Discontinued R' Us...

Is what they should really call Babies R' Us. Every baby product comes in 700 models, 600 colors and 200 colors. It is SO hard to choose economical, safe, cute baby products. Jody calls me the "worst decision maker ever" because it takes me forever to make big decisions. I'm just trying to avoid buyers remorse =) I went back several times to the store to look at the travel systems to make sure I got "the one". We registered about 8 weeks ago after we confirmed Justin's little weenie. I felt so accomplished. I did a ton of internet research, asked friends/internet strangers tons of questions and even spent 1/2 an hour with some sweaty guy in babies R Us getting a "how to pick a stroller lesson" (with my husband and sister- thanks guys!). 3 trips to Babies R Us later, our registry was complete and I felt satisfied. Then 2 weeks ago I get an email; our walker, washcloths, teething rings and a few toys were being discontinued and would be available (for a limited time with limited availability) online only. The walker was already not available for purchase the night I got the email. Now today another email comes; our bottles and stoller are being discontinued too. Ugh! WTF?!? Our travel system/stroller was our "big registry item". They are probably just debuting some f'ugly new pattern. Doesn't a store all about babies realize they are pissing off a very irritable population of women?!?

There was a Horseshoe up my a$$...

... when I met my husband. Seriously. He has been the best, most wonderfully supportive husband through this whole pregnancy. Even on my fattest, reddest, shiniest days he still makes me feel pretty. I've been going back to the "feeling tired" stage of preganancy so I wasn't able to do my normal housework last night. Today, Jody was off all day and instead of videogames, he did a TON of cleaning. He vacuumed, unloaded/loaded the dishwasher, washed/put away laundry and even mowed the lawn. What a fantastic guy. I just want to run home from work and give him the biggest hug ever. I'm the luckiest woman alive.

26 weeks

It's Tuesday...belly picture time! This is the last week of my 2nd Trimester. Baby Justin is 2/3 of the way "done" =)

p.s. this is the last time that my face will be in a blog pic. I always see pics that other "preggos" take and they never show their faces. Now, as a "glowing" aka red & shiny faced woman with about 15 chins, I understand and I'm sticking to body only pictures.

100 days left!

I'm sure not everyone watches the days tick by like I do but I want to point out that today is the "100 days until baby" mark. Everyday I get more and more excited to meet him. Sure enough, Jody and my dad got the windows in this weekend so it's painting time this week for me. Jody and I had the whole weekend off together for the 1st time in months, it was great- I don't want to go back in tomorrow =(

Development Update

Nursery

I promised a certain little auntie-to-be that I would update this more often so I'm even going to blog on a Saturday. Plus, I'm up early and excited so I can't get back to sleep. Today I get to start Justin's nursery! I get a daily "what to expect while you're expecting" email. Last week sometimes it was like, " As you near the end of the 2nd trimester, it's time to tie up those loose ends. Make your decision on a pediatrician and put those last few touches on your nursery." Last few touches?!?!? Oh crap, I haven't even started. (Besides keeping a desktop file of nursery "inspiration pictures" I like. ) For the past 2 years the nursery has been "that" room in our house. You know, the one where you put wedding or Xmas gifts you're not quite sure what to do with. It has my VHS and cook book collections. It was pretty much the room where we just closed the door when company came over. We didn't want to start decorating it until we got new non-1950's-rattling windows. Well, today my Dad is coming over so he and Jody can install the windows. Woohoo! Score 2 points for the daddy-to-be, #1- the windows and #2 yesterday he brought me home the most gorgeous, huge bouquet of pink Gerber daisies as a surprise. What a guy!

Times are tough... I know, I know.

I'm so sick of hearing about how bad the economy is. I'm sick of prices on EVERYTHING going up. It's kind of depressing. I would love to be able to stay home once Justin is born but I just cant see anyone being able to do that these days. Even working part-time is looking like it will be tight sometimes. It just doesn't seem fair to families. At least on the bright side I have a very optimistic and financially responsible husband who makes me feel better. If he says that our little family will be okay, I believe him. I would believe him even more if we won the lottery and/or he robbed a bank.

