Tick..Tick..Tick..

So just a little over two weeks to go. I'm obviously VERY ready. I'm also panicking that I'm not ready to leave work. It's so weird to think I'm leaving the education of my "kids" in someone elses hands. Have I left enough info? Materials? Guidance? I'm sure I won't think about it much once Max is born, but right now I'm anxious.

I bought some compression socks. I totally feel like an old lady wearing them. But they help a little. At least they help keep some of the swelling down so that Kendall can rub the rest of it away more quickly at night. I wish I could say that I got to enjoy a the foot rub, but they're pretty painful and I usually grimace through them and try not to cry out because it makes Kendall feel bad.

In addition to that irritation my right hand has now gotten swollen enough that it's irritating one of the nerves. My thumb, index, and middle fingers are now constantly numb and tingly. It's super annoying. And makes it hard to do stuff, like type. Or put on makeup. Or grade papers. Or eat. I'm seeing a physical therapist two days a week (hopefully only 4 more visits) to try to alleviate the issue, but it's pretty much a vain attempt.

I'm headed to the doctor for an ultrasound tomorrow to determine just how large he is. If he's big enough, I'm hoping that my OB will help me along early. Like next week. :) I'm pretty sure I'm not going to go back to work starting next week even if I don't have a baby. I think I just need the time off. I'm exhausted. And I'd rather be miserable at home. I didn't think I'd feel that way. I thought I'd work til I had him, but I'm ready now to just stay home and rest. At least as much as possible. I'm not sure how Kendall will feel about it, but then again, he's not the one carrying around an extra person, so his vote doesn't count for much. :)

I'll try to write about something more upbeat later. Sorry to complain so much.

My life right now

Did someone say something about napping and resting?? I am definitely NOT napping and resting. (Sorry Laura)

I get like 30-60 minutes of sleep in a row at night. Then I wake up, roll over (or should I say FLOP over), and try to pass out again, or I struggle for several minutes to sit up to go to the bathroom. I am exhausted. If I could get 2 hours of solid sleep between feedings with a baby, that would seem like heaven right now. I guess worst case scenario I have a baby that never sleeps and it will just feel like pregnancy never ended.

Went to the Dr today. NOT dilated at all. Already having uncomfortable cramping though. Oh, and I had to CRY to get him to schedule an ultrasound at 38 weeks to see how giant my baby is. He was like, "What's the rush? We know he's going to be big?" And I was like, "Because I need to mentally prepare for a giant baby and a c-section." And proceeded to cry.

*sigh* 20 days to go......

I Only Have One Thing to Say

GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

21 Days to go.

Music Review

I have a very eclectic love for music. I'll listen to anything from Mozart to Men at Work. I love the 80's, the 90's, and modern rock. The Beatles rank in my top 5 favorite groups of all time. Then again, so do the Jonas Brothers right now. :) I'll listen to ZZ Top and then change to the next CD and bounce along to Katy Perry. Lately though, I really feel like I've been into rock. And hard rock at that.

So when I bought the Nickleback CD, Dark Horse, I was excited. I really liked their last CD because I thought it had a great blend of slow and fast, naughty and nice, and just songs you can sing along to but also rock out. Their second CD doesn't disappoint. I think they find the same balance of wicked and wondering that I enjoyed on the last album. Out of 11 songs, there are only 2 that I don't really like, and only one of those two that I would actually skip on purpose. I predict that at least 3 songs AFTER "Gotta Be Somebody" will hit the radio and become hits. This includes "Next Go Round", "Never Gonna Be Alone", and "If Today Was Your Last Day".

"Next Go Round" is naughty and falls into the same category as "Animals" from their last LP. Lyrics include lines like, "I wanna cover you with jello in the tub/ we can roll around for hours without ever coming up/ I want you naked with your favorite heels on/ Slap John Deere across my ass/ And ride me up and down the lawn."

"Never Gonna Be Alone" and "If Today Was Your Last Day" are have soaring music and lyrics that most people can connect to.

"Never Gonna Be Alone" is full of lines that people in a relationship can connect to, "You're never gonna be alone/ From this moment on/ If you ever feel like letting go/ I won't let you fall/ You're never gonna be alone/ I'll hold you till the hurt is gone."

"If Today Was Your Last Day" has thoughtful words that aren't necessarily original, but combined with the music, make for another number 1 hit, "If today was your last day/ And tomorrow was too late/ Could you say good bye to yesterday/ Would you live each moment like your last/ Leave old pictures in the past/ Donate every dime you had/ If today was your last day."

