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Monday, March 29, 2004

Shopping Spree

On Saturday Jeff, Emma & I decided enough time had been wasted & we went to a couple stores to buy some "necessary" stuff for the baby. You know, stuff a mother with a newborn can't live without. Stuff like a bouncer chair & a swing. Because as much as I know I'm going to love Sarah, I'm going to need time to get things done without having to constantly hold her, and things like this were vital when Emma was a baby. We also bought a diaper bag that Jeff says he would be willing to carry around. That was my main goal, to find something that wasn't too froo-froo so he'd carry it around. It's denim with stripes, so hopefully he won't feel too feminine toting it around. And if he does, well he can just stuff it into the basket in the stroller.
The only problem we've found with getting all this new stuff for the baby is that Emma has, again, wanted everything for HER babies. I put together the bouncer & the swing and as soon as she woke up from her nap, she immediately put her baby into it & starting pushing it so it would swing. It's the cool Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders swing, and the seat can switch positions, from a cradle-like side-to-side swing to a more common front-to-back swing. It's really neat. Jeff & I cleaned out the baby's room & put the swing and bouncer in there. Emma had gone to the bathroom or something while we were doing this & just about had a heart attack when she noticed that they were gone from the living room. She didn't believe Jeff when he told her that they were in Sarah's room. She thought someone had come in and taken them. It was too cute.
Now that her room is all cleaned out, it's kinda empty. We've got the changing table, and the bassinette in there (for now, but when she's born that will go into our room for the first couple of months), and the swing & bouncer chair. But when my mom comes out to visit, we're going to paint the crib, so that's not set up. I have my glider chair downstairs in the living room (which might end up in the baby's room, I haven't quite decided), and there's really nothing else. We might get a bookshelf for all the baby's books that Emma has outgrown. And if we bring the glider in there, it would be a nice place for Emma, Sarah & I to sit and read together. Of course, now that I think about it, I'm sure that room will fill up with stuff once she's born. Babies always somehow accumulate more stuff than you can ever imagine. It's amazing what those little people need, or what we THINK they need.
Jeff & I watched another part of our childbirth video on Friday night. It was about the 3 stages of labor, pushing & delivery. It was very comical. Jeff got a kick out of it. The one part Jeff found extremely funny (and I can't imagine why) was the part about how once the pregnant woman hits the second stage of labor, she will turn into a whiny mess. Apparently, that wasn't the funniest part to him. The instructor said, if your wife isn't a whiny person, this change in demeanor might shock you, but if whining is something your wife does all the time, then this will be nothing new. He was laughing at THAT. I turned & looked at him, well glared was more like it. I personally don't think I whine all that much. I'm not a complaining person in that way. If I'm upset at something, I will tell you in another way, not with whining. I'll either tell you straight out, or make you figure it out yourself. The typical things that women do. "I'm mad, but I'm not telling you why, you should be able to read my mind." In fact, this morning was the first time I've actually made any unreasonable requests of my husband this entire pregnancy. I haven't made him go out in the middle of the night for pickles & ice cream (I don't eat or drink at night anyways), and I don't think asking him to rub my feet or my back is unreasonable in any sense of the word. I AM carrying his child, right? So, I don't know where he got this idea that I whine all the time. I think he's got me confused with the other female in this house, who's only way of communicating lately is whining.
Well Jeff has his EKG tomorrow. At his doctor's appointment a couple weeks ago, she recommended he get one done. I've had one before & they're not bad. Since Emma's been around me getting all these medical procedures done, it should be interesting how she reacts to Jeff getting one done on him.

Friday, March 26, 2004

False Alarm

We had a small crisis at our house on Tuesday evening. I thought my water had broken. Freaked both Jeff & I out. It wasn't an obvious gush, which is why we were so freaked out. Jeff insisted I call the doctor and the nurse on-call told me to head on in to the ER to get checked out. Since it was 9pm, the main doctor's office was closed. So, we go in, and are sent up to labor & delivery, where I'm hooked up to monitors & checked out. No, my water hadn't broken, which we were both relieved to hear. But, just as a precaution, they wanted to keep me for an hour just to make sure I wasn't having any sizable contractions. So we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for about an hour and Emma amused herself watching TV. If the room we're in when we actually go into labor is anything like the one we were in, I think Jeff will be very comfortable. The chair that I guess is designated the "father's chair" was really nice. A leather recliner. He looked pretty happy sitting in it while we were waiting to be discharged. I told him we better bring a pillow & a blanket when we come in case I have an overnight labor like I did with Emma.
Well, this false alarm has made us re-evaluate how much time we actually have before the baby's born. The next day I was in laundry mode, cleaning everything I could get my hands on. I'm making sure our hospital bags are packed by this weekend and I'm confirming the babysitting arrangements for Emma. And Jeff was told that he's able to take a week off to care for a sick relative & he's going to take another week of vacation, giving him 2 weeks home after the baby's born. That will be very nice.
The weather lately has been great, rainy mostly, but I can handle that. The temperatures have been between the low 50's & middle 60's. Emma's been loving it because she doesn't have to wear her big bulky coats anymore. The forecast says it's still supposed to rain a lot over the next couple of weeks, but that's fine with me, as long as it doesn't turn to snow. I think spring might actually be here now.
Emma finally had gymnastics this week, but only this week, due to Regionals or something next week. Plus, she doesn't have school all next week either. Poor kid is going to be so upset. We'll have to find some fun stuff for her to do. I forsee Easter projects & trips to the library and lots & lots of Barbies.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Nesting insomnia

