He's Great

This morning, Hod had to run to work to give his manager some keys.

He came home, and I heard him banging around in the kitchen.  He made me breakfast.  It was so sweet.

Then, he picked up #1, and said, "We're going to go lay down for a while.  Do whatever you want, I'll take care of #1 for you."

What??  I get all morning to myself to do whatever I want?  I'm pretty sure that means I should be productive, but instead I'm blogging.  I don't really know what to do with myself... but it's glorious anyway.

I love Hod.

Merry Christmas To Me!!

I just got myself the coolest Christmas present ever

About 3 weeks ago, I was looking on a local website at free stuff.  And there was an item that I really wanted!  But it was late at night, so rather than calling the giver, I e-mailed.  And someone else had beat me to it by 45 minutes.  Lame!

Then, about a week and a half ago, Hod found a very similar item for only $20.  He was on his way to go pay for the item, thus reserving it, and someone showed up 10 minutes before he got there and took the last one.

Then today, I saw a similar item in the free section of the local website.  And it had only been posted online for 13 minutes.  I took a risk and called the guy.  (Which is big for me, cause I don't call strangers.)

Someone had called him 2 minutes earlier and claimed the item.

SERIOUSLY???  LAME!

But then... Mr. Kind-Giver-Of-Goodness asked me if he could keep my number in case first want-er backed out.  I said yes, but I knew that the first want-er wouldn't back out.  I mean, it's pretty rockin' awesome!

I was sad.  But really, first I missed it by 45 min... then 10 min... then 2 min... so next time it would be mine, right?

Mr. Kind-Giver-Of-Goodness just called be back.  The first want-er backed out!  So guess what I'm getting!!!!

(I was going to put a picture... but I can't find a good one.)

A PIANO!!  It's smaller than normal with about 77 keys instead of 88.  And it needs to be tuned... And no one has any idea how old it is...but it's playable, and it's free!

Now I just have to find some people to help me go pick it up.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Do-be-do-be-do

It's 6 AM, and I am awake.  For those of you who know me, you will find this odd.  I like to sleep.  Really.  Often, when given the choice between a fun party and a good nap... I'd prefer the nap.  Yeah, there may be something wrong with me.

Hod likes to sleep even more than I do.  He has helped me to enjoy sleeping even more.

But then #1 was born.

She is super cute, and I love her, but she is totally messing with my sleep problems.

Like tonight.  She woke up to eat just before 4 AM, nothing wrong with that.  She's a bottle baby, and I used to feed her while I was sleeping, but I kept waking up in a pool of formula only to find #1 asleep, that she had stopped eating a while ago, and was now feeding the bed.  I only own so many sheets, so something had to change. So, now I wake up to feed her.  I don't let myself fall asleep.  This normally results in me being awake for a while after she falls back asleep.

Also, the whole labor/delivery thing has kind of destroyed parts of my body.  It's been 2 months, and we just figured out what was wrong with me 3 days ago.  After being awake to feed #1, my body with it's post delivery ailments started acting up.  A hot shower, and 70 minutes later, I was finally able to start drifting off to sleep.  (this was just after 5:30 AM)

I have been Hod's alarm clock our entire marriage.  However, there have been times that I haven't been around so he has had to wake himself up.  This involves setting everything with an alarm, and making sure the volume is up high.  This last Monday morning I was staying at my parent's house because I had a Doctor's appointment 52 miles away from where I now live.  Hod had to be to work by 7:30 AM, so he had to set all sorts of crazy alarms.  The alarming devices have been turned off the past 2 nights.  But, tonight, he forgot to turn them off.  And the alarms were still set.

This means, that right after I was drifting off to sleep, a crazy loud alarm went off.  He slept through it (He has mad sleeping skills.  It's like a super power with him.) but it woke me up.  I calmed myself down, only to have another alarm go off 20 min later.

It is now 2 1/2 hours since #1 woke up to eat.  She wakes up about every 3 hours.  (I can actually already hear her starting to stir.)  She had a rough evening, and didn't actually go down for the night til 1 AM.

So, here I am, now it's 6:20, and I have only had 3 hours of sleep.

I have got to figure out some other way to handle life, cause sleep is no longer an option.

But, on the plus side, I have some fun songs in my head!

Well, That's A New One...

This is a repeat to any of my Facebook friends.  But I just had to share.

Tonight I lost my phone.

I've done that before, but I just waited for Hod to get home, and then he would call it, and it was all good.

But now that he is living 52 miles away, working until I can pack up the apartment and join him, I would be waiting a long time for him to get home.

I posted a message on Facebook asking friends to text me so I could find it.  And my friends did!  I was so happy.  I could hear my phone... but it was nowhere to be found.  And it kept buzzing, and it kept buzzing, and I kept looking.  It was a little muffled, so I knew it was under something.

No matter where I looked, I couldn't find it!  (I even looked in the garbage, wondering if in my sleepy stupor I had thrown it away.)

Finally as a last resort, knowing that it was totally impossible, I looked under #1's sleeping form.

And there it was!

I have NO CLUE how I got my phone in the swing and under #1.  Nor do I know how she slept through the sound and vibrations going off over and over.  But she did.  And I found my phone.

Wow... Mommyhood has some special moments.

She's Back!

*Warning- this post contains some details about #1's bathroom habits... if that's TMI for you then I would advise skipping.*

#1 has been home for about 3 weeks.  In that time she has gone from sweet baby to Miss Ornery pants.  She is currently being treated for GERD, and that's cool.  But it only seemed to be helping a little bit.  In the past week #1 has gone from being ornery for an hour a night to 5-12 hours a night.  It didn't matter what Hod or I did, she just wasn't going to be happy.

Add in the fact that Hod is now living 52 miles away because of his new job and I am packing up our apartment and then going to join him.  This was making the ornery daughter thing much harder.  I had no one to give me a break.  EVER.

A few days ago I realized that #1 wasn't having wet diapers as often as she should.  She wasn't eating less... she was just getting rid of it less.  I figured it was because when she would cry and scream for hours on end, she would get really hot and sweaty.  So that's where the liquid was going.

Then today, #1 had her first blowout diaper.  And it was a mess!  I have never seen such a wet, messy, blowout diaper.  Seriously, it was the most disgusting diaper ever. My sweet girl turned ornery had some major diarrhea.  This was very new to me, so I called the Dr.

I was told to give her Pedialyte on a somewhat regular basis.  Oh, and to change her formula.  So, on my way to Wal-mart I went.  Not so fun when you have an ornery, sick little girl!

I got the stuff I needed, and as I was leaving the baby section I saw something.

Now, I have been wondering if #1 had a touch of colic.  I just had no answer for why she has been so unconsolable!  She wouldn't sleep in her own bed, and she would scream for hours and hours.  Someone had recommended to me that I try giving her Gripe Water to help with the colic.  As I was leaving the baby section at Wal-mart I saw some.  I've been beyond tired and desperate to do something to help.

And MAN does it seem to be helping!  Since giving her some 5 hours ago, she has been sleeping!  AND she has been sleeping in her own bed.  AND when she wakes up, she does it without screaming! It's like heaven.  I can't even tell you how happy I am about this whole situation.  It may be temporary, but for now, my girl is resting, I'm happier, and my sweet, un-ornery girl is back!

I sure missed her!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well... it's been about 5 months since I talked about big changes.  So of course that means its time for more changes in my life!

Here is where we are now:

Hod got a promotion!  This is great!  We should actually be able to be contributing members of society now.  With this promotion comes a move.  Yep, for the 3rd time we are moving.  Only this time, we are moving with a newborn.  That is a bit stressful.  Want to hear what makes it more stressful?

Hod is moving tomorrow.  I don't get to move til Dec 15th.  That means I am packing up the entire apartment by myself.  Well... myself and any poor sap who I can convince to help me.  So much to do!

But this is good.  We have been hoping for this for a very long time.  And now it is here!  So crazy!

But #1 is doing pretty well.  She has some GERD, but we're taking care of that.  And she's super cute.. so who can complain!

Aw, Man!

Hod is pretty fashionable.  And being stylish is quite important to him.  Apparently a very popular stylish look for men is jewelry.  Specifically leather bracelets.  As long as I have known Hod, he has had a leather "cuff".  (I guess that's a thick leather bracelet?  I don't really know.)

Now, something you should know about me, if you don't already, is I didn't really grow up with boys.  My dear brother L1, has lived 1500 miles away my entire life.  I was raised with 3 great sisters... but they are severely lacking in man-ness. My Dad didn't even wear his wedding ring while I was growing up.  That would be the construction man in him.  It just wasn't safe.  Then in high school I started to become friends with some boys... and my best guy friend then was totally into mechanics and such.  So, he didn't wear any sort of jewelry either.

As a result of all of this, the idea of a guy wearing bracelets was just strange.  But Hod loves his cuff.  I used to REALLY hate it.  I mean, it was masculine and all that, but it's so big!  I don't do big jewelry, so why should he?  But he wears it with attitude, and pulls it off.  However, Hod is quite aware of my dislike of this cuff.

Today, Hod was running late for work.  Right after he got to work, he called me to tell me that he lost his cuff somewhere outside, and he wanted me to go look for it.  So I did.  And I didn't find it.  And now I have guilt. I just need to learn to never complain about something I don't like.  Cause now that it's gone, I feel like it's my fault.  And I should be sad about it, cause Hod loves it, and yet... I'm kind of glad.

