More Morning Fun

As I writhe in agony on the couch downstairs, I realize that Ollie hasn't left the couch upstairs. It's now 7:30am -- well past his usual 5:15am wake up call. At around 8am, when I enter the bedroom to talk w/ hubby, Ollie comes hobbling towards us. Yes, hobbling. Our poor dog is walking with a limp.

Now I'm all concerned. So at first I rubbed out his leg thinking it had fallen asleep, but after about 10 minutes of us coaxing him to walk and me messaging it, I realize that he definitely has an issue. I convince hubby that we need to take Ollie to the vet because I won't be able to relax unless I know my pup is ok.

We arrive at the vet location closest to us. There's a power outage. When I told the nurse that I'm in early labor, they immediately called the other vet location to let them know we were on our way. YES! Awesomeness. So off we go to location number 2.

Turns out Ollie sprained his front left pinky toe. I know, right? How the heck would that happen?!?! So now our pup is on anti-inflammatory meds and is resting peacefully on our bed.

Good thing it happened this morning when I could very well be in labor. Oh... speaking of which, my doula believes that I am in early stages of labor. And let me tell you that these lower-back contractions are totally not fun. Especially when they shoot down your leg and you're trying to go to the bathroom and can't because there's too much pain happening. ugh.

OY! That's Smart

So it's 3:30a EST and I'm fully awake. I've been trying to sleep for the past 2 hours but am completely unable too. The reason: I have the most wicked lower back cramps taking place. They started a few hours after my doctor appointment. I don't know if they are a result of the cervix exam or whether my body is all "You know what.. I think I'm ready to pop this child out."

**Regarding the exam: I was told that I'm almost 2cm dilated and fully effaced (and I finally looked up how to spell dilated b/c I was spelling it the way I was pronouncing it --> "di-a-lated", which in turn kept popping up as a spelling error and I couldn't understand why. Damn the English language!!). When I asked if I may have to be induced being that my due date is next Thursday, the doctor was totally not worried. "You're body is obviously preparing for the baby's arrival. It just doesn't know how to jump start itself." Guess my body listened to her and devised its own plan on jump starting... lower back cramps. Yay me!**

Either way, here I am trying to massage.. stretch.. WILL.. the pain away. In the meantime I just had the most delicious bowl of Cocoa Pebbles. Mmmmm.. nothing like a good meal of sugared cereal to keep me going if things are to progress.

Alright.. I really have nothing more to say except OW!!! Now I'm going to try and get my heating pad out of the room without waking up the man, head downstairs and watch some really bad tv.

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks the 5th year of my marriage. Some would say "Wow! That's a long time." We say "Damn, on top of the other 7 years of life together, this is by far the longest commitment we've both have ever made!!!"

Our way of celebrating our anniversary is by taking the traditional approach. That is, we look up what the traditional gift exchange would be for that year of marriage and see what we can come up with. For year 5, the traditional gift is wood.

Mmmmm-hmmm.. I can hear the jokes now. Trust me, we've been through them all. Get it out of your system. Go ahead. *strums fingers on table* Okey-dokey...

This year was fun for me because I knew what I was going to get him after receiving an advert from a shop located out in New Mexico called Goodly Woods. We actually came across this artist at the Renaissance Festival last year. I instantly fell in love with the artists work because it truly blew my mind. Every piece is hand-crafted by him, which makes it unique and all pieces are functional (not just something pretty to put on display). I figured since hubby isn't all too thrilled with my Disney mug collection, he can now put one of those mugs away and replace it with this uber-super-duper-cool wood mug. Which he promptly did.

And as for his gift to me... a woodpecker house! It's actually pretty cool. Aside from it being a "wood"pecker house, the house itself is all wood that has an opening on the side so you can check in on the family (i.e. babies). Apparently it's OK to peep in on the woodpeckers eggs/babies, so long as you don't touch them. Can easily do! We already have quite a few woodpeckers visiting our yard too, so I'm hoping one of them will take to having their babies in the little house.

Then to top off the day, we had a late lunch at Clyde's and now plan on spending the rest of the evening playing World of Warcraft.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

Now You See What I See

I can seriously entertain myself for quite some time just watching my feet go in and out of view as I walk down the street. It's true about pregnancy, by month 8 you don't have feet anymore. So when we were at the dog park I decided to take a few aerial shots of my feet. This wasn't an easy task because if I stood up, my feet completely disappeared. If I sat down I couldn't get the angle quite right. Finally, I decided that slouching into the bench gave me just enough leeway to pop my feet into view. Here's what I ended up with:

Disturbing, isn't it! Heck, that can be anyone for all I know, but alas. It's me. I can't wait to get my pre-pregger belly back and with the help of Squeem Magical Lingerie Shapewear I'll be sure that no weird bulges occur after this lil' event (you know.. from my currently parted diastasis recti!?! le-sigh).