I had my 36 week check-up today. Jeff went with m e because they had to do a "female examination". And do a Group B Strep test. Both of which are invasive & I didn't want Emma to have to sit through that alone. So daddy came along & after he heard the baby's heartbeat, he & Emma went into the waiting room. So, the doctor says I'm about 50% effaced & 1 cm dilated. Not bad for 36 weeks. He says this is normal & does NOT mean I'm going into labor tomorrow. But now Jeff's freaked because he's afraid that we won't have anyone to watch Emma while I'm in labor. Our neighbor across the street (Morgan's mom) said she'd watch Emma overnight if need be, but she works during the day & Morgan goes to preschool & daycare, so we'd have to find someone else to watch her during the day. We may be doing the neighbor "babysitter shuffle", as Emma goes from one person to the next. If things don't happen very quickly, and my mom is here when I go into labor, then I figured we'd just take Emma with us. I'm sure all hospitals have to have some sort of contingency plan for having siblings at the birth if there isn't anyone to watch them. I know we aren't the only people who have had this dilemma. But, then again, this could all just be preliminary stuff & I won't go into labor for another 4 weeks, but we have to be prepared for anything.
Speaking of being prepared, we're slowly starting to get things ready in the baby's room. We put together the changing table/dresser yesterday & I started doing her laundry, getting all her clothes cleaned & folded. Emma's liking this part, especially when she finds something that she thinks HER baby would look cute in, she confiscates it. She's also done this with all the stuffed animals I've set aside for Sarah. Emma doesn't want to share any of them, even though she doesn't play with anymore. Unfortunately, I think this is a side effect of being an only child for so long. She's not used to sharing anything with anyone & doesn't like it when she's in a situation where she has to.
Jeff & I watched another "episode" of our childbirth video. This one covered the 3 real signs of labor & 2 Lamaze breathing techniques. I never took any breathing classes (or any at all) when I was pregnant with Emma, so this was new to me, too. But, they seemed easy enough to utilize. Jeff & I both practiced the breathing because, as the instructor said, most women, when they're in the middle stage of labor, want their coach to breathe with them to help them concentrate. I could see how that would happen. So, that's why I told Jeff he needed to practice the breathing, too. He was a good sport about it. They did this exercise to show how the breathing takes your attention away from the intense pain (albeit not completely, this is breathing, not a miracle) because your brain can only get stimulation from one area at once. And, the idea is, if you're so attuned to the breathing, it's "said" you won't notice the pain as much. So, the instructor had all the men squeeze their wife's leg, kinda like a contraction would go, light at first and then getting more intense, peaking at about 30 seconds & then gently relaxing until a minute had gone by. All the while, the women are doing their breathing. I noticed that he was squeezing my leg, but it didn't bother me too much. She then had the guys squeeze our leg again, with the same amount of pressure they had while we were breathing & all the women jumped. It was amazing how much it hurt the second time & I had thought that he wasn't squeezing me that hard. But, since turn about is fair play, the women were then able to do the same to our husbands. So, we squeezed while they breathed. It turns out I can't squeeze all that good, because it apparently tickled & not hurt him. But he noticed it the second time, when he wasn't breathing. The instructor also said that if the men had any sense that this was the worst a contraction could be, then they were dreaming.
Although I started this particular blog yesterday afternoon, I got side-tracked & didn't finish it. But I woke up early this morning & decided to finish it. Like, 6:30am this morning. I had some serious insomnia today. I woke up to go pee at 6am, and couldn't go back to sleep. For the most part, if this happened in the past, I would just lay there until I fell asleep again, but I could tell that it wasn't going to happen this time. So I rolled out of bed & decided to do something. I balanced my checkbook, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it back up again, made some blueberry muffins (from a mix, I'm not THAT industrious that early) and generally just cleaned up. Emma woke up around 7:45am & Jeff got up at 8. Now, it's 9:30am and I actually feel like I've already accomplished something today. And I normally don't have this feeling until around 5pm, when I actually get around to doing something productive. Today, I'm ahead of the game. You'd think this would make me even more industrious, wanting to get even more accomplished. You'd be wrong. Since I've pretty much finished all the goals I set out for today, with the exception of the never-ending, always present laundry, I'm going to take this opportunity to lounge. At least until Emma makes a mess of something. Then the cycle starts all over again.

