Time

Blogger messed up my paragraphs. The extra . 's are where my breaks should be. A lot can happen in just 5 years. . 5 years ago on April 1st Matt gets this crazy idea to call his parents and play an April Fools joke on them. He says we're on our way to the hospital, the baby's coming early. Ha ha. April Fools, we're just going to Taco Time. . It goes over so well we make the same call to his Grandma. She's a good sport and laughs. . That goes so well we call my parents. My mom starts crying on the phone. Oops. Not funny. . Fast forward a couple days to April 5th. I go to work and punch the clock like it ain't no big thang. I was 33 week pregnant and my boss felt like it was a good day to take me to lunch to find out what I was thinking regarding maternity leave, working after the baby, etc. At lunch I started to feel a little weird. Not alarmingly weird but strange enough that I couldn't finish my lunch. This should have been a big red flag for me since this might have been the first time in my life I didn't successfully clean my plate. . We chatted and I held myself together the best I could. We agreed I could take as long of a maternity leave as I wanted and when I came back I'd work 3 days a week. Managed to negotiate that while trying not to throw up all over his food. Feelin' pretty good about myself. . I go back to the office and I'm still feeling off. I chalk it up to the uncomfortableness that comes with growing a human inside your body and head home early for the day. A little nap should take care of this, no problem. . I went home and attempted to sleep all afternoon. Matt came home from work and gave me the where's dinner look. I explained there would be no dinner tonight. My body hurt and I no longer cared about anyone but myself. . I rolled myself into the bedroom and decided to really give this sleep thing a try. A nap WILL fix this, I know it. . By 2 am, having not slept at all, I wake Matt up. . Me: Matt, I think we should call the doctor. . Matt: Shouldn't we time something? Go figure that out and then wake me up again is whatever we're supposed to time is the right amount of time apart. . Me: No. . So I call my doctor in the middle of the night and tell her that everything hurts. I don't know what a contraction feels like but I'm pretty sure nothing is contracting, it's just hurting. She tells me to go to the ER and just have them check on the baby to make sure nothing is going on. . Me: Matt, get up. The doctor says we should go to the hospital. . Matt: Why? Me: Just get the swear word up! . Matt gets up, brushes his teeth (the full 2-minute Sonicare cycle mind you), searches for the perfect shirt in the dryer, and is finally ready like 10 minutes later. The fool was killing me and I could barely take it - I was thinking maybe single momhood was something I should look in to. . So we finally get there and I get all checked in to the ER. The doctor hooks me up to a monitor and can see that I'm apparently having contractions. . ER doctor: You're dilated to a 5 and your water is minutes away from breaking. Why didn't you come in like 12 hours ago? . Me: Because I've never had a frickin' baby before! No one ever explained what it would feel like! Plus my due date is May 24th and today is April 6th! . So the rest is less comical. They check and see that baby is breach and start prepping me for c-section surgery. . We have to eat shit and call our parents and say that this time it's no joke. We're sorry about before, God is clearly punishing us so please don't make it worse on us, just get here as soon as you can. . The rest of the day is a bit fuzzy. There were some drugs administered, some happy feelings, some scared feelings, a baby got sliced out of me, more drugs, and that's about it. . Charlie was born around 9 am and spent the next 5 weeks of his life in the NICU. We spent every day with him, including his first Easter, and got to take him home in May. . He had a rough start but 5 years later he's got it all figured out. Avert your eyes now if you have a problem with bragging. His preschool teacher told us he reads at a second grade level, he can do a 150 piece puzzle, he's learning math, he scored his first goal at his soccer practice last week, and he's ridiculously nice to his sister. . Charlie - Thanks for everything you've taught me these last 5 years. It's been amazing. I love you!

Welcome Annie Jane!

We're still at the hospital but I had a little down time so I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures. It has been hard to get any good shots of her because she's always swaddled up and/or sleeping. These will have to do for now.

Oh and she was 7 pounds 1 ounce, 20 inches, has light brown hair and blue eyes. Oh and she's beautiful. I mean really beautiful.

Surgery went well. My stomach is in pain pretty much constantly so I'm taking full advantage of the drug selection they've offered me. Laughing and standing seem to hurt the most so I'm pretty much lying in bed ignoring all Matt's jokes.

So far she's been a great little sleeper and great little chow hound. She took to nursing super easily which has been really nice considering all the struggles I went through with Charlie.

We'll be discharged either tomorrow or the next day so I'll write more soon. I'm actually hoping to get to stay until Sunday so that I have 1 more day of being waited on by the hospital staff. They're probably eager to get rid of me though since I've gotten over my shyness and press the 'call nurse' button on my bed like 10 times a day.

36 hours to go...

