time flies when you have an infant

not much has changed around here.

except that this:

has become this:

he's perfect. and gorgeous. and we've never been happier. especially since we're actually getting some sleep these days! i'll try to write more often, but with that gorgeous little being around, it's amazing that i get anything done. LOL

reasons 461,925,873 thru 461,925,877 of why i haven't posted

need i say more??

not dead.......yet

just zombified. you know, because of this......

and of course, munching on these...........

and while i miss my sleep, desperately, i've never been happier.

and this? is what they call a holding pattern

so last week i went in for my 37 week appointment and was VERY excited to learn that i was already dilated to 3cm and 75% effaced. it has been MISERABLY hot here the last few weeks (today? FREAKING 100 degrees! wtf??) so i was excited by this development because as anyone who has been pregnant knows, the last month is THE WORST as far as being uncomfortable, etc. when i went in today, i was hoping for some more dilation, but figuring i wouldn't get quite that lucky since it's apparently VERY unusual to be 3 weeks prior to due date and be 3cm already. i, unfortunately was right. no further dilation OR effacement.

DAMN!

i wasn't super surprised, but i was a little bummed out. i have been EXTREMELY uncomfortable with all this heat. i'm good at 75 degrees when i'm not knocked up. i can deal with 80 as long as there is a breeze. it's been WAY hotter than that the last 2-3 weeks and it's forecast for mid 80's into the end of next week. THIS SUCKS! all that being said, i am VERY ready for little dude to make his appearance, although i'm TERRIFIED about what to do AFTER he's here. LOL i know, i know. i'll be fine once i get the hang of things. i know this. but i'm still starting to freak out a little.

so my next appointment is on monday. something had BETTER have changed (in the correct direction!) by then! LOL

in other news, we had a bit of a scare yesterday in that when we tried to go to babies 'r us in order to get the rest of the things we really NEEDED for the baby, the car wouldn't start. at all. nothing. no lights, no "door ajar" binging. nothing. thank God we have AAA. turns out it was nothing more than a bad cell in our battery, so we just needed a new one. but still. i think vrock had a minor stroke thinking that we'd have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to get the car fixed. (we bought it used, and it's still under the original warranty, but it's only 3 years old.) the battery price was more than i wanted to pay, but it's done and we're back in business.

all of that rigamarole with the battery totally shot yesterday though. so today after the doc appointment, we went to babies 'r us. we didn't get EVERYTHING that was left on the registry, but we did get the things that i think we needed the most. we still have a good chunk of the money my brother & his fiancee' (the godparents) sent for the bambino, so we just moved that money into the baby's bank account until we need to buy something else for him.

since it's been so damn hot, we decided to go to one of the local casinos so vrock could people watch and i could gamble, a little. money is very tight for us these days and while i probably should have just left it in the bank, i wanted to play just a bit. so i went with $80 and hoped for the best. i'd been to that casino in june when my bestest friend in the world was here for my baby shower. i can't remember if i won, but i think i either broke even or won a little bit. (on a side note, vrock & i went to our other local casino last week to see the gallagher comedy show. we played for about 2.5 hours and came home with $50 more than we left with, which promptly went in the baby's bank account. LOL)

anyways, so today i was doing ok, and then all of a sudden i was down to my last 10 cents. (i used to play nickel slots. now? pennies all the way!) i would have had to cash out had this last spin not been a winner of some kind because that machine's minimum bet was more than a total of 10 cents. so i spun. and hit the bonus. right on! this particular game is called "great wall" and i found it last month when i was there. the bonus consists of free spins where you can accrue points & "picks". after the free spins are up, it takes you to the "picks" page where you choose from various ying-yang's and get either points or free spins. so this first bonus i won $121. WOO HOO! not bad for literally being down to your last 10 cents! i decided that i'd play until i was at 100 and that way i'd still be coming out 20 bucks ahead of where i'd started. i spun a few times and nothing. so i cashed out. i was going to leave, but decided "what the hell"? so i put my money back in and spun and hit another bonus. this time? i won 50 something in the bonus. i played for a bit and tried to get my total up to $160 which would have doubled my initial funds for the day. i didn't get there, and decided to cash out at $150.