Monday, March 22, 2004

It Could Be Sooner Than We Expect

I had my 36 week check-up today. Jeff went with m e because they had to do a "female examination". And do a Group B Strep test. Both of which are invasive & I didn't want Emma to have to sit through that alone. So daddy came along & after he heard the baby's heartbeat, he & Emma went into the waiting room. So, the doctor says I'm about 50% effaced & 1 cm dilated. Not bad for 36 weeks. He says this is normal & does NOT mean I'm going into labor tomorrow. But now Jeff's freaked because he's afraid that we won't have anyone to watch Emma while I'm in labor. Our neighbor across the street (Morgan's mom) said she'd watch Emma overnight if need be, but she works during the day & Morgan goes to preschool & daycare, so we'd have to find someone else to watch her during the day. We may be doing the neighbor "babysitter shuffle", as Emma goes from one person to the next. If things don't happen very quickly, and my mom is here when I go into labor, then I figured we'd just take Emma with us. I'm sure all hospitals have to have some sort of contingency plan for having siblings at the birth if there isn't anyone to watch them. I know we aren't the only people who have had this dilemma. But, then again, this could all just be preliminary stuff & I won't go into labor for another 4 weeks, but we have to be prepared for anything.
Speaking of being prepared, we're slowly starting to get things ready in the baby's room. We put together the changing table/dresser yesterday & I started doing her laundry, getting all her clothes cleaned & folded. Emma's liking this part, especially when she finds something that she thinks HER baby would look cute in, she confiscates it. She's also done this with all the stuffed animals I've set aside for Sarah. Emma doesn't want to share any of them, even though she doesn't play with anymore. Unfortunately, I think this is a side effect of being an only child for so long. She's not used to sharing anything with anyone & doesn't like it when she's in a situation where she has to.
Jeff & I watched another "episode" of our childbirth video. This one covered the 3 real signs of labor & 2 Lamaze breathing techniques. I never took any breathing classes (or any at all) when I was pregnant with Emma, so this was new to me, too. But, they seemed easy enough to utilize. Jeff & I both practiced the breathing because, as the instructor said, most women, when they're in the middle stage of labor, want their coach to breathe with them to help them concentrate. I could see how that would happen. So, that's why I told Jeff he needed to practice the breathing, too. He was a good sport about it. They did this exercise to show how the breathing takes your attention away from the intense pain (albeit not completely, this is breathing, not a miracle) because your brain can only get stimulation from one area at once. And, the idea is, if you're so attuned to the breathing, it's "said" you won't notice the pain as much. So, the instructor had all the men squeeze their wife's leg, kinda like a contraction would go, light at first and then getting more intense, peaking at about 30 seconds & then gently relaxing until a minute had gone by. All the while, the women are doing their breathing. I noticed that he was squeezing my leg, but it didn't bother me too much. She then had the guys squeeze our leg again, with the same amount of pressure they had while we were breathing & all the women jumped. It was amazing how much it hurt the second time & I had thought that he wasn't squeezing me that hard. But, since turn about is fair play, the women were then able to do the same to our husbands. So, we squeezed while they breathed. It turns out I can't squeeze all that good, because it apparently tickled & not hurt him. But he noticed it the second time, when he wasn't breathing. The instructor also said that if the men had any sense that this was the worst a contraction could be, then they were dreaming.

