Pictures

I finally got around to taking some pictures. Above find the changing table and crib that took weeks to collect the parts for and put together. Also, here is my gargantuan (sp?) stomach at almost 37 weeks.

Let the Games Begin!

I went to the doctor today, and I am excited to annouce that I have started to dialate!!!! Only 1 1/2 centimeters, but hey, that's a start!! Charlie is still head down, and is at a 3 station. The doctor estimates that he is about 7 1/2 pounds right now. That's a little scary since Evan was that weight at 42 weeks, not 36 1/2! Of course, I could still be 2 weeks overdue before anything happens and have to be induced, but at least I feel like some action is starting to take place. I knew something was starting to happen in my pelvis before I went in. My legs feel like they are hardly attached, and everything is so wobbly down there. I knew things were starting to loosen up, but it's so nice to have some confirmation of your suspicions. I have been treasuring my sleep this week, because I know I don't have a lot ahead of me for awhile.

Mommy and Evan Week

Jeff left the day after Christmas for Windsor, Colorado for a week to visit his mom, sister, and grandparents who all live out there. So, Evan and I are having what we have been calling Mommy and Evan week. Yesterday was so nice! We just snuggled on the couch for a couple of hours, and watched some movies that Santa brought (one of them being The Muppet Movie which I haven't seen in years! I loved seeing all of the characters from my childhood again). Then we tried out some of his Christmas toys, including an Icee maker. He made me an incredibly messy Coca Cola Icee, which ended up being really good. Today we are just relaxing again, which has been so nice after the hectic holidays and the last couple of weeks of school. I realized how much Evan and I need this time alone together before the baby comes. I also realized how much I miss it being just me and Evan against the world. Not that I don't love Jeff too, but I just can't explain how much I miss our "old life" sometimes. It's been a bittersweet couple of days. I've also been thinking about how things will change once Charlie gets here. I know they will be good changes, and that most moms about to give birth to their second child feel this way, but I just can't imagine loving two people the way I love Evan, or there being enough of me or love to go around. I hope that Evan and I are both up to the challenge! I think it might be a little easier if he were younger. It has been just us for so long though, and we are so much closer than we would have been if we had had a traditional family for the first 7 years of his life. So anyway, it has been so therapeutic for us to be on our own this week.


Christmas was nice for us this year, if apart again like Thanksgiving. We celebrated Christmas Eve with my mom's family at my parent's house and went to Midnight Mass with them, which I absolutely love. Then we celebrated our first Christmas morning together. Evan was so exhausted from being excited that I had to wake him up to open presents! Next, Jeff left for Harlan and Evan and I went to my parents for brunch and to open gifts. I wasn't able to go to Harlan again because of my travel restrictions. That evening all of the Miceks came to my house (which is tiny) for Christmas dinner. Whenever the Miceks get together it means there is at least 40-45 people at your house. It was a lot of fun, but I think Jeff was a little overwhelmed at the amount of people in our home. He always says he likes Micek gatherings best though because everyone is always loud and boisterous, and talk about anything and everything. For example, one of my uncles regailed us with stories about his recent diagnoses by his doctor with (and I am not kidding) Itchy Butt Syndrome. It included a full discussion on hemrhoids. Jeff laughed through the whole thing, amazed I am sure that my family would talk about this in the first place. That's why I love them though! They are completely crazy. Anyway, nice but busy two days. Next year will be different I am sure as we negotiate the typical new family/newlywed mess of where to spend what on the holidays. We need to work out a plan for upcoming events, but at least we have a year to figure it out.

Nesting

We got out of school for break on Wednesday at 12:00. In his usual Christmas fashion, Evan got sick on Tuesday evening with a fever, a barking cough, and a severe headache. I did a mommy/school no no (I hate people that do this so I am such a hypocrite) and I made him go to school Wednesday for the half day while he was totally contagious. I didn't want to take one of my precious sick days, and Jeff is out of his occasional leave as well. We went to the doctor that afternoon and he has something called Adeno Virus. It got worse yesterday when his fever spiked to 103.4 and he began vomitting as well (this is fun on a normal occassion, but REALLY fun while pregnant!) Today I think his fever has finally broken, but now he is coughing green mucus out of his lungs-never a good sign with an asthmatic. Evan tends to get sick with something every year either right before Christmas or on Christmas Day. Last year he came down with pink eye on Christmas morning! I think he gets so excited he wears down his immune system, and he picks up something every time.

I did get out of the house for a bit this morning, and I registerd for Charlie at Target! What could be more fun!!! I LOVE using that little scanner. It is so much easier the second time around, because I know more what I need and what looks fun but would never use. (It is unbelievable the amount of gadgets that are out there for babies). It was so much fun to pick out all the cute little things. I am getting so excited for Charlie to arrive! Now that we finally have most of the furniture and room assembled, I have put the baby clothes away. We got a carseat last weekend, and learned all the in and outs of the thing at our last child birth class last Tuesday. So, it looks like we are down to the nitty gritty, and just have to wait for labor to start and for Charlie to arrive!

