Snowed in

Well, another day in Michigan, another day of snow. We're expected to get about 3-5 inches of snow today alone. That's not counting the inch or so we've gotten in the past few days & not including what's bound to be coming later on this week. Now, I like snow as much as anybody, but even Emma's not happy with these latest developments. Her preschool has been cancelled 2 days in a row (last Thursday & today). She doesn't quite understand that even though the snow isn't bad enough to keep us at home, that doesn't guarantee that there will be school. So she's pretty bummed.
I was able to go to my doctor's appointment early today because of the cancellation. So, I was able to take my glucose test, in order to see if I have gestational diabetes. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn't have to drink as much of the sugary sweet liquid as I had thought. When I was pregnant with Emma, I had to drink about 10 ounces of this warm, non-carbonated orange drink, and then sit there for an hour, waiting for them to draw my blood. This time, I only had to drink about 5-7 ounces & it was chilled, making it go down a lot easier. As with most pre-natel tests, no news is good news. So if I don't hear anything from the doctor within a couple days, I'm most likely in the clear. Plus, my blood pressure is continuing to stay normal, which is a good sign, since I had high blood pressure during the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Emma. The only grrr portion of my doctor's appointment was that he decided that I can't get my ultrasound (for insurance reasons) for at least another 2 weeks. That's when my next appointment is, and only then will he schedule the ultrasound. Grrrr! I've been promising family members & friends for 2 months that it was going to happen next week. And now he decides to switch it up on me. This is beginning to be ridiculous. All these other people that are pregnant & either due right around the same time as I am or even past me have already found out. Why do I have the stubborn doctors & insurance companies? I'm afraid by the time they actually do it, the baby will be too big to find out, it'll be all wedged up & in the way. Grrr, argh. So much for having plenty of time to get things together & organized. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to find out before my baby shower, or if that's going to have to be postponed. Oh well, such is life.

The Weekend

I think between our weather/airline fiasco that had Deanna plane hopping all over the country, our toilet troubles & some serious stress going on at Jeff's job, I am SO glad the weekend's here. I don't even work outside the home & I'm stressed out. I couldn't imagine having to deal with all the extra crap that's out there.
I think my husband sometimes has a death wish. He's taking advantage of the fact that our families live in a time zone that is 3 hours behind us & calls them every Saturday morning, around 8am our time. That's 5 am their time. He thinks this is great fun & apparently plans on doing it the whole time we live here. Most of the time they're pretty good natured about it, but I know, deep down inside, they're cursing his name & plotting revenge. Either that, or they're somehow getting our daughter to do it for them, by physically not being able to sleep past 7am on the weekends. My sleep patterns are pretty much ruined at this stage of my pregnancy, so I'm up every hour, on the hour, with some form of sleep deprivation or another. So I hear the pitter patter of her little feet as she gets up, and immediately comes to our room, with a cheerful & too cute, Good morning! Get up, mommy & daddy! And not that I'm actually going to get anymore sleep out of this, but we somehow con her into thinking that watching TV in her room is much more fun than watching it in our room. And it works for about 30-45 minutes, and then we feel guilty & either get up ourselves or invite her back into our room for some "I'm sorry we banished you back to your room, can you please forgive us" cuddling.
Another personality trait that is coming out is her constant need to be in control of everything. She gets very possessive when we watch TV in the living room & it's not something she'd particularly like to watch at that moment. All of a sudden it's, "My turn, it's my turn!" And no amount of trying to explain that she needs to share will pacify her. I'm about ready to cut her off completely. She actually doesn't watch all that much TV (anymore) but when she does, it's like instant crack, she can't get enough. Definitely need to get her into some other form of extracurricular activity.
Jeff had the dubious honor of finally shoveling the 2 inches of packed snow & ice off our driveway this morning. Now it's not considered the "Slip 'N Slide" of the neighborhood. I'm sure it was great fun for our neighbors to watch me try to bring our trash cans back into the garage the other day. I almost became the human persona of a "beached whale". I could just imagine me trying to get my footing on my frosty driveway after falling on my butt. I think I probably would have just giving up & somehow slid back into the garage where I would be able to get up again without looking like an octopus on ice skates.