Friday, March 19, 2004

The lure of online gaming

Ok, I'll admit it, I have a new addiction. I am totally engrossed in Final Fantasy XI. For those of you who don't know, Final Fantasy is a string of games dating back to way before I ever played video games. They're role playing type games that have a plot, albeit a supernatural & sometimes really "out-there" plot. Basically you partner up with computer characters & have to fulfill some sort of quest that takes forever (the average amount of hours that it takes to complete one of these games is roughly 35-45). But this one is a little different. It's played online, and you create the character you want to play. Jeff & I are both doing this. He is a Warrior human & can beat up stuff really well. I am a little Tarutaru, this munchkin looking creature who toddles everywhere instead of actually walking. Jeff thinks it's funny that right now I do the same thing. And when she sits down, she sorts plops, and I'm pretty much doing the same thing at this point, so Jeff gets great humor out of the fact that I'm so similar to my character right now. I'm about 3 feet tall & my main strength is white magic, healing people. I do have this tiny little sword looking thing, but I have to be careful who I pick a fight with, otherwise I get slaughtered. My main job is to build up my magic skills & join a party with other real people and let them fight the bad guys while I sit back & heal them. It's a stressful & fun job, because while most of the time I'm never in harms way (unless the bad guy decides he's tired of fighting the other people & comes after me) I get the same experience they do & the same items that we find on the creatures we fight. But I've seen, watching Jeff play in groups of 6, that a white mage's job can be very stressful, trying to figure out who to heal first & also trying not to draw the attention of the bad guy. So, it's an addicting game. But it sometimes takes an hour or so to do the simplest of things, like find your way back from wherever you were last fighting. And when you're a small squishy white mage (Jeff's nickname for me), that can be devasting if you get attacked by something huge. But it's fun and entertaining. Emma thinks my little character is her friend Cece back in San Diego. Since it doesn't look anything like her, except for the fact that it's small, I'm not exactly sure how she got that idea. Maybe because Jeff's character looks somewhat like him, he's tall & blonde, she tried to figure out who my character looked most like & came up with Cece.
Jeff went to the doctor the other day, kicking & screaming. And I think it's a good thing he did, too. The doctor wants to run all sorts of tests on him, trying to figure out how the Navy screwed him up with all their experimental injections. He gets to have an EKG in a couple weeks & have blood drawn. I'm sure that'll be fun for him, considering how much he hates needles. I guess that can be a good thing, I can be guaranteed that he'll never be an intravenous drug user.
Emma has gotten into talking to the baby lately. She'll come up & start asking the baby questions, and answering for her. Like this morning, she told me that the baby had clothes, pj's & toys in my tummy. I told her, no wonder it feels so crowded in there. And then I have to talk to HER baby in her tummy. I'm glad that she's started to get a little more accepting of the idea of the baby. It's such an abstract concept for small children to understand. There's something in there, but you can't see it. But I think once we're able to put together the baby's room, it might be a little more concrete in her mind, that something's coming & it's going to sleep "here" and these are the clothes that she's going to wear, and all that stuff.
And since we're roughly 4 weeks away from having this baby, I guess now would be the best time to come to the realization that this baby is coming, regardless of whether or not we're "prepared" for it. We're as prepared as we can be. We got the changing table/dresser delivered this week, so Jeff & I (mostly Jeff, who am I kidding) are going to be putting it together this weekend. We also got my glider rocker, which is very comfortable. Emma keeps trying to commandeer it for herself, and she always wants to sit in my lap with a blanket when I'm sitting in it. I think she likes the motion it makes. And I think I'll be doing some baby laundry this weekend as well, to put into the dresser once it's assembled. Cleaning out closets & dusting everything will be next. Yay, what fun. I have the "nesting urge", but no "nesting urge energy". I need that to do the nesting. So, I will be using my husband's energy as a surrogate. I think my nesting instinct showed up a little late in this pregnancy. Isn't it supposed to happen at around 5 months? I don't know, I don't think I had it with Emma. I don't remember. But of course that could just be the "pregnancy brain" rearing it's ugly head again. So many things to blame my ineptitudes on, I'm going to miss that when I'm not pregnant anymore.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Well this weekend certainly was fun & interesting. We got our tax return (yay!) and we went to the mall to get some stuff for the baby. Not a bunch, since my baby shower's this Saturday, and I have no idea what's going to come from that. It should be fun though, considering the shower's in Sacramento, and I'm not. But, it's being held at my mother-in-law's house and she has a webcam, so we're all going to sit around the computer, eat popcorn & watch like it was a movie. Only with audience participation. Hey, it's like Rocky! Aw, Rocky, that brings back memories. None of which I could probably repeat here, but hey, they're in my brain.
Anyways, Emma got a new toy at the store. It's one of those travel MagnaDoodles, where you use a pen with a magnet at the end to draw pictures on a screen. Under the screen are tons of tiny flakes of metal bits that create the picture. Then, you use this magic swiper thingy to wipe it clean. She loves it & takes it everywhere. She's even taking it to preschool today for show-and-tell. She's always asking me to write people's names on it. So, I think it'll be good for her learning letters & numbers and stuff.
Also this weekend, Jeff has started his quest to resume being a beefcake. Not that he'd stopped being one from before, but he hasn't worked out since we moved here & wanted to start up again. So we went to GNC and bought those Met-RX meal supplements, and some more vitamins, and he's started to work-out. Makes me feel even worse, since I can't really work-out with him & I'm going to be in even worse shape once I have the baby. But Jeff has already promised that he'll take care of the kids in the evenings if I want to go work out somewhere. I'm making him keep this one.
It amazes me how much Emma is turning out like me. She has so many quirks & personality traits that I've been told I had when I was younger, and even traits that I see in myself today. Last night, she fell asleep in the car on the way to pick Jeff up from work. We put her on the couch, still asleep, when we got home. She slept for about an hour & a half and when she started to stir, we started talking to her to get her wake up. Instead of waking up happy, she started writhing all over the couch, stretching, whining & grunting, like we were really annoying her. I started laughing & so did Jeff. I said, she looks just like me when I wake up, doesn't she? And he was trying hard to cover up the fact that he had noticed that, too. I've always been told that when I was younger, it was no fun to try to wake me up. I was cranky & whiny and generally not a happy camper. And this has continued on into adulthood. Waking up in the morning, or whenever, is not something I like doing. I like my sleep. I don't know if I did this as well, but Emma can continue her crankiness well after she's actually woken up. She sometimes needs to be cuddled for about 20 minutes afterwards until she's a nice person again.
Well the weather has kinda leveled out a little bit. It's still cold, roughly in the 30's during the day. And we did get some snow over the weekend, but it melted by the next day. But, spring is definitely on it's way, it's just getting sidetracked to other places in the country, like Sacramento, where it's supposed to in the 80's today. Send some of that sun over our way, will ya? There are some cute spring maternity clothes I'd like to get a chance to wear before I have this baby. Next time, depending on where we live, definitely have to make a conscious decision on what time of the year I'll be pregnant. No more winter pregnancies. Unless I'm living in AZ or someplace just as hot all year round.
Since Jeff is starting college in May, he has to fill out all sorts of paperwork. One of which was a medical physical. We thought he had to go see a doctor & get a physical & have the doctor fill out all this medical stuff. So, I made the appointment & Jeff was all set to go. Well, come to find out that he doesn't need it because it's only for students who are using the school's student health insurance. Since we have our own insurance, we don't need it. But I'm still making him go to the doctor's anyways. He hasn't seen one since he got out of the military & it's always good to get a periodic check-up.
Emma has started saying the funniest things. I don't know where she got it, but she's started using the phrase "Oh dear" for everything. It sounds so cute coming from a 4 year old's mouth. Speaking of talking, I finally was able to get Emma an appointment for a speech evaluation. Since she was in speech for over a year in San Diego, I wanted to continue it here. But that was easier said than done, unfortunately. It was too expensive to go through the college, and since she was older than 3 she couldn't go through the hospital. So we had to go through thr public school system & they were backed up for months. The appointment I did get isn't until April, the 19th, actually, which is kinda funny, since that's my due date. We'll see if we're able to make that appointment or not. We may be bringing a newborn, I may be in the hospital or I could still be pregnant. We'll see what happens.