Speaking of husbands, Jody is going to be the cutest daddy ever. He has lots to learn but I have faith in him. 2 nights ago I was watching "Jon and Kate plus 8" (and Jody was doing that thing where he pretends to read/not watch my shows but secretly likes them). We both can't stand Kate so Jody takes any opportunity to rip on her parenting that he can. So, Kate is changing one of the boys diapers and Jody was like, "Ha ha! Sheesh how old is that kid?". So I tell Jody, "Probably about 2, maybe 2 and a half." Then I explained to him that it was totally normal for kids to be still getting potty trained at that age and that boys typically take longer to learn. His eyes got all big and he was like "What?! Oh man, you have to change diapers for 2 YEARS...holy crap!" Awww men. Don't you just want to pinch their lil cheeks sometimes?

25 weeks- Bigger and better

Well- here they are. My 25 week belly shots. I wish I would learn to take pictures when I'm not sweating my bum off in the humidity because then I have a giant red face. The 2nd one I took b4 bed in my jammies. I got a few comments about my tummy this week so I feel like I did quite a bit of growing lately.

I haven't weighed myself since my last Dr's appt and it's making my life much easier/less stressful. I'm trying not to go nuts with eating but I'm SOOO hungry. I saw a girl (about my age) in wegmans yesterday with a baby in her cart. The baby was about a year old. The mom must have weighed 300 pounds and was wearing a giant dirty "I twawt I twa a puddy cat" tweety shirt. Last night I only had skim milk for a snack... thanks tweety lady.

The good, the bad and the disturbing.

The Bad: NYS disability is a joke. Today we had a meeting with the new life insurance/benefits people we are using for work. We were given the option to purchase extra short term diasability. NYS gives you 50% of your income for 6 weeks after a vaginal birth- sounds great right? Who needs extra coverage? Nope it's 50% up to $170 and then it's taxed. I learned that a new mom will be paid about $145-150 each week under our fantastic disability law. Ouch!

The good: This plan through my work is like $6 per pay period and it supplements an additional $200 each week. That is GREAT news. Of course, there's a catch, during the 1st year, those with pre-exisiting conditions (aka pregnancy) can only receive 2 weeks of the "extra benefit". I thought about being sneaky but then the woman explained that once your claim is filed they will check with your doctor to see at what date any treatments began- D'oh! Basically since I had a "diagnostic assessment" (pregnancy test) and treatments from my doc, it's a pre-exisiting condition. Regardless of pre-exisiting, I'm still scoring like $400 more than I budgeted for my maternity leave so I'm very, very excited =)

The disturbing: Have you seen that story on msn about the murdered pregnant woman? Some crazy person kidnapped a preggo, murdered her, cut open her uterus, stole her unborn baby and then tried to pass it off as her own. I guess this isn't that unlikley of an occurrence...WTF is wrong with people?!?!?!?

Moo

I have never had an appetite like this in my life. I (again) have been trying to eat healthy. I'll admit the following is pretty boring and really humiliating but it's MY blog so here I go.

Yesterday I was way overtired and a little crabby (long story about a crazy b!tch that's obsessed with my dad) so I went a little overboard with "comfort" food. I had a Tim Horton's bacon breakfast sandwich and coffee for breakfast- well, if you want coffee (cream/sugar of course) too, it's a "combo" and comes with a side donut. Excuse me, a "side donut"? Seriously, how can people even wonder why they are fat in this country? So- angel cream donut it was. I dropped some of the cream on the bag (b/c of course I had to eat it right then, on the drive to work)- so I licked it off the bag. I knew it was a new low but I just went along with it. I had a banana and a rice krispie treat for a morning snack. Then I met Jody and my family for lunch; 1 foot long hotdog, curly fries and giant milkshake later I was satisfied for a few hours. Around 8:00 we ordered Blasdell pizza and I enjoyed an order of mozz. sticks and a pepsi then a freeze pop for dessert. I know I'm supposed to have 300-500 extra calories for the baby a day but I think I went over by about oh...maybe 2 or 3...thousand.

