Crazy?? Perhaps, Rabbit. Perhaps.

Yesterday marked 32 weeks! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow (just a check up I'm assuming since they didn't schedule an ultrasound), and then next week will start going twice a week for the NST's and growth scans. I can't believe it's that time already! Amanda is planning a baby shower for me on Saturday, so that should be fun! I'm looking forward to it. I've also been looking a lot on craigslist for baby clothes and some other things that we still need but haven't really found anything TOO promising. Hopefully we'll get some of it knocked out and set up before she gets here!! Apparently she weighs 4 pounds this week, and I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm either having David Beckham's love child or a future member of the Rockettes...

So, with Tom laid off, I figured now would be as good a time as any to go back to school. Of course, I won't be starting fall term because then I'd be gone right in the middle to have Abby, but I'll be starting winter term. It's completely insane, I know, but I'm eligible for some awesome grants (instead of adding more student loan debt). I have a lot of classes that I need to take out of the way, but will probably start taking the rest of the pre-reqs for the nursing program. Tom says he'd be more than happy to stay home with the kids if I could be his sugar-mama, so we'll see. heh I will need to get a new laptop which may cause a bit of an issue, but hopefully we can work out a trade or something. I'm going to start checking craigslist daily to see what we can come up with. I had an awesome laptop, but it's completely toast, and I won't be able to do everything I need to do on our desktop unfortunately. It just doesn't have the stuff I'll need...and it's our only computer so Tom would probably get irritated if I was bogarting the darn thing and he couldn't play on it either.

We've been down-sizing the house a little...about six months (maybe more?) ago we got rid of Monty (the snake) and then on Saturday we got rid of all of the fish tanks that were upstairs. We have only one fish tank left, downstairs in the basement, and we're just going to concentrate on that one since it's a saltwater tank. It's prettier than the ones we had upstairs, and much more fun for us to work on and maintain. We're hoping to get rid of a couple of the cats soon (Gidget and Goldie, probably) and give them some good homes. Never in a million years could we get rid of Cisco or Guiness, but we're not *overly* attached to the other two and it would be a lot less work/mess/everything to get rid of them. Of course, I'm still heart-sick for a dog, but that will happen in time and really, with a brand new baby, now wouldn't be the time to even think about getting one anyway! That's all I'd need...a 2-year old who won't stop going even for a second, a brand new baby who needs *everything*, and a puppy who I would have to potty train. No thank you.

Toss all the homework I'll be doing on top of that, and I'd be likely to shoot someone. ;)

The weather has cooled down some and started the rainy season so Orion's allergies seem to be doing a bit better. I love that it's colder now, but Tom hates it. Then again, the man has no body fat.

32 Weeks Pregnant

Who needs sleep?

We've hit 31 weeks!!! 7 1/2 weeks to go...yay! (Or..."Holy shit! Where did the time go!!!???" as the case may be.)

This baby is sitting SO low!! I wake up every morning with sore hips...LOL Maybe that means we're more favorable for a natural birth?? Or she just likes the "Pelvic Pillow"...

The doctor's appointment went really well Friday. Our little one is measuring in the 40th percentile (so RIGHT where she should be), and I haven't gained any weight in a month. I'm stoked about that. We'll have another appointment next week (the 2nd?) and then the week after that I have to start going twice a week for the non-stress tests and the bio-physical profiles. I can't believe it's already time for those...but they're fun and I'll get to see a lot more of the little one!

Poor Orion has allergies. Normally, it's not an issue, but they hit in full-force the last couple of days. Sunday he started getting the runny nose and it all went down-hill from there. Poor little guy tried sleeping Sunday night, but with the snot running down the back of his throat he started coughing so hard he threw up. Everywhere. And Mommy doesn't handle throw-up well...at all. He ended up sleeping in our bed that night because we were worried about him. He'd wake up unable to breathe even and we wanted him close (because we're paranoid parents like that). He did OK yesterday (even got his nap in!) and last night wasn't too horrible. We were giving him some childrens' Claritin, but it doesn't seem to be helping much...other than the fact that he's not puking I guess. Otherwise, he is in great spirits until I make him blow his nose. He hates that.

31 Weeks Pregnant

Apparently our refrigerator was possessed!

We've had the refrigerator for a while. It's a side-by-side with the water and ice in the door. The water has NEVER worked, but the ice did, so we'd use it from time to time and the ice bucket is great for filling up the cooler when we go camping.

Saturday night Tom, Orion and I went down to my mom and dad's. We had a bunch of stuff to take down for the garage sale (they have a much better location than we do) and got there around 5:00-ish...which means we left here about 4:00. About 12:00 we roll in the door to home and I hear this water noise. Thinking "what the hell?" I turn on the kitchen light. The water portion of the refrigerator decided to start working. On its own. And who the heck knows how long it was on. It's not like it was just dripping. No, it was like someone was pushing a glass against the lever as hard as they could. There was water all over the kitchen floor and dripping into the laundry room under it. Luckily, it wasn't dripping through the ceiling but through the vent and light fixture, so there's hopefully no huge damage. The water *did* go under the flooring in the kitchen, but luckily we have some extra so we'll be able to replace that.