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Pretty good week

Congradulations are in order to Jeff, who passed a very critical certification exam yesterday. Now, along with all the other titles that he has following his name, he can now add "Dell Storage Networking Professional" to it. Now, since I have no idea what that title means in respect to jobs, I'll just have to take his word for it that it's a good thing. It required another drive to Lansing to take the test, but that was fine. It was only an hour long & Emma and I were able to occupy ourselves just fine. Emma did really well on the trip so she was rewarded with a toy from Tuesday Morning. A "Cinderella" Barbie type doll that comes with about 15 different pieces of clothing that allows the doll to have about 200 different outfits. But the coolest thing is that there's this button on the doll's back that you push & her underskirt turns about a 1/3 turn & it's like she has a brand new dress on. Very high tech & nifty. Emma's been pushing that button since she got the doll. It goes from white to blue to pink. But, since it's obvious that this doll will not wear any other Barbie type clothes, I'm going to make sure we at least don't lose her shoes by gluing them to her feet. My father-in-law did that with another one of Emma's Barbies. Very good idea. Now, we've lost the dress that originally came with that doll, but not the shoes.
Emma's learning so many new things, and I know I'm not the one teaching her. She must be getting it from somewhere. This week she's been spouting off that her name begins with "E", which I'll admit I've been trying to teach her, along with getting her to write her name (which for the most part is good but her E's have about 5 lines across the one line, rather than just three, but hey, she's 4). But, she's started to recognize the letter "E" in street signs and other places when we're driving. She'll point it out everywhere we go. And she also can type her name by looking at her name on paper & finding the matching letters on the keyboard. She doesn't yet know the names of the other letters in her name, but she's getting there. She also came home from school on Thursday talking about dinosaurs. She had learned about them in class, and had made a very cute dinosaur for her craft. She proceeded to tell me that all the dinosaurs were dead (which she demonstrated by saying they ate (::pretending to eat::) and then died (::falls on the floor::). Very dramatic. She did have some confusion about WHAT the dinosaurs ate. She said all of them ate other dinosaurs, but I tried to explain that some just ate plants, but she wouldn't hear of it. I asked her if there were flying dinosaurs & she said yes, they were called "Tetri's". At first, I thought I hadn't heard that right. I asked again & she said that "Teetri" was a flying dinosaur. At last I remembered. PETRI was a pterodactyl from "The Land Before Time". This child has only seen ANY of those movies (not even the original, which is the best) once. And I was flabbergasted at the fact that she remembered the name of one particular character weeks after only seeing the movie once. It's crazy the things kids remember. This is particularly bad because I've been known, (as I'm sure all parents have been in the past) when your child is begging for something, and all you want to do is just get their mind off whatever it is they're pestering you for, so you offer something else, which isn't right there, hoping that they'll take the bait & by the time you get to wherever that other thing was, you're hoping that they've completely forgotten about it. I know this is bad parenting, but hey, whatever works in the situation. It's not like I do it all the time. But the problem now is, that Emma's memory has progressed so much (or maybe it's always been like this, but she's only now proving it to me) that this doesn't work anymore. She remembers everything. Which makes things doubly worse, because I can't remember squat right now. She'll politely (in preschool politeness) remind me that I forgot to do something, and sometimes I'll seriously argue with her, thinking that she's wrong, I DIDN'T say that, only to suddenly remember that I did, and I'll have to apologize. She's probably thinking I'm going nuts, which wouldn't be far off. If Jeff thought I was scatterbrained before I got pregnant, he's probably thinking that by the time this baby's born, I'll do something like forget to bring her in from the car or something. Which, as I'm sure all mothers will attest to, is a nightmare that you have. For example, last year when Jeff was out to sea, I had horrible thoughts that I would take Emma to the beach, fall asleep & she would wander into the ocean & drown. Crazy stuff like that. It really kept me from doing a lot of things without taking someone with me. Of course, I had those types of nightmares when I was pregnant with Emma, even after she was born. And now, when I go places without Jeff, I'm going to be outnumbered, which is going to make me even more nervous.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Emma's first playdate