I also found that I connected to other songs on the CD on a more personal level because of my own life experiences, and there were also several songs in addition to "Next Go Round" that were naughty enough that I'd have hot, sweaty sex to them. As Kendall would say, "The highest endorsement of them all." *wink*

Isn't This Great?!?

Jerk in a Ford Five Hundred

My blog title sounds like a country song title....LOL!

Okay, but seriously, I'm driving home on the highway from my haircut today and the weather is already bad so I'm driving slow, when this car comes flying up on my bumper. There was no way I was going to speed any fast than I already was, mostly because I hate it when people ride my bumper. Plus, I was already passing a long line of cars and wasn't going to get over until there was a clear break.

What really irked me was that suddenly I noticed that we were passing a line of cars in a funeral and the Ford was being impatient. Now my hormonal, pregnant butt already gets emotional, so the funeral made me tear up a little. What a dreary day for a funeral. Plus, the line of cars was really long, so I was wondering if it was someone young. On top of that, the jerk was still riding my bumper, even though at this point it had to be obvious that I couldn't go any faster. I know it was obvious because he swerved into the berm to see why I was driving so slow.

A few minutes went by and the hearse pulled over into my lane and the traffic people from the funeral home slowed our lane down so that people could get over. Now I know that technically it's not illegal to get into a line of cars for a funeral, but I was being respectful and slowed down so that the cars could get over in front of me. This seemed to enrage the Ford Five Hundred.

The first chance he got he CUT OFF someone in the funeral line so that he could speed up and get ahead of them. I turned and yelled at his overly tinted driver's window and then secretly hoped he'd get pulled over for speeding. And then I felt better. :)

Clarification

Okay, so I totally laughed out loud at the comments on the last blog.

1. I'm not concerned in the LEAST with my husband seeing it. He's my husband. He married it. He can deal with it. It's more the nurses and the OB. Whether they've seen it before or not, people talk. Why do I know that? Because my own husband has commented on some of the "places" he's delivered from in the past.

2. I was totally being sarcastic about suffocation. I'm hoping people get that I was joking....but now I'm worried that someone didn't.....

Excellent Question

Viki asked an excellent question in my bootcamp entry..."So, if your belly sticking out too far for you to see down there, what the hell are you supposed to do?"

I have two answers for that....

1. The mirror. I've already done it that way once.

2. My husband. And let me tell you...he's not complaining one bit. *wink*

The Economy

I paid $1.71 for gas yesterday. It only cost 40 bucks to fill my 26 gallon tank. That ROCKS.

So everyone has been talking about the economy and how it sucks. And how we should all be worried. I get the investment aspect for our retirements, but really, we're all barely 30 or in our early 30's, don't we have time for things to rebound? I'm not sweating my retirement account. It's secure. It's diverse. Am I stupid to have such faith?

But what I don't relate to at all is the job security issue.

I called my brother today to talk about my mom's Christmas gift. We were discussing how much money he could kick in on a large ticket item. What struck me was that he said with the state of this economy he doesn't know if he'll even be employed for much longer. He's a painter. His job directly correlates to whether or not people are building new homes. So it makes total sense. But I don't have the worry, so it never occurred to me he might be trying to tighten the purse strings a little this year.

Because of the nature of mine and Kendall's jobs, we don't really feel the effects of the sagging economy. Because really, we work in two professions that will always exist. Education and Medicine. People will never stop getting sick (good thing he's not a plastic surgeon!) and kids will always need to be educated. Now I guess my job could get cut due to levies not passing, but with the amount of time I've been working, my seniority saves me. Unless I really start to suck as a teacher, my job is safe. And even then, think about how many crappy teachers you had growing up? Yeah, even the crappy ones still get to keep their jobs.

Kendall's job is secure because Miami County is already hurting for family doctors. He's full all the time. Even if people start losing their jobs and subsequently their health insurance, he'll still have a job. He may take a pay cut due to insurance companies becoming more stingy than ever in what they'll pay for, but when it comes down to it, he'll never lose his job completely.

I realize that we are very fortunate to have chosen the careers that we did, but I also think some of it was intentional. While we ultimately picked our jobs because they were something we wanted to do, we also tried to think on a practical level, and that involved job security. Did anyone else out there pick a job that way? Anyone else not really feeling the crunch?

It's a Monopoly

So we finally had our last of FIVE baby showers this past weekend. Yes. I said five. I'm exhausted! We have so much stuff we don't know what to do with some of it! It's exploding out of the closet and the drawers on the dressers are rapidly filling up with clothes and blankets and sheets. We are extremely grateful to all of our generous friends. I'm still pushing through the thank you notes that I try to write in between grading papers and taking some time for myself.