all in all? not bad for less than 2 hours work. i won $70, so even after i subtract the $40 that i gave vrock, i still walked out $30 up. not bad, not bad at all.

tomorrow will be a stay at home day to do laundry and to see what all we have for the little dude that we'll need right away. and hopefully the walking around today helped jiggle things so that he's thinking more about coming OUT OUT OUT already! LOL

oh, and i'll be spending a fair amount of my day with my feet elevated. i'm tired of vrock teasing me about my "elephant feet". they are SO swollen it's not even funny.

we have reached week 36

and i am SO FLIPPING READY for this little boy to be born.

the hip pain is gone, but now it's settled into the the center of my hips (as opposed to being just in one hip or the other like it was before.) so that means everytime i roll over in bed, i hurt. lovely. i'd still rather that than the pain with every other step that i was dealing with.

i've started on the weekly doc visits. last week i was VERY excited that i'd only gained 1 pound from the previous visit, 3 weeks earlier. woot! that was good. i go back tomorrow so we'll see how well i did this week. the doc told me last time that everything looked great and on track. i see my regular doc this week & next and if nothing has happened by next week, we'll schedule the induction for the due date. (i see his partners the last few visits, so i want to make sure it gets scheduled, just in case.)

tomorrow is also my mom's birthday. she's going with me to the appointment and the plan is to go to lunch after and then to see harry potter. (vrock has no desire to see it, and mom reads the books, so it works out.) depending on how crowded the theater is will make the decision if we actually see the movie or not. if not? i'll be back up there next week for another appointment and will go see it then.

i'm almost done with the twilight series, with only about 250-300 pages left in breaking dawn. still can't really understand what all the fanatacism is about with that series. it's no harry potter, that's for sure. it's been an enjoyable read, but i'll be selling the books to the used book store when i'm done. no need to re-read them.

got some bad news today, but i'm not really ready to share, as it's not my news to share. i would really appreciate some extra prayers though. any good thoughts would be great.

i'm going to try to keep updated on this the next month or so, but i can't promise anything. i'm in countdown mode. 28 days to go, should he be stubborn like his parents and not come until his due date. that will be my luck. LOL although, with only 3 chapter submissions and the final left to take for class, that could be a good thing. at least then i'd HOPEFULLY be done with class and wouldn't have to worry about having to still take the final!

sloth, thy name is tbooty, or why i haven't posted lately

all kinds of interesting things have been happening out in seattle. (ok, not really, but there have been a select few.)

mostly the reasons i haven't posted can be boiled down to this:

1. i'm just generally feeling lazy the last few weeks. i've been told this is normal.
2. i often THINK about doing something (posting/laundry/errands) and that's as far as i get. this does not bode well for my post partum period. LOL
3. i've found that while the extreme exhaustion of the first 16 weeks of pregnancy has not returned, i AM more tired than i was from weeks 17-30. case in point, i wake vrock up in the morning for work and go back to sleep when he leaves around 8am. then? even though i went to bed at 1am? i end up sleeping until around 11am. unless i'm going somewhere where i have to leave/arrive at a certain time. weird.
4. i'm already feeling overwhelmed about the baby's arrival. we don't have all of our "gear" yet. no stroller/car seat (although that's just a matter of mom & i going to target together.) we have a bassinet. we have a pack 'n play (that we may just have him sleep in for the first few months due to space issues). we have a crib mattress, but the crib is still at my brother-in-law's. but there are still quite a few things we registered for that haven't been purchased yet. it's kind of stressful.
5. i am SO UNCOMFORTABLE at this stage. between the HUGE belly, the hip pain (so. very. hard. to. walk!!!) and the intermittent ankle/foot swelling, i am PAST being ready to reclaim my body.