Well after weeks of wondering if our schedules were going to coincide, Emma & the little girl across the street (who's also in her gymnastics class), Morgan, were finally able to get together on Sunday afternoon. Her mom, Sue, called in the morning and asked if Emma could come over & play that afternoon. Emma was very excited. She didn't even want to finish her lunch, she just wanted to get ready & go over there. As soon as we get over there, it becomes clear to me that Morgan & Emma are two peas in a pod. Morgan loves Barbies, dolls, dressing up, and horses. Emma just loved being there, she had so much fun. We ended up staying there for 4 hours. Finally, when it became clear that Sue was trying to get their dinner started, I told Emma it was time to go home. She was not happy about that. I knew she was tired when she started throwing a fit and falling in it like you wouldn't believe. She was kicking her feet when I tried to put on her boots, she was grasping onto chairs & walls when I was leading her towards the front door, anything to keep from leaving. I practically had to drag her across the street to go home. We had a nice talk when we got home about acting that way, and she relaxed on the couch where, 10 minutes later, she was fast asleep. She had worn herself out from the playing & the fit. But she had a great time, so I know we'll be doing that again soon.
I think this house is out to get us. At least Emma. First, she had 4 splinters in her fingers in the span of a week, and then Friday night she proceeded to rip her entire pinky nail off her left foot. I have no idea how she did it, but she came up to me on the couch & said she had an owie. She lifted up her foot for me to see & I saw that her nail was hanging on by a tiny piece of skin. She was surprisingly calm, I think she was still in shock & the pain hadn't hit her yet. Jeff was on the phone & I asked for his help. By the time I carried her to the bathroom to take care of it, she had realized she was really hurt & started crying. Talk about a delayed reaction. And it had started bleeding, so that wasn't helping the situation. But now that it's been a few days, she's decided she doesn't need to keep a band-aid on it anymore (and we finally tore off the hanging nail) and it doesn't seem to bother her, unless she accidently hits in on something. Then she'll be reminded, oh yeah, I have a boo-boo.
We also got the stroller & infact seat delivered on Friday. That night, Jeff put everything together & Emma immediately claimed it for her own babies. I knew this would happen. She insisted on having her baby strapped into the car seat & push it around the house in the stroller. Now, since she can't see over the stroller, it ended up being a game of "oops, I hit the wall, back up, oops, I hit it again". When we went to the mall on Saturday, she wanted the baby to go, too. So, we put in the car base & put in the car seat with the baby inside. But I drew the line at actually bringing the baby in the infant seat into the mall. But, I think after that trip that we've realized we desperately need a bigger car. Between Emma's booster seat & the infant seat, it takes up the whole backseat. Whenever anyone comes to visit us, they won't have room to sit, once the baby comes.
Emma's going to have a tough time this month. Not only is her gymnastics class cancelled for 3 out of the 4 Wednesday's this month (spring break & CMU tournaments), but her preschool is also out the last week of this month (public school spring break). So, now that the weather's getting better, I think we need to find some other extracurricular activities. I'm also thinking of signing Emma up for a summer sport, but I'm not sure which one. They have tee-ball & soccer, and I'm leaning towards soccer, only because I don't think tee-ball would hold Emma's attention long enough to be worthwhile. I remember little kids with soccer, they all run around in a herd, up & down the field. Very cute. And that gives them a lot of exercise. No, I have to re-phrase that. It makes them use a lot of energy, which Emma has in abundance, and therefore are more likely to sleep & not run around the house, causing havoc. Yeah, I definitely think soccer is the way to go.

Friday, March 05, 2004

Preschooler speak

It's so funny sometimes how small children can take things you've said & twist them around into a hilarious game of "what did she say?". Even things I didn't realize Emma knew about, like the concept that the baby is growing inside me. The other day Emma was trying to remember the baby's name, and she was pointing to my belly & asking what the baby's name in mommy's tummy was. Jeff asked her, "Baby in mommy's tummy? Did she eat it?" Emma looked at him like he'd just said the funniest thing & goes, "No, mommy didn't eat the baby, she's still making it!" Now this kid hasn't had any sex ed, so just exactly how she deduced that the baby was being "made" and not already finished or just placed in there complete, I'll never know, but it was an insight to her mind I hadn't had before.
Then this afternoon, we go to Jeff's work to have lunch in the dining commons. I had noticed that Emma had some gunk in the corner of her eye & I told her to hold still while I got the "sleep" out of her eye. A few minutes later, she needed to use the bathroom and while we were there she said she wanted to look in the mirror at her eyes, presumably to see this "sleep" that I was talking about. She looked at her reflection, gasped & said,"My eyes are sleepy!" She then proceeded to walk down the hallway with her eyes closed, repeating, my eyes are sleepy. Too funny. Not exactly what I said, but close enough.
So the snow piles has slowly been melting away for the past week. We had another big rain last night & it's continued into today. I am so happy that it'a rain & not snow. Even though we're expecting to get snow scattered snow showers over the next week or so, somehow I don't think it's going to stick around very long, if at all. The temperatures are forcasted to be well above freezing for the most part, mostly in the upper 30's & 40's, so I think we're finally out of the frozon tundra stage of winter. This gives me hope that the weather will be relatively nice by the time the baby's born. I made a promise to Emma that when all the snow on the ground was gone, she could wear her light purple windbreaker, instead of her huge, Stay-Puff marshmallow man snow parka she's been forced to wear since October. But, even though there's still some piles of snow on the ground, the weather has been nice enough to allow her to wear the windbreaker. And since it's been raining, we've broken out the umbrellas, too. It almost makes me wish I were going to be pregnant longer, so I could wear some of the cute spring time maternity clothes I've been seeing.
We got our car seat/stroller system delivered this afternoon. Now we get to wait until Jeff gets home so he can put it together. Emma has already started to want to use the car seat for her own "babies". I can foresee the problems now. But once we actually start putting together the baby's room & putting everything in it's place, maybe she'll realize that she needs to share these things with her little sister. But, I'm not counting on it.

