24 days of work

I was looking at my calendar, and based on my estimation of working not later than October 5, I have at most 24 days of work before this baby comes!! Amazing how when it was 8 weeks away, that's practically two whole months of uncomfortableness and exhaustion. But 24 work days seems like not very much, and omigosh am I going to be ready??

Here's something weird that perhaps you all can weigh in on: a few of the women here at work have started planning a baby shower for me. It's very strange, since there are at least 5 other preggos here at the plant (about 400 salaried people work here), all due in October and November. I have seen one other invite come out for a girl who's due Nov 5, but I'm hesitant to have one because what if not every one of those women has one thrown for them? It's hard to turn down something nice that people want to do for me, so I agreed to it. But I'm having a hard time with it in my head. It would just be after work in the cafeteria, probably not that many people, but I figure if people want to give me something, it's obvious that I'm pregnant and I don't know that we need a party to call attention to it. I also don't want the other preggos to resent me because someone thought of me and no one has thought of them (yet?). Then there's the feeling that if someone is invited to the shower they're obligated to give a gift, and I hate that. But, should I just sit back and let them buy me stuff?? It seems weird. I already know that people here are genuinely excited for me without having the fuss of a shower involved.

I went to the ISU football game last night, and did a good 4 hours of tailgating beforehand. It was really fun to get together with everybody again, and it was an absolutely beautiful day! Nicest day you could ask for to be outside for all afternoon and evening. The only bad part was that when people socialize in that setting, they tend to stand and talk, and I was always wishing there was a chair or a cooler to sit on. I thought I could handle that much standing and walking, but this morning, every one of my stomach muscles were screaming at me when I tried to sit up in bed, and when my feet hit the ground they joined in. It was awful, especially added on top of the exhaustion from having to drive home a very drunk and depressed husband, fighting post-game traffic full of similarly upset Cyclone fans, and finally arriving home at 11:30. I am so pooped today.

So yes, the Cyclones lost to Kent State last night - their home opener. I could've understood if they lost because they have a new coach and coaching staff and all new plays, but instead they looked just like last year's team! Typical Iowa State football. I would have some patience with looking unfinished and not quite together yet, but instead they're screwing up fundamentals and kicking field goals AT the goalpost instead of THROUGH them. As annoyed as I was, Travis took it much harder. Poor guy, he was so unbelievably excited about the season this year! If they do end up playing well, it probably won't be until late in the season, at which point it'll be harder for us to get to the games. Oh well, at least it's still a good fun bunch of people to hang out with, win or lose. I guess I'll raise my kid the way I was raised - Iowa State is still a wonderful place, even if their athletic teams are hard to root for.

Beautiful day!

I am so glad it's Saturday because it's BEAUTIFUL here in Iowa! it's probably 70°, nearly no breeze, no clouds, no bugs (for some reason?), and almost no humidity. and for once, no rain!!!! We have all the windows open in the house this morning, and no plans for the day except puttering around doing stuff - you know, the stuff you'd do at home if you ever got a chance. We have a chance! now THIS is summer. :)

In an unrelated note, I have a friend who is trying out for a reality TV show. She is awesome - this girl is a monster athlete in a completely unassuming shell. She did the 7-mile cross-country run with me last fall - the one where we were up and down ravines and through creeks in 30° November weather - and I kept up with her for about 5 miles before she flat-out kicked my ass. The more hits her YouTube video gets, the better chance she has of becoming a contestant. Please do your duty as an internet buddy of mine and give her video a look (and as tempting as it is to see what other contestants' videos are, if you do, you're essentially negating your vote! Just assume they're all dumb:) ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr2I6oZwoiM

Hope you all are having as wonderful a weekend as I am!

Anticipating the arrival

So, three separate times today I have had contractions that were not related to any kind of physical activity. Either sitting at my desk or lounging on the couch, my entire midsection gets very hard, which I might mention that the baby does not like, and thereafter it squirms and kicks for some time. I've gotta say that I do like the squirming and kicking in general, but it can get uncomfortable. As for the contractions, I guess waiting for them to get to be 5 minutes apart starts with them occurring 3 times a day??

According to Travis's friends, I'm supposed to have the kid on Sept 17 - just after the Iowa game hangovers have subsided, but long enough before the next football game that the kid will be old enough to bring along to the tailgate. Insane how the male mind works, isn't it??

