36 weeks pregnant - now and then

OK, so here's a direct comparison between my two pregnancies. The red shirt was a few days ago and the green shirt was at 36 weeks when I was pregnant with Quint. Everyone, including me, thinks that I look smaller this time. But the beauty of me taking these staged photos with both pregnancies is that I can directly compare them! I've cropped them based on the position of the walls. The two different cameras were sitting at the same table at virtually the same height. My lower back and shoulders were against the wall in every shot. I can't think of how I could have done this to create a better comparison.
I think my belly in the green shirt (2009) is just a teeny, tiny bigger. I'm shocked that it's not significantly bigger.

I see the doctor Tuesday. Maybe she'll decide to admit me to the hospital for some reason! I'm sure I'm completely shooting myself in the foot by being really pretty darn prepared to go into labor this week. The only thing that would be inconveniently un-done at the moment is that the infant seat has not been installed in Hubby's car yet. I would like to have the photo album caught up, but I could order the photos from shutterfly tomorrow. The bills are caught up and I've sorted the mail. The freezer is pretty well stocked. There's only a couple things we need from the grocery store. My bag is packed. Quint's is half packed with the list of remaining things in the bag. Let's see, the bassinet part of the downstairs pack-n-play isn't put together yet, but it's within 10 feet. The laundry is in pretty good shape, though is not completely caught up. The entire downstairs is vacuumed. I have extra keys made for guests. Quint has a box full of toys clearly marked for entertainment after the birth.

We were talking about it at my temp job and one guy suggested that I completely unpack my hospital bag and throw away my list of things to go into it because the fact that the bag is packed will prevent me from going into labor. I can see that. But I can't unpack that bag.

OK, it's 10pm, so it's time to take my ambien and go to bed. My chores are all done, or as done as they're going to get today.

36 weeks and water play

Here I am at 36 weeks pregnant. I swear that sucker poked out another 2 inches last night. My skin is still trying to stretch around it. Rastus has been less active today, but still very responsive to nudges from me. And by "less active" I mean he didn't make me holler in pain with repeated foot stabs.

And now for the really interesting pictures. Here's little Quint at playing with water, like we do nearly every day as soon as we get home.

As my mom would say, "we are vewy busy."

"Pool water is tasty!"

Typically, Quint gets gleefully soaking wet and we change his clothes before we have dinner.

New words for today: star, lotion, and "donk" for donkey.

Mood Changer

Lately, and it seems to consistently be on Tuesdays, I'm in a really bad funk. It's completely emotional and it affects how I feel physically, especially here now while I'm twenty months pregnant. I wonder what it is about Tuesdays. Maybe its because the week seems to be stretching ahead interminably. Sooooooo long until Friday, even if you have nothing planned for the weekend. And the last two weeks I have completely recognized that I needed some mood alterer.

Last week, on Wednesday, I finally figured out a really annoying problem at work. I wonder if I just really really wanted to have my mood changed and that's all I could find, but still, it worked.

Today, I was feeling icky and heavy and like the shuttle to work was the worst circle of hell. You know, basically wishing I drank, or smoked, or was addicted to prescription pain meds or something.

And then said some hysterical random $hit to my co-worker and she got tickled and I started laughing at her laughing and we couldn't stop laughing and it was wonderful! It was the high quality, non-nonsensical crap that normally happens at 3am on a camping trip. And I've laughed about it four times since I got home!

For the record it had to do with Michael Jackson, fake noses and other people's reactions to fake noses on women. See! Sounds like a riot.

With that huge giggle fest, a seriously delicious nearly hour long nap on the couch in my husband's office, and managing to catch the first evil shuttle just after my work shift (which got me home 20 minutes earlier), I felt great until 9:30 tonight. And even now, at 10:05, I'm still in a good mood and feel pretty good sitting down.

Listen to this list of accomplishments - and yes! for the first time in seemingly months, I actually HAVE a list of accomplishments!!