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Car woes, Part Deux.

Well, after 2 days of waiting & wondering if my car was going to act up at the dealers so they could see what I was talking about, it didn't happen. It's like the vehicle had stage fright. Very sad. The service people said that if the "Service Engine" light came on, they would be able to figure out what was causing all the electrical problems. But, I can't guarantee that will happen before my warranty runs out, so we're pretty much just having to sit & wait for it to happen. I was hoping it would do it on the way home from the dealer (since it's a 45 mile drive) but no such luck. I guess the only good thing that came out of this was we finally got our alarm fixed. Well, I fixed it, but I had needed the service manual for the alarm system to do that, and we somehow misplaced it. Every Honda dealer we'd been to didn't have one either. But, this one did & boy am I happy. It was a huge headache having to unlock the car door every time I opened it, otherwise the alarm would go off. Big pain in the neck. But we have our car back, with my keys & the garage door opener.
Tonight it gymnastics night for Emma. She's been looking forward to it all week. When we left this morning to go to the car dealer, she thought we were going to gymnastics. Poor kid thinks every time we leave the house, we're either going to school or gymnastics. She really loves being with other kids.
As I'm only about 6 1/2 weeks away from having this little baby, I must say I'm starting to get nervous. Not about the actual delivery, cause I've been there, done that. And since Emma's birth was kinda difficult, I think I could probably handle anything that came up. But poor Jeff hasn't been through this before. And since we aren't able to go to any childbirth classes (it's too difficult to find a sitter for 4 weeks in a row for 3 hours on a school night) we've been forced to consider just buying a video that will refresh my memory & give Jeff a little peek into what he's about to go through. Anyone who knows my husband for longer than a day will find out how much he hates any sort of medical/hospital procedure. He detests having to have blood taken or be examined in any way. I think it runs in the family because his brother's the same way. So, this whole birth process thing is going to be interesting. I can only hope to avoid him having to be revived by a nurse after passing out on the floor. And if he does, he wouldn't be the first husband to do that. Men are so funny when it comes to this kind of stuff. They can go through wars, car accidents, money issues, job issues, or other traumatic experiences, but when it comes to labor & delivery, something happens in their brains & they can't take it. Thus, the preparing. I feel bad having to throw all this womanly stuff at him in such a short period of time, but we're running outta weeks here. Hopefully I can "desensitize" him a little bit so it's not as such a shock as if he was walking in there with no knowledge at all. And I think that's going to be the key, knowledge. The more he knows going into it, the less likely he'll be to freak out. At least I hope so.

Monday, March 01, 2004

Car woes.

