristle when the response is, "Really?" or "Are you sure about that?"

Who is a better judge of my menstrual cycle? Me or the general public?

Don't worry, my male readership! Soon the gory details of pregnancy and the insults hurled at me by nature and by the real or imagined insults hurled at me by other people will soon be replaced by the gory details of newborn peeing and pooping and of the natural wonder that is breastfeeding.

Something for you to look forward to.

Lazy Day - or so was my plan

Poor Ryan is at work today; Saturday. He's going to put in a full day. We are going to (maybe) go look at one last carpet sample tonight then order it.

Tomorrow we are going to play Christian and go to church. Our attendance has been so spotty that I feel parched. I know one does not have to go to church to be in God's presence but it is so nice to have the community and fellowship; not to mention the worship (of the music variety). We are going to give the new Union church a whirl that our church planted in the South Lake Union area. It's much smaller than our home base congregation but that's not saying much - most churches are smaller as UPC has a membership base of 3,000-ish people. With that big number people think it's a 'mega-church' but it really isn't.

The pastor, Earl Palmer, is down to earth even though he does at times seem to have his head in the clouds. He is such a great story teller and gives fascinating lectures but we are looking for more of a sermon than a biblical history lesson. There have been times when Earl has 'laid down the law' from the pulpit and actually has given an opinion or two but that is rare. I kind of appreciate his lack of political statements from the pulpit. Politics can be so polarizing; it's refreshing that he does not waiver from biblical truths and and is able to keep a diverse congregation focused on the things of Christ without turning his position of influence into just that - a position to influence his flock so to speak to do his bidding at the polls.

After I took Ryan to work I returned home and went for a long walk to Galaxie Espresso. They really do have great coffee. I sat there and sipped my delicious single short non-fat latte with beautiful foam art and read through eat.shop seattle to see what they had to say about the places to go in Seattle and especially my neck of the woods, Beacon Hill.

From there I walked back towards my house and stopped at Despi's bakery as I was on the prowl for an iced sugar cookie but they only had chocolate chip. I settled on a maple bar. They really should make those smaller.

Now I'm off to Queen Anne for a bang trim since I want to get it done before the baby arrives.

******

So much for plans.

This weekend is the semi-annual Let's-see-how-much-closer-highway-99-is-to-collapsing check up. I forgot. The fastest, easiest way for me to get to Queen Anne is to cut through part of downtown and hop on 99. I saw the signs throughout the week that gave clear, advance notice that 99 was going to be shut down this weekend.

I completely forgot. It came flooding back to me when I saw the orange cones being set up by crew in orange vests as they shut off access to the on-ramp I wanted. Poo.

Instead of snaking my way to I-5 and trying to figure out a completely new path to a familiar destination (read: I only know how to get from point A to point B on fixed routes - change the route and I get lost).

On my way back home Ryan called and asked me to pick him up from work so I turned back around and headed toward downtown. What should have taken maybe 3 minutes took over 20 minutes because of the highway closure. It would have taken longer but I was able to cut up to a less congested path and make my way to his office. Being stuck in traffic on a weekend seems worse than on a weekday.

After spending 10 minutes at home we went to Home Depot where we spent the next several hours looking at paint and picking out paint, and looking at carpet and not ordering carpet but writing down every detail we could to see if our carpet connection could get it for us any cheaper and picking out pavers for a new window well.

Good times.

At the 3 hour mark my back had enough so I went to their book section and sat in a swivel chair that is for people who want to apply to the H.D. At Lowe's I usually go sit in their garden/out door furniture section but Home Depot doesn't have that.

So how does Apple Crisp, Whisper Yellow, Asparagus, Chocolate Brown and Creamy White sound? Lame? Yeah, I know. We are painting the downstairs Apple Crisp (kind of a terra cotta/carmel color) and Whisper Yellow (a light buttery yellow) with Creamy White trim and a Creamy White ceiling.

Jr.s room, if we have time, will be Asparagus on the upper 2/3 of the wall and Chocolate Brown on the lower 1/3 - the colors will be separated by chair rail. If either of us had more time (or artistic talent) I would make the border between the two colors an argyle pattern. That would be so cool. But it's so not going to happen.

Our carpet connection didn't call us and he didn't pick up when we called him so we will try again tomorrow. I'll call before church and after church and in the evening if I have to. If none of that works, I don't know what to do.

At least we got the paint and it's ready to go for Monday. : ) Ryan and I taped and draped everything we don't want to clean up after the texture goes on tomorrow. Although I've been pleased with how quickly the drywallers are putting up the drywall I've been a perturbed by the mess. I know it's a messy job but the mud is everywhere, on windows, window screens, in electrical outlets, on the toilet, on cabinets, on the stereo.... everywhere. It can be easy enough to chip off once it dries but I don't want to chip it off an electrical outlet... I'll need to find a plastic spatula for that job.

Flakiness

Time is of the essence. Time, as we all know, is fleeting. We are hemorrhaging time right now.

Wednesday night I called four painters who could start painting right away to come out and give us bids. They were lined up for 9am, noon, 7:30 on Thursday and 2:00 today. After I scheduled them I went and scheduled my last ultrasound for next Wednesday. I passed up an early time on Thursday morning because Kenny the painter from Olympia was going to give be here; I also passed up an afternoon time today because Professional Painters were going to be here giving a bid.

It surprises me that no-shows continue to surprise me. Kenny didn't show or call yesterday morning. Brandon didn't show at 7:30 yesterday and when I called him he told me he lost all of my information. Rith did show up a few minutes late BUT he called first to tell me he was going to be a few minutes late. I appreciated his phone call.

Today I called to confirm to make sure the last company we scheduled would in fact be coming out as scheduled. The receptionist asked asked if I got her message earlier about their request to reschedule for Monday at 2:00. No. It was on my voicemail that I hadn't checked yet. They called 3 hours before the appointment. At least they called but they told me they couldn't start until the 22nd. Lame. I must not have been very clear about wanting work to start early next week when I scheduled the bid.

Just to make sure the first bid we got was fair I called a few more painters and got rough estimates before determining the first guy was giving us a reasonable price. Funny. All Rith had to do was show up to get the job (that and give us a fair rate with a guarantee to finish by Wednesday).

There are seemingly few things that need to be finished in the basement. Finish the mudding & taping of the drywall then adding texture. Priming and painting then carpet. That's it, right?

