Sweet! Sort of...
So the good news is....I've lost 30lbs of pregnancy weight.
The bad news is...a lot of it is muscle weight.
The good news is....7 weeks to get fit before I have to juggle mommy-hood and work.
The bad news is....I have a LOT of work to do.
The good news is at least I'm not doing the 9 up-9 down thing. And I'm going to stop it there, because really, this is nothing to complain about. Tonight Fred and I are going for a run.
Labels: Porter, pregnancy
Nope, not today
My co-worker got tired of answering the question on everyone's mind.
Chris (the not-my-husband-but-still-a-crosser version) is going to see his baby at roughly the same time we're thinking we'll see ours! I swear we were NOT at the same party.
Hmm. On second thought, were y'all drinking from the same whiskey bottle at the end of MAC races last year?
Labels: pregnancy
Style Lust
I didn't realize how sick I was of maternity clothes until we went to the book store last night. I picked up
InStyle magazine and
Lucky magazine. When we got home, I was like a teenage boy with Playboy. And I am by nature a disease-ride t-shirt and jeans/shorts kind of girl. But I'm getting a little sick of wearing the same 6 outfits, 3 of which the tops are too short to cover the belly. I'm looking forward to having more selections after the baby's born. Or at least having all of those outfits fit again until I get back to a normal shape/size. Soon!
Labels: pregnancy
Fun with Co-workers
I was attending a meeting that was supposed to end at 9:30, but was running long. I had a meeting that started at 9:30. So at about 9:28, I told the people in the meeting "Look I really have to go". Which caused much consternation until I clarified "Not to the hospital, to my next meeting!"
This pregnancy thing is so much fun!
Labels: pregnancy
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
I've read this book already once before and laughed my head off. It's a diary of Anne Lamott's first year as a single mom to her baby Sam. Now I'm re-reading and going "ew....really?" And it also makes me realize that I'm really, really glad that I'm not doing the single mom thing. I don't know how women do it. I'm so dependent right now on Chris to keep the house together, because my idea of a craaaazy evening is to flop around trying to find the position that best allows me to breathe. I can't even imagine doing it all myself once the baby is born. So as funny as I found this book when I was single and childless, now it's definitely gotten a more poignant tinge to it as I imagine how I would respond to certain situations. But hysterical.
We were laughing the other day that I'm probably the first woman in history NOT to get the nesting instinct. I'm more of a cuckoo bird than you thought. Cuckoos wait for other birds to build their nest, and then they go lay their eggs in them. "How about you nest, I'll take advantage of it." Good thing our parents came in and took care of the whole nesting thing for me. Phew! Instead my nesting instinct has taken the form of going over and over and over finances obsessively. I've been fine tuning our budget down to the dollar for each pay period for the next year. I've moved money from account to account. I've plotted how grey my hair can get before I go back to get my hair done. I've talked to the short term disability people so much that they've taken to asking me "um....why are you calling?" So if that counts as nesting, I'm all over it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go troll the arcade to see if anyone dropped any quarters.
Labels: Books, pregnancy
Girly Post
Ok, ya wanna know why I like cycling? Let me show you Exhibit A:
This is Alberto Contador, winner of the Tour de France, wearer of both the yellow jersey and the white jersey for best young rider (under 26) I searched but could not find a photo that appropriately showed off the 7 feet of eyelashes the man has
And this is Tom Boonen, international heart throb. He ended up with the green jersey - what the sprinters like to wear. He looks good in green. Also not so bad in red, white, yellow, black or any other color. Also seems like a nice guy who would treat his mama well.
So when you wonder why despite the crazy doping going on, I still am mesmerized by the Tour, feel free to surf google images for those two names.
Since this weekend was all about the lethargy, I did something I haven't done since I left Houston - I scrapbooked. I'm just not that detailed, not that creative, and not that patient. But it occurs to me that I may have an in for Christmas presents for the new grandparents. And it's a way of forcing myself to sort through cycling pix, so I'm working on a cycling scrapbook. Now if you were to see my friend Tammie's books....those are works of art. Mine....not so much. Oh well.
