Updates

Ok, ok, ok. So I haven't blogged in nearly a month. So here's a short update on life since the last blog:

Pregnancy is going great. I'm 19 weeks along and feel it kicking and moving with some frequency. I'm still in my regular sized pants. This seems very odd to me, but my doctor isn't worried, so I'm not worried. I'm still either nauseous or just extremely hungry in the morning and my little wonder drug fixes the swimmy headedness within 12 minutes.

Quint is doing great. He's running and playing and still dancing to his daddy's bagpiping on a regular basis. He has started to throw some temper tantrums, which we're trying to nip in the bud. He is obsessed with Mary Poppins which was starting to slowly drive me crazy, so both the DVD and the VHS are currently hidden. He's slowly moving on to Veggie Tales and Yo Gabba Gabba is due to arrive Saturday via netflix. He loves going outside and exploring the world. He loves climbing stairs. He's gotten in the habit lately of waking between 10:30 and 11:30 and going completely nuts until he gets a cuddle and a some crackers. Not good with another baby on the way. So we've been breaking him of that. Which is fun. Yeah, right. But almost daily, we have a crawl all over each other tickling and kissing fest which is tons of fun. As are the sweet running and hugging my knees thing.

Lap-band update! Ten months after the lap-band was installed in my husband, and something amazing happened day before yesterday! Are you ready? It's never been done before! I saw my husband's upper abdominal muscles!!! He even flexed them to make sure that wasn't fat after all! He's lost 38 pounds total now. And he still loves it.

My new job at the tax office is going OK, though there are very few hours to be had at this early point. I had one terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of phenominal proportions. It involved me attempting a return, by myself, before I was ready, with (as it turned out) some wrong information. And once the client left (mostly because of my wrong information), she talked to the LOCAL NEWS CREW THAT INTERVIEWED HER IN THE LOBBY!! So I spent hours terrified that I had not only scared off one client (which is not that bad really), but that my mis-information might wind up on THE LOCAL NEWS potentially scaring off COUNTLESS CLIENTS!! It all turned out alright in the end. She didn't say anything on the news which was incorrect or even negative about our tax business.

My Christmas was really great! We went to Texas to visit my parents for a week. The flight with the baby was good! He slept for an hour of the 2 hour flight and I managed to keep him entertained and mostly quiet after that. He loved it at my folks house, except for the one dog that licked his face so much that I think that's why his face broke out a bit. He loved the other dog, and played fetch with her. He loved their extra fluffy cat. He loved their enormous fenced in yard with six wonderful steps to go up and down on endlessly. He loved that he could see outside at all times and could almost always convince someone to go outside with him by finding his coat (where ever we had hidden it) and shaking it at them saying, "outside!" until someone finally said, "alright I'll go out with you in the cold!" It was cold in Texas at Christmas. That never happens! Usually it's 50 degrees at least! He loved having a doting aunt, nannie, and grandpa granting his nearly every whim for nearly a week straight. He handled the family reunion day exceptionally well and even played a little ping-pong. He got so many toys that the UPS box we shipped back home cost $40! I got a new camera to replace my broken one, which is why we've been short on photos on the blog lately. Hubby got a gun safe (which we really needed) and a HUGE bottle of his favorite cologne. We stuffed and stuffed and stuffed ourselves with all manner of sweets and good food. I napped at will because there was always someone to watch Quint. We got to see Quint's namesake for several days. We got to see my best friend and her husband for most of an afternoon. All in all, it was a really great Christmas!

Let's see, what else needs an update.... we've hit on Quint, pregnancy, work, lap-band, and Christmas. I think that may be it. Oh wait.

Depression in general: I've been having trouble with depression which unfortunately (for hubby) manifests itself as being really nasty to dear hubby. Usually, in the winter blues months, I'm employed, I exercise, I make sure to get extra sunshine, I keep a full spectrum light bulb nearby and have plenty of reasons to see friends most days. This winter, I'm unemployed, a bit direction-less in terms of what to do with my life immediately (for the next 6 months), it's been too stinkin' cold to walk outside, hence little sunshine, I haven't put in the full spectrum light bulbs, and I'm a bit housebound. Not a good combo. So. I've decided that at either 11am or 3pm each day, depending on when I'm working, Quint and I are going for a walk if it is anywhere near 45 degrees OR I'm going to get out my workout video in the living room. OR I'll make an effort to chase Quint around our indoor racetrack (kitchen, living room, entryway) until I've been out of breath for some minutes. Also, I'm making an effort to contact my friends by phone and set up lunch dates.