So here is the time frame we are looking at. Dry wall finished by Saturday, dries on Sunday, painting begins on Monday and is finished by Wednesday at the very latest. Carpet goes in on Thursday and Friday, Saturday the baby's room is cleared out and Sunday the baby's room is cleaned and put together.

Monday Monster Jr. is officially invited to make his grand entrance into the world.

We'll see.

First Day

Yesterday was my first day as a lady of leisure. It wasn't all that leisurely. My plans for the day were big. I was going to hit Southcenter (center of all things shopping - a place I despise but must go since it has what I need) for Babies 'R Us and Target and sporting goods stores so I could find one last present for Ryan.

My big plans were shot hours before they were to commence. At 2:30 in the morning I woke up - wide awake. I stayed wide awake for several hours before falling back asleep around 6:30 then I was back up when Ryan left. I felt kind of guilty seeing him off to work - I didn't feel any different than I had the week before so why wasn't I going to work? Oh, that's right. I need to rest up before the baby comes.

So I waddle off to take care of the screaming horde of animals (well, the cats scream for breakfast and the dog just follows me closer than a shadow and wills me to feed her with her huge brown labrador eyes).

I didn't make it out the door until 10:30. No good. That left me enough time at Babies 'R Us to pick out the carseat/stroller combo; I chose the Chicco by default. The salesman was showing me how to work the Gracco Quattro Tour Deluxe blah, blah, blah and I just wanted to pick it up and throw it across the store. He said it was so difficult to operate because it was a floor model and was pretty beat up. Uh, the Chicco was also a floor model and it worked just fine; besides, with all of the stairs we have and with me not being Grace Kelly I think I'll go with the brand that can hold up to freaked out new moms and dads manhandling the floor models.

On the to buy list was also the Diaper Champ (unlike the Diaper Genie it doesn't require a plastic bag for each diaper - more economical and environmentally friendly). Throw in some glass bottles (there has been bad news about plastic bottles off gassing some nasty stuff into the milk which causes problems later in the child developement). Ooh, and I got a breast feeding pillow that is supposed to be better than the Boppy.

It was a pretty exciting trip at the baby superstore. I almost bought a Santa hat for the baby but I don't want to buy one that will be too small when it's finally time for him to wear it. A santa hat is a requirement for all babies too young to reach up and pull it off their cute little heads. If he comes within two weeks of Halloween I may buy him a pumpkin suit onsie costume. Too cute!

After my big day at Babies 'R Us I met up with my old boss who took me to lunch to celebrate me leaving that office. : ) Lunch was nice and it was good to catch up with Meg since we used to see each other every day.

Next on my agenda (or so I thought) was to go home and bake the sugar cookies I prepped the night before for Ryan's birthday. It wasn't until I got home and was throwing the ball in the alley for the dog did I remember that I didn't buy Ryan's last present so I hopped back in the car and drove to Westwood Village (the major shopping center in West Seattle). I hit the three clothing stores that have men's clothing and I thought I found the lightweight rain coat he wanted at Big 5 - turns out it's just an athletic warm up jacket. Oops.

I was finally able to return home, bake the cookies and frost them with store bought frosting : (
and add super fun sprinkles.

It was now 5:30 and I was missing my nap. I laid down to rest for a few minutes when my little brother called. We chatted for a few minutes then I got up and it was time to go again. It was Ryan's birthday so I picked him up for work and we went to Bamboo Bar & Grill on Alki as it is his favorite place to get a margarita and since we know the bartender she made it extra special for him.

Last night was great for sleep! Even though I woke up every 90 minutes to empty my not nearly full enough to wake me bladder I was able to go right back to sleep after each trip! I feel so good! By the way, I'm not kidding about every 90 minutes. It was almost to the minute. Crazy!

Dropping

I think Jr. dropped a bit yesterday. It doesn't mean a whole lot. First time mothers experience lightning or dropping days to weeks before the birth. I really hope it isn't a few days before birth. That would suck. The house isn't ready, we don't have a car seat or the bassinet yet.

Update on Bill who was going to do our basement. Your keen eyes picked up on "was", right?

It turns out that Ryan has a soccer buddy (a different one) who is a dry wall installer by day, soccer player by night and on the weekends he will pick up an odd job doing drywall here and there. Soccer buddy is going to install our drywall over a period of two weekends beginning this Friday. : ) That means I will have the house to myself during the week and it will be done before Bill could get it done!

Woo-hoo!

Ryan is going to lay the tile in the bathroom. Tile isn't that hard or complicated to do and Ryan has tiled the fireplace in our old house, the fireplace in our 'new' house, the entry way in the old house, the bathroom counter top in the old house and the kitchen in the new house. He's practically a pro. Soccer buddy has all of the equipment so that will save time and money for us, too. : )

If I could bend over better I would do the grout but I think that would not be so good for my back. As much of a pain as grouting and cleaning up after grouting can be I would still love to do it and be able to say, "I did that." I guess I can point to the baby and say, "I did that instead."


*******
Soccer Buddy and Co. started hanging drywall yesterday at 4:30pm and didn't stop until 11:00pm. They said they would be here again at 7:00am. At 7:00 this morning there was a faint knocking on our front door (he probably didn't want to wake me) - it was Soccer Buddy and Co.! On time!

I don't know if he could ever go into business for himself as a contractor. I mean, he showed up on-time, worked really hard late into the night then showed up again on the second day, on-time, and got straight to work. What's up with that? He's so not a contractor.


******
Yesterday was my last day of work! Woo-freakin'-hoo!!!


I wore jeans and left early (not by much) - that's the most I could rebel. The office had a lunch for me and the agents came to say goodbye. The agents gave me flowers and cards and gifts. I felt so loved and appreciated.


My first trip back to the office will be much sooner than I had anticipated. While doing laundry last night I pulled out the key to the supply closet out of my fleece jacket. Oopsies. I'll be going back next week again sometime as Ryan's birthday presents trickle in that I ordered from Amazon. (His birthday is Monday so some gifts will be late).

I don't care

I am so happy right now. It's not a hormonal fluctuation. I am at peace, I am calm. All is well with the world; the earth is no longer in danger of spinning off its axis and hurtling through space because Bill came out this morning.
Bill is a general contractor who can install the drywall, prime and texture the drywall, install the bathroom tile then hang the doors and as a bonus he can even find us a person to prime the entire basement (prime with paint, not the drywall primer).
Sure there are lots of people who can do the same things that Bill says he can do. BUT what sets Bill apart is that he can start next week and it will only take him 10 days to do all of the work. Even better is his rough estimate. Sure, his rough estimate could go up but it's low enough that I don't care.
Yes, we know that you shouldn't go with the lowest bid - we haven't had all of the bids come in yet but I know his will still be the lowest. Know what else I know?
I don't care that his bid is the going to be the lowest. I don't care if his work is probably not going to be that of a master craftsman. That is what texture on the walls is for. His mistakes will probably the same as Ryan and I would make. I can live with our mistakes and since he's cheap enough I can live with his mistakes.
Happy, happy, joy, joy!
I should probably wait until we get the official bid tonight or tomorrow before celebrating but like I've been saying, "I don't care!"

