8 weeks (well, and a half)

So, I did not manage to post at the end of last week since I was pretty much feeling like I might die. Seriously. WORST NAUSEA EVER. I think this baby is a girl. I know I said it, and I will say it again. I've even read that if you've got pretty bad nausea, it tends to be a girl baking in there. I was not this miserable with my first pregnancy. As I am approaching 9 weeks, I have not had much relief. Although, the first half of last week was a beating. I'm glad to have SOME relief. Thank you, yes, I enjoy being a baby and complaining on my OWN BLOG.

As it happens, I had a jury summons and had to show up for jury duty this past Monday. Equally amusing: a friend from MOPS was there as well. What are the odds we both have jury duty on the same day in the same court? As most patriotic Americans, Curtis immediately gives me ideas on how to get out of being selected for actual jury sitting. I shrugged it off, and just figured if it was meant to be, then I suppose I would do my civic duty and be done with it. I did however, come up with a list of :

12 Ways to Ensure You Won't Be Selected for the Jury

1. Throw up in the middle of jury selection - this was a very real possibility for me
2. Wear something overtly Anti-Government. Like this charming top.
3. Wear something overtly Religious. Like this one.

4. Visibly act like you recognize the defendant (i.e. wave excitedly) and then quickly try to cover your "recognition" by "playing it cool".
5. Snore. Loudly.
6. When asked if you have any personal beliefs that may keep you from being able to make an unbiased, fact-based, decision reply with "Oh, no. I'm just happy my husband let me out of the house this month. I love the fall weather!"
7. Refer to the Judge as "Your Majesty" instead of "Your Honor".
8. Occasionally sneak a sip from a flask containing something NON-alcoholic. Who knows the difference?
9. If asked ANY sort of question, always answer with "I could really use the $6 I'll get if I'm selected."
10. Any racist comment will do. Especially if it's about your own race.
11. When asked if you have any personal beliefs that may keep you from being able to make an unbiased, fact-based, decision reply with "I feel that women should not be judged as harshly as men in the courts".
12. If asked if there's any conflict of interest raise your hand and say "Um, I'm pretty sure I slept with that guy/girl over there" and point in the general direction of everyone else.

*I did NOT use any of these tactics to get out of jury duty.

I'm going to the eye doctor this Saturday and should hopefully be picking out some new stylish frames. Yep, I am skipping out on contacts for a few months. I feel like it makes more sense since I'm sure once this baby gets here I will be throwing on my glasses at all times of the night and not seeing at night is super inconvenient when you're changing diapers. Wish me happy shopping on that. I bought a Groupon a few weeks back and it includes a $200 credit toward a complete set of glasses. I'm cheap enough that I will find a pair for less than that amount. And they will hate me for it. :)

Here's to less nausea next week!

7 weeks

This past week I've been even MORE tired (who thought that was possible?) and I fell asleep in the new (to us) Lazy Boy recliner Curtis brought home for me. There's a lot of perks with Curtis's job. One of them being that customers give us stuff all the time. Usually it's cookies or something random. But, Curtis has been working with this one customer for a while, designing a custom garage door for her, and she finally got it approved by her HOA (how annoying, by the way. HOA's are a joke!) and settled on a design she liked, and Curtis installed it last Friday. Let's just say that typically people who do custom designed doors for their homes have a little money to spare. And, she decided to get rid of this really cute green plaid Lazy Boy women's recliner. Curtis asked if he could have it, and she just gave it to him. There's nothing wrong with the chair. She was just done with it. He brought it home, we rearranged our living room, and I now have my own recliner.

And, let me say, my pregnant body appreciates it already. Even though I don't really look pregnant...so I've been told. Curtis told me I haven't gained any weight, to which I replied by lifting my shirt and showing him "the two muffins I made for you this morning" muffin top I had going on. I realized pretty quickly that while I may not have put on much weight, my rear end is not a size 2 anymore. I had to put the 2's away around the same time I found out I was pregnant.

I have definitely been battling all day long nausea and have a hard time eating because nothing really sounds good until I am STARVING. I've had hot dogs for dinner the past two night, and my poor husband agreed to eat Hot Pockets for dinner last night because I just couldn't muster the desire to eat, let alone come up with anything to cook since I'm not really hungry at dinner time.

Saturday morning my mom came up here, and we did some shopping (I needed new flats. I am not waddling around my huge office building in heels) and had lunch at In & Out Burger. A first for both of us. The burgers were good - some special sauce they have - and the fries were under done for my preferences. Of course, that didn't stop me from shoveling them into my face. Gage pretty much ate fries, a sprite, and my chocolate shake for lunch. That kid gets plenty of protein through out the week, so I figure french fries are just fine for lunch once in a while. I definitely enjoy hanging out with my mom. As an only child, she and I were always close as I was growing up, and we make a point to see each other regularly.