We looked at our registry yesterday and there were several things that we still considered "essential" that we wanted to purchase. This included baby bottles, a second car seat base for Kendall's car, the changing pad for our dresser top (poopy diapers don't change themselves!), an extra cover for said changing pad (in case the poopy gets on the first one), Kendall's man bag, and one of those fleece covers that goes over the outside of the car seat so you don't have to put your kid in a winter coat all the time. So we checked our list online and then headed for Babies R Us with coupons and gift cards in hand.

When we arrived at the ONE AND ONLY store in the greater Dayton area (40 minutes from our house) we printed out our list to confirm the location of each item. I should start by saying that we checked at home that each item we wanted was still available in the store. We've had experiences in the past, buying for other people, where things just seem to "disappear" from the store and aren't available anymore. It's extremely annoying. And we weren't going to drive all the way down to the store if they didn't have what we wanted. Amazingly, the list said everything was still available.

What a load of crap! We we arrived and started searching, we found that the man bag Kendall wanted was just "missing". It was still listed as available in-store, but was nowhere to be found. No biggie. He compromised and got one that was very similar to the original.

Then we went in search of the car seat base. Nope. No base. The employee that we spoke with said that Evenflo bases were no longer being carried in their store. The Cincinnati store had 15 if we'd like to drive down there though. We would have to special order the extra base and it would take at least two weeks to get to the Dayton store. I was mad. We put that to the back burner, but we kept searching for the other items.

On to find the fleece cover. There was a rack for the covers. There was a price tag for the covers. But NO COVERS! Empty. Same for our back up cover that we had almost registered for. Now isn't it COLD outside? Shouldn't they have extras of these things ordered? Back stock?

At this point I'm super pissed. I'm 35 weeks pregnant with two swollen ankles and a stomach that sticks out to kingdom come. People have repeatedly asked me if I'm having multiples and I'm not having a good week (and it was only Tuesday). My doctor had just finished telling me that he wasn't even going to do any ultrasound until week 39 to determine if he's "too big". So not getting this item was the last straw.

I found an employee who was actually willing to help me and asked him to look in the computer for any back stock on my items. He was very friendly and apologetic. He suggested that I speak with the manager since NONE of my items was in stock. When he called her, she tried to HIDE in the back and repeat what we had already hear about our car seat base. He pressed her to come out and we waited. And waited. And waited.

When she finally appeared, she seemed irritated that someone might actually want to speak with her. I firmly, but politely told her that I thought it was ridiculous that three of my essential items were completely missing from the store. She tried to repeat that I could have them all ordered and shipped to the Dayton store, ready for pick up in two weeks. I gestured to my stomach and said, "Does this look like it's going to make it two more weeks? Furthermore, I live 40 minutes away. Can you have these things shipped directly to my house, since you have to have them shipped somewhere anyways?" She told me that I would have to PAY for shipping.

At this point I almost lost it and told her that I thought Babies R Us was ridiculous, inflexible, and unreliable and that it was obvious that the she and the store didn't care because they practically have a monopoly on some items. I told her I would rather buy the items off Amazon.com, where at least I could get free shipping during this holiday season. I think she just didn't want to have to deal with me anymore because she told the employee to just bill the shipping to her asst manager FedEx account.

Now why couldn't she have done that in the first place?!!?!?! I am thoroughly fed up with Babies R Us and refuse to shop there for any further items. I'm going to buy everything via the Internet or Target from now on.

Lessons Day 2

1. I really don't want a c-section. I was watching the video and thinking how jealous I will be if Kendall gets to hold Max for a whole hour while I have to lay there while they sow me up. Not to mention the fact that it sounds incredibly painful to recover from. I know that I have to do whatever is best for the baby, but part of me hopes that I'll go early and we won't have to worry about him being too big.

2. Did you know there is more than one way to be "romantic"? I didn't until I watched this ridiculously cheesy video today. At least they didn't try to "demonstrate".

3. Putting a clothespin on my finger cannot possibly be as bad as childbirth. Yet the instructor thought it would put some of the pain in perspective for us while we practiced breathing. My clothespin didn't even hurt...that's how I know childbirth has to be worse.

4. #1 from yesterday is still the most valuable thing I learned from the whole weekend.

