truth

Here are some sad truths about my life right now:

 

1. If I wake up before 9 am I'm going to need a nap. Like turn into a walking zombie and Justin orders me to bed type of nap. 

2. The only section of Pinterest that I browse anymore is food. Seriously. I will take all of the desserts please?

3. I sit down to eat and it takes forever because there's no room. 

4. A lot of times when I burp, I'm pretty sure it's vomit. 

5. My stomach moves on its own accord. Obviously it's Ollie, but it's freaky looking. 

6. It's New Year's Eve. We were invited to two parties. I did my hair AND make up and now I'm laying in bed too exhausted to move. We might rent a movie. I can't wait for what we have coming in 2014, and I can't wait to not be pregnant. It's going to be so much more fun having this little guy on the outside than in. 

On that note I'm hungry, but nauseous and not really hungry. This is so confusing. 

Lady is loving bed rest. 

christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone, and it just got me more excited for next year when I have my little guy with whom we can enjoy the holiday.

Justin's family was here from Monday evening until Thursday morning and all we did was eat.  Seriously.  I'm fairly certain I gained back whatever weight I've lost in the last couple weeks and we have spinach and artichoke dip and mint brownies to thank for that.

Christmas eve was wonderful.  We ate all day and then everyone went to church [while I took a nap...] and then we ate some more and opened presents.  The little one is already spoiled.  He got the cutest rocking elephant to go with his elephant themed room.

And the whole family got t-shirts with our guy's name on them.  It's completely by accident that I fell in love with the name and it also happens to be the name of a brand of farm equipment that J's dad used to sell in their family farm equipment shop.  Needless to say, Grandpa is pretty excited.

I haven't worn real pants in days.  Don't judge...

30 weeks

We made it to 30 weeks!  Cross that off the list.  It feels so good to have another week under our belts.  Our midwife appointment was this morning, and she basically told us that as long as nothing changes we're good to go.  Good to go meaning I'm not really supposed to work for the next 6 weeks and I'm supposed to be waited on and not do too much.  But no real need to worry that Baby Boy will come before 36 weeks.  What a relief.  I was so nervous before the appointment that I was nauseated and had a stomach ache.  She put our minds at ease.  Plus the little guy measured good and was kicking around in my belly.

Although I feel a little useless not being able to go to work for the next 6 weeks, and fear that I'll be EXTREMELY bored, I'm relieved to have the time to just rest and cook this guy.  Not sure my co-workers see it that way, but seriously, who cares about work when your little human needs you?  The midwife said we can talk about my going to work after I hit 36 weeks, but that I don't necessarily have to.  We shall see... I'll either be bored or wanting to earn a little more money since I sure won't be making any during this leave!

And now I don't know what to do about grad school.  I have about two weeks to make a decision.  Goodness knows what I'll decide on that one.  For right now I'm just going to enjoy the lights on my tiny 2 foot tall Christmas tree.  And wish that I didn't scarf down two Christmas cookies...  The in-laws come in town tonight and I'm excited to get our modified Christmas off to a start!

Happy Christmas!

Lady believes that since we're supposed to be taking it easy, she's allowed on the couch again...  It's hard to say no when she just wants to snuggle.

My text from my own personal Scrooge at the grocery store.  Please note, I do not take offense to the phrase "calm your tits."  I started that one.  Should stop soon before the kid gets here.

no news

Is good news. Right? And I'm hoping the slight increase in contractions today doesn't trigger anything. Yesterday was a really good day, contractionwise. I don't know why today is worse. Maybe it's the 5-9 inches of snow we're about to get. According to the radar though, we might not get any of it? 

I've been doing nothing these last couple days. For one because being up and about triggers stronger contractions, and for two because I'm so absolutely exhausted. I woke up today at 8:30 and then took an hour and a half long nap later. I've done nothing all day, but could fall asleep in a second. 

Luckily for me, unluckily for my mom, we had a little ice storm on Thursday night that delayed her leaving until this morning. It was nice to have her here an extra day. She was so much help and made so much delicious food. We'll have left overs for at least another day or two. 