We also went to meet my mother in law and sister in law and her daughter in Sherman yesterday to get the cousins together to play. We took them to an indoor bounce house place that also had one of those huge hamster crawl through tubes and stuff. Also, arcade games. (and violently played air hockey - I'm not cut out to play air hockey against a member of the Avary blood line. they're a little scary!) The kids (and adults) all had a ton of fun. And, Curtis was definitely enjoying himself playing in the bounce houses. He actually asked his sister to video him running and jumping up over the side of the bounce house that was an obstacle course.

(note: this morning Curtis told me he was sore all over - I do NOT wonder why). I found some of the climbing to be a little nauseating, but all together fun. Gage tripped over a woman's foot while he was cutting in front of her to catch up to Grandma and bonked his little head. He has a bump in the middle of his forehead. Other than that, we all survived. Exhausted.

I am ridiculously tired with this pregnancy and I still think it's just because with the first one, I didn't have a toddler to take care of too. Thank God Gage can climb into the car by himself if I allow him the time to do it. And, he can climb into his high chair with a little help to make sure he doesn't fall over.

And oh my gosh, can I just say that I am not emotionally stable enough to watch all those military homecoming surprise videos floating around. They did a mini segment on the news this weekend and I was crying about 2 minutes into it.

Also, if anyone wants a large, but very loveable puppy whom we refer to as Mimi, let me know. She's driving me bonkers! I think it would be a LOT less annoying if we had carpets and I didn't have to hear her clackety-clacking down the hall at 3am. That dog is making me crazy at night. And, I SWEAR she knows when the alarm is about to go off, and insists on waking me up about 10-15 minutes beforehand. Again, free to a good home!

Chubby blonde diapered child NOT free to a good home. :) But, you can see how good Mimi is with children.
Another week down, and like a BILLION to go. I'll just be happy not being nauseous all day. I do think this baby might be a girl. Because only a girl would be this mean to her mom so early on in life. And, I don't remember feeling this way with Gage.

Gage 21 Month Letter

Dear "Mine!", You just turned 21 months old last week and it's crazy to think that you'll be 2 in just a couple of months. How the heck did that happen? We only JUST celebrated your first birthday!

You have really adjusted well to the new daycare you're at. You love playing with your friends "K" and "M". You, obviously, were drawn to K first, since she's an older woman. They are 3 yr old twins, one boy and one girl. You really seem to have picked up a friendship with M and I've seen him make you laugh really hard. You also don't care to be picked up when it's time to go home most of the time.

You've learned a LOT so far. You have a word of the day, and you remember several in a row. You have also been saying "mine!" a lot, which I understand is because you're now in a more sharing situation. But, kid, I HATE THAT WORD. It's just not nice hearing it from your mouth every 3.8 seconds. And, you're also incredibly fond of saying "no". I realize that has a lot to do with your age and how you're learning about the world. But, again, super annoying after a while.

Other than that, you're proving to be incredibly smart and a very fast learner. You pat my tummy and say "baby" since we explained that's where the baby is. You ask questions and you make your requests pretty clear. And, of course, throw a royal fit when you don't get what you want. We try not to pay too much attention to the fits, and try to focus on positive attention, and making sure you feel like we're paying attention when you say something or follow along with you when you say "um on!" and beckon with your little hand. I do love following you around the house to see what it is that you're excited enough about to show us.

 You've discovered just how much fun it is to play with the baby powder if I am stupid enough to leave it ANYWHERE CLOSE to where you can reach it. Let me just tell you that your room will probably smell like a fresh baby's bottom until we move out. There's only so much you can do to clean that mess up. Perhaps this would be the time to splurge on having a house cleaner come visit for a couple of hours. If only...

You LOVE to help. You have been helping me feed the dogs by bringing Mimi's bowl and helping me scoop food into it, and even carrying it back to where she likes to eat. (out of the kitchen, away from the little terrorist dogs). You throw away trash. You like ti put things back where they belong. You even clean up your toys if I am very specific about where to put them. Yesterday I asked you to put your books back into the dump truck (you like pushing them around in it) and not only did you pick them all up, you pushed the truck back into your room. I was very proud.

You still love to dance, and still use it as a way to distract us from getting on to you about something you shouldn't be doing. Of course, we're not THAT dumb, but it is awfully cute that you try. (I am 100% certain that you get this character trait from your dad.) You have stopped eating like a Hoover, and more like a kid who eats regular meals. You definitely were all over my dinner plate last night, picking shredded cheese off of my chili dog and calling it rice.

