34 week appointment

so yesterday was my 34 week appointment. nothing new. i only gained 2 pounds which means that was only a 2 pound weight gain this month. sure beats the 10 pound weight gain last month!!! he said i was still measuring a little big so i will call to schedule an appointment for an ultrasound in the next week or 2. he's not concerned, just wants to see what the ultrasound shows as to how big this baby might be. i don't have any belief in their measuring or the ultrasound as they told us from very early on what a big baby hayden was. but it will be fun to get to see the baby one more time in utero.
every time i go in, the dr. asks me if i've had any contractions. i have always told him no. then i've wondered, is that the right answer? am i supposed to be feeling some? so about a month ago he asked and i said "no. well, i don't know. maybe. i'm not really the best person to ask that question to. see, i didn't know i was in labor until about 10 seconds before hayden popped out." so this time he asked and again i said "nope." to which he replied, "one of these days we'll get you contracting." so i was like...oh, so i AM supposed to be feeling some? so i told him that i have felt some tightening at times, which i figure are braxton hicks contractions. but i wouldn't really call them contractions. it really is a special thing to feel so out of touch with your body! doesn't bother me any. i'll be perfectly happy to take another labor just like last time. not knowing or feeling a thing until the very last minute.
as far as the basement. the first coat of paint is up and dry. it probably only needs one coat, but dave really wants to give it 2. and who am i to argue?! so hopefully tonite he'll put the last coat of paint up and then we can start moving some furniture to the basement. he has to work saturday so i'm hoping to have this room cleared out so that i can begin to prime it while he's gone. there's still A TON to get done, but it's slowly happening.

basement update

this weekend dave managed to get most of the office in the basement done. the door is on order which is holding up a few things, but nothing major. the main walls are up, mudded, sanded and primed. they are now ready for the paint which should go on tomorrow. at some point we'll need to figure out what to do about flooring, but that's not a huge concern right now. it will be a functional room until we have the time and funds to do all the other little things to it.
once the paint goes up, we can hopefully start moving in some of the furniture which means clearing out the current office. so hopefully i'll be able to start the priming and painting in the nursery by next week.
i'm pretty proud of dave since he took on this project and did it all himself. there was only one day where he had a friend helping him, but other than that, he's done it all. he even did the priming. and let's just say painting is not dave's strong point.
i took some pictures the other day of the progress, but for whatever reason, our camera will not download pictures onto this computer. which means i'll need to wait to get them onto dave's laptop and go from there. but i'll get ya a sequence of photos at some point so you can see all that he has done.

today = the greatest day i have ever known

no joke. i feel like i have just won the lottery, even though in just 3 1/2 weeks we'll be living off of 1 paycheck instead of 2. that's how great today is. at least that's how great today has been for the past 2 1/2 hours now.
most of you reading this know how much i hate my job. i was counting down the days until i left that miserable place and not necessarily how much longer before the baby comes. after today i had 17 days. that was until about 3:50pm this afternoon.
after a miserable week and much tension in the office, my boss called me into his office/conference room. he basically told me "we really aren't going to have the funds to pay you past march 2, that's the next pay period. so basically, i can cut you a check for the 2nd and you can take your leave early. if you want, in about 2 months or whenever your leave is over, you can call and see if any work has come up or you might want to just try to find another job." i figured what he was saying was " i just want you out of here asap, so i'll pay you one more paycheck, but get out....TODAY." but because the man is the most confusing man i know i wanted to be sure. plus, my last day was supposed to be march 16. so i told him that i was expecting and counting on 2 more paychecks. with the baby coming we have plans for that money and really needed it. so he said, "ok, we'll cut you a check for the 16th too. just don't deposit it until the 16th. since your circumstances are such with the baby and all, i'll go ahead and give you these last two paychecks, kind of like a severance." still wanting to be sure he was telling me he was about to pay me for 4 more weeks of doing nothing i asked "so what do you want me to do about work?" and he simply said "well, there isn't much work coming in and i'll be traveling soon. and i don't want you to have to sit at your desk and get frustrated. that's not what i want. so you can just say today is your last day." i'm not sure how it is that i didn't jump up and start kissing him right there. i held it together and tried to look a wee bit disappointed, but not over the top, as i was planning on leaving soon anyway. he waited around while i cleaned up my desk, wrote myself out my last 2 paychecks and handed him my keys and such.
while we were talking he asked me if it would be ok if he called me if he needed to ask me something. or if something came up and he needed me, could i maybe come into the office. ahhh, to intimidate your own boss. i just let him know, "well, you are paying me through the 16th, so i can do that. but it can't be last minute notice to come in as i'd have to make sure i had someone to watch my son." oh, but of course. it wouldn't be last minute. and the last words i heard from him while i was walking out were "we'll be in touch through the 16th." and after the 16th we both know we will be ecstatic to have each other out of our lives.

i just love getting my picture taken

yesterday we went to a friends house. a friend with benefits you could say. suzi is a wonderful photographer and took pregnancy pictures for me when i was pregnant with hayden and also has taken family portraits of the kellogg clan. so we went over to hang with her family (her son was born 4 days before hayden) and another close family of friends. while we were there, we also managed to squeeze in another pregnancy portrait session. she's photographed hayden before so she was all set up with bathtub paints that she had every intention of having him use on my belly to keep him interested and still for a few minutes. for whatever reason, he was quite cooperative and we didn't even need to break the paints out. we got some pictures of the 3 of us, some of just hayden and my belly and then some of just me. some of you have seen a couple of the pictures from last time around. and only a select few have seen them all. suzi is quite persuasive and after having intentions of showing little to no skin, she somehow managed to get me practically naked. i still don't know how that happened. i think they're great photos, but most of you will never see them. i'm sure you're all so disappointed. i know it's always fun seeing big fat pregnant chicks with next to nothing on. but here's a couple i will let you see:

this one is my favorite:


i think he was helping me hold the baby up.
or maybe he was trying to catch it. either way,
he's very thoughtful. no?!:



suzi is a very busy girl these days. working midnights, going to school for nursing in one of the most demanding programs i've ever heard of, and being a wife and mother of 2 kids. she isn't even really doing photography work these days. but, in another attempt to get my clothes off she fit me into her tight schedule. it may take some time for her to get the new photos to me, but when i do, i'll be sure to post them. she didn't get me naked this time.

