The next 30 some odd days

So here we are. Firmly in the 3rd tri. Trying to be productive, yet finding so many things to get in our way. We have been insanely busy and November is shaping up to be a frighteningly busy month. And it's our last month to get anything done before the time suck that is our baby is due to arrive.
We have started baby classes (very brave and willingly Jim went to a 'Dads only class'), continued to remodel the house/nursery, visited with family, moved friends into a new house, and all of the typical chores necessary for adult life (paying bills, going to the grocery store, trying to stay informed on the election, work, oh! and have a social life too).
Coming up we have painting, lighting, trim work in the nursery, cleaning and decorating the nursery, 3 showers, 2 holidays, 4 or 5 baby classes, voting, working and the chores that come up every month as mentioned above. I'm tired just thinking about it. And of course, I'm getting larger and the aches of the end of pregnancy are starting to slow me down. Though I am quite thankful that I am mostly free from pain and have no real restrictions.
This was clarified for me at our 30 week appointment. I, as per my routine, brought a list of questions. One of them had to do with concerns about possible slow leaking of amniotic fluid. In debating whether to test to find out more information I am informed that if it is indeed amniotic fluid, then I will be sent over to the hospital for bedrest until I deliver. Not really what I had in mind for my day off nor the next 8-10 weeks. A quick test and I was dressed and waiting to leave for my lunch that I was desperately hungry for. After a little stress and about 5 minutes I am asked to get undressed again for further testing. Stress through the roof now. But I was assured that this is like a pregnancy test, it will either be positive or negative no 'well maybe we saw something'. Results in 5-10 minutes. Of coures we have to wait the full 10 minutes b/c it was in fact negative and I was allowed to go home and have my lunch.
So what did I do this weekend? Paint the ceiling and put one coat of paint on the nursery walls. I have never seen pregnancy as an excuse for being lazy or that I'm some kind of invalid now with my 'condition'. If I'm not put on restriction I will continue to live my life as I always have, though I am a wee bit more careful now. I just have less endurance.
So hopefully I will have enough endurance to make it through to full term (shortly after turkey day) even with everything we have in front of us this upcoming month. Though I'm hoping not much beyond full term. I do not look forward to being 40 weeks and even 1 day pregnant.

Random thoughts about... well.... not much

Why do I always think of great blog topics to share with you internets when I'm never in front of the computer? And why can't I think of any of those typically brillant Amy thoughts when I feel guilty enough to sit down and spend some time with my thoughts? Hmmm.... Universal questions, me thinks.
Anyway, I've been thinking about how blogs are like High School. This may be a limited thought out process, but hang with me.
So, many people desire to have friends or have the desire to be cool enough to be popular but not cool enough to care or state the desire to be popular b/c that would be uncool. Follow? Okay, great. So I think it's the same for blogs. Those who write them, I've found in my limited experience reading them, don't do it just for themselves but to also please some person or anonymous reader. Of course, if you were to ask a typical blog writer they would claim that they "just do it for themselves and screw everyone else who disagrees!" But I think that ultimately they are looking for approval. Either through the people they know who read the blog or through comments left by random readers. I must admit to this frailty.
You see, I want to post my most personal thoughts and feelings out there and feel safe from the glaring eye of my family and some friends. But at the same time I wonder why should I even be doing this time-waster? No one even reads it (though I have proof to the contrary, I just like to complain about how unpopular my blog is), I say to myself. I think I check it more often than anyone else does. I guess the upside of that is that I'm my own biggest fan.
I have found most of the blogs I read through another pit of HS-thenest.com Oh god, this is my internet vice! Like most internet forum/communities, people join, make idiots of themselves, fight like girls in 7th grade, discuss nothing relevant to the board at hand, and share links to their blogs. I will admit to 3 of the 5 above. And no, I will not tell you which 3. But I think the sharing of blog links is where people try to make their lives sound interesting and build up a loyal following of internets glued to the everyday boring events of people's lives. We're all just voyeurs. And I'll admit to being fasinated by others mundane lives. Although, sometimes you get a really funny or inspiring story if you can stick with it.
And most of these people I don't even know IRL. I would say that I regularly follow 8 blogs. And by regularly follow, I mean check once a day for updates. And being the hypocrite I am, I'm pissed when I don't get a new post once a week. I'm terrible at this, but trying people! Of those, I know or used to know 3. Less than half! Ack! But I get so caught up in the newest adventures their kids are going through, wanting them to get pregnant, wanting them to stay pregnant, greiving w/ them from afar when they have a loss (whether a pet or a pregnancy), learning from them, being inspired by them, being grateful to not have the troubles they have, being grossed out by them, the list goes on and on.
Sorry to get all emotional on you. Back to how blogs=HS.
I have also fallen into the trap of wanting my blog to be pretty and cute and attractive and slim my bottom half. Sound like a teenage girls wish for herself? Thus the current look to the blog that I still haven't been able to figure out how to fix. Nor the energy and patience I know it will take to give it the remodel it deserves. Oh well, it's functional.
So those are my completely incomplete thoughts on why blogging is like reliving HS without all the acne, body odor, and requirements for physical education.