Fighting Nature (Is a Losing Battle)

How does one know when nesting kicks in? I'm putting it forth the question for you to think about. I found out last night. I know nesting kicked in because it kicked me. Hard. Just ask Ryan.

In my previous post I said I was kind of sad about the possibility of the basement not being finished in time but I was not going to tell Ryan how I felt because what good would that do?

It turns out that holding your feelings in - putting them in the proverbial box, pushing them down, bottling them up, etc., doesn't work out in the long run. Who knew? It really doesn't work for a woman a month away from giving birth when nesting sneaks up behind her and cracks her across the head with a 2x4.

The conversation with my beloved started out like any normal, rational conversation would. I approached him while he relaxed on the couch after a long days work and doing some more work in the basement after he got home. I simply stated I was concerned about the basement and being able to get the baby's room done. Poor Ryan; he is not Mary Poppins. He can snap his fingers all day long but nothing is going to magically happen. He would just look like a snappin' fool. He let me know he too, is stressed too about the whole situation but reminded me that if the basement didn't get finished and the baby's room remained as is the world wouldn't end, no one would die. Everything he said was logical and rational.

Everything I felt went against reason and logic. The world was going to come to a crashing halt if the baby's room wasn't finished. At one point I told Ryan I wanted to rent a moving truck and take everything we moved into storage (so we could finish the basement) and in the soon to be baby's room, load it up and take it to the dump and just get rid of it.

We talked a little while longer and I said I was going to start calling contractors tomorrow to get bids on finishing the drywall, getting doors hung and the bathroom tiled. Thinking that I let it all out - tears and the hyperventilating and hiccoughing and the arm gesticulations of a wild woman - I went into the baby's room to "see what I can throw away."

Standing in front of the 7' tall Ikea boxy shelving unit I froze. All I saw was stuff. Stuff I couldn't get rid of. It was all stuff that we needed, paperwork from the purchase of the house, curtains to use in the basement, Ryan's sheet music, baby gifts.

A single tear welled up in my eyes then was immediately followed by a river. The river was met with a sniffle then a sob. Poor, poor Ryan. He came in and gave me a hug. What else could he do? Talk sense into me?

Nature waged a battle against me last night and it won. I hate knowing full well the reason I'm a basket case is because nature is trying to get me to physically prepare my space for our child and I can't do anything about it.

Well, I did do something about it today. I lined up three contractors to come out and give us bids on the work we want done. I have two appointments tomorrow and one on Friday. Hopefully their prices are reasonable.

Oh, and Ryan gave me a boost in spirits when he told me Ed will be in next week to finish installing the drywall (he still won't have time to do the mudding and taping - that is where the other contractors come in).

I feel so much better. Nature is bossing me around and I can't physically do anything about it but I can hire someone who can do something about it.

Today after work I picked up Ryan and we went to the local home improvement warehouse and picked out a bathroom vanity, faucet and other accessories like, the toilet paper holder and towel rack. Ah. Well, we have to actually purchase them but before we do we are going to look on e-bay and try and find a better deal on the faucet.

Excused

Nothing big to post today but I started training my replacement. She gets two full weeks of training. We all know it's overkill - I'm a receptionist and as great as I am at my job and as much as everyone loves me (they do, they really really do) it's not rocket science. Everyone agreed that it is better to have two weeks of training than none because if something happened, like I had to go on bed rest or Monster Jr. decided to come a month early then the office would be up a creek.

My replacement is nice. She has a cat that looks just like Gwen (fat, fluffy and white) - I have 'My Pictures' rotate on my computer monitor as a screen saver so she got to see a lot of my family and animals. Lucky her.

This may come as a shock but I'm actually a bit sad about my time in my office coming to an end. Sure, I grumble about my job and how boring it can be but I've been going to that office day in a and day out for over 2 years. When I joined it was a lot smaller and I was able to make a difference in the day to day operations since there are only 3 full time employees.

I'm going to miss seeing the agents everyday although I'm keeping my license there I know I'm not going to be anywhere near as much as when I was trying to make a go of it selling real estate. By the way, my license is active. If anyone knows someone buying or selling real estate I can do the footwork of finding the agent for you. What's in it for you? I interview the agents and try to find someone that would be a good fit for you based on your needs and personality. I know tons of agents in the Seattle and Portland/Vancouver Metro area. Outside of the area I can do a lot of the ground work for you. What's in it for me? Since half the work of being a real estate agent is finding clients when someone offers you up a ready buyer or seller they are so appreciative they will give you a referral fee. See, win-win.

******
Ryan doesn't think the basement is going to be finished in time for the baby. I'm really sad about this but am trying to keep it to myself (well, except for publishing how I feel about it on the world wide web - he doesn't read this blog so no fear of him finding out about it here). He works so hard at his day job then he comes home to work on the basement in the evenings and on the weekends that I don't want to nag him or make him feel bad because he has nothing to feel bad about. He should be really proud of all of the work he has done since he had to learn as he went along.

Once the insulation is in then he wants to find someone to come in and knock the rest of it out. It seems like there isn't much left to do but in reality there is a lot. Before carpet can be installed the doors have to be hung which is a time consuming process then before the bathroom can be completed the tile needs to go in and since the floor is smooth but not exactly level (it's in an old basement so everything is kind of sloped) we had to buy small tile which takes longer to put in because there are more tiles and therefore more cuts and more tiling and more grouting. Once the tile goes in then the toilet and sink can go in but not a moment earlier. Then the wet bar area has to go in and the cabinets and counter top and sink installed. Once all of that is done then we need to put in the trim, putty the trim then paint the trim then paint the walls THEN put in the carpet then pull everything from storage and give it a home in the basement.