For those of you who are curious, I am still clueless as to what to name this kid. It'll end up being something crazy like Anastasia or Clifford. :)

Travis was a pirate on Saturday. Yarrr, look at all our booty!! (foreground)

Wild weekend

I had an incredible weekend. I would still be flying high, but I'm too tired :)

Friday afternoon, I went home from work a little early. It was a rough week, and I was sure that I had cleared up the only issue of the day. I found out this morning that my boss had tried to get in the middle of it after I had left and, being poorly informed due to his inability to read the emails I send him, had confused himself thoroughly. Fortunately, he was the only one who seemed to be confused, and I cleared it up easily this morning, but COME ON!! Should I really have to scold my boss for nosing around unnecessarily, at 7:20 AM? Or, be allowed to? Anyway, I spent Friday vacuuming and cleaning and making sure the house was semi-kid-proofed. My mom, my sister and her kids showed up late in the evening, and we had a fun relaxing day on Saturday together, playing in the sprinkler, making a "lion's den" out of couch cushions, and coaxing Megan as she gets the hang of taking more than 3 or 4 steps at a time. So fun!!

Saturday afternoon, several of my friends threw me a baby shower, and it was absolutely wonderful. They thought of everything - fun games, lots of really good food, and incredibly thoughtful gifts. I am actually excited about writing thank yous because I am so overwhelmed from their generosity. Travis's mom came down for the shower, as did my grandmother in Ames. It was really fun. The shower morphed into a pirate-themed birthday party for my brother, who was celebrating the 10th anniversary of his 21st birthday. Travis put together a pretty cool pirate's outfit, and the party was complete with a pinata and "buried treasure," which was shot bottles of jaeger, tequila, etc. buried in sand. The party apparently lasted much longer than I did, since a day of keeping up with little girls and the excitement from the shower had me beat.

Sunday, I had everybody over for homemade pizza for lunch, and spent the afternoon relaxing a bit. We went to our first prenatal class in the evening - the first of six! - then went to Babies R Us to spend some coupons that expired that day. We got some great deals, and now our nursery is full of not only the crib and dresser, and all the hand-me-downs from my sister, but all the wonderful gifts and our thrifty purchases from Sunday. Am I jinxing myself by being semi-ready this soon before my due date? I feel like the readier I am beforehand, the longer past my due date this baby will wait to make his/her appearance.

And to be honest, I've had a tough time facing these next few weeks. I've been feeling physically and mentally wimpy lately, and the emotional support was just what I needed this weekend. I'm still physically drained, but I feel like I've got a better handle on how to face labor and life with a newborn after this weekend. It's a whole different game, up there between my ears, and one of the things I'm dreading most is that it gets more and more twisted up there, and harder to keep control of things, the more tired I get. You can see why this concerns me! But I have a really good support network, and I'm still a little anxious but not quite so overwhelmed anymore.

To end, I have a very funny story from my niece, Sarah, who is 3 & 1/2. It requires a small amount of background: Jenny's family spent the previous week in Rockford with my parents, where my dad's cows are busy calving. The girls like to be a part of tagging calves when they're born, and I've gotta say it really is neat. They're small, soft, and docile, and it's neat to be able to pet them while Dad's got them pinned to the ground. So anyway, Sarah and I were snuggled up on the couch Saturday afternoon, unwinding in a failed attempt to get her to nap. We were talking about my baby, and whether she might get a girl cousin or boy cousin. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said, "If your baby is a boy baby, we'll have to tag it in the RIGHT ear!"

33 weeks

I realize it has been six weeks since I've posted an "official" picture of me. Comparing it to the last posting, I've gotten lots bigger!! Can you see why I'm uncomfortable now?? :) It's funny to think that there's a skinny girl in there somewhere behind all of that. I can still find my waist, actually, since I don't start getting round until out front. My poor ribs, though. They haven't expanded nearly like I need them to. Owie!! And I have clearance issues at times, where I think I can move past something but I just run my belly into it instead. So graceful, as always.

Travis and I went to Centro for dinner tonight, a nice Italian restaurant downtown, to celebrate our anniversary. (So what if we're a month late??) Our waitress was preggo too - said her due date was September 8. I had been feeling pretty whiny about my job as of late - long hours, in the very hot heat treat area, lots of standing - but she definitely put me in perspective. Waitressing would be consistently worse. I have always thought I'm a pretty tough girl, but last night after grocery shopping sapped the remainder of my energy, I realized what a wimp I've become. Today, I took a "rest day" and spent most of it at my desk or in meetings, and it meant that tonight I actually had the energy afterwards to go shopping with Travis! We got items for the pirate-themed birthday party coming up Saturday night. I cannot wait for this weekend!!!

And because I promised you a picture of the "mural" that I'm looking at as I type, here:


Aren't you all jealous that you don't have this in your basement, too?? And this is just the focal point - it goes on, in both directions. It's too bad this picture doesn't show the lovely lake and trees hiding behind the desk. They are such happy little trees.

