The Nest

Hello Third Trimester!

Posted Friday, May 09, 2008 1:33 PM

Tomorrow I start my third (and final - yikes) trimester.

I posted some new photos (my "end of the second trimester" photos with my good professional photographer friend, my old boss) in my bio.  If you have a minute, check them out.  You have to scroll down a bit because the belly pics go in order from early pregnancy to now.

Here's one I didn't put in my bio (it's a little too, um, intimate to keep in my bio at all times)...so I'll just post it for my dear sweet Nestie blog readers.

The one pic I actually love how my body looks.  Shadowing does wonders for eliminating the appearance of cellulite!  Well, shadowing and photoshop!  Sorry ladies, I don't show anyone a photo without some sort of retouching.  So no, I don't look as good in real life as I do in the photos in my bio!  :)

Glucose Test - eh, not so bad after all

Posted Thursday, May 08, 2008 2:44 PM

I totally expected the worst and it wasn't bad at all!

The drink was super sugary, but it still tasted just like a Sunkist.  Just sweeter.  Unfortunately I wasn't allowed any water at all after drinking it, so the sugary after taste was more annoying than anything.

I thought I'd get the shakes or feel nauseous having not eaten anything in 10 hours and then drinking 50mg of pure sucrose, but I was fine.  I even survived the blood draw and I HATE having my blood drawn.

All is good until they call me with those results.  I just feel like why wouldn't I have gestational diabetes?  I feel like I've gotten everything else, what's one more thing?

Drama free? Doubt it.

Posted Thursday, May 08, 2008 2:30 PM

Is it even possible to have a drama-free shower? 

Okay...let's start from the beginning.  I'm having two showers.  The Boston shower (which is my dad's really large family) and the Mader shower (which is my MIL's family).  There will be no Adams shower (which is my mom's side of the family) because it's just me, my mom, my sister, and my grandma, and my grandma is in a nursing home with dementia.  There won't be an Edmondson shower (FIL's family) because we don't see them a lot and will just invite the ones we know to the Mader shower.

Got all that?

Okay, first sign of drama was when my SIL decided to plan the Mader shower and set the date for July 13th.  I told her that's way too late because it's less than 30 days to my due date and too hot for me to deal with considering this swelling.  But too bad for René because SIL said it can't be any earlier because "there are too many other things going on in June."

Then there's the Boston shower...and this one has been LOADED with drama.  My cousin (and very close friend) said she was too busy to plan it because she's close to graduating from nursing school.  So this friend of mine K took the initiative.  Then my cousin decided she did want to plan it, basically taking over whatever K had already started.  My sister was asked if she wants to be involved, and of course these are the lovely words straight from my sister's mouth: "Actually, I can't really give any money, but all I care about is that my name is on the invitation."  Nice.

So my cousin decides to do evites, where you send out the invite through email and that's also how people RSVP.  I personally think that's tacky and told my cousin I'd rather do paper invites.  Yeah, she didn't care what I thought.  She never asked me what time I wanted it either, so she planned it for noon on a Sunday.  She sent out the evites before even allowing anyone to look over it first.  Well, the next day I get a call from my sister that she's super hurt because her name is left off the invitation.  Grr.  So I call my cousin and she says it was an oversight and she adds her name.  She RESENDS out the evite to EVERYONE after adding my sister's name.  So now people have two evites in their inbox for my shower.

Then K notices that my cousin planned the shower for noon.  Well, that's way too early on a Sunday to expect anyone to get together, especially with church.  So my cousin changes it to 1 (I'd rather it be at 2, but no one asked for my opinion) and RESENDS out the evite AGAIN to everyone.  So now people have THREE evites in their email inbox, the second two noting that changes were made and please take the time to reread the evite.  Lordy.  How tacky does that look?  It looks like this is the most disorganized shower ever.  Does this reflect poorly on me or just on the host?

To top off the drama, my best friend Keri who I adore and who has been begging me to let her throw me a shower (even though I didn't really know who else there was to invite or have a shower with) called me upset that some girl named K who isn't even a close friend of mine is included in throwing me a shower but she wasn't allowed to throw me one.  Oh boy.  Drama free? ...not even possible.

But getting presents is awesome too!

Posted Wednesday, May 07, 2008 10:22 AM

Okay, so I wrote a lot of sappy stuff yesterday that I totally believe.  That said...I got a present!!! 

Chris bought me (well, us) a new iPod...and not just any iPod, but the touch screen one!  It kicks ass!  I told him awhile ago that I wanted the hot pink 8 gb Nano, but when he went to look at it, he thought it was way too small.  I agree, I checked it out last week and it certainly looks more appealing blown up 200% in size in the Best Buy ads).  So he bought the touch screen iPod instead, which is so bea-u-ti-ful!  All I had before was the iPod shuffle, the original white one that looks like a stick of gum, and while it works great and all, there is no screen so I could never see what song was coming up next...and well I couldn't play movies/TV shows on it.

