Pregnant woman vs. the volcano...Coming soon to a theater near you!!!

You've heard of the movie "Joe vs. The Volcano"? Well I'm not Tom Hanks, nor am I Meg Ryan ... and I'm certainly not Joe Banks the main character of the movie who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and fulfills the needs of a volcano god by jumping into a live volcano. I did however have a run in with a volcano of my own variety and not one of the volcanoes that spews "mag - ma" (said so eloquently in the Austin Power's Dr. Evil way).

Well after having such a nice night last Friday night ... (Brief interlude to tell this story first cause it really is the best thing to happen in a while).

Hubbie and I retired to the bedroom Friday evening and as we were watching TV, the baby started kicking...and kicking...and kicking some more. So I told hubbie to put his hand on my babybump so hopefully this time would be the time he would finally feel his own baby move. I've tried everything to get this to happen for hubbie. He was convinced the baby was messing around with him because every time I would call him over to feel a kick, any and all movement would stop. I tried not moving a muscle so that conditions didn't change inside. I tried whispering thinking maybe noises startled the baby out of movement. I tried snapping my fingers to avoid any sort of vocal motion on my part, whispering or other. So this time, I resorted to the whispering method (which one can't prove whether it was the determining factor or not, but what happened next was one of the greatest moments about being pregnant. Hubbie put his hand on my babybump and I placed my hand on top of his and every few seconds I would internally feel the baby's movement and ask (whispering of course) "did ya feel that"...to which he would reply, "no"...and so it went...

baby: [kick kick]
me: did ya feel that?
hubbie: no
baby: [nudge nudge]
me: did ya feel that?
hubbie: nope, can you take your hand off mine, all I'm feeling is your pulse through your hands?
baby: [left hook...jab]
me: how 'bout that one (resigning to the fact it's not gonna happen)
hubbie: YEAH!!! I DID!!!!
me: really? YAY!!!

It was really one of the most exciting moments to date. And proved Friday night watching TV in bed one of the best nights.

So now fast forward to Saturday night...a drive home from Long Island and the opportunity to conspire together about our plans for Sunday. We decided we'd have a "sleep in"...and this we don't do so much...as in rarely...as in almost never do we sleep in past 7 a.m. any morning. i know we're weird, but it's just the way our bodies are programmed. So we agreed that the best way to achieve said "sleep in" would only be to let the dog sleep with us...on the bed...OUR bed...in our room. See, there are two things I need to note... First, the dog if we left him downstairs would be whimpering at the bottom of the stairs at 4:30 a.m. waiting for Sean's usual morning ritual as he gets ready for work to take the poor dog out. Guinness thinks there must be something wrong or daddy overslept if daddy isn't promptly at the bottom of the stairs by the latest 4:15. Second note, we have a gate at the bottom of the stairs preventing the animals from exploring our second floor domain and getting hair everywhere. So every night we are faced with the dog walking us to the bottom of the stairs and more often than not we have to look back at his puppy dog eyes and deny him what has become known as "privileged access only".

This night however, he raced up the stairs and waited for our cue that it was time for him to jump up on the bed. Once he jumps up on the bed it's a whole other thing to settle him down because out of sheer excitement he burrows his head into our head/backs/sides/chest and of course I shield the baby from his antics at all costs. We watched TV for a brief time, rolled over and passed out with dreams of awakening at 10...maybe even 11 a.m. if we were lucky.

Well...at precisely 4:39 a.m. I awoke to hubbie....

hubbie: Guinness...stop that (thinking that dog laying there was licking his leg) and then followed by a comforter restricted THWACK (of hubbie's foot) across the dog's body.

me: So I sit up and survey the scene to find the dog ISN'T laying down...and ISN'T licking his leg...but in fact is sitting up...making the "licking his chops" motion with his mouth which can only mean one thing...

HE'S...

GONNA...

BLOW!!!!!!!!! ...any second!!!!!

So what do I do?

