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Entries in 7 Quick Tuesday (25)

Tuesday
09Mar2010

7 Quick Tuesday Takes

DateTuesday, March 9, 2010 at 10:04AM

Welcome to yet another Tuesday, longest day of the week.  Last semester I had school on Mondays, though, and swore to myself I would never again take Monday night classes because having Monday be your longest day of the week is just beyond stupid.  So Tuesday it is.

1. It's been months since I had a nightmare.  (Before I got pregnant, I couldn't even tell you how long it had been - years, probably.)  But last night I dreamt that my parents thought Buster was more than we could handle and so one day, when we asked them to dog-sit him, they decided to drop him off at a local shelter instead.

:(

I woke up really heartbroken at 4am, trying not to cry.  Finally I just let myself cry, figuring that might get it out of my system, and I think it did because I must have dozed off not long after that.

Buster is a handful, for sure.  But he's just a puppy.  He'll get older and better... and he's just so darn cute.  He's not going anywhere.

Sleeping on the ottoman at my parents' house.

2. Tomorrow is 30 weeks.  THIRTY WEEKS.  I feel a bit like I did when I turned 30 - sort of ready for it, sort of ready to be done with the 20s, but also a bit anxious and unsure.

3. Operation Sit and Sip continues today.  I think I've been doing pretty well drinking lots of fluids and trying to stay relaxed.  I haven't over-exerted myself, although I haven't done less than I normally do, either.  I told the hubby that I feel like my belly has grown noticeably in just the past two days.  He pointed out that hydrating might have something to do with that.  Oh yeah, duh.  So maybe it's working.  We'll see tomorrow (sonogram at 7pm tomorrow night).

4. Today at school we get to talk to the author of one of the books we're reading for class.  This means, of course, that we need to have the book finished for today which, of course, I don't.  When do I ever?  But today, really.  You can't go in to class like, "Hi, great book - well, what I read of it." Sigh.  I'm just not a good student this semester - really having a hard time juggling work, the puppy, and all the pregnancy related doctors visits.  I'll have the summer to relax (well, from school anyway) but hopefully I can work out a better schedule for the fall.  I'm thinking I might actually have to "book" schoolwork time - block time off that's just for that.  Give The Force to someone else to watch for a few hours or something.  Of course, I'd be tempted to use that time to do laundry, grocery shop, clean the house, or anything else... but I have to keep up my schoolwork so I need to figure this out.

5. I now own two pairs of maternity pants - one pair of jeans and one pair of black corduroys.  I think I might live in these for the next ten weeks.  They are far more comfortable than I imagined - and they don't look as ridiculous as I expected them to.  Go figure - pregnancy continues to be a surprise.

6. Buster has a play date today!  The hubby's mom is going to watch him today since Tuesday is our mutually longest day.  Buster has free reign of the kitchen when we're not home (there's a baby gate blocking him from the rest of the house) and the kitchen is the biggest room in the house, but it's not enough exercise for him on a daily basis.  So today he's going to the in-law's and gets to run around with their dog, Skylar, a Cairn terrier (Buster is half Cairn).  They have a great time running around and it's really good exercise for Buster.  He's a much happier and better behaved dog when he's exercised so we're trying to figure out ways to make that happen.

7. I think I've entered the phase of pregnancy where everything is a bit less great - a bit less happy glow-y than the second trimester.  Maybe it's just the worry about the low amniotic fluid from Saturday, but I just worry because now if something happens, we get a preemie.  He'll live and chances are he'll thrive, but it won't be easy and there'll always be a lot of concerns.  Plus my belly is getting bigger and every now and then I don't breathe as easily as I was.  My left outer thigh goes numb sometimes.  One of my arms always falls asleep overnight.  These concerns are minimal, but they indicate to me that they're just going to keep popping up.  My back hasn't ached for no reason for a long time, but I'm sure that'll come back.

In the end, all I really care about is that The Force is okay.  As long as he's healthy, I really don't want to complain all too much about what I have to endure to get to the end of this pregnancy.  And I know I've been lucky.  I keep getting emails about how to deal with the heartburn and hemorrhoids - but I don't have any of that.  Didn't have morning sickness, don't have people grabbing my belly or making comments all the time.  All in all, it's been pretty easy.  So if my left leg decides it wants to fall asleep once in a while, so be it.  Maybe it's just bored.

AuthorCandice | Comment4 Comments |
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Tuesday
02Mar2010

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - pregnant man edition

DateTuesday, March 2, 2010 at 7:30AM

By request of the hubby, who insisted when I got pregnant that pregnancy would "turn me into a man" (specifically him), here are seven ways in which he was right.

