Updates!

My sincerest apologies for being SO behind on updating this blog. Between frantically trying to organize our house (nesting, my a$$, more like panic-induced OCD) and being incredibly busy at work, blogging has been off of my agenda. I am still reading all of my favorites, though, and the tone seems to be increasingly positive.

All right. Since writing this all out in long-hand would take forEVER, here's the condensed version of the past few weeks.

-I failed my one hour glucose test and was TERRIFIED that I was going to have to deal with gestational diabetes. I don't mind the healthy eating part; I've been doing that for so long that it comes easily to me. It was the four finger pricks a day that I was scared of. During all my chemo, radiation, everything...the WORST part was having my finger pricked every time. Luckily, I passed my 3 hour test (and completed a sewing project while I chilled in the waiting room. So WHEW!

-At around 27 weeks I started noticing what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions. The lower part of my abdomen would feel all tight and kind of crampy for a little while, then go away. They started coming more frequently so I decided to ask Dr. A. about them at my regularly-scheduled check-up. And then I FORGOT. TO. ASK. The next day they seemed even more frequent (as in several times an hour) so I called the Dr. and was advised to go to Labor & Delivery. I was NOT happy about having to go because I was pretty sure they were Braxton-Hicks, but I went just to be safe. I got hooked up to the monitors on my belly (which baby HATED - he immediately started kicking like crazy) and his heartbeat was good. The nurse checked my cervix. Have I mentioned that having your cervix checked with a retroverted uterus SUCKS BIG HAIRY BALLS? Because it does. It hurt SO bad and I was trying really hard not to cry out. Cervix was good, but uterus was diagnosed as "irritable" (which is the same thing as BH). Luckily the contractions had decreased the next day and have been quiet ever since.

-I finally finished my baby registry. My showers came together super fast and I literally had one day to register in order to give my guests at least two weeks to shop. Mr. M. couldn't go so I took one of my best friends with me. That turned out to be a mistake. She is not a very patient person and was either rushing me to make a decision or distracting my by saying "Oh, I've heard these are good" while I was looking at something totally different. We were at BRU, it was a Saturday and super crowded and the store was HOT. The second hour went better than the first and we got most things done (and had fun despite a kerfuffle over a diaper bag that I wanted that was one the clearance rack but they could NOT find in their system despite trying for 20 minutes), but after I got home I immediately went online and did some re-arranging. Then this past week I went back by myself to finish and it was WONDERFUL. I will not be stalking my registry like so many of the women over at T.he B.ump do, because I think it kind of ruins the surprise for the giver and for me. I accidentally saw one thing purchased when I made an adjustment this week, but oh well.

-After MUCH nagging and finally an all-out fight where I decided I was too tired to care about Mr. M.'s sensitive ego (seriously, the man is like a GIRL when you criticize him), he finally got Baby's room painted this weekend! I guess when you get in a fight with your wife and she doesn't come home after work (I got dinner and went to a bookstore because I didn't want to go home and deal with his laziness) it makes an impression. By the time I did get home, he had the room totally cleared out and taped off. He painted most of the room the next day while I was at work and I helped with the trim and edging when I got home. I love that man dearly, but I swear he is SO lazy and SUCH a procrastinator. Plus he is super finicky so whenever he does something it has to be done just right and SOOOOO slowly. Anyway. The room is painted (it's a Behr color called Gray Morning if you're curious), the tape is removed and it looks good! I am determined that no more junk will go in there - it's where we've been storing overflow from the house clean-up. From now on, only baby stuff in the baby's room! We are waiting on our furniture and still have to pick out a glider, but it finally feels like things are coming together.

-We have our 30-week growth scan ultrasound coming up this Wednesday. I am really excited to get to see Baby but of course also very nervous that everything goes well. We will be 30 weeks on Wednesday and HOLY COW that means Baby is coming SOON!