But now, it could look like I "lost" it.  That is such a bummer.  Blast!

Here's A Little Secret

Back in the day, sometime when L1-L4 were young, my parents were financially strapped.  As a result, for their Christmas Eve treat they could only afford hot chocolate and toast.  The next year, things were better, and my Mom tried to make a fancier treat.  However, the damage had been done, and my older siblings revolted asking for the "tradition" of hot chocolate and toast.

And thus the tradition was born.

Every Christmas Eve, this is something I look forward to.  (Yes, I know Christmas isn't here yet... just go with me.)

When Hod and I were married, we were given a gift card to a kitchen specialty store.  We decided to use that gift card on pure fluff.  We just wanted something fun.  We narrowed our choices down to an ice cream maker, and a Coco-Latte.  The Coco-Latte won.  It is pretty much amazing.  Though, I do think it makes the hot chocolate a little too hot.

Enter something I learned from my Mom.  On Christmas Eve, she would have evaporated milk* for us to use to cool down our hot chocolate.

Today, Hod and I tried the evaporated milk trick.  And this is what I learned.  1st, if your evaporated milk isn't chilled, it doesn't cool off the hot chocolate.  2nd, evaporated milk makes even really cheap hot chocolate extra creamy, thus making it seem gourmet for a poor girl's budget.

Who knew?  I will now no longer be sad when I buy cheap hot chocolate, cause I can make it taste great!

*(why is it called evaporated milk, when it is still liquid?  I've never understood that.)

Now I Get It

I've come to realize something.

New Moms don't have a hard time getting things done because newborns are super labor intensive and demanding.

They (I) have a hard time getting things done, cause who wants to fold laundry when you can sit with a beautiful baby sleeping on your chest who pulls faces as she dreams.  Why would I want to miss that?

The temptation is just to great.

But, really... how can you not love this kid?

Luckily, Hod has the same problem, so he doesn't get mad when I'm not as productive as I could be.

*Sigh* Life is pretty good.

It's The Little Things

Just a few happy thoughts:

1. I put on a pair of my old jeans today.  I can't say that all of my old jeans would fit well, but it feels good to be wearing real cloths again!

2.  I love the way the world sounds when it snows.  It's so quiet and peaceful.  And beautiful.

3.  I love to go out to get soup when I know it will be a plastic spoon.  I don't know what it is, but I love using those lame plastic soup spoons.  It brings me great joy.

4.  We put #1 in a little hat today, 'cause it was snowing outside.  She is so stinkin' cute!

5.  #1 is showing great improvement.  This gives us hope.

6.  Hod is obsessed with the brownies in the hospital cafeteria.  It makes me laugh how much he loves them.

7.  Today is my Mom's birthday.  She is pretty much the rockin'-ist mom ever.  You may think that your mom is cool... but my Mom is the best!

Life is getting better!  

Life As We Know It

Hey, Yo's.

Here's a quick update on us.  We are living at the hospital.  Literally.  Hod an I are sleeping on an air mattress supported by couch cushions and a few foam pads.  This allows me to go and feed #1 at all sorts of odd hours of the night.  It's a mixed blessing.

#1 will be able to come home once she can gain weight by eating orally.  She currently has a feeding tube.  This is because she couldn't eat enough to give her enough energy to eat enough, to give her enough energy to eat enough... and so on.

Because #1 is so tired, it takes her quite a while to eat.  As a result, I get to sleep for 90 min intervals.  This results in a very tired Paily.

But we have made some new friends in the NICU.  And we love some of #1's nurses.  And someday, I'll be able to sleep in my bed again.

Thanks for caring!

Oh, and just so you can see a face... Here is #1.  This picture was taken when she was 4 days old.

The Bucket Family Has Grown!

Hello friends!

Here I am, home from the hospital, after working hard to bring Bucket Baby #1 into the world!  And it was an intense process.

Often when I blog, I try to be witty or something.  But this time, I'm just gonna tell it like it is.  There will probably be some TMI, and I'm ok with this.  Because, this, my friends, is the true story of how #1 came into the world.  And it's a pretty long one.

Now, just some FYI, before I actually went into labor, I had been to Labor and Delivery 3 times.  Once the On Call Dr told us to go because he thought my water had broke.  Not true.  The next time my contractions were every 5 min apart and getting closer and harder.  But I wasn't progressing fast enough, nor was I full term, so they sent me home.  A few days later the same thing happened.  It was a bummer.

As of the last time I had gone to Labor and Delivery, I was dilated to 4 cm, and 80% effaced.  And I walked around like that for over a week.  Not so fun.  I kept wondering how I was going to know when I was in real labor, because my contractions were just what the Dr had told me they should be to go into Labor and Delivery.  But I always was sent home.  I just started to wish that my water would break so I could know for sure.  And I just needed something to happen.  I had been having painful contractions for 3 weeks.  Contractions that followed a pattern, got closer together, got harder, and then would stop after 5-6 hours.  Lame!

As you know from my last post, Tues night/ early Wed morning Hod and I went to Walmart.  Because of our late night excursions, I slept in a lot on Wed.  When I finally did get up, I ate some cereal, and was pretty much just lazy for a few hours.  Hod had gone to work, and I was just resting a bit.  Just before 1:00 PM I decided to get in the shower.  (Don't judge me, I woke up late.)  While in the shower I had a moment where I wondered if my water had broke.  Either that or I had lost all control of my urinary tract.  I climbed out of the shower, and had about 1/2 C of something suddenly come out of me.  But I knew if my water had "broke" it should be more than that.  Wondering if I had sprung a leak I quickly dressed and called my Dr.

Oh, but wait... they are all on lunch break till 1:30.  Lame!  I fought with myself for a bit wondering if I should just wait it out.  However, the repeat of excess liquid encouraged me to go.  I called Hod's cell phone... and heard it ring in the other room.  So, I called Hod's work phone... and it was busy.  I wasn't having contractions yet, so I grabbed my purse, and jumped in the car.  While driving myself to the hospital, I tried Hod's work number again.  Success!  Only he wasn't allowed to leave until another employee got there because of a company policy stating that they must always have 2 people at work.  But he only had half an hour of his shift left, so I told him it would be fine.  I got to the hospital and checked myself in.

Hod arrived about 10 min later.

Now, my Dr, who we shall just call Dr. K had told me that if I went into labor, he could augment it by breaking my water.  Because it was regular office hours I knew that he wouldn't be sending me home.  After running a few tests to make sure that my water had in fact sprung a leak, my nurse wasn't positive about it.  She went to call Dr. K but ran into him instead.  He told her that I had been sitting at a 4 for long enough and he would just come break my water.  I was SO excited!

Around 2:30 he broke my water.

About 60 min later they started me on Pitocin because I wasn't progressing at all.

And we waited.  And waited.  My contractions were consistent but not progressing me enough.  They kept getting harder and harder.  And it hurt!  Now, I know that some people are all about natural labor.  And that is fine for them.  I however, had no desire to go through all of that pain.  Yes, Labor is supposed to hurt, but I like modern medicine and wanted to take advantage of all of it's goodness.

Just after 5:30 Dr. S came to give me an epidural.  This was done with me sitting with my legs hanging over the edge of the bed, and my head on Hod's chest.  For not doing well with blood, Hod did a great job of being strong as long as I needed him.  And as soon as I didn't, he needed to sit in the chair.  But that's ok.

Right before I had my epidural, I had a grape Popsicle.  Yum!

Soon after my epidural, I lost my grape Popsicle.  Gross!

Watching me lose my Popsicle while I was in a lot of pain, was hard on Hod.  He left the room so he didn't join me in the losing of Popsicles, and when he came back I was in a Oxygen mask.  #1 didn't react so well to me throwing up.  This was even harder for Hod to watch so he called in back-up.  My dear Mom was on backup for us because I didn't want to deliver alone, and knowing Hod has a hard time with bodily fluids we invited her to join us.  She came for a while, and played cards with Hod.  I tried to get a little bit of sleep.  She stayed until just after 9:00 PM.  By now I had finally progressed to a 6.  Really?  I had been there for over 7 hours and had only progressed 2 cm?  Not cool.

The epidural was keeping me somewhat comfortable... well except for the top of my left leg.  It really hurt!  I don't know WHY that is where I was feeling all of my contractions, but it was, and I was not a fan.  Hod was doing better with everything, so Mom decided to go home and get some rest till the real action started.

Dr. K had predicted that I would deliver somewhere between 10:00 and Midnight.  This is because when I walked in the door, I was already half way there.  He was wrong.

Hod and I tried to sleep some... and couldn't.  The dang blood pressure cuff hated me.  It was checking me every 30 min.  And it never liked the answer it got.  So it would beep.  And beep until someone came to check it.

And #1's heart rate was a little bit off.

And I started getting a pretty high fever.  (By the end, it was up to 102)

FINALLY at 1:30 AM (only 12 hours later...) I was fully dilated and effaced.  They have a policy at my hospital that for first time Mom's if you have an epidural and get to this point, they give you one hour to just sleep and rest before the real action starts.  That way, your body can do a lot of work and you won't get so tired.

As the nurse checked me, she tried to see what way #1 was facing.  But she couldn't tell.

Hod and I tried to sleep, and failed some more.  Finally around 2:00 AM I called my Mom to tell her that the action was starting in 30 min.

I had another Popsicle.  (What I love them, and I was hungry and thirsty!)

