Did you know that Rosetta Stone costs anywhere between $250 and $600? Man, I’d BETTER learn Italian for that much money!
It is Super Bowl weekend here in Tampa, and there are many parties going on. Lots of celebrities in town. Plus the game, of course. So where am I? At home, playing on the computer and watching Jesse play the Wii. And that is completely fine with me. I’m not a football fan, and I only watch the game for the commercials. I am glad I don’t live in Tampa, though, because I’ve heard the traffic is horrendous.
I think the game is affecting St. Pete as well, though. Millie and I went down to the Saturday Morning Market this morning to pick up some strawberries, and there was a big concert and other stuff going on. Then, we all went to dinner tonight at Outback (the dr. said I need more iron, so instead of taking iron pills (because as my two faithful readers know, I can’t swallow pills), I figured I’d just eat more food with iron in it, so bring on the steak!), and it was only about 4:30-4:45 (yes, we ate with the other elderly early birds … it always seems to be elderly people and parents with young kids at that time of day), but by the time we left at 5:45, the place was PACKED! Jam packed, people were waiting outside for a table. I mean, I understand that Outback is popular (they have some mighty good green beans), but it wasn’t even 6 o’clock and the joint was jumpin’. So I think the overflow of Super Bowl attendees has trickled over into St. Pete. Just another reason I am glad to be sitting at home tonight.
We are working on Millie’s new room, and I am happy to report that it is almost done. We are weeks behind schedule, but really only because we had to switch from putting wood floor in the room to carpet. We found out that the wood flooring we bought for our living room has been discontinued, so instead of trying to match a new wood floor to that one, I convinced Jesse that carpet would be ok in the room. Millie isn’t allowed to eat or drink anything but water in her room, so unless she throws up all over the carpet, I’m thinking we will be able to keep it relatively clean. And if she does throw up, that’s what steam cleaners are for. I also think that it will warm up the room, and then she can sprawl out on the floor if she wants to. I have fond memories of my bedrooms growing up, and they all had carpet in them. So because we had to make the switch, the carpet won’t be installed for another 2-3 weeks. We could have moved her into the room before the carpet, but I really wanted to do the “big reveal” and see her reaction when it is all done. I’m so excited about this room, it is the first room I’ve done in the house that will be completely “done” all at once. Every other room is still in transition. It makes me feel like I’m on a home decorating show. I’ll try to post some pictures once it’s all done – of course, I didn’t think to take “before” shots, but I think the “after” will be very nice. And Millie is excited and does understand what’s happening, because I bought a few onesies for the new baby, and she offered to put them in the “baby’s room” and when I asked her where that was, she said it was the room she is in right now. So she knows that it won’t be her room much longer.
She is almost completely potty trained right now, even bedtime. We let her start wearing underwear to bed this week because she has had quite a few weeks of dry pull-ups (every now and then she would have a wet one, but the dry far outweighed the wet at this point), and she has not had an accident yet. She has even gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, so she is definitely aware of the feeling of having to go to the bathroom. She has, however, had two accidents during the day this past week … but those were the first in quite a long time.
Millie is really at a wonderful age right now – almost 3 1/2, and is, on most days, the sweetest, funniest thing. She is more affectionate that she has ever been, which I am enjoying so much. It is so wonderful to have her come up to me, rest her head on my shoulder, and say in her tiny voice, “I love you mommy.” I am trying to really treasure these moments, because I know they won’t always be there, but also because I want her to know that this new baby is not going to change how I feel about her.
I took her to a “sibling class” last weekend where she learned how to help take care of the baby. I don’t know how much of an impact it had on her, but just watching her in the class was fun, because I don’t often get to see her in a group situation. It was interesting to see how she responded to the teacher, how she was around the other kids, and especially how she reacted to having me in the room, nearby but not right next to her. As the teacher would explain something, she would look back to me with a big smile on her face, sometimes mouthing words to me as if I could hear her. She was the 2nd fidgetiest kid there (not a surprise, she always has ants in her pants, but I was hoping that just happened around me and Jesse, and that when she was in a teacher/student situation, that she knew how to sit still and pay attention) and didn’t always follow directions very well, but overall she looked like she had a great time. They taught her how to hold the baby, how to change the diaper, how to feed and burp the baby, and what kind of toys are ok for the baby to play with. At the end of the class, they took us to the nursery to see the newborns, and she really liked that.
We bought a new lamp for the living room, and it makes the room feel so much warmer and inviting. I told Jesse today that I wish we had the money to hire someone to decorate our house. I know I won’t be completely happy with any room until it is “done”, and because we are slow in choosing items (and don’t have much money to decorate), we are never fully “done” with a room. I would love to have someone come in, talk with us about what we want from each room, then go out, buy everything, and kick us out for a few days, and when we came back, the house would be perfect, like a model house. I don’t enjoy decorating as much as I thought I would, because I have come to realize I don’t really have an eye for design or color. I can see a room in a book or a magazine and know what I like about it, but I can’t translate it into my own house. We were at Home Depot (sorry, THE Home Depot … that is the correct name of the store, per Jesse who used to work there) last weekend, and an elderly man came up to me and said, “Are you any good at choosing colors?” and I had to say, “Actually, no, I’m not, but my husband is.” We all assume women are the ones with the “gift” for decorating, but sadly, my husband is better at it than I am. Well, at least where color is concerned.
When we first moved into this house, I knew I wanted our bedroom to be a light blue. I chose the color, and when it was all done, you could barely tell it was blue at all, because it was way too light. This past year, we repainted, and Jesse chose the color, based on the window treatments in the room. We argued about the color, because I kept thinking it was closer to one shade and he knew it wasn’t. I finally gave in to him, we painted, and it looks fabulous. I now defer to him on all color choices. He can tell me if a color has more blue or yellow in it. He chose the carpet color for Millie’s room because he could see how it worked with the wall color better than I could. I just don’t have a good eye for color – only took me 30+ years to figure that out.