He said it's for us because he wants to use it during fantasy football season.  It has WiFi abilities, but I need to read the manual.  Best of all, since we don't have a laptop, at least now I have some way to get online and post for my Nesties when BoLi arrives!

Here's what it looks like:

I just need to buy a protector for it now.  I'm thinking pink (my husband can remove it when he wants to use it):

What I've learned about life, through my husband...

Posted Tuesday, May 06, 2008 1:40 PM

In honor of our 2nd anniversary, I decided to dedicate a whole blog entry to what my husband has taught me about life, love, and men.

1. Jealousy will get you no where.  I'm not a jealous person by nature, especially when it comes to relationships.  The only time I'm ever jealous is when someone I know is hired for their dream job, buys their dream home, drives their dream car, or shops at their dream stores.  Then my husband reminds me to never want what other people have, that it doesn't pay off in the end to compare my life with anyone else's life.  And it's true, perhaps that dream car has a really high monthly payment that I'd never want to make, or those new diamond earrings went on a credit card with an already excessive balance.  You never know with anyone else, so stick to what you do know.

2. Marriage is not a transformation of two people into one.  Many of you will disagree with this, but this is how I feel about it.  Marriage is two individual and unique people who become two individual and unique people who share their lives.  They don't become one because becoming one would mean losing the identities of the individuals.  Chris and I are very different.  We didn't become this joint unit of similar thoughts, ideas, and actions.  We became two people who compromise, discuss, and learn from each other.  I teach him how to be spontaneous and he teaches me to be calm.  If we were just one person, we wouldn't be able to feed off each other the way we do.  And I certainly love what he has brought to my life.

3. Men dream about the future too.  Sometimes when I can't fall asleep at night, I run through every single detail of the next big event in my life.  Before we got married, I would think about our wedding day over and over, considering every single word spoken, how my hair would look, and what our guests would be wearing.  After we started TTC, I would envision telling my husband that I'm pregnant, how he would react, and how we would tell our families.  Now I lay in bed guessing how labor will be and who will be the first people we call.  I found out that my husband does the same thing.  He told me last night that I look just how he imagined his wife to look pregnant.  I nearly cried (but I'm not a crier, so of course no tears showed) because when you feel so fat and distorted as a human being, it's amazing to know you look and act just as your husband had dreamed you would.  He loves pregnant women, always has.  He complimented my best friend regularly throughout her entire pregnancy, and he's always pointed out pregnant women to me and said how cute they looked.  To know that this is what he imagined, even though I have been feeling like I'm a nightmare in his eyes, it feels really good.

4. Love is more than saying "I love you," more than buying little gifts for each other, more than a massage late at night for no reason.  Love is an overwhelming desire to be with, care for, and support one another.  Chris loves me differently than I love him.  I enjoy surprising him with small notes and his favorite candy, I tell him how I feel as soon as I'm feeling it, and I want dates and alone time to just enjoy him.  Chris however loves me by going to work every single day even though it emotionally and physically exhausts him, by coming home safe every night, by managing our 401Ks and our life insurance policies, by eating dinner with me even if it's in front of the TV, and by fixing up the flaws in our home to make it just perfect for me and our future baby.  It's not romantic, it's not like you see in the movies, but he loves me by showing me that no matter what he will make everything okay in the end.  That sense of security truly is more valuable than a written letter expressing his inner thoughts or a present from the mall.

I'm clumsy, crazy, and a bad wife.

Posted Monday, May 05, 2008 1:25 PM

Clumsy:  I'm a mess lately.  I bump into walls, drop everything, and knock things over like it's my job!  So this weekend I had to pick up a parking pass that a friend left in his mailbox for me.  When I flipped up the lid to the mailbox (mounted on the front of the house, not the kind of mailbox that is a separate unit at the end of the driveway), there was a ton of other mail in there.  So I popped up on my tippie toes and looked down into the mail slot, only to have the (unbeknownst to me) spring-loaded lid come slamming down onto the bridge of my nose.  Mother F*&#@er!  Now I have a huge knot and purple mark across my nose.  Awesome.

Crazy:  I am so looking forward to labor.  How weird is that?  I am scared to death to bring an infant home that requires my constant care and love...but bring on the labor!  I think I just want to know what my experience is going to be like.  For a writer, it's all about the story.  So I want to know what mine will be.  Plus I can just envision my husband holding his newborn son that he so wanted, the look on his face, and I know I will just die.