8 weeks left

I am unbelievably uncomfortable these days. I feel absolutely stuffed, all the time, even when I'm hungry. I halfway feel sorry for my kid, because it's gotta be crowded in there, and I'm just not expanding as fast as s/he is apparently growing. Most babies are about 4 lbs at this stage, which means in the next 8 weeks, half of the weekly weight gain estimated for me goes directly to baby. How is that even possible??? I feel enormous, but apparently I look 'tiny', or so my coworkers say. I was walking along next to someone who asked me if had that pregnant "waddling" feel yet -- YES! Here I am, right next to you, waddling along! *uuuugh* I am SO uncomfortable. I've been meaning to post a picture, but I am just too lazy these days. I'll get around to it soon, I promise, and you'll see what I mean about this all.

There is an up side and a down side to this ready-to-explode feeling. Okay, several of both, I guess.

Good: I am too full to really eat that much. It means that Travis has actually been LOSING weight, somehow, and dinnertime is pretty pathetic around here. But it's helping keep my overall weight gain a bit slower than all-out feasting would, especially now that I don't have that goal of Ragbrai hanging out there. Also, I am playing the Pregnancy card on things that involve going out in the heat (today's index: 95°) or lots of walking (sounds like the State Fair is out for me!) And, with less buffer layer between me and my kid, I can really feel when body parts are thrashing about. It's been pretty fun to realize those hard bumps sticking out are actually parts of my baby. And it gives me enough leverage to turn him/her to a more comfy position for me. If my bladder allows.

Bad: Every once in a while, I have been getting this woozy feeling on top of the general discomfort. It's like my heart is beating really hard and fast but my body is giving me the sensation that you get after you've been holding your breath, and all your muscles are so happy to have oxygen again. I kind of feel like I might pass out - I haven't - and I'm not sure if i need to breathe faster or slower? It's really strange, and if it happens at work again I think I'm going to go lie down in the nurse's station, because that has helped me today. I wonder if baby ends up sitting on some sort of essential artery? Of course, I can't get comfortable at night either, and resulting neck strain causes frequent morning headaches. Throw in the contractions I get nearly every time I stand up or climb stairs, and it's all I can do to be pleasant sometimes.

Travis and I have had a great weekend together, though. We got a lot done on the baby's room, and it's ready to start being the nursery. The only things in the room are baby-related now, which means the basement and guest room are full of many boxes to sort through. In that sorting, I found a bunch of my favorite children's books from when I was growing up, so they're now on one of the bottom shelves of my bookshelf. That was pretty cool to find :) It's been a quiet but productive weekend. I don't know that I'll get many more like this in the forseeable future, so I'm just relaxing and enjoying as best I can!

Stuuuuuff...

Ahh, baby stuff. It appears I can no longer avoid facing the facts that I actually will need things that I don't currently have in order to take care of the littlest Sullivan. Yesterday, Travis and I went to Target to try and buy the crib that we had decided on a few weeks ago and finally got the nerve up to buy. But it turns out that even though it's one of those that comes in a box and you assemble it yourself, the box is way too big for our car. Without a way to take it home, we started looking for deals on the internet, and found that this particular crib line is not going to be carried at Target anymore, so the matching pieces aren't at Target anymore either. Even though one particular dresser was marked down to a steal of a clearance price, not a single store in the entire Des Moines area actually had one to sell me. So, hooray for internet - we're getting everything shipped to our house for the same price as Target. What a mess.

I started researching high chairs last night, too. It turns out that some high chairs are better for different reasons - big kids are hard to get into some chairs, small kids drown in other chairs. Some kids like entertainment in their high chair, others need a chair that's durable enough to handle lots and lots of wiggling and thrashing about (I forsee my kid in this category). Some have easily removable trays, some can be washed in the dishwasher, and I will have no idea what I'll need until I buy the wrong thing and my kid breaks/hates it. Right now, I am telling myself to chill out and not feel like every purchase has to be exactly right for my first kid - I could buy new things the second time around if I really feel I need to improve. And there's always garage sales...

As I was reading the reviews on high chairs, I was thinking how great it would be if health care would be more like amazon.com. I mean, when you move to a new city and you need a doctor, you can ask the few people you know there, or just take a stab at the alphabetical listing that your insurance provider gives you (if you're that lucky). Wouldn't it be great if people could write reviews about doctors so you'd know how to get a good one? Like, when my OB chewed me out about Ragbrai, I would put that on a posting. When someone else has a positive experience with another doctor, write that up too. Then, maybe there would be some checks and balances to keep doctors from being arrogant pricks to their patients - cuz I could easily walk away and know I could find someone better. Hmm, I wonder which congressman I should write to with that idea?

The fat lady whines, too?