After I picked up Quint, I took him over to the train station and showed him a real choo-choo. Then we made a stop at Walgreens. Then we went to the library for the first time ever and checked out a dozen board books. Once home, we had supper, played in the balls, read some books, washed some laundry, got Quint in bed, put the infant carseat back together (a 30 minute strap-frustration fest), cleaned out my car, emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and cleaned up the kitchen.

I also have been silly with my husband several times today, which has not happened in quite a while. I've been a REAL ray of sunshine lately. But thankfully, he hasn't gone into the "be wary and afraid of the severe mood change" phase, but has just appreciated the mood, however fleeting it might be.

It also occurred to both of us seperately that this productivity fest has in the past, in other women, indicated that they will give birth in the next 24 hours.

Yes, that might be bunk. But, I have my fingers crossed. Despite only being 36 weeks pregnant.

The roaring frog.

Whenever my son sees a picture of a lion, he does this really cute little roar. Same for a tiger. These make sense.

But when he's eating limes, and we keep telling him things like "this is a lime" he roars because he thinks we said lion. This only made sense after much thought on our part (the slow parents). Since then, we try to emphasize the M in lime. No success yet on Quint's comprehension, but ehh, he'll get it.

Here he is roaring with his limes.

Whenever we're going through various animals and their sounds, he always roars with the frogs, no matter how many times he laughs at my "ribbit" and tongue poking. Well, this morning, I finally figured that one out! We have Aristocats to blame for the roaring frog. Start watching at 2:40 in this clip.



And of course bullfrogs roar. Ok, so it's called a croak, but it's pretty darn close. So my son was not just plain wrong - he just knew of a different type of noise for that animal that was correct!

The new words for yesterday were teacher and clock. No, he was not trying to talk about clocking the teacher with anything.

I saw the doctor today and baby and I are both doing swimmingly. Apparently, she normally hooks women up to a fetal monitor for a while at this stage. We did that, and she said the baby's heart rate and such were textbook normal. Next week, I get another ultrasound to at least guess at his weight. She had some other reasons as well, but they weren't alarming. So I'm still pregnant. Everyone's healthy. I'm mostly miserable and my belly hurts most of the time with non-alarming pain. I'm ready to be done, but at not quite 36 weeks, the bun is not done, so we'll bake a bit more. Two NICU nurse friends informed me this weekend that boys really do better if they go to 38 weeks. My goal was 37 so I wailed a bit at that news. So please pray for me!

34 weeks and a boy in the dirt

This blog could easily be named "way too many pictures" but you'll just have to deal with it.

Here's me today at 34 weeks pregnant with Quint, as always, really wanting to poke in the belly button. It kind of hurts to poke my belly button in, so the game is that Quint dives for it and I cover it up. I'm feeling about a thousand times better now that I can always get at least 4 or 5 hours of continuous sleep per night. It lets me handle various....pains..... better which makes me a better mom and wife in the evenings. It's always more fun to have a mom and wife who isn't impatient and snappy because she'd rather be soaking in a tub or laying down. Life is better with Ambien!


Quint absolutely loves the hammock. Anything that swings or rocks is an "eeee-awww" as in "yea-haw! Ride the pony!"

Here's Quint's latest photo-op in the yard with his tiny mower.

Putting sticks in the fire pit.

Lately, when I say, "smile for the camera," I get this for some reason.

Pouring dirt is fun!

What does it taste like?

I got a bunch of dirt in my shoe!

I promise, as a 100% boy, to always love playing in the dirt.

Quint is 19 months old, is gaining new words by the day, is amazingly cute, and got a head to toe scrubbing right after these pictures were taken.

Speaking of new words, today I finally figured out that "is-shoes" are TISSUES!! Considering he's had a runny nose for 2 weeks, you'd think I have figured that out quicker! But "tissues" are also napkins or paper towels, so give me a little credit. He also recently correctly identified my best friend's picture from the collection on the walls. Since she lives 800 miles away, this is impressive! When I put some bigger shoes on him the other day, he said "oooooo! New shoes!" He was also very impressed and excited by the wall of yogurt at Walmart the other day. He loves to be swept off his feet, tickled and tossed on some soft surface. Sometimes he will even lay down on the floor and say, "tickle, tickle" in order to get you to tickle him.