*Note: these items do not indicate any generalizations I have made about men.  These are the hubby's generalizations and he thinks that since he's a man, it's okay ... so that's that.  Just having a laugh poking some fun at gender stereotypes.

1. Farting - Let me just get this one over with.  Until I was pregnant, I almost never farted in front of my husband unless it was a total accident, completely taking me by surprise, or I was asleep.  Now?  Now I have no choice.  If I had to excuse myself to another room every time this would happen, I wouldn't ever see the hubby because I'd be in a separate room every hour.

For you Sex and the City fans, remember the episode where Miranda and Carrie are shoe shopping and Miranda's rings get stuck and she tries to pull them off, pulling her finger and then farting in the process?  Hilarious then.  Less so now.

2. Burping - Goes along with farting, right?  Same air, just the other direction.  I have never been able to burp on command, and still can't, but what I can do is just burp when I have to because it's impossible to keep them quiet sometimes now.

3. Sleeping - This weekend I slept until 10am both days, after getting up earlier to let the dogs out.  Normally, I'm up after I let the dogs out, even if it's 7:30am on a weekend.  I'll lay on the sofa and watch TV/snooze/be unproductive, but I'll never actually go back to sleep... in bed... for HOURS.  But now?  I sleep like a champ.  I think my body is going, "Oh god, oh no, it's going to be years before we'll get sleep like this again - stock up! Stock up!!!"

4. Tacos - I cannot get enough of Chipotle's soft tacos with steak.  Pre-pregnancy, I could take or leave Chipotle.  The hubby, however, practically lives there.  He doesn't even need to give his order when he goes; they see him and know what he wants.  During the 1st trimester, the smell of Chipotle totally made me nauseous and either he or I had to go into another room when he brought Chipotle home.  But now?  I'm eating it once or twice a week myself - and there probably isn't a day or two that goes by that I don't think about it.  Mmm... Chipotle steak tacos... mmm.

5. Forgetfulness - What was I going to say about this?  Oh yeah, I forget things now.  The hubby will say, "Can you take this to the other room?" And I'll get up and walk to the other room... without ever taking that thing with me, even though he just asked TWO SECONDS AGO.  It's incredibly frustrating.

6. Sweating - Since my weight loss (and even after the weight gain that followed), I have been the one in any given room who's cold.  Everyone else will be in a t-shirt, but I'll have on a sweater and a scarf and my fingernails will still be turning blue... except now, the tables have turned.  My classmates or coworkers will have on sweaters and I'll have a t-shirt and be complaining about how damned hot it is all the time.  Apparently your base body temperature can go up a full degree when you're pregnant.  Since mine was already low due to my hypothyroid, I'm going to guess I've gone up more than a degree due to the thyroid meds and the pregnancy.  I need to remember this when I get dressed for work in the morning because it's getting hard to concentrate when I'm hot all the time.

7. Sex Drive - This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been pregnant or read about pregnancy, but crazy things happen to your sex drive, especially after the first trimester.  Seriously.  I don't think I quite want to go into this one fully right now, but let's just say I enjoy the hubby's company.  A lot.  Every day feels like how the first month of dating the hubby felt. I wish we had time to go away on a lengthy vacation so I could enjoy his company even more with no distractions or other obligations.

Someplace like this would be preferable:

This is where I wanted to go for our honeymoon had money been no object.
Alas, money was most certainly an object.
(Not that we didn't have a perfectly lovely and fun honeymoon anyway.)

But I still daydream about this outdoor shower.  One day... some day.

I really could write a lot more about #7, but I'll have to work up the nerve/decide if I really want to.

And, as an addendum since I'm actually not a man, but still a woman - here's a link to my latest post at WeAreTheRealDeal where I talk about Victoria's Secret and bra shopping.

Because what's more womanly than talking about breasts? Oh wait, men do that all the time, too.  Damn.

AuthorCandice | Comment5 Comments |
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Tuesday
23Feb2010

7 Quick Tuesday Takes

DateTuesday, February 23, 2010 at 9:28AM

It's a dreary, rainy Tuesday, I got about 6 hours of sleep, and am having trouble remaining upright without dozing off.  So here we go.

1. Tomorrow I will be 28 weeks pregnant and officially enter the third trimester.  Holy crap.  Third trimester, as in there are no more trimesters.  In two weeks, I'll be 30 weeks... which is the last group of 10 weeks.  The tens, twenties, thirties... and the big 40.  Absolutely crazy to think about.

2. The Force kicks on a daily basis now.  I haven't yet figured out exactly when he kicks, but I've noticed he kicks if I'm really hungry and he also tends to kick a bit after I eat, and then he chills, like he's in a food coma.  He also tends to kick when I lie down in bed for the night.  The other night I had my netbook resting on my belly and he kicked and moved it!

