Lucy Rose Coming in 5 Days

It is an odd, odd feeling to know that you most likely will have a baby within a such and such date and at that moment you will become a parent. It's even more odd when they give you the exact date with a time and tell you to show up at 5:30am to have a baby at 7:30 am.

Yep. I am talking about my scheduled c-section that I will be having this Monday, 7/11/11. For medical reasons I have chose not to deliver vaginally, aka normally as some people like to say, and that used to bother me and make me feel like a freak. I'm happy to say I've now put that hang up aside and am happy and proud to deliver my baby in a way of which my body can be accustomed to. (and at the same time I am thrilled that ALL Mommas get to be an active voice in their own birthing plan, whether they be "normal" or "strange" or whatever you want to label it with)

Both Alan, Henry and I are very excited about this new family member. Her name shall be Lucy Rose. The middle name, Rose, is after my favorite aunt, my mini-aunt Rose Ann.

Despite the pain, this pregnancy has been so much more enjoyable this time. My husband and I are in a better place relationship wise and I'm a less selfish and more laid back person thanks to having Henry.

Wouldn't you know it, Alan got tickets through work to see the Cardinals this Sunday. I've been chomping at the bit to see a Cardinals game since we moved to Saint Louis last year. And now that I am a million years pregnant and hardly able to walk due to my SPD we get tickets. So I'm on the fence. It's going to be sunny and 91 that day and I don't know if I'm up to it. What do you think? I think I would be miserable...plus I have this romantic idea of drinking beer while watching a MLB game and um, I can't do that really now. There will be other games, yes?

My Mom drives in Friday night to be here to take care of Henry while Alan and I are at the hospital. Alan will be back and forth but I will most likely be in the hospital until Thursday. Then Mom will go home that Sunday, Alan will have the next week off and then my Mother in Law comes in to help for a couple of weeks. I am going to listen to my recovery instructions much better this time so as not to have any stitches reopening like last time. It will be hard because I am not to lift anything more than a newborn for 6 weeks meaning Henry.

So yea, I'll do all my updates through my IPhone on Facebook. Wish us luck!

It has a name and it's name is EM-MO

Just a few short, very sweet and very endearing things my little boy does that makes me fall in love with him every day.

He has some terry cloth bibs with Elmo a Cookie Monster on them that he took an immediate liking too. Not for the purpose they are intended to be used, but to be his little "lovie" or "blankey". Comfort item du jour. He requests his Em-MO like so, "Em-MO? Em-MO?" with a hint of a french accent. I swear. Since his habit started we are now quick to pick up the same set of bibs when we are out and about knowing that we will lose (like the one we lost at the OB visit - oops, went right in the trash) some and some will get beyond repair or need to be washed at the same time. The other thing that is cute is that his Em-MO doesn't have to be Elmo. It can be Cookie Monster or a character from Cars. He just has a hankering for the terry cloth.

Today at the park Henry picked up a nearly dead cicada. I did very well to go over there to tell him that the life was leaving the body of the insect and tell him to gently put it down. He understood, placed it on the ground and said, "Bye bye cayda!" and then he stomped on it. Well, you win some lose some.

At story time today at Whole Foods they brought service animal dogs (dogs that are trained to help those with disabilities) and each trainer would read a story with her dog by her side and then the kids would get a chance to pet the animal and ask questions. It was really sweet and all was going well until balloons were spotted. Now this was our first experience with balloons being blown up and kids bouncing them around and making noises with them and my little boy was a trembling mess. I mean he was shaking!! Scared!! And since I myself have a bit of a fear of the balloons I didn't even ask any questions. That was that and we left.

We have been getting out of the house almost every day for the past two weeks and I know part of it is guilt. I am feeling sad that these days with my little boy unshared are numbered and I also want him to get to go out of the house and experience summer (my favorite season) because when Lucy gets here it will be quite an adjustment on him. I can't do anything about that, just make it as easy as possible, be fair and be realistic and I think we all know I'm crazy enough to do it.

Sloppy post and updates

Never in my life have I been more thankful for quality air conditioning than I am right now. I just like to sit in my room with the lights dim, the fan pointed on me and marinate in the coolness.

Hormones have me hot. Plus the extra weight I am carrying around.

It's June.

First June in Saint Louis. I am not sure why I felt like it was worth mentioning, but I did.

We're in the middle of some 13 year cicada hatch that has me seriously hating nature. Cicadas every freaking where. I'm ready for them to do their thing and die already.