33 weeks pregnant

Here's a belly shot! Quint still loves to poke the belly button and laughs every time he just sees it! I wore my "birthday cake" shirt to Target today and got a compliment from a complete stranger - THANKS MOM!

Since starting the Ambien, I finally feel good! It's amazing what good rest will do for you. I've stopped throwing up so often, my feet only swell when I've had too much salt (like pizza). Little Rastus has started hurting me daily with his kicks and occasionally will leave a sore spot that hurts even when he's not currently kicking. Several other people have been able to visually see him moving and said articulate things like, "whoa".


Quint had his 18 month checkup today (even though he's 19 months old) and he ranks at the top of the scale for communication and gross motor skill and whatnot. So we have confirmation that he's BRILLIANT! Which of course I knew, but still..... He's at or near the 50th percentile for height, weight and length. His head is a little larger than usual, but I knew that too. Here's a cute one of Quint.

My nesting has taken the form of stocking up now. So far, it's just purchasable items like chicken nuggets, fish sticks, disposable tupperware, baby wipes, diapers of both sizes, and paper bowls. Aldi doesn't sell the wipes, paper bowls, or tupperware, so I made a huge haul at Target today, using up two gift cards I recently found in my wallet.

OK, it's 9:15, so it's bedtime.

29 weeks pregnant & 18 months old

Who's that dark side bad guy with the shriveled face in the third prequel of Star Wars? Here's my son as him. Here's my son as the adorable wizard from Middle Earth.And here he is as the adorable baby Rocky Balboa. (Cue the Rocky theme music.)
Here's the funniest shot of my belly button.

I'm 29 weeks pregnant and little Rastus has learned how to use his heels! He seems to be trying to expand all his edges at once to take over the world in there. He'll be tapping on my left hip bone, and a millisecond later, tapping on my right ribs. Two minutes later, he punches my left ribs and kicks straight down into my guts. More than once a day, he gives me an "ooff" worthy shove. He also seems to just vibrate sometimes. But as with Quint, when his daddy tells him to calm down and let me sleep, he DOES!

Here's the best shot of my hair.

The last two days, I've been more comfortable and happier, but then again, I've refilled my Zoloft and haven't been actively nesting as much and therefore being too active. Also, Hubby and I went ahead and had the very un-fun conversation about our finances, so I'm no longer dreading that. Also, the doctor said my blood pressure was still looking good yesterday.

Quint was 18 months old yesterday! And I even thought to mark his height on the door frame and date it. He's learning more day by day and is saying more and more as well. Our current frustrating word seems to be "hot" which he also calls my hat. He will point to hot food and say hot. He will pat the end table surface and say hot. He will point to cold food and say hot. So I'm sure we'll have a breakthrough in the next few days, but it's a little frustrating right now. The last time we were at an impass like this, he seemed to be pointing to everything and saying "kitty" including the cat. Finally, it dawned on me that he was saying "get it" and he looked so relieved when I finally got it for him.

The other day, I was putting lotion on his legs and saying, "lotion feels gooooood" and he said quite clearly, "yes it does."

Last Thursday, I went to daycare with him to learn things from Priscilla. If we have to give her up, I'd like to mine her for all the advice possible before we have to part with her. I wanted to see how she did messy things like paint and play-doh and keep her carpet clean. I wanted to see how she got the kids to eat broccoli and fresh spinach and other unlikely pre-school kid foods. I learned a great deal, but the process was rather traumatic for little Quint.

He was incredibly jealous and just sobbed for a lot of the day. Priscilla finally told me around lunch time that, while she appreciated me voluntering help at the daycare, she said I couldn't come back until Quint was at least 3 years old. Even if I had Quint on one leg and another child on my other leg, reading them a book, Quint did not look comfortable. And when I fed the 4 month old a bottle! OMG! His little lip poked out and he cried big fat tears the whole time. Let me tell you - this summer is going to be FUN!