the baby shower was good. none of my bridesmaids showed up, including the one who threw the shower, but 2 of the 3 had valid reasons. still, it REALLY upset me. UNTIL. my best friend in the world surprised me by flying up from utah for the weekend. BEST FRIEND EVER! after that i didn't really care about who hadn't shown. her being there made up for it more than 100 times over. of course, she made me cry though. bitch. LOL (don't worry, i TOTALLY got her back when i wrote out THAT particular thank you card. LOL) we got a fair amount of stuff, but of course not everything that we actually NEED. LOL go figure. it's ok. i've still got about $250 in gift cards/cash (not including whatever amount my brother is sending) to get the necessities that we don't yet have.

i'm up to chapter 13 of 18 in the transcription class, which means after i get back the chapter 13 submission, i have 4 graded transcripts left before the final. i'm not sure if i'll be able to start work before the baby is born, but we'll see. it'll be cutting it close, what with me only being 44 days away from my due date. it'd be nice to be able to start before he gets here.

i also had a job interview on monday (long story), and while it seemed to go well, the sacrifices it would entail (2 months unpaid leave, paying for childcare, no guarantee of job being held) make it so that i've never wanted to NOT get a job offer before. they were interviewing all of last week, so in theory i should hear something by wed of this week. like i said, it'll be one of the few times in recent memory that it won't hurt my feelings if they go in another direction. LOL

and i THINK that catches us up. the next 6 weeks are going to be an interesting ride. i'm ready to reclaim my body for myself. LOL let's see when this little boy decides to make his debut. i'd like him to wait at least until 36 weeks (7/14) but ANYTIME after that is totally fine with me! (plus, that would negate the 10 family birthdays in august that we're looking at currently. LOL)

25 weeks & vacation errands

so it was pointed out to me that i haven't posted in almost 3 weeks. (thanks stace! LOL) and with the trip looming up, i figured i'd best post BEFORE we left for hawaii on friday, otherwise it'd likely be ANOTHER week & a half before i was able to post. so, here i am.

i've been unemployed for not quite 2 weeks, and i don't think i've EVER been this busy! it's crazy. here's a sampling of what's been going on the last 2 weeks, broken down by day:

• mon (1st day unemployed) - trip to costco & target, which took almost all day
• tues - trip to the outlets with my mom, and to pick up some baby clothes & a bassinet from freecycle.org people
• wed - errands for the trip & a chiropractor appointment for vrock
• thurs - trip to the nearest joann's with mom to find some cute maternity patterns for later in the pregnancy, along with other trip related errands.
• fri - blissfully NOTHING was planned out and i did some spring cleaning stuff
• sat - one of the local communities has a yearly garage sale weekend, & i went with my folks. scored some good baby stuff (clothes, brand new pacifiers, size 1 diapers) and a few other things and only spent $16!
• sun - pre natal massage & out to dinner with vrock for our 1 year anniversary
• mon - doctor appointment (everything looks great! no issues other than the norm of heartburn & aching hips), lunch with mom, more shopping for the trip & a mani-pedi.
• tues - trip to storage to pick up & drop off stuff, over to a friends' house to drop off some baby girl clothes i'd picked up for her from one of the freecycle people
• today - took my folks to the airport this morning. the rest of the day? probably studying, laundry, clearing out the tivo. stuff that needs to be done, but that i can do from home.

so you see, it's not that i haven't WANTED to write. it's that by the end of each day i've been EXHAUSTED!

now i'm off to warm up vrock's lunch before he leaves for work (more on that later!) and then i can maybe take a nap later this afternoon!

all the news that's fit to print

i guess i have to make this a quickie since blogger says it's got a scheduled outage in 10 minutes!

1. we found out at our ultrasound on monday that it's a boy! vrock is thrilled and while at first i wanted a girl, i'm thinking that maybe having a boy first is a VERY good thing. so there's that big news.