It's kind of sad that I'm going to have so much time off next month but won't be able to help out in the basement. I tried to some work yesterday but after 5 minutes of vacuuming up dry wall dust (I was wearing a mask) my back was screaming at me to stop. I'm a useless lump right now. The only thing I can do is play the part of incubator. I thought I could do the insulation because I insulated the whole kitchen one night in just a couple of hours last Spring - I really thought I could do the same in the basement but no such luck. : (

We are going to have to figure out something to do with the stuff in the baby's room if we don't finish the basement because I will FREAK OUT if I don't have adequate time to make the baby's room into a cutesy nursery. FREAK OUT, you hear me? FREAK OUT! We can't have it's closet jam packed full o' crap and have the computer and random sporting equipment in there and filing cabinets and the bookshelf full of stuff that is there by default because it gets it off the floor.

Oh, boy. Need to find my happy place.

Before I go find my happy place - the whole reason I started this post: being excused. A letter came from the King County Superior court today. My heart actually sank a little when I saw it because you are notified of an accepted request for an excuse by lack of response (kind of scary if you think about it. What if your request for an excuse was lost in the mail)? So, I read it fully expecting a statement along the lines of, "We don't care that you may deliver your baby in our grand courtroom; excuse denied." Instead it said the case was dismissed for which I had been summoned and was for that reason excused.

Third summons, third time off the hook. Now watch when I'm retired and have all the time in the world there will not be a summons.

Moo

Our second all about baby class was yesterday. We arrived a few minutes early so we walked across the street from the hospital and grabbed a cup of coffee for me and cocoa for Ryan. I only felt mildly guilty for walking in to a room full of pregnant women with my hand wrapped around a cup of warm caffeinated goodness. Only slightly. I saw a couple of other women with the juice, too.

To take away all caffeine from a pregnant woman is wrong. It should be a crime. For the woman who consumes caffeinated beverages before she is pregnant it would be doubly hard to give it up cold turkey during pregnancy.

Why, the first 12-14 weeks kick off your pregnancy with out of this world fatigue. Alcohol is easy to give up during this period. It is a depressant and while the woman is (usually) thrilled to be beginning her journey into motherhood there is no energy to even lift a glass of the spirits to your tired lips. The woman does manage to eek out just enough strength to put her one daily allowance of coffee to her lips and sip the rich bitter-sweet nectar that will give her just enough energy to keep her worried co-workers from calling the paramedics. The co-workers are sweet to be so concerned about your health and the death-warmed-over look on your pale face with droopy eyelids.

The second trimester alcohol is still easy to not partake of. The I-never-want-to-get-out-of-bed fatigue from the first Trimester is usually gone and replaced with I-want-to-get-back-in-bed-at-4-in-the-afternoon fatigue. You feel like a new person because you can hold your head up at your desk - it's weird how your head weighs 30 pounds in the first tri and goes back to normal after that.

Alcohol starts calling back to the mother-to-be during the third trimester. It's not the fatigue, the aches and pains but the ADVICE. All of the advice that drives mom-to-be to want to drink her Bailey's Irish Cream straight from the bottle.

If I was less civilized I would sum up how I feel about that with a big fat juicy curse.

It's not all advice from all women that drive me, er, the pregnant woman mad. Advice from your new mom girlfriends, great. They tell you what did and did not work for them. It's from the moms (and worse, childless woman and men) who tell you what to do.

First, I'm on edge at all times. I'm a wee bit of a wench. So back off! If I have a question I will ask. If you want to offer a suggestion, great. Give it as a suggestion and not as the Gospel truth.

Second, if you ask me how I'm doing and I say, "Fine." Take it. If you say, "Really? I don't believe you." Then I will tell you how I really am: tired, grumpy and in pain. IF you pulled that out of me do NOT proceed to tell me how good I have it compared to your pregnancy and say that I have nothing to complain about.

Insert cursing here.

Third, if you are the person who drags out of me how I'm feeling and you ask how I am the very next day don't be surprised if my answer is, "Does it really matter?"

Grr.

Well, that rant went on long enough.

After reviewing my posts I realized I haven't written a lot that is positive about pregnancy.

Here are April's highlights of carrying the miracle of life inside her abdominal cavity:

1. I wanted a baby and God gave me one.
2. People let me cross the street at a snails pace and still smile at me.
3. I get to take as many naps as I want to when visiting family and on the weekends, no questions asked.
4. I get to put my feet up while other people fuss over me (it does take some getting used to but once you get used to it...)
5. You get to feel your baby move inside of you.
6. I have a cute belly.
7. I get to wear white canvas shoes with every piece of clothing I have, dresses included because nothing else fits my feet.
8. I'm the hot one now. (My built in furnace keeps me toasty).
9. People tell me I make a cute pregnant woman (it's nice to hear because I see a bloated version of my old self when I look in the mirror).
10. I get to meet my baby soon! I'm so excited to meet the little guy.
11. I am so blessed that I get to stay at home and raise my baby.

*******
I think I like the Korean way of age determination. When a baby is born it is already one year old. In our society you are born and are zero days old. After carrying the baby around for almost a year you realize it is alive and developing and when it enters the world it is new to the outside but it has still been alive for 9 1/2 months.

************
Ryan was able to attend the class yesterday. Ed couldn't work on Saturday so I didn't have to be the sad woman by myself.

Class was good. The first half was all about breastfeeding. Good times. There was a lot to be learned but it still made me feel like a cow. I have offspring which gets its nourishment from my body. Moo.

The instructor told a very funny story about her own experience with breast feeding. She and her husband were at a restaurant celebrating their wedding anniversary and their 2 month old daughter was at home with a sitter. Somewhere in the restaurant a baby started crying. Poor woman, she knew the baby in the restaurant wasn't hers but her brain didn't know so it sent some milk down for her to feed the stranger's crying baby. She had to two big wet spots on her silk blouse. She put her napkin over her chest and that too got wet.

I would be mortified. I think the morale of that story is to leave a clean shirt in your car at all times.

The second half of the class dragged. It was all about caring for the newborn. Bathing, diapering, keeping it safe. Blah, blah, blah. We learned when you should call the baby's doctor (anytime you have a question) and some funny ways of soothing a crying baby if nothing else works. Hopefully I'll remember their techniques because that one segment was probably worth coming for the whole day.

I made a funny in class. We were all given a sticky note with a 'problem' on it. We went around the room and said if we were supposed to call the doctor or not. No wet diaper for 7 hours, call the doctor. Temperature of 101, call the doctor. Mine was, "should you call the doctor if your baby has vaginal discharge." I said it's normal because of the mother's hormones being passed to baby. The instructor said, "Would you call the doctor?" Me: "Yes, I would call the doctor if my son had vaginal discharge."