We went home after lunch and before naptime and it was nearly bedtime before he was acting like himself again. I told him several times once we were home that the next day he was going to Priscilla's and I was not going to stay with him. He was fine the next morning when I dropped him off.

But since I went to Priscilla's and read countless books to Jacob, Quint has been really interested in his books and I bet we read 5 books a day now! Or rather, three books, with some twice through. Also in the last week, he can sit and pay attention through a whole lot of flash cards. Upstairs, we have the colors and shapes cards and downstairs we have the animal alphabet cards. Usually, we can get through 2/3 of the 52 animal alphabet cards before he looses interest or has more fun scattering them. With the colors and shapes cards, I can get through all of them, and then re-present some of them by collecting all the reds together, and all the greens together, etc. We know he knows yellow and green, so far. With his new found attention span, if anyone would like to buy him some new books or flash cards, you can click here to go to amazon.com and have them shipped to the house!

He loves to be outside and walk circles around our cars. He's very good about coming back closer when we tell him he's gone too far. He knows that to go outside, he must have shoes and THEN a coat. So sometimes, he will bring us his shoes or his coat to try to get the process started. Or just repeat "shoes?" until we address the issue.

My little guy is growing up and seems less like a baby each day, which is kinda sad. On the other hand, it will be weird to have a completely helpless infant again this summer.

28 weeks pregnant

I'm officially in my third trimester!! Why is it that it seems to be going so fast and so slowly at the same time?!
Here we are at week 28, or 7 months pregnant. That's little Quint with the blurry face. This is one of the maternity shirts Mom made me! You can't really see in the picture, but there are iridescent sparkles all over it. It makes me feel like a festive birthday cake. Which makes me crave sugary icing. Of course I crave all kinds of sugar recently. I wonder if vanilla flavored yogurt without aspertaim would satisfy my cheesecake craving?

Here's what Babycenter.com says about week 28.

By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He's also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

At my ultrasound last week, the technician estimated his weight at about 2.5 pounds. Because my ab muscles were in fantastic shape before I got pregnant with Quint and absolutely horrible shape when I got pregnant with Duce, Duce is a much bigger strain on my belly muscles. I'm wishing for flying buttresses at a much earlier stage this time around. If I fold my belly bands double and wear them at the same time, I get some relief from all that unsupported weight. Also, floating the belly in the tub is a wonderful thing.

*subject change*

I feel like I've gotten squat done today, so I'm going to list it off in the longest way possible:
extracted the broken bulb from the hall fixture and replace that bulb
replaced the dead bulb in the peach room
replaced the button battery in the scale (I weigh 144.4 pounds!)
fluffed and hung all Hubby's dress shirts
picked up all the stuff from around Hubby's desk!

sorted said junk into the following boxes: trash, trash, trash, unused cords, stuff that goes elsewhere, tapes-CDs-CB, important looking papers.

stored the three trash boxes in the garage and labeled them "Monday" (guess when trash day is!)

labeled and stored the non-trash boxes in the loft
made a list of things to sell at a yardsale
took Quint outside for a few minutes (in the mud and white pants)
left Hubby a note to vacuum under his desk
labeled boxes in the garage for ARC
wrote in my blog
took a pregnancy picture
napped twice
ate thrice

OK, so that looks pretty impressive! Keep in mind that most of those took 5 minutes or less. Neatening Hubby's office took 90 minutes.

27 weeks pregnant

Yesterday, I had my glucola check, a ultrasound, and my rH shot. Yippie for efficiency! But there were a few good pictures of our second little boy.
And he's definitely a boy, by the way. No pictures of that, but here's his cute mug shot!



*subject change*

I've gotten a lot done today! I've cleaned out two boxes of our precious memory clothing and split them into piles to keep, toss, and give away. Mostly give away. The really unique ones, I photoed and then tossed or gave away. There were like 3 things out of two boxes that I thought we might actually use in the future.

