Thank you

For your requests that I keep writing. Really, I think I may just be a little too hormonal to deal with the issues that come with a free service. I think that the solution to my blogging frustrations may come in the delivery of a 10 pound baby. :)

BTW...had my doctor's appointment yesterday. Lost a pound, BP great, baby's HR great. Cervix still 1 centimeter, 30% effaced. So no real progress. Since our moving truck is slated to empty our house October 23rd, I would really like to have the baby out by next Friday, so she can at least have her 2 week doctor's appointment here in Louisville. So the doc offered me a deal. If I am 2-3 centimeters by next Wednesday (my next appointment), he'll induce me Friday, October 6th. If not, he'll induce me Monday, October 9th. So I've been walking around like crazy trying to get that cervix to dilate. Funny how it doesn't even seem a possibility to me that I'll just go into labor on my own. Honestly I was surprised I was still a centimeter dilated. I really thought I'd go in and Dr. G would say, "Oh, wow, you are 120% effaced and -2 centimeters dilated. Your cervix has literally overlapped. I've never seen this. I think I'll move your due date to February 3rd."

Anyway...provided this post doesn't disappear into the netherworld...I'll try to post when my rational brain is in the forfront. Which may not be much of the time.

Gigi's blog hates her

Testing... testing... testing...

The end....?

I think this may be the end of my blogging days. I am so frustrated with this technology. I couldn't post for several days...apparently not only am I not allowed to change the settings, but I wasn't authorized to post on my own blog. Now I can post occasionally, but I usually have to republish the entire blog each time. So I decided to start a new blog...you know, one where I could change my descriptions, etc. And Blogger is being excruciatingly difficult about it. It finally let me have a new URL, but now any changes I make (like new descriptions), don't show up. ARGHHHHHH!!!!! For example...I changed my location to Pennsylvania. What is showing up on my brand new blog??? Kentucky. This is supposed to be a fun, therapeutic activity, not one to make me pull out my hair.

So this could be the end. Too bad, since it was a convenient way for me to pass along Andrew stories. Ah well, it's probably for the best. As soon as I have this baby and move to Philly, it will mostly be filled with whiny self-pitying posts...nothing I would want chronicled forever.

It's been fun-

We have a new house!

Or at least we're in escrow now. I tried to post some pictures, but Jeff didn't take any outside shots with our camera and I can't seem to like over from the MLS post...so...

We're excited. Excited that we don't have to keep househunting. There are pros and cons with this house as there are with all houses...we're just pleased with what we have. Of course I say "we", but I'm just kind of making a leap of faith. I've only seen a dozen or so photos of this house. The first time I actually see it, I'll be following the moving truck into our driveway. YIKES.

Cons: small bedrooms, laundry in the basement, unfinished basement, hilly backyard

Pros: looks like a nice sized kitchen (with pantry!), great school district, friendly neighborhood, 2 car garage, 4 bedrooms, new roof and windows

So here we go. But before I can worry about this new house, I have to worry about having this baby. And pray to God that she doesn't do as much damage as Andrew did so I can recover quick enough to move well. :) Moving now is not going to be fun, but I think we are in the best situation possible for it. Jeff's company will help a ton, and we are so fortunate to have 2 sets of parents willing to bend over backwards to help us through this transition. Oops...I'm making myself cry. Damn hormones.

Cooperative kids

Well, I think Crunchy has proven herself to be a cooperative kid. A few weeks ago I determined that I would go into labor last night. Why, you may ask? Only because I'm 12 days from my due date, Jeff is in Philly, my mother and father are up in Columbus for my nephew's baptism, Jeff's parents are in Philly, and so I would be home alone with a 3 year old with no family around.

But she's a good girl. Hardly any contractions at all last night...so I didn't even have a moment of worry. Andrew was an angel yesterday, despite torrential rain and a Mommy trying to stay off her feet...so I have 2 cooperative kids. We were walking into Petsmart last night, and Andrew looked up at me and said, "It's just you and me, Mommy, we're best friends". Melt melt melt.

So Jeff comes home this afternoon. Maybe. After a week of working half days at his new job and househunting half days, he has ended the week by BROADENING our housing search rather than narrowing it down. Just yesterday, the realtor sent him a few new listings in a higher price range at Jeff's request. The houses we were seeing required some MAJOR work...so we thought if we're going to be spending thousands and thousands of dollars fixing these houses, why not just look at more expensive houses? Put that money up front and get a house we don't have to renovate? Too bad we didn't think of that earlier in the week. Anyway, Jeff is going to try and get it to see a few of these primo estates this morning before his plane takes off. If he can't get in until the afternoon, he'll postpone his flight. So I'm prepared to squeeze my legs together a bit longer. :) Let's hope Crunchy keeps cooperating!