Well, picture a woman 5 months pregnant...flying out of bed...in point 2 seconds...reaching across to the other side of the bed (to hubbie's side)...grabbing and dragging the front legs/paws of what would soon be a 110 pound V...O...L...C...A...N...O spewing kibbles and bits and god knows what else. The damn dog even had the nerve to "dig in" his hind claws deeper into the comforter for traction and resistance against mommy pulling him off the bed only for the dog to face a 3 foot plunge to the floor...and once on the floor (which took about .3 seconds) I pushed his 110 pound butt out the door into the hallway. he was not going to get away with spewing on my bed or on my carpeted bedroom floor.

But it doesn't end there.

We have a carpet runner in the hallway upstairs and when he started his heaving I hadn't yet turned on the light but found the edge of the runner (he was standing on it) and pulled it out from under his paws (kinda like pulling a table cloth out from under a fully set dining room table). The dog amidst the heaving stumbled forward ass over tea kettle and hurled. The runner I had pulled out from under the dog was now what I thought safely on the baby's room, escaping the molten dog spew...but no luck, what I originally thought were dry heaves at first were actually the real thing...and ask me if I really was going to worry about cleaning a runner that hubbie found brand new on the side of the street in the YO which we didn't pay for....UMMMM...NO! So along with all the paper towels it took to clean it up (which hubbie did...I can only assume hubbie didn't make me do it cause I'm preggers :-) it all went in the trash carpet runner, spew and all. And the dog.......he got walked at 4:45 a.m. and then was banished to stay downstairs for the duration of the "sleep in" whether he liked it or not. Hell if I was gonna dart out of bed for a volcanic dog again.

So we pulled up the area rug downstairs so he couldn't erupt on that and once again settled into bed. And you know at that point, being jarred awake so fast and with all the excitement...HA...YEAH....EXCITEMENT...that's how I'd explain it...it was no easy task to fall back to sleep again...but we did it...and the next thing we knew it was 10 a.m. and we had pseudo-successfully achieved our "sleep in".

Note to the dog...your days are numbered for sleeping in our bed. I understand sometimes spew happens...but in 117 days...NO MORE!!! At that point, you're just going to have to suffer sleeping downstairs on your cushy umpteen dollar L.L. Bean dog bed cause once this baby is here...upstairs will be a distant "privileged" memory.

Tuesday confessions...10 to be exact...



Confession #1:
I chose to forego the usual bowl of oatmeal this morning and made a ham, egg and cheese sandwich.

Confession #2:
I don't want to be at work today...or any day for that matter.

Confession #3:
I probably shouldn't have had that piece of pizza with pepperoni last night, but it was a last resort and I had to eat something...okay, no it wasn't really a last resort and I could've just had a plain slice, but WHY?...the pepperoni was so tasty.

Confession #4:
My mind can only focused on vacation in Hawaii in 19 days...or 480 hours...or 28,800 minutes...or 1,728,000 seconds.

Confession #5:
I am secretly thankful that my new little niece was not named with one of the names we've picked out as our girls' name...don't ask...I'm not telling...I'm not in that much of a confessional mood...so FIDO (forget it and drive on) and wait like the rest of the world to find out the name!!!

Confession #6:
While I was trying to go back to sleep this morning after hubbie left, the dog whined at the bottom of the stairs and I had no other choice but to go and lay on the cuddle chair downstairs so that he in turn would lay down and SHUT UP...and I was all mad at him...but I do confess (but don't tell the dog) that laying on the cuddle chair and having the cat curl up next to me as I caught up on yesterdays episode of Guiding Light and Prison Break was SO AWESOME and I felt the love...the key part of that scenario was the cat curling up next to me and feeling the love. FYI...you know it's getting cold out when the cat starts curling up next to me again.

Confession #7:
At 23 weeks of pregnancy I can still fit into 2 pairs of pre-pregnancy pants...that's right...pants that are not labeled "maternity" on the tag.

