Still no baby.

Oh yeah, new pictures on Gallery. w00t.

(Last 2 pages of Joshua's folder plus last page of Newby II.)

No baby yet. The midwife checked me on my request. I'm nearly 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. No contractions, no cramping in days, no further signs of anything happening. So we continue to wait. It could be hours or it could be more than a week. Rain is in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday. My bet is on one of those days. Rusty's hoping late this week. Dinah is hoping for Sunday morning. If you'd like to take a guess on the day, click the comment link below and place your bet.

I spent much of today shopping. I got all sorts of things I've been looking for: socks for Josh, bath towel for Newby II, relaxing classical guitar music (to help put Josh and his brother to sleep), lamp for nursery, Big Brother/Little Brother outfits, a small basket for the bathroom, and most importantly a lovey (well, 2 actually) for Newby II. Josh's lovey is Puppy. He's had Puppy at his side since he began sleeping in his crib his first week. His brother has a Tigger doll waiting. I also got a honeydew melon per Preethi's suggestion that it's what sent her into labor when she was late. I'll slice it open Friday.

Other than making curtains for the nursery (I hate sewing!), I'm done with all the big projects and ready for this baby. But I'm also patient. I enjoy the peace, the freedom, the sleep, the time with Josh and Rusty. I'm not going to rush things until he's really late. I need to enjoy these last few days lest I forget how difficult the first few weeks are with a newborn.

No baby yet. No signs of pre-labor either. He's just chillin' in there taking his time.

After eating lunch with Rusty today, I got a sever case of no-motivation-to-do-anything. I started out string this morning knocking out things on my to-do list: take Josh to school, drop off stool samples to pediatrician (more on that later), grab caffeine free latte, talk to Bank of America about their 529 college fund, take Soymilk to Josh's school, start prepping fabric for sewing curtains...
...then I had a yummy sandwich and chocolate malt...
...and took a nap...
...and that's about it.

About the stool. Josh has had loose stools for about 6 weeks. It ranges in consistency from kinda-firm to oatmeal to soupy. I called the pediatrician about this a few weeks ago and the nurse practitioner recommended removing dairy from his diet and increasing fiber foods. I reduced dairy and upped the fiber to no significant change. So we took a visit to the doctor's yesterday and she requested stool samples to send off to a lab. Normally Josh has a couple BMs a day. But in 24 hours, he gave us an amazing FIVE poopy diapers. Enough to fill every sample container required for the lab test. So we'll find out if he has virus, bacteria, lactose intolerance, or just chronic toddler diarrhea. (Which does exist and goes away on its own between three and five years!)

Tomorrow morning I attend a market research group for a cool $65. The topic is about grocery shopping. I originally wanted to take the cash straight to a massage therapist on Thursday for some lower back and foot attention. But we're low on cash this paycheck thanks to the timing of a number of bills. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that grocery shopping is more expensive these days? Seems like we're spending more on food each week than we budgeted for back in the summer. Anyway, I'm undecided whether to use my cash for myself or deposit it. I want to treat myself but I feel a little guilty not giving back to the household. After all, $65 is roughly half of our weekly grocery bill- on average.

Time to pick up and prep for dinner.

Not to get anyone's hopes up too high, but I think my body is preparing for labor. I have two signs of pre-labor this weekend. We're still waiting and promise to get the word out when the time comes. The official due date is Wednesday (Nov. 7th).

Our monster house! raaaaarrrrrrr!!

Made of card board, painted w/ interior latex paint, held up by hooks on top and string on bottom. We had TONS of trick or treaters yesterday. We ran out of candy after 2 hours despite our full bucket of $30 in treats. Next year we'll have more candy and will probably add something to the Monster look.


Joshua was an adorable puppy. He had a great time collecting candy in his dog bone candy pail (made of an oatmeal box w/ construction paper bones) and handing out candy to other kids. His favorite treat: suckers.