Everyone laughed and the instructor said that was a good ending point. Woo-hoo. We didn't want class to run long since it was a 6 1/2 hour class.

So much to learn - so much I don't need to see

We took our first childbirth class last Saturday. It covered just about everything except conception - if anyone needed help with that then they are in serious trouble. We got to learn all about the stages of labor and saw lots of fun charts showing how often contractions are and how intense they are at each of the four stages of labor. Each stage of labor had a woman's face to show her emotional state. The face starts out with a big smile - she's happy because labor has started and, hey! It's not that bad. Then the faces become more and more disconcerting. The last face is shows a woman who looks like Satan incarnate; she is obviously not enjoying labor.

The instructor also showed some old videos; so old they were on cassette. Hm, I remember watching film in class on the old film reel. That dates me. Anyway, the video. It was an old tape that had been played many times and had some wear and tear on it. The instructor forewarned us that the beginning of the video was shaky but it was not the tape it was a problem with the TV.

Let me see, if the problem always occurs at the same time during video I don't think it is a problem with the TV. The video started and the picture starting shaking and doing all sorts of things that made me kind of nauseous but it was brief. I turned to Ryan and whispered, "Remember, it's not the tape, it's the TV. There must be a little man behind the TV shaking it." We quietly snickered trying to not draw attention to ourselves.

We saw video of women during each stage of labor. The first ones we watched were of women who were having a natural vaginal birth. We saw the fun loving oohs and ahhs of the first stage of labor then saw the women in pain in the final throes of labor. Its funny they don't show video of women who scream and swear. I would not be a good candidate for the video as I imagine I would not be one of the women who quietly groan while pushing a watermelon out of her body.

My favorite part of the video was the segment they showed of the women who had epidurals. They went through the first two stages of labor and experienced enough pain for them to realize they didn't want to experience more pain so they had an epidural. The transformation is amazing. They felt enough to push but not enough to push them over the edge of sanity. That is what I want. I don't mind some pain. I just don't want pain that will make me cry and ask God to kill me, kill me now!

My least favorite part, even worse than the women in all of the pain was actually watching the baby be born. Gross. I've seen 2 'normal' births and one Cesarean. I thought those were gross, too. But, April! You say. It is a miracle. I agree, the whole process of a new life being created and carried around in your belly IS a miracle. It just so happens that the end part of the miracle is GROSS.

I don't need to see a human come out of a human. I certainly don't need to see a placenta come out of a human. Ryan really didn't appreciate that part of the video. I'm surprised he didn't close his eyes.

The funniest part of the video occurred right after the grossest part. The seconds old newborn was placed on his mother's chest and she looked down at the new center of her universe and said in a sweet, breathy voice, "Oh, Rodger! (pause) He doesn't look like a human." The whole class cracked up. Her baby was one ugly creature - all blue and white and covered in yuck.

Oh, boy! I can't wait for my turn!

I'm sure the mail readership is not so happy with this post right now.

Tough cookies.

If the woman is in pain the man can at least stomach some of the gory details because, as the saying goes, it takes two to tango.

We have another all day class this Saturday, "Preparing for Postpartum" (meaning the time after you deliver the baby). Unfortunately Ryan may not be able to attend this class. Ed, Ryan's soccer buddy who is a contractor by day and was going to do the drywall in our basement, fell ill the week he had set aside time to work in our basement. Fortunately Ed is able to come on Friday and Ryan is going to take the day off to help Ed as Ryan picked 5/8" drywall for the ceiling in an effort to minimize sagging and to help reduce noise transmission between the two floors. 5/8" drywall is SUPER heavy. Super. Duper. I think one sheet weighs 200 pounds. Ryan is going to be super duper sore on Sunday. He'll probably be really sore on Saturday but he's going to stick around to help Ed do more work on the basement so he'll just have to wait until Sunday to decompress. I was really upset when I realized he was going to miss the class on Saturday. I think this is the one that is all about bringing baby home. Kind of an important class.
I threw a small fit when I realized I had to choose between Ryan taking the class and work being done on the basement (most all of my fits are small and involve whining and a few tears - the bigger the fit the more the tears).

I'm going to be all by my lonesome in class. I'll get the conspicuous but trying to be inconspicuous stares from the other couples. Oh, well.

Summons!

Today I received a notice of Jury Summons. This summons makes my total Jury Duty summons three. I'm to report to Jury Duty on October 31st. I think that just maybe I will be granted an excuse from service since my due date is November 5th. If they don't grant me an excuse I will waddle down to the courthouse in person on the 31st (if I haven't given birth at that point) and see what they do. I imagine it would be quite amusing.

The first time I was called to jury duty I was in school so I had a great excuse; I would flunk my classes if I had to serve. Two years ago I was called to serve on a grand jury. That would have been quite the experience. The term of service calls for 2 days every other week for 18 months and since it is in a Federal Court the jurors are called from all over the state. There were people from Vancouver, east of the Cascades and as far north as Bellingham that were compelled to serve; fortunately for me the Federal courthouse in Washington is in downtown Seattle - it's just a short bus ride away. I was really hoping I would be a juror but I wasn't called - it was a random draw of the 50 or so jurors called. I was alternate #30 or 40 something.

If I was a lawyer I wouldn't pick me to be a juror, though. I watch entirely too many crime shows for my good. What they show on TV about the processes of gathering and processing evidence like blood, fibers, etc. can't be how the process really works. It doesn't seem likely that a fingerprint can be matched in minutes and a complete DNA report be run while coworkers share witty banter for 30 seconds.

I'm kind of disappointed in TiVo right now. It knows I like the crime shows but does it record them? No. What does it record instead? Lame decorating shows from HGTV which has to one of the most boring stations out there; it's up there with the station that airs live feed from the House and Senate. Snoozefest.

I should read a baby related book instead of watching TV but they are so boring. Labor positions, pain management, blah, blah, blah. Ooh, I need to fill out my birth plan. All I care is that my baby is healthy and well cared for and that I experience as little pain as possible.

Hmph. I am so grumpy right now. I'm bored but there is plenty to do, like read about how painful labor is going to be or about how exhausting the first 6 weeks after birth are. There is a messy kitchen and dining room table but I don't want to clean because I'm tired but not tired enough to go to bed; besides, reflux has kicked in and we had Mexican food for dinner so I couldn't lay down even if I wanted too. There is nothing good on the boob tube, I've already read Swell and Sheepie's updated blog; Gilda's not updating her blog but once a month and Matt and Crina aren't updating theirs because they are new parents and have better things to do than entertain me. Ryan is reading the last Harry Potter book because he's too tired to do anything else after working 12+ hour days this week, Gwen is meowing at our bedroom door so she can eat Bob's food and the dog sleeping on her bed. My usual entertainment is otherwise occupied.