38 weeks

Still here...my mom's visiting while Jeff is in Philly househunting, so I've been chatting instead of writing in my blog :)

Anyway, had my 38 week appointment today. I am dilated 1 centimeter and not effaced at all. This is WAY further than I got with Andrew. He also told me that he would consider inducing me as soon as I got to my due date. And he estimated that Crunchy is almost 8 pounds already. Yippee.

BP fine, weight good (I gained, but I was also wearing tennis shoes, pants, and a jacket compared to the last appointment with flip flops, shorts, and a tank top), baby moving around a TON (shouldn't she be out of room by now)? So all is well in preggo land. I just want to wait until Sunday night when Jeff gets home and then she can come whenever she wants! Which, let's not kid ourselves, will probably not be until October 11th (that's the last day the doctor wants me to be pregnant...so he says).

Some of my favorite Andrew photos lately

Naked man won't get dressed!
Roasting marshmallows for the first time at Grandma and Grandpa's
Andrew all dressed up for the OSU-Texas game.
Andrew looking cute...and actually posing for the camera!!!

Don't get excited...

...if there is a gap in my posting (Kelsey!). I will NOT be having this baby early. I seriously carry babies up under my tonsils, where they have no contact with my cervix, thereby preventing any progress towards labor. With Andrew, I went to the doctor on my due date, and was BARELY a fingertip dilated. For those of you uneducated in dilation, here is a little explanation:

~~~10 centimeters dilated= HOLY CRAP....the baby is coming out NOW (or after 2 hours of pushing-they don't let you push until you get to 10, but that can be misleading)

~~~8 centimeters dilated= I believe this is transition...you shake and some people even throw up. Lovely. I wouldn't really know, as my drugs were working so well, someone could have amputated my foot and I wouldn't have felt a thing

~~~3 centimeters dilated= Some people walk around for weeks without ever going into labor at this point.

~~~fingertip dilated= What doctors tell a woman on her due date so she doesn't start crying hysterically to cut the baby out, it is never coming on its own. I believe it actually means that NOTHING has happened yet.

So there you go. I hope that cleared things up for you. No early labor for me. You will all have to wait just like me. But actually, I don't feel sorry for you, because you aren't even pregnant. ;)

37 weeks

Just a little update for my dedicated readers...

Had my doctor's appointment today (had to wait 3 hours!!!) and there has been no change. Cervix as tight as a drum, no effacement, BP good, gained 2 pounds. I think Jeff can safely go to Philly next week with no worries about missing his daughter's birth. :)

All boy

Yesterday, we met another mom and her daughter at a new restaurant for lunch. It is called The Patio. It has a few lunchy things, a lot of coffee, a lot of ice cream, and a great little play room. Think train sets, dress up clothes, a climbing/tubey thing, etc. They put a camera in so you can sit and sip coffee and keep an eye on your kid. They also lined the play room with comfy chairs so you can take your drink and sit and watch your kid play. One word. GENIUS.

So Carrie and I are sitting in the play area after lunch discuss "offical Mom's Club President" stuff. Andrew and Norah and running around having a great time, despite the hyper obnoxious child (whose mother apparently was sitting out in the restaurant...but I suspect had left to run a few errands). Norah found a pink treasure chest filled with dress-up clothes. Andrew ran over and they started dressing up. Andrew put on a pretty pink necklace, complete with charm, and picked up a magic star-wand. Norah did the same, except she also included a pair of wings (Andrew had no interest in the wings...although I thought for a minute he might want a dress from the box). Andrew then started dancing around with his wand to the music. Very funny. Norah had a t-shirt on with the tooth fairy pictured on it, so her mom asked if she was the tooth fairy.

Andrew...pink jewels and all...then proceeded to tell me that he was the "basketball fairy". And then he turned us into frogs...one by one.

Ahhhh, you can dress them up and make then pretty, but deep down they are still boys.

The "real" first day...