2:30 we started pushing.

#1's heart rate was still being funky, so we started pushing on my side.  That helped her heart rate, but didn't help me progress.  But we pushed.  And pushed.  And pushed.  And I lost my other Popsicle.  Once again, lame! They normally don't let first time mom's push for more than 2 hours.  So that was my goal.  As I got tired, I watched the clock and knew I could go for that much longer.  We ended up putting me on my back again because baby's heart rate was just being scary.  I was also put on oxygen.  I hated that mask.  At this point, Hod was struggling with the fluids, so we called in another nurse, and he sat down to encourage me.

I also had really random but fun music playing in the background.  It was a good distraction for me.

At 4:30, Dr. K showed up.  Hod was holding my hand helping me along.  Mom was sitting in the background trying to help Hod be ok with things.  I was getting very tired, and #1 wasn't really getting all that close to coming.  When Dr. K showed up we had a serious chat.  He also couldn't tell what direction #1 was facing.  He just knew that things weren't quite working out.  Now, I have a few family members that cannot have a vaginal birth because of how their hips are.  Dr. K knew this about me.  And so it was a concern.  He asked me what I wanted.  I told him that I really didn't want a C-section but if that was the only option, then fine.  He asked how I felt about the vacuum suction cup thing.  I told him I was fine with it as long as it didn't put her too far down, and then she wouldn't fit and then we would have major problems.  He told me that within just a few seconds of pushing with the suction cup he would be able to tell.  Trusting him because he had been great so far (though all of his time estimates had been super far off) I told him to try it.

They hooked me all up to the vacuum thingy and I pushed.  He pulled... and it popped off.  Great.  "But," said he, "it helped so I think we'll be fine."

Dr. K also knew that I was anti forceps.  But we just still weren't quite going to make it.  But, instead of using the forceps to grab #1, he used them to help open up the birth canal.

And I pushed.  And pushed some more.  I was so done.  Between contractions I started crying and gasping for air.  My left leg hurt SO bad, and I was just tired.  I had only gotten around 5 hours of sleep the night before, and I had been in hard labor for over 10 hours.  I didn't know if I could do it.  People were very encouraging, but I just didn't know anymore.  Hod didn't know if I could do it, and he was crying too.  Mom later told me that Dr. K looked at her a few times, almost to ask her if I could make it.  But I didn't know what else to do, so I just kept trying.

Because of the epidural, I couldn't really feel that my body needed to push, so I had to force myself to do it.  I guess that's what you give up by deciding to go the less pain route.

Finally, at 5:06, after over 15 hours after checking myself into the hospital, and a full 2 1/2 hours of hard pushing, #1 came out.  All 7 lbs, 3 oz of her.  (Interesting fact, the song playing while she came out was the song I sang to Hod at our wedding.) She had been posterior.  That is why labor was so hard.  And long.  Because of my fever, and #1's funky heart rate, I didn't get to hold her right off.  That was sad.  I had just worked so hard to get her out, and Hod and my Mom were over playing with her while I sat there.  During this time, I found out that I had been tearing towards the front instead of the back.  So, to save me a lot of grief, Dr K had given me an episiotomy.  Along with that I had a bunch of little tears all around.  The stitching process took quite a while.  They cleaned up #1, ran a few tests, and decided she was well enough to stay with me for a bit.  I finally got to meet my baby!  And she was so sweet!  And poofy!  And had a crazy cone-head.  But she was mine!  And I didn't have to push anymore!

Unfortunately, because of my fever and her crazy heart rate, we had to drop her off at the NICU on our way to recovery.

And now friends, it is late.  We still have more of our story, but alas it is almost midnight.  I need to go to sleep so I can get up to go see my baby in the morning.  More to come!

It's Not a Myth!

Did you know that when Wal-Mart says they are open all night, it's true?  I had always wondered about that fact.  But this is what I learned:

1.  Walmart is surprisingly busy at 3 AM.

2.  They are in fact open.

3.  The lady who preps in the Subway inside of my Wal-Mart must be the SLOWEST prep-er ever.  Seriously. When I worked at Subway, and we opened at 10 AM the person opening showed up at 8.  However, the Wal-mart Subway opens at 7.  And she had bread coming out of the oven at 3:30.  I don't get it.

4.  I'm pretty sure the 3 AM cashier has seen everything.  Cause she didn't bat an eye when we showed up with a gallon of milk, some cold cereal, and a sweater so Baby won't freeze when we bring her home from the hospital.

5.  There are going to be a lot of people just "hanging" outside.  Personally I'd rather be in my bed, but I guess if you're that comfy when it's heck-a cold outside sitting outside of Walmart, then that's cool.

6.  There is no average age of 3 AM shopper.  Really, We saw early 20's, late 30's, early 50's, and older.

7.  I found that every person I saw I judged.  I just couldn't understand why they were there.  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Oh, were you wondering why I was there?  Cause I woke up at 1 with regular contractions just painful enough to not let me sleep.  So I folded laundry.  But then Hod woke up, cause he can't sleep without me in the bed, and he was hungry.  He was going to eat some cold cereal, but then he would have used up all of the milk, and he was now wide awake, so we went to buy milk.

My contractions kept going till around 6, and then I was finally able to sleep.

OH, but here is a random.  I have no brain right now.  And yet, I woke up with lines from a poem that I memorized in 1998.  And it's not really a happy poem, it's about a little boy drowning in the sea.  I can apparently still recite 60% of it.  But don't ask me my own phone number.  That's not going to happen without real work.

What A Nice Place!

I have recently discovered a wonderful place in my city of residence.

You can go, and stay, and the workers there take care of you.  Often approaching you just to see if they can get you a glass of water.  You have your own bed, and a couch in your room.  There is free cable TV, and your own personal bathroom.  This room also comes equipped with a personal phone, free snacks for visitors, all you can eat Popsicles, multiple light settings, and a fancy yoga ball to bounce on to your heart's content. Oh, and they have large windows giving you a great view of the city.  Doesn't this sound like a place you want to go?

Well, there is one catch.

You have to be in labor.  Oh, and progressing.

Just early labor and slow progression isn't enough.  They'll kick you out for that.

How do I know this?  Cause I have been there TWICE in the past 3 weeks.  They are very nice, and each time I am told... "Yeah, you have regular contractions 3-5 minutes apart... but... uh... we're not sure why you're not progressing, so we'll send you home."

Baby keeps toying with me.  She's all "Hey, Mom, I'm gonna come visit!"  Then after 5 hours of regular painful contractions she decides, "Actually, this is kind of warm and comfy... maybe I'll stay here a bit longer."

Well, Baby, I'm at 37 weeks.  That means FULL TERM.  There is no reason to be an over achiever and aim for a full 40 weeks.  37 will do.  In fact, I think 37 weeks and 1 day is the perfect time to be born.  Ready, Set, GO!

I need to be in that nice, fancy room again. :)

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

About a week ago, Hod and I were at Walmart, and we found out that the fish were half off.  Hod loves fish.  So much that when given the choice between new cloths and a fish, Hod chose a fish for Christmas.  (Those of you who don't know Hod won't understand what a big deal this is, but trust me, it's a big deal.)

Sadly, that fish died last April.  Rest in Peace, Mordecai.  Life has been stressful lately, so when given the chance to get a new fish, Hod jumped at it.  After fretting about a name for our newest family member, Hod settled on Mike Chang.  Yes, this is a character on the fairly popular TV show "Glee".  Oddly enough this really fits our fish.  He's a red colored Beta.  He also looks a little Asian.  Ok, that sounds racist.  He looks like the guys on Thoroughly Modern Millie.  Anyway... I'm probably digging myself in a hole of sorts.

Uh... We got a fish!

Last Sunday, I noticed that Hod was pretty busy, so I decided to feed Mike.  Now, way back in the day, one of my dear friends had Hod and I fish sit.  She had a fairly particular way of feeding her fish, New Jeffery Wilbur.  This involved holding his food over his bowl and just opening it a little bit.  Then some food would come out.  I honestly don't have a lot of experience feeding fish, so I copied that method.  As I opened the food just a little bit, nothing came out.  Well.. thought I, maybe I just need to open it a bit more.  So I did.  And about 30 days worth of food came tumbling out right into the fish bowl.  Mike Chang looked at me like I was an idiot.  I stood there for a second, wondering what to do.  And laughing.  I thought it was funny.  I finally decided that I had to try to get some of the food out of there.  I turned to the silverware drawer to get a spoon... and noticed that I hadn't emptied out the dishwasher yet and the only spoons in the drawer were slotted.  Well that's not going to work.  I finally got a regular spoon, and a small cup to pull out the excess food.  By now, 2/3 of the food had fallen from floating around the top the bowl to raining down on the plastic Roman like columns decorating the fish bowl.

Mike Chang is set for life!

Ok, Hod was very kind and cleaned the bowl out even though it was my mistake.  And Mike is doing fine.

And for those of you who were hoping for a little movie to go with the title of this blog post... Here you go!

Maybe That Should Have Been A Secret

Hey Yo's.

Still pregnant.  (Oh, and Laree a note to you, my Dr. moved my due date up a week, cause baby is measuring big, so I'm not quite as early as things seem.  I updated my ticker to show this.)

Every time I take a deep breath, or have a look of concern, Hod is sure I'm in labor.

My contractions are still pretty regular and getting more painful.  But I don't think I'm to the "Next Level Of Pain" I was told I had to be at to go to the hospital.