And to make matters even worse, I want ice cream and we only have one lousy orange Otter Pop in the freezer that I missed during the June heatwave. Lame.

I should go to bed and get lots of rest for our day long childbirth class tomorrow. Hmm, I should probably pack snacks since I don't think they are provided. Who holds a class for a group of hungry, hungry preggos and doesn't provide snacks? That's crazy talk. Oh, boy. I hope nesting doesn't kick in this weekend because Sunday I go to Vancouver for a baby shower and come back Monday then back to work on Tuesday.

How are we going to finish everything that has to be done before the baby comes?! How? I have mountains of papers go through and sort before my last day of work and before the basement has walls because once the basement has walls we have to clean up all of the construction mess, dismantle the pool table, paint walls, install carpet, move everything from storage into the basement and put it in it's rightful place THEN we can start on the baby's room.

OK. I'm officially freaking out, now! I feel like the house has to be completely spotless and put together before the baby comes because once he comes I will have zero time to do it. Besides our moms are going to be coming up to help with the baby and it gives me an ulcer to think about them cleaning my house - aside from helping with 'normal' household stuff. I don't want to freak out everytime they go to the linen closet or try to find a trash bag under the kitchen sink.

Then the holiday blitz will be here within weeks of Juniors' birth. There will be cards to send out, office parties to attend, birth announcements to be sent out, presents to be bought and wrapped. Yikes!

I could really go for a cold Bailey's on the rocks right now. Sounds like it's time for April to find her happy place.

Goodnight.

Monster

Here I am at 31 weeks pregnant:

I had an appointment with my midwife last week when I was 30 and a half weeks pregnant. She measured me (from pubic bone to the top of the uterus - for those of you who care about the measurements). From about 25 or so weeks on the measurement, in centimeters, should be the same as the number of weeks pregnant you are so 25 weeks = 25 cm, 28 weeks = 28 cm. At my last appointment the tyke was a smidge over the number of weeks I was preggo. On Wednesday he was 4-5 cm over where he should have been!

Do you know what this means? My baby is HUGE. Sure, I'm kind of huge right now, too but nothing to make him a MONTH bigger than he should be. In fact, I lost 2 pounds between appointments. This was a good thing and cause for much celebration as I had been gaining too much weight. If I maintain my weight now I will end up at the desired weight gain for my pregnancy.

So, we know it is not something that I'm doing. I'm not feeding him steroids although I still eat too many carbs but not so much as to make him a little monster. My midwife wants to know exactly how big he is so I'm going in for an ultrasound next Tuesday. I'm kind of anxious to know how big he's going to be.

I've been told by a number of people, after I tell them that I'm growing a ginormous baby, "Well, maybe he'll sleep through the night earlier" or my favorite, "So, you're planning on having an epidural, right?"

Let's get something straight. The epidural will be wonderful for the labor and delivery but it ain't gonna help me one bit after I deliver a frickin' watermelon!

Oh! And since I'm doing a good job getting myself worked up let me lay into the people who loathe a woman who uses an epidural for pain management during labor. An argument I hear coming from this camp quite often is that is a perfectly natural life experience and women have been doing it for centuries without pain medicine, why look at all the women in Africa who give birth naturally all the time.

Well! Just this very afternoon I was talking to a Kenyan woman who gave birth to two children in Kenya. She was telling me how painful and horrible labor was when I told her I was going to have an epidural. She asked me what that was. I told her they stick a needle in your spine that essentially paralyzes you from the waist down. Her eyes got big and she said, "Really?" She said she wished she could have had an epidural.

Take that epidural haters! Just because women in third world countries deliver without the aid of drugs doesn't mean they don't want the drugs.

A pain free April = happy April. Happy April = happy Ryan. Happy April = happy nurses. April in pain = unhappy everyone else. I know everyone expects the laboring mother to be testy but I really think my mouth would get the better of me if I was in agony.

We discovered at my previous appointment that I was anemic. I got to add another iron pill to my daily regime of prenatal vitamin, fish oil and iron. Now I'm up to 3 iron pills a day. At the most recent appointment I complained that it felt like was breathing soup. My midwife did a 'peak flow' test to check out my lung capacity. It was pretty darn low. It was 85 points below normal but when taking into consideration pregnancy it was the at the absolute bottom of normal. So she prescribed an inhaler for me. It dilates my bronchioles (or something like that).

It is a miracle! I can breath again! I still get tired throughout the day but not so tired that typing is a chore.

Seriously. The day before I got the inhaler I was sitting at my computer at work typing something one-handed. My left arm was lying useless in my lap; it was too much effort and energy to have both arms resting on the desk and typing. There was a lot of work I had that could have been doing. It has been sitting on my desk for over a week. I would spend the first half of the day working on stuff that had to be done today and planned the second half of the day for work that needed to be done but not urgently. Well, once lunch time rolled around I would get so tired everything lost all sense of urgency. The day after I got my inhaler I tackled the pile of work that was sitting on my desk for over a week and got through all of it in one afternoon. It's amazing what oxygen can do for the body. Oxygen, it does a body good. And baby, too. His activity level picked up after I started taking the inhaler. When Mom's not getting enough O2 neither is baby.

The inhaler has not turned me into a woman of boundless energy. It has merely brought me from exhausted sloth level to a fatigued level.

Last night we spent at my mother's-in-law and I woke up every 90 to 120 minutes. After each waking I stay up longer and longer. Once I paddle to the bathroom after 4:30 it's all over; I'm guaranteed to be up for at least an hour. So I laid there last night playing Solitaire on Ryan's Nintendo DS at 4:30 in the absolute silence one can only experience in the country. The only thing that kept the room from feeling too foreign was the light my mother-in-law left on in the hall let enough light in our room to make it bright like the street light does to our room at home.

Solitaire is the only game I play at night because it doesn't stimulate my brain - it gives me something to do so I don't fixate on sleep and thereby chase it away. It eventually bores me back to sleep. I drifted off for another hour before crawling out of bed to join everyone else in the kitchen.

After scarfing down a plum, banana, some grapes, orange juice and two sourdough waffles (these waffles are so light and fluffy that two are as filling as one - really - they are light as air) I took my dishes to the sink and went back to bed for 2 1/2 hours. The only reason I got out of bed when I did was because company was due to arrive at 11:00 and I had to pee. Of course. It always comes down to the bladder.