My dad's side of the family is coming to my house for dinner on Christmas day so I am off to tackle a lot of cleaning and sprucing up. I've actually been looking forward to cleaning everything out. I am starting to have those intense nesting urges. I deep cleaned the kitchen yesterday, and I felt so much better. Not that the kitchen will matter much to the baby, but it made me feel better. I hesitate to open a closet lately because I get a crazy itch to clean it out right then and there.

Contractions

I have been having an amazing amount of Braxton Hix contractions all through last night and today. Our birth class guru has mentioned several times that these are not supposed to hurt. As usual, my body has decided not to go along with "normal". A few of them have been DOOZIES! I have had to stop what I am doing, sit down, and breathe through it. This happened a couple of times at school today, scaring the pants off of my associate in my classroom. I think she was preparing herself to deliver the baby in front of 30 six year olds by the end of the day. I called the doctor, and she said that as long as they are not regular, that it's okay. It's just my body helping Charlie to engage in my pelvis, and to get ready for birth. She did say to get off my feet more during the day and just sit, but this is MUCH easier said than done as a first grade teacher. I am so glad that Christmas break is coming up!!I am 35 weeks now, so at least we are almost to the end. I remember doing this with Evan, but I forgot how silly it makes me feel to be in the middle of something and have to stop and just breathe!

Placenta Thing

As you all know, I am a big fan of seeing the placenta at birth. Knowing this, my friend Christi sent me this amazing website:

http://www.birthdiaries.com/diary/48vbirth2.htm


As I hope you have just seen, this shows what some women do when having a home birth with a midwife. They use the placenta, and the blood from the placenta, to make a print which comes out looking amazingly like a tree. When I saw this I was amazed. The print is kind of cool, but I don't think I could do this. The pictures show a woman calmly sitting on the floor with a placenta that isn't even HERS, unrolling it and carefully wiping the blood on the placenta to make the print. That is amazing dedication, mixed in with an incredible power of mind over body to not get nauseous. I love the idea of the print, but I don't like to think about the method of getting it. Lucky for Jeff, I don't think my doctor or midwife would okay doing this in the hospital.

GO CHARLIE!!!

I am SO excited! I went to the doctor on Wednesday for my 34 week check, and you will not believe this...Charlie has FINALLY turned head down! I guess the weeks of standing on my own head have paid off. This means we will get to try a normal delivery!!!! We went on our tour of Lakeside Hospital at our child birth class on Tuesday night, and I was so sad thinking I probably wouldn't get to go through all the fun things with labor and delivery. Now...I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!! I am really looking forward to everything so much. I can't wait for Jeff to experience all of this with me.
YEAH!!!!

Don't Burn Your Eyes

On Monday morning, my curling iron gave up the fight and died (it was at least 6 years old, so I forgave it). I got a new curling iron that afternoon, and was taking it out of the package when I noticed there was a warning attached to the bottom. It had a picture of a large eyeball with a curling iron sticking out of it, and the big NO circle (the one with the line running across). I thought to myself, surely this doesn't mean don't stick in your eye, who could be that stupid? So I turned the tag over, and sure enough it said "This curling iron becomes hot when plugged in. Do not stick the iron in your eye. It will burn." I am quoting VERBATUM!!! Now, if it had said don't use near your eye AREA, I could understand that. But WHO WOULD STICK IT IN THEIR EYE????? Our intelligence must be decreasing as we evolve. I am so excited to have these people in my classroom. Maybe someday I will have to teach, "No, you can't stick the pencil in your eye. You might poke it out!"


I wrote a couple of posts ago about how our changing table was missing about half of it's parts when it arrived in the package. I called last Monday to get the parts resent, and they arrived on Friday. I happily opened the package on Saturday, and got started assembling things only to discover they still hadn't sent all the parts!!!! So I had to call AGAIN. Maybe the thing was packaged by the very same people who try to curl their eyeballs with curling irons. I am surrounded by idiots.


For instance, the idiots who work at Shopko. (Not inlcuding past employees of course, Adam and Asten). I went on Sunday, and noticed they had a baby swing on clearance. The model was directly above the price tag that said CLEARANCE (in capital letters) and $55.67. Below it was a box, holding the exact same model. The tag had the same wording as the model, and the box describing the product. One might assume then that the swing was on clearance for $55.67. Not so in Shopko land! After having it ring up wrong, and arguing with the person they sent to check on the price, I requested a manager. She told me, "Mam, this price is not for this swing." I pointed out the obvious about the description, the wording, the placement, and she still looked at me baffled, but refused to give me the clearance price. At this point I was a 33 weeks pregnant lady who had been waiting and arguing in line for 45 minutes. She learned a valuable lesson. DO NOT MESS WITH PREGNANT WOMEN. THEY BITE! I felt my face get red with frustration, and said, fine. Just give me your name, and I will be reporting you, your store, and your department to the Better Business Bureau. Suddenly, the swing was on clearance, and she gave me the right price. HONESTLY!!!!