You love lotion and if I put some on you, you always help rub it in. I am looking forward to taking advantage of this by letting you help me rub lotion on my belly as it grows and gets all itchy. You're really getting big, and I think I am loving it more and more every day now. We are so proud of how smart you are. And how much fun you can be. I am personally very proud of your vocabulary, as I can take a lot of the credit for it.

Gage, you're outrageous!

Love, Mommy

6 Weeks

While I feel that I did a fairly good job of writing about my experience as a new mother AFTER my first pregnancy, I wish that I had charted my maternity a little better. Because, guess what, some hilarious and also really sad shit went down when I was pregnant with Gage.

I guess that I will just draw comparisons as I go along with this pregnancy. So far, we found out just about the same time as we did with Gage. I'm a pretty meticulous tracker of my cycle, and I am also pretty aware of my body. We found out April 1, 2009 I was expecting Gage and was due Dec 5 2009. This time, we found out on August 29th (well, the 30th officially with that disgusting pregnancy test I peed on that's on my Facebook profile picture) and I believe this baby is due May 5th. We're VERY SCHEDULED HERE! Both times, right between 4 & 5 weeks. It does make the pregnancy seem longer, since you know the WHOLE TIME. Not like "Whoa, surprise I'm already 12 weeks along and I had no idea!" Of course, I noticed Monday morning that I was looking a little fluffy in the belly, but contributed that to possible pre-period bloating.

This week I've had "the pregnancy hungries" "the pregnancy bitchies" and I believe as of yesterday, I may have already suffered "the pregnancy labotamy". Ya know, that whole the-baby-stole-your-brain and you honestly forget what you just stood up to do. Until you realize you're about to pee your pants, and then it's "OH THATS WHY I'M STANDING HERE".

Also, let me say that I can tell a very large difference in how often and how much of an emergency it is to use the bathroom this pregnancy. Like, the ability to wait has disappeared. If it hits me that I gotta go, then I'm not waiting. Unless, of course, I want to pee my pants.

The crazy dreams have started. One this week wherein I am single, not pregnant and dating that ugly actor Jason Segel from "How I Met Your Mother". Because I obviously couldn't dream about dating Hugh Jackman, or Taylor Lautner - both of which, I now realize, have played wolf characters in popular movies. Please, analyze THAT ONE for me! Anyway, I woke up feeling awkward and disappointed that I dreamed about an ugly dude.

I've also felt more nausea this week. As in, I almost opened my car door to puke at a red light. And I distinctly remember only throwing up twice with Gage. I don't remember how bad the actual nausea was.

I've definitely been tired. I've definitely been crazy annoyed by everything and everyone at different points in the day. And, the SMELLS. UGH! I was just telling my best friend, Jennifer, who is about 14-15 weeks along in her first pregnancty, about the sense of smell during pregnancy. Like how it made me sick to my stomach to smell Lysol and cigarette smoke. And how everything smells like meat or something equally awkward. And, then I found out I'm pregnant and the sensitivity to smell hits me like a ton of dirty diapers.

Let me say this, if I walk into your house or you run into me at the store and I'm making offended faces, it's probably not because you smell or your house smells like dog pee. It's just that I can smell your hairspray and your Scentsy candle is a little too strong for my pregnant nose. Thankfully, I have not had any aversion to the way Curtis smells. Or Gage. I love to smell his chubby neck still. Curtis still smells like he always does. Yummy.

So, here we are at the beginning of this journey. Wow. That was corny. On to the pizza buffet!!

How We Celebrated the Drought

I cannot, of course, lead with something incredibly obvious in my title. If you're reading this, then you most likely saw my link on Facebook and followed it here to read all the gory details. Ok, not gory exactly.

Anyway, here's how Baby #2 came to be (this is not your biology lesson of the day).

We've had the baby fever for a while now. I blame it on Gage getting big and on all my pregnant friends announcing their babies on the way. Curtis has always wanted to have the babies close together so they can have a friend at school. I also wanted to be done with having babies by 30 so I can get back into teaching classes at the gym permanently. With no breaks after having kids and then having to get back into shape AGAIN. I'll just stay squishy til I'm done pushing out kids.

So, we had been planning and talking about TRYING (because it's different to try vs. not really worry about if you get pregnant or not) to conceive at the end of this year. I will admit that I haven't taken birth control in about a year, so we weren't exactly practicing "safe sex" like they teach in school. It's a crap shoot when you play the game that way. Curtis said we should name this baby Bullseye because we've learned how fertile it seems we are.

