The One Where I Rant @39 Weeks

So I'm at 39 weeks and 3 days!

39 weeks!

!!!!

We are over the moon anxious and excited to meet this little dude and are waiting as patiently as possible for his arrival.

Which is kind of difficult.

I was kinda hoping that yesterday, the first day of Spring, would be his birthday. Buuuuuut...no.  However I did have my weekly appointment and I was at a 3+, at least 75% effaced (I forgot to ask for the updated number), and his head is at a -2 station!  So, things are definitely moving along!  I'm hoping this is a good sign that I won't go (at least too far) past the due date.

I was so confident that I wouldn't even get to my due date for a while...and as the days pass, I'm just praying I don't go a full week over and have to be induced!  I know there are worse things, but there's something about inducing that I find very scary.  I hadn't ever thought about it that much until now, and I don't want it!  Obviously I don't really get a say in when he shows up so if I have to, then I have to.

On to what I really wanted to get off my chest.

As I've talked with people at church, and with family members over these last months, and random people who feel like sharing their 2 cents I've been overwhelmingly disappointed in people's attitudes regarding pregnancy, birth, and parenting.  In fact, both Remy and I have.  And I have a lot of thoughts about it.  So I apologize if this is all over the place.

First off, here are some things I know and/or believe to be true about pregnancy, children, and parenting.

-I know our lives will be different when he gets here.
-I know we'll be tired.
-I know parenting will be hard at times.
-I believe it's worth it, otherwise why would people keep having kids?
-I believe both nature and nurture play a role in who children become.
-I know we won't be perfect parents and that we will make mistakes.
-I know that while all kids go through similar "stages" of growing up (saying NO, throwing tantrums, waking up in the night), every kid is different.  You cannot assume they are all the same.
-I know my child will not be perfect and that I can't control everything he says and does, but I can do my best to teach him good qualities I hope he will develop.
And the biggest one:
-I know that I don't fully understand HOW things will change, HOW tired we might be, and HOW hard things can get, etc. until this little baby shows up and we experience it first hand.

With that said, here are some things I know that you DON'T know about my child/experience, but you claim to:
-You don't know that my experience is going to be the same as yours.
-You don't know the personality of my child -and neither do I, so quit assuming you do.
-You don't know that my kid will be crazy and wild ALL THE TIME just because yours is/was or you think that's how every kid HAS to be.
-You don't know how easy or hard my pregnancy has been, so please leave your bad attitude to yourself.
-You don't know my past experience with kids.  Not claiming to be an expert, but you don't know me.
-You don't know how easy/hard it was for us to have this baby, so maybe there's a reason I'm keeping a positive attitude.
And again:
-You don't know my child yet, no one does.  So please stop imposing all your assumptions on him.  Let's just all wait and see what we get when he actually gets here.

Now I get drama can be fun.  I do.  I get that it's fun to talk about how horrible things can get.  And how hard they are.  And how fun it is to "know" something that someone else doesn't.

Get it.

It's like the theory that if you have a good experience somewhere, you tell one or two people.  If you have a BAD experience somewhere, you tell 10 or more people.

Got it.

But folks, do you not remember when you were having your first baby?  Were you not excited?  I'm not denying it won't be hard.  And I'm not denying the fact that I don't understand what that even really means until I experience it myself.  But holy hell folks, do none of you like being a parent?  Was none of your experience caring for your infant even remotely fun or fulfilling or brought you any sort of joy?  Or do you just find it entertaining to just be that negative? The day Remy expressed how frustrated he was about the negativity (before I had even said anything), I was glad to know it wasn't just my hormones who had their feelings hurt.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure none of these people hate being parents and probably do love their kids more than anything. But why the focus on everything that is bad? 

I figured most people would say things like "it is the hardest/most exhausting/scariest thing I've ever done, but.....it was so worth it/it's the best thing that's ever happened/I love it/it's so fulfilling/I've never been happier..."pick one. 

But no. 

I sat at one of my baby showers literally stunned at the attitude of everyone there.  -Especially considering WHO was there.  I went home and cried actually.  Maybe I'm just 100% clueless, but I'm pretty confident it's not THAT horrible ALL the time. 

Two of my biggest issues are:

One: if you have an experience that I could learn something from, please share -in a constructive way.  I still may not agree, or I may not even find myself in that situation at all, but you can give me all your "advice" and relay it in a way that acknowledges that every situation is different and what worked for you may not work for me.  -Rather than assuming your experience is the only one I should expect for myself.

