Things People Do

The other day we had a conversation with some people about the internet and kids these days. Well actually, parents these days. So many (all? most?) parents these days have their kids' pictures on Facebook or in other online albums. They post status updates, tweets and blog posts about what their kids are up to. Our kids' lives will be documented like ours never were. Is that good? Bad? What happens when the kids are teenagers and everything from their first poop to their first day of kindergarten to that embarrassing rash they had last week has been documented online for the entire world to see?

I think a blog like mine, where it's really only family members and a few friends reading, is one thing. But, the very popular mommy bloggers out there have a whole other issue. These kids are going to have things to deal with that we can't even comprehend. This makes me think of the therapy story I posted a while ago. Ah, technology.

Anyway, somewhere in this conversation, someone mentioned this commercial:

That's amazing, right? I want to do it. I think I'd give the address out to others too. Sure, it's not that much different than the blog but there are bound to be things that I'd say in a letter that I wouldn't put on the blog. Maybe I can get David to play along.

Another thing I learned about recently is that by sending a birth announcement (though it doesn't appear that it needs to be that formal) to the president, you can get a letter back. Wouldn't that be a wonderful keepsake? Here's a  blog post by someone who got their letter back. Fantastic! I'll be doing that for sure.

Speaking of blogging and technology. I haven't decided about a baby book. I'm definitely not buying a pre-made one. If I make a paper one, it will be a scrapbook that I make myself. I'm considering making the pages, like "Baby's Firsts", here on the blog. It's okay, I still have...almost no time at all!... to make the decision.

The Guilt Story

Doesn't every mom have that story? The one that she uses to make her kid feel guilty for doing whatever terrible thing he has done. Or the one that is a gentler way of telling her kid to "suck it up and be a man!" I think it typically goes along with the phrase "I brought you into this world and I will not hesitate to take you out of it." It's always something like,

"When I was 10 months pregnant with you, I had debilitating morning sickness but I was still working three jobs. I didn't have a car so I was walking, uphill both ways, 4 miles to and from my jobs each day. I went into labor while cleaning porta potties at a construction site and had to deliver you right then and there! I had to ask the construction workers who whistled at me every day to help with your delivery. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have random construction workers all up in your vag like that?! THAT'S how much you've embarrassed me with this stunt you've pulled!"

Or is that just on TV? Well, I definitely know that moms like to tell these stories to pregnant women. I've heard far too many of them (unsolicited) in the past 9 months.

My story isn't quite as dramatic. Yet, I feel like I should detail last week. It was a doosey.

I went to the doctor on Monday. My blood pressure was through the roof. Like, she was about to send me to the hospital kind of through the roof. By the time I sat there and heard about all the signs of pre-eclampsia, talked about all the tests she was about to run on me, did the normal measuring and listening to the heartbeat, it was back down to something less frightening. Personally, I think it was a fluke and they should pay better attention to the stethoscope instead of trying to talk to me while taking my blood pressure. BUT, I'm not a nurse or doctor, so what do I know? Don't get me wrong, it had been high and continues to be slightly elevated, but nothing like what they measured that time.

So, I had a non-stress test, got 5 vials of blood drawn (which the results called a HELLP profile) and was given a jug to collect my pee in for 24 hours (8am Tuesday through 8am Wednesday). Super exciting.

Oh yeah, and she told me I needed to quit working. For weeks, I'd been saying "All I want is to make it to the 15th." I had one really important thing to get finished at work by the 15th. There was just one thing that I needed to take care of myself. After that, it was a "whatever happens, happens" situation. I had joked many times about my poor planning on that front but didn't actually think it would matter. Monday was the 11th, by the way.

If the point of not working was to lessen my stress, pulling me out of work just 4 days before my deadline was not the way to do it. We compromised on teleworking.

That was all on Monday morning. Little did any of us know that the storm of the century was going to roll through Dayton on Monday night. Our power went out at 9:00pm and didn't come back on until 8:00pm on Thursday.