24 weeks

Here is my weekly "Belly" Picture!

Viable? wow.

I can't believe it. 24 weeks marks our little baby being "viable". From what I've read that means that he could be born any day now with a good chance at survival (with lots of help from the NICU). That is such an awesome feeling. He still has lots of growing to do (he's gaining about 5-6oz per week at this stage!) so I'd like him to "bake" at least 12-14 more weeks.

Yesterday, I didn't feel much movement from the baby. I got a little nervous that I "over-did it" with cleaning all day in this heat and something was wrong. However, this morning he was awake doing his normal power kicks during our whole drive to Batavia and most of the morning meeting. On the way home I was reading my "what to expect" book and there was a section on movement. The section basically said, "If the mommy-to-be is very active don't expect to feel much movement. When you are moving around-A.you are less aware of his movements and- b.your movement rocks and soothes the baby, just like how you would rock or soothe a newborn in your arms." I thought that was just adorable! I read about how he hears sounds outside the womb and taste the foods I eat. He has such a little personality and he's not even born yet. Now that he can hear I keep telling him how excited I am to meet him :)

Like a duck

Today was the first time I caught myself breaking into a little bit of a waddle. When I would see pregnant women waddle I always thought it was something to do with tummy size or hip joints being loosened- now I get it (I think)... it's a back thing! I woke up and started some usual weekend cleaning; vacuumed, swept, ironed/folded all the laundry and then I cleaned out my car. I didn't realize until I sat down that my lower back was on fire. I was totally exhausted and it felt like my back muscles were made of cement. I got up from the computer chair to pee and realized, whoa- I'm pregnant walking/waddling. I'll have to keep an eye out for it, it's definitely not my best look :)

Baby shopping

Finally! I got to buy some baby clothes. I promised myself no clothes until after the shower but I've been DYING to just grab a few things. I saw online that Kohl's was having a big sale and I got the go ahead from "the boss" that we could get some stuff. We tried to focus on 3months and up since most people giving gifts will get us newborn. I LOVE baby clothes. I started with about 15 outfits and made "cuts" to get to a reasonable amount. I love having them home and imagining him all snugged up wearing them =)

23 week pic

It's soooo hot out today!

Sexy can you...what?

Oh music these days. After hearing that "sexy can I?" song Jody is convinced that classical music better "get cool" before our kids get radios. Then, for work, we are doing these mini-camps where girls come for 3 afternoons to do crafty stuff. It's really fun and I love working with the little girl scouts. There are like 10 adorable, little pigtailed girls. Well 1 is sitting painting a sun catcher and I hear her singing, "I kissed a girl and I liked it" (that horrible song from the radio), my jaw just dropped. Was I that naive to expect to hear Hannah Montana or High School Musical? We're getting old.

I had a Dr appt this morning that went very well. My blood pressure, measurements and his heartbeat were "perfect". I am up a voluptuous 16 lbs (I'll be taking my 23 week pic tonite.) I have to schedule a routine glucose test for the end of the month. I found out no more ultrasounds (I was sad- they are SO cool) but this means the next time I see baby Justin will be live in person. Exciting!

Nightmare (warning- GROSS)

Ok, so I have some f'ed up dreams that have only gotten weirder with pregnancy. They are just always so vivid. Thinking about last night's dream almost makes me gag. Maybe I haven't been so healthy this past week. I can't help it. I feel like the cookie monster. I would eat every sweet/baked good in sight if I could. Last night we went to a dessert-themed movie night at Dave & Linda's where I ate about 65 lbs of sugar and I'm convinced that's why I had this dream.