We head to the hospital at 5 am on Thursday so I thought I'd post one more before picture. Hopefully the after picture will result in a 33 pound weight loss. Most people don't want a 33 pound baby, but when you're having a c-section it doesn't really matter. So I say the bigger the better because that's less work for me at Weight Watchers right? One final picture of Charlie before his world turns upside down. He put the cowboy boots, scarf and mitten on all by himself and then came and found me saying "work". I don't know where he thinks he works...

My attempt at a baby update.

I feel like I should be posting some kind of baby update since I'm set to give birth in just 6 short days, but I really have nothing to report. Here's all I could come up with that might interest my readers:

1. Had my last day of work on Wednesday.

2. Had my last doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Weight fine, blood pressure fine. They didn't really check anything else so I guess everything else is fine too.

3. Bed-rest is over so even though all I want to do is lay around on the couch I don't officially have to. Oh and my shots have been over for 2 weeks now.

4. Got a haircut at Walmart today. I'm proud and obviously not so proud of that fact. We're on 1 income now so since I was there getting groceries I thought I'd get my haircut too. It was probably the worst haircut I've ever gotten which shouldn't have surprised me, but somehow it did. I don't even like getting groceries there but ever since Matt took over the grocery shopping (due to the bed-rest) and discovered Tillamook cheese is $7.99 at Safeway and $5.49 at Walmart now I'm being forced to go there for everything. He pointed out last night that if we go through a baby loaf a week that's $2.50 per week which is roughly $125 a year in cheese savings alone. You can't argue with that logic, so now I begrudgingly shop at Walmart.

5. My bag is 20% packed for the hospital.

6. I bought Charlie some new books and wrapped them to bring to the hospital. According to my sister I'm supposed to give him a present "from the baby" and that should help him accept his new sister. Somehow I doubt it's going to be that easy but if I blow her off she'll never let me hear the end of it when things go awry. Plus I'm positive that Charlie's smart enough to know that his sister didn't have books with her in my belly.

That's all I can come up with. If I think of anything else interesting (and I'm using the word very loosely) I'll put up another update.

Baby Update

Just a quick update to say my c-section has been moved up a day to March 13th. They moved it because my doctor had too many surgeries on the 14th. When they called to ask if it was OK I basically said no (Friday seemed like a better day to have a baby than a Thursday in my mind. Plus I liked her birthday being on Pi day). Turns out they weren't really asking though, they were telling.

It's weird to schedule the birth to begin with so I plan to just teach them a lesson and go into labor early. Then we'll see who has scheduling issues.

Ready

I think we are finally ready for baby girl. Matt and some very fantastic helpers (my dad, his folks) have spent the last 7 days getting the room ready. I tried to take pictures from every angle so you could see every inch of greatness. We had some sketchy moments this morning over the curtain rod - I think Charlie learned some new words - however I like how it turned out so hopefully it was worth it.

I had a bunch of pictures from my old condo, back when I was allowed to put pink things on the wall, which worked perfect with the bedding we bought. So overall I think all we had to purchase was a new dresser (which ended up in Charlie's room), a curtain rod, a pink sheet for the crib, and the bedding (which I got at a consignment shop for $25 - included the bumper, crib skirt, curtains, and a funny diaper holder thing). Talk about turning over a new economical leaf!

We're so ready that we may have even settled upon a name. We're going to keep it to ourselves until she's actually born though so don't ask. It's kind of a superstitious thing slash a we want to reserve the right to change it thing for us.

Baby Caden Turns 1!

My sister's little guy Caden turned 1 this weekend so I thought I'd take a second and point out a few changes that have taken place since he was born.

This is Char and Justin taking Charlie for a walk in Phoenix last year. We went down for a visit just days before Caden arrived. Now they live up here and have their own kid to walk (which they pretty much can't do in Spokane because the sidewalks are covered in 2 feet of snow, but in theory they could).

This is Charlie a year ago eating like a mad man.

This is Charlie today eating his icing and cupcake with a spoon and leaving the crazy stuff to his cousin Caden. Caden really turned things up a notch today when he polished off 2 cupcakes and then picked up his ice cream with his fist and ate it like an ice cream cone sans the cone. Nice work little guy - happy 1st birthday!

This is me and my sister a year ago. Both of us may look pregnant but only 1 of us is.

This is me today. The hair has changed a little...oh and now I'm the one with the baby in my belly. I'm just over 34 weeks and counting. Not sure what I'm more excited for right now - the baby or the end of the heartburn. I'll tell you one thing I'm not excited for though is giving up my maternity jeans. Nothing beats jeans with an elastic waist.

I know, the photo is posed and I have a stupid look on my face but I needed a quick picture to round off my post and this is the best I could do.

I'm getting to this point.

Every day is one of these days. My "glow" has been nothing more than sweat since day 1. Just 5 more weeks though!

Baby girl still doesn't have a name or a nursery but we're working on it. She got new sheets and a pee proof mattress pad yesterday so we're at least making progress. Now if we could just get her crib set up and the appropriate furniture moved into her room we'd really have something to talk about.

Wait? Are you having a baby too?