I've also baked muffins which will keep me from missing my fruit bars which are more expensive. I've made brownies which will supply me in several days of my chocolate fix which seems to be a regular craving with this pregnancy. Normally I don't tolerate chocolate well, but all bets are off when I'm pregnant.

I've scanned all our 8x10 wedding pictures and other childhood 8x10s so that we now have a digital version of them. I also scanned in the ultrasound pictures and taken a belly shot.

I have gathered quite a bit of stuff for ARC to pick up tomorrow morning! There are three boxes of stuff for them and I only told them I'd have one. I'm so proud! AND I don't have to haul it to goodwill

Failures: Today, I have eaten muffins, muffin batter, brownie batter, brownies, and cheetos. And that is all.

Now. It's 2pm. Do I want to try to find some stuff in the attic for ARC or have a brownie and a nap before I pick up Quint. Decisions, decisions.... hey look, we've got milk....

Pregnancy pictures!

At least one friend (maybe two) wanted to see my current pregnant belly, so here we go! First, the baseline photo from last fall.


And now the current photo at week 26, 6.5 months.
When I first started taking these pictures, I worried that I'd get the two sets of pregnancy pictures mixed up. What was I thinking? There will always be a brightly colored toy if not my son in the picture that shows my belly.

23 weeks pregnant

This first picture is me and Quint when I was 7 weeks pregnant.

And this is me at 23 weeks pregnant, earlier this morning. Our second little boy is kicking and moving and when I poke him, he kicks back. I haven't had any false labor for over a week now, but I have had heartburn and diminished breathing capacity. I've also been able to sing at least 2 notes higher than normal for me. So I've been helping the sopranos out with some of their high Gs. My choir director said that it was just because I'm pregnant. He sees it all the time. Wow! Learn something new every day! I still wake up at 3:19 most days, but last night, we went to sleep at 9pm and I got more sleep than I've had in I don't know when! As a result, I yawned all through the day.

I did the taxes for a woman today who is nearly the same age as me, is 23 weeks pregnant, and also had an especially traumatic few weeks surrounding when she found out she was unexpectedly pregnant. We had so much fun talking that I gave her my cell phone number on my brand new business cards. Her name is Mary, in case I forget her name in the next 24 hours.

It's peak week at the tax office so I've actually been working a lot of hours. Weird feeling after 6 weeks of not working much.

Introducing.....

Rastus Cornealious Fudge!

(It kind of looks like God is holding him by neck/head. Can you see the fingers?)Who is, of course, a BOY!!!

With cute feet...
Other names we're not considering are Cleatus and Willie-Jack.

I am confirmed to be at 20 weeks pregnant and the Ultrasound predicted a due date of June 1st. Everything looked good and healthy! Lots of movement. I had to lay on my side and jiggle for a while in order to get him to turn and stop being shy.

14 weeks pregnant - HEARTBEAT

We got to hear the heartbeat at the doctor's office yesterday! I had given the nurse a quick list of all the crap we've been through lately so she was glad to give us something nice and happy. Once she found it, we just hung out for a while and listened to that little heart bang away. It was good to have something positive to smile about.

We've got the ultrasound date set for January 28th to find out the sex. That seems like a really long time from now!!

Right now, my little baby is the size of half a banana! Maybe I'll start to feel the baby move soon! Last time, that happened at a really loud Steven Curtis Chapman concert. I'm sure Quint could feel the loud sounds. And me jumping up and down and such....

We'll see when I can feel something this time!

10 weeks pregnant and other stuff

This pregnancy seems different in several ways, some of them blessedly different.

I'm at 10 weeks. Yesterday at the doctor's office I learned that I've gained about 3 pounds, but apparently I'm just more dense because my pants need a belt at times during the day. At other times, I can't keep them buttoned.