Confession #8:
I was fighting with the closet this morning and started out wearing a maternity tank top under a maternity button down shirt, but when the egg sandwich from "Confession #1" decided to goober on me, I had to change shirts and wound up wearing a non-pregnancy Gap short sleeve shirt and because it was cold this morning I wore a zipper front sweatshirt (from Hawaii I might add) and what was I thinking wearing a non-pregancy shirt in the first place (ok, some I can still get away with wearing like the loose fitting ones...but this is a stretch one) and every time I move the slightest bit it rides up...like...above my little babybump...as in I now have to keep my zipper front sweatshirt zipped up to avoid skin showing...PATHETIC! I'll be retiring this shirt to the back of the drawer until at least next summer when I get home tonight.

Confession #9:
After my eye doctor appointment I'm heading to the maternity store to buy a couple more shirts and a couple more pants to avoid said scenario in "Confession #8" after my eye doctor's appointment this afternoon.

and...

Confession #10:
I admit my eyesight has indeed changed since becoming pregnant and whether I wear my glasses or contacts I wind up with a splitting headache and that is the main reason for said eye doctor appointment in "Confession #10" after which I am going to the maternity store.

Maybe after all is said and done today...when my eyes are seeing better and my clothes are fitting better I will have pulled myself back together enough to feel more human...but as of right now....NOT SO MUCH!!!

Uhhh...Ohhh!!! Baby brain...

This is going to take some doing to actually recall all the gory details of the "To be continued" part of the last blog. It's been a week and WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY RATTLE MY CAGE SOONER TO GET BLOGGING???? Hmmmmmmm? Grrrrrr! But, I'll do my best.

So I arrived home from my shopping excursion and what happened you might ask AS SOON AS I PULLED IN THE DRIVEWAY and IT TURNED 1 P.M.???? Well no sooner did my right front tire hit the driveway and the clock hit 12 P.M. and my cell phone jingled...and guess who? Hubbie! Remember how I said he wanted me to be out of the house by 9 a.m. so that he wasn't left waiting around for me when he got home after his meeting...well this little phone call was to make sure of that. And I didn't disappoint either. The conversation went like this...

me: hi
hubbie: hey, where are you
me: home
hubbie: I just called there, you didn't answer, where are you really?
me: I'm home, I just pulled in the driveway and I'm getting out of my car now. (when in fact I actually was thinking "HA...THAT JUST SHOWS YOU MR. CONTROL FREAK!!!")
hubbie: oh, ok...do you want lunch I'll pick it up on my way home.
me: ok, get me whatever.
hubbie: ok, see you in a few.
me: ok, I love you.
hubbie: I love you too.

So hubbie got home, we ate and then vegged for as long as we could. I filled out his sister's birthday card, enclosed the Old Navy Gift Card, sealed it and then went to get dressed in some of
myyyyyyyyyyyyy...
neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew...
cloooooooooooooothes!!!!! Yay!

We figured if the invite said 6 P.M. then we would have to leave our house at about 5 or so. And so we did. And hubbie drove. And it seemed like the drive took forever. Hubbie sat behind slow people (which he never does) in the right lane (which he never does) and when it should take 45 minutes to get to the YO, it took about an hour and 15 minutes and I didn't say anything (because well it's HIS sister's party and if HE wants to be late, then fine, I'm not gonna start anything over HIM driving like a snail...whatever).

We got to the exit off the parkway and he said, I should call my brother and find out what time my sister's supposed to get there...so he did...I thought it a little strange but again...whatever...HIS sister's party...whatever makes his boat float. And I didn't really pay attention to the conversation, I was more intent on the fact that now we had been in the car for over an hour and it was way past my peeing limit and I HAD TO GO!!!! And not only that but the baby was starting to take up more room and pushing on my internal organs and I had a pain in my right side at that moment...but I was going to just forget it and not gripe about it because it wouldn't do me any good anyway.