Tomorrow we were supposed to go to Justin's grandparents house for their big family Christmas celebration, but we have been strongly discouraged from traveling [the midwife said "I can't tell you not to go, but I recommend that you don't."] obviously we're taking the safe route. I hate missing out on the celebration. Then we were supposed to go to spend Christmas in his hometown and then travel to a cabin. No one wants me to give birth in the black hills however, so we changed our plans. Instead his family will come here on Monday night and we'll have our Christmas low key. I'm already working on the menu [that I'm not really allowed to help prepare according to J and his mom] and we decorated tonight. -Ahem- "decorated" being used loosely. 

I'm jumping out of my boots to see what the midwife tells us on Monday about everything. 

And now, the most pathetic pitbull. 

Lady did NOT want to pose in front of the tree. 

Helping wrap gifts. 

She thinks it's rough being pregnant too...

on my mind

There's 39 days until I hit 35 weeks pregnant. It's so bizarre after having my goal date be March 3rd to all of the sudden hoping we can make it to January 27th, and even better February 3rd. After yesterday, that seems like an eternity. I contracted fairly strong last night for quite a while but was able to fall asleep and then they calmed down. 

I used to be worried about bringing a teeny month old baby to my brother's wedding in April. Now I'm praying that he'll be only a month old. 

Justin put me on bedrest today... He said no getting up unless I need to eat or pee and my mom agreed with him. They don't care that I've read articles and studies that show bedrest doesn't necessarily work for prevention of preterm labor. Not going to lie, my contraction strength triples when I'm on my feet. 

Lady was cut out for bedrest. She's sleeping next to my knees [after a hearty attempt to share my pregnancy pillow]

And finally, I've been reading on how to avoid preterm labor naturally, so these are the steps I'm taking to try and help:

-Upping my protein intake

-drinking a crap ton of water. I think I had 108 oz yesterday. 

-continuing on my magnesium supplementation. I take 800-1200 mg daily anyways. 

-continuing with Epsom salt baths, since Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate and that's what they were threatening to give me at the hospital. 

-adding more vitamin C to my diet. Thank goodness it's citrus fruit season!

-taking 1000mg of calcium daily which I read can lessen contractions. 

-drinking kefir to improve my bacterial flora overall. This goes along with my daily probiotic. I read an article that said people with celiac disease have less probiotics in them so I'm trying to ramp that up. It's also been found that not having the proper vaginal flora can cause preterm labor so I'm not taking any risks. 

-upping my fish oil intake to 2 caps per day. Ew. But I read it can help prevent preterm labor. 

-and finally, relaxing. Trying not to stress or be anxious because that automatically makes the contractions worse. 

Hopefully this does the trick and I carry my little guy to March 10th if that's how long he feels like cooking!

whirlwind at 29 weeks

Never when I took this picture on Monday morning did I imagine that I'd be in the hospital 12 hours later in pre-term labor.  

I'd been having contractions on and off since last Thursday, but I figured I was just tired/dehydrated/worked myself to hard.  So I would lay down.  On Monday at lunch I was talking with a co-worker and mentioned my contractions and she said "call your doctor, NOW! I didn't realize I could have contractions at 24 weeks and I ended up in the hospital in pre-term labor."  That scared me so I told myself if the contractions came back, I'd call.  I let Justin know my plan.  By about 1:30 pm they were back with a vengeance.  According to my contraction timer app, I had 9 in about 30 minutes.  Red alert!  I went and told my boss that I was calling my midwife and I'd keep him updated.  Sure enough they sent me straight home from work and told me to lay down.  If I had more than 6 in an hour to call back and then head straight to the hospital.

I chose not to count the 4 I had on my way home and started counting once I was laying down in bed.  In 40 minutes, I'd tracked another 9 contractions, as I reached for my phone to call the midwife, the nurse called me to check on me.  I updated her and she said go straight in, I'll let them know you're on your way.  