I was interviewing at citizens bank for a job and my teeth kept falling out. Not so bad, right? Nope. they didn't just fall. They would like crack down the middle and the pieces would hang there by the root bleeding. For some reason I kept trying to talk and I was spitting all these little tooth pieces and blood. I kept asking the guy if he knew a 24/7 dentist b/c my dentist was closed but instead he made me practice reading from this sales book. By the end all of my teeth were hanging in my mouth by bloody strings like a puppet show- oh it was just sickening. I brushed my teeth for a good 8 minutes when I woke up this morning, just to let them know I appreciate them right where they are.

Break time- again.

I'm taking a break from my housecleaning to "blog" even though I don't have much to write. When I'm home alone I do really like to clean, it's just that I get tired so easy now. I just swept then mopped the front den and the kitchen and it feels like I ran a marathon. Phew.

We had a very wonderful and wholesome 4th of July. We got to hang out with "both families" so it was great. We went swimming, tanned and ate hot dogs with the White side. Then we went to my Dad's for a BBQ (steak, clams, fruit). We played with the animals, the boys (and Kim) played baseball, we built a bonfire (S'mores -YUM) and then the guys blew off a bunch of fireworks my dad smuggled. Just a nice relaxing day.

Great Choice.

My mother-in-law Linda very kindly offered to purchase my diaper bag, since she did the same for Kelly when she was first pregnant with Avery. So I log-on to the bags.com website where she shops... there's like 160 diaper bags; every shape, size color with 50 optional pockets. I was totally overwhelmed. (I take forever to make "big" decisions. Ask my husband and blame my father- it's genetic to be a bad decision maker in our family.)

Anyways, since Linda picked out an adorable bag for Kelly(and did an equally awesome job choosing a cute purse as 1 of my Xmas gifts) I asked if she would pick one out that was "me". Last night she surprised me with it. How cute is it?!?! I absolutely LOVE it. It matches the colors in our stroller and has all these cool pockets/compartments- even little built in coolers for bottles. I'm so thankful to have such a thoughtful and generous family.

"Hey Dad! Look what I can do"

When the baby first started moving I did the "flashlight" trick to show Jody. He felt what he (very cutely) described as a "bif" from our son. As I've mentioned, our baby has become the kung fu master latley. If we're watching TV together I'll lay down so Jody can see the little bump pop up in my stomach when he kicks. Last night he started his nightly 8:30pm womb-tae-bo so I grabbed Jody's hand and put in on my stomach. It was so funny, Jody's eyes got all big and he was like "whoa! that's creepy! He can kick that hard?" Okay so maybe creepy wasn't the best word but I think that's new-dad-to-be talk for "I'm impressed". Haha, I love both of my "guys" so much.

Tornado

I remember when (I was first pregnant) I was too sick to even watch a food commercial. I was living on dry cheerios and 1 baked potato a day. Now, I compare my eating habits to a tornado. I try to eat healthy most of the time but every once and a while the "tornado" strikes. For those of you who read my nest posts, texts or heard my whining- you know I was DYING for Cheddar Sour Cream Ruffles and Dr Pepper all day. So I stop at Wegmans, get home and plop in front of the computer. OMG they were 200x as good as in my day dreams. I wish I could just watch me eat, I would probably have my jaw to the floor in shock/disgust. About 1/3 of the bag of chips and an entire 20 oz Dr Pepper gone in a matter of minutes. Just like a tornado... Oh god, I need a nap now.

4 week growth

The "blue shorts" pic was taken at 22 weeks and the "headband" pic was at 18 weeks. Let's see how far we can stretch this poor white tank top! I love to see how my tummy grows now if my chin(s) would quit trying to keep up, I'd be all set :(

Busy night in the womb

Yesterday there was a party in my belly. Justin was moving around from like 8 until 10 almost consistently. The when I laid down to go to sleep at around 11 he threw a couple more jabs before we settled in. Jody and I predict that he is going to be one of those rough and tumble kind of babies. The ones that fall down and laugh. He gets a pretty good wind up in there already. One of my baby websites says that he sprouts his little nipples this week. Aww, cute!