We found a parking spot, probably the FURTHEST PARKING SPOT away you can imagine (down the road a piece and around the block but the truck is new and we aren't too careful with our choices about where to park these days, so whatever. As we walked up the street we noticed a guy we knew from our YO days holding his baby who by the way had the chubbiest cheeks we just wanted to eat them (the baby's cheeks not our friend's...teehee) and our friend had the baby in a Baby Bjorn which Sean wants no part of by the way because he thinks if he trips and falls he'll wind up falling on top of the baby..to which I respond by saying would you rather trip and fall and drop/toss the baby? But anyway...Baby Bjorn...so sexy on a guy. So we chatted for a minute and then entered the restaurant and as we walked to the back room I told hubbie how I really had to pee and he told me I'd just have to wait...grrrrrr...whatever! And so we entered the room and let me just say it's all about the senses when you enter a room:

The first (both at the same time) thing I:

Saw: The back of hubbie's nieces' head (thought to myself all in a quick split second...what is she doing here already when she should be with her mom who this party is for.
Heard: S...U...R...P...R...I...S...E!!!!! by 45 of my closest friends and family members because we weren't really there for hhubbie's sisters' 40th surprise birthday party but for my 30th surprise birthday party...

What?

Huh?

Wait...this is just pure madness!!!

And I immediately made my way to hubbie who had left my side (he's lucky I didn't pass out) and gave him the hugest hug ever! and at that moment in time I truly felt the love...and nothing could truly be better than having my family and friends all in the same room at the same time even and being there for me no less!!!! :-) And I can't forget to shout out to the masterminds behind the party...hubbie (of course), mom, DL and I'm sure a little bit of some others as well. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I haven't had a birthday party since my 15th birthday (Holy cow that's half my life ago!!!).

So I made my way around the room, hugging and thanking every last friend and family member for being there and how much it really did mean to me that they were there...and then i got about half way around the room and there was my aunt from Vermont...(Holy cow, she travelled all the way from Vermont for this!!! How awesome!) and I hugged a few others and then...

THEN....

Are you ready for this one...

Wait...sit down first...

okay, you sitting?....

here goes...

my best friend from college (ABPL - I love calling her by all her names :-) ) pops up from behind the last person I hugged (my SIL) and I couldn't believe my eyes. But I wasn't dreaming she really did drive 9 hours that same day from MAINE...BANGOR, MAINE people!!!...to be there for my 30th birthday party...HOLY COW!!!...and not only that but she was staying at my mom's house and going back the next day on Sunday...another 9 hour ride...she spent more hours in the car than she did in NY altogether!!! That's love!!!! WOW! Now if the feeling I got when I entered the party wasn't love enough, I really felt the love now...who wouldn't!!! And not everyone was there yet, so when more and more people kept showing up, I got excited all over again and in turn felt the love allllll over again. And the priest that married us who is also a very dear friend of ours also showed up too.

It was just one big ol' love fest!!! And I had the best time...EVER!!! And no matter how I say it I can't say thank you enough to all who made it possible. Apparently from post war stories I found out that hubbie had a hard time making money disappear (from under my nose) from the bank account to pay for the party, mom would be typing an email to DL and I'd sent an instant message to mom and what she was typing to DL would start typing on the IM as a reply to me and she'd have to stop and make sure it didn't go through, and DL had a terrible time trying to get the picture of me on the cake (which was a conoli cake...YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!). All the little details all came together and everything was perfect.

Oh and by the way, I was so excited about my party I didn't want to leave for even a minute so I didn't miss anything (which means I didn't pee for a very very very looooooooooong time).

Oh and as I made my way around the room hugging everyone, I was reminded that hubbie's parents had three kids and each of them are 3 years apart which would make hubbie's sister only 39 as of the end of this month not 40. Ooops! How was I supposed to know?? I've only been with hubbie for 10 years now...whatever!

Where to start...the possibilities are endless...

Okay, chronologically is probably best...

