They're having a GIRL!!

Yeah, I never did get back and say whether they're having a girl or boy. But I'm here now! And imagine my surprise when they announced a girl -- I was sooooo sure that they were having a boy! I'm having a granddaughter! CRAZY!

So I came across and old blog that I found when I was pregnant with C. Nobody will likely care about any of it but me, but I'm going to copy and paste it here just so that it doesn't get lost. I find it amusing to see what I was going through almost six years ago!



Apr 26, 2007

First Blog...

Current mood:frustrated

Okay...this is my first blog entry so we'll see how it goes! The last few weeks have been interesting...I went to Arizona to visit my mom and step-dad, found out that I was pregnant (I know...again?), and now I have about seven more months of Hades. I am not one of those "I love to be pregnant" people. J2 cried for about an hour when he found out - but I think some of that had to do with the fact that he had watched a show on Discovery Health Channel about conjoined twins and was freaking out. In any case, up until this week I've been very nauseous and I've been biting off heads. Add to that the two feet of snow we got yesterday and the day before and I'm such a joy to be around. The wheels on the snowblower that we JUST bought fell off (just like that...they just fell off) and the cat was at the vet, having been declawed three days ago (sorry Barbie it had to be done!) - we had to pick him up. Well, we finally got the truck down our driveway (no easy task) and picked Kahn up from the vet. No sooner did we get him into his kitty crate and on to my lap does he stick his butt out the end of the crate and pee on my leg. Wow, cat pee REALLY stinks. Yes - I appropriatey freaked out. If I hadn't just spent $362.46 on the little you-know-what I think I would have chucked him out the window right then and there. My truck still smells like cat pee. So anyway, the sun is finally shining today and the snow is starting to melt. I have a dentist appointment so I better be able to make it down the driveway. Here's to hoping today is a better day than yesterday!


Apr 27, 2007

Happy Birthday Jill

Current mood:hungry

Hey Jill, don't know if you realize it, but today is your Golden Birthday...happy 27. Anyway, I don't have much to say today - I didn't sleep last night so I'm very cranky! The highlight of my day yesterday was getting a couple cavities filled...I also raided the bakery (Das Meyer) and I think my pancreas is protesting from all the sugar. We also went to Carrabas for the sole reason of getting a Dessert Rosa...yummmmmmm! Not sure, but maybe that's why I couldn't sleep. Anyway, I have a meeting and then I have every intention of sleeping the rest of this day away. I'm eight weeks pregnant today - only 32 more weeks to get through. 

 

 

Apr 29, 2007

Finally...Spring has Sprung!

Current mood:bored

Well, finally Spring has arrived. I'm hoping that we don't get any more snow at least until September! Geez, we've had a ton this year. Yesterday was so nice that J2, N and I took a ride out to Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison. J2's mildly into fossils and rock formations. It wasn't much, but hey, what the heck do expect for free? I actually had to put my AC on in my truck - amazing how much things can change in a week. After that we drove through Red Rocks Park. I can't believe that I've lived here for almost five years and have never been there. It was pretty neat. Then we got lost driving around, and eventually found ourselves in Evergreen. All in all it was a pretty nice day, considering it was just the three of us. Chris worked all day and J1 went garage sale hopping with Dean and Tracey. When we got home N and I napped for about two hours, then I woke up with a serious pizza yen so Chris and I took an emergency trip to Anthony's Pizza. Yummy. Then we stayed up most of the night watching crappy television shows. Now I'm sitting in the Real Estate office so bored and tired that I'm actually thinking about taking a nap on the couch, but it would be just my luck that somebody would actually show up then. Probably not a good idea.

 

 

 May 4, 2007

This Sucks...