Two: our child is our child and was meant for us.  You don't know his personality and you don't know our parenting philosophies and techniques.  And heck, we don't really either for that matter until we get a chance to try it out.   So please don't tell me that he's going to be some wild, crazy person because we were both (relatively) easy as a kids so that means I have to have a lunatic kid.  Or because other kids' personalities "belong" or "should have been given" to someone else in your family because they somehow "deserve" a certain type of kid.  I'm sorry that due to your complete lack of self awareness your kid is behaving in a way you don't want them to and you don't see the connection.

Yikes.  That's pretty much it.  I could go on, but I'll leave it here.  Maybe it's my personality, or maybe I'm being overly sensitive, or maybe once I'm a member of this "mom club" I'll get it.  But I hope that I won't feel like these people.  That I'll be a part of the apparent minority that loves being a parent.

Bud-weis-er

Nothing can make you feel more silly than crying during a Budweiser commercial.

Except for finding out thousands of other people did too.

Thank you for making me feel better about myself.

30 Weeks at 33 Weeks

So I really meant to post this when I actually took it, but one of the computers I was using was not working with blogger very well and I really couldn't post a pic.

I haven't been very good at taking belly pics.  I thought I was going to, but I just didn't.  In some ways I'm sad, and in others not.  I kind of wish I had been at least starting around 20 weeks.  Because somewhere between weeks 24-26 I really popped out and it would have been cool to see that change.  Oh well!

But here in all its fuzzy, cell phone glory, is week 30, documented for all to see.  

I'll have to take one tomorrow.  I hit 33 weeks today!  And I feel like I can notice a difference even from last week. 

Still feeling pretty dang good.  I'm definitely getting tired more quickly now.  It doesn't take nearly as much to make me tired.  Luckily overall I'm still sleeping well.  Some nights are better than others, but really it's been great.

We've had someone come in and work on some projects around the house, and having almost everything we own in the kitchen and middle of the living room is exhausting all on it's own.  It makes everything that much harder when you feel like you have to go through a maze to get anywhere.  There was one day there for a little while where literally the only place to sit without having to move stuff or climb over anything was the toilet.

But, I'm not complaining because these projects are making me so happy!  Seriously, they are things we've both been wanting to do for a long time.  We decided that we needed to get them done in order to make us want to live here longer which is probably for the best.  Plus, it's going to be great for resale or at least to get some nice renters in here someday!  I can't wait to post the whole thing!

When I came home today I saw they had finished the trim work in the nursery and I got a little teary-eyed I'm not going to lie.  It's going to look AMAZING!  We're getting the crib on Wednesday and we'll set it up on Saturday after the carpets get cleaned!  Can't wait!

So What if Christmas is Over

Better late than never, right?

We had a good Christmas this year.  Though I won't lie, I'm pretty excited to have a little one next year.  Yeah he'll still be little and not know what's going on, but I'm still looking forward to it.

We decided to do our Christmas for each other on Christmas Eve morning since we'd be busy that night and all day on Christmas.  I mean, you have to open presents in pajamas.  It's just sort of a Christmas rule.

The loot!

 Okay so we did stockings first of course, and this has got to be my favorite series of pics.  He was seriously was like a little kid who got the best gift ever.

It was a one pound package of Reese's.   Seriously, it might as well have been a winning lottery ticket!

This is how our cat spent the day...sitting on the heater vent.

So this was the "big one."  He was pretty happy about this one too.  Which always makes me feel good.  :)  He had seen it at the Fossil store a long time ago and mentioned that he wanted it.  So I found it online and I kept wavering on whether or not I wanted to get it for him.  I'm glad I just went for it!

 My big gift that I was SOOOOO excited about was window tinting for my car!  I've been wanting that ever since we got the thing and I can't wait to finally get it done.  We keep waiting for it to be sunny, since tinting apparently does better when it can be in the sun for the first week or so.  However, we haven't had such luck.

 Christmas Eve night we went over to Remy's parent's house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.  Then after we decided that we'd participate one last time in the Dyreng kids' tradition of sleeping over at my sister's house and then going to our parent's in the morning. 

I'm always amazed at how well we are able to balance both families (and extended families) on Christmas.  Luckily our traditions don't overlap for the most part, which is always nice.  Though next year I imagine will be a little bit more tricky.

Trying out my new camera from my parents.

Dyreng family

Our little niece Alissa was more than willing to help you open your presents.  At first she would ask you if she could help you open it, then eventually she just started helping you regardless.  :)

This was my view.  :)  This was about 28 weeks.