I'm cold all the time so far, but then again, it just turned cold outside and I've got a cold. So perhaps all bets are off on that. I'll have to look up when I started to feel warm while pregnant with Quint.

The biggest difference which is WONDERFUL!!! is that I haven't actually thrown up due to morning sickness! I hate throwing up. Hate. Hate. Hate. Instead, I'm nauseous until at least noon. And might be nauseous at any time for any reason. The doctor gave me some anti-nausea medicine which I left at home this morning - DUH!

Ding! (subject change)

Quint still refuses to feed himself soft, chopped vegetables despite the fact that he does it most days at Priscilla's. Tuesday, I tried in vain to get him to eat some mixed vegetables and all I got was a crying child and a frustrated mama. Finally, I dumped his mixed veggies in the blender with some peas and then he gobbled it up as I spoon fed him. So during one of my two evenings a week, I spent 30 minutes trying to get my son to do something that I know he can do, but refuses to do with lots of crying. I decided that forcing him to do this for himself can wait until I get done with my tax class.

Yes, I'm probably coddling him and am going to extra trouble to keep him from crying (lousy reason to not do something) but I've got enough stress in my life right now. I'd much rather watch TV on the floor while Quint wanders around the house playing with and carrying toys. Especially when he will come find me every 10 or 15 minutes just to give me a hug, cuddle for 30-60 seconds, and wander off again. Golden. I'd much rather get dinner out of the way and get to floor time. I'll become a hard-a$$ mom again in a month.

Quint really started walking everywhere Oct 17, 2010. My good friend with a granddaughter 2 weeks younger than Quint came over to visit Oct 16th. That little girl, Ava, was walking everywhere and Quint couldn't keep up. The very next day, Quint was walking nearly everywhere.

Ding! (subject change)

I took my mid-term in my tax class last night. The wonderful substitute from Friday helped me prepare for the mid-term, and I'm sure I made as high a grade as I did because of her. But I only made a 77. Not so hot. So I still have to work my buns off.

Ding! (subject change)

There's an Administrative Assistant position open upstairs at my work. I could do this job, seeing how I've been an AA before anyway and I've applied for it. I hope they consider me. There might be a slight pay cut, but staying with the same company would be ideal. Please pray that I get that job.

ahhh the joys of pregnancy

I had a rough night Thursday night, but my wonderful Hubby handled it quite well. We were both busy and didn't return home until 10pm and 10:30. I had been inexplicably sad for a lot of the day and had drank some "happy tea" twice during the day which caused a slight lightening of my mood. Maybe it's the ginseng in the tea. I just figured the random sadness was hormone related since I wasn't worried about anything.

My sweet Hubby put me to bed and went about his business. At about 11pm, I started crying for absolutely no reason. Like nearly hysterical crying. I couldn't even catch my breath to call him. About 10 minutes later, Hubby came in. He said the Spirit had spoke to him and said I needed him. How very true! He came over to hold me while I bawled. He only asked me 2 questions: Are you worried about anything? No. Is the baby alright? Yes. Then he did the very marvelous thing that men usually have trouble doing. He stopped trying to figure it out and just held me while I cried hysterically for about 30 minutes. He prayed over me, and anointed me with holy water.

When I started to calm down, he said we should find something to cry about. What good will that do, I wondered. There was a box of Aldi brand cheese nips beside the bed. He said we should cry for all the poor cheez-its that had to be packaged and marketed as mere cheese crackers and deal with the ignominy of being labeled as an inferior snack. So let's cry for all the undervalued cheez-its of the world. He then proceeded to give a cute cartoon type cry. It made me laugh as hard as I'd been crying!

So do I have the best husband in the whole wide world or what! I love him so much!

pregnancy memories

I read in a pregnancy magazine this morning a list of some particular memories to take note of that might be amusing later. There were a couple I don't remember if I've written down anywhere. One they suggested was the first time a stranger noticed you were pregnant.