We got to the hospital pretty much empty handed.  I brought my insurance cards, but that was it, never imagining I'd have to stay over night.  I figured they would monitor the contractions, maybe give me an IV bolus of fluids and send me on my happy way.  Boy was I wrong.  I was put on the monitor [which baby G hated] and was immediately given two big glasses of ice water and instructed to "drink these right now!"  So I chugged them down.  Then the IV went in, just in case I wasn't getting enough water in.  This was after I had already had 2 liters of fluid to drink during the day, and based on my urine sample, I was pretty darn hydrated.  All of the sudden the doctor comes in, which confused me because I'm a midwife patient, and she checked my cervix.  Luckily it was long and closed but she could feel baby's head low in my pelvis so she ordered me to start nifedipine sublingual 4 doses in 2 hours and then ampicillin intravenous every 6 hours plus two betamethasone shots for baby's lungs to mature in case he decided to come early.

That scared me.  Seriously?  We're already at the steroid shots for lung development point!?!  Then they told me if my cervix changed at all, I had earned myself a one-way ambulance ride to the University of Iowa two hours away from here.  I diligently took my sublingual nifedipine, even though it tasted like a combination of burnt sesame seeds and cough syrup.  I received my antibiotics.  And I took the shot like a champ [False, I took it like a baby.  That shot burns for about 20 minutes after you get it and then remains achey for hours.] 

We waited to see what happened.  Justin went home and got a few essential items since it was clear we weren't going anywhere for the rest of the night.  I continued drinking and wasn't allowed to eat anything, not that I was hungry.  Though my contractions continued to carry on throughout the night at 1-3 minutes apart, my cervix stayed stubbornly closed and long [good girl!] and eventually baby moved up out of my pelvis [good boy!] I barely slept since I was worried, and was awoken every two hours for medicine or alarms going off.  

Come morning my cervix still hadn't changed, but neither had the contractions.  The goal was to take my 10:30 dose of nifedipine, thankfully in capsule form and no longer sublingual, and see if the contractions got worse if I got up to walk around a little.  I was off the monitor for an hour and made my grand trip down the hall about 20 feet to the ice machine, to the bathroom twice, and I folded two sweatshirts and a pair of leggings and put them in my overnight bag.  Then I sat up in bed and ate my lunch.  

They came in and put me back on the monitor and after a couple of minutes, everyone was in my room [doctor, midwife, nurse] "what did you do while you were up?!?" they asked me.  So I recounted and everyone was upset.  I had gone from having irregular contractions every 3-6 minutes apart [not including the teeny contractions that we all decided to ignore] to having mild to moderate contractions every 45 seconds.  I was distraught and immediately laid my bed down to rest.  Thankfully that did the trick and they calmed back down.  When Justin came to see me after work and I set my bed up slightly, they came back again so down I went.  

Luckily they calmed again and by 10:15 pm I was on my way home.  It was a full moon and I think they needed my room and felt better about the fact that we live so close to the hospital.  I was given strict instructions that if the contractions got stronger or if my water breaks to call back immediately and come in, duh... 

This whole ordeal has been a shock to our system.  I'm off work until after the new year and have an appointment on Monday to check on everything and to discuss my going back to work options.  The doctor said at least until after the new year, but the midwife was thinking more like not going back until I reach 35 weeks pregnant.  I'm not on bed rest, just rest.  No working around the house, just sitting.  Naturally someone that would love to nest is having a hard time with that.  My mom is coming down today to help out for a couple days and keep me company.  We were supposed to go to Justin's family's for Christmas and then up to South Dakota to a cabin that his parents rented for a few days.  That's not happening anymore, because I don't feel like giving birth to a 30 week old baby in the Black Hills.  I feel awful that we've ruined everyone's Christmas plans.  But we'll just have to adapt.  And keep our fingers crossed and prayers prayed that this little guy stays cooking for at least another 7 weeks, but even better if he goes longer.  Goodness, has being pregnant been an adventure so far!

Drinking my ice water.  For the record, hospitals have the BEST ice water.

The bottom line of bumps is my contractions.  These ones aren't even close to as frequent or strong as they got.

This little peanut had to sleep overnight in the garage, and then Tuesday morning was dropped off at the vet to be boarded for an unknown amount of time.  She was heartbroken, but the vet was so amazing and boarded her for free and gave her a free bath.  I'm so grateful to them!  Justin told them what was going on [they didn't even have a spot available for her!] and they said to bring her right in.  Apparently the vet had her baby 3 months early so understood the stress and scary times we were going through.  It makes me tear up every time I think about it.

growth curve

Baby Gross is right on the growth curve.  Today he measured at exactly 28 weeks!  He also had a good heart rate and thoroughly enjoyed the blood glucose screening test.  He's still partying hard working off all the sugar.  