Current mood:sleepy

Okay...note the time that this is written. Once again I'm awake. This is getting ridiculous. In two hours I have to take Chris to the airport to catch a plane to Ft. Lauderdale. I laid in bed for at least three hours before giving up and deciding to just wing it. Maybe once this first trimester is over I'll be able to knock the insomnia. I swear I never had it like this when I was pregnant before. I don't remember having a hard time sleeping at all last time - it just sucked because I couldn't sleep on my belly! Anyway, since I'm here I've decided to ramble a bit. If you don't want to read the mindless rambling of a crazy, sleep-deprived pregnant lady then feel free to hit your "back" button now. Otherwise, hold on for the wild ride.
I finally had my first ultrasound done on Wednesday. I've been meaning to blog before now, but I've been walking around in a partially vegetative state for the past few days (oh, who am I kidding - last few weeks, really!). Anyway, it was pretty cool - I got to see the little jelly bean and see and hear his/her hear beating. That's always a neat moment - you can't help but grin like an idiot. That little ticker is beating at 169 beats per minute. I hadn't had any sleep the night before (of course) and didn't have a chance to grab anything to eat on my way out the door, so when the vampires at the lab took half my blood I almost fainted. I think I was a little cross-eyed, but I handled it like a champ. At least I didn't puke all over the poor blood-sucker. First OB appointments are always awkward. Nothing like getting butt naked and discussing your children with somebody while they're shining a bright light up your nether regions. Chris and I were discussing that bright light right before the doctor walked in. I was thinking it would be a nice reading lamp. For some reason I thought of my mom and her sewing lamps. In any case, I shooed Chris and N out the door as soon as the doctor walked in. There are some things that need to stay private in a marriage. I don't need Chris looking at where the light is shining and saying "Wow!" Something tells me that our relationship would never be the same!

Anyway, the good doc told me that I can take Tylenol PM for my sleep problem. I took two last night and still didn't get to sleep. Not sure what it's going to take. It's interesting, when you only get about two or three hours of sleep per night, most of your sleep is REM sleep, which means that you are in a dream state. So when you first wake up (or in my case somebody wakes me up - usually J1) I always remember the dream I was just having. I had a doozie the other night. I dreamed that a tree fell on top of our house and smooshed it like a pancake. In my dream I was freaking out because Chris wouldn't call the insurance lady, and I was stressed out about quitting my real estate job because we would certainly need to buy a new house. 

The end of the school year is quickly approaching. Yay! I don't know why the boys' teachers feel the need to give them huge projects at the end of the year. J2 has a science project and J1 has both a EuroTrip project and some goofy ecology project. Of course, the teachers know when they assign these things that there is no way a kid can complete these without their parent's help. I feel like sending evil e-mails to their teachers asking them why they torment me.

Okay, this rambling could go on all night (but it beats watching Proactive infomercials on TV). I suppose I could do something useful like clean the house. Annie and David and Dean and Tracey are coming over on Saturday (technically that is tomorrow) and my house is such a wreck right now that I'd rather burn it down than have to clean it. Okay, that's a mild exaggeration. Maybe I should work on my novel, since I'm so wordy right now. Come to think of it, my best writing has always come to me in the middle of the night. I'm signing off for now. Really. I am. 


May 6, 2007

I lied...

Current mood:busy

Spring has NOT sprung. It's been snowing for three days straight. I'm so tired of the snow right now I could scream! And it's supposed to snow all day tomorrow, and maybe even Tuesday. Maybe, just maybe it'll be done after that...

It's been a busy weekend, considering Chris has been in Florida. I had company over on Saturday, then J2 had his move up meet in gymnastics. I thought he did pretty well, but I have no idea what the judges were really looking for. I hope that he passes - this is the first thing that he has really tried at. Then I had the neighbor kids over and we ate junk food and watched Night at the Museum.

Today was a little more low-key. I went into the real estate office and did a whole lot of nothing. Then I had a Taco Bell craving so I thought outside the bun. Then N and I slept for about three hours...then we went to Barnes and Noble and then ate at Sweet Tomatoes. Funsies.