Ok, I seriously think today was the most stressful/trying day I've had in a long time. First of all, let me preface this by saying that, once again, I'm sick. This is the 3rd time in 3 1/2 months that I've had a cold/bronchitis. Ok, now to the stressful day. Our car has been having a serious malfunction for about the past 2 months. It all started when I noticed that the "drive" light on the front console (where the odometer, speedometer, and all that other junk is) was flickering in & out. It did it in all the other gears, too. Also, the odometer would all of a sudden decide not to show me how many miles I'd driven, instead just show me a panel full of zeros. And to top it all off, the gas gauge would show me an incorrect gas level. All of this at once, not very fun. But it didn't happen all the time & would eventually go back to normal. But Jeff thought it might be a safety hazard, so I eventually made an appointment at our local dealer. "Local" being a relative term, since the nearest Honda dealer is an hour's drive away. ::Have I mentioned how far out in the boonies we are?:: Anyways, so my appointment was for 10:30am this morning. Monday morning, what was I thinking. Not only did I have to make sure that I dropped Jeff off at work on time & then make the not so fun drive out to Bay City, but I also had to make sure that both Emma & I were decently dressed & presentable for it. I didn't know how long I was going to be there & I didn't relish the idea of being stuck in a dealership service waiting area for hours at a time, knowing I forgot to put deoderant on and Emma's hair hadn't been brushed. To make matters worse, it was raining. Normally this is a good thing, since combined with the warmer temperatures lately, it melted a lot of the snow that had been piled on the ground for months. But, apparently, people in Michigan decide that when the weather's terrible, that's the perfect time to speed & drive erratically. Our drive out there was relatively uneventful, with the one exception of Emma telling me 10 minutes after we'd left that she needed to go pee. She's got a good bladder that can hold a lot for hours after she wakes up, so when it finally sets off the "empty me" warning in her head, you need to listen to it quickly, or we'd be having a yellow river in our backseat.
So, we get there, roughly 30 minutes early, I might add, and we check in. I tell them the problem, give them my keys & prepare to wait until at least noon. Emma's watching a video in the little children's area they have, and I'm reading a magazine. An easy hour goes by & they come to tell me they can't figure out the problem, can't duplicate it & the internal computer has no record of anything like that happening. Uh-huh. Typical. This is the exact same thing that happens whenever the baby's doing cartwheels in my abdomen, and I try to get Jeff's attention, only to have it stop. He's starting to think I'm nuts. And I'm sure that's what the service people thought, too. They had a suggestion, after I'd told them that this mostly happens in the morning, when I go out to warm up the car. They suggested that I leave the car there & they would try in the morning to get the car to do this crazy thing. I was ok with that, but how was I supposed to get home. They said they'd give me a loaner car, for free (with the exception that I pay sales tax, a whopping $1.20) and they'd give me a call in the morning. So, that's what I decided to do. We got what I consider a crappy loaner car. A '98 Honda Accord that smells, part of the driver's side running board has fallen off & is on the back floorboard, the arm rest in between the driver & passenger seats is practically falling off, and it had almost no gas in it. Plus, I realized as I was driving 60 MPH down the highway trying to get home in the now pouring rain, that I think the tires are going bald. Every time I hit a patch of standing water (something you occasionally do when it's raining) I felt like the car was going to slide off the road. Not very comforting. So, we make it back to our street & as I'm about to turn into the driveway, I reach up to click the garage door opener, and realize I forgot it in my car, back at the dealer. Not only that, but I didn't get my house keys off the ring that I gave to the service people. So, I was locked out of the house. I felt like such an idiot. I knew that I was having pregnancy brain, but I think I've outdone myself. So, I drive over to the college, hoping & praying that Jeff has his keys with him. He doesn't. So, I was faced with the prospect of driving the crappy car with the now almost empty gas tank, back to the dealer 45 miles away. But then, my wonderful, intelligent, non-pregnancy brain husband had a brilliant idea. Call the realtor. She has to get into our house to show it when we're not there, she has a key. But first, I had to find a phone. I had left Jeff's office by this time, and I don't have a cell, so I had to find a payphone. Ok, when did the LOCAL charge for a pay phone go up to $1.00? That's ridiculous. Plus, it seemed every payphone I tried to use was malfunctioning. The first one said that I didn't have to dial a "1" before dialing this number. But I didn't dial a "1", you crazy phone. The next one ate my 4 quarters. I was at my wits ends. I finally decide to try my neighbors & see if I could use their phone. The first one I tried wasn't home, the next one I tried wasn't home, the THIRD one I tried wasn't home. Come on, these are retired people, aren't they supposed to be at home?! As I was leaving to go back to the college to use his phone, I saw that one of my neighbors was pulling into her driveway. Ok, perfect, I'll go ask her. She was very nice & let Emma & I come to use the phone. This realtor is one of the most difficult people to get ahold of. I called her cell, no answer, I called her office, she was out. So, I ended up leaving a message on her voicemail at work, telling her to call me at my neighbors house because I needed to be let into my house. My neighbor set Emma up with a movie, a pretzel & some milk and we waited. About 15 minutes late, the realtor calls back & says she'll be right there. So, we were finally able to go home. Only to remember that I needed to take some paperwork to the tax people so we could file our income taxes. Emma was about ready to throw a full blown fit. I felt so bad having to drag her out again. But, it needed to be done. So, after only being home for about an hour, out we went again in our jalopy loaner. While we waited at the tax place for our paperwork to be printed (which we would later have to bring back with Jeff's signatures on it) Emma decided she didn't want to listen, obey or any of those nice things that I so desperately wanted her to do. She had found some toys & incessantly asked me if she could take these two tiny Barbies home. I think the kid has some serious wax buildup in her ears because she apparently didn't hear me say no, or hear the very nice, polite & very precise explanation that I gave her as to why she couldn't take them home. I finally bribed her into submission (in order to preserve some of my sanity). I offered her ice cream if she would give it up with the Barbies. She took it, and happily put the Barbies back. I know I probably broke about 5 parenting rules with that, but I so beyond caring at the point. By this time, it was after 3pm, I'd been on the road or at the dealership or somewhere other than where I wanted to be for 7 hours, and I was at the breaking point. I had needed to call Jeff at work to get his drivers license number at the tax place, and he had said to come pick him up at 4pm. I had 45 minutes to kill & I was in no mood to go back home (a 15 minute drive) only to have to pack Emma back into the car 15 minutes later & drive back to about the same place to pick up Jeff. We went to Wendy's, got some frosty dairy desserts & sat there in the parking lot for 30 minutes. I made a list of stuff I needed to do, Emma got chocolate everywhere and I tried to relax & enjoy the rain that I've been waiting 4 months for. Rain is good, it melts snow. We can almost see our entire front lawn now. And I think the inches of ice have melted off our roof. Yay!
When we finally got home after picking Jeff up, I collapsed. The house was a mess, people were hungry, but I didn't care. They could fend for themselves and there was no way I was cleaning anything tonight. Tonight is all about vegging and watching CSI: Miami. Tomorrow I'll deal with reality. And reality will have to be dealt with because I still need to drive the clunker loaner back to the dealer & get my own piece of junk back, preferably fixed.