Surviving the Domestic Jungle

I have not written in a while! I had a very busy and great weekend with my husband and I was focused on him (us) and really spending some quality time before our baby boy comes. We spent the weekend on a mission for a coat that he really wanted and deserves so I didn’t complain when I had to walk around about 10 different stores all over town. My husband RARELY buys things for himself so when he really wants something, I don’t give him a hard time about it at all. Of course while we were on this mission I saw about a thousand things I wanted but thankfully, I am pregnant and not buying non pregnant clothes right now. Soon enough!! After we found his coat, he had planned a lovely dinner for me (My early Valentines gift since tonight it a school night) and bought me some gorgeous roses! We had a really nice dinner, kid free! As my luck would have it, I contracted through the whole thing to the point where eating was difficult and I was worried I was going into labor! I smiled through the pain and didn’t rush him. It is sooooo important that we spend time together as a couple and labor or no labor, I was not going to ruin my date! We had a lot of fun and he was so sweet and romantic. He has become such a thoughtful husband and really has quite a romantic side which I love to see come out! I prefer our relationship now to the butterfly feelings and newness from when you first meet. It is so much better as the years go by, mainly because the better we get to know and learn each other, the more we know what to say or do and it is just a more harmonious existence versus the getting to know each other bumps in the road. I had a wonderful Valentines weekend with my best friend and soon enough our son will be born and complete our family. Soon we will be moving on to the next chapter of life and I cant wait to see what the coming year has in store and where will be on the next Valentines day! I LOVE YOU SWEETIE!!!

I feel like a ticking time bomb. I am so frustrated and scared I cant even begin to explain. If you read my blog, you know I am giving birth all naturally in a birthing center and the closer I get to my due date, the more I want a hospital induction with an epidural and a huge bill! I have no clue what to expect and I am a very type A personality and the whole ‘unknown’ element is driving me insane. I’m so worried I wont be able to do it. Obviously I have to do it but I just don’t know if I am going to go crazy or keep my composure. I also have a HUGE dislike for throwing up and without an induction, you never know when you will go in and it could be after a huge dinner and then the chances of being sick are through the roof. I don’t want to eat as a result. Well, I eat but just very easily digested things. If I do throw up it certainly isn’t going to be some huge, gross meal that I will never be able to eat again. Negative association. Every Night when I go to bed I don’t know if I am going to make it through the night! I always wonder if today/tonight will be the day/time. It is like a game and I am losing!! I’m also worried my husband is going to see me do something gross (like throw up) and I just cannot have that. I know he would still love me if I did do that in front of him but that’s not the point to me. I believe that things like that should be hidden from your husband. Some women don’t care, I do. I will kick him out of the room if I even feel something gross coming on. We had a pact with our first baby together which was he does NOT look when I am pushing the baby out. It worked great for us. I didn’t feel uncomfortable about how my lady parts looked and he didn’t feel like throwing up looking at them!! I go to the doctor tomorrow and I am going to bombard her with tons of my neurotic questions about this and that. Poor woman, but that’s her job and I know I am not the first person to feel this way! Pregnancy is way overrated. It is amazing how you do forget how awful the last few weeks are and how awful the whole experience is. Between the weight gain, hormones, lack of clothing and various other complaints, the ONLY thing that makes it worth it is the little kicks and then when you child arrives. There is nothing better than being a mom. I just wish the stork did actually deliver babies!!

This morning I was catching up on some of my recorded shows (The Talk) and one of the topics that came up was, and don’t quote me on this, that hospitals want to ban video and cameras from the delivery room in fear of lawsuits. Personally, I don’t see how this could even be given a second thought! As a parent you want to capture those first moments of life and a hospital telling you no just seems like stepping way over boundaries. People need to stop suing hospitals and doctors for every little thing. There are doctors who screw up and make very very bad choices but there are also very good doctors who make mistakes, as all humans do, and we are all so sue happy in this country that we lose sight of which doctors are good and which are bad and just make them all pay. If its getting to the point where hospitals and doctors want to ban cameras and videos on one of the most specialist days, then something needs to change. Regardless of doctors fears, in no way, shape or form should this ban thing pass. I dont know all the details so I am not sure if it is a law they are trying to pass or just a hospital to hospital thing. Either way, it is extremely inappropriate to even consider it. I swear that if midwives offered epidurals and women would only get c-sections in emergencies, most people would go to a birthing center. There are no restrictions on clothing, food, family members, visitation etc. It is all in the interest of the mother and baby, not the facility. If they were to ban cameras in the delivery room, and I was giving birth in one, you can arrest me for all I care. I will take pictures of my baby and MY moment and my hard work! No one can tell me no on that and at the birthing center, my husband and I will happily be snapping away while eating and hanging out with family. No open in the back gown for this mommy!! Thank god for alternatives to the popular choice.