*sigh*

Only 8 1/2 Weeks Left

Well, we're in the home stretch!! I have another doctor's appointment today (with an ultrasound) to check in. Tom will get to go with me, so that's good. Then, I have an eye appointment on Monday to check everything out because of the diabetes and pregnancy. They'll have to dilate my eyes, which sucks. I hate that part...but not as much as I hate the part where they blow air into your eyes. My eyes are watering right now just thinking about it.

I've been a bit stressed lately (at least for the last week...lol) because Tom got laid off from his job. Unfortunately, there just isn't any work going on for his company. The good news is that he'll get his unemployment and he's already getting job applications in for driving and we're cutting back where we can. It's a change from what he was doing but, ultimately, I think he'll be much happier. One of our friends works as a driver for Safeway. They're currently hiring and he may be able to push Tom through with his boss to get him hired. It would be great, but the hours would suck at first and he probably wouldn't get many, but it's a great opportunity. Plus, it's union, so that rocks. He'd get awesome benefits and they wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg. Right now we're debating on how we're going to do the COBRA continuation of coverage. With the baby on the way, we can't afford not to have health insurance, so we're working that out. With his unemployment we may be able to qualify for some other options, but it's something we'll have to look into next week after he gets his first check.

Orion is doing well...getting so freakin' big! I can't believe he's almost 2 1/2!! He'll be exactly 2 years, 6 months, and 2 days when Abby gets here. Apparently I was horrendously jealous when my little brother was born, so I hope that we can work through some of those issues when the new baby is here. I really don't want Orion to think that he's been "replaced" and being a stay-at-home mom will help with some of that I think because then I'll have more time to spend with him while the baby's sleeping and whatnot.

We finished painting the baby's room, but will have to paint it again because the paint was too thick to do an even coat all over. There's some spots that aren't painted (not huge ones) so it'll take a quick once-over to get it finished. We still need to move the spare bed downstairs and put the crib in the room, but it's coming along nicely. I feel like I have a little time left to work on things, but at the same time, I feel like there's no time left at all!

30 Weeks Pregnant

29 weeks already?

Wow...

I'm going to the doc's every two weeks now, and in about five weeks I'll start going twice a week. I switched doctors to one that I like much better and that is a bit closer. My friend who is a trauma surgeon at Emanuel suggested I transfer to their Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit which is at Emanuel (so down by Lloyd Center) instead of driving all the way out to Beaverton to go to St. Vincent's. I get to see Dr. Buckmaster again! Yay! I saw him a couple of times at St. V's, but then he got the job at Emanuel. I couldn't go to see him because of our insurance, but that changed in July. Turns out, one of the two doctor's my friend suggested was this one! It worked out beautifully.

We've decided not to try to be induced this time around. Since they tried to induce three different times with Orion, I just don't feel much confidence in the procedure. heh While it would be nice to have a natural birth, I just feel that it will make me and Tom much saner not to have to go through all of that again just to end up with another c-section. The plan right now is that we'll do a repeat c-section on November 16th UNLESS I go into labor on my own. If I go into labor on my own, then we're all set for a natural birth (assuming everything progresses as it should).

Tom, Orion, and I went camping this weekend since it was Labor Day weekend. My mom and dad (and the girls) reserved a camping space at a place called Odell Lake in Central Oregon. It was an absolutely beautiful place. The lake is huge and there are tons of trees...even huckleberry bushes! We picked huckleberries and had them in our pancakes one morning...tasty! Orion had SUCH a good time that we definitely want to go back but it's quite the trek to get there (4 hours!!) so it probably won't be any time soon. The weather was OK but not gorgeous. It would sprinkle a bit and was cloudy the first two days we were there which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the wind and freakin' freezing at night. Yesterday, however, was absolutely gorgeous (albeit still windy) and I even got a little bit of a sunburn on my cheeks! We'll have to be better prepared, of course, the next time we go because we didn't have anything we needed with us.

We've been pretty busy around here doing not much of anything...lol Of course, last week we spent time trying to get everything gathered up for the camping trip and Wednesday night I had a battalion meeting. Other than that, we haven't done a *whole* lot...but despite that we still haven't painted the baby's room. Part of it is that we just need to get some stuff moved around downstairs so that we can get the spare bed down there and have the room to paint, but neither Tom nor I have the motivation most days. Horrible, I know...we're such procrastinators!!! Plus, we need to get new paint rollers and a new paint tray (which we'll probably do this weekend) so we're using that as our excuse as well. ;) I'm going to try to make some shelves for the room (and probably for Orion's room as well) so that we have space. I was going to make the changing table, but I don't think we'll need to. My brother left his dresser here (he didn't have the room to take it with him when they left and now it's a matter of someone helping him get it...it's big and heavy) and I made a joke last week when he was here about commandeering it for the changing table/dresser if he didn't pick it up. He just shrugged and said "I'm not really emotionally attached to it" so we may just end up using that.

So, the plans, as they stand right now for the weekend, are to move the bed downstairs and paint the baby's room. Sunday afternoon I have a meeting to meet with our new recruits for the reserves, but it shouldn't take long, so we should have *plenty* of time to get everything done that we want to.

29 Weeks Pregnant