Freaking Out.. Just a Wee Bit.

*WARNING: massive spew of complaints follow*

The physical discomfort and my anxieties about actually having to birth my baby are kicking into full swing, turning me into the supreme b*tch of the block. Making matters worse, the weather is getting nicer and I can't enjoy it by biking or running. I could walk Ollie, but I can't move as fast as I used too, which frustrates both him and me. I'm feeling floppy and gooey and want nothing more than to just run!!

Then there is the knowing that I'm going to be told that I can't exercise for about 3 weeks (provided I have a complication free delivery). The lack of exercise and sleep is going to seriously make me mental. I can already feel my heart palpitating just thinking about it all.

AAAHHHHHHHHH!

Slings and Carriers and Backpacks Oh My

Today the baby sling I've been wanting arrived and it's flippin' cool! For serious!

Originally I was going to go with a BabyBjorn Baby Carrier, but after reading the reviews on various sites, as well as checking out some of the baby boards I'm on, I decided against it. The carrier seems really good for babies over 2 months of age, which is fine, except I wanted one that would go from newborn to older than newborn (i.e. something I could use for longer than 2 months).

The one brand that seemed to go over really well with other mom's was a carrier made by Beco. If every mom who has ever had a Beco just LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the carrier, then I was sold. Except now I had my next challenge -- to pick out a pattern that was befitting for a mom and a dad. Yeah, tough one right?

At first, I had picked out the Joshua Butterfly Beco Carrier.

Cute ... I mean strong (and cute), right? Deep purples, bold colors, owls (hubby's favorite animal). Perfect! He could wear it and not feel too gay. And I can think it cute. Well, a week later I go to purchase it and what do you know... It's out of stock. Figures. So back to the selection page I go to view the other patterns when this one pops out at me:

It's the Jack Butterfly Beco Carrier. I immediately ran over to the hubby to see if it met his approval. Before I finished speaking I hear a "Helz Yea!" and knew we found our carrier. And for a whopping $6 less than the other one. I loves me a savings!

Oh, yes. You would be correct on the pattern. They are skulls & crossbones and crowns. A bit goth perhaps, but that's what we like about it. Oh, did I mention that I have a dress with the same pattern. Talk about coordination!

Aside from the visual design, what makes the carrier uber-cool is that it's structured just like a camping backpack. **here is where I turn this post into an advertisement** There's enough give on the straps so the carrier can adjust to both hubby and me: it has a waist belt, thick shoulder straps and enough support for baby to be comfy--as well as the parents. It also comes with a hood so I can shade baby's face from the sun, wind and rain. And.. AND the baby can be carried on your front or back. AWESOME! It's also designed so I can breastfeed her while she's sitting in the carrier and the carrier is long enough to support her floppy head during those first few months.

Oh. So. Cool.

With all of the purchases we've made, this carrier is by far my favorite. I think that's because we get to use it too. I love new toys. Let's just hope she finds the carrier as nifty as we do.

My First Batch of Granola

One thing I'm really trying to incorporate in my/our lives is making more of our own food -- primarily the staples. You know, like bread, jam, yogurt (non-frozen). One staple in my diet is granola. Mmmmmm... yummy, crunchy granola. *slurp* Trouble is I can go through a box every two weeks or less and the cost of granola is not cheap. So today was the day I was going to make my own.

After doing some research on-line for the perfect granola recipe, I came across one that fell into my realm of doable: doable meaning simple. In case you don't know about my history regarding cooking, I don't really enjoy it. I do enjoy baking, but baking = sweets = me eating the entire baked good in 2 days = more time at the gym to fight the fat accumulation ... and that's expending way more energy than the original baked good is worth.

The recipe I followed comes from another Blogger Orangette. She had apparently modified it from one she found in a book called Feast by Nigella Lawson. I'll look into Nigella's version maybe the next round, but for now all I can say is this batch was totally worth the energy and it came out OH. SO. GOOD.

What I dig about this recipe is that it isn't too sweet. That's something I have issues with -- so much sweetener added to the store-bought boxes of granola that it sends me (and baby-girl) into shock when I have it with my yogurt. There was a slight modification I had made to the recipe: rather than using brown rice syrup (or the original grape molasses) I just used regular molasses. That's because we shop conveniently at Giant and I didn't feel like running all over town looking for a shop that would have what the recipe called for. Perhaps next time?