This weekend has been productive- we got several projects completed around the house. My biggest priority was making the Halloween decoration for the house (it totally rawks and I'm so proud of it! Pictures to come.), followed by putting the crib together, installing the infant car seat and preparing for a play date on Monday. Somewhere in there I also did some web design work and managed to clean downstairs twice. Rusty had a few projects of his own and a few shared with mine. The nursery is almost finished. So close! I need to assemble the infant swing, check that my breast pump is functional and make curtains. I'll probably start on curtains later this week.

Josh and I are done being sick. We both had a cold this week and have pulled through it coughing and blowing our noses. Well, I blow my nose, Josh either picks his or asks for the nose bulb. Unfortunately, it seems as though Rusty finally caught our germs. He's going to take it easy, maybe staying home from work tomorrow. At least he can take more drugs (unlike Josh & I) and may have help in getting rest this week.

My mom is scheduled to fly in Tuesday morning and will be with us until Thursday afternoon. She hasn't seen Josh in nearly a year! This will be Joshua's first trick-or-treating and my mom's first visit to our new home. Until today, I was OK with the idea of the baby being born around Halloween, but with Rusty sick I hope he doesn't come this week.

On that note, I decided that if this baby is more than 10 days late, I will probably ask my midwife to induce me. If I haven't started labor by Nov. 7th (the day after the official due date), I'll start with all the homeopathic stuff like eating certain foods, massage, meditation, using evening primrose, and so on. Until the... we wait.

A Day in the Life…

People have asked me “so what do you do in the day when Josh is in school?” No, I don’t watch TV all day. I decided to record my every movement yesterday. I caught a cold from Josh Tuesday and woke up Wednesday morning feeling like crap. While the day was a bit a-typical, it’s really not far off from a normal day. Remember, this is my normal life. Not exciting. At all. So here ya go…

• 2:52am wake up w/ runny nose and full bladder
• 2:55 cover up Josh then go downstairs for a drink and snack (applesauce), watch the ending of Garden State
• 3:50 go back to sleep
• 7:40 Josh wakes me up by whispering “Momma” at my bedside
• 7:45 finally get up
• 7:50 change Josh’s diaper & put new band-aids on his scratches, get him dressed
• 8:10 get breakfast ready then take Josh downstairs to eat
• 8:15 give him medicine while he’s eating then write a note to his teacher about his cold
• 8:20 give him his inhaler treatment and put on his shoes
• 8:25 say good-bye as Rusty loads Josh into car
• 8:30 eat a bowl off cereal, watch CNN Headline News
• 8:39 answered automated call from UPS wanting to pick up a package (that won’t be ready to send until Friday)
• 8:40 call UPS to reschedule pick up
• 8:48 lose patience w/ Indian customer service rep
• 8:56 call Amazon.com customer service to talk to another Indian rep who speaks better English (who ultimately doesn’t solve my problem either)
• 9:20 while on hold, I look for an image to create an Evite invitation
• 9:28 call w/ Amazon.com ends, I resume creating my Evite
• 9:55 talk to Rusty after finishing the invitation, check email
• 10:10 go upstairs to nap
• 11:45 wakeup
• Noon check email while lunch cooks
• 12:20 watch yesterday’s Oprah show while eating lunch (Asian chicken noodle soup, apple, slice of cake, OJ and iced-tea)
• 1:10 text message w/ my mom while beginning to create an animated gif, and run dishwasher
• 2:05 take short break to check email
• 2:15 take a call from Fieldwork Dallas
• 2:25 end call (I qualified to attend a research group for $65), continue working on animated gif
• 2:55 give up trying to animate my gif, shut down computer
• 3:00 go upstairs to get dressed, then leave to vote
• 3:35 return home from voting, wait to leave with mother-in-law to pick up crib picking up around the house while I wait
• 3:55 leave w/ mother-in-law
• 5:25 get home minutes before Rusty & Josh (sans crib, SUV was too small), start prepping for dinner (Boboli pizza)
• 5:55 prepare table for diner, serve Josh
• 6:10 sit down to eat
• 6:25 clean up dinner, take Josh upstairs for diaper change and shower
• 6:30 Josh in shower, I get into pajamas
• 6:37 Josh out of shower, Rusty gets him into diaper and pajamas while I continue to pick up downstairs
• 6:40 sit w/ Josh who plays doctor w/ me and watches a little television, I give him his medicine and inhaler
• 7:05 I lay down due to raging headache (sinus pressure?)
• 8:15p wake up
• 8:25 check email, begin work on animated gif again while Rusty sits outside Josh’s door
• 8:30 catch Josh coming downstairs then sit by his door
• 8:40 Rusty sits by Josh’s door while I return downstairs to work on gif
• 9:36 finish working on animated gif (yay!!), brag to two friends online
• 9:40 sign up for hosting play dates next spring, reply to a few emails
• 10:10 watch more of 1408 w/ Rusty
• 10:45 go upstairs for bed, read “In the Beginning Was the Command Line” for a few pages
• 11:20 fall asleep