Baby needs to make up her mind.  This whole, "yeah, I'm going to come so you'll have regular kind of painful contractions for 3 hours, and then when they just start to really hurt, you'll only have one, and then I'll stop" thing totally bugs.  So, now we are disciplining our child for not making up her mind.  This involves 3 things:

1- Often now when Hod gets home from work, he puts baby in time out.  This entails giving me a kiss but ignoring baby for about 10 minutes.  I don't think she notices.

2- After a contraction she tends to kick hard as if to say, "Hey, you're squishing me!  Stop it!"  I have no sympathy.  I normally respond by telling her, "If you'd just come out, you'd have lots more room."

3- We are now calling her Eunice.  Not to offend anyone who may have a loved one by that name, but I don't like it.  We call her Eunice and tell her that when she comes out she can get a pretty name.  But until then, it's Eunice.

Now, I know that I'm still early.  I need to get over it.  I was really doing fine and planning on something close to the end of October/early November.  Then the Dr told me I could go into labor in the next 24 hours.  And I didn't.  Part of me says, "Oh good, baby has more time to cook, and she'll be healthier."  The other part of me says, "I was told that I could be done feeling fat, tired, and sick.  WHY is this still going on!"

Being told that the end is here, and then the end not coming is a total bummer.  Well... unless we were talking about the end of the world, and you had an awesome date with your hubby planned for the day after the world was ending, and then the world didn't end, so you could still go on your awesome date.  That would not be a bummer.

It's strange being a ticking time bomb.  I'm just sitting here waiting for my body to start putting me in extreme pain.  Wow... that sounds hopeful.

But the end will come!  And baby will come!  And she'll get a prettier name than Eunice.  Until then, we keep going!

Baby Update!

Alright, Peeps.  Here's the story. (And because it's about baby, that means it's about my body, so you have been warned of any potential TMI)

Last night as I went to get ready for bed, there was something... different happening down under.  We called the OBGYN on call, and told him what was happening.  His guess was that my water had broke, so he told us to go to labor and delivery.  We went, got all hooked up to the monitors, they checked everything under the sun, and at 3:30 AM, with my contractions 3 minutes apart, they sent me home.  Hod and I were SO tired!

This morning I had an appointment with my Dr.  He told me that the different occurrence down under was probably me losing my mucus plug.  And with what he described, I agree.  However, apparently this is uncommon for first time moms to experience like I did.

After being checked for the 3rd time in 11 hours (And no one ever told me how much it hurts!) we discovered that in 6 hours I went from being a 1 to a 1+, and from being not really at all effaced to being 70% effaced, and from baby being where ever to being at a Zero.  Looks like my contractions are actually doing something.

Dr's prediction is that I will deliver in the next 24 hours, or in 2 weeks, or anytime in between.

And as for me: as soon as we are done with Hod's Dr appointment I'm taking a nap!

Toodles!

Please, Teach Your Children

From the title of my blog, you may think that I'm going to talk about something serious.  Well... you'd pretty much be wrong.  The venting Paily is back!  Don't know if she's your favorite, but she's here anyway :)  Today I will be venting about a random teen that I don't really know.  This is how heartless I am.

My parents live a short distance from me.  Besides a short 2 month time this year, I haven't lived at my parent's house since 2009.  During that time, I never really noticed a random kid.  He wasn't my favorite.  Let's call him... Buford.  Buf for short.  Now, I honestly don't know this kid's name.  If by chance that is his name... well then I feel bad for him.

My first interaction with Buf was right after I went an bought a bunch of furniture at a garage sale.  This was while I was engaged to Hod, and I didn't have a place to keep it at my apartment.  I called my Dad who was serving a mission, and asked him if I could keep my newly acquired furniture in his mostly empty garage.  Being the loving father he is, he said yes.  Some dear friends of ours helped us move the furniture with their trailer, and their jeep.  As we pulled up to my parent's house to unload the trailer, this random kid came riding up on his bike.  This teen was just full of questions.  "What are you doing?" "Who are you?" "Where did you get all of this stuff?" "Why are you putting it here?"  During all of this time, he never offered to help.  But we almost ran him over multiple times as we moved furniture.  The female of my couple friend was staying with her 10 month old daughter.  She was still in her car seat and sitting by the jeep.  This sweet 10 month old has some health problems, and had been unable to gain weight.  Because of a cleft palate, she had a hard time eating.  To fix this, the Dr.'s put a feeding tube up through her nose and right down into her stomach.  It was a little different looking, but it wasn't hard to figure out was was going on.  Well, Buf saw the child and immediately became focused on her.  He started to reach for her, like he was going to pick her up, and then paused to ask, "What's that thing got up it's nose for?"  First of all, wow... you are lacking in English skills.  Secondly, Thing?  Even though she had a tube going up her nose, she is still very obviously a baby.  The good news is, we were finishing up, so we quickly packed up and left.

Buf has become a regular on my street.  From that day on, I learned that every time I would stop at my parents house, he would magically appear.  He always had the same questions, "Who are you?"  "What are you doing?"  "Why are you doing that?"  It became rather annoying.

During the two months that I lived with my parents this summer, I became very grateful to have access to parking inside of the garage.  I learned that if I parked inside of the garage, I could close the door before being accosted by this teenager.

I don't consider myself special though.  He is always doing this sort of thing to my parents.  My Dad's response is to give sarcastic answers.  For example, while weeding in the garden, when Buf ask's my Dad what he is doing, Dad responds something along the lines of, "Picking bananas."

I don't think that Buf is a bad guy.  Nor do I think he has unpleasant intentions.  However, he has ZERO social skills.  Someone really needs to teach this kid!

My Mom has told me that she tries to make sure she is always doing yard work when he's not around, because otherwise he always comes up and starts talking.  Sometimes he tries to help.  But that is only when he is sure he knows what he is doing... but he normally doesn't.  When you try to correct him, he doesn't take it very well.

Even though I have moved out of my parent's house, I have kept the automatic garage door opener.  This is so I can visit my parents with a little bit of safety, without having to worry about being accosted by the neighbor kid.

This weekend, we had another run in.  And I found it quite humorous.  My family has a tradition of going to the General Relief Society Broadcast together.  I met my Mom and L5 at my parent's house to carpool up to the Stake Center to watch the broadcast.  As we were leaving my parent's house, I saw Buf walking towards us.  He was carrying a basketball... and using it to try to hide an apple.  My parents have quite a few apple trees.  While they were on their mission, we didn't take good care of the apples, and they were normally full of worms.  Eventually, they would fall off of the tree and become deer food.  However, this year, my Dad has done a great job of taking care of his apple trees.  As a result, he has quite a nice crop of apples.  My parents are kind, and for the bulk of my life, I remember them telling our neighbors that they could have an apple here and there as long as they asked, and as long as they ate it.  Home-grown apples look quite different than store-bought.  I wasn't trying to be a tattle-tale, I was just making an observation, and I said to my Mom, "Look, it's Buf... and he has one of your apples."

Mom was not very pleased.  She stopped the car and asked him what he was doing.  He stammered.  She asked him where he got the apple.  He stammered some more, motioning over to the trees.  Mom pointed out that they were her trees, and she would like him to ask before taking them.  Buf responded that they always fall on the ground anyway.  But, Mom wasn't backing down.  She told Buf that yes, sometimes they do, however, they weren't on the ground, and he needs to ask before taking someone else's apples.  Buf looked ashamed, and said he was sorry, then with his tail between his legs (Ok, he doesn't have a tail) he turned towards his home.

I do NOT understand this kid.  But this is what he is always doing.  He wanders the town, and talks to all of the neighbors.  He seems to have no grasp of courtesy, or proper actions.

So, this is my request:  Please, teach your children.  Just the basics of social skills.  Please.  And maybe, someday, my parents can be outside without fearing that they will be bothered by a random neighbor kid.  And maybe, someday, I will feel like I can go visit my parents without having to run from my car to the house to avoid all of the questions.

Seriously.  It totally bugs.

I Need To Tell You Something...

Many years ago, I was introduced to this song.  It has since been a life-long dream to make it a reality.  And finally, that day has come.  Please, sit back, and enjoy it's goodness.



Life is pretty great.  And I'm pretty random.

I'm In Love

It's true.  I'm in love.  I love Hod.  AND I love this little friend:

Introducing, in her world-wide debut...... Baby Bucket!

Baby Bucket comes to you all the way from my uterus.  She enjoys sleeping, doing cartwheels, getting the hic-ups, and kicking me in the ribs.  She is currently weighing in at 4 lbs, 14 oz (give or take 1/2 lb for error) and is expected to join our family sometime near the beginning of November.

Hod and I got a bonus ultrasound, because I haven't been able to gain weight.  Today I ate a HUGE breakfast trying to get my weight up.  As of today, I have gained a total of 7 lbs.  That's not a lot when baby weighs almost 5.  But she is doing great, so the Dr is no longer concerned.

And I am perfectly enamored with this sweet little girl.

(Sorry it's not a great picture, I was too lazy to scan it, so I just took a picture of the picture with my phone.)

I Will Stop Avoiding You

Tonight, right after Hod went to work, I went to go fill my car with gas.  I am blessed to have a Sam's club card, and as they have the least expensive gas in town, that is where I go.  Any of you who have gassed at Sam's know that there is always a random worker, wandering around.  They sometimes come over and try to make conversation.  Pretty much, it's always awkward, and I usually try to avoid all eye contact in hopes that they won't come over.