 Our 3rd anniversary is just 3 days after Christmas and we had a good time. We started out the day going out to breakfast at the Original Pancake House where we saw Jeff Hornacek and his family sitting just a few tables away.  When we got home we were playing a game that Remy got for Christmas when the doorbell rang and there was a huge bouquet of roses.  Remy had then put one blue rose right in the middle for our little guy.  It was pretty sweet.

 For dinner we had a certificate for Carver's we used.  Man that place is delicious!  Neither of us had ever been there, and if we had more money we'd probably go back more often.  :)  Seriously, it was good.  We had a lamb chop appetizer, and each chop was served on it's own little bed of mashed potatoes and topped with a pico de gallo.  Oh man was that good.  Both of us loved our dinners and dessert was also amazing.  We seriously would go back!

I had been wanting to go see Zoo Lights for years, but I never think about it at the right time.  Remy was so sweet and remembered for me. :)  So we bundled up and went and walked around.  There weren't many animals to see, but I love Christmas lights so I enjoyed myself.  And we were so lucky because it was really busy and we literally go the best parking spot in the whole lot!  :)

Love you Remy!  Thanks for such a fun day!

Glucose, Schmlucose

So the day after Christmas I had my glucose test. 

Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  My biggest thing is that when it comes to beverages, I'm a sipper.  So 10 oz. in 5 minutes is hard for me.  -Take into consideration the sugar factor and whoa.  That's hard.  But I did it and it was fine. 

While I was waiting my hour before the blood draw I had my monthly appointment.  The doctor was asking me if my baby was being a good kicker.  And honestly, no, not really.  I mean, yeah, he'd have days where I'd feel him throughout the day.  But then he'd go a good week and I'd barely feel anything at all.  She asked if he was kicking 10 times in 2 hours...um, no.  I hadn't been officially counting, but like I said I could go a whole day or more and barely feel a kick in the morning and maybe a little nudge in the evening.  But definitely not 10 times, even in 2 hours. -At least not on his lazy days.  Other days, yeah for sure.

So she had me go over to Maternal Fetal Medicine to do a non stress test just to check.  But first I had to go get my blood drawn so she told me to go check in at MFM and then do the blood draw.  And wouldn't you know it, as I'm walking from MFM to the lab (which is just down the hall from each other), the little twerp starts kicking.  And would NOT stop. 

He must have known he was in trouble. 

So we get in there after the blood draw and the nurse is asking me all sorts of questions and hooks up the monitors and immediately you can  hear him moving.  ....and he continued moving for the whole 20 minutes.  Seriously!  I mean, I was super glad.  I didn't want anything to be wrong, but really kid?  You're embarrassing me.  :)  I'm pretty sure the nurse thought I was a crazy person.  But I'm telling you!  Even that day I had barely felt a thing!

Oh well, good news: baby is great.

Bad news:  I had to go back for the 3 hour glucose test.

I was a little confused though because the nurse called and said it looked good, but they wanted me to do the other test...whatever it's fine.

So last week I charged up my Kindle Fire and headed on over.  I was a lot better at drinking the drink, since I'd had practice before.  But they wouldn't even let me walk around since activity can impact the results.  However, they were super nice and kept me loaded on ice to trick my brain so I wouldn't starve.  And it actually worked.

Yeah by the end I was definitely hungry, but it was not unbearable like I expected it to be.  So I went to Costa Vida and I still felt fine, just normal hungry.  But as I started eating I started getting this weird combo of light headed and dizzy, but without actually having a light head or the spinning...I know it sounds weird, but just go with me here. And I started feeling that overwhelming hunger where I can't stuff my face fast enough.  It was really strange.  For a minute there I starting worrying about what would happen if I just passed out since I was there by myself.  So I texted Remy to tell him I was feeling weird so that at least he would know in case someone had to call him.  (I know I'm weird). 

I made it through lunch and once my food had time to digest a little I was fine.  Though I couldn't believe that I ate a WHOLE burrito and even stopped for a frosty before I got back to the office and I didn't even feel stuffed.  Lately I can't eat that much of ANYTHING in one sitting.  So I must have been hungry.

Luckily the results from the test came back fine and I don't have gestational diabetes!

Oh and the little guy is definitely getting bigger.  He finds more to kick now a days than just my belly.  And some of it is uncomfortable!
It's getting harder to sleep comfortably.  Most nights are okay, but it doesn't take much to be uncomfortable.  Rolling over is harder too, that's for sure.
Sitting on the floor is a no-no.  Within a minute or two my back gets a million knots that are really painful.
I've been having braxton-hicks contractions.  It seems like when I'm more active I feel them more...so I don't if that's really what they are, but I think so...

And again, I'm trying to post my pic, but it just isn't working.   I'll keep at it!