How can you live with someone for 2 years, 9 months and not know them? Literally watch them take their first breath, spend every waking minute (minus some that grandparents saw), and not know them? Well, that's me. Some day soon I'll be on the Oprah show about teen drug use saying "I just didn't suspect a thing"

I had to wake Andrew up in order to get ready for school on time. No big deal. He let me dress him, feed him breakfast, and talk about school. I tried to take a picture of him holding his tote bag and wearing his name tag, but he would have NONE OF IT.

On the drive there, he continually tried to veer me off the course to school. He saw the hair dressers "Mommy, I need my hair cut RIGHT NOW" ; then the grocery "Mommy, we need more food RIGHT NOW"; McDonald's "I'm hungry for a hamburger RIGHT NOW". Sadly, Mommy was wise to his game. We waited in the line of cars a bit anxiously. Andrew had put his "night-night" in his school bag to "help me not be scared". He took his name tag off and told me he didn't want to go to school alone. He wasn't crying, but his voice was quivering.

Then it was our turn. I pull up expecting the worst. Out of sheer coincidence (or the hand of God), Miss Bev was the staff member to get Andrew. Miss Bev is one of Andrew's teachers...the only one he knows. She opened the door, he smiled at her, and I swear she had him out and moving towards the school so fast he couldn't even look back at my car. Zoom...school day had started.

At about 10, I got a call from the school. Apparently, they try to call all the nervous little psycho Pre-school parents. According to the co-director that contacted me, she had "visited Andrew's classroom that morning. Other children were crying but not Andrew. Now he is at the playground". That was a nice gesture. I'm sure it's the same canned speech she gives all parents. Like they would ever call and say "I visited Andrew's classroom. All the children were playing nicely except for him. He was sitting on top of the bookshelf, throwing toys and screaming like a banshee".

I went to pick him up, and once again they bring him out to my car. This time his other teacher, Miss Colleen walked him out. He was all smiles...no puffy eyes or other signs of previous emotional trauma. Miss Colleen told me that not only did he NOT CRY ALL DAY (even in the very beginning), but she used him to HELP OTHER CRYING CHILDREN SETTLE DOWN.

What? My Andrew? Not crying...good for him. But actually helping the teacher distract and calm other children. Amazing.

Andrew couldn't stop talking the whole way home. He told me about playing with cars on the ramp, going to the playground, singing songs, how he is in the "red classroom", and how other children cried. He said several times "I had a lot of fun at school, Mom"

I'm just so proud I could squeeze him to death. Of course, he's so wound up from his first day of school, he's upstairs in his room throwing things around instead of sleeping. Maybe I'll just squeeze him to sleep. :)

36 weeks

I went to the doctor today. Despite my gut-busting weekend with the in-laws, I didn't gain any weight the last 2 weeks. And I was quite surprised that my blood pressure was the same as last appointment...I kind of thought it would be high with the move news and all. Dr. G checked my cervix...tight as a drum...big surprise (note sarcasm). He also predicted that this baby will be smaller than Andrew was. He said he'd re-evaluate in a few weeks, but he just can't see how I can be this small and have a huge baby inside. I'm not going to buy newborn clothes just yet :) Oh, and he did not recommend Jeff going out of town the week of the 17th (just 2 weeks before my due date). But we gotta pick out a house sometime! I'll just cross my legs really tight.

So all is well in baby-land. I have another appointment next week...I'll keep ya posted.

The first day...

This morning was Andrew's first day of school. Except not really. Because I got to go with him. It was more of an "open house", where the children get to meet their teachers, play with the toys, but there is no structure or instruction, etc.

So we got there about 10 minutes after they opened the doors (you could come and go any time they were open...again, not a structured day at all). Andrew walked in all excited...we had practiced saying his teachers' names on the way there. He asked me about 1000 times if I was coming with him, stressing that he did NOT want to go to school all by himself.

As soon as I arrive at the school I realize I am a slacker of a parent. Dads are there all dressed for work, children are dressed to the nines (Andrew was wearing his typical t-shirt and shorts). Not that it matters what Andrew was wearing, because I didn't bring a camera to document his first day. Other kids were blinking from all the flashbulbs as they posed in front of the school door. If I'm this bad for Andrew's first day of school, Crunchy will be lucky if I even show up!