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with myself and now I have enough granola to last me for over a month. YAY!! Doing so well, I am now going to purchase my yogurt making machine so I can begin making yogurt and save money there too. Need to try and get it done before baby comes so I'll have something to nibble on since I know I'll be eating like a squirrel.

Too Sweet

This morning I went to the gym to put in my hour workout. Between sets I pass an elderly gentleman who was on the elliptical machine.

Him: "Did you spend the night here?"
Me: "Mmmm.. no. I do believe I woke up in my bed."
Him: "Wow.. Because you were here yesterday when I left the gym and you're here this morning before I even got to the gym. You're dedicated!"
Me: *smiles*
Him: "I just wanted to let you know your motivation inspires me. Thank you."
Me: *touched* "Awww.. no.. Thank you! That's extremely sweet."

I guess being the token pregnant lady who looks like she's about to pop isn't something he's used to seeing at the gym. Either way, it was flattering and only motivates me more to get my bum in gear after Claire's birth to get my certification in personal fitness.

I'm Thinking I May Actually Have to Give Birth

I went to the doctor's last Tuesday. She performed a cervix exam to see where the baby was sitting. Before I continue, let me just say that a cervix exam is totally NOT fun. If anything, it's painful because if the baby isn't sitting at station 0 or greater (1, 2, or 3 with 3 saying "Here's my head top... prepare for launch") the doctor has to ram his/her finger up into your baby path to feel babies head. So not only do you now feel cramps in your pelvis and lower back, but you also begin to feel that bicycle seat soreness outside of the hoo-ha area. I had to do everything in my power to not take a foot and kick my doctor in the chest. fussiness.... And then I began to wonder if Claire is going to have little pot holes in her head from all of these pokes and prods. She may come out looking like a crater head. Poor girl.

Anyway, once that part was over I was told that I was 1 centimeter dialated, 80% effaced, and baby was at -2 station. That's pretty good. My body and baby are preparing for the delivery. And then it hit me... I HAVE TO BIRTH THIS CHILD!!

In the back of my mind I knew that the day would come, but I guess I was really hoping to avoid it all together. Honestly, I wanted to get her out via teleportation to avoid any pushing, surgery and pain. The reality of it all is now starting to sink in and you know what, it's really freaking me out! I'm grateful for having a good support system in place and am SO SO HAPPY that I hired a doula. So in order to get through these next few weeks I'll keep the good thoughts that Claire knows where she wants to go and me and baby can work together on getting her out without complications. I guess if I can endure the pain felt after running my first full marathon (that was H.E.DOUBLE.HOCKY.STICKS) then maybe this won't be so bad... maybe... *teeth chatters*

Ollie Will Kick Lassie's A$$

Earlier this evening we're sitting downstairs watching Women of Ninja Warrior (aka: Kunoichi). Ollie had situated himself between us. After about 10 minutes, Ollie pops up his head and stares intently at the fire place. His eyes are so wide they began to bulge from its sockets. Slowly the hairs on the back of his... back... begin to stand up. We're looking at him like he's crazy.

After about a minute of accessing the situation from afar, he gets up and approaches the fireplace. He starts sniffing and cocking his head. Five seconds later, a concoction of anxiety mixed with excitement really starts to take over. The sniffing intensifies and I can see that he really wishes that opposable thumb came out at birth because he MUST get INTO the fireplace.

Casey gets up to help investigate, while I get the lights. We're both asking him "What is it? What do you see?" fully expecting him to respond like Scooby Doo. How awesome would that be? He will one day, I know it.

Right.. back to the investigation. Looking around Casey finally sees what is freaking Ollie out.. A BUMBLEBEE! One managed to find its way into our fireplace. Poor thing is covered in ash, but at least it's still mobile. So much so, it managed to escape Casey's grasp and start flying around the house, which lead to Ollie's immediate departure into the yard. In case you haven't heard the story before, Ollie does not like bumble bees, worker bees, wasps, flies, gnat, or any other small bug with wings. We believe when he was pup he got a bit too curious with a bee and was stung, which is why he refuses to join us on out on the deck in Spring.

Eventually, the bee is once again captured and Ollie is allowed to smell his "prize". No worries, the bee survives -- it was set free into our yard. But man, are we proud of Ollie and he is all proud of himself too. I mean, he heard and smelled a bumble bee that was trying to escape our fireplace. WTF?!?

We totally have to sign him up for that dog tracker class.