This pregnancy has been both a lot easier and a lot harder than I thought. Easier because I had very minimal bothersome symptoms until third trimester. Easier because keeping up with Henry (20mo's now!) is a lot easier being more fit this pregnancy. Easier because a lot of the environmental factors that played into my last pregnancy are now gone. Harder because I have SPD and it is very painful and disheartening. It's hard to get up and get motivated when, at 7am, you are already in so much pain. But I am trying not to complain too much and just work through it because there is a good chance that most of the pain will dissapear once Lucy gets here.

Speaking of Lucy, that's her name! We're still working on middle names. I go in for my csection on 7-11-11. It'll be a lucky day, a lucky birthday.

That's all I got for now.

Identify THIS!

Quite frankly, I am having an identity crisis as a writer, as a blogger. This is why you see so few posts from me for like, well, the past year and a half.

The natural step seems to be closing up this blog and setting up another. A semi-anonymous blog, perhaps? Private? I'm not sure.

All things sweet and bread-a-licious

Bread and chocolate.

Chocolate and bread.

Bread dipped in chocolate? Sure! Why the hell not.

I am fighting this serious urge for all things dangerously delicious. I have a baked goods addiction. This pregnancy I have craved nothing but sweets and carbs. OMG nom nom drool nom.

We find out on the 25th of February if we're having a boy or girl this time around!

Stay tuned.

Better than the Rest

This week has been better than the rest of the weeks in January.

Without complaining too much I just will say that I am so sick, sick of winter and all her drying, freezing glory.

Today was a saving grace. Although it doesn't sound like much it was sunny today and warmed up to 45 so we went for a walk in the sunshine.

To combat my blues I have been working out a lot lately. Well, I say working out but really it's just walking on the treadmill and biking at the gym. I am so very thankful that we were able to get a membership to The Lodge Des Peres. The Lodge is basically a really cool recreation center in my community that has a fitness center, pool and many other amenities. It's really great AND they have tot-care which means that Henry can hang out and play with other toddlers while I work out. Superb. I can't tell you how much working out helps me with my depression issues. It's also empowering and gives me something to feel proud about.

So, I've been feeling a lot like I'm pregnant lately! First trimester was a breeze and so unlike my pregnancy with Henry. Up until the past couple of weeks I've had to kind of remind myself that I'm pregnant! I'm still feeling good just completely worn out by the end of the day. Sometimes I go to bed right after we put Henry down, around 8pm and I am out like a light. I'm just getting in all the sleep I can as long as I can. I have an appointment on Monday - I'll be 16 weeks. I think we'll get to find out the sex at my 20th week appointment, so the end of February, first of March. I am so excited about that!

Speaking of babies, Alan's sister is due on Monday! I'll have my first niece!! Super stoked about that.

Squirrels

Here's a little something that may make you laugh and we've been dealing with over the past two weeks:

We have squirrels that are residing in the walls of our *rental* home.

You read that right. Giant, fluffy, gnawing, grey squirrels have chewed or clawed through the roofing in this house and made their way in our HVAC system. There's really no danger of them getting out, this I am sure of. Well, I'm sure there's a small danger but very, very unlikely.

So when you have giant squirrels sharing your residence, that you RENT by the way, you let your landlord know, right? And you'd think that the landlord would first be concerned about your safety and secondly be concerned about his financial investment in the residence and said landlord would send a specialist out as soon as possible to fix and remove vermin from the home. Right? Am I being unreasonable here?

Apparently I am. Because it will be 2 weeks tomorrow(Friday) since we first notified our landlord of this problem. They send a maintenance man out that following Monday who slapped some sheet metal on the roof and told me he'd be back the next day to place traps down. Well, it snowed and he never showed up. When I called him 2 days later he told me he had "lost his trap" and was searching for it. In the meantime the squirrels have gnawed a new hole in the roof and now we've had another snow storm which means that even IF he finds his stupid trap he won't be able to place the trap as he'll have to get on the roof to do so and we have 9 inches of snow that ain't gonna melt any time soon.

So now we're going on 2 weeks since we notified landlord of the problem and over one week since we've spoke to the maintenance man about coming back out.

I refuse to call our landlord again as I feel like I'm treated like I'm the hysterical crazy woman with squirrels in the house. Alan has called twice with no return call and we refuse to pay out of pocket to remove the squirrels.

We'll be sending a certified letter on Monday just stating the problem in writing so that when we move out in July (hopefully!) it won't be turned back around on us.

I'm totally at the end of my rope on this and I know that while there are definitely good landlord/tenant relationships we are not lucky enough to have one and I am hopeful that I'll never have to rent a house again in my life.