2. i found out today that 4/17 will in fact be my last day at my current job. this is not a huge surprise to me, as i was supposed to be out of here on 1/16. my boss did try to see if he could keep me, but it was a no go. while i'm bummed about the fact i'll be losing that income, i'm not really bummed that i won't be working here anymore. the people are great, don't get me wrong. i just think i'm ready to be doing something else than financial stuff for a long while. i've been doing this since 8/01 and i think it's time for a change.

and if i can collect unemployment while i finish my transcription course AND only have to pay 35% of my cobra costs (thank you Mr. President!) all the better.

plus, this means i don't have to buy anymore maternity work clothes!

just about the halfway mark

in 4 days we have our ultrasound.

in 5 days i officially am 20 weeks, the halfway mark.

it's been an interesting time. i'm excited for the ultrasound. we'll get to see the baby and how it's developing and all that. then of course, we *may* get to find out the sex, which is always exciting. (although just about EVERYONE i know thinks that it's a girl. won't they be surprised if it's not? LOL) i've been reading my books (pregnancy & other) and reading the zero to forty blog written by the lovely amalah during her last pregnancy and was a little flabbergasted yesterday to realize that my stomach is no longer *squishy*. instead? it's rock hard. (at least in the front to center area where my uterus apparently has taken up residence.)

and the last few days i've finally caught the "heartburn train" that i had so far avoided. joy. i'm not really excited about that part, however since i've gotten off fairly lightly as far as some of the other less than pleasant pregnancy syptoms go, i guess i can't complain too terribly much. my hips ache all the time and it's hard to get comfortable to sleep. but. i slept through the night last night WITHOUT having to get up to pee. it's a small victory, but i'll take it.

now, i'd like to start feeling some movements from the little one. think it's too early to start bossing the kid around?

countdown

so today's the 5th.

that means the following:

in 18 days i have my ultrasound and hopefully find out if we're being blessed with a little boy or a little girl.

in 43 days i'll be working my last day at my current job. (unless something happens between now & then. there IS a small possibility that i'll leave BEFORE 43 days, but i'll keep that to myself for the time being.)

in 57 days we leave for hawaii for the family reunion/my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

somewhere between all these milestones, i need to finish my online transcription course (almost done with the first half and averaging 92% for the class so far!), interview for transcription jobs (that will start 14 chapters from now, once i'm halfway through the 2nd part of the class), go shopping for hawaii appropriate clothes (i think i have maybe 3 pairs of shorts that MIGHT fit by then since i'll be 25 weeks by then, if not, consignment stores here i come!) and various other things.

oh yeah, i also have to come up with a guest list for the baby shower my friend is planning for me. granted, i'm almost done with that, but still. it's one more thing to do. on top of all the reading i'm trying to cram in before the baby's born (plus that allows me to get rid of a lot of books too!) i almost wish i had the money for a kindle, so i could take like 5 books with me to hawaii and be able to read easily! hint hint stace! LOL

free is good

i knew that having a baby is an expensive process. from all the doctors bills to all the new gear the kid will need once it's here.

but good lord. i didn't realize i'd be SO overwhelmed with STUFF. do i need to register for THAT or should i just try to buy THIS 2nd hand? i'm kinda at a loss as far as what are ABSOLUTE must haves and what are "it'd be nice but not 100% necessary" wants. my head spins every time i look at babies 'r us or target online to try to figure out WHAT i need to/should register for. honestly, it's making me a little bit crazy.

THEN, there's all the unasked for advice. the "you HAVE to buy a new crib! you can't borrow one or buy a used one!" the "are you going to do THIS or THAT?" i know these people mean well. honestly i do. however, they're just making me crazy!

the bottom line is threefold:

1. we don't have any money. i mean we barely have enough money at this point to pay our bills. i'm hoping that vrock gets a job soon, but with the economy the way it is and the fact that i'll be out of a job come mid april, well, you know how that story ends. that's a HUGE factor as to why we moved in with my folks at the end of last month. which has helped.

2. i REFUSE to pay massive amounts of money (that we don't have!) for certain items (crib included) that the baby will only use for a specific period of time and then not need anymore. i'm willing to buy (or register for) the car seat/stroller combo because i know that we need to have something that will pass all the safety inspections, etc. i have a few friends that i can possibly borrow a crib from, FREE, and when i don't need it anymore or when they need it back i can return it to them. i'm TOTALLY ok with that.