Also to combat the winter blues, I'm starting to make lists of things to do and then ACTUALLY DOING THEM!! It's amazing how now that I have more time, I get less business things done. Granted, I usually conducted my business type things done while at work which is not possible now, but really? It took me 3 days to actually obtain my last paystub and get it emailed somewhere?! There is no reason for me to fall behind on any bills due only to neglect. We are not UNable to pay any bills right now. Quint goes to bed by 8pm. I've been going to be at midnight. That's 4 hours a day to get computer stuff done. I've ordered the $10 do-dad that will let me plug my regular desktop keyboard into my laptop so that balancing the checkbook is quicker.

In light of the list effort, here are some plans for this weekend:
Take down the Christmas stuff and put it all away.
Store clothes that Quint has recently outgrown.
Clean off the dining table.
Neaten up the garage (one hour)
Clean out my car
Make out a menu for next week.
Clean up the edges of our bedroom.

And if I'm exceptionally ambitious:
File things
Find the bathroom counter and scrub it.
Wax the hardwood floors.
Examine last year's taxes.
Put the blue loveseat on Craigslist.

missed pills

This weekend, I ran out of one of my anti-depressant pills and didn't manage to get it refilled for 36 hours. As a result, I missed 2 pills. Wow, what a difference a tiny little pill can make! I warned my husband to be on the lookout for random crabbiness, sadness, and the other typical things. He's been a great help!

My prescription is now refilled and I seem to be returning to normal. Let me tell you how missing those pills changed me basically overnight.

I contemplated stopping nursing my son. I researched whether to give my 8 month old cow's milk or formula until he reaches one year. This was all because he's become a distracted nurser. Or perhaps I'm trying to feed him when he's not really hungry. Either way, he's gotten in the habit of turning his head to look at things while he's still got a tight hold on me. With 6 teeth. So because I was blue, I seriously thought about going cold turkey on him. This would be detrimental to us both and a lot more painful than the occasional gasp of breath. Last night, I figured out that if I gently held his head while he nursed, when he first turned his head to look at something, I would be preventing him, he would let go and continue to turn his head. Wow. Problem solved. That was hard. But this seemed like a big crisis because I'd missed the pills.

I really, really dreaded washing my extremely long hair. My hair nearly reaches the chair seat when I sit. I love my hair. I've had long hair for 20 years. My hair, aside from washing, is extremely easy to keep, and keep out of reach of Quint's tiny fists. But without my medication, I dreaded taking care of it so much, it seemed like such a huge chore, that I actually thought about cutting it off where it wouldn't fit in a ponytail.

We had planned to visit my folks this past weekend, but because of some health issues, the trip was postponed a few weeks. So I suddenly had a three day weekend with nothing planned! I made some serious lists and even put polyurethane on two large dining room tables. And then I missed my pills. Monday, I had absolutely no interest in completing anything on my list. ME! Not jazzed by a list of things to do and time to do it! I only managed to get done the things that take 15 minutes or less. I did get all the laundry really done, though, so that's something. But still, I only got half my list done.

Yesterday was the worst. I got about 15 minutes worth of work done during my 5 hours at work. I couldn't think of what I needed to do, yet I didn't even organize my full inbox. I had 3.5 feet of filing to do, and had already made the file folders ready to file all that. I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and told them at work that I wasn't sure if I'd be back. I got out of my appointment at 3:15. I could have gone back to town and worked for a whole other hour, thus saving my sick time for sometime when I was, oh, I don't know, SICK! I literally could not make myself go back to work. I told myself that if I stayed home that afternoon, I could make some baby food and still be productive. Or I could wash my hair without Quint crying. Instead, left Quint at daycare and I sat on my butt for 2 hours, eating Kit-Kat and watching Jerseylicious which I have never watched before and is a horrible, catty, shallow show that I now hate. I couldn't even confess this to my Hubby later, that I'd basically played hookie and had nothing to show for it.

During Monday and Tuesday, I nearly cried 3 times for absolutely no reason.

I also started to seriously dread being home alone all evening with just Quint. Hubby usually has lodge stuff to do on Tuesday nights. He got home at 6:30 and I was soooo relieved! We went on a walk, he reminded me of what all I had gotten done on Monday when I was off. He reminded me that I am a good wife and mother. We talked about how my situation in life has NOT changed in the past 2 days, even though it may feel like it.

Thankfully, neither Hubby or Quint ever really got on my nerves during this horrible 2 day period. Of course, I just completely indulged Quint in order to keep him happy. In the evenings, he really wants me to sit beside him and play with him all evening. If I walk off, he cries. Really annoying tendency, that. I've been trying to break him of it by weening him off constantly touching mommy. Monday and last night, yeah, I just stayed right there beside him so I wouldn't have to listen to him cry. And, let's face it, I was only going to sit on my butt anyway.

Today is tons better. I washed my hair (wow, only 20 minutes of work and 4 hours of being chilly) and filed that mountain of stuff at work. I have beautiful expanses of wood grain laminate to gaze upon on my desk. I've thrown away the empty Dr. Pepper cans and dusted these new gaps on my desk.

Huge sigh of relief!! I'm back to the real me!