I'm feeling more blah today than usual for a Sunday. Usually it's my most energized day of the week, because after two nights of sleeping when my natural schedule prefers it, I'm ready to get stuff done! But last night, Travis and I went camping, and it was less than superfun for me. He spent the day tubing with a bunch of friends, and I joined up after the river fun for just the second half of festivities. Spending the day getting drunk and sunburned isn't exactly what I'm in to these days, so I actually got quite a bit done with my afternoon around the house instead. I had assumed that other people had done the planning for the camping portion of the trip, but apparently all plans ended once tubes were in the river and coolers were full and floating alongside. Nobody thought to bring food to the campground for dinner, except for what a few people brought for themselves, no firewood - nobody had even reserved any campsites! It thunderstormed for a large portion of last night, and since there was nothing but caffeinated beverages (or beer) to drink, I was wide awake for most of it. It was quite possibly my most miserable night in a very long time. I was physically tired from working around the house all day, but my heart was beating fast from the 4 oz of Mr. Pibb I had - ridiculous. Worst of all, it was HOT in the tent, so much that I actually wet my hair down trying to cool off, and I was relieved when the rain started. I was doing my best to sleep on my side, but my camping pad didn't provide much padding for my hips, which feel somewhat bruised today as a result. Also frustrating was waking up and realizing that I was feeling more hung over (headache and general crappiness) than Travis, who, judging from the amount he drank yesterday, deserved it much more than me! I thought I would be fine camping, since it's so much like what I was okay with two weeks ago on Ragbrai, but apparently I've gotten a lot bigger since then.

So, I'm done camping for a while!! I've spent much of today curled up on my bed, reading a book, and just enjoying being comfortable and well-fed. I guess that's what weekends are for, although I wish I had the energy to use my day productively. Travis is working on the car (tire pressure alarm went off for some reason, hopefully tire pressure!) so it's nice to know that he is rested enough to be productive after his day of playing yesterday.

On a totally unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot about my friends in Minneapolis after last week's bridge collapse. Normally it's fun when you realize what a small world it is, but in this case, I'm hoping that it's a big enough city that you all escaped without experiencing any personal tragedies.

The nesting officially begins

Here's a pic of me and Trav after the first day of biking. Keep in mind how unbelievably skinny he is for some perspective on how huge I am. My sister said it looked like I was trying to smuggle something under my bike jersey. It's pretty tight across the middle, but I wore it two days out of the three that I biked! It was pretty cool to represent Team Petting Zoo out there.

Those of you who are familiar with the bus will recognize homage paid to it by the jerseys with the stripes and flames. The animals on the back of the jersey were slightly more suggestive than the front, because what do you see while biking?? backsides!! There's a sheep, a beaver, a monkey, and a goat, to go with the rooster, cow, pig and donkey on the front. We were going for technically innocent but suggestive by including the slogan on the back "Why look when you can touch??" We also included a nontrademarked Cy leaning on a bicycle on the back pocket, and on one sleeve it says "Beware of the Goat" with the most innocent-looking goat. If you have never been on the receiving end of what Team Petting Zoo considers a "goat," you're lucky (it's a moon with a little extra, and it takes a Y chromosome to perform, or to think it is at all amusing). Considering all that, I think my friends who did the designwork for the jerseys did an awesome job of keeping it "PG," and I'm really pumped about wearing it next year.

For those of you with incredible internet astuteness, I will explain why you're getting a funny feeling about this entry. No, it's not that I spent a large portion of it raving about semi-suggestive item of clothing I won't wear again until next summer - it's that I'm reporting from the basement! Travis got motivated last night to move his desk downstairs, and although he grumbled about it, I think he's really pretty excited. He said this morning that we'd better hurry up and put a crib in the nursery so he feels like there was a reason to "banish" his computer to the basement, which I interpreted as his way of admitting he's excited about buying a crib. It's so cool. :) Of course, the next nesting project is to gather up all the excess stuff we have around, sort through it, then pack it into storage. Sounds awful, but it'll be worth it when we'll actually have a baby's room and a guest (grandmother's!) room upstairs. I think the front piano room will be kind of a playroom until we decide how to do the basement - fix the water issue, new carpet, and paint over this fabulous mural that I'm looking at as I type. Maybe next posting I'll include a picture of it. It is so lovely, I don't know how the previous owners were able to part with it when they moved.

I'm still feeling enormous. Much of yesterday afternoon was spent trying to dislodge a foot (?) from my ribcage, and today was particularly bad for the stretching sideaches as baby plays and plays and plays. I'm really starting to feel heavy now, and although I've managed to avoid such fun side effects as hemmorhoids and heartburn (so far), I have a morning headache that likes to stab me right above my left eye until about 10:00 each day. And most notable of all - I have finally identified that really tight, uncomfortable feeling in my belly that I get when standing after sitting for a while. Yeah, that's a contraction, dummy! I've felt them before, but finally just this weekend I figured out what it is. I'm getting pretty worn down as it gets harder to get restful sleep, and I'm wondering if I can really withstand up to 11 more weeks of this. Ooof.

And yet, I just cannot wait to meet this person!!