Follow up: I felt really bad this morning and slept in and did nothing all day long. Between headaches, sneezing, blowing my nose and taking two naps, my schedule was full.

Josh has a cold today so we're chillin' at home all day. He wants to go "ou'side" but it's raining and cold. And his voice is horse from coughing all night. At least he's in good spirits. He's dancing, ate breakfast and not cranky. Thank goodness!

We're spreading our memes through our son. He can now imitate dance music: oomp-cha-oomp-cha-oomp-cha... He can count to 20 (with help past 10) and knows his colors (mostly) and can identify all the basic animals and body parts- so an occasional useless skill, like imitating dance music, seems OK.

Today has been super productive for us. Josh spent the late morning and took his nap with the grandparents giving Rusty and I a few hours to get stuff done. We finished putting together the dresser in the nursery, prepped dinner, cleaned the house a bit and now are working on the Fox & Co website. Well, Rusty's fixing code while I take a moment to blog. He's grappling with making stuff work in both I.E. and Firefox.

Newby II is growing. People say I look bigger than the last time they saw me. When he's awake, I can count 10 movements in about 2-3 minutes. Joshua was almost always 10 movements within 2 minutes. This guy is between 2-5 minutes depending on how active he is. The weather is supposed to cool off tonight and tomorrow- W00T!! High of 66 sounds so nice right now. Josh will wear pants and a long sleeve when we go out tomorrow, I'll wear short sleeves and a skirt. I'm down to one skirt, one pair of shorts and two dresses. If these fail me, my last resort is a large mu-mu type dress from the first pregnancy.

Last update before I go back to web development mode: the hair is no longer blue streaked. Alas, it was changed to brown last week Wednesday. I'm getting used to my new, easier-to-style do. In a sense, I've lost an identity. But I'm still 5'10.5" tall, which really helps me stand out in a crowd and I'm the same quirky, goof ball I've always been. Just without blue hair.

Josh is tossing and turning right now. He's having trouble falling asleep tonight. We're reasonably sure he'll stay in bed and eventually fall asleep in the next few minutes. It's taken about 45 minutes to get to this point. :-(

However, overall, he's getting better. Especially in regards to sleeping through the night. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but the timing of his new blanket and 'big boy' pillow are uncanny. Prior to the new threads, he was waking up frequently at night for various reasons: lost his security item (Puppy), fell out of bed, had a vivid or bad dream, or some other unknown reason. After the switch, and getting over seasonal allergies with a moderate asthma flare-up, he's waking up maybe one time, if even! (Except last night during an intense thunder storm that even woke me up.) I want to say, "Aha!! It was the blanket and pillow that made all the difference!" But not so fast. The reasons for him waking up prior to the new bedding hasn't changed. He can still lose Puppy in his bed, still have lucid dreams, and still on occasion fall out of bed. So the mystery is unsolved. It's simply a fine example of how correlation is not causation.