Good news!  I passed!  I don't have to do the three hour glucose tolerance test!  I didn't throw up the sugary stuff!  And I didn't pass out.  Whew!

Also Ina Garten is making chocolate truffles.  Yes please?

The doctor I saw today said that if anyone tells me that I look too big for 28 weeks, I should tell them they're wrong!  I compared last week's picture to this week's... There's a definite growth.  See?

snowy sunday

With nothing planned for the rest of the day, I feel like I'm winning this Sunday. I have a pit bull sleeping like a human in the bed next to me. A little, squirmy boy growing like a weed in my belly, and absolutely no plans to cook anything for dinner.

It's currently snowing to beat the band, but Lady and I are too cozy to care. I'm sure she'll care later when we send her outside to pee, but right now she looks like this:

She has a talent for tucking herself in. 

I'm craving Asian inspired noodles I just decided. What do you think is the liklihood that Justin will take me to the walmart for hoisin and to peruse their maternity section? Oh I'm not proud of that last sentence. Moving along...

We had childbirth education yesterday. Allllll daaaaay. And it wasn't a complete waste as I previously expected. I got to say hello to the big whirlpool tub that I'll be visiting in just over 12 weeks. I wanted to hop in yesterday. Tomorrow I have my one hour glucose test and I'm so nervous I won't pass. I don't think I have gestational diabetes. I just don't want to have to take the three hour one and everywhere I read says this isn't an accurate test. Ugh. Dumb. 

I have nothing else really. Here's a little photo update. 

The wonderful pregnancy pillow finally came in the mail. And it's so good. 

Photographic evidence of insane growth in 5 days time. 

And we found this at the hardware store baby section today. It's pretty hilarious, but completely inappropriate. 

miscellaneous musings

Whilst I cooked two dinners tonight [productive!], random thoughts flitted through my head and each one seemed too profound to not share.  

First of all, lime juice makes my rocking world go round.  Especially since being pregnant.  However, every time I cook with it I just want a margarita.  Or a key lime pie.  Or to be somewhere classy in a drop-waisted silver dress adorned in sparkles and sequins drinking a gin and tonic.  And I don't even like gin and tonics.  But, oh they make me feel classy, and drop-waisty.

Next I would like to point out that there seem to be two schools of thought on tater tot casserole [hotdish if you're a true Minnesotan].  There's the green bean school and the corn school.  I say that segregation is not a part of my soul, so I combine the two.  However, I never, EVER add cheese to my tater tot casserole.  Not adding cheese to stuff is a part of my soul.

Let's visit next, the "to-do" list I made for the week.  It's a great and mighty list with lofty goals and easy goals.  I believe in adding super easy goals to my "to-do" lists in order to keep my spirits up.  For example "water plants" was one of my items.  I failed to do that last night [forgot] and felt helter skelter all day because of it.  Those puppies are watered now though and I can't wait to cross that off the list.  Also on the list was research my thoughts about vaccination for my infant and send it to Justin.  I did that, but still don't have a decision made?  Anyways, it got crossed off the list.  Also I added "set up doula appointment" because I did that, so ha, crossed off.

Which brings me to how I'm feeling pretty granola lately.  And saying that makes me really want granola.  Like, reeeeeally want it.  But I'm excited about this new, crunchy period of my life that is sure to be filled with cloth diapers, grassfed beef in my freezer [a half of a cow that I've lovingly named Betsy and cannot wait to tell the butcher just exactly how I want her prepared.  Sorry dear Bets...], and hopefully, a lovely little garden next summer from which I'll can and preserve the fruits and vegetables of my labor.  Baby just gave two solid kicks that I'm taking to mean as "I'll help, mom" and not "Screw gardening I'm afraid of bees!" which is something that I know about.  Hopefully they'll leave me alone.  

I should be switching my laundry because "laundry" is also on my list, and I'm unwilling to cross it off until it's done, but alas, that sounds like a lot of stairs.  Which leads me to point number 87 in my random blathering about things, when I build a house it's going to be awesome.  Main floor laundry is a must.  Also a three car garage.  Wow.  Those are really my only two necessary items.  Justin and I spent the whole weekend looking up floor plans and dreaming about someday.  Maybe someday.