As I pulled into the filling station, I noticed that it was completely empty.  This is unusual.  Especially for a busy Saturday night.  I worried that I may have to talk with the random worker, but as my gas light had just turned on, I had no choice.  I pulled into the middle station, and started the process of filling up.  As I got out of my car, I noticed that another car had pulled up behind me.  But this car was very poorly angled to get gas.  As I started the gassing up process, the driver got out of his car, looked a little shady, and then climbed into his back seat.

Now, I tend to be pretty unobservant.  There have been multiple times that I have been somewhere with Hod and he has had to steer me away from a creeper of sorts.  Or, I'm about to walk into someone.  All sorts of things.  I'm just oblivious.  And this whole pregnant thing has made it worse.

Yet, my creeper alarm was going off with this guy.  He just kept looking at me.  I don't know what was going on in the back seat, but this guy was ... leering I guess.  It was just very uncomfortable.  I worried that I was just freaking out.  It was light outside.  And the gas station is right on a busy road.  But still something just felt off.

Enter the trusty Sam's Club employee.  He walked up to me and started talking.  Just every day stuff, but he kept looking over his shoulder at the guy in the car behind me.  As my car was almost full, he turned to me and asked me if I was ok.  I told him yes.  He then told me that he just thought maybe he should come and stand by me "just in case".  I was quite grateful for his kindness.  I finished putting gas in my car, and wished the employee a good evening as I pulled away.

I don't have a clue what was really going on, but I am glad to the kind employee who came and stood by me to make sure everything was fine.

Thank you Mr. Employee.  Sorry that I used to avoid you.

I Should Have Been A Doctor

Hey, Yo's.

Here's another boring update on my life.  For those few readers who don't know me... well you probably don't really care.  For the rest of you, who is mostly family, I've been told you like this sort of thing, so here we go!

Here's my story:  My job was extended through the month of September.  This is very good, cause I like having money.  Along with this, for the past two weeks, I have been working every day, instead of every other, because my coworker has a very sick daughter who is in a very special hospital 2 hours away.  I'm finding that working every day makes it very hard to clean my house.  My days are currently spent working and taking care of my dear husband.

Now about Hod: He was supposed to have surgery last Friday.  He didn't.  This is because of a Dr who never saw him who said the surgery was optional, and he wanted to leave early, so he canceled it.  In the process Meany-pants-heartless-Dr ticked us off, and we ticked him off, so we will never be going to see him again.  Tuesday Hod went to a new Dr.  We discovered that Hod has a massive infection that is attacking the whole of his digestive system. New-nice-man Dr thinks Hod has had this for 3 years.  It is also attacking Hod's prostate.  (Sorry if this is TMI, but some people would want to know.)  This infection is caused by being put on too many antibiotics, thus killing all good bacteria in your body, and then letting the bad bacteria take over.  Ok, so this massive infection is a yeast infection.  And it's bad.  However, right now Mr. Nice Dr. is very worried about saving Hod's prostate, as he is only 22, and wants to have more kids.  So, Hod is on a SUPER strong antibiotic.  Mr. Nice Dr is aware that this will make all of the infection symptoms worse.  But it is kind of a last resort to saving Hod's prostate.  Hod is taking his medication, and is in a lot of pain.  He has a fever that is bouncing up and down, and his kidneys are starting to bother him.  Hod has been put on Dr. ordered bed rest. Our job is to watch his fever, and pain level.  If either becomes extreme, he is going to be admitted to the hospital, and possibly go in for emergency surgery.  If none of that happens, then we will see if the antibiotic can save his prostate.  If it doesn't, then he'll be having a procedure anyway, (though we aren't yet sure of what one) and we may get to consider the adoption option much sooner than we had planned.  They are worried that he may have Prostate Cancer.  However, we have been assured through multiple blessings that he'll be healed.  So that is helpful in getting through this.

Baby:  She's growing strong.  I'm not gaining weight, so we have an ultrasound scheduled to make sure everything is cool.  But she is very active, and she moves all the time, so I'm not super worried.  Last week I got my Rogam (or however you spell it) shot.  And it actually wasn't too bad!  I've had the shot twice before, and it is just a giant needle they stick in your behind.  The two I had before were similar to getting a Novocaine shot, they took FOREVER!  But this one was less than 10 seconds.  It was pretty sweet!

And that's all for the Bucket family.  I'm wishing I knew more about how to take care of my hubby, but we'll trust the Dr's and it will all work out.

Changing

Once I had a family member tell me about a friend who wanted to be a cartoon character.  To further his likeness of a cartoon character he bought 5 of the same shirt, and multiples of the same of pair of pants.  This way he was able to wear the same looking cloths every day, just like most Saturday morning cartoon characters.

Well, Mr. Friend.  I think I am starting to beat you.  Check this out:



I'm not sure why it goes into slow motion.  However, just as Pooh bear's tummy noticeably moves when he's hungry, my tummy moves too!  That would be Paily Jr. saying Hi.  It sometimes startles me how much my belly moves!  But it's pretty great!

(PS, I am well on my way to developing another cartoon-y trait.  I'll tell you about it when it happens.  You should totally be excited!)

The Best Invention EVER!

I've tried pretty hard to not be a super needy pregnant lady.  There are SO many things out there for ladies "with child" and I feel I've done a decent job of going without.  Honestly, half of the inventions are lame.  There are some things, like maternity cloths, that just weren't optional.  Hod also splurged once and bought me some of the best lotion ever.  Seriously, it's so smooth, and soft, and smells good, and isn't oily, and makes it so my ever growing body doesn't itch.  However, I learned that if you leave it in your car for 5 hours, and it gets hot, then it turns into putty and is no longer usable.  Luckily, the lady at the store likes us, so when I mentioned it, she offered to exchange it.  Yes!

Anyway, this post was not meant to be about my lotion.  (But it really is amazing.)  For the past month, I have found that by morning I am excited to get out of bed.  Not because I'm rested, but because my hips hurt so dang bad!  Most days I would limp around for about an hour and then it would stop hurting.  I tried to be positive about it, I mean, you're just supposed to be in a lot of pain when you're pregnant, right?  But it just got too bad.  When I spent an entire day limping, and wincing with every step I took, I decided it was time to do something.

Hod came home from work, and I told him, we were going to the store.  I had needs, and I was done sucking it up.  We came home with this:

Only mine is much cuter, cause it has a "reversible" pillow case.  (It's not really reversible, as they so willingly advertised.  The fabric on the front is different than the fabric on the back.  If that's really reversible, then I'm a monkey.)

I am amazed at the difference a body pillow can make!  Most maternity pillows are super expensive, but this wasn't.  And now I can sleep!  And some mornings I even wake up feeling rested!  It is the best invention ever!  I love it!  So, today is celebrate the greatness that is a body pillow.  Go ahead, party your own way, but just party.  Because this has changed my life!

I'm Roughly The Size Of A Barge!

Hod's two sisters are quite slim and trim.  I remember right before his sister K delivered her son, Hod commented on how large she was.  She was quite proud of her size.  It made me giggle.  For her, YES, she was very pregnant looking.  For my family, she looked like she was about 4 months along.  Hod said he couldn't wait to see me look like that.  I commented back that he, "ain't seen nothin yet."

I started out much larger than K.  And I have grown.  Despite the fact that I am not gaining weight, I am ginormous!  Let me show you how large I am.  (please ignore the out-of-proportion-ness of my hand.  I haven't yet figured out how to take a good self portrait.)

This is me almost a week ago.  Hod LOVES it.  And that's good, cause I'm not loving it so much.  Having struggled my entire life with being ok with my size... this is a little hard.  But at least I look pregnant.  No one would look at me now and think, "Wow, that lady is super squishy!"  Well, they wouldn't unless they are very uneducated on pregnancy.

Being short, I feel that I waddle like unto an Oompa Looma.  However, my skin is a much more delightful color.

The good news: I have less than 100 days left!  I am so excited to meet my dear sweet little girl!

That Was A Strange One

Last night, Hod and I were visiting some friends, and I started having an allergic reaction.  I discovered my first food allergy in 2003, and I'm quite aware of my body when it comes to food and possible reactions.  Did you know you can have an allergic reaction to something you ate 72 hours before?  After much contemplation, I realized that the only unusual thing (Or I can have a reaction when I eat a large quantity of a food... but I hadn't done that) that had entered my body were some crackers I got from a lady in my ward.  She is allergic to everything.  OK, not everything, just gluten, milk, and I think something else.

Apparently I'm allergic to crackers made for the highly allergic.  Strange.

Anyway, while at my friend's house, I broke out in hives.  My doctor has told me that once I see hives, I have one hour to get some sort of fast acting allergy medicine in me (think Benadryl or something like that) before my face starts swelling up and I stop breathing.  Luckily my friend runs a pharmacy out of her house (not for real life, she just has a little bit of everything) and she hooked me up.

Benadryl always gives me really strange dreams.  I hate having drug induced sleep.  It does crazy things.  Let me share this dream with you.