3. we don't have a lot of room, since we're not in our own place. this also makes it difficult as far as procuring baby items, etc. IF we had our own place & the funds? this would be a totally different post. we'd get a new crib that converted to a toddler bed & then to a headboard/footboard for a full size bed. at least THAT way? we wouldn't be buying a piece of furniture for 2-3 years, as would be the case if we bought JUST a crib.

so i was talking to a gal at work and she said the magic words: freecycle.org

i'd never heard of it. so i checked it out. and boy, did i score!

first i got a basically brand new baby bathtub. yeah, it would only have cost $20 to buy a new one and it's something i probably could have registered for. but? i didn't have to. it was free. all i had to do was go pick it up.

then? i really scored. i got these:

for free. yes. i got them both from the same gal plus 2 big bags of cloth diapers (some of the nicest i've ever seen) & a few other assorted things that she threw in. all for FREE! the pump alone is around $200 and the swing runs between $75 - $125. now, once we're done with them, i'll put them back up on freecycle for someone else to use. they're in excellent condition and i'm just so excited about being able to start collecting things for the baby & not damaging my wallet in the meantime.

i'll still look on there and at consignment shops & the big garage sale one of the communities around here has at the end of april. but it's looking like we can at the very least cut some of the baby gear costs in half if i continue to be lucky with freecycle!

it almost makes some of the crazy go away.

almost.

settling in

i tried to post this yesterday & blogger ate my post. let's see if it "sticks" today.

life is slowly getting back to normal after the move. all of the big moving/storage issues are pretty much settled. there are still a few boxes & bags to go through and unpack/donate/trash but thankfully those number only about a dozen or so.

since we have limited room in our closet, i've been packing away items of clothing that i don't want to get rid of, but that i can't actually WEAR at the present moment. i'm not entirely sure if my belly has "popped" since i was a little chubbier than i'd like when i got pregnant. it definitely seems bigger to me though. LOL

since things are finally calming down, i'll be able to pick up the medical transcription course again and start studying. i'm halfway through the first class & have taken the midterm. i'm hoping to finish by the end of march if not sooner.

things at work are still kind of up in the air. since the initial push that preceeded me getting the 90 day extension, things have slowed a bit. which means, if it slows enough i'll be out before mid april when the extension was set to expire. we'll see what happens. we need the insurance, so i hope that doesn't happen (since i don't really want to pay for cobra a month or two early if i don't have to.) but part of me really would like to just be able to sleep in & study & look for jobs while getting unemployment. we'll have to see how that goes.

edited to add photo:meet the jumping bean

we haven't come up with a nickname for the baby yet, so jumping bean will work for now.

especially after today's performance!

we went in for the genetic testing this morning complete with ultrasound. we got to hear the heartbeat (154 bpm) and of course see the bean on the screen. and let me tell you, that little one did NOT want to stay in one position long enough for the sonographer to get her measurements! (hence the nickname jumping bean. although, to be fair, this baby is 1/4 mexican/latino/whatever you want to call it, courtesy of vrock. LOL)

according to the genetic counselor, everything looks good. we'll get the final blood results sometime in the next 7-10 days. i have another appointment on monday with my regular ob. all in all a good visit. the bean was VERY active during the scan (vrock kept saying he/she is camera shy what with all the movement!)

the biggest surprise? the bean is measuring 13 weeks 3 days. according to the in room scan my doctor did on 1/12, i should only be 12 weeks 4 days as of today. (although from my lmp, i was dating at 12 weeks 6 days) so i guess we'll have to see. since the difference was less than 5 days, the sonographer said that they wouldn't change my due date so we're still looking at 8/11.

if i can remember to do it, i'll add the "photo" tonight when i get home. provided i can get my scanner/printer to cooperate. moving is such fun. (LMAO i just typed "moving is suck fun" before correction. i think that's MUCH more accurate!)

bean spillage

so for the limited numbers of you that actually read this, this may or may not be news.......

we're knocked up.

due date is roughly 8/11, which is my grandfather's birthday, so that would be kinda cool. we're very excited and of course, a little scared. we plan to find out the sex only because i think the suspense would kill me to not know. lol

so we have a lot going on these days. gearing up for our move this weekend, preparing for a baby, etc.

life is good.