Needless to say, my low stress week of teleworking was not so low stress. It was quite miserable, actually. After the storm, temps were in the 90s all week. Humidities were also around 90%. I peed in my jug in the dark. I actually went into work a lot last week because being there in the air conditioning was far less stressful than sitting in my scorching hot house. The only bright spot is that we were able to buy a generator to run the fridge and a couple fans. We also used it to power the cable box and TV in the bedroom, if that tells you anything about our priorities. At least we didn't have to completely restock our fridge on top of everything else. And, we didn't miss America's Got Talent. Ha!

Additionally, all my tests came back normal by my appointment on Thursday morning and my BP was back down to normal.

So, while I was pretty miserable, the story isn't that great and it doesn't come to an exciting conclusion...which is a very good thing, in this case. The story I'll tell Evan one day goes something like this,

"When I was 8.5 months pregnant with you, I was housebound per doctors orders. We got a hurricane-- yes, a hurricane in Ohio!-- that knocked the power out for weeks. After the hurricane came the hottest heat wave ever recorded in all of Ohio's history. It was 110 degrees in our house and the air was so thick you could practically swim in it. But, I kept my chin up for the sake of the delicate baby boy (that was you, Evan!) growing in my womb. Did I mention I was 10 months pregnant? And housebound with no air conditioning? For weeks!? Come back and tell me it's too hot to go outside when you've been 12 months pregnant and stuck in a house without air conditioning during the hottest heat wave ever recorded in the history of time. Then we'll talk. Now, go outside and play!"

God, I'm going to be such a good mom.

Today?

Way back when we found out my due date of July 30, I told David that if I had him early, I wanted it to be on the 17th. Today.

July 17, 1997 was our first date. David showed up late but with flowers. He made up some cockamamy excuse for his tardiness but the real story had something to do with ex-girlfriend drama. Heh...I guess that one worked out in my favor in the end. We went to a movie, took "the long way" home and kissed when he dropped me off. We never would've guessed that I'd be this close to popping out his kid 14 years later. It's been a good 14 years.

He's autocrossing today. When he left this morning, he encouraged me not to go into labor while he's gone because he's in Kentucky. I guess I'll stay away from the spicy foods and jumping jacks until he gets back. (Grandmas, don't pack your bags yet. Evan's definitely going to be a no-show today.)

Speaking of due dates. We've made our guesses. He originally said the 23rd but revised it to the 27th. I don't think he's allowed to revise, but whatever. I say August 2. I feel better about expecting to go past due. That way, if I do, I can at least console myself by knowing that I predicted it. And if I go past the 2nd...well, that's when I'll start crying.

For your viewing pleasure, here's our attempt at something artsy fartsy:

This one is like the ol' older sibling kissing mommy's belly photo:

There may or may not have been some peanut butter required to get that shot...

Something Interesting

How to Land Your Kid in Therapy

This is a very interesting (and long) article. I'm a sucker for these kinds of articles. It makes me want to go back to school for a degree in psychology and spend my days doing research on this kind of stuff. However, I'm not sure there's a market for a marine biologist-computer engineer-psychologist. Just guessing.

This is something David and I worry about. We didn't grow up being handed things. We are, however, in the very fortunate position to be able to give our kid(s) just about anything they could want, whether that be things, opportunities, or whatever. We worry about finding the right balance.

When I hear about some people's kids, I just cringe. For example, a kid who's failing out of college because of (underage) drinking and partying, getting arrested for altercations at bars, doesn't have a job... and guess what. Mommy and Daddy are still paying tuition and all his bills. That makes me shake my head and say, "kids these days..." Am I really that old?

I hope David and I can find a good balance and only minimally screw Evan up while turning him into a productive member of society.

7.5 Months

Please never mind that look on my face. Clearly, the photographer was getting on my nerves.

We've been way worse at taking regular pictures than I guessed we'd be. Hopefully we're better about taking kid pictures. At least he'll be a much cuter subject.



34 Weeks

This is the Box that David Built...

This is the box that David built.

 

This is the stuff

That goes in the box that David built.

 

This is the cat

That loses his fur all over the stuff

That goes in the box that David built.