Last night Chris came home from his week of wrenching duties. WOOHOOO! Fred gave him the appropriate conquering hero status welcome after a whole week of not seeing Chris. I greeted him with a hug and a kiss. Ginger....well she had a bone! and was outside! and things were going on! Ok, so Ginger's initial reaction was a little low key. Until a couple of hours later when apparently the brain cell kicked in. We were in the living room, and you could see a puff of smoke and her little brain went "Wait....something is different about this room. Dad! Dad's home!", and the puppy insanity commenced. Not the brightest light in the harbor, our little girl. But bossy. Very, very bossy.
Labels: cycling, Dogs, Love of My Life, pregnancy
Yes, yes, I live
I feel like I'm barely keeping up with things these days. By noon I'm completely wiped out, and I've been leaving work early every day (2-3 ish, not at noon). Grr. Fortunately I'm transitioning things at work, so my job is slowing down a bit in some ways. There are things that I have to wrap up, but not many new things on the list.
The doggers have been moping a bit in Chris's absence. Ginger runs to the back window (traditional bark-a-greeting spot of hyper puppies) every time the neighbors come home to see if it's Chris. And Fred seems to have his pouting paw out a lot, although that could be because he's missing the frequent mountain bike rides. Long walks with me don't really accomplish the same de-energizing. And my ears perk up every time I see a Volvo wagon go by. But things are going well at the Tour de Toona, so just a few more days!
Sigh, and
my pick to win the Tour de France has now been busted for his A-sample doping with someone else's blood. Igggggh. Technically he's not officially guilty until he's either declined the B-sample re-test, or it has been tested and proven guilty. Technically the media isn't supposed to know anything about it until after the whole B-sample thing. So not only is it enough that most of these guys are dopers, but the organization that's riding herd on them is so immoral that it won't even abide by it's own standards much less some of the rules of common decency used elsewhere.
My doc gave me the spiel on Monday on what I need to do when "the time" comes. How far apart contractions should be, etc. I'm getting close. I've started gathering up the stuff to take to the hospital, and I need to finish off the back room. I'm getting close enough. As long as I don't have the baby until next week, I'm in good shape. The parents are all arriving then to help us get the house in shape. So once that's done, we're ready. Theoretically. If anyone needs me I'll spend the next few weeks breathing into a brown paper bag because I've forgotten something else.
Labels: cycling, Dogs, pregnancy
E-freakin-GADS
I went for a 35 week ultrasound today. 5 more weeks until I'm due. And I found out that the baby ALREADY weighs 6lbs 12oz.
WHAT?!
If I carry this kid to term, and he/she continues to grow at the same rate, I'll have a 9lb 7oz baby. Oh Heeeellll no. I wasn't hoping for an early delivery, until now. But sheer terror will have me at the drugstore looking at castor oil in a few weeks. (for those not in the know, castor oil is one of those old wives tales for inducing delivery)
Labels: pregnancy
Focus? What Focus?
Hubby home from his ride at around 2ish: "What did you do today?"
Me: "Well the dogs and I woke up around 9, went for a walk, came home watched the Tour, went to Walmart, and then watched some more tv."
"Got a lot done on the back room, huh?"
Sigh, ok, he's right, today wasn't the most impressive day I had on the back room despite my assertions that THIS is the weekend. Having said that, we're actually almost there. Unfortunately you can't tell because as fast as we moved other stuff out, the baby stuff has moved in. And grown. And taken over. I'm waiting for it to give me an Audrey style "FEED ME, SEYMOUR." Oh well.
Chris is out next week wrenching at the big Div III bike race a couple of hours away. It'll be me and the dogs for 7 days. He's been working like crazy this weekend to make sure that they're good and tired. Which I SO appreciate! And that would be why dogs and I could sleep until 9 this morning instead of my getting the doggy nose in the face at 7:30. Usually on the weekend I'm awakened by Fred's schnozz two inches from my face.