I need to find a way to get some sleep. The Tylenol PM isn't working. It makes my face turn beet red and my heart pump real fast but I still can't shut off my brain. If only I could down a gallon of vodka or 150 proof rum. I know, I know, I'm pregnant and that's generally not recommended by my obstetrician. It's not fair - Chris swears by turkey or yogurt, but then he can just hit the pillow and fall asleep anyway. I've always been an insomniac - but now I'm a pregnant insomniac.

Craving of the Day: Baja Chicken Chalupa with extra hot sauce 

 

 

May 13, 2007

I Can't Wait!

Current mood:excited

I'm so excited! Chris and I are going to Maine and NYC in July - I just booked the tickets. It's going to be so awesome - we'll fly into NYC and hang out for a few days then we'll drive up to Maine to tool around with Angie and TJ. I can't wait to see lighthouses and big cliffs! Last year Ang and I were like Thelma and Louise - but with our kids in the backseat (lol). I've never been to New York (other than a crappy layover) and I'm pretty excited about it. Of course, all my pregnant mind can think of is...food...yummy!

Speaking of, Happy Mother's Day to me. I've deserved it!

Craving of the Day: Jalapeño Bites....Man, I need to watch out or I'm going to get fat! I did resist the Coldstone Creamery, though. I probably won't tomorrow though!!!! Also...I've been craving El Pollo Tropical's plantains since Chris got back from Florida last week. I am seriously pricing plane tickets. If Chris hadn't told me how messy his dad's keeping our condo I'd be there already!!!!

 

 

May 31, 2007

Yellowstone National Park

Current mood:cheerful

Wow, that was fun! Well, the drive wasn't, but the rest of it was! Most of Wyoming is kind of ugly (I know many of you disagree!) but the Yellowstone area is pretty cool. Sure, many of you might wonder why we would take a vacation to somewhere that looks an awful lot like home. Yes, we can see elk any time we wish, yes, we have somewhat of a bear and mountain lion problem in our own backyard. But for some reason seeing it at Yellowstone is even better! Besides, you can't see buffalo in our backyard! Also, we don't have huge stinky geysers and bubbling mud pots. For some reason every time I walked by a geyser the darned thing went off! I smelled like rotten eggs for the entire trip. But it was so much fun!
 

Jul 13, 2007

Ultrasound!

Current mood:cheerful

Today was our ultrasound - obviously not the exciting event it's supposed to be when you are not finding out the gender, but what the heck, it was still nice to see the little monkey. The baby is very healthy and VERY active! He/She was gulping down the amniotic fluid like it was Mountain Dew...here's a picture of the baby drinking away!!!

(yes, my child looks like the Predator. I'm a little scared!)

Aug 5, 2007

Our Vacation!!!!

Wow - that was a MUCH NEEDED vacation!!!!!! I have to admit though...the first part of the vacation didn't feel much like vacation. New York City is a cool place to visit - but I would NEVER want to live there! It's filthy, expensive, loud, smoky, and worst of all crowded with people! There are a lot of really neat things to see but next time I go back I'll make sure that I'm not pregnant! We did get to see the World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty, and Times Square ($17 cheeseburger!). We also went to a NY Yankees game, which was probably the highlight of Chris's trip, but I only mildly suffered from it. The hotel room was the size of a Cheerio box - and I'm only barely exaggerating!

The Maine portion of the trip was much more my speed - nice and laid back! Eating lunch under gigantic trees in Bar Harbor, whale watching, relaxing on the dock outside of our cabin, looking at the impossible number of stars at midnight - on one of my many excursions outside to the bathroom. I paid for that one - I still have so many mosquito bite scabs that it looks like I have the chickenpox. It was awesome hanging out with TJ and Angie while everybody else drank amazing amounts of beer and I drank blueberry soda. It was either my killer word skills that helped me win at Scrabble, or just the fact that everybody else was drunk, I can't say for sure.
Chris - Bar Harbor, Maine


Us - Cadillac Mountain (Acadia National Park)



N & Jen - World Trade Center




Aug 31, 2007

Big Scare Yesterday!