Lessons From Birthing Bootcamp Day 1

1. Make sure it's not a "jungle down there". While you may not be able to see it, the nurses, your doctor, and your husband do. Not to mention the fact that your poor child could end up suffocating in it. If you don't know what I'm referring to, call Kendall. He can explain it to you in medical terminology.

2. Getting an epidural still looks traumatic. The needle looks huge. I'm sure I won't care if I actually want one though. I also noticed that in the "real life" situations they showed, all of the women who had epidurals were smiling afterwards. That alone sold me on one.

3. I know WAY more than the average person about this whole process. Having the desire to research it on the Internet and a husband who has a vast bank of knowledge on the subject have made me "too advanced" for portions of the class. I don't feel I gained anything from the morning session and learned very little except for 1 and 2 in the afternoon.

4. Don't mess with a pregnant lady's lunch time. The instructor decided she was going to cut our lunch time short by half an hour. I was not happy about this. I did not arrive back to the class until I was finished with my lunch and was NOT apologetic. I'm sorry, if the schedule says I get an hour for lunch and you try to cut it to 30 minutes including the time it takes to get lunch in a busy hospital cafeteria, all so you can go to a little kid's birthday party tomorrow, you shouldn't have agreed to teach the class.

5. I can't reiterate #1 enough. I'm still thinking about it. I may need to go get a machete now and start working on it. It may take a while.....

"O" So Happy!

Obviously I'm happy that my guy won. :) I'm not gloating or anything, but I'm leaving my sign up for a few more days. :)

I was supposed to have an OB appointment yesterday and when I showed up, the waiting room was empty. I knew that wasn't normal. My doctor usually runs an hour behind schedule EVERY time I see him. So when I went to the desk and they told me he had to leave to deliver a baby, I wasn't surprised. But I did tease the nurse and say, "I expect this same dedication when my son is born." She laughed.

My OB is a very vocal Republican. So is his partner. We knew each other pre-baby so we have a different type of relationship. I rag on my doctor and he rags on me. After one appointment I went out into the hallway and loudly said, "I just don't think I can let you deliver my baby with these types of political views...." The nurses know that I like to rile him up. I've even worn Obama t-shirts to two appointments.

So when I left my "appointment" yesterday, I asked the nurse for a sticky note. I placed my "I made a difference" sticker on the paper and then wrote next to it, "I VOTED FOR A WINNER. How about you?" and signed my name. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it, especially now that his guy lost. :)

So if you know anything about the Fairly Odd Parents, you know that Cosmo here is a little clueless sometimes. He says and does things that your typical ADHD child would say and do.

I've been feeling an awful lot like Cosmo lately. I feel like my mind is constantly jumping around to new thoughts and ideas. I forget that I've done things. I forget TO DO things.

Sometimes my mind will go from one topic to another without even realizing it.

So, in honor of Cosmo, and my super prego-scattered brain, here is a list of random things I thought about today alone: (Those of you that have seen the show before will appreciate my thought process on some of these. They really are Cosmoesque)

1. How can someone STILL be undecided on the election? The vote is tomorrow. Why would you wait to decide until you walked into the booth? At that point, aren't most of those people really just playing eenie meenie minie moe? They can't honestly think they're going to walk into the election booth and just know.

2. Ooooh, a tractor on the main road! I like tractors!

3. I don't like chewy Sweetarts. I only like the old-fashioned, traditional, crunchy ones.

4. Why won't my son stop squirming around!!?! Am I making him more prone to ADHD when I eat sugar? Like now for example, right after Halloween when we have a ton of leftover candy, am I going to make him a more hyperactive kid because of this sugar?

5. When was the last time I saw gas under $2? I tried to research this answer and the closest I came up with was in the late 90's. If anyone else can answer this more accurately, let me know. I filled up the other day for $1.93. Which led to my next thought...

6. I really should buy a 55 gallon drum and fill it with gas right now. Because gas prices are going to shoot back up and I would have TWO tanks of gas saved up that would cost me the same amount for one tank at 4 dollars a gallon.....

7. I wonder if Max really will come early. Wouldn't it be nice to have a Thanksgiving baby?

8. Mmmmm Taco Bell.......

9. Do I really want to be a teacher for the next 20 years? (I have this thought on a DAILY basis recently.)

10. Why is it 70 degrees in November?!?!?!?!

Ohio Issues

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/upload/publications/election/Issues_08.pdf

The above link actually takes you to Ohio's issues in this coming election. It is from the state of Ohio directly and gives both sides to the issues. It also explains in plain English what each issue is really about. I figure this helps back up Karen's blog from the Enquirer. She was pretty accurate on the issues.