I had to take a drug test today for my master's program that starts in January.

Taking drug tests makes me feel guilty.  Also, I offered too much urine.  You're welcome drug tester lady!

Am I absolutely crazy for starting my master's two months before my baby is due?  You know what?  Don't answer that.

christmas card

We took about 900 photos tonight to try and get the perfect one for our Christmas card that I had to order TODAY!  Hello Cyber Monday deal on Vistaprint.  Hello Procrastination.  We meet again.

We finally settled on this one

It's only medium, but we'll take it.  I couldn't figure out how to fix Lady's possessed eyes/there's only so many hours in Cyber Monday.

Our other Cyber Monday Purchase?

The car-seat we've been eying was 50 dollars off!  I wasn't expecting that, but jumped all over it.

Cyber Monday is way better than Black Friday.  That is all.

dogsgiving

We were at my parent's house for thanksgiving, however I have barely any photographic evidence of it other than pictures of dogs. So that's where we are.

I ate so much I think I gained two pounds in one weekend.  Plus the belly definitely doubled in size [slight exaggeration] between Wednesday and Sunday. To start off the week, I've been awake since 4. Hooray!......

Here's to hoping that if it snows today, everyone remembers how to drive. And baby boy would like to contribute a few wiggles and some karate chops. Happy Monday. 

[side note: my phone autocorrected chops to chips and now guess what I want.]

Also, 27 weeks!

friday

It's Friday.  Aren't you glad?  I sure am.  I've been having hardcore nesting hormones kicking in this week and sitting at work was NOT helping.  I couldn't accomplish anything there.  Luckily I got to leave work early today and was able to be productive today.  What a relief.  

And because I know you're wondering, here's what Lady has been up to.

Dismay this morning when there was snow on the ground.  I loved it a little bit.  The sooner that winter comes, the sooner spring will be here, the sooner I get to snuggle the little baby.

It's important to relax in the afternoon sun.  And sometimes you have to take your collar off.  

Chewing your favorite bone in the sun is a good way to relax too.  

Happy Friday from Lady and me!

quick little ditty

So. I know you can't really do this, but I've decided to change how far along I am... According to the midwife, on Monday I was 25 weeks pregnant. I measured 25 weeks pregnant. It's in my chart as 25 weeks pregnant. I however, have been stubborn the whole time because I believe I ovulated [gross, I used that word in a blog post!!] a couple days later than the midwife believes. I've decided to accept her due date at March 3rd but not give up the March 8th one in my heart while planning on giving birth the last week of February. I know, my first time pregnancy unrealistic dream.... 

So without further ado:

25 weeks pregnant Megan. 

a little bit of saturday

It's been one of those long, productive Saturdays even though it hasn't felt productive. Getting the week's grocery shopping done before 10am is awesome. And it's safer since it seems the older [read: 80 year old] crowd flocks to the store around 10 and they drive through the parking lot like Mario Andretti. -generalization alert-

We met with a doula today and I think we figured out what we want in that department. Including: Mayan abdominal massage, birthing lessons, and placenta encapsulation. When did I become such a hippy? It's such an awesome option to have doulas in town. It makes me feel more comfortable about achieving a more natural birth. I'm also hoping she can help with some of the pain I've been having, which has been especially bad today since I overdid it yesterday, but more on that some other day.  I think it's high time for some crappy cell phone pictures. 

It was a lemon cream pie kind of day. I hate meringue or else it would have been one of those. Also note to self: buy cornstarch next time you plan on making this pie it's tricky if you run out....

Crappy picture, but the pie was delicioso. 

Then we settled down to play scrabble wherein I was beat. This rarely happens. But when you have no less than 5 vowels at all times and all of your consonants are worth one point, what can you do? Also, Ladybug was snoring in this picture. She had a rough day...

lady

Lady just belched. Did you want to know that? I didn't want to see it. Also she rolled on the dirty laundry. Rolling on stinky stuff is her gig. 

She's not allowed on the couches anymore. 

This is how Lady feels about not being on the couches. 