Current mood:embarrassed

Let me first start off by saying that with my first baby I went to 44.5 weeks - and then STILL had to be induced. I was also induced with my other two, so what I'm saying is that I've never gone into labor on my own.

Until yesterday.

I was having a crappy work day, the phone wouldn't stop ringing. I work at home, and the phone is cordless, so when I heard the phone ring I knew I had to answer it ASAP. Well, I was wearing these pajamas with really wide bottoms and I tripped over my own pants and fell right onto my belly. I wasn't hurt, but I thought, "what the heck", and I called my doctor. She told me to get in and we'll check it out - probably no big deal.

So I went to the doctor, and while we were waiting for the ultrasound room to clear she decided to do a NST, mostly just to pass the time. I wasn't feeling any contractions so I had no reason to do anything except get the ultrasound and go home.

But the NST started picking up regular contractions, so they rushed me up to Labor and Delivery. They gave me a shot of Terbutaline and I had to stay there for 8 hours! Now I'm just waiting for the results of a blood test, but I think I'm otherwise okay. I need to relax, but I wasn't put on strict bed rest or anything.

The lesson here: If you are pregnant don't wear super baggy legged pants, and if you do, don't run across the room for the phone - no matter who it is. It turned out that the phone call that I had to get was Chris calling on my work line because he couldn't get through the house line!

Nov 25, 2007

New Baby!

Current mood:tired

Name: C Elizabeth
Date of Birth: November 21st
Original Due Date: December 7th
Weeks Pregnant: 37w 5d
Weight: 7lbs 11oz
Length: 19 3/4 in
Gender: GIRL (surprise!)

Story:
It's funny…when I woke up that morning for some reason I knew I was gonna have a baby!

I had been feeling contractions for months so as usual I didn't take them seriously. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and after I left I realized that I was bleeding quite a bit. I decided to wait it out that night because the weather was a tropical 11 degrees with snow piling up outside. And I had never gone into labor on my own so why should I worry that I would this time?

So yesterday morning, as I'm looking out at the 5+ inches of snow that had already fallen and thinking about the extra 4 or 5 inches to come I continued to ignore the contractions. My husband and I went to town for a doctor's appointment for him (he had shoulder surgery last week) and then we decided to hit Johnny Carino's for lunch. After lunch I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was still bleeding. I decided to take a stop by my doctor's office just to check me out before heading back up the mountain to our winter wonderland.

The doctor checked me out and told me to go straight to L&D – turns out I was 5 cm dilated! They broke my water at 3:00pm and gave me my epidural almost immediately (I loved the epidural but it made me itch terribly). I had her at 6:28pm. I pushed for about 1 minute and 1 ½ pushes! I couldn't believe how easy it was! I giggled my baby out of me - it was so much fun!

She is GORGEOUS. Lots of hair and adorable chubby cheeks and rosebud lips. She's a big eater already. Her brothers and sister are seriously infatuated with her. I think we'll keep her!

Dec 26, 2007

All my days melt into one...

Current mood:exhausted

Merry late Christmas and early Happy New Year!

Everything is going well here, same old same old...sleep deprivation, messy house, and unkempt hair...gotta love having a newborn! She's a great sleeper - actually a little TOO good. She takes 2 hours to finish her stinking bottles because I have to keep waking her up to eat! It's horrible! Good thing she sleeps 6 hours a stretch at night!

N's doing well with her. She 'helps" out a lot by giving her nasty pacifiers and smothering her while she sleeps...she even has a nickname for her - Baby Poopoo. So sweet.

Mar 20, 2008

I can’t believe she’s four months old!

Current mood:sleepy

Time sure flies when you don’t sleep. Seems like yesterday I was still whining about my aching back but now I’m just whining.

