backround

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The To Do List

It is really difficult to get back into the swing of things when you've basically taken a 2 month vacation from working hard.   Now that I am feeling better (YAY!) I have a long To-Do list, and am trying to pick up the pieces of my motivation I left scattered around here somewhere...

I felt pretty accomplished the last few days because I managed to make a ton of phone calls with Little Man's doctors and set up some appointments and therapies for the coming months.  But if you think about it... I didn't have to do much.  I sat on the couch in my pajamas and talked for a few hours.  Big deal.  Although it felt like I'd scaled a mountain at the time.  The real work is yet to come.

The first real step towards Baby Vegas' arrival is our basement storage room.  When I moved in with Hubs, we ended up bringing in a ton of my junk and dropping it off downstairs in the storage room without really sorting or organizing it at all.  Fast forward two years and now there is a layer of New Junk blocking Old Junk and its just a hot mess.  Unfortunately somewhere in there are my maternity clothes, newborn clothes, breast pump, and everything else pregnancy related.  So sometime in the next few weeks we need to find out what I have in order to decide what we need.

Then there is my office, which is overrun by papers and old books and anything that I didn't want boxed and put into storage.  It is a disaster area.  Which we are converting to a guest room.  That all needs to be cleaned, boxed, sorted, and dealt with.  This could be a several weekends long project.  I am shaking just thinking about it.

Finally there is Baby Vegas' nursery, our former guest room.  All the furniture in there needs to be brought downstairs to the office, and then we are painting and cleaning and setting up the nursery.

Wish us luck.  Or just come clean our house, if you're into that sort of torture.

Friday, February 22, 2013

The One With A Musical!

The children's theatre production I am in opened this morning to a great crowd of preschoolers!   I had so much fun being onstage again after taking a year off... It re energizes me and keeps me feeling sane.

This will be my last production for awhile, which bums me out.  It is one thing to choose to take time off, or even to not get any parts for awhile - but knowing I will physically be out of commission til almost winter?  That bites.  It means I have to miss a bunch of productions I'd really enjoy being a part of, that I know will involve lots of my good friends I've made down here through theatre.  And as a homemaker I am fairly isolated during the day and the theatre is my adult-only outlet.  Of course I will go see the shows and support them, but it just isn't the same as being onstage and rehearsing with friends.  I mean, I get a really great baby after all is said and done, so I can't complain too much.  But sometimes I wish I could pawn the cooking of said baby off onto my dear Hubs.

One of my big goals after Baby Vegas comes is to make sure I get my mind and body in shape to be back up and auditioning ASAP.  It took me almost a year to get my body back in fighting shape (3.5 years after my son was born, hah), but I want to try and lose ALL of my baby weight this go-round in a slightly more timely fashion.  Not working in a restaurant and the crazy hours I had to have will certainly help, as will the fact that I have been living a much healthier lifestyle than I was at 22... but it will still be something I have to work towards.  I also hope that since this birth and baby will be much more "normal", that I will feel mentally able to accomplish a lot more than I could after Little Man was born and I was a huge train wreck.

Now granted I won't know how I will feel once Baby Vegas makes an appearance on the scene.  I may find that I am ridiculously overwhelmed having the two little ones at home, and don't even want to do theatre for awhile.  I may find that if I don't get out of the house a few nights a week, my brain will explode and episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine will come tumbling out.  But the goal of becoming mentally and physically healthy as soon I can after this birth is one that I really don't want to overlook.  My health is just as important as my kid's health, and I need that reminder sometimes.


Thursday, February 14, 2013

The One With Plastic Hearts and Cupid Arrows

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am absolutely the worst person at celebrating holidays.  Ever.  I buy gifts last minute, I am terrible at picking out cards, I often forget the day entirely.

Of course, I married my complete opposite.  My husband is fantastic with holidays.  He remembers every one months in advance, he listens to what you've said you wanted all throughout the year and magically remembers it in time to get it for you as your present, he gets you cards for no reason...  Oh, and he writes Thank You Notes.  Yeah.  He's that guy.

So as usual, Valentine's Day is here and I have done... very little. (Read:  I am doing things now)  And my husband started giving me gifts last night at midnight.  Because he is so excited HE COULDN'T WAIT.  

It's not like I don't love seeing people enjoy the gifts I get them, or thanking people when they give me gifts.  I get the warm fuzzies just like everyone else.  I am just a huge procrastinator, and holidays are so easy to keep putting off... until they are there, staring you in the face.

So this year for V-Day, I am glad we are keeping it relaxed.  Yesterday we got to hear Baby Vegas' heartbeat again and the doctor told us things are still moving along great, so today is extra special.  Tonight will be a steak dinner and catching up on DVR in our pajamas.  My kind of holiday!

Gotta go, Hubs called to let me know that he had flowers delivered and they are waiting outside.
Damn he's good.

Monday, February 11, 2013

The One At 14 Weeks

14 weeks.  I can't believe I'm only 14 weeks pregnant.  I feel like I've been pregnant for a hundred years.  One of my friends tried to put it in perspective that elephants are pregnant for years.
Don't worry, she is still alive.