Thursday...I went tot he Shakira concert with my friends and a good time was had by all. If I was a huge Shakira fan (which I'm not, but not because I don't want to be, just because I'm not)...I would have been bopping to every song she sang just like every other person of the some-odd-thousand-crowd. Wyclef opened for Shakira. Two things... The first is we were standing outside the Garden at the Verizon tent where they were making women "try" to shake their hips and body in a manner like Shakira...my opinion none of these other girls were made of rubber as apparently Shakira is, so none of them came close, but I must say, one of the girls I was with who unfortunately had originally been chosen to do the contest but at the last minute they "ran out of time" and she was cut from the lineup and we were forced to end on a note with a girl named "Veronica" and honestly, if I were Verizon I would've forced it for at least one more contestant to end on a better note. The girls were competing for the chance to win the new Verizon Chocolate phone. But once the contest was over the girl with our group decided to get up and dance there anyway just for the fun of it...one of those gotta get it out of my system thing...ya know!!!! And she rocked it more than any other had. The 2nd thing...we found our seats and by that time Wyclef was already on. We sat down and Wyclef started singing "No Woman, No Cry" and the baby started dancing and continued for about the next 1/2 hour and Wyclef sang on...and then...Shakira came on...and immediately the baby stopped dancing. Too funny, I was cracking up. As I said, if I was a fan of Shakira I probably would have been up dancing too, but I truly only knew 1 song Shakira sung the entire night...Note to self...I like going to concerts where I am sure to know more songs and be able to bop along. I also like songs in English that I can understand.

Friday...ULTRASOUND DAY!!!!! Yay!!! I worked for a 1/2 day. just before leaving I told my boss that I would be leaving shortly and what was going on for Saturday (the impeding "mandatory" BBQ at his house). It got concelled...woohoo...you have no idea how relieved I was that I wouldn't have to run all over creation on Saturday to be everywhere at one time. So I left work and then met mom and hubbie in the parking lot across from the hospital. The anticipation was killer, let me tell ya! We signed in and then had to wait for about an hour or so for my name to be called. When my name was called we were following the technician back to the room when it dawned on me that I should probably go pee...be right back!!! So on my way back to the room I cornered the technician and told her we DIDN'T want to know the gender of our li'l foot and be careful because mom will try her hardest to figure it out. So, mom had never been to an ultrasound before and it was so nice to share that moment with her. The technician did her thing and the baby again (this makes it twice in one week) was not the most cooperative!!! The baby was moving and had other ideas about how to spend that time. We saw the legs and they measured the length of the femur. We saw the hand in amazing detail...the little fingers are so long (and so cute) the abby definitely doesn't have my hands that's for sure. I have my father's hands, short, stubby fingers. We saw the little heart thump thump thumping away! The best part was everything was completely normal. The baby at that point weighed 15 ozs...Almost a whole pound!!!! Wow!!! It really is amazing! Because the baby wasn't so much for cooperation on Friday, the picture we got wasn't the greatest, but I LOVE IT all the same...(I'll post the pic tomorrow, it's giving me a hard time loading it)!!

After the ultrasound, we raced home, got hubbie ready for his softball game and snagged the dog so I could take him across the street from hubbie's softball game to the dog park. The dog park...not so much fun anymore. They've cut down trees because apparently a gas line runs underneath it and the gas company came and chopped the trees down. The doggie water fountain...doesn't work anymore. It used to be such a nice place, and now...not so much! But, hubbie won his softball game. it was a playoff game, so winning that put him in the championship games...which are tonight...tune in tomorrow for the results.

