Who would have thought...

• Rolling over in bed would require repositioning 3 pillows, one trip to the bathroom, and 2 hours to get back to sleep.


• The ability to cross my legs takes both my hands to hoist the leg up over knee, and all the strength of both arms to grab lower calf and upper thigh, at which point the process becomes futile and I give up entirely.


• Just the act of trying to keep my legs together and knees touching becomes an exercise equivalent to inner thigh work-outs.


• Putting on pants or shoes would become such a chore.


• Anything dropped on the floor would stay on the floor until husband, dog, or cat either eat it or pick it up for me. If absolutely necessary, the long toes I was (now luckily) born with become invaluable instruments, over the possibility of bending over to actually pick up the item.


• Spontaneous coughing, sneezing, laughing, or bending down result in uncontrollable bodily functions.

And to think I have 12 more weeks to go!

28 weeks

The project fondly code named "Can of Worms"

OK, we all know that having a baby requires more than just a few articles of clothing, a crib, and a blanket. It's hard to convince guys of this, but truly there is a lot more that needs to be done when preparing for a baby. I had started my project list about 2 years ago, have since revised and prioritized, and came up with the 3 projects that I wanted completed before we had a baby.

• Closet organizer in baby room/spare bedroom
• New carpets
• Clean out/replace air ducts

So the first on the list, closet organizer. Seems simple enough, right? Clearing out the closet proved to be the equivalent of opening a time capsule circa 1982. How to talk Rick into parting with his green acid washed knee high jeans? I kid, but we did end up with some items that could be entered into the Smithsonian. One complete truckload to Goodwill later, we are rewarded with a cleared out closet. Now we have to organize the 1) office closet, 2) two hall closets, not to mention 3) the entire garage, to find room for the stuff that once fit into a one medium sized walk-in closet. We then rip out the existing rod and structure, only to find that it had been glued to the wall, which now needs to be re textured and painted. Hmm, new cedar floors in the closet too? Why not! And finally, we get to the actual closet organizer install which takes an amazing amount of consultation time between us. No wonder The Container Store makes so much money with their storage systems just by offering free design consultants.

Next we have the new carpets, 3 months into the making. For anyone who has seen the lovely sea foam green carpets in our house, you may wonder how it could possibly have taken us this long to replace the carpets. Well, they say you marry your father. In this case, I married my father and grandfather. I have been hearing that the carpet is perfectly fine, in great shape, and "Do you know how expensive this carpet is? Top of the line!" for the last 3 years. I eventually was worn down, and also sort of accepting that I didn't love the carpet once I realized the amount of damage one landscape contractor (Rick), one dog, and one cat can do to a carpet. So this project had been put on the back burner until the thought that a brand spankin' new baby would be crawling around on all the god-awfulness that is the carpet. First comment from the aforementioned landscape contractor went something like this when I told him the carpet had to go--"How do people in 3rd world countries have babies? You don't see them running around on new carpet, do you?" Um, sweetheart, do not get me started on health care and life expectancy of babies in 3rd world countries. The 3rd world country comment has been brought up a few times since, related to other "necessities" for the baby. But I digress. Back to the carpet. After a very long process of consulting on the type, color, and distributor, we finally order the carpet. The other day we received a phone call that the carpet has arrived and will be installed on blah-blah date (today). I start to realize that there is a spot in the master bedroom that slopes down....oh yeah, we should fix that. We move the furniture out of the office, only to find mildew has taken up residency behind everything. Carpet installation coming tomorrow? It's 6:00 pm the night before our 8 am appointment? No Problem, we can clean off the mildew, re texture, prime, and paint the whole office and trim. Hmm, maybe we should move the cabinet in the master bedroom nook so that they can take the old carpet from under that too--uh, oh there's water damage under this carpet...

So really, I'm wondering if I should move on to project 3, cleaning the air ducts, because Rick thought perhaps instead of having the air ducts cleaned, we should replace the whole thing and also relocate the central heating unit to another part of the house so that it's not as noisy. Do you see my hesitation here?

3rd trimester

Entering the home stretch here, being in the final (YAY!!) trimester. I rewarded myself (not) with a Gestational Diabetes Glucose test this morning. The orange drink wasn't bad at all, the hour wait at the lab while my body metabolised the sugar drink was actually tolerable because Rick came along, and the lab techs were so cute and giddy over having a pregnant woman and her husband come in. Rick got major kudos from the techs (all women) for accompanying me. Of course, I could have done without the blood draw and queasy stomach from the 12 hour fasting and then 50 grams of glucose, but I have to say it was really not as bad as I had expected. Let's hope I aced this test!

What's this?

Yep, it's a 9 pound bowling ball. This is the analogy my Dr. used when discussing my upcoming delivery. She'll be a big one, this baby! It's still too early to really determine the actual weight, but I am going to start adjusting my expectations accordingly. How did this conversation come about, you may ask. Well, I was concerned that I wasn't looking much bigger than I had 4 weeks ago. I felt like she wasn't growing at all and I was starting to get nervous. So my Dr. whipped out her handy tape measure and said that not only have I grown, I am measuring 3 weeks ahead of what I am.

26 weeks

Happy new year 2008!

Wow, it has started to sink in that we're going to have a baby this year! With the due date being in 2008, it always seemed so far away and now it's only 3 months away. I can't wait to meet her. I feel like we already have a connection, the baby and I. She is already such a pleaser, and I hope this lasts at least until she's 18. I know it sounds weird, but all I have to do is tell her to kick and she complies. I do this frequently throughout the day, just to make sure she's still hanging out. It all seems so real now with the huge belly wiggling and jiggling around (no, not because of the fat, because of the baby). And you know what? I feel great! I really can't complain at this point. I am so happy and really enjoy being pregnant. I wonder if hormones have something to do with it, and if I can get a prescription of this stuff later on?