In my dream, I was waking up at my Mom's house.  My sister L6 was there (which is funny, cause she's been staying with my Mom for almost 2 weeks now.)  I was kind of delirious in my half awake state (remember that in real life I was still dreaming) and realized that my stomach had shrunk and I couldn't feel anything inside of my anymore.  With panic I turned to my Mom and asked, "Where is my baby?!?!"  My Mom laughed at me and told me that I had delivered a few hours earlier.  I was so exhausted that as soon as the baby was out of me, I passed out.  Mom took me into her bedroom to meet my little child.  She was pretty darn cute!  I picked her up, excited to meet her, and she had the floppy-est head in the world.  Despite the fact that her neck looked a normal length for a newborn, her head moved like it was sitting on a 2 foot long piece of cooked spaghetti.  Upon further inspection, I also discovered that she had 5 piercings in each ear.  I had apparently given birth to a punk rocker.

As I looked at baby, I was considering all of the names that Hod and I are wondering about, and nothing felt right.  Even after meeting her, I still didn't have a clue what to name my baby.  Then I realized that Hod was missing.  I found him passed out on the floor of my Mom's family room.  L6 had been keeping an eye on him. I guess during my delivery the blood was too much, so he had passed out.  Then I got the story of how baby had come.

I had been sitting at the table, when I just kept moaning like something was wrong.  L6 finally realized that I was in labor (yeah, right... cause all I would be doing is moaning a little) and decided she should check my progress.  (Also strange, as L6 doesn't have medical training, and this is my first baby, so you'd think they'd just tell me to go to the hospital where I am planning on delivering.)  Turns out baby was already crowning, so L6 decided to play Dr and help get the baby here.  Everything went really fast, and baby came out looking great.  This is when I passed out.  Somehow, my unconscious body got everything else out of me, they cleaned up, and let me sleep.  The entire delivery lasted under 20 minutes.

I was kind of freaking out at this point, and I was sure I needed to go to the hospital.  Really, I had just delivered at 25 weeks, and baby was perfectly fine.  That didn't add up in my brain.  So, we threw some water on Hod to wake him up.  He was too shaken to drive, so he called a taxi service.  While waiting for the taxi, baby got hungry, so we decided to try nursing.  Of course, that worked perfectly on the first try, and even though I had delivered about an hour before, I had milk.  Also strange.  Hod wanted to burp baby, so I let him.  Oh, here's a random fact, Hod was sporting long hair that would put Fabio to shame.  It wasn't a good look for him.  Baby spit up in Hod's hair, and he FREAKED out.  Apparently he was very attached to his hair.

The taxi came, but the chick was in a hurry, and wouldn't let us put our car seat in her taxi.  I was trying to put it in anyway, but she just wouldn't let me.  I remember banging on the windows and shouting, "But the hospital won't let me take my baby home without a car seat!"  Halfway to our destination, Taxi Driver Lady had Hod sign some paperwork, where we discovered that this 4 mile trip was going to cost us $173.  I expressed some concern, and she decided to give us a deal, because she used to be one of my sister's (L7's) band students.  But her life had gone downhill.  She then played a song that told us her life story.  It was a pretty great song, that doesn't exist in real life.  It was all very dramatic.

Anyway, we got to the hospital, and no one would really talk to us, because everything looked fine.  When I cornered a Dr and explained that I had just delivered at 25 weeks, he just looked at me and said, "So, what's the big deal?"

In the end, Hod and I decided to just go home.  A car (with a car seat) magically appeared.  During the drive home, I woke up.  As in, back to real life, I'm awake now.

Baby is still inside of me, right where she belongs.  That was a really strange dream.  I'm not sure what to make of it.

I really don't like drug induced sleep.

Boring

I've discovered that I really am quite a boring person.  Seriously.  This is why you haven't heard from me for so long.  Life just keeps going.

I go to work, Hod goes to work, we come home.

Sometimes I'm a good wife and I make dinner.

There is a gremlin who is in my house stealing my undershirts.  I need to find him and kick him out, cause it's causing problems.

My sister L7 introduced Hod and I to a new restaurant. (Ok, she mentioned it, and we decided to go by ourselves, cause she's out of town.)  I'm obsessed.  I just need to be rich so I can go.

Our apartment is on the second floor.  Luckily, this is too far up for big bugs to come join us.  I think they are too lazy.  But the little bugs seem to love our house.  No matter how clean I keep it, I find at least one little bug a day.  It's really annoying.

Hod and I are both growing.  I'm looking more pregnant every day, and Hod is getting taller.  Seriously.  My handsome hubby is going through a growth spurt.  Good thing I like tall men. :)

The Dr thinks I may be ... I don't remember what it's called, or how to spell it.  Basically I'm burning too many calories, so I have to eat more often.  All I do it eat!

I've gained 5 whole pounds this pregnancy!

Hod bought me flowers the other day.  Just cause they were pretty.

We still aren't unpacked.  I should work on that.

I got a lot of my favorite ice cream for super cheap yesterday, cause the machine at work exploded.  So happy.

I had a dream the other night that I had a pet unicorn that could talk to me.  I was sad when I woke up and it wasn't real.

And... that's about all.  Thanks for coming!

Logic... It's a Great Thing

Ok, so I've admitted that I have pregnancy brain.  As a result, I sometimes do stupid things.  Hey, I'm pregnant. What's your excuse?

Let me explain.  At my job, I work Tues and Thurs, and the other secretary (who is a dear friend) works the other 3 days.  She has one of the CUTEST little girls, and she is allowed to bring her to work.  Many of the customers enjoy seeing this sweet little girl.  I can't blame them.  I mean, really, her smile and giggle make your entire day better.

However, she is not my child.  As a result, I don't bring her to work.  To me this is logical.  And yet, at least once a week a customer asks me where the baby is.  I don't really look much like my friend, so people should be able to tell us apart.  It's like they think the baby comes with the job.  Along with being a secretary, we also have a baby-sitting business! Or something like that.  But they just keep asking.  My response is normally, "Well, she's with her mom."  And, I kid you not, I've had people ask me, "Why?"  WHAT?  Are you really asking me why the baby is with her mom?  Yes, I think she's cute, but I'm not going to bring some other lady's daughter to work.  Maybe I'm a mean person, but... I think I'd rather work without the cute little girl.  (Ok, I actually always bring my baby to work too, and she is also a cute little girl.  However, she doesn't really interfere with my job much.  She's pretty low maintenance.)

It's special.

Oh, and in other news, this week, I have found two places that I can no longer eat at, for at least the duration of my pregnancy.  It is a bummer.

Losing Brain Cells

I can't even tell you how glad I am that Hod got a new job.  Because I NEED him!

Pregnancy brain is such a real thing in my life.  Because Hod has been working at least 60 hours a week, I have been taking care of everything in our apartment.  And that's fine, because I've only been working around 10 hours a week.

However, it seems I have given all of my current brain cells to baby girl.  Let me give you some examples.

I did a load of whites, and they came out smelling gross.  I had been a little slow getting them from the washer to the dryer, so I blamed it on that.  But it really wasn't that long!  However, we have one of those high efficiency washers, so maybe I just needed to clean it?  I don't know.  Because we have a top loader, it's not supposed to get gross very fast, like I was told I should clean it 3-4 times a year.  And we only have had our washer for a month.

We couldn't figure out what it was.  Then, while Hod was changing cloths, he realized that his shirt smelled like a mix of Jolly Ranchers (remember this?) and of him.  But I was no where to be found.  Do you see where this is going?  I forgot to put laundry soap in the washer!  I have been doing my own laundry for SEVENTEEN years, and I have never forgot soap!  Who does that?  Pregnant ladies.

I've been demoted, so now it's Hod's job to wash and dry the laundry and I just put it away.

Along with this... I tried to burn down the apartment.  Ok... not on purpose, but still.  Here's that story.

I have this super fancy hair straightener, that I got from a friend in TX.  But the power button is crazy sensitive.  I've had this straightener for 3 years, and I just learned early on to always put the power button towards the counter.  Then I couldn't accidentally turn it on.  For 3 years I've been doing this.  And yet, on Sunday, I forgot.  Monday, when I went to go get in the shower I tossed my clean cloths on the counter.  After my shower, I reached for my cloths, and they were all hot!  My pants (and I only have 2 pairs of maternity pants) were burned.  It's not horrible, the average person probably wouldn't notice, but still, I burned my pants!  If I had taken a longer shower, I would have started a fire and burned down my apartment!

Because there was no real harm in this, I can laugh a bit about it, but it is still a bummer!

Our Goings On

Oh life.  How you keep trucking on.  Because I think that I'm interesting enough that you all want to know the every day stuff in my life, I thought I'd fill you all in. :)

I am working part time at an Ice Cream manufacturing plant.  I work 2 days a week, for the most part.  The other secretary is a long time friend, and I pick up shifts for her when she needs a day off for one reason or another.  And it's a blessing.  My job ends around Labor Day, but if/when my friend needs a day off she'll still call me!  So that's cool.  For the next year I am quite likely going to have some random income at random times. Oh, and even after baby girl is born they will let me take her to work.  Pretty much the perfect situation?  I think so!

Hod is a working machine!  Because we don't want me to work after baby is born... well except for a random day here and there, Hod has been working 2 jobs to make enough money to support us.  Between the 2 jobs, he is at work for around 70 hours a week.  Yeah, sure, he's clocked out for breaks for part of that, but he's not home.  It's been rough.  I miss my hubby!  But then, something exciting happened!