Bad Wife:  I rarely feel BoLi move.  I felt it that one night I told you guys about, but that's about it.  My brother came into town this past weekend to go to the Derby with my husband.  Before they headed off for Kentucky, my brother asked me if I've felt him kick yet.  I said I felt it once laying in this certain position.  So I got in that position on the couch and let him grab ahold of my belly, a position that freaked him out too...he kept asking, "Are you sure I'm not crushing him?"  And wouldn't you know it, BoLi pushed right back against my brother's hand.  He leaped back when he felt it, like he saw a spider.  I laughed, and then I looked over at Chris.  I'm so stupid!  Duh, of course my husband would want to feel his son kick before my brother!  I said, "I'm sorry you weren't the first one other than me to feel him...come here."  He wasn't upset, he just slipped right in with this determined look on his face like he will feel it this time.  And he did.  And he did the same thing my brother did, leaped back all weirded out.  Boys.

When Chris came home on Sunday, he said he was telling all the guys at the Derby how cool it was to feel BoLi before he left.  I'm so glad he isn't upset that it wasn't him first.  But that's my husband for you, not worried about crap like that.

Stupid Cops!

Posted Friday, May 02, 2008 10:49 AM

Okay, if you are a cop or you're married to a cop, you might not want to read this blog entry.

Grrr!  I got a parking ticket in front of my house!  Here's the story:

I usually park in the driveway at our home.  I almost always get home from work after my husband, who parks on the street.  Dumb luck happened yesterday and I got home from work before my husband AND it was trash day.  Those two things combined resulted in me getting a ticket.

You can't get the trash bin up the driveway if there is a car parked in it.  Chris is usually home first so he drags the trash bin up the driveway before I get home.  Since I beat him home, and yesterday was trash day, I couldn't pull my car into the driveway until I pulled the trash bin up.

It's a super pain in the butt to turn a car around on our street (to face the other direction for parking on the street) because it's narrow and cars park on both sides of the street.  When I come home from work my house is on the left, so to park on the street I have to turn my car around so I can be facing the opposite direction.  Make sense so far?  It's never a problem because I usually park in the driveway. 

Well I had my water aerobics class in about a half an hour and I had to leave facing the opposite direction in which you're supposed to park your car on the street, but it was the same direction in which I come home from work.  So I just pulled in front of my house and parked with my car facing the wrong way, so I could easily just leave for the gym.  For just 30 minutes.

I changed, grabbed my gym bag, and headed out to my car.  I saw a cop car parked on the street, but I don't live in the greatest area of town so I didn't assume it was there for me.  I got in my car and started it when some cop comes running up to my car. 

"Hold on, I'm writing you a ticket," she said. 

"What for?"

"Parking on the wrong side of the street."

"I'm in front of my own house.  I just did it for a couple of minutes.  It's very inconvenient to turn your car around on this street for just a couple of minutes."

"You should have parked in your driveway."

"It's trash day, I can't pull the trash bin up if my car is in the driveway."

"Well," she said, "I already started writing the ticket.  I would have let it go if I hadn't already started writing it."

So I'm sitting there waiting for her to finish writing this ticket, super pissed because if the ticket isn't written and on my windshield by the time I return to my car, it should be her loss.  So I said, "My front door is wide open.  Could you really not have just knocked on my door and let me know my car isn't allowed to park like that?  I would have immediately moved it.  It's not like I'm in front of some building downtown or something."

"Nope, it's the law and you should know the law as a licensed driver.  Doesn't matter if it's in front of just a residence."

Ugh, I just wanted to punch her.  Seriously lady, you're in this neighborhood, there is probably a robbery happening a few blocks over, go deal with something more important than my freaking car which isn't inconveniencing or threatening anyone at all.

Even better, as I'm getting this ticket, all my neighbors are outside because it was gorgeous, and these are all the jackasses who park their cars the opposite way for DAYS AT A TIME and here I am getting a ticket for it even though I just did it for the first time since last year and for only 30 minutes!  I was livid.  Ooh, I'm getting all mad even now just writing about it.

I can't believe people are flying down main roads at 80 miles an hour, running red lights, and driving without insurance, never ever getting pulled over, and I'm getting a $35 ticket for parking my car in front of my own house the "wrong" way (which by the way, I lived in Pittsburgh for 4 years and it's totally legal to do that there).

So I'm super hating the Dayton Police Force right now.  Seriously, I'm not out of line thinking that something this minor should require just a warning first.  Had she given me a warning, I'd never park my car that way again.  What, does she think she's teaching me some lesson by automatically giving me a ticket?  Getting the ticket pisses me off to the point where now I actually want to break the law, considering real offenses never seem to be noticed anyway.