No work for me tomorrow! I took Friday and Tuesday off to give me 5 days off in a row. : ) I'm not going to leave one minute of vacation time unused before I leave. I thought about just leaving 4 days earlier but why do that when I can make my last couple of weeks as short as possible? Last week was 4 days, this week will be 3 days and the following will be 4 as I'm taking next Monday off, too. I still have 4 hours of vacation time to schedule.

My office still hasn't hired anyone for my position. They have a candidate that they want to offer the job to but she has to meet one more person before they make her an offer but the person she needs to meet with has been out of town on business trips. They had better hurry and offer her the job before she takes another position elsewhere and they have to start over from scratch.

I shouldn't be too concerned because come October 5th it is none of my concern. If they want it to be of my concern it will cost them. : )

Naked Bob

I started writing about this in my previous post but decided it needed a space of its own since the story goes back so far and has very little to do with our vacation. It is about my older brother, Ike. Ike is what you would call a friendly guy.

To say he is an outgoing guy is the biggest understatement.

Biggest.

You know I am pretty friendly - at least I give that vibe. My younger brother, Joel is friendly as well. My older brother makes us look like Scrooge. He makes friends at the grocery store, at the crosswalk, at the park; on every corner there is a friend for him to make. Great, you think. Friendly guy.

No. Tardy guy. He would get held up on his way home from school by a neighbor lady when he would make the mistake of walking on 'her' side of the street and gracing her with a hello. That little hello would turn into an hour. Nice guys can't walk away from a conversation.


I would love, love, LOVE to see Ike talk to Naked Bob - former neighbor whose name has been withheld for privacy. Naked Bob did not literally parade around in the skin God gave him but he did wear very little. Namely shorts and flip flops.

Shorts and flip flops are OK for the following people in the following situations:

1. Boys at the beach, pool, running through sprinklers
2. Men in decent shape at the beach, pool, running through sprinklers.

That's it! All other occasions require at least a tank top - even if it is a wife beater. Preference is a T-shirt over a tank top and for extra points the T-shirt should not have any reference to the bearer of the shirt being a Female Body Inspector or a consumer of watered down 'beer' like Budweiser or Miller.

Back to Naked Bob.

Naked Bob would not be so bad if his only offense was a visual assault on the eyes but no... Naked people aren't aware of how disturbing their scantily clad selves upset the puritanical American (it's a stretch to call a Seattle-ite 'puritanical', I know) so how can they be aware that their 'conversation' is not in fact a conversation but a soliloquy that the unsuspecting listener has zero interest in hearing? The victim, er, partner in 'conversation' may as well just shine a spotlight on the drone because that is all they are good for. Well, that and the occasional, "Oh, really!" or "Mhm."

I was caught many a time in the snare of Naked Bob. Trapped by ignorance, (all newbies to the neighborhood are caught sooner or later) you stay because you have no choice - at least that is what you think. You quickly realize you have to make an exit. Fortunately Naked Bob isn't much of a 'dancer' (you retreat, they advance).

The trick is to slowly back away - you must face him and continue your affirmations of "Ohs" and "Really's". He will talk louder and louder and take a few steps in your direction but he always returns to his post to await his next victim.

Once you master this technique then you are able to move on to the walk and talk. The key in this maneuver to is to not slow down. Slowing down is the kiss of death.

I've met the neighbor in my new neighborhood that causes people to run in-doors when they see her. Fortunately I've only crossed her path once. Well, she crossed mine but still - our paths crossed. If I only run into her once every year and half that is just fine by me.

Crab, Steak, Salmon & Pizza

Although the relaxation from vacation is turning into a memory I will conjure up what I can to ....

Lessee...

The four days Ryan and I spent together were great. Like I stated previously there weren't a lot of decisions to be made. We ate, slept, walked to the beach and drove a half mile to the library. We ate out a few times. Nothing fancy. It was very relaxing.

Ryan bought a new kite. Ryan flew new kite. I flew new kite just as the wind picked up. I crashed the kite. Then I crashed it again. I gave up.

My family arrived in Newport on Thursday afternoon in a caravan of two. One had a cell phone, the other was following the car with the cell phone. My eldest brother and his wife live in the dark ages. No computer (translation: no e-mail) and no cell phone; it's only been a few years since they've started using the new fangled answering machine. This leaves the rest of the 'connected' family frustrated but what can you do? You can't make someone use e-mail or get a cell phone. I normally don't care that they don't have a cell phone but when your brother is like mine he needs a cell phone. That or a GPS tracking device strapped to his ankle.


I have much, much more to write about the gregariousness of my eldest brother but that will have to wait for another day - or today still but just after I finish this post.

So...the fam's first night in Newport we ate at Mo's - a seafood chain with infamous clam chowder. Eh. It tasted like potato soup. My grandma's chowder was far superior. Ivar's chowder is better. So is Charlestown Cafe's for that matter. I had fish and chips for dinner. Eh. Mo's was our second choice for dinner. The first place came highly recommended and came with a wait time of an hour for our group of 7 adults and 2 children. So Ryan, Mom & I drove down to Mo's because Ryan thought it was a long walk to Mo's from where we were (he was right).

After dinner Eldest brother went to fetch car for wife & children. We waited and waited and waited. Eldest brother was not returning with the car. Ryan, youngest brother & wife and I drove down to find Eldest. We craned our necks from side to side but to no avail. We could not find him. We got all the way to the end of the road where we originally parked and there was eldest brother's car minus brother. We turn back around and spot him - on the other side of the street is Mom, eldest's wife & daughter. He went to fetch the car but got sidetracked looking for a sweatshirt for wife and Mom, wife & daughter were able to walk back to car and meet up with him at the same time. He does need a tracking device - or a cell phone.

Next night we feasted on many different foods. Ryan, mom & I ate crab. Eldest and family ate steak, youngest & wife ate salmon kabobs and pizza.





That's me holding one of the crab. We put them in a bucket of water and in the bathtub while went to the beach. Can't have them crawling away, now can we?

Ryan and I boiled them and mom cleaned them. I cleaned half a crab but she was better at the rest of it so I let her shine.... (that and it was the messiest part of the cleaning process).

We were pretty excited that we found live crab for $7 a pound. The seafood markets were selling them closer to $10 a pound - and to buy just fresh crab meat was $37 a pound! As if!