Hod applied for a manager job with a different company a few months ago.  This would be a training job, where they teach you how to be a head manager, train you for a year, and then move you to some random part of the country where you are in charge of your own store.  During his first interview he was told that he would be given a call for a second interview in about a week.  After a week, we heard nothing.  This company e-mails you to give you the bad news, and we didn't get the e-mail either.  We waited, and waited, and Hod applied for other jobs, and we waited a bit more.  Then almost 2 weeks ago, Hod was called in for a second interview.  We were shocked!  We had given up on this job.  He went to the interview, felt it went well, and was told that he should hear back by Wednesday if he got the job.

During all of this, he has been miserable working his full time job.  It is not a good job.  It is lousy, and they are not nice people.  He had given up hope of ever getting out of there.  While I am so grateful that he is willing to work a lousy job to support us, it has been hard watching him be so miserable.

Wednesday came and went.  No call, no e-mail.  Then Thursday, while we were on our way to go see Hod's sister he got a call!  He was offered a job.  Not quite the job he had applied for.  We are a little bit nervous.  This current job is a little bit special.  It doesn't make quite enough to support us.  However, it is kind of a 30 day audition.  Because Hod has never worked for this company (which has some commission type stuff, which Hod has never done) they want to make sure he's the right fit for the manager training job.  Hod is pretty amazing, so we're not super stressed about him not passing the audition.  But if he doesn't, then life is going to be really hard once I stop working in September.  But when he does, he'll be salaried!  SALARIED!  We don't have to stress every time he needs a day off because that includes a pay cut.  AND he'll be back to working only 40 hours a week.  I get my husband back!

Baby is doing great!  She is measuring right on schedule.  Both ultrasounds she has been super active, but then again... I drank some juice so she was probably on a sugar high.  Everything with my pregnancy is looking good.  I have this random infection that you are either born with or not, so I'm on an antibiotic.  It's not a big deal, but if it is left untreated it can cause pre-term labor.  I take a pill twice a day, and it's all good!  I have an anterior placenta, meaning it will still be a while before I can feel regular movement.  This is also not a big deal at all, unless I need a c-section.  Then it can cause complications, but not really, because you're already in surgery, so any complications would be somewhat expected and they will be able to fix them all.

Hod and I are very excited to have Baby here!  And now it's fun that we can start getting the nursery ready.

Overall, life is going great!  We are happy and life is only getting better!

Did You Notice The Change?

Hey, friends!  Just a quick update.

Did you notice my ticker change?  It has multiple changes.  We are now comparing baby to various food items.  Also, my due date has been moved forward!  Yep, I gained almost a week.  I feel really good about that option.  And the last change is... IT'S PINK!  As in, Hod and I are having a little girl.

I'm pretty happy!  I originally wanted a boy first, but when we found out that she is a girl, I wasn't disappointed at all.  This is going to be great!

It Makes Me Hungry!

This post may have a little TMI.  Just go with it.  It's nothing that bad.

When I was a young teen, I had the unfortunate-ness of having ... shall we say more potent sweat than the average girl.  For years, I used this super expensive deodorant that fixed the smell, but had no antiperspirant.  It was no fun.  

While I was in college, someone I knew with a similar problem went to a dermatologist and was told to use Arrid Gel Extra, Extra something like that.  I joined the ranks and was in LOVE!  Finally a deodorant with antiperspirant.  The only problem: it was mostly for men. Most scents made me feel like a man.  I had exactly one option that made me feel girly.  But I was happy.

Then they took away one of the Extras.  It seemed to be pretty much the same thing... so I kept going.

Then they got rid of the only Extra left.  This was becoming problematic.

Then they stopped selling the one girly scent in stores, but I could find it online.

Alas, it is no more.

So, I decided I would have to just smell like a man.  It was better than smelling gross!

My trip to the store was very disappointing.  They didn't have ANY Arrid at all!   What was I to do?  However, in my many years of Arrid use, most of the other brands have come out with "prescription strength" options.  Looks like I better try one of those.  I found a powder fresh option, cause that's my fav, and went home to try it.

And it works!  I'm quite happy.  However, there is one thing..... it makes me smell like Jolly Ranchers.  Watermelon Jolly Ranchers to be exact.  I thought I was crazy, so I asked Hod, and he totally agrees.  Now I walk around smelling like candy.  Do you have any idea how susceptible a pregnant woman's cravings are to suggestions?  I've even started dreaming about Jolly Ranchers.

I don't think deodorant is supposed to make you hungry. 

You Have Not Been Missed

I've had a lot of jobs in my life.  I guess when you move every 6-12 months, you are bound to have to get new jobs.  My last two jobs didn't deal with the general public.  It was blissful.  Seriously.  What is it about the general public that causes such a strong struggle?

I work at a factory that makes ice cream type products.  I'm one of the secretaries.  I get to share the job with one of my best friends.  She works 3 days a week, I work 2, unless one of us has a need to have an extra day off, then we cover for each other.  It really is a great situation.  Along with basic secretarial duties, we also have a small store where we sell our product.  I am the cashier.  Normally, that's fine.  I see lots of people some are great.  But many, many are not.  Let me vent a bit.

We sell seconds.  SECONDS as in, they have issues, so we won't sell them at full price.  However, if you are just after flavor, and not looks or perfection, then they are great.  (I'm all about the seconds, personally.)  The seconds are super popular, because they are $.10 - $.23 cheaper a piece.  Because we are a business, we don't try to make mistakes.  We always aim for firsts.  This means a few things.  1st - you CAN NOT order seconds. We don't have an employee who's job it is to work in the back and mess things up so you can buy them at a cheaper price.  That would be stupid, and said person would probably be fired.  2nd - Because these are mistakes, we can't promise to have a certain amount, a certain flavor, or anything like that.  Sometimes we run out.  If you wanted them, you should have gotten here sooner.  Not my fault.  3rd - When I tell you that we are out, we really are out!  I'm not some mean person who enjoys toying with the public's ice cream needs.  Sarcastically offering to go in the back to check for me just makes you a jerk.  4th - We sell seconds individually.  This means, you need to count as you are throwing them into a bag.  You see, I work in an office.  I have about 1 foot of clean space on my desk, because we had to make room for the cash register that is about as old as I am.  Passing me 2 bags full and saying, "why don't you count them" once again makes you seem rude.  Ok, so a lot of places don't trust their customers.  We do, and we'll let you count for us.  You had to put them in the bag, why didn't you count a little?  Could it be because you are wearing shoes, so you couldn't look at our toes to help you?  Ok, that was mean.  But really, when you have 45 in a box, and you hold the box up, do you really think I can magically count them just by looking?  This isn't a carnival game, where we get a prize for the closest guess.

Our store is small.  As in, I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that it is about 8ft X 8ft.  And this includes 3 chest freezers, 2 chairs, and a small table.  On top of the largest freezer, we have a bunch of plastic bags.  At least 3 times a day, I have someone ask me if we have bags.  PLEASE open your eyes!  Really, you have 64 square feet to look through.  Can't you glance around?

We sell about 10 flavors.  10.  Not 1,000, TEN.  So, WHY does it take you 20 minutes to pick one?  Heck, we even have 2 different multi-flavor packs to make it easier to be indecisive.    AND if you're indecisive, please don't come in 3 minutes before we close.  Some of us have family, who have to leave for work 10 minutes after I get home.  I would like to see my husband.  If you really are sorry, then make a choice!

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to have this job.  I just sometimes wish the general public would be a little bit easier to work with.

I Don't Think That is What They Meant

As many of you know, it is a common thing for pregnant woman to be slightly unaware of their bodies.  They used to fit through a spot *this* big, and now they need a spot *TTTTHHHHIIIISSSSS* big.  Because this happens so quickly, we tend to be a bit klutzy as we adjust to our every changing bodies.

I haven't had too much of a problem so far.  Then today I had a crazy klutzy moment that hurt!  But not what you think.

My pierced ears have become quite sensitive since becoming pregnant.  As a result, I need to normally wear my very high quality earrings.  These tend to be quite expensive, so I only own one pair; my studs.  I put them in, and forget about them, wearing them for weeks at a time.

This morning as I was combing my hair, I caught my earring and ripped it out of my ear with my comb.  I've had my ears pierced for a year, and I've NEVER done something like that.

I would like to blame it on my ever changing body that I can't keep track of... but I'm pretty sure pregnancy hasn't changed the placement of my ears.

What's With The Pitiful Face?

Good-Golly-Hormones, Batman!

I've heard that there are crazy hormones that go with the pregnancy.  I've been a bit more ... volatile since becoming pregnant.  I've been feeling extremes.  However, there has been a pretty intense lack of tears.  I've never been a crier.  According to my sisters, I'm the heartless one in the family.  This week I have proved them wrong.

This week I've cried about 10 times.  Some of it was real, and for good reason: like hitting the due date thing.  Most of it was pointless: like running out of salt in the salt shaker.  (Don't you worry, there was more in the cupboard.)  The only somewhat redeeming part has been that Hod is working so much to provide for us, that he hasn't had to witness the majority of these breakdowns.  I'm really hoping that this is a temporary thing.  I'm sure it will happen again, but I am really hoping that this will stop for a while.  Cause if I cry twice a day for the next 20 weeks, I'm going to be really bugged.

Life Goes On

Today, at work, when I finally figured out what day it was, I had this little bell go off in the back of my mind.  I worried that I was supposed to do something today, and I had forgotten.  But, I was at work, so I just pushed that to the side.

Around 7:00 this evening, I remembered.

Today was supposed to be my due date.

