Two Weeks Later...

I know, I know, it's been a while since I posted anything. Sorry for the people that kept checking to look for updates and didn't find any. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. For starters, my husband's work schedule changed, so I didn't have consistent access to his desktop, where I prefer to write these posts. I am on my laptop now. Plus, I haven't had much news to report, and been feeling icky every now and then.

Well, here's what news I do have: Christmas was nice and quiet, just me and Bryan here at home. We each opened one present on the 23rd, Bryan gave me this awesome, incredibly soft blue robe. I'd been wanting a new one, because my old terry cloth robe is getting lots of holes. But this robe is nice and soft, and so warm. I wear it every morning. I bought Bryan season two of Law & Order: SVU, which is one of the only shows Bryan will sit and watch on TV. He hates commercials, so getting him the DVDs was a great idea.

My belly's getting bigger little by little. Every time I look down, I can see my belly button ring poking out from my shirt. I went to scratch near it on Christmas Eve, and it hurt really badly. I finally broke down and took it out. I hadn't wanted to, was going to wait until the day before my next appointment. I got all sad that night, because my belly button looks so much different now. I keep telling Bryan it's ugly now. I think it's already closing up. I'm afraid that it will close up all the way, and I don't know that I'd get it redone. It's not the pain, I just don't know that I'd go to the trouble to find a place to do it for me. Plus I'd have to pay for it again, and they won't use my own belly button rings, I'd have to buy another one. If it does close up, I just hope it doesn't leave a nasty scar that looks horrible once my belly gets even bigger.

Our neighbors invited us to her mom's house for a "quiet" Christmas with her brothers and neice and nephew. Bryan declined, and I kind of agreed. I would have felt strange, Sharon having all her kids and grandkids there, I would have felt like an intruder. Bryan just didn't want to spend Christmas with a family that wasn't his family. But it turned out to be a nice day anyway. We opened the rest of our presents, then watched television and talked to our families on the phone. Bryan got me a bathtub caddy that holds a book, a candle, and a wine glass. He also got me a really cool blender, which was something else I had been wanting. It has 14 speeds, including an Easy Clean setting, something I thought was really awesome. The cup is glass and holds five cups. We just went out and bought vanilla ice cream, so that we could make milkshakes. We were going to make smoothies, but we didn't buy any fruit that's smoothie-appropriate except for bananas. But I can still make chocolate-banana shakes. My mom got me hooked on those from Sonic when she was pregnant with my youngest brother.

The other day I had to go get a couple of maternity shirts. All of my others were getting to be too short to tuck in or keep from showing my belly. I have one that I bought a while back, but it's designed for bigger bellies than mine. But I bought two long-sleeved t-shirts. They are long enough that I don't need to tuck them in, and oh-so-comfy! I'm wearing one of them in the above picture. I have a pair of maternity pants, but I have three pairs of normal pants that still fit and have some give to them. So I won't need to wear them for a little bit longer.

I still wake up with a bloody nose every morning. Bryan has come to expect my morning sneezing attacks which usually occur shortly after blowing my nose after I wake up. My humidifier helps with my breathing at night, but it hasn't stemmed the nasal bleeding. I'm also getting a lot of that round ligament pain when I go through those sneezing attacks. I have to bend over when I feel a sneeze coming on, or I get a really sharp pain in either side of my abdomen. I also have to be careful when I stretch, or I get it too. Another discomfort I've been experiencing the last couple days is stomach upset. I can only have about half the amount of cereal I normally have. And if it has too much milk in it, I feel icky for about two hours after eating. This morning, I told Bryan I thought it was my lactose intolerance getting worse. But then, we had Subway for lunch, and I couldn't finish my sandwich. That had never happened before. So I finally realized that my capacity had been diminished by a growing uterus. My stomach just can't stretch as much as it could before. Time for smaller meals. I was already eating little bits all the time, but now I'm really going to have to watch my actual meals.

In other baby news, we've been told that this baby isn't going to have the honor of being the first grandchild for every parent. Bryan's younger sister is pregnant, and she's a month ahead of us. I felt really jilted when we first found out. But I'm over that now, for the most part. She and her boyfriend are moving to Florida, where his mom lives. She's going to a culinary arts school, in Miami, I think. I'm trying really hard to be happy for her, though her circumstances make it more difficult. She's 18, and her boyfriend isn't exactly a favorite person with the rest of the family. I just really hope she's stopped or cut back on her smoking. She's five months along, and just informed her parents on Christmas day. What timing... Anyway, before I let my bitterness get the best of me...

In yet more baby news, our kittens go to the pet store on Tuesday. I've done my best to stay detached, but the house is going to seem very empty without them. They've just ventured downstairs to meet the dog in the last week. The last couple days, they've been spending more and more of their time down here. We actually lose them every once in a while as they find random nooks and crannies to curl up and sleep in. Lilo, their mom, has been in heat since the 23rd, she's just coming out of it now, and starting to play with them and the dog. She's still really protective of her babies. When Sabre starts to chase one of them, she attacks him. It's quite hilarious. But we have one that spends nearly all of her time down here, and actually curls up next to the dog and goes to sleep. Bryan said he wanted to keep her today. The other day, he asked me if we could keep a couple of the kittens and sell Lilo. But he told me he wasn't totally serious about either of them. But we are most certainly going to get their mom spayed shortly after the babies go away. Her going into heat has gotten nearly intolerable. Plus, I want to be a more responsible pet owner than to let her get pregnant again. Granted, her babies are gorgeous and so much fun, but there are too many homeless babies out there. Our neighbor just rescued one that showed up at their house. Anyway, here are some pictures of our babies before they go away.