Yesterday my family threw me a surprise baby shower and I was surprised!! They were all so sweet and so sneaky! It was a good time and while I was at my moms house, my step dad told me a story that I just had to write about because it is borderline unbelievable. They purchased their new home back in July and have been doing renovations ever since. They are now getting to the point where they are installing a security system and the tech that came out to install it had tattoos on his neck which my step dad wasn’t bugged by. A lot of people have tattoos. When the man said he had been in jail since he was 13 (apparently he looked about 25) my step dad got nervous and when the man asked how much one of his pieces of furniture was, he was having a panic attack. On the inside of course. Now, I understand felons needing a job after they fulfill their sentence but a felon as a home security tech?? I hope his crime wasn’t breaking and entering or burglary!! If I was my step dad I would have flipped out and done everything I could to get that man out of my house. I don’t mean to judge someone without knowing them but would you leave a convicted child molester with your children? Probably not and you don’t want a criminal setting up your security. My parents don’t have an average home or average things in their home and if that guy wanted to commit a crime there, it would be pretty easy for him being he knows the inner workings of their security system and has already seen what they have to offer. I HATE having tech guys come to my house without my husband here but that’s the paranoid woman in me. If I had dealt with the felon, I would have called my husband and DEMANDED he come home right then. I would have faked labor if I had too! Most people are good people but as a woman, we all know you do NOT take chances. Its not worth it and perhaps that security system company should reconsider their staff.

I havent written in a couple of days because my computer has taken a break from working. It has me so stressed out because there is a chance I lost ALL my pictures. This is devastating to me because all my Hailey baby pictures would be lost and that to me is just stomach turning. I have a Mac pro and I will tell you it is really a piece of junk. It is a cool computer but every 6 months or so we are replacing something else. Luckily, it has been free until now. I honestly just want my pictures and then to be done with the computer. It really is not a high quality computer like they would have you think. If I have lost my pictures, I will cry my eyes out and it is our own fault for not backing it up every 20 minutes because something else breaks. When we bought it 3 years ago, we were under the impression it was superior product. Turns out it is a superior piece of crap. I am better off going to walmart and getting a $400.00 computer! I’m very angry about this and very worried that I have lost the most precious things in the world. How do you explain to your child that you have no baby pictures of them? Ugh, if that happens, they are going to have to drag my 9 months hysterical behind out of the Apple store yelling profanities. I would really hate to have a job in customer service… Anyway, hopefully everything is ok and I get my pictures then I can throw that computer in the trash!! If you want a computer that isn’t a piece of junk, don’t buy a Mac.

I am a big fan of the family bed….until I am ready to go to sleep! I love having my girls in my bed with me watching movies or reading books but sleeping with them is a whole other story. Avery has become a pretty solid sleeper but Hailey is a thrasher who likes to sleep horizontally or upside down! You do NOT get a good night sleep with her in the bed. I let Avery fall asleep in my bed every night and then my husband moves her and usually Hailey will fall asleep with her dad while he watches tv on the sofa. Basically they start out with us but end up in their bed and we actually get some sleep. Hailey wakes up at night and comes to our bed more often than I would like so from about midnight to 2am, I am well rested. The rest of the night I spend trying to sleep and protect my belly from Hailey’s kicks and hits! Needless to say, I don’t get much sleep! Some people wonder if the family bed is good for your marriage (sex) and I think it shouldn’t effect it. Once you have kids, your sex life must change. You don’t have hours to lay around naked in bed making love. You have 3 1/2 minutes in a closet or the bathroom or wherever you can get it! It becomes like a game and it can actually be fun. More fun than in the bed. No one ever said you had to do it in a bed. Sure it is more comfortable than a coat closet but you get my point.

The bed becomes a place of family time and snuggling and there is nothing better than your parents bed. Even now I love to climb in my moms extra cozy bed with her expensive and wonderful linens! Something about our parents bed is always better than our own. I have a terrible habit of bringing my brand new babies in our bed to sleep because its easier for breastfeeding. It is a terrible habit and my husband is always paranoid he is going to roll over the baby! This time around, I am going to do my best to put the baby in his own bed. Of course his bed will be 1 inch away from ours! He has a crib in his room but I could never put my brand new baby in a room all by himself! I wouldnt be able to sleep. I will NEVER put Hailey and the baby in the same bed together. There would be injuries. It will be interesting to see how all of this will work once the little guy arrives but for now, the family bed is alive and well….until mommy is ready to go to sleep!!

The weather around here has been a serious pain in the rear! It is freezing to say the least! I am no longer capable of withstanding cold and I actually find it quite unpleasant being I am in my 9th month of pregnancy and NONE of my cute, fitted jackets fit. Only thing that fits is one of my husbands coats and it isn’t my style really. It is necessary though because without it, I would be a Popsicle! To add insult to mother nature injury, the city had power outages to help with the amount of power being consumed. Mine went off for 30 minutes 3 times which wasn’t terrible but it was not fun. I finally stopped resetting my clocks! I just am grateful it didn’t rain or else the roads would have been like a skating rink. My daughters school is starting 2 hours late tomorrow to help with the power issues and I am beyond happy about it. I get to sleep in, she gets to sleep in and we do our part for the city! Thankfully by the weekend it is looking like good temperatures and this freezing hell will be gone. I was joking with my husband that the one thing that would make it perfect was me going into labor which I was eating my words later when I had some contracting and pain. Luckily nothing came about but I should keep my little jokes to myself being I could give birth at any moment. I am organized but I need to wash baby clothes and put together the new glider. Just little stuff I guess but things I dont want to be doing when I am in pain. Tonight I am bundling up in cozy jammies, snuggling with my husband, pulling the blankets up to my nose and getting a good nights sleep!