We saw the Imax "
Wired to Win" last night. I forgot how swoopy Imaxes are. I was a eensy teensy bit motion sick afterwards. But what great footage of the Tour! And interesting wander through the brain. All in about 45 minutes. And yes, we're geeks for going to a 7:45PM Imax movie on a Saturday. But it was cool.
Labels: Dogs, Movies, pregnancy
Sultry Summer Days
Things around here have been as summery hot as it usually gets around here. Ie in the mid 80s. Which is usually enough to be uncomfortable since central air is not ubiquitous here like it is in Texas. Yesterday's dog walk looked like it was happening in super slo-mo. Even Ginger was content to walk placidly next to me. Which is totally unusual for her, usually she's freaking out over dogs, trains, birds, buses, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. Add to that these days I'm moving super duper slowly and we just crawled along the streets wondering why no one had the courtesy to turn the sprinklers on the lawns.
The endless doctors visits continue. The doc's estimate is that the baby won't be particularly big, and that it will probably be early. My estimate is that he/she will be Lord of the Dance or a Rockette. For entertainment these days, we sort of watch my belly jump around. It's crazy. I can see in Chris's eyes that he's flashing back on Alien. We're talking a LOT of movement, not just the little belly twitches from last month.
In the Tour de France the other day, a labrador retriever took out one of the cyclists and destroyed his wheel. Which gave me cold shivers because I could just picture it being Ginger. As Chris put it..."Love me, Love ME, LOVE ME!" The puppy mantra!
Speaking of the Tour, I have no idea who's going to win this thing. Michael Rasmussen whose last TdF Time Trial was a total disaster is leading the race. If there were no Time Trials, he'd probably win the whole thing. But now we're trying to figure out which of the next 8 riders is good enough time trialer to take the whole thing. It's much more interesting than the Lance years, when the only question was the stage that Lance would take the lead.
And now I'm off to read the live coverage...
Labels: cycling, Dogs, pregnancy
Lucky Day
Ok, today hasn't been particularly lucky or unlucky. But it is Friday the 13th!
Busy week. Some of it is the drs-appt, monitoring, drs-appt, monitoring cycle I'm currently in. But more of it was a visit from JBV so he could do a presentation at a seminar they were having at Masters Natz. Poor guy, he got here on one of the 3 miserable hot nights we have had this year. Can you say "no ac?" I thought you could. Thankfully Wed a storm blew through and it became sleeping weather overnight. Phew. Then Chris and JBV made the mistake of leaving the house. And Ginger took advantage of that to get into his toiletries bag and chew everything. Until I got home last night, we thought she had eaten the head of his razor. Sigh. Do we know how to show a guest a good time, or what? I think in my heart of hearts, I know that Ginger is going to need an operation at some point to have something she ate removed from her intestines.
Monitoring stuff went well today. Both of the drs in my practice were at the hospital, so I'm assuming they both had patients in delivery. They both popped in to see how my monitoring was going. Dr Z told me not to mow the lawn this weekend (sorry, sweetie!), to which I complained that he never let me have any fun. Dr C looked beat, poor guy. Must have been a super duper early morning.
I've become the voice of the disaffected at work. I blame all of my crankiness on hormones, and have told the guys that they're welcome to blame their crankiness on my hormones as well. When I have a built in excuse like pregnancy for everything from forgetfulness, to crankiness, and clumsiness, I feel that I should share the wealth. But anyway, when they're worried about something, I have no probs talking to my boss. I figure as long as I'm not memorably nasty, they'll forget my kvetching by the time I get back from maternity leave anyway.
And this is the baby pool at work. Just for fun, no money on the line. I'm amazed at how conservative everyone has been on the DOB and the weight. Out of 11 guesses only two are 8lbs or over. And none are predicting a hugely early DOB. Only two are predicting I'll deliver late.
Oh and 7 out of 11 think it's a boy.
