I have had some rather threatening "requests" for baby nursery pictures lately so here they are...they're in the photo album.  Now, the room is incomplete and I have some nasty old discolored blinds hanging in front of the windows right now so I'll have to send the updated pictures after completion which will hopefully be in the next few weeks.  I am feeling like the countdown to birthday has already begun.  I can't believe that in about 8-9 short weeks I am going to have a little tiny infant to care for....FOREVER.  I am 90% excited 5% scared and 5% ambivilant.  No amount of reading or inquiring will prepare me for what is in my very near future.  But I keep reading because I feel a slight sense of mastery after I finish a book.  I am afraid that all of my personal goals will be forgotten or put on permanent deferment.  Will I be able to teach her to speak spanish? Will we pick the right school?  Will she be happy? What will we do all day?

Anywho, that's all I have for now. I think I have slept about 19 of the past 24 hours so my brain is too slow to produce much of anything worth writing at the moment. 

No not my hiccups....O M G.  the tinest tyke got the hiccups for the first time (that I noticed) last night.  I was reading in bed and these days use my belly as a table when suddenly my table started to jump very softly and subtly in a rythmic fashion.  It was by  far the cutest belly happening so far. You know how when puppies get the hiccups and it's like the most adorable thing you have ever seen...just multiple that feeling by oh 3 and that's what I felt last night.

I have another doctors appointment on Friday and I am gaining weight at an astronomical rate.  I like to sing my rendition of West Side Story's "I feel pretty" which in my version is "I feel chubby".  I've been thin my entire life....I know I know poor me.  But having now gained about 24 lbs since prepreg is starting to concern me...especially when I still have about 8 or 9 weeks to go and a target weight goal of no more than 35 lbs.  It's hard to feel like you are doing a good thing when you just keep gaining 4-5 lbs per month, your rings no longer fit, and your face looks puffy.  All I have to say is this baby better have a health layer of fat at birth because if I  find out it all went straight to my ass or thighs I m gonna be pissed. Not really...I'll just OCD it at the gym and breastfeed a lot. 

One last thought.  Can I try and explain how I feel about my baby for a second.  This next paragraph might lead one to think that I have self esteem issues or that I didn't get enough praise as a child.  But I really don't and I really did.  I tend to find anything created by myself to be crap.  Like, for example, if I cook something and some one else were to cook the same the with the same ingredients I would find their's to be better in some way.  So maybe I am too hard on myself but if I made it or did it I usually think someone else would have done it better.  this has NOT been the case with my baby girl.  I thought my mind might be flooded with thoughts of 'will she be dumb' 'will she be ugly' 'will she be annoying'.  But their not.  In fact I had a very subconscious feeling revealing dream the other night that she was born with a red beard.  Instead of being horrified by the site, I simply thought to myself "hmmmm, I didn't think babies could grow facial hair".  I still loved her a LOT.  This is the famous emotion I have been hearing about my entire life ' a mother's love'.  I don't care who she ends up looking like...of course I want her to be healthy and meet her developmental milestones but I have been surprised to find that I am not obsessed with the trivial details of who my child will be.  I dream about what she looks like and what her temperment is like and it doesn't seem to waver much.  She has blonde hair, hazel eyes, and she is sweet and silly.  My sister and husband think she will have red hair like my newphew though.  We shall see.  No matter what her mommy loves her.

Is it just me and my hormonally induced elevated temperature or is it hotter this summer than it's ever been before?  Seriously...I used to like being hot, I could just wear shorts and make sure my day consisted of nothing but water activities but these days I only have one pair of shorts that fit and finding opportunities to participate in water activities (ie painting the side walk with "water paint", running through the sprinkler, and hanging out in my turtle sandbox/mini pool are few and far between. 

Waylon and I usually get up around 8:30 or 9 every Sunday and have breakfast out somewhere. One of favorite breakfast places to frequent is Phil's Diner.  Some of the waitresses have come to know us and they like to talk about my pregnancy and offer there "home remedies" for what ails a pregnant women.  For example our waitress last week told me that when she was pregnant she would chug Dr. Pepper until her fetus would get the hic-ups...because she liked how it felt.  She then told me very matter-of-factly that all pregnant women have a body temperature that is 10 degress higher than the average person.  I said "wow 10 degrees" with a smile waiting for her to somehow turn that statement into a joke...but she didn't.  So my body temperature is somewhere around 107 to 108 right now?  I asked and she nodded her head yes..with confident confusion. 

I went to the hospital yesterday for preadmission (I am purposely leaving the name of that hospital out to deter stalkers and baby snatchers).  I was told by my OB to go somewhere between 28-32 weeks to pre register.  So at 29 weeks I headed on in for my appointment.  They put a hospital bracelet on me and handed me some paper work. I then met with the financial consultant who informed me of my deductible for my hospital stay...what? You mean the 1000 dollar deductible I have already met wasn't the only deductible.  Apparently there is ANOTHER deductible for hospital admissions. My insurance sucks...in fact they all suck. I am going to have my next baby in Sweden or Canada.  So after that awesome news they sent me to a nurses station and I sat down in a cozy private office with a labor/delivery nurse who although corrupted with bullshit statistics she's been brainwashed by the hospital with...was very nice and talked to be for over an hour.  Her biggest mistake was saying to me..."You know, the risk for having complications after a c-section is actually equal that of a vaginal delivery nowadays".  I simply said "No, that's not true" and we moved on uncomfortably.  She also told me that at this particular hospital that there epidural rate was 96% and she had only had one patient in her four years of working there go without.  WOW.  I am not saying that I am absolutely not going to have one. I am realistic.  And I have seen benefits of having them for certain people.  I also know there are potential complications and I am going to do my best to avoid having one.  I have to get an IV and they won't let me eat anything during labor.  I find these protocols to be outdated and new evidence doesn't support it but I am going to pick my battles and try and labor at home as much as possible. 

Ok.

I had my first baby shower on Sunday and boy was it "fun".  Ok, it really was fun but opening presents and coming up with a unique and sincere comment for every gift can be quite a challenge....especially when you have pregnancy brain (pregnancy brain is what remains after your baby sucks up all of your creativity and intellectualality....see? that wasn't even a word). 

Anywho it was quite lovely and I seriously have more baby onesies than I know what to do with....although people keep assuring me that I will STILL need more. WHAT?  I spent about 4 hours yesterday going through everything and making Waylon look at every "cute" item I received.  His responses were all the same "yes honey it's very cute".  Dudes just don't get it :)  

I had a doctors appointment this past friday which went well...Briana came with me and when we walked up to the desk the lady asked "are you two together" I don't know what about the way she asked made me think she was implying that we were "together" together but I said "No". The she asked Briana if she had an appointment and I was all "oh wait yes we are together...but not like "together""  We all had a nice chuckle and then they made me drink sugar poison or what they like to call glucola.  It tasted like cross between Tang and orange dimetapp....so as you can imagine it was AWESOME.  I had been having some work stress so my blood pressure was a little higher than normal.  I've checked it since and seem to be ok so I guess I just needed to cheeel.  So I found out yesterday that I do not at this time have gestational diabetes nor do I have pregnancy anemia. Which rulz because I haven't been taking my prenatal vitamin as religiously as a good preggo should.  I took it during the first trimester and all that iron gives me the constipations.  Ok, I posted some shower pics and a couple new belly photos. enjoy