The new baby is doing well, as far as I can tell. It moves A WHOLE LOT, even more than Millie did, I think. Which is worrisome, because Millie was a mover and shaker in my belly, and like I said, she can’t sit still EVER. So I’m assuming this one will be the same way when it comes out, and how the heck am I going to handle two frenetic kids? I’ve gained about 23 lbs so far, which is ok since they want you to gain between 25-35 lbs. I’ve had some swelling in my ankles, which I am watching VERY carefully, given the situation last pregnancy, but so far, it seems like normal swelling. I am trying hard to drink more water, but it is so hard for me because a) I hate water and 2)I hardly drink anything normally, let alone when I’m pregnant. It’s hard to retrain yourself to do something you don’t normally do, but I’m giving it the old college try. I do a better job of drinking water when I’m at work than at home, so this weekend I haven’t had enough to drink – today I had two glasses of milk and a root beer. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.
I’m starting my 29th week tomorrow, so I’m in my third trimester now. The home stretch, I suppose. I feel as big right now as I did last time when I delivered. I’ve had a few people come up to me and say, “So, soon, right?” and I sigh and say, “No, I still have three months left.” They always look a bit shocked. I don’t know why I’m so big so quickly this time – I guess not getting back in shape after Millie probably has a bit to do with it. I am definitely going to get in shape after this baby, though. I would like to have a flat stomach.
I passed my glucose test first time around this time, so that made me very happy – I did not want to have to take the 3 hour test again, that sucked. And now I don’t have to worry about adding sugar to my grapefruit or to other fruit I’m eating, which I don’t even know if that would have been a problem but I was concerned it would be. At the moment, my sciatic nerve is not bothering me that much, but I don’t want to get my hopes up that it is completely gone. I’m sure it will rear it’s ugly head again at some point. I am definitely waddling already, actually have been waddling for at least a month or so. It’s getting hard to walk, I am sure it has to do with being out of shape and using muscles I’ve never used before, because the backs of my thighs hurt when I walk, and I’ve never really experienced that before. I walk pretty slowly, which I’m sure also makes people think I’m farther along than I actually am. I wear a pregnancy girdle every day to lift some of the weight off my back, and I think it is very helpful. I don’t find that I have too much back pain at this point. I’m getting a bit of agita at night, it typically hits around 2-3am but it’s not horrible.
The good news is, I am eating like a fiend and I love it! Whereas before, I could only ever eat maybe three pancakes in the morning, now I eat at least 5-7, plus a grapefruit or some other type of fruit. I’m really enjoying breakfast this time around - I’ll either have a scrambled egg, toast and fruit; cereal with fruit on top; or on the weekends, pancakes, waffles or eggs, bacon and toast. And I’ll eat everything on my plate (and some of Millie’s). When we went to Outback tonight, I had a filet, baked potato and green beans, and if it wasn’t for my aversion to potato skins and the noise they make in your mouth, I would have completely cleaned my plate. And maybe even licked it clean. And when I was done, I WASN’T FULL at all. I could have had dessert right then and there and ate all of that, too. When we got home, I had an apple, a cupcake, some strawberries and popcorn. And I’m still hungry. I will probably have some rice pudding in a bit, to cap the night. And I already told Jesse I want eggs and bacon tomorrow morning (he makes breakfast on the weekends, he’s really good at it).
I don’t know if they are cravings, but at this point, I am loving fruit, especially strawberries and grapefruit. I don’t think they are really cravings, because I have always loved fruit … it’s just that strawberries are in season right now, as are grapefruit, so they both taste amazing. I’m also eating a lot of blueberries and if I can find clementines, I will eat two or three of those every day. I do think I’m craving milkshakes, because I think about them a LOT. I’ll go out of my way to get a milkshake – I went to Steak N Shake yesterday afternoon, and did you know that between 2-4pm on weekdays, drinks and milkshakes are half-price? I only had to pay $1.62 for my milkshake! That makes me want to go everyday! That makes me want to go right now, as a matter of fact.
So, I had a nice accident about three weeks ago. I was walking up our front walkway, and tripped on a piece of concrete and landed on my hands and knees. No, I didn’t fall on my belly. I ripped up my knees pretty badly, though, which made walking even that much more difficult – not only did I have sciatica, but scabby, stiff knees. I had band-aids on my hands, knees and feet for a week, and I still have a band-aid on one knee, three weeks later. It’s not scabbing over, and it still hurts a bit. I think I also pulled a muscle or ligament in my foot, because that has been hurting since I fell. Not extremely badly, but I went to the dr. just in case and she said it didn’t feel like it was fractured, so we decided to just leave it alone for now and see if it gets better. It only hurts in certain positions, but again, another thing that has been impeding my walking ability.
I tell you, when I say I don’t like being pregnant, I mean it. I mean, how can you argue the issue? It seems like I’ve had every problem in the book:
1. Debilitating Morning Sickness/Nausea
2. Nasal Congestion
3. Sciatic Nerve Pain
4. Ligament Pain in my Groin (not pleasant)
5. Clumsiness resulting in injury
6. Swelling (mild so far)
7. Fatigue
8. Huge belly resulting in trouble moving
etc., etc., etc.
I am just not cut out for a happy pregnancy. But that’s ok, as long as the baby comes out healthy, this will all be over soon enough and then never again.
Ok, this rambling post has gone on long enough, and I really do want some rice pudding now. Happy Groundhog Day!