Memorial Day weekend, I flew to Texas by myself to visit my folks. While checking in to the airport, there was one black fella in particular that I kept going through lines with. I was in front in the baggage check line, he was in front of me through the first part of security, I was in front of him through the shoes & x-ray part of security, etc. About the third or fourth time he leaned down next to me to pick up his carry-on bag, he saw my baby bump, which was at eye level at that moment. He stared for a minute, then looked up at me and absolutely beamed! I beamed back and said, "Yep!" to the unasked question. I can still see his face. He told me "good luck" before we parted ways. All during my pregnancy, I've had this same kind of reaction from several black men and never from white men! Explain that one for me!

Tuesday night, our baby boy was kicking around something fierce and I was laying on the bed, belly exposed, to watch the action. Hubby was standing near our bathroom door talking and stopped to exclaim at one point. He said he had just seen both feet protrude at the same time and could tell which way the toes were pointing! I asked him if he was sure and he pointed out that feet are little wedge shapes and knees are not. Weird! And pretty cool. I keep telling the baby that that's not the way out. He'll catch on after a while.

A friend took some pictures of me while pregnant this past weekend and, for once, I'm showing our faces on this blog. Vanity run a muck, I know.

36 weeks pregnant

I feel good today!

Nothing like actually feeling good to point out how often lately I haven't felt good. Yesterday, as soon as I got home from work, I went to bed and slept for nearly 2 hours, feeling much better when I got up. I did get one thing done on my list (I captioned part of a photo album), visited/cuddled with hubby, and at 10pm, took two Benadryl and an acid pill to ensure that I'd sleep through the night. And I did sleep through the night! And today I feel like a million bucks!

I woke up early enough to easily wash my hair, so that feels good too. I left for work a little early and therefore will work an extra 15 minutes today (at least) which will keep me from having to use that as sick time when I go to the doctor this Friday. If I feel good enough to work an extra hour this evening, then that might take care of the rest of the time I wont' have to take as sick time.

I'm being productive, smiling a lot, nothing hurts, and nothing is really bad swollen. This is the best I've felt in quite a while! Yesterday driving home and feeling horrible, I wondered if I was going to feel miserable non-stop for the duration of my pregnancy - a full 6 weeks. Not a fun thought. But with occasional days like this, the prospect isn't so grim! And I'm very seldom miserable for a whole day. Woohoo!!

Wiggle boy

Even with wonderful Hubby singing to baby boy tonight, he still scarcely let me get to sleep for all his pointy footed wiggling. The singing did calm him down for a while though. I finally got to sleep with my hands and feet swelling almost to the point of pain, but not quite. After dear Hubby came to bed, something woke me up again and now my hands and feet were really hurting. And wiggle boy was still at it with the pointy feet. So now it's 2am and I'm downstairs holding an ice cold Dr. Pepper can to try to reduce the swelling in my hands, and watching one of my "ad nausium" movies and trying to drift off to sleep. Which is obviously working because I turned on my computer to see how the world was faring and thought I'd share the misery. Lucky you!

Pointy Bouncy Boy

My baby boy has really been getting in his exercise the last day or two! He doesn't really let me slouch at all now, and if I recline backwards he takes advantage of the extra space to really stretch out. Yesterday morning, I was laying on my side with my hand on my belly. Suddenly, a big goose egg formed under my cupped palm and moved my hand, then went back down. "Morning, son!" My husband hasn't gotten to feel any of those huge movements yet, but it's not for lack of trying. Last night, he felt a lot of movement and was really surprised at the non-"ouch" movements. The websites and books say that from now on (week 32 and past) he will have progressively less room to maneuver and the kicks will get less strong. It's hard to gain momentum on a knee punch when your play area keeps shrinking. We'll see.

As far as preparations go, I managed to cook another casserole for the freezer last night and I'll try to get it wrapped up tight for freezing tonight. Right now it's just in the fridge. One of these ingredients for this casserole was chicken broth for the yummy goo part of the casserole. I had found some duck broth in our freezer from the last time we cooked a duck and used that instead. I bet that will be yummy!!!