I think we've officially talked about the new baby too much. Below is Charlie mocking my bedrest. Tonight he patted his stomach and said baby. So of course Matt couldn't resist putting a ball in Charlie's pjs so he could look the part as well. On a side note: how do you know if you're shameless? The answer? You put a picture of yourself on the internet with a ridiculous looking lame eye.
I think this is Charlie's version of the birthing process. If only it were as easy as unzipping your sleeper in real life.

Uncharted Territory

I'm finally at week 33 in the pregnancy which is how far I made it with Charlie (for those of you who don't speak the pregnancy language 40 weeks is the norm). I feel like I've made it past an important milestone, it's a good feeling. I'm relieved but at the same time apprehensive. Hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly and the baby will keep cooking for another 6 weeks or so.

I met with my doctor yesterday and I've been penciled into his calendar for the c-section for March 14th. It's strange to write "have baby" on your calendar. It's kind of cool to know though. At least I can make a trip to the grocery store on the 13th and get all the laundry done before I have to check into the hospital. You know, real important stuff that would cause me unnecessary anxiety while being sliced open.

Since her birthday will likely be 3/14 Matt's dad suggested we name her after a pie since in his world it's National Pi Day. Not pie like food, but pi like 3.14159 the most important mathematical constant. So we're considering copying Gweneth Paltrow and calling her Apple or possibly going out on a limb and calling her Mincemeat. I'll keep you posted. Probably not posted on the name, just posted on other cool math jokes we think of. You're welcome.

New Date?

I just got back from the doctor's office and all is well on the pregnancy front. As I was leaving though he mentioned that I'm at 31 weeks, whereas I thought I was only at 30. He said I'd be at 30 if we went off the measurements they took at my first ultrasound back in August, however he'd prefer to go off the more traditional ovulation calculation method which puts me at 31.

All this means is instead of being due March 27 I'm probably due closer to March 20. However since I'm having a scheduled c-section about 10 days early we can really expect Babe-ette to make her appearance closer to the 10th rather than the 17th.

So I've adjusted the official calendar to reflect the March 20th date...and by official calendar I mean the purple diva to the left of the screen.

The other crazy thing to think about is what if she chooses to take a page out of Charlie Ring's book? She could be here in just 2 weeks - scary! Right now she's nameless and nurseryless, she'll be so sad when we bring her home and tell her the crib broke when we were moving it and we're still waiting on replacement parts. Not to mention her nursery is still filled with Matt's computer desk, a bookshelf filled with college textbooks and star wars figurines, and a paper shredder.

Prego Update

I don't have too much to report from the bed-rest front other than it seems to be going well. Matt's become Mr. Mom and has re-taught himself to cook and clean. After working a full day he usually comes home, shovels the driveway from our daily snowfall, makes dinner, cleans up dinner, folds laundry and then bathes Charlie. Sometimes I can't believe how he's risen to the occasion and has not only taken over everything I usually do but he does it without complaining (which is more than I used to do).

On days that I go to the office he usually calls me around 3 and tells me to go home. It's kind of nice knowing he's got my back on all this.

Another tid-bit to update everyone on is according to my weekly pregnancy information email my baby is 2 1/2 pounds and is roughly the size of a butternut squash. Next time to bite into some squash promise me you'll think of baby Ring growing in my belly.

I think that's all I have for now. She's moving around and kicking like crazy!

And So I Lay...

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment to see how mom and baby are doing -normally a very routine procedure. What was different about this appointment was that this one not only came with the normal blood pressure check and measuring of the stomach but it came with a lecture.

Since Charlie was 7 weeks early and they don't know why my doctor is being very aggressive about preventing baby #2 from being early. I thought "aggressive" meant I would receive progesterone shots for the last 20 weeks of pregnancy (I think I've received 10 thus far and they're getting less and less fun as my butt is getting more and more sore). Apparently "aggressive" also means bed-rest.

Now bed-rest is a funny thing. To an unemployed pregnant woman with no children bed-rest might be fantastic. I used to ask my doctor to put me on bed-rest with my first pregnancy so that I could catch up on Ellen and The Price is Right. It sounded so glorious to not have to go to work and get to lay around and eat all day.

The reality of bed-rest is not that at all. It's a whole different story than I had previously envisioned. With an active 21-month old, a part-time job, and a husband who likes clean clothes and food on the table it's not glorious at all.

Right now my assignment is to be horizontal for 4 hours a day and to take it easy the rest of the time. Easy meaning avoid stairs, lifting, and being on my feet. Easy. Shouldn't be a problem.

If I'm not good at it I'll be given a doctor's note which will prevent me from returning to work and will require all day bed-rest. So I'm going to try very hard to be good at it because Charlie has yet to learn to change his own diapers and prepare his own cooked carrots (similar story for the husband).

So from here on out all posts will be written while laying in the horizontal position most likely while watching Frosty or Sesame Street with a toddler crawling all over me.