Last week Newby II dropped a bit. This week, he's still low and a few people have noticed. My heartburn has eased up a bit, probably due to the extra gut space. I think my pelvic bone is a bit out of whack so I have plans to visit the chiropractor this or next week for a final adjustment. Rusty's been good to me by massaging my back, discouraging me from going up and downstairs, and he even clipped my toe nails this weekend. What a champ of a husband!

Josh and I spent the morning playing at Arbor Hills in Plano. We were invited to join a group of moms celebrate October birthdays. Although Josh is older and waaay more active than the group's kids, I decided getting out to a park near home in the morning might lead to a good long nap. So far so good! I almost didn't want to go though. The idea of chasing after Josh doesn't appeal to me these days. But I'm so glad I did go because I bumped into another moms group I know that was meeting at a pavilion outside of the playground area. It was like a blast from the past! I saw moms I knew from Josh was an infant, and now their kiddos are all as grown up as Josh, and a couple have new ones since then. I really wanted to stick around and chat, especially with a few I clicked with long ago and haven't seen in over a year. But Josh was running amok, as usual. :-(

I'm in so many moms groups these days it's getting hard to learn names. Here's my list of moms groups in order of longevity:

1. Meetup.com Tots & Babes
2. Monday Moms (aka Awesome Moms)
3. Presbyterian Hospital Moms (I'm not really a member anymore, but I run into them)
4. Carrollton Moms Group
5. Meetup.com 2007 Babies
6. Homestead First Friends (the neighborhood assoc. group)

I don't regret being so involved, but I do feel a bit pulled sometimes when something fun is going on at two places at the same time. My only regret is that I can't remember names or recognize familiar faces as quickly as I would like.

Josh is waking up. That's my cue to wrap things up. And scarf the remainder of my lunch!

I'm fairly convinced the baby has dropped a bit this week. There's more belly in the way when I sit down. Luckily, no one expects me to be lady-like when I sit. Today was my last day of prenatal yoga. I decided I was done for a couple reasons: one, the dropped belly is making it difficult to keep pace with the class and, two, my schedule. I'll continue to stretch and be active at home, I'll just not be making a 5 mile trek to be with others.

Besides, I'm eager to begin all the nesting things I want to do: make curtains for the nursery, finish wrapping holiday gifts, unpack stored baby stuff, assemble the crib & dresser when it arrives, stock up on baby essentials (i.e. nursing pads, pacifier, etc.), and most importantly make a duffel bag for the BIG day so we're not scrambling at the last minute. All these little things take time that I hope to have more of after next week as I wrap up two web design projects.

The midwife appointment on Tuesday went well. Blood pressure is very healthy (110/60), weight gain is good (I've gained 42.5 lbs. so far to be 164.5), the belly size is good (~33"), we have a birth plan and we have back up plans in case something (anything) doesn't go as planned. We're set! And now waiting.

I was so grumpy last night. We went to bed around 11pm. Thirty minutes later Josh wakes up for some reason and I attend to him. Coming back to bed, Rusty went from silent sleepr to heavy snorer. I grumbled about that saying something like "why is it that I get Josh and you get loud! Stop snoring." Then twenty minutes later Josh wakes up again because he lost his puppy. Then 15 minutes later he wails again because his nose is stuffy. Rusty gets up to help him with that. Ten minutes later for the same reason. Then 15 more minutes later for- I don't know why. I think he made some crying sound one last time in his sleep that I ignored.

Ironically I had just finished reading an article in Scientific American about how boys shorten their mother's lifespan by an average of 34 months and are rough on the life of siblings born after them. It's still speculation as to why this is so. If this evolutionary theory is true, I'll attest to it. I get crap for sleep on a regular basis, I run after him constantly, and he's just rough on me physically, such as wanting to be picked up all the time, bouncing on my lap and other toddler boy rough-housing.

