Our Happy New Year

Well, here it is next year already, gone by so fast, so much has happened: A wedding in April of one of my best friends from high school, our neighbor's little girl turning one, a summer full of babysitting three kids at a time. But the end of the year has brought about so incredibly much for us! We found out we were pregnant, one of our neighbors had a baby, I quit working, another neighbor found out she was pregnant, I got back in touch with my dad, our cat had kittens, not to mention all the pregnancy-related changes for my body and mind, and my relationship with my husband! Since October, there's been a lot going on!

As for New Year's Eve, it went very similar to how it did last year. We had dinner at our neighbor's house, followed by board games and card games until 11:30, when we turned on Dick Clark's New Year's Eve show. The only difference from last year was that this time, there was no alcohol, since both wives are pregnant. It went pretty well, except for the people outside shooting off fireworks and firecrackers, both of which are supposed to be illegal around here. The buildings in this area are too close together to be shooting off fireworks, so much of a fire hazard, it's not even funny.

January 2nd was a very sad day for us, however. We took the kittens to the pet store to find new homes. Our neighbors Mark and Ashley decided they were going to take one for their little 3-year-old girl, so we got to hang onto one little female for a few more hours. But the poor little babies, the other three we put into a soft-sided carrier for the trip to the store. They didn't like being confined. They started crying, and trying to claw their way out. It nearly broke my heart. I tried so hard not to get attached to them and still socialize them. I didn't give them names, which was the biggest part of that, but hearing them cry like that nearly made me break down in tears. But I made it without tearing up. I'd drawn up a document with a picture of each kitten and information on their personalities, along with some information on how they were raised and their development. We also brought along some toys from home, and a bag of the food they'd been eating, to help with the transition. Doing all that made me feel much better about taking them, so I didn't feel like I was just abandoning them. Unfortunately, I didn't escape the night without crying. I started worrying a lot about the fate of the last kitten. Her new family was supposed to go buy supplies for her that day, and take her that night. But they never called to ask what kind of food she ate, if she was on soft or hard food, what kind of toys she liked, etc. We had planned to send some toys with her, but we didn't have any extra food, so to ease my mind, Bryan agreed to go out and buy a bag of her food to send with her. That helped keep the tears at bay. Also helping ease my aching heart was the fact that we were going to tell them that if they had any problems with her at all and decided they couldn't or didn't want to keep her, we would take her back, no questions asked. Both of us forgot to mention that, but I'll see Ashley tomorrow and will tell her.

Some other sad news yesterday: My friend Auvery, who just got married in April, found out she was pregnant in early December. Our friend Christy called me yesterday to tell me that Auvery had miscarried. Apparently there was a chromosomal abnormality with the baby, but her chances for a subsequent full-term pregnancy are still good. The only other good news in that was that she'd only known she was pregnant for three weeks before she miscarried. She was only five weeks along altogether. She found out very quickly about the baby, because she and her husband were trying to get pregnant, and so she was checking for pregnancy around her fertile days.

Today it seems like everyone is sick: The little girl I babysit for has a cold, her mom has head congestion, which I seem to be getting as well, and Bryan has had a headache and slept most of the day. Today was also my first day back at work, which could account for my headache. Since Julie's sick, she's a little more difficult to deal with because she doesn't feel good. Plus, I now have to be at work at 5:00 in the morning. I haven't gotten up that early and stayed up in a very very very long time. I used to get up that early to make lunch for Bryan, but I haven't done that in months, and I always went back to bed after he left for work. I go back to sleep after Jason leaves, but it still takes me a bit to fall back asleep, and Julie wakes up between 6:45 and 7:00am. I'm just going to make sure that I nap when she does, otherwise, this schedule is not going to work out for me very well without sleeping for a few hours when I get home. Bryan's enjoying my discomfort right now, because he's still on holiday leave. He normally gets up about 4:45 to 5:00am every morning for work. He goes back on the 12th, so he doesn't have much more time to sleep in.

As far as my pregnancy goes, I'm finding that my belly gets a little in the way when I bend over. The heartburn's not as constant. I've still got the blasted nasal congestion every morning. And the accompanying sneezes still make my abdomen hurt from round ligaments stretching. But I can feel the bottom and sides of my uterus when I palpate my stomach. That was an interesting discovery I made a few days ago. I still find myself lying on my back to sleep, which isn't supposed to happen after the fourth month is over. It seems to be the only position in which I can breathe. I know here in a month or so, my belly's going to be so heavy that it's going to squeeze my insides if I keep lying like that, but we'll have to see what happens. I'll improvise if I need to. My last resort is sleeping on the couch propped up by pillows. I don't want to do that to Bryan.

We also added a couple more things to our baby registry the other day. We realized just how much we really couldn't add until we find out the gender. So we've only been able to add furniture and various unisex or non-gender specific items for now. We'll probably add more once we know whether the baby's a boy or a girl.

I had a baby dream the other night. I hadn't really had any since we first found out about the pregnancy. Bryan asked me if the baby in my dream was a boy or a girl, and I told him I didn't know. I thought it was a girl, but I wasn't sure at all. All of my dreams in the beginning were of boys. They were never babies, always toddlers in those dreams, but always of boys. I doubt we're going to discover the gender at Monday's appointment, since it is a group appointment, but I think I'm supposed to have a private appointment a couple weeks after that, so hopefully, we'll find out soon. Everyone's on pins and needles waiting to know.

Well, I can't think of much more to write, so I'm going to end this for now. I'm not feeling the greatest today, so no picture for this post, but maybe next time.

TTFN!!!

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.