Labels: Dogs, pregnancy
Holy cow....this is real. Yes, I know, I'm the thickest person in the world to be 33 freakin' weeks pregnant before it finally sinks in. But I think the Lamaze class this past weekend pretty much did the trick. Followed up by a meeting at work yesterday to discuss who would have responsibility for projects that will be unfinished when I leave. We're actually talking about when I leave for a few months. It's sort of nuts.
Lamaze really wasn't bad at all, thank heavens. I can see where doing the class as multiple sessions rather than one 5 hour day would probably have been good. We're hit with a lot of stuff all at once. And yes, we watched the clip of "Miracle of Life" with the hippy couple giving birth. But we lucked out, the VCR died and they couldn't show us the movie on (shudder) episiotomy. Er, I'm perfectly happy with letting certain things happen without having complete details and visual. No, really, no mirrors for me. But at this point it's sort of hard to avoid the concept that yes, we really are having a baby.
Which brings us to the nightmare room from hell, aka the future nursery. The good news is that we got another box moved to the basement, with my having gone through and thrown more things out, filed some things, etc. Oh and shown Chris my prom picture. My teenage years (like most people, I guess) were not my finest years. Anyway, in about 2 weeks, I'm afraid we're just going to have to move everything as-is to the basement, because we need a place to put all of the baby stuff. As fast as I'm moving it out of one corner, the other corner is filling up with cribs, strollers, clothes, infant car seats.... At some point I'm just going to have to say "this is it" and set up the changing table and crib, put all the cute little stuff up, etc. Being a pack rat doesn't pay. But I'm working hard on making up for my past pack rat sins, and hopefully by the time baby gets here, we'll have a proper room for him/her.
Labels: pregnancy
mental ambling
- Yesterday took the mutts to the park. For the first 10 minutes I was really excited, I was clipping along at an almost reasonable speed. And I wasn't panting. "Woohoo!!" I thought, "I'm doing so great!" Then I realized that was because I was going downhill. And I still had to go back up. DOH!
- Angie sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal about how it's all Mr Rogers's fault that young adults feel overly entitled.
"Don Chance, a finance professor at Louisiana State University, says it dawned on him last spring. The semester was ending, and as usual, students were making a pilgrimage to his office, asking for the extra points needed to lift their grades to A's.
"They felt so entitled," he recalls, "and it just hit me. We can blame Mr. Rogers."
Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself"
And my question is...why is a single person to blame? Really, Mr Rogers? I watched Mr Rogers too, but I've never asked a professor to change my grade for anything other than a mistake. And I was hardly alone among my classmates with that. Color me skeptical on this one!
- Went to have Peanut monitored this AM. The idea is that when the baby kicks, the heart rate should increase and all will be considered well. Let me tell you, our kid is a champ. They gave me this little button to push everytime I felt him/her move. It looked like I was playing a video game, I pushed it so often. Think of the possibilities, Peanut could be a Karate expert, an international soccer star, a member of the "Lord of the Dance" cast.... The possibilities are endless!
- After being such a dud on my birthday, tomorrow we're going to try again. I was totally non-functional, so we'll see if I can sneak a nap in between our Lamaze class and my birthday dinner. Then I might be able to hold a conversation - woohoo!
- Fred actually did better this year with the fireworks - no more staring into the corner of the room like a re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project. I think it probably had something to do with the fact that Ginger was completely oblivious to the scariness of the loud banging things around her head. As a matter of fact, I sat on the front porch and Ging just stood with her front on the wall waiting to see if anything barkable went by. Fred came out for 2 seconds, but his bravery didn't extend to getting CLOSER to the lound banging things. Are you nuts? But while he wasn't happy, he also wasn't immobilized. And I'll take that!
- Flipping around last night I ran across the tribute to Heart last night. And I've got to ask... Who thought to pair Gretchen Wilson with Alice in Chains? That ended up being inspired. I do love Heart (yeah, shut up, I'm a midwestern child of the 80s. I'm just disappointed they don't make IROCs anymore), and it was great to see them on stage. And yes, they no longer look like 20 something glam rockers, but it didn't slow down either of the Wilson sisters in the least. Rock on, WHOOO (flips out lighter).