Post from Virginia

So we're here in VA. We've had some delicious food, great ice cream, and good company. We have also had some interesting parenting discussions that came about quite unexpectedly. It is so interesting to discuss all the potential responses and how we see things differently. There are so many issues with so many nuiances that it's hard to know exactly how we would react and if we would even encounter those specific circumstances. I love to have these situations come up in advance so we can discuss and get things somewhat worked out. Though like I said above, there's no guarantee we will even have these encounters.
Well, that's all I'm probably capable of right now. I might have more on Tuesday when everyone will be gone to work and school.

Test results

Quick update from work: I had my glucose tolerance test on Monday. I was fearful I'd have to cut out sugar and carbs. Boo- 2 of my favorite food groups. Anyway that came back fine, but apparantly I'm anemic. So I have to take iron supplements. Yuck! And here I was touting to everyone what a boring pregnancy I'm having. Though I'm grateful for the boring-ness! So supplements, red meat and green veggies are in my future.

First dream about "our" baby

So the title of this post is a bit deceptive. I've longed for us to start a family for a long time. It really kicked into high gear 18 months after we got married. And then it was a long time until we were both ready and in a good place to responsibly start working at the whole 'getting pregnant' thing. So those dreams I've been holding onto for quite awhile. But Sunday night I had my first dream about 'our' baby. As in, the baby playing with my intestines right now.
It went a little something like this (please forgive me if it doesn't make sense or seems to be occuring out of sequence-that's the way my dreams always work!):
I remember having contractions, but then passing out. When I came to I asked Jim if everything was okay with her and he said yes, but I had to confirm with him that we did in fact, have a girl child. (This is b/c there is some debate so to what the gender of our first child really will be) I am then driving to the beach/a baby mega store with Jim's cousin Kendra and some other relatives, don't know why we're going to the beach, we just are. I start to freak out and ask where my baby is. They reassure me that she's fine, but I notice a lack of infant seat. They tell me they have put her in a paper shopping bag (like the kind you'd get at a department store) and she's laying on the floor of the front seat. I freak out, but mostly I think b/c I'm concerned for her comfort first and her safety second.
Well we get to the beach and I meet up with Jim there. There is a golf course there, but Jim wants to walk on the beach. Now mind you, I have 4 different slings all ready for whatever this baby prefers, but what do I do? I hold the baby in my arms out in front of me, not in a cradle hold, but like she's a wet sack of potatoes. And she's wearing some gawd awful hideous sleeper that is bright red and blue- thus also making me wonder if we really had a girl. I mean of course she'll have a closet full of pink and cute frillies, so why the clown suit?
As we are walking over the dunes to the beach we are walking through what seems like the 'yards' of a bunch of frat houses, only they don't have grass they have sand-duh, we're at the beach! Jim gets pretty far ahead of me and I have to call him back to help me scale the dunes with my baby being held a foot away from my body one day after having given birth. Totally not realistic-but whateves that's how my dream roll.
::jump from the beach to the baby mega-store::
I am there and decide to buy a pair of jeans. Don't know why I can find clothes at the baby store, but in my dreams it happens. I go to check out and am assisted by none other than David Cook, the newest American Idol. Don't ask why he's now working in a baby store, the mind is a magical thing! He gives me his employee discount, that's so sweet and unnecessary I tell him but he goes ahead with it. Then he gave me my jeans with a receipt. I ask, how much do I owe. He tells me, not to worry about it, the discount covered all but $.05, so he just dug it out of his pocket and threw it in the cash register for me. So I got a pair of jeans for free-sweet! I check the receipt and his is correct! $50 jeans for nothin'- well nothin' out of my wallet.
And then I wake up. Ah, what a story to tell my child. Nothing sweet or sentimental, or even anxiety ridden. Just typical weird dreams courtesy of Mommy.
We'll see what other dreams come up as this pregnancy goes along. I'm looking forward to lots of sleeping in when we go to Virigina to visit with Jim's family this week. Maybe I'll get some more blog material from that trip.