<:-/

Feeling icky today. I've had an upset stomach and heartburn off and on since lunch. Plus, and I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think the baby is dropping just a bit. When I was pregnant with Josh, he descended weeks before he was born. It's now more uncomfortable to bend to the floor. My next midwife appointment is Tuesday and she may check me then. That' the appointment we also discuss our birth plans. Which Rusty & I need to review this weekend. We have just about 4 weeks left. Time's a tickin'!

We're monitoring Josh's breathing today too. He's been coughing all day and Rusty thinks he heard a little wheezing earlier. He spit up mucus and other food/milk stuff at dinner. But afterwards he felt better, the coughing reduced and his appetite came to full swing. He's had his rescue inhaler twice today with little improvement. Despite the news reports about cough medicines for young children, we gave him some cough suppressant before bedtime. So far he's sleeping and quiet.

I'm waiting a bit more impatiently for the weather to cool. It's the first week of October and we're still HOT! It should mid-80s by now. I remember it being chilly near Halloween both last year and the year before. Where is my cold front!?!?

It's Friday but Josh is in school because I have lots of work to get caught up on. I'm really striving to finish all these web projects before the end of the month. Having this extra day takes some pressure off of the deadlines. So far, I've gotten a lot done this morning and after this break will dive into my to do list again. Hopefully I'll be caught up enough that Josh won't have to be in school next week Friday too.

QOTD:

Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.

Moms Night Out last night was great! We met at Obzeet's for dinner/dessert and socializing. I had already had dinner (grilled ocean perch on rice pilaf with mixed vegetables) so I had a huge slice of chocolate caramel Heath cake. YUM! Among the five of us, we spent about 80% of our conversation talking about our kids. Other topics ranged from house improvements to bills to crime in the news. It felt so good to get out for a bit and connect with my friends.

Work work work! I have so much work to get done, Josh will be in school again tomorrow to give me the extra time I need to get caught up. I wouldn't have to do so if Rusty wasn't working on Saturday. I suppose if Countrywide is busy with campaigns that means business is trying its hardest to turn upwards without more layoffs. Which is reassuring despite the few weekends Rusty has to work.

QOTD:

Have you ever noticed that the people who are always trying
to tell you `there's a time for work and a time for play'
never find the time for play?

Speaking of work, I've got three website projects on my plate- yay! Two should be done relatively quickly, the third can wait for months as there's no rush.

The nursery bedding arrived this week- yay! It's all coming together. I have the major stuff taken care of, and now get to focus on the little things like pacifiers, receiving blankets, onesies, bibs, and diapers, to name a few. I still need curtains too and plan on making a trip the cloth store mid-October, unless I find a bargain somewhere that happens to match.

I'm relieved to have the majority of big expenses over with but now we're burdened with financial woes in the aftermath. After mortgage, a Visa bill, car payment and some monthly expenses, we'd eaten through over 2/3 of Rusty's paycheck the day after it was deposited. ouch! So we're back to limiting our expenses until we get caught up. To make matters worse, I'm not very good at adding receipts to our electronic ledger so it kind of crept up on us. I have two checks of income coming in this month, which will help, but only a little.

We went to the grand opening of a new St. Vincent de Paul thrift store today. My friend Dorothy has been busting her rump as project manager (that's the only title I know to describe her position though it may be inaccurate) for nearly two years, first helping to raising funds during the capital campaign, then pulling the pieces together for staff, facility, merchandise, donations, etc. They did speeching, ribbon cutting, free food and drinks, and even had a mariachi band with a Latino Elvis on a stage. I found a boy baby doll for Josh for a dollar. He was so excited to have his baby doll. This evening we showed him how to properly hold, burp and kiss his baby doll. Then Rusty took it a step further by putting the doll under his shirt to mimic breastfeeding. Josh thought it was just a clever game of hide-the-baby.

MINE!!

That's what Josh has taken to screaming when he thinks we're going to take something away. Even if it clearly isn't his. Like the lawnmower.