This is the dog

That chases the cat

That loses his fur all over the stuff

That goes in the box that David built.

  

Aaaaand, that's as much nursery rhyming and photographing as I can do.

So, David built a box. I take credit for the idea. Well, actually, I'll give credit to HGTV for most of the idea but I decided to use their window seating and storage idea for a toy box. David took my idea and implemented it while I was in WV for the first baby shower. I painted it, attached the foam and fabric to the top and found the pillows for the back. It was a team effort and this thing is going to last a lifetime. Seriously, Evan is going to be giving his toy box to his kid one day.

It's built out of oak plywood with wainscoting on the front and sides. Its approximate dimensions are 50"W x 24"D x 24"H. It weighs close to 80 pounds. We still need to add some hydrolic lifts because the lid is HEAVY and would crush adult fingers, let alone kid fingers, and some kind of handles for the sides for easier carrying.

I used a three inch thick piece of foam for the top and stapled the fabric to the inside of lid. I'm brainstorming better solutions that will enable me to remove the cover and wash it but it'll be fine for now. I found the pillows at Meijer on clearance. Here's a close up of the fabric. It goes so well with the colors of the room! 

And, if you look back at the "Stuff that goes in the box...," you can see how much stuff really fits in there. It's currently storing the Pack 'n Play and all of it's auxillery pieces, the box containing the Rock n' Play sleeper (not assembled yet), a ginormous gift bag of diapers, all the picture frames still waiting to go on the walls and the boppy pillow. And it's not even completely stuffed full.

It's kind of huge, especially in such a small room, but it makes up for its hugeness with its storage capacity. And, it's awesome.

Baby Showers Numero Dos and Tres

Jodie, my very first friend in Ohio, hosted a shower for me in Dayton. It was at my house (which was super nice that I didn't have to haul my loot home afterwards) but Jodie took care of everything.

I begrudgingly let her play games which all worked out really well. As it turns out, my hatred for baby shower games didn't really matter because I wasn't playing them. It was all just quite entertaining to me! We played "What's in the Bag", where you put 10 baby items in brown paper bags and everyone has to guess what's in each just by feeling it through the outside of the bag. My favorite quote of the day:

"Well, I don't really know what this is... because I didn't go to BLIND SCHOOL!"

We had a diaper raffle where anyone who brought a package of diapers was entered to win a $25 Five Guys gift card. I have so many diapers now but Jodie assures me that even though it seems like a lot, they won't really last me very long. There's way too much poop in my future. They also played bingo while I was opening gifts.  

And my favorite-- everyone filled out advice cards for me. Those were also very entertaining. I got everything from "Be sure to sanitize the grocery cart handle." to "Kids are just like pets and after meeting your pets, I know you'll do a great job." What can I say? We have some very wise friends. I'm slowly but surely putting my scrapbook together of everyone's picture and advice. Those advice cards are so wonderful. It's something I'll treasure forever.

I had everyone take a picture with me to use in the scrapbook. I don't know why we ended up doing it in front of the back door, but whatever. This one is my favorite:

Odd choice of favorite, right? But, guess how many people are in that picture. FIVE! Yep, Amy's pregnant with twins!

As with the first shower, everyone was so generous. David and I have really wonderful friends. I got everything that I needed to finish up my "must haves" list.

I did, however, notice an interesting phenomenon. People don't buy boy clothes like they do girl clothes. I remember Annie getting sooooo many cutsie girlie outfits. I got some adorable onesies but almost no outfits. Odd. I'm not complaining though-- I got lots of hand-me-downs from Cari so I don't really need much for the first year or so!

The third shower wasn't really a shower. I would've called it shower number two and a half, but I don't know how to say that in Spanish. Work (Tracy!) organized a lunch at the Olive Garden for us. About fifteen people showed up and it was a good time. What was particularly nice was that three levels of my bosses showed up and my old boss. David's boss was there too. Lots of other office friends came too. Tracy apparently sent an envelope around the office and collected enough cash to get us the Pack 'n Play! Again with the generosity. I'm blown away.

So, we're set. Really, really set. Just 5.5 more weeks.