We get to his classroom, and find his name on the door. Miss Colleen comes to greet us...and Andrew hides. Literally puts his face into my legs so noone can see him. I waddle into the classroom (not because I'm pregnant, but because my toddler was clinging to my knees) and try to pry Andrew off long enough to show him all the cool toys. He wanders off to play with cars, but as soon as a teacher approached him, he would run back and hide his face. They leave him alone and he played quite well. For about a half hour. Then he just started to cry hysterically. I'm not sure why. He was returning a book to the shelf, so I didn't see if someone talked to him, or a child took the book from his hand, or what. He couldn't tell me. After that it was pretty much play a few minutes, cry a few minutes. Oh boy. I'm sure they've checked off Andrew's name in their book...Crying when Mom is still in the room. And all the other kids were looking at him with such confusion. That's my boy! I've already started trying to prepare him for Thursday. That day, I don't even get to walk him in...they just come to your car and pull your child out. I would imagine Andrew will have a FIT. Those poor teachers. Today just proved to me how much Andrew needs this.

Oh, and God bless pre-school teachers. Not only do they have to deal with the crying children...they must have the most psycho parents of any age student. Dear Lord, as I was sitting there watching Andrew play and making small-talk with other parents, I overheard a few conversations parents were having with the teachers. How they refrain from rolling their eyes is beyond me. Here are some examples of ACTUAL CONVERSATIONS I heard...I don't even need to exaggerate these, I promise:

Parent- "Oh just wait until you get her going. She is just the smartest thing ever. She can count to 10 and knows almost all her letters."

Parent- "Everyone is really amazed by our child's fine motor skills. When she was a year old, her favorite thing to do was write with a pencil. She holds it like an adult and everything!"

Parent- "He can draw a circle and sort by color. None of my nieces or nephews were able to that until much older. Don't you find that amazing?"

And here is what I said as I left the room..."Good luck Thursday"

At least the parents won't be there :)

What a weekend!

We traveled up to my in-laws for the weekend, and had such a wonderful time. What a bland sentence. But I still remember that I need a topic sentence...so there you have it.

Jeff has recently worked a few 13 hour days, so he had earned an extra day off. So we started our trip Friday morning. When we stopped for lunch in Ohio, the temperature had dropped at least 10 degrees. Oops. Talk about packing wrong. For most of the weekend, we ended up borrowing clothes and wearing the same pair of pants over and over and over. The cool weather was actually very nice...I love fall weather. I just was completely unprepared for it. Oh, also when we stopped for lunch Jeff and I discovered that 2 years olds really don't grasp sarcasm. Let me replay our conversation in Wendy's:

Andrew- (quietly announces over his hamburger) I farted.
Mommy and Daddy continue talking and do not respond
Andrew- (a bit louder now) I farted.
Mommy and Daddy look at Andrew. Daddy says sarcastically, "Gee, Andrew. Why don't you say it a little louder? I don't think everyone in the restaurant heard you"
Andrew- (practically yelling) I FARTED!!!!

Needless to say, we were laughing hysterically. Silly Jeff to make a statement like that!

Friday night at my in-laws we tried out their brand new fire pit. I knew they were creating a fire pit, but this thing was FABULOUS. Jeff's cousin and uncle helped construct it out of stone. Really cool. Andrew discovered that roasting marshmallows is one of his new favorite activities. He surprisingly didn't like eating the s'mores much...usually he was done after one or two bites. But he really liked making them (the chocolate smooshes the mellowmesher), and delivering them to people. Actually, he more "presented" them to people...as if he was delivering a royal message or something. Very cute.

Saturday was a quiet day for Andrew and I. Jeff and his dad went to the OSU football game, and Grandma and I played endless board games with Andrew. And I mean endless.

Sunday we had the whole clan over...a great opportunity to see uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. Andrew hid in the basement with the toys most of the time...very social. But then when dusk came, we headed outside to the firepit again. Chef Andrew began eagerly cooking up his specialty...s'mores. He carefully selected who would get his precious gifts (I want to make one for that lady in the blue shirt).

Monday we gathered with the other side of the family. Bonus on this side...cousins closer to his age. Andrew followed his older cousins around and they graciously shared their GI Joe dolls and kicked soccer balls with him, etc. All day he just followed them around saying, "Wait for me, guys". So stinkin' cute.

So that was our weekend. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a relaxing, gut-stuffing several days. It was weird to think the next time I'm at my in-laws I'll have a little baby. Heck, the next time I drive up there, we'll probably be on our way to Philadelphia for the move. Scary.

Tomorrow is Andrew's first day of school! Of course, he gets to take me with him, so it doesn't really count. But I'll give a full update on that tomorrow!