Here you see her pout. She's so sad. 

No one understands how hard it is to be a pitbull. A maybe pitbull mix. Maybe fullbred. We don't know. It's hard when no one even knows how old you are. AND YOU AREN'T EVEN ALLOWED ON THE COUCHES! 

Things are ok sometimes though. 

Especially when you're a pitbull or maybe only partially pitbull that gets to sleep like a human and use pillows. 

growing and growing and growing

Tonight when I went to take a shower, my fear from earlier in the day was confirmed. I am, in fact pregnanter than I was this morning. I first thought that I may have had a growth spurt when I saw my reflection in the window during warrior 2 pose at yoga. 

Who is that pregnant lady??

I thought to myself. Surely she couldn't be me. She had hips and a huge pregnant belly. 

Alas, she was me. The person that can barely zip her winter coat. Oh what am I to do? How did I not plan for a potential coat issue? 

I knew this was inevitable. My maternity pants are becoming too tight. Luckily it's just the work pants. They don't give like the jeans do. I had to order two new pairs in a size up this morning [free shipping, holla!] I'm kind of thinking it's not just my belly that's growing. My ass seems to be following suit. And my tatas have a mind of their own. I'm quickly outgrowing all the new, big bras I bought after I got pregnant. Woof. Who am I?

There's a woman at work that looks about 58 weeks pregnant [although she's only 39 weeks along] who doesn't have feet anymore. She has these indescribable flesh colored things peeking out from beneath her pants. There's snow on the ground but she can't fit into shoes. Will that be me in February? Oh my. 

I did finally see the little guy move yesterday. It was surreal to watch him as he punched and kicked me. It made me crack up and get dizzy at the same time. Further confirmation that there is a human growing in me. Goodness pregnancy is bizarre. 

In conclusion, I'll post my 23 weeks pregnant picture from yesterday. Only double it in your mind, because like I said, I'm pregnanter today. 

PS how handsome is he? And how does he find this comfortable?!

merp

Sleeping in past four in the morning has become a distant memory without the help of medication, which I'm trying to avoid. I'm not sure if the lack of sleep is due to hormones or Lady's snoring or the fact that all I can think about it cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and thanksgiving dinner coming up in a couple of weeks. Praise be to God for banishing most of the nausea before thanksgiving. And I'll make a mental note never to be in my first trimester over thanksgiving. A holiday about food is my favorite kind people. 

We're leaving tonight to go watch Justin's cousin kick bum in the third round of the high school football playoffs. It's going to be cold, and windy, and super fun. -a brief interlude to share that Lady is running in her sleep- I might as well get up soon and get packed. Maybe eat two breakfasts? We'll see. 

In the sake of being all over the place, I'd also like to share that I'm trying to cut back on sugar in my life [again]. I have my glucose screening test coming up kind of soonish and I'm nervous if I have too much sugar in my system or something that I'll fail it and have to take the three hour test. I really don't want to take the three hour test. I hear everyone feels awful and some people up chuck before it's over and have to do it again. Hell no. To both the up chucking and to retaking the test. 

Can't I just refuse it? I don't have gestational diabetes. Ps WHY CANT THEY JUST DO A FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVEL LIKE THEY DO FOR ALL OTHER DIABETES DIAGNOSES?!?

That is all. 

Lady wearing a shirt. You're welcome. 

weekend

How is it that weekends go by so fast?  I swear yesterday was just Friday and now it's already Monday.  Damn.  We drove up to Alexandria for a wedding this weekend [7 hours from here].  Despite all the driving, and the soreness that I have today, it was nice to see my whole family.  The brothers brought their girls.  We ate a lot of junk.  And we all stayed in an awesomely huge townhouse at the hotel that could accomodate all of us and had a full kitchen.  Super convenient for those of us needing gluten free food, which happens to be three of us now since Erick's girlfriend Jess thinks she has celiac disease.  She'd get the test done, but the health center at her school doesn't do it and she hasn't had time to go to a regular doctor.  Side note, she's 99% sure she has celiac disease since her twin sister also has it.

I took zero pictures of us at the wedding, which makes me mad at myself!  It was lovely seeing my favorite youth pastor from when I was in junior high and high school along with other church friends.  We're both glad to be back home, and Lady is glad to be back from the vet where we boarded her.