Tomorrow is my medical research appointment. You may recall from previous postings that I've enrolled in a pre- and post-natal medical research through Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. Yesterday and today I was on a special diet provided by the researchers to regulate and limit my intake of sodium, potassium, and general yummy fatty foods. I have a profound respect for anyone on a strict diet. It's very difficult not to cater to the smell of popcorn or pizza or cookies or invitations to go out with friends. In my opinion, they don't feed me enough. For the past two days the diet has just satisfied a feeling of hunger, but nothing more. I never get that full satisfied feeling after a meal. Tomorrow morning, after I take Josh to school, the research team will draw blood, make me do breathing exercises, will look at my heart, tilt me on a bed, take my blood pressure a lot, and test some nerves in my legs. After the three hour test I'm free. I plan on packing a goody bag to take with me for afterwards: a banana, Oreo cookies, trail mix, and maybe a PBJ sandwich.

I'm hoping the check from the research will be in by mid-October. I have a hair appointment to go back to brown (bye bye blue) on the 17th and would like to pay for that myself.

Bumble Bees!


Michelle of Bella Designs did a great job of hand painting these adorable bumble bees all over the nursery walls. These match the nursery bedding due to arrive next week.


All we need now is a crib and dresser to really make the room complete!

We think Josh has learned the word "crap" from Rusty. He started saying crap this evening and repeated the word over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.... He said it with various tones of voice, with a whine, with conviction and with all sincerity. We tried to change the subject, to engage him in another activity, to peak his interest in a new word. But all we got back was crap! I scowled at Rusty only briefly. I'm guilty of another word myself. Friday I discovered a sippy cup of water spilled in a plastic shopping bag of new socks I had just bought. Without thinking I exclaimed "ah damnit" in my agitated tone. Then, yes, Josh proceeded to say damnit too. He only said it twice but it's only a matter of time before he damns something.

Rusty & I spent the second half of Sunday sans Joshua. The in-laws took Josh to the Plano Balloon Festival while we ran a couple errands, went to dinner and visited a couple friends briefly. I got a sewing machine from Anne (thanks!) and a dinner certificate for Steve Fields- yum! It was the time with Rusty that I appreciated the most. It energized us being able to relax and focus on loving each other instead of multi-tasking and keeping up with a two-year-old. Love the kid to death, but I also love the little adult time we get these days.

Newby II has hiccups right now. It's such a weird feeling, those little thumps.

This morning Josh bent over to pick up a toy and farted in the process. It sounded like a muted machine gun. Then he stands up, giggles and says "I farted! hahahah Fart fart fart..." Such a boy!

He's counting better these days although he stills skips 'two' sometimes. Actually he'll 'two' and any other sequence of numbers he wants. For example, this evening he was racing from the front door to the living room window. At the door, he readies himself by counting then shouting Go! Except he counted like this: one four five six, GO! - one seven eight nine ten GO! - one three four GO!

My midwife appointment on Thursday went well. Baby measures a healthy growth, my blood pressure, protein, glucose, weight, all those vitals are healthy and normal. Baby's heartbeat is fast and strong, just like Josh's was. We talked about the low lying placenta. It has grown upwards and is now 4.7 cm from the cervix- which is great news. There are now no complications going into another natural birth. The next appointment will focus on our birth plan and preparations so Rusty will be there along with Melissa.

In other news, Rusty & I are working to pick up another client to design and host his website. He has a new business (that I can't talk about yet) and wants to roll out with selling it this Fall. We're waiting to hear from him confirmation to begin. Additionally, another contact, Rusty's boss's husband, wants to barter a custom cabinet he built for us in exchange for a website and some hosting. Since he already has the cabinet made I'll probably begin sketching ideas for him next week.

Speaking of sketching, the nursery will get it's final wall treatment on Tuesday- yay! Michelle of Bella Designs will come in the morning to paint the bumble bees on the walls. Now all I need to get is furniture, bedding and curtains, and the room is complete!

My feet are starting to swell. :-/