Saturday...hubbie had a meeting in the morning so I was to fend for myself. But I had things to accomplish so I couldn't fart around the whole time. I watched the 15,000th episode of Guiding Light from Thursday and gasp Guiding Light was pre-empted on Friday (probably because of tennis or something who knows, but Dr. Phil just doesn't cut it for me and is no replacement for a good juicy episode of Guiding Light. I showered, got dressed and almost made it out of the house by the requested time of hubbie...9 a.m...it was more like 9:05 a.m. Not bad! And off I went, where to first? I knew we'd need gas, so I descended upon the cheapest gas station in the area at a whopping $2.77 a gallon...$45.00 later...I made my way to the mall where I was so glad I left so early because NOTHING WAS OPEN YET! Except of course the Old Navy...which is exactly where I needed to go to get the gift card for my sister-in-law (for future purposes I'm stealing the abbreviation for sister-in-law from AK...from now on it will be SIL...thanks AK!). So I first browsed the maternity section only to find a section within that said "SALE - $1.99"...yeah right...whatever...we'll see when we get to the check out what was actually $1.99. It turned out only a bottom of a bathing suit bikini came close to said "$1.99" it was even cheaper at a whopping .97 cents...can't beat it so I bought it! I also bought a white maternity t-shirt that was really cute and although also on the "$1.99" rack was $5. I included the $40 gift card and off I went to my next venture...I had to find a card for said SIL. So off I went to the CVS...whereupon it dawned on me I have my friend's baby shower this upcoming weekend. I still needed the baby shower card for the gift, and tissue paper and a gift bag for her present...just in case she read this, I'm not telling you what it is. AlsoI am in charge of games. I created a baby shower bingo game card and I decided it would be nice to get some nice prizes. I began brain storming and decided I'd run through my idea with AK just to make sure it was ok. So I called and she sounded funny. She said she was watching Gilmore Girls and painting her toeselies. I ran through the idea, she said it was fine and we parted phone waves! So, off I was to my next stop. I was off to Yankee Candle where I picked up a little candle-ish something or other and then I was off to Bath & Body Works whereupon entering the store I was struck by the most beautiful smell which happened to be a scented oil burner which was currently burning the "warm vanilla coconut" scent...and while I would have loved to purchase it...I couldn't because they were sold out of it...WHY, WHY, WHY do they burn something they don't have in the first place and when I asked a sales associate about it, she said, "Well we have this nice coconut scent"! HELLO...did I ask for COCONUT???????? NO!!!!!!! So I found a little Sweet Pea scented gift basket type thing and off I went to the next place, which was the nail salon to buy the 3rd and final prize, a gift certificate for a manicure. Then, I made what I thought would be my final stop. Hubbie had made some fabulous mashed potatoes (I'm talking made from SCRATCH people!!!) but he complained that the potatoes were too lumpy so I pit stopped in Williams Sonoma where i found and purchased the potato ricer he was drooling over in the Williams Sonoma catalog last week (coincidentally the day after we had the mashed potatoes). And then...THEN...I had to walk out the front door...and it just so happens the front door is in the direct vicinity of TJ Cinnamons...and for those of you who are virgins to TJ Cinnamon, it is much like Cinnabon but A MILLION-TIMES-BETTER-THAN-THAT-CRAP! I just so happened to have enough cash left over and since the aroma of cinnamon was wafting through out that entire quadrant of the mall...the baby made me do it!!! Seriously! I ate a TJ Cinnamon bun of the walnut on top variety out in the parking lot by my car on the little grassy area next to my car and cars drove by and all I could think was..."Haven't you gawkers ever seen a pregnant woman eat a Cinnamon bun before...stop staring!!!" I was a little upset when I dropped a perfectly good walnut on the grass and had to resist the urge to pick it up and threw it under my tire instead. All i could think while i sat there indulging in such bliss was..."Ohhhh baby, you'll get you'll be feeling the effects of your first TJ Cinnamon roll in about a half hour!" Teehee!!!

So the mall excursion was done...but I wasn't...I drove down the road a piece to the maternity store and spent oh and good hour in there...at least! At first I picked up about 5 or 6 items that were on sale and a nice sales associate came over and asked if she could start a fitting room for me. Sure, why not! She relieved my weighted down arms and I continued to browse. Picking up odds and end as I went...and soon enough the sales associate was back, "Can I take those and add them to your dressing room for you?" Sure, why not! This went on about 2 more times and then I thought I better get in there because i had completely lost track of exactly HOW MUCH stuff was in there and I might be in there forever if I didn't quit. I didn't do so bad. Out of maybe 20-25 or so items, I bought about 7 of them and all but one was on sale. So i only paid full price for one item but it wasn't that expensive to begin with.