Part of me says that's totally fine, because I'm pregnant now.  As far as I know, everything is great with this baby.  I'm so glad that I have this today, so I'm not as sad.

The other part of me says that I'm a jerk for forgetting.  How could one forget her own child?  I feel like a bad mom for forgetting about my angel baby.

For those of you who don't remember, I actually miscarried for about a month before we knew for sure.  I bled for a month before we had an ultrasound.  There I was able to see my baby's heartbeat.  But it was slow.  The Dr. suggested we wait a week to see if things would be ok, and then make a decision.  The next week the heartbeat was gone, and I went into surgery the next day.  Because I had been bleeding for so long, and because there was a large mystery spot on the ultrasound, the Dr. wonders if I miscarried twins.  Just that I had miscarried one so much earlier that almost all signs of that baby were gone.  It's hard not knowing for sure.

A few days before the first ultrasound, I was very worried.  Part of me knew something was wrong.  Hod didn't believe me.  I'm not sure if that is just because he didn't want to, or if it was because he just thought I was paranoid.  Either way, he bought me a gift to make me feel better.  We are big fans of the Willow Tree figurines.  Hod gave me this:

It's called "Cherish"

It really means a lot to me.  This is the one way I was able to hold my baby.  To my knowledge, in this life at least, this is the only way I will ever hold my baby.  Though that was one of the hardest things I had ever gone through, I will always cherish that pregnancy.  I learned a lot from it.  It helped Hod and I to communicate better.

I've heard a lot of things about what happens when a woman miscarries, and what happens to that child.  I don't doubt at all the revelation some friends have received when they have gone through it.  However, I have not received any of the same.  So, I just don't know.

But life goes on.  I'm pregnant again.  I am positive that this baby is not the child I miscarried.  Right now, I am the mother of 2 (or maybe 3) children.  I pray every day that in 2 weeks when I have my next ultrasound that everything will be great.  I saw this baby's heartbeat at 7 weeks, and everything looked good.  I hope it still is.  

I guess it really is ok to go days at a time without thinking about my first baby.  But I will always love that child.  And I am grateful to have another baby coming, so I could spend the day working, and being happy and productive.  I will always cherish the short time I had with my first.  However, I am excited for the time I have had, and will have with my second.

Where's the Remote?

As previously discussed, I am building a baby.  This is rockin' awesome.

HOWEVER, it takes FOREVER!

Ok, I know that as humans we have nothing on elephants.  22 months?  That is crazy!

But really, let me explain this to you.  The initial "I'm pregnant" excitement has kind of been pushed out with all of the puking, back-aches, swollen feet, and just the general feeling lousy-ness.  I'm still super happy about it, I'm just ready for a new phase.  And I've been feeling this way for about a month.

In about 2 weeks, we should be able to find out the gender of Jr.  This will change things drastically.  But I'll be honest, I'm kind of over the whole pregnant thing.  Can't I just fast forward to the part where I have the baby?  Ready, set, GO!

Why Is That?

I remember hearing rumors when I was a single lady.  I heard once that a man's razor gives you a closer shave.  Through price checking, I found that they usually cost more, so I dismissed this rumor.  I mean, really, a close shave is really good for a man.  However, a man shaves around 5% of his body.  A woman shaves closer to 50%.  So WHY would they not make a really good close shave razor for women?

Then I got married.  We stayed in two different hotels on our honeymoon, and I accidentally left my razor at the first.  Hod is a kind, sharing man and he had 2 razors so he let me use one.  Great Wheat Thins!  The rumor was right!  The man's razor is so much better!  For quite a while, I used Hod's razor.  Then, because we were moving to FL (but we didn't) and because he was having some skin problems under his arms (TMI?) Hod decided to start shaving his armpits.  I was in full support of this, cause I have always thought armpit hair was gross.  I mean, really, I know they wash it, but armpits in general are gross.  Now lets add hair to collect all of the grossness.

So then we started sharing.  No problem.  Til we found out that Hod is allergic to the body wash I use.  So, it's back to me using my own.  We went to buy me one, and I wondered if maybe my memory was bad.  A woman's razor can't be that bad, can it?  I got a woman's razor, cause it's cute and I'm a girl.

And I'm sorely disappointed.  I'm sure many of you are just thinking, ok, so go buy a man's.  However, I have about 7 spare blades for this razor, and I hate wasting things.

My question is this:  WHY are men's razors so superior?  All I know, is it's a bummer.  

Tales From A Drug Clouded Mind

Oh, my dear Hod.  How I love you.

*Warning this post will include some bodily function details*

As previously mentioned, Hod had surgery on Thursday.  He has had a problem in the past with anesthesia shutting down parts of his body.  Like his bladder and bowels.  And this time was no exception.  Because of this, Hod was on an larger than normal dose of drugs.  He had the normal pain medication (though narcotics, making things quite exciting.), some supplementary pain medication, an antibiotic, something to help the bowels start working, and something to help the bladder start working.  In his crazy, drug clouded mind, he said some pretty funny things.  Being the sensitive, loving wife that I am, I have decided to share my favorites with you.

(2 AM out of nowhere, and I have only been asleep for about 45 min)
    "Knock, Knock"
    (I'm tired enough that I can't get my mouth to work, so I respond with a "mmnnhhuunnhhusnai")
    "Who's there?"
    (This causes a panic, cause I don't have a clue where he was going.)
    *Long Pause*  "Oh... I forget"

(One afternoon as he is rolling over in his sleep)
   "Tarantula!"
(Quickly followed by)
   "Water-lanche!  You know, when the rocks and water fall?"
   (Uh... do you mean Avalanche?)
   "No, Water-lanche.  Like Tarantula!"

(As a get well soon gift, I bought Hod some slippers made of fabric that looks like you skinned a Muppet)
   "Where are the Velcro Muppets?"
   (Do you mean your slippers?)
   "No, I need the Velcro Muppets, the ones that you throw at the bed!"
(Seriously this was very important, the bad guys were going to kill him if he didn't give them our Velcro Muppets.)

"I'm not Jewish!"

"I hate drugs.  I'm already going through detox!  I'm addicted!"
(He had taken a pill 45 minutes before)

(We have a friend who is an EMT and was helping us with a few medical needs at home.)
"Can you call (this friend) and tell her I need her to come tell me I'm not crazy?"

"Whoah!  Did you feel that earthquake?"
(There had actually been a small earthquake the day before.  However, Hod was sitting in a rocking chair.)

"The blanket is attacking me! The blanket is attacking me!"

And one story that I find quite humorous.  Saturday night, Hod was HOT.  As in he was going to die because the heat was so great.  I had helped him take off his outer clothes, so he was wearing less layers.  His hernia surgery incision was located right at the waist band of his underpants.  Because of the heat, he had pulled the elastic away from his skin trying to get a breeze.  This concerned me, because I could see his hand easily slipping, thus causing the elastic to snap against his skin and the incision.  I expressed my concern.  Hod was feeling a little vindictive or something, so with a smug look on his face, he stretched the elastic further.  And, yes, it did snap.  It hurt him pretty bad, and though I had sympathy, it was humorous.

Also, about my start in Urology.  I actually have no interest in that field.  I don't do bodily fluids.  Especially while pregnant.  This is why I take great pride in the fact that I removed Hod's catheter.  Oh, did I mention that he had one of those?  Yeah.  And when he was done with it, it was on Sunday, and we called the hospital, and I was told how to get it out.  I did most of it with my eyes closed, and almost died when some liquid got on me, until I was informed it was just water.  Those are my mad skills.

I May Have Gone A Little Crazy

Life.  It's been busy!  Let me share with you:

May 28th we moved.  I was SO grateful for the help we had.  I was very nervous about this move, because you see, we were moving into a second floor apartment, which isn't too bad.  However, when you add in the fact that I'm pregnant and I'm not supposed to lift anything over about 20 lbs, and my husband had a surgery scheduled for the next week to repair a hernia so he wasn't supposed to lift, and my Dad is great and pretty strong, but he is over seventy, I was just really worried.  However, with 3 great guys from our new ward, and L5 and L7 we got it all moved in just under sixty minutes!  It was great!

Then I should have unpacked, but instead I went with my sisters to a baby *edit for accuracy, I guess I really am crazy* bridal shower.  My dear Mom took her moving job seriously so when I got home that night I had a bed all set up and made for me to sleep in!  (Thanks Mom!)

Sunday I didn't unpack.

Monday was a holiday, so I didn't unpack.

Tuesday I worked, so I didn't unpack.

Wednesday Hod and I spent a lot of time shopping to get things for our apartment, and things he would need for his surgery the next day.  I'm pregnant and tire easily, so I didn't unpack.

Thursday Hod had his surgery.  MAN do I have some funny stories about that.  These will come later.  But for the sake of this post, just know that there was still no unpacking.

Friday was another day of trying to take care of my heavily medicated husband, so I didn't unpack.  Then my dear friend came to visit and spend the night.  She was kind enough to not complain about sleeping amongst boxes.

Saturday, more taking care of hod.  Still no unpacking.

Sunday, I started my potential career as a urologist.  And I didn't unpack.  OH, but then my dishwasher flooded so we had to clean that up and all of my dishes were still dirty.

Today, more Dr stuff for Hod, and still no unpacking.

Pretty much I need to get busy!  Today I am crazy.  Really.  Ask Hod.  He was crazy for 3 days and it's like I felt left out or something.

And that is my life!  More details to follow:)