-I have a really fun weekend coming up. Friday is our five year wedding anniversary and we are celebrating all weekend! Thursday night we're going to go see B.en F.olds play with the OKC Philharmonic (eeek so excited about that) then staying overnight in downtown OKC. Friday we're going to go furniture shopping (glider for nursery and recliners for living room), have lunch and then have a nice dinner out. Sunday is my first baby shower and I am really excited! I honestly couldn't care less about the gifts, but I do love to see all my favorite people together in one place. I'm thinking of booking a massage for that morning and just having a lovely, relaxing day.

That's all I can think of for now. I promise to be a more constant presence on here, and maybe I'll even post some bump pictures if I get brave enough. Thanks so much for hanging in there with me!

One sad note: I would like to send my sincerest condolences to Miss Conception (whose blog I found after I had already named mine, so apologies for being a copycat) on the loss of her sweet twins. I cannot imagine what she is going through but she gives every appearance of being a resilient, strong person and I pray she finds her way to healing.

Ruthless Efficiency

*cracks knuckles*

This pregnancy thing is a total mind trip. Especially with my early complications, it was a mantra of "just make it one more day, just one more day" and then "make it to the second trimester, make it there" and then "make it to 24 weeks, you're so close."

And then you get to 24 weeks and realize that holy SHIT, you're going to have a BABY in 10-16 weeks and you have way too much crap to DO!

Mr. M. and I finally made one big, important purchase this weekend - the crib! We wound up going with this crib and we both think it's perfect. It was a little back-ordered but they will have more in stock starting October 21 so hopefully it will get here in plenty of time.

We also ordered a dresser similar to this one. It was complicated - we saw this dresser but Mr. M. wasn't crazy about it. We went to the next store and they had a slightly different dresser from the same collection, but they don't make it anymore. Our wonderful sales rep called the warehouse and they still had some in stock, so we got one! It looks pretty much the same except it has a cabinet on the right side and doesn't look quite so formal. Both pieces are in the "cognac" finish.

Mucking out the spare room is happening in a slow and rather unsteady way. We still have a couple of huge old televisions we want to donate to a church or other charitable organization that could use them. Then there's my gigantic pile of scrapbooking stuff occupying the corner, and a closet full of wrapping paper and random electronic stuff. And then a tall dresser full of more random electronics, stationary, instruction booklets...

Mr. M. spent yesterday going through the old electronics, which we will donate or recycle. My completed day's chores list was this:

Do LOTS and LOTS of laundry
Do dishes and clean kitchen
Sort through all the crap that came out of my old car
Condense all party supplies and decorations into one smallish box
Organize the two huge cabinets in the kitchen where I store all my kitchen electronics, etc. I was AMAZED at how much extra room I had once things were organized and not just shoved in there willy-nilly.
Organize my hall closet (moving a lot of servingware and bakeware into the aforementioned large cabinets) and store party supplies, seasonal decorations, candles and candleholders
Organize my drawer of food storage containers, plastic wrap, etc.

Not a bad day's work if I say so myself!

I also made a big pot of homemade turkey chili. I was SO tired and then, of course, I couldn't sleep. I was restless and awake and my mind was racing so finally I got up and went to the couch for a couple of hours. I got back in bed at about 2 and finally managed to catch some sleep.

The new car continues to be pretty awesome and I continue to be terrified of messing it up.

I feel like at 25 weeks I should have some idea about possible baby showers but I know NOTHING. My friends in town mentioned throwing me one early on but I've heard nothing more. A lady in my hometown offered to throw one (the offer was made to my grandmother) but when I asked Grandma if she was still going to she was all, "Oh, I don't know." It's REALLY frustrating to me because it is so tacky to be all, "Hey, are you guys throwing me a shower or WHAT?" but that's kind of how I feel. I dropped a tiny little hint in an email to my BFF today so we'll see what happens. I am really excited about having a baby shower and will be super dissappointed if it doesn't happen. At this point I'm assuming it's going to happen, but afraid it will be in a hurried and last-minute way and the type-A crazy lady in me is NOT okay with that. Oh, well. :) I'll get over it either way.