Everybody’s doing well - it’s been a busy year already! My mom and Gerald came in January to meet C, and then we went down to visit them in Arizona at the end of February. My brother and his family were there and it was great getting together with everybody. I don’t see them nearly enough! Then in early March some out of town friends visited and we had us a heckuva time!

Now life is going back to the normal routine...boring, but stable. C was a super-duper sleeper - she was clocking 10 or 11 hours without waking up for a bottle. Then, who knows why, she suddenly decided to torture me at 4am every morning. That’s what I get for bragging to anybody who would listen about how awesome a sleeper my baby is. I won’t do that again. Oh yeah - I won’t be having another baby ever again! muhahahahahahaha :)

Sep 12, 2008

September 11th

Current mood:contemplative

September 11, 2001 is the Kennedy Assassination of our generation. Our parents clearly remember where they were and what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Likewise, we can recall in crystal clarity what we were doing when we learned that our country was under attack.
I was getting the boys ready for school that day (they were in Kindergarten and 2nd grade) when my mom called me in a state of panic. I turned on the television just in time to see the second tower collapse (we were in AZ and 3 hours earlier).

At that moment I turned to my boys and told them that their lives would be different from that day forward and that they had better not ever forget that day. Every September 11th they promise me that they haven't forgotten.

I asked J2 today "So, what did you guys talk about for September 11th in school today?" He looked at me quizzically and told me that they had a vote about it last week and decided that they wouldn't talk about it today.

I was appalled. This was a major turning point in modern history and these people deserved to be honored and remembered. Since when did junior high school become a democracy where the students decide what will be taught to them? Why didn't his teacher decide that this was an important lesson to be taught?

This upsets me on so many levels. I really feel like the left wants to bury their heads in the sand and just pretend that this never happened. They say that it is conservative propaganda and they are afraid to show any footage of this day or talk about it any more then they "have" to (lest they be accused of being anti-American). They are clearly afraid of the patriotic feelings that will ensue, and that will hurt their agenda.

If we allow ourselves to forget what happened it not only dishonors the victims of that day, it also dooms us to repeat it.

Fast forward to today, September 11, 2008. J1 sheepishly admitted to me that when he graduates from high school he wants to join the army. Stunned, I wasn't sure what to say to him. Somehow, I found myself answering: "J1, if that's what you really want to do then I would be proud for my son to fight for our country."

It made me think about that day exactly 7 years ago and all that has happened since then. Would he be considering this course of action if 9-11 had never happened?

It also made me think about how my 15 year old son wants to DO something to aide our country when there are millions of cowardly adults who would gladly run to Canada to avoid service. I'm not saying that I'm not terrified at the idea of him going to war. The very thought chills me to my bones. But when in our lives do we really have the opportunity to make a difference? And when that opportunity arises, how often to we jump on it? Most of us would rather run to the border. If he follows through with this dream then he can live the rest of his life knowing that he DID something.
Sometimes it amazes me that my daughters will never know what life was like before that day. It was wonderful being able to grow up and not know that there were people who wanted to wipe us off the map. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I worry about the world in which they have to grow up now that the innocence is gone.

 

I am officially a crappy blogger

Current mood:awake

I really thought I would be into the blogging thing a little more...oh well, who cares anyway?

Nothing too exciting going on these days...my sister got married, J1 started high school, J2 is his usual uneventful self, N started tennis on Saturday and will be starting Ballet tomorrow, C is now cruising the furniture and threatening to stand by herself.

Sep 20, 2008

N shoved a BEAD up her nose!

Yup, the title says it all. I guess it could be worse, what with my ear phobia and all. One minute everything is hunky dory and the next minute she's tapping me on the shoulder and calmly explaining that there is a bead up her nose and she can't get it out. Ugh. So I took her into the kitchen (best lighting), shoved a broken plastic fork up her nose and eventually pulled the sucker out. I couldn't believe a child of mine could be so STUPID!