We stayed at my parent's house on Friday night and I got to snuggle this guy.  He's the most handsome cat I've ever met. 

I loved the centerpieces at the wedding.

I'm now 22 weeks pregnant.  18 weeks left!  I'm pretty uncomfortable and I'm sure it'll only get worse.  I can't wait to meet this little guy, or big guy by the looks of my belly...

Ze bump.  

My attempt to camouflage the bump.  Success?  Maybe.

sleep schedule

The funny thing about pregnancy is it messes with your sleep schedule hardcore. Or at least mine. I'm a combination of yawning zombie and hyper insomniac at any point during the average day. This is what my day looks like:

4am [when J gets up] I've been awake for an hour tossing and turning and thinking about whatever food I dreamt about. Fluffernutter sandwiches anyone?  

5am still awake. Worrying about home intruders and leaky faucets. Every day. Also this is prime Pinterest browsing time. 

6am finally asleep. 

630am alarm goes off. Violently reset it until 730 when I get up. 

8am work

930am realize the level of my exhaustion until end of day. 

5:30pm make supper in a daze. 

8:30pm throw in the towel and announce I'm heading to bed. 

10pm lay awake pondering the meaning of life. Doing math in my head to pass the time. And of course, browsing Pinterest. Bonus points if I have a new book on my kindle. 

11:30pm finally fall asleep

Rinse. Repeat. 

It's 4:44am right now. Make a wish. Mine is that I could be asleep. But wait, was that an intruder I just heard??

registries

I can't tell you how many blog posts I've read about what to register for for baby G.  The overwhelming opinion I have of all of them?  Over excess!  I know this little guy needs stuff, but I'm also trying to keep clutter to a minimum here.  Does my infant need a jungle gym, play table, swing, bouncer, and a bum-load of toys? Probably not.  My guess is he'll do what all babies do and enjoy the non-toy items that are around the house, as well as share the dog toys.  I see some fights over kong wubba in the future.

I'm not saying I'm not going to buy my baby toys.  Obviously I will.  I have my eye set on a couple of blabla dolls and I'm just trying to whittle down a decision to which one I need.  Figaro or Lemonade?  [Let it be known, J doesn't approve of Felix the cat.  Cat hater...]

So Lemonade is my chartreuse color, but Figaro is absolutely adorable in his cardi.  

The stuff that is really throwing me are the bottles, bottle drainers, breast pads, breast milk bags, breast milk storage systems, breast feeding covers, etc. and so forth and you name it.  First of all, I'm not sure how comfortable I am having people picturing my boobs whilst they shop for my little.  Please, actually, don't picture my knockers.  I'll take care of those items myself, thank you.

So we did the basics.  Co-sleeper bassinet, baby tub, wash cloths, towels, Halo sleepers [these are so amazing, I know this from my OB clinicals in nursing school], a diaper bag, and some fitted crib sheets.  I'll ask around to see which bottles are best for breast milk [come on boobs, produce!].  I know already that I want a Medela pump but I was told by a co-worker that my place of work reimburses in full for those, so no point in registering for one.

I'll probably add more to my list as I think of things, but right now 17 items is a good start...  Hopefully shower guests are frugal or believe in going off registry.

what we've been doing

Just a little of what we've been doing since we found out who will be joining us in March.  We've been working late [some of us in particular, not necessarily me.] Eating a lot [again some of us in particular, namely me...] And cuddling rambunctious pit bulls that aren't sure what to do now that it's cold outside.  Should she cuddle under a blanket?  Or run around like a fiend with the dishrag from the sink?  Perhaps a little of both will suffice.

After the great unveiling of the sex of Baby G, we had to go and get him an outfit.  Naturally, it has an elephant.

Some of us prefer to sulk.

Though he's a little freaked out by it, Justin has been feeling the baby kick here and there.  It's so weird, the little guy will be squirming all around but then when Justin puts his hand on my belly he just gets one good kick and that's all.  Stubborn baby.  Also, cute sweats, right?

And finally, it's important to practice before the big day gets here.  Lady was strangely tolerant of this.  She was only done being held after her picture was taken.  Silly Ladydog.