Labels: pregnancy
Buy that man a beer
Poor hubby. We have now moved into the phase of pregnancy officially known as the "Whiny Trimester". Let's start out with "I have nothing to complain about." Everything has been going pretty well so far. But I'm most definitely starting to feel the joys of carrying an extra 25lbs. Let me tell you, this is the best incentive I can have to work out after the baby is born. I'm tired all of the time, my joints sometimes hurt, and I've lost all fluidity of motion. If I get myself down to the floor to play with dogs or assemble a filing cabinet (why yes, it was an exciting weekend), I need a crane to get up. And the bad thing is....it's not really bad enough to warrant my grumbling. It really isn't.
So if you see my husband, buy that man a mint julep. He's more than earned it.
Labels: pregnancy
All Catholic, all the time
We had an awesome weekend, but as my husband said at one point "This is what it's like for outsiders to hang with bike racers." Poor guy, he's not Catholic, but this weekend? Very, very, very Catholic. We headed out for the Fathers of Mercy to see my brother get ordained. But wait! There's more! We attended a confirmation on Friday, and one of the homeschoolers to whom we send books graduated and had her graduation Mass on Sunday. If we could have gotten the baby pre-natally baptized, that was the only thing missing to make this the most Catholic 3 days I've ever spent.
To back up slightly...
We got to Chris's mom's house Thursday night, and at that point I realized that my comfortable travel zone has shrunk from 8 hours in the car to 6. By the time we got out of the car at his mom's house, I was really, really out of it. His mom, was super excited to see us. I'm afraid our energy levels did not match. But a good night's sleep, and I was ready to go. Well more correctly, at 7AM, the dogs were ready to go. They were, after all, at Camp Grandma. Chris's mom has a backyard (!), and a dog with the same energy level as Ginger (!), and treats(!), and another dog's food to eat (!), and why are we wasting time sleeping (!). Anyway, off we went to confirmation, and the first of many receptions. Then back home for a few hours, out to dinner, and a good night's sleep.
Er...until 6AM - Camp Grandma! Must lie under the trees and wait for the squirrellys!
Then it was my brother's ordination. The Fathers of Mercy are in a rural part of Kentucky, so their ordinations aren't combined with those of the general diocese, and are held at a parish that the Fathers of Mercy run. So instead of being the big cathedral ordination, it was a lot more intimate setting. Ah, it was so good to see my brother who has been through an awful lot of stress to get to this point, finally there. It was great to see all of the fathers, and to see the priest who will be pastor at his parish in St Louis, and a friend of my brother's whom Chris and I also consider a friend (Fr Michael) up on the altar. I loved the ceremony. Except for the part where I hit my Mom's purse while sitting down and accidentally set off the recorder. I swear that thing echoed through the church, although in talking to people later, apparently not. And to add to the fun, she didn't know how to turn it off, and it went on for roughly 47 hours. (or a couple of minutes, one of those). We ended up burying it in the bottom of her purse with a Missal over the top in hopes that no one would be able to hear it. And then we giggled periodically for the rest of the Mass. Two take aways from that:
1. Never take a noise making device with you to Mass if you can't turn it off
2. If you do set it off, be cool. Don't cover your face, just act like nothing's going on and hope that no one notices.
Anyway, aside from that, I did pretty well in not crying, and thought that I'd pull this one out. Then they addressed the two ordinands as "Father" at the end of Mass. And I welled up. Curse me, why do I never remember kleenex?
The reception after Mass was cool for a couple of reasons. First of all, I got to see a lot of relatives whom I would not otherwise be able to see while I'm pregnant. And secondly I got to talk to a lot of the people I know from our trips down south. I answered a lot of questions ("When's your due date", and "boy or girl" being the two primaries). It's funny, I was sort of a secondary celebrity at the reception as a result of being pregnant. People were so sweet!