I was off one more time, only this time to home...and there's more to this story, but I have to leave for hubbie's softball championship now so this is

TO BE CONTINUED...

(Don't you hate when they do that on your favorite TV show and you wait an entire to week to see the outcome...me too, but tough...I have to go!

Hmmmmm...baby brain...placenta head...whatever you want to call it!!!!

This is now the second time I am typing this as my stupid web browser crashed as I was trying to log on to Sirius satellite radio so as to drown out the jerk who sits in the next seat over from mine who is incessantly clicking his mouse to scroll down or something and it irritating the living you know what out of my ears....grrrrrrrrr! I really need the ear plug that the doctor just surgically removed from my niece's ear after being in there for over a month...YUCK...never mind I'll get my own new ear plugs as that one is probably less than sterile.

Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. I just had to click on the "Forgot Password" button on the blogger homepage and while I was at it, I had to click on the "Forgot Username too" button as well. I've fought it off as long as humanly possible, but I think the forgetfulness of pregnancy is starting to take over. (If only I could just happen to "forget" to go to my bosses house upstate on Saturday for what he calls a "mandatory department meeting BBQ". My ass mandatory buddy!!!! more about that later) So it's only because I was emailed my username and was able to recreate my password that I am able to bring you this blog! Ugh! I am not a forgetful person, but I guess the brain reached its capacity for the year.

I went to the doctor yesterday and met the "new" doctor in the medical group that I was stressing in my premiere blog. It didn't go as badly as I thought it would. She was actually very nice, she was no Dr. McG, but she was okay. I think one of two things was going on yesterday. As she put the doppler on my stomach to hear li'l foot's heartbeat and moved it here, there and EVERYWHERE the heartbeat was hiding. Now, I can only deduct one of two things...either she's a bit new to this whole scene or the baby just didn't want to cooperate yesterday and was busy doing other things inside......or maybe a combo of the two! Who knows! But the doctor was trying to find the heartbeat for a good 5 minutes. She was finally able to hear it but not without a li'l foot fight...I think li'l foot just wanted it to be over...but again who knows! The doctor measured my belly (the placenta) and it was right on target at 20 centimeters. My next appointment is scheduled for October 2nd (my grandmother's birthday (God rest her little soul) and coincidentally the day after my birthday.....YAY...my 30TH BIRTHDAY people!!!!!!!) and guess what...the next appointment is schedule with Dr. McG...YAY!!!!!!!

But what am I most excited about right now...at this very moment...well, I'll tell you! Tomorrow we have our Level II ultrasound at the hospital for our 20 week ultrasound. That's right, I have reached the half way mark and we are so excited to see the baby and say hi tomorrow afternoon to li'l foot...I'll say hi to li'l foot for you too!!! We asked my mom to come with us because we'd love for her to have a live shot of li'l foot instead of a picture after the fact. What better gift to give mom for grandparent's day (which is this Sunday by the way)...Happy Grandparent's Day mom!!!!!

So what else am I excited about...well I ordered
this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and......this...