excuse me, coming through

so there is one thing i'm remembering about being pregnant from last time as each day passes. public restrooms. and how they aren't made for a pregnant chick. many people that know me know i try as hard as possible not to use public bathrooms to begin with. and while i'm still not like a lot of pregnant woman that have to pee every hour, i usually have to go at least once or twice while at work. see, public restroom stall doors open inward. so when you're in the stall and you want to get out you have little to no room between the toilet, the door and your big fat belly. the maneuvers you must make in order to squeeze yourself out of that tiny hole must be captured on videotape and posted for all to enjoy. i'm changing the name on the handicap stall to the stork stall. if yer not knocked up....ya better not be using it.
along the same lines are stores and restaurants that put things too close together. you might not think about it unless you have a stroller or are as big as a submarine, but when one of those things happens....you quickly notice. after having hayden i couldn't believe how close together stores put their racks of clothes. and not just adult stores. i'm talking BABY STORES. they are expecting mother's to come in and shop with their babies in strollers, right?! i guess they feel they need to put them up like cones to try to prevent major stroller crashes.
yesterday i went into panera bread for lunch. their french onion soup and mediterranean veggie sandwich are a delicious treat. anyway. at the back of the restaurant they had all these 2 person tables set up in about 3 rows. i made my way to the back corner (back against the wall, of course) and sat down. while eating, someone decided to sit in the row in front of me. and all i could think of was....how in the world am i going to get out of here now?! my belly is going to clear their table off before they're even done eating. i somehow managed to get myself out bumping a few chairs only a handful of times. i don't think anyone was knocked upside the head by my stomach.
it's all pregnancy discrimination i tell ya.

ultrasound at like 21 weeks or something like that

i'm having all sorts of problems getting photos on here. but here's one to hold you all over. this was taken at our ultrasound on december 7, 2006. i think i was like 21 weeks or something.

man, that baby's stomach looks bigger than it's head.

i'm not one for the attention, but it's cold outside

within the past few years more and more places have put up "stork parking" for all those pregnant chicks that tend to waddle when the walk. stork parking is basically a step below the coveted handicap parking, but you don't even need a sticker on your car. i first saw it last time around at babies r us. i let pride get in my way and didn't really utilize it. this time around i'm playing that card. i have now seen stork parking at the doctor's office and even at laurel park mall. i don't necessarily want people looking at me getting out of my car and having them think "oh that poor girl. she can hardly walk." but if that's what it takes to get a front row parking spot on a day when it's -10, i can live with it. do i have issues walking? no. do i feel i can't walk an extra few steps to make it into the mall where i'm just going to walk around anyway? no. but do i feel guilty about taking that spot away from another pregnant chick who just might have a tougher time getting around then me? no. there are no requirements posted on that sign. it simply says "stork parking" or "expectant mother parking" so i'm gonna take it. even if i was 2 months along and not even showing, in this cold weather, i'd take that spot.

32 week appointment

yesterday was my 32 week appointment. i'm now on the every 2 week appointment schedule. at the last appointment i had gained 10 pounds in 4 weeks. not good. i wanted to focus more on the month that i gained only 1 pound, but the dr. wouldn't shut up about the current month. whatever. this time around i didn't gain anything. phew.
this pregnancy is about as easy as the last time around. although there are little things, it's still not much to complain about. with hayden, i really never even felt pregnant. this time around, i most definitely do. and have for awhile now. i also get a heat rash type thing anytime i get even remotely warm. good thing it's not summertime.
with hayden it was all super easy even with the extra fluid and his sky high heart rate which sent us to the hospital several times to get it down. after the fact, i found out that technically i was "high risk" which is why i had so many ultrasounds and non-stress tests. he was constantly moving (big surprise, huh?!) but because of the extra fluid, i didn't feel it too often. so it's a little different feeling this one move around all the time. not sure if it's excessive like hayden, or just normal.
at the appointment yesterday the dr. said i'm doing great and everything looks "beautiful." the babies head is already down (it seems i have cooperative babies in womb....it's just when they come out there's a problem) and the heart rate has always been perfect and healthy. the past 2 visits he has told me that the baby is measuring larger so the next time i go in he'll give me an ultrasound slip so that i can go in around 35 or 36 weeks to have them take a look and see just how big it really is. i don't have much faith in this, as through the whole pregnancy with hayden they told me "this is a really big baby." he came out at 7 pounds 4 ounces. liars.
but he is wanting to keep a really close eye on me and will check for dilation in the next few weeks as they are a bit nervous at how fast this labor could be. i think the most anticipation i have right now, besides leaving my horrible awful job in just 4 1/2 more weeks, is how the whole labor thing will turn out this time. i just hope my water breaks as that was the only indication i had that i was in labor. if i don't have that warning, i'm thinking there is a really good chance we won't make it to the hospital. but of course, i'm fully prepared for the joke that could be coming my way in the form of a 32 hour labor.