Plumbing problems

Let me tell you something about renting. It sucks. I constantly have this feeling of walking on eggshells, trying not to mess anything up or break anything. But when you've got kids, it's inevitable. I can only hope my landlord can remember back to when HIS kids were young & can have a sense of humor about it.
My landlord was here yesterday with his plumber nephew for 3 hours trying to fix our upstairs & half bath toilets. Apparently, there were a few toys stuck down there & that's what was causing all the problems. Who knew such a tiny thing could wreak that much havoc on the pipes? My landlord comes out from underneath the house with something in his hand, going "Do you recognize this?" All I could do was just smile & say, "Kids". Oh well, it's fixed now & thank goodness, cause I was tired of having to go down into the basement at 3am to use the facilities. That's no easy feat on my part at this stage of the pregnancy game. Oh, and the kitchen sink started acting up. I was trying to figure out how on earth the problems could be connected, thinking it was impossible, and I was right. They weren't related. Good thing. With all the things going wrong with this house, it makes me long for the days when all I had to do was call Navy housing & have THEM come & fix it. If I could only get the housing without all the military hangups that go along with it.
I had a baby check-up yesterday. Everything's going well. Still going to have my ultrasound in about a month, when I'm around 30 weeks. I get to do the ever-so-fun glucose test in 3 weeks. For those of you not in the know, that when they make a pregnant woman drink 8 ounces of sugary sweet liquid, then make her wait an hour to take her blood, to make sure she doesn't have Gestational Diabetes. Imagine soda, but without the carbonated water. I think I preferred the orange flavored one when I was pregnant with Emma. I wonder if they'll have more choices this time around. Maybe grape would be nice.
I'm still continuing my physical therapy 3 times a week. I took Emma with me this morning. They had some toys for her to play with. She seemed genuinely concerned that the physical therapist was hurting me. It was really sweet. I think this is a standard, first child personality trait. To be a worry-wart. I know that Jeff & I tend to have that problem a lot. We're constantly worried about something. Maybe him a little more than me, but just look at my phone bill & how many times a month I call my mother & then maybe it's a little more even.
I have officially renamed the state of Michigan to "Frozen Tundra". The weather the past 2 days has been horrific. Not because we've gotten a lot of snow, but because of the temperatures. I believe the high yesterday was around 8 degrees, with the wind chill (that was there constantly) making it feel like it was 10 BELOW ZERO. It's only slightly warmer today. Oh it's great fun trying to thaw your face out after walking the short 200 feet from the grocery store door to your car. You constantly feel like you're being slapped with a frozen fish.
I finally bought a baby book & a baby name book the other day. I was all excited about it. I immediately wanted to start putting information into the baby book, only to find out that I really don't know much. I haven't been keeping track of my weight each week (and that information shouldn't even be IN a baby book), I don't know the sex, I bought the name book to figure out names, so I don't have anything to write in there, and I haven't had a baby shower yet. All I could do was write our family tree. So, that will have to wait a few more weeks until I have some more information. And speaking of names, I love my husband, but I'm kinda glad he wasn't here when I had this internal debate when I was pregnant with Emma. He teases me about this all the time, but in truth, he had no say over what I was going to name her. I really didn't even give him a chance. He was out to sea, I was here, I figured, it was my decision. So now, he's taking a much more active role in it, although he's rejecting practically every name a throw at him. He doesn't like simple names, and he doesn't want anything that the poor kid will keep having to spell to people, and we've already decided that we're not having any ex's names. Couple all that with how many people we know & all their kids & trying not to duplicate any names so there's no confusion & we're left with about 4. For each sex. All that, and we still have to make sure it sounds good with our last name. It's a tall order. But that's why I bought the book, to figure all this out. So hopefully we won't be naming our kid after the street sign by the hospital as a last resort.

My first post

Hello all! I decided that since there were a lot of people who want to know how things are going out here in Michigan, with my pregnancy & just life in general, I figured that it would be easier for everyone to find out the scoop by just going to a website to read about it. That way, people can read it at their leisure. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reading this & it will help our friends & families who are all the way out in CA feel a little closer.
Just to catch you up, I'm 25 weeks pregnant now & I'm due April 19th. So far, things are going pretty well, just the usual aches & pains. I am seeing a physical therapist 3 times a week now, which is really helping with my back problems.
We had a great holiday season. Jeff was able to have 2 weeks off from work, completely paid for. We visited our friends Robert & Tiana, and their 2 boys, Ryan & Austin, in Tennessee. The drive is NOT fun, and I don't envy the fact that they've driven it twice to come up & see us. Then on New Years Day, our friend from Sacramento, Deanna Goss, came to visit. I'm sure it'll be a trip she won't soon forget. Freezing temperatures, 6 inches of snow that caused her flight back home to be cancelled & crazy Michigan ticket agents that apparently can't do their jobs. Needless to say, I don't think she'll be visiting again anytime soon.
So now things are starting to get back to normal. Jeff's back at work, Emma starts preschool back up tomorrow & it's still cold...really really cold.
As for everyone who is asking when we're going to find out what we're having, it's not going to be until at least the beginning of February, unfortunately. But it's ok, that will still give us 2 1/2 months to get everything we need before the baby comes, provided it doesn't come early.
Ok, that's it for now, but I will try to update this daily, if I can, and if something interesting happens.