The other cool thing about Saturday was that I had a chance to catch up with my friends Tammie & Sean from Texas. People I most definitely do NOT get to see enough of! Ok, of late, I don't get to see much of anyone, but I really do miss my friends. So I had a chance to hang with them for a while, we went to see the Fathers of Mercy, and the new chapel that they're constructing (very cool!). We sort of just ran errands, and hung out before heading back to the church hall for pizza and KFC and more time with the relatives. Until I just ran out of energy, far, far too early. So we went home, for another good night's sleep.
Until the dogs had to get up. But even they were a little less enthusiastic by this point. Camp Grandma had been starting early and going full tilt, and even though they managed to get up at 6AM, they were beat. Ginger essentially firmed up her new home under the porch, and Fred hung out under the tree and hoped the squirrels would just drop into his mouth.
Sunday AM was hang out time. Chris took off for the Bataan bike ride around 11, and his mom and I went to the graduation Mass around 2PM. Then it was home, snoozes, up and on the road.
And now...My head is still spinning, I'm still tired and obviously rambling 2 days after we got in. A great weekend, but I intend to spend the rest of the summer incubating and perfecting my Jabba the Hutt imitation.
Hohohohohooooooo....
Labels: Dogs, pregnancy, Travel
The weekend approaches
Saturday my brother will be ordained and officially become a member of the Frs of Mercy. But wait! There's More! Friday my Mother-in-Law is confirmed into the Catholic Church, much to the shock of everyone who has known her over the years. And Sunday one of the kids we've been sending books to for her homeschooling has her graduation Mass. In July, she's off to the convent. (Her choice, not some gothic parental thing to keep her from EVER.DATING. I know how some of you non-Catholics think.)
It's sort of an overabundance of good things, because unfortunately all of these events are taking place 1 hour south of where we're staying. Throw in the requisite follow-up receptions, assorted family in town, catching up with my MIL, catching up with the extended family on my side, extended family on Chris's side....Oi. I'm sort of torn. I'm obviously super excited about all of the good things happening. And just dreading the exhaustion I'm expecting to feel. I'm finding this whole pregnancy thing means that recovery takes twice as long as it it does non-pregnancy.
Oh the heck with all of that, we'll sleep when we're dead. For this weekend, we'll party.
Labels: pregnancy
Holiday Weekend
Random thoughts for the weekend. I seem to be the queen of random thoughts these days. I blame it on the pregnancy. Then again, I blame EVERYTHING on pregnancy.
- The weather here has been phenomenal. Sunshine, bright blue skies, temps in the 70s and low 80s. Just perfect for Chris to take off to State College for a 40 mile mountain bike ride with some friends. He was sweating it a bit that he was going to be "that guy". The only one on the ride who just can't seem to keep up. But it turns out that he was useful mechanically, and able to hang with two of the riders while the other two were definitely much better. So he came home happy and tired.
- We got the Volvo! Sweet! It took us 3 1/2 hours to do paperwork though. Alas it's been so long since we've had to go through that whole maneuver that we came a little underprepared. So that meant two trips - one home, one to the bank. Then add to that a few minor things that we were settling with the dealership, some computer problems, and we'll just say that I was quite ready for lunch by the time we left.
- Do any other Catholic women have problems with bellies so big during their pregnancy that they can't kneel? My belly hits the pew in front of me, and I can barely get on the kneeler. I guess I'm sitting for the next 3 months.
Labels: Car, pregnancy, Seasons
25 Weeks
Taken May 12, 2007 with my friend Anna. I'm the belly on the left. You missed the belly bucking contest that followed.
Labels: pregnancy
Dangers of Pregnancy
When you're car dancing to a little James Brown, your belly can reach resonance. Eeks!
I feel GOOD!
Labels: pregnancy
Thankful moments
Today was migraine number 8 or 9 since I've been pregnant. This morning's wasn't bad at all, but it left me like a limp dish rag all day. And all I can think is...how do single moms do it? I've had a relatively easy pregnancy, but there have definitely been non functional days/weeks/months when I have no energy. My husband has been a CHAMP through the whole thing. And tonight he comes home with Mexican food.
No, ladies, he is NOT available. Hands off.
Labels: Love of My Life, pregnancy