This pregnancy has been grueling emotionally and physically.  My body seems to be rebelling against me every step of the way, and I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't going to be forever.  It might not even be the whole pregnancy.  I will probably feel better soon.   Soon.

My belly aches and my sides feel like they are straining, despite the fact that I am still under my starting weight.  Falling asleep at night is a marathon event that takes hours. The effort it takes to make dinner leaves me breathless and I have to convince myself it is worth it to get off the couch every night and make something remotely healthy.

I'm a little stressed about my doctor's appointment on Wednesday where I have to tell them that I'm not gaining weight and am in pain and exhausted all the time.  For now I'm trying to take it as easy as I can and not push myself beyond where I am comfortable, because I tried that this weekend and haven't been able to get off the couch for 24 hours.

26 weeks to go!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

The One With Skinny Genes

Yesterday was our big appointment with the Genetic Counselor up at Hopkins.  Holy. Long. Day.  We left the house around 8:15 and got to the doctor's by 10:45 or so.  Better than I thought but still excruciating.

The appointment itself was very intense.  Trying to detail your family tree while corralling an overtired four year old would be a challenge for anyone, let alone while you are dealing with crazy hormones and your own tiredness.  I also noticed that Little Man's hair smelled kind of funky while we were at the appointment - so I was super self-conscious that the doctor was sniffing him whenever Little Man walked by her chair.   I don't even know why it the only thing I could think of during the appointment.  Plus, how she was going to manage to get close enough to the top of his hair to sniff it?  But I was sure she was going to judge us.  Welcome to my world, I am insane.

(To clarify, I felt like his hair smelled like a wet towel.  Hubs can neither confirm or deny this because he refused to smell the hair.  Chicken.)

Counseling suggested to us that we get screened for the 100 "typical" genetic carrier tests, and then an extra panel that would test us for blood disorders like hemophilia, because of Little Man's history.   Although Little Man has been tested for most blood disorders (and they were negative) because of his brain bleed, she thought it would put our minds at ease.  Oh - except for the part where we are going to find out we are carriers for something because everyone has something... but yeah, don't worry about that.  Or the fact that they can tell you things like... you are at a higher risk for spontaneous brain aneurysms.  Do we want to know if that is the case?  

Um.  No.  Just don't tell me.  Every time I had a headache I would be certain I'm dying.  I'm a smidge dramatic that way.

Then we had our first trimester screening ultrasound and found out that I have a backwards tilted uterus.  Which the ultrasound tech told me was not even important, except that the baby was hard to see.  And gave me a crazy nightmare last night about the baby sloshing around upside down on my spine.  See - there is that drama again!  The screening was normal.  Which was expected but always a blessing.

After all the bloodwork and picture taking - we dashed out of that building like our lives depended on it.  We beat the parade traffic out of the city and made it home in record time.

I was supposed to have another regular visit with my OB's office down here today, but at nine this morning I got a call that someone had marked "High-Risk" on my chart.  This meant I was no longer allowed to see just the nurse practitioner, I have to see the OB every visit.   So instead I get the night off to watch Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and make a decent dinner for everyone.

... Actually I just saw a picture of the Red Robin BBQ wrap on a friend's Facebook.  There goes dinner!

Monday, February 4, 2013

The One With the SUPERBOWL!

Last night was the Superbowl (didja know?) and Bawltimore won.  Wooo hoo!  So very exciting, and we're all thrilled.  Or at least I was last night and early this morning.  Now I am just stressed.  

Hubs and I have appointments at Hopkins tomorrow.  Of course.  During the Superbowl Parade.  Of course.  We made the mistake a few months ago of having an appointment on the day of the Grand Prie - I can't imagine this will be easier.

We usually leave the house 2 hours before an appointment to get to Baltimore on time.  We'll probably be leaving about 3 hours early tomorrow and praying for good luck, because brilliantly our appointment is about 1 hour before parade start time.  Ugh ugh ugh.

Other than that, life is peachy.  Still haven't gained any pregnancy weight, but I know that is just a fluke for now.  I am sure I will be nice and round eventually.  My little belly is getting more defined but still could be mistaken for a food-baby and not a baby-baby.

The Little Man is doing alright too.  He visited the Ex for the first time in a month or so last weekend, and so we've been working hard to get his sleep schedule back on track.  The first few days he barely slept at all, which made for some very stressful mornings.  But he's slowly getting back on schedule, and we are trying to work his daily nap back in there.  His pediatrician wants him to wean off of naps, but when he does it means that he wakes up after only sleeping a few hours at night.  Then he's up for another 4 or 5 hours until he can bore himself to sleep.  His "perfect" sleep schedule usually works out to be a 2 hour nap during the day, followed by 6 to 7 consecutive hours at night.  It isn't ideal, but we've come to accept that it is really all he wants and/or needs.  Mommy on the other hand would be happy with a solid ten hours of sleep.  For both of us.  

Speaking of sleep... Our new REM case manager visited last week and informed us that our old case manager had not reapplied for the bed at all, and she was surprised that we had not qualified for it the first time.  *Facepalm*   She swears we will get a bed eventually.  I'm not holding my breath.