So, baby number two is on the way!!! I had the craziest pregnancy test drama this time around. On a Monday, I decided to buy a two pack of tests and came home and took one. The "pregnancy line" was incredibly faint, so I wasn't convinced. Curtis, of course, jumped on the computer and started researching. His conclusion "everything I've read says that if there's a line at all, even a faint one, it means you're pregnant." To which I replied, "yeah, I don't think so. I'll take another in the morning". It IS pretty much a myth that you should take a test in the morning. You're either pregnant or not. That statement kind of negates my unbelief about my own pregnancy.

So, test #2 at 5:45am was a dud. Like a completely NON working test. The control line didnt show up or anything. Of course, that was not something I could tolerate. So, I took a shower, got dressed and drove to the store at 6:15 in the morning to buy another 2 pack of tests. This time I just buy what's cheaper and ignore national brands, since that's what gave me a dud test anyway.
Of course, I get to the store, and have to go to the customer service desk and have someone paged to come over and get me a test from behind the counter - why are they locked up along side the condoms and cigarettes? And, I get in line where the older lady cashier decides to converse with me about my purchase while two men stand in line behind me waiting to buy their gatorades.

Nosey Cashier: "Is this for you?"
Me: "Who the hell do you think I'm buying a test for at 6am?" Ok, well that's what I THOUGHT to myself. My actual reply was to nod my head yes.
NC: "Oh, do you want to be?"
Me: (is she effing serious?!?) "Well, yes, I guess so. We already have a one year old at home."
NC: "Oh, well then yes." Like me already having a kid made it make sense that I would want another one.

I leave and I am thinking how RUDE people are. And, of course, being pregnant means that everyone has an opinion or question to ask. Mostly an opinion. I have already had someone be rude about my pregnancy test being on Facebook. Hey, it's MY FACEBOOK. That's what's so great about it. I may run something past Curtis now and then if I am concerned about its level of appropriateness. But, if he's unconcerned, then I'm good. He's pretty damn conservative, so if he OK's it, then you might as well figure it's safe for the whole family. But, I digress from the pregnancy test excitement...

So, I get home with my tests and of course, I don't have to pee. But Curtis insists that I try again before work. Let's just say those test results were inconclusive.

Forward to 9:30am at work. I sneak a test in my pocket (because carrying my purse to the bathroom reminds me of being a teenager on my period in high school. It's painfully obvious that I am needing to carry a tampon but too embarrassed to palm it to the loo) and again, have some freaking issue! This time, the control line didnt completely appear, and so again I felt that the test was inconclusive. At this point, I am wondering if I really am pregnant or not, and waiting for the tell tale signs of NOT being pregnant to show up. I decide to wait until Friday and take another test if there have been no further developments.

That evening, I go on some rampage in an argument with Curtis wherein I tell him that I am NOT cooking dinner for him since I am not really hungry and Gage can eat a hotdog and yogurt for dinner and be happy. He proceeds to get my car keys and get in my car, to which I respond by whisper screaming at him so the neighbors can't hear. Of course, I end up asking him where he's going and he says KFC and I remember they have a pretty good deal on a bucket of chicken and sides for $10. So, I volunteer that we all get in the car and ride together. (yes, that crazy mood swing should have been enough to convince me)

While we're waiting in the drive thru, Curtis says "Hey, do you want to get a pregnancy test while we're out" and I shrug and say sure. We've already spent $20 on 4 tests that proved nothing, so I decide to get the kind that says words. Like "pregnant" or "not pregnant" or "stop eating pizza".

Well, if you're here from my Facebook link, then I am sure you've already seen how that test turned out. :) And if it bothers you that I have something posted on my FB that I peed on, then PLEASE STOP READING MY BLOG! I assure you there's so much MORE offensive material that I will come up with over the next 9 months. You probably can't handle it.

This baby is due May 5, 2012. Yes, please feel free to cheer "Cinco De Mayo!" much like my husband and my best friend both did.

We are very excited, and I'm a little mind boggled that we will now have TWO children to warp... I meant MOLD into wonderful human beings. I'm thinking I will be a bit more laid back with this one. I won't be having any crazy baby shower. However, I may decide to have a get together over dinner with some girlfriends or something. If this baby is a girl, I will be happy to accept any directions you have that comes with raising a daughter. Unless, of course, I don't ask for your advice or opinion. Because Lord knows I will hear enough of those over the next 9 months!

Congratulations to Gage! We think he will be an incredibly helpful and wonderful big brother.