3. We still keep Buster in the kitchen when we're not home or if we need to get something done - like put something together or eat something in front of the TV in the living room.  Well, the other day I was carrying a plate and a drink while trying to get over the baby gate in the kitchen doorway... and I tripped.  Thankfully, I just mainly fell on my right knee and secondarily on my left.  My stomach never touched the floor (AND I saved most of my drink, but not the food).  But the next day, I felt like The Force wasn't kicking as much and I worried all day - but that was the Saturday I had to work and then we spent hours at IKEA so he doesn't usually kick as much when I'm up and about.  That night he started kicking more and the next day kicked his normal amount... but it was worrisome for a while.  I'll be glad when I can go back to knocking my own body around without having to worry about the fact that I'm protecting someone else.

4. Buster is getting better, little by little.  It's kind of like two steps forward and one step back.  The hubby says there's "Base Buster" - the basic dog Buster is when he's not in full on, crazy puppy mode.  This is the Buster we'll eventually see all the time if we stick with the training and have a bit of luck.  When he's in Base Buster mode, he's awesome... when he's Crackhead Buster, though, he makes me want to curl up under a cover and wait for him to grow up.

5. We've reached the point in February where I'm tired of winter.  I really love winter, but at this point (late February), I'm always ready for spring to head on in.  Sunday morning, as I lay in bed and peered through the blinds to see the snow still sitting on the ground, I had such a strong urge to pull the covers over my head and wait for someone to tell me flowers were blooming.

6. Tomorrow the hubby and I are finally registering for the baby shower.  My sister is coming with us since she's giving us so much stuff, we want to make sure we don't register for duplicates and that what we do register for matches/fits some of the stuff we're getting.  Having been to dozens of baby showers by now, I'm a pro at Babies R Us and can't wait to go through with the zapper!  It'll be the last time I register for anything, though - *sniffle*.  There was the bridal shower and then this... and then that's it.  Kind of bittersweet.

7. I am still behind on my reading for school... and last night one of my professors sent an email reminding us that in order to have a good class discussion, we must be up to speed with the readings.  It's like she could see me feverishly trying to finish them.  As a teacher, though, I will tell you that they know when you haven't read.  They might humor you and pretend they don't notice, but they know.  And I tend to talk a lot in class (shocker, I know) so when I haven't read and keep quiet, they absolutely tend to notice (and ask what's going on).  Hopefully there's little traffic today and I can get to school early enough to do a bit more reading.

For now I'll continue working on keeping my eyes open and remaining upright.

AuthorCandice | Comment3 Comments |
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Monday
15Feb2010

7 Quick *Monday* Takes - holiday weekend edition

DateMonday, February 15, 2010 at 10:42AM

The weekend in Baltimore was absolutely wonderful and totally needed.

1. We dropped Buster off with my in-laws late Friday night (like 10:30pm) before hitting the road for Baltimore.  Sometime on Saturday around noon, I believe, the hubby got a text from his mother, "Where's Buster's off switch?"  Haha.  We warned her!  But he was really, really good for them - just his normal, high energy self.  But it worked out wonderfully because they have their own fairly high energy Cairn Terrier (which Buster is half) so they played together a lot and slept wonderfully at night.  Knowing he was in such good, capable hands really helped me sleep.

2.  Err, well sort of.  First I needed to avoid sleeping - namely, as I drove 3 hours at midnight, getting to Mike and Tracy's house around 2:30am.  It was hard not to nod off . . . well, except for that spot in Delaware where I got pulled over for speeding.  Oops.  But no ticket.  Phew.

3.  Then there's the matter of the aerobed we slept on.  Throughout my friendship with Mike, I have slept in a range of places: sharing twin size dorm beds with people, by myself on sofas or squished on a loveseat, wrapped in a blanket on the floor under the dining room table, sharing a sleeping bag with someone else, slumped over in an arm chair... you get my point.

But this aerobed + pregnancy? Kicked my butt.  I've started having small sleeping issues at home - getting numb or crampy on whatever side I spend hours sleeping on so then I turn over, get numb on that side after a few hours, and turn again.  I'm a sleeping rotisserie, basically.  But our bed prevents that from being too troublesome for me or the hubby. But the aerobed? Not so much.   Every time I turned, he stirred... and I had to turn often.

Realization: I am officially old and pregnant.  I can no longer sleep in a blanket under a table.  This feels like the serious closing of one chapter of my life.