In order those items are a night light, switch plate, hamper, lamp, growth wall chart, shelf and hook to hang on the wall and a little rug. Each item is an extra accent piece of the bedding set I chose for the baby's room. I registered for all the other pieces but the registry doesn't have these pieces so why not get them on my own. Who's gonna argue with me...I'm pregnant remember!!!! I'm sure someone would have something to say but isn't and I really don't care because they couldn't have been delivered to my house at a better time. After a less than desirable weekend and my separation anxiety from being apart from hubbie for the past few days and having to work on Tuesday I took yesterday off to go to the doctor and then we went to lunch at a cute little Mexican place and then we bought a black & white cookie and went to the park to eat it and enjoy the outdoors and then we went to the Gap where by the way I bought the baby's Halloween outfits (not costume...just outfits for the week of Halloween) for NEXT year...that's right I totally went there...the baby isn't even born and I bought outfits for more than a year in advance...got a problem with that...tough...they were cute. Will they go on sale by the end of October this year...most likely...will they have the size I want...probably not!!!! And these 4 little outfits included buying a little pumpkin hat complete with the green stem on top of it...SO CUTE...you just wait and see!!! So then we went to our dermatologist appointment in which we both got a clean bill of skin health. Although Sean got the "you really shouldn't get tattoos in case I have to remove a mole or something from that spot" speech from the doc. Teehee...again...doc didn't give me any problem with my tattoo on my hip...no one wants to mess with the pregnant woman and tell her what she can and can't do...gotta love it (although it really was that he probably didn't care as much about mine as he did about hubbie's because hubbie is prone to more moles and stuff being Irish and all)! We arrived home and as we opened the door (the cleaning people had been there earlier in the day...and by the way they clean our house every other week since last Thanksgiving season and I still have yet to meet them) and as I opened the door they had taken in the UPS boxes that had been delivered with the said above items. And it was just a better day than I had had in a while so the boxes couldn't have had better timing and it was so nice to go through everything and think about the baby. There also was a purpose involved in buying this stuff too. We need to paint the baby's room and in order to do that I needed to see the color in the set so we could choose the right color. There is a method to the madness...trust me!

If you're curious, this is the crib set I chose that goes with all the extras above...

It's a set called Alphabet Soup by a company called Cocalo. I especially LOVE the fact that it ISN'T light green or light yellow (the universal sign/color for "we don't know what the hell we're having so we can't choose pink or blue"). And since it's primary colors the baby will be able to focus on the colors sooner (babies have a hard time focusing on those light baby colors just in case you were wondering. So in keeping with that NO GREEN OR YELLOW scheme, we are painting the baby's room Orange, kind of like an orange as appears a little bit in the set but you'll just have to wait and see when it's done (I'll take pix but it's a ways off (haven't even bought paint or even decided the exact color orange) at this point so don't hold your breath).

So overall I'm feeling much better, my bronchitis is gone, just a lingering sniffle here and there but I don't think that's gonna go away..it's an occupational hazard of being preggers. I feel the baby move at least 3 or 4 times a day now...poor hubbie thinks the baby is messing with him because anytime I tell him the baby is moving he comes rushing over to feel it but then the baby stops moving...but hubbies say will come too. I love laying in bed at the end of the day and having hubbie turn to me and be taken aback because the every growing belly is not disappointing each and every day. It's growing and as it grows our excitement grows too. Although at work I still have people tell me I don't look pregnant, like this morning for instance when I was in the cafeteria and some commented that very thing and how she has a friend who was out to here when she was 20 weeks. I guess it helps that I am still wearing my pre-pregnancy pants (or some of them anyway...woohoo). Shirts are another story, but whatever!

One last thought about that stupid BBQ I mentioned at the start of this entry. It is the stupidest thing ever. I spend the most of my time with people at work instead of with the people I truly love (my family and friends)... why then must I be subjected to yet another day of spending it with people from work when I'd like to catch up and spend time with my family and friends...so not fair!!! I've been told "no excuses" though...so all I can do now is pray for rain (AND SO CAN YOU!!!!!!!!) on Saturday. Rain = No "forced" BBQ!!!!!!!! So hop to it...do your rain dances, rain jigs, pray to the rain god/goddess, etc. whatever it takes, just please let it rain on Saturday!!!

Probably won't hear from me until Monday most likely and guess what...by then you'll be seeing the pictures from our ultrasound tomorrow!!!

A parting thought...and a sure way to make you smile and/or laugh... I'm going to a Shakira concert tonight. Ask me if I even know one song by Shakira! Ask me if I'm even going to be able to understand one spanish word that comes out of her mouth! My music preference falls under the country category at this point in time and I'm sure she doesn't sing any country. HAHA!!!