I was amused the other day when I walked to the corner grocery store at home and saw live crab for $4.50 a pound. I'm thinking we are going to need another crab feast soon. We just need to cook it outside because it smells so bad. How can something so tasty smell so bad?

Before there was any feasting on crab or steak we spent our morning at the Newport Aquarium. We saw otters being fed, sea lions swimming, loads of sharks and got to put our hands in tanks to touch sea anemone & other squishy stuff. I saw two crabs mating. I think they were mating at least. They were facing each other but on the bottom of the tank; I tried to looking underneath to see what I could (there were many theories on what they were really doing - at first Mom thought they were fighting and a little boy said, "look! The mommy crab's holding the baby crab.") but I couldn't see much since I don't bend that well these days and the area was crowded.

Ryan took Laura, my 9 year old niece to the aviary. I do NOT like aviaries. Who wants to go into an enclosed area with poopy bombs flying overhead? Not I. Those birds are too comfortable with people and I don't want to be dive bombed or pooped on.

The only thing the aquarium was missing were penguins but seeing as how it was an Oregon coast aquarium I can forgive them for not having birds native to the Southern Hemisphere there.

At the end of our trip to the aquarium my feet were killing me. I sat on a bench and just waited for everyone to finish up and was glad they were all done, too. We walked back to the car - I waddled - and went back to the house where I was really looking forward to a nap. I laid down for maybe 20 minutes when I was informed it was time to go to the beach.

We piled into three cars and two of us drove the short distance to the beach and the other car went to the surf shop to get a wet suit for Candice (youngest's wife) and wave boards for the loonies who wanted to play in the cold, dangerous Pacific Ocean. We parked it on the beach - Ryan and I in folding camping style chairs and mom and Jenny (eldest's wife) on blankets and beach towels - we looked much more comfortable and much less sandy. Laura immediately stripped down to her bathing suit showing she was a native of the Northwest. The sun was shining and it was pleasant to be sitting in it with a gentle breeze but to be in a bathing suit? No way. She ran to the water and stuck her toes in - then ran back to grab her plastic bucket for water. It was amusing to watch. She would scoop up just enough sand in her bucket to form a hard sludge so when she went to pour it out a little water came out then the rest was suctioned to the bottom of the pail.

About 20 minutes after we got to the beach the surf crew showed up with their wave boards and a surf board. Joel wanted to try surfing since he had never done it before. The two brothers and Candice went into the water with just wave boards. The rest of us on the beach (read: sane ones) kept a head count going. One head bobbing, scan.... two heads bobbing... scan.... three heads bobbing. Sigh. Repeat. We felt somewhat comfortable because the voice of reason was with them in the form of the eldest brother. He is not a dare devil. Sure he probably did some dumb stuff as a teenager but he has since had two kids and has put many years between him and adolescence. Eldest brother grew very, very cold (duh- the Pacific is not a hot springs) so he sensibly left the water to avoid hypothermia and death. Youngest brother was either numb or didn't care and wife was in a wet suit so water temperature was not a factor for her.

As soon as the eldest left the water we became much more vigilant in the watching of the bobbing heads. Youngest brother is a dare devil. Not much respect for the ocean. His wife trusts him implicitly. We, his family, trust him just not when it comes to issues of safety.

We watched them get smaller and smaller in the growing surf. We waved trying to get their attention - to come closer. They waved back. Grrr. They took our frantic waving of them in as a 'hello'. Finally we got it through to them to come closer in. They came out of the water to check in with us. We told them to not go out so far. Youngest said we were over reacting. So when he left us we took that as our opportunity to tell Candice the truth about the ocean. (She's from Oklahoma). We told her:

1. you only have to be up to your ankles to be knocked down then sucked in
2. there are sneaker waves that well, sneak up on you and take you down (then out)
3. 4 people drowned in the Newport area that week alone - one at the very beach we were at

Then we told her what to do if she was caught in a rip tide (let it take you out then swim parallel to the shore and you will eventually end up back on the shore - just maybe a mile away from where you were pulled in - never fight it).

I think she thought we were crazy. Oh, well. Mom said growing up on the coast everyone knew someone who drowned in the ocean. You can never get comfortable around the ocean - it's pretty to look at provides tasty food but it's dangerous.

So, while we were trying to scare, I mean talk some sense into, Candice enough time had elapsed that Joel became quiet cold and decided to not go back in the water.

Score.

Since the wind picked up, was chilling us and giving us free microderm abrasion we decided to head back to the house to start dinner. That's when the crab, steak, salmon and pizza feast began. Oddly enough all of the food came together at the same time. I find it difficult to time toast and eggs so they are done at the same time but 7 people cooked 4 different kinds of food and they all finished within minutes of each other. That's something to write home about (or post on your blog).

The next morning Joel and Candice headed back to Portland to fly home as Joel had to report to his new job on Monday morning - he's going to be teaching 6th graders in a middle school. He's subbed in this school over the last year and says its a cake walk compared to the first school he taught in - an inner city high school where there was no discipline and the principal tried to be the students' friends. I really hope this year goes better for him. He told me a funny story about subbing. At the very beginning of class you have to sacrifice one student to let the other kids know they can't run you over. I thought that was pretty funny. I remember the subs we liked in school - they definelty were not the pushovers.

The rest of the crew headed to Coos Bay for our family reunion. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. We only had to stop once to potty and once to pick up some food for the potluck. We only spent about two hours there. Its been 3 years since my last appearance at a family reunion and I was able to see some cousins and aunts and uncles. I also saw lots of people I didn't recognize - not even a little. There were some glaring absences - BJ - the cousin closest to my age that I spent a lot of time with and cousin Marsha.

Just as we were getting ready to leave is when everyone got all chatty. That's usually how it works.

After 30 minutes of goodbyes we jumped back in the car for our 8 hour drive home. We dropped Mom off in Vancouver ate dinner at Subway and continued on. Then something really amazing happened on the way home; actually it is about what didn't happen. Ryan didn't turn into Mr. Grumpy Pants. 11.5 hours in the car in one day didn't anything to him. This is a miracle. I maintained a great attitude, too. Ryan hates driving. He despises road trips. Driving out to his mom's is about his limit - she is about an hour and a half away. My family is an extra 1 to 1.5 hours away. That is a drive he does not like. We got home around 11 or 11:30 pm and did a cat count (one, two), unpacked the car and went to bed.

That's it. We left, we relaxed and we came back. Now we work, work, work until the baby arrives. (OK, so Ryan goes fishing in Alaska for a week and I take the rest of my vacation piece meal until October 5th - my last day of work!!!)