4. Tracy gave me her body pillow to help with the situation.


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Sleeping with this thing is 1 - like sleeping with an overgrown comma and 2 - having a third person in bed with us.  The hubby would scoot over to snuggle... and get an armful of stuffed cotton.  I think the pillow helps me sleep but I haven't yet figured out the most advantageous way to use it.  Tracy hated it so she said I could keep it as long as I want... so I've got time to figure out how to finagle this thing.

5.  We had SO much good food this weekend.  Saturday's lunch was Mediterranean - falafel, hummus, pitas, etc.  YUuummmm.  Saturday's dinner was Indian, also super yum.  Then on Sunday Mike smoked a brisket for 6-7 hours and made a bunch of sides and we all watched the Daytona 500 and the USA Women's Hockey game.  Nothing like smoked meat and sports, right?

6.  It was particularly nice to spend time with Madison, Mike and Tracy's  7 month old.  She is so sweet - such a little bundle of joy, always smiling and laughing - except when she screams for fun.  Seriously.  She might be a rock star one day.  It wasn't, "Oh, the baby's screaming, uh oh" - it was, "Haha, check out her screaming, you go!"  She is so lovely and precious - and with two such cheery parents, it's no surprise she's such a cheery baby.

7.  But the moment of the weekend had nothing to do with where we were or who we were with ... and that was Friday night, as the hubby and I settled in to sleep on the aerobed... and he felt The Force kick for the first time!  Finally!  There have been a few nights where I was sure he would be able to feel him, but it hadn't happened yet... but then, Friday night, The Force was kicking hard and low, where there's less padding, and he gave his dad a huge *THUMP*.  I loved it.  I love that it happened in Baltimore.  I love that it finally happened.  I love the look on the hubby's face after the kick - pure wonderment and joy and . . . I don't even know.  Pure joy and love.  Best Valentine's gift ever.

AuthorCandice | Comment4 Comments |
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Tuesday
09Feb2010

7 Quick Tuesday Takes

DateTuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8:58AM

1. Last night was my 6 month appointment with my OB - and my glucose test results came back all good!  In fact, he said the results were great.  Yay!  I told him what happened at the lab and he said we did the test the more old-fashioned way and people just aren't accustomed to that anymore, so he wasn't surprised, but he was glad it all turned out okay.  (So am I!)  So the glucose test debacle is over!

2. I gained one pound this month, which makes my total pregnancy weight gain 4 pounds.  He's happy with this, as well (as am I!).  I am totally on track to stay below the recommended 15 pound pregnancy weight gain for overweight women - not that I think it's a huge problem if an overweight woman gains more than that (really, you do what your body needs you to do).  But for me, I'm glad my body is regulating the weight gain because it's not like I'm restricting my eating in any way; this is just what my body is doing naturally and FOR ONCE I feel good about what my body is doing.  I've often heard that about pregnancy - that it helps you appreciate your body in a way you never did before, but I'm surprised that it's taken this form.

3. Buster has taken to chewing on the books on the bottom shelf of my hallway bookshelf.  No good can come of this.  I have to figure out what to do with that shelf - what I can put on it until he learns to stop chewing on things.

4. The hubby and I are finally getting down to Baltimore this weekend.  It'll be the closest thing we get to a "babymoon" before May since it's impossible for us to get away for a weekend, especially since now we have to arrange for the babysitting of two dogs.  I'm so psyched to see Mike and Tracy and their little girl Madison, who's now seven months old and who we haven't seen since she was two months old.

5. My coworker got in a fender bender - really, a very minor accident - and he was talking about how upset the guy was that hit him and he said, "But really, he should have calmed down; we're all just lucky to be alive."  I get the impression that the accident amounted to some dents and scratches so I had to hold myself back from rolling my eyes.  I hope that doesn't seem insensitive but I just really get annoyed when people blow normal life events out of proportion.

6. Thanks to the dogs, I got no reading done for school last night.  I really have to start figuring out when I'm going to get my schoolwork done because I can't just sit around and do it like I used to - too busy keeping Buster entertained so he doesn't chew on everything or aggravate Oreo.

7. Somewhere in their basement, my parents have an old drawing I did in elementary school.  It's got silver glitter on dark blue construction paper with a drawing of a snowman done in white crayon and the words, "Today is Tuesday. It will snow."  For some reason, it pops into my head on a lot of Tuesdays - except on this one, we really are expecting snow.  Sometime tonight between 9pm and 10pm, it's supposed to start and dump a foot before the workday tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.  We got lucky and didn't get any snow this past weekend, but I don't think we'll manage that again.  It's not that I mind snow - I don't; I love it - but I don't like getting up early to dig out before work.  Need the zzz's.

Do you love snow?  Hate it?  Ambivalent?

AuthorCandice | Comment3 Comments |
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