Gadzooks! When did I get old?

Tomorrow is my birthday. I’m not sure why, but for some reason this year I feel so much older. 31 seems way worse than 30. When I was 30 it was like I was basically still 29 b/c it’s so close but now, well, 29 isn’t close anymore and I’m definitely in my 30’s. I’ll blame these feelings on my pregnancy hormones and my fat pregnant face (and arms and thighs and cankles and… well everything else).

Tonight Wade is motorcycle racing in Shakopee and hopefully can win some moolah. Last weekend he took a spill at his flat track race and ended up breaking his big toe (but he still won his main event! Badass!). The doctor gave him this silly looking foot brace thing that he has wore a total of 30 minutes while he weed whipped the yard. He is walking on the outside of his foot instead b/c he said the brace is too big and looks like a slipper. Probably not the best way for it to heal but I do agree that the thing looks ridiculous. The things we sacrifice for fashion; in this case his big toe. No biggie. It's just a toe. He's got 9 more.

My parents, Kara and Todd are coming up tomorrow afternoon to celebrate our b-day. The fun thing about having a twin is that you always get to celebrate together! Some people may hate sharing their b-day with someone else, but I don’t see the big deal about it. You still get to celebrate and have the day be all about you but at the same time you get to celebrate DOUBLE! Double the fun!

We’ll be picking up Kara’s beautiful wedding dress tomorrow afternoon, watching Wade race in Elko tomorrow night and then Sunday we are hitting Target Field for our 1st Twins game at the new stadium. I’ve heard wonderful things about it so hopefully the weather is nice like they are predicting. A weekend full of fun! The only way it could be better is if I could drink. Sobriety is overrated.

Yesterday marked the single digit countdown in my weeks left of pregnancy. That’s right, there are only 9 weeks separating me from my estimated due date. Hopefully I won’t go past my due date but it is always a possibility. I’m hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that if anything I go a tad early. I’m ready to be done with this pregnancy shit (although I’m not sure I’m ready to be a mother, but who ever is?). It’s not that my pregnancy has been bad b/c in reality it’s been smooth sailing, but I’m not one of those women who just LOVE to be pregnant.

“Oh, look at me with my big, round, cute belly! Aren’t I a beautiful pregnant woman? I am woman, hear me roar! I can make humans! I’m making a miracle! Oh, look at the baby kick my belly! Isn’t it glorious?!?!?!”

Um. No. That is not me. Don’t get me wrong. I am blessed and grateful that Wade and I are able to have Nugget. But I won’t be sad when I’m no longer pregnant. I’ll be chugging down a Blue Moon or a Crispin or a bottle of wine or margaritas or... well, name your poison. I'll be drinking it. :)

The only cool thing about being knocked up is getting to feel her kicks, but even then sometimes they are bothersome. Also, I’m starting to get to the big uncomfortable stage and with the temps heating up, my feet and cankles don’t like the water retention swelling that is going on. My toes look like little summer sausages but not nearly as appetizing. So I’m hoping for a July 19th birthday. That would be 10 days earlier than my due date and my grandma’s birthday. What a way to be able to celebrate her memory! I’m hopeful that if I do end up having to have a c-section then maybe I can choose that date. If I don’t need a c-section then that date is highly unlikely. But one can hope!

What are you all up to on this glorious long Memorial Day weekend? Hope you all have fun plans!

Catch ya on the flip side!

(Not) Wordless Wednesday

It's been awhile since I've done a wordless Wednesday post. I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things around here. We'll see how that goes since I have mega baby brain these days. Anyway, Kobe either totally ruined or totally made this photo depending on how you want to look at it. Hunter is just the cutest 6 year old ever and super stoked for his first ever soccer game! I guess Kobe was so excited for him that he just couldn't contain himself any longer... :)

(Thanks for the photo Mitch & Beth. It gave me many good laughs!)

Happy Hump Day!

Bathroom Remodel Gone Awry!

What did I say? None of our home improvement projects are ever as easy as they should be. Part of this is b/c of the age of our home. It was built in 1950 and things back then were made differently thus rendering projects more difficult due to needing to find hard to get parts or the house settling and causing aches and pains. The other part of the difficulty is due to our home's previous owners. To say that they didn't upkeep the place as well as they should have is an understatement. Wade and I have put so much sweat into this house b/c of things they just let slide.


The shower surround was no exception. What should have happened is Wade should have been able to tear out the old walls, replace some of the plumbing for the new faucet, glue up the new walls and put on the new faucet. Instead Wade tore off the old walls to find deeply rotted drywall underneath them due to the previous owners not waterproofing the window (which I've blogged about before). Idiots.

So Wade had to make another run to Home Depot (we should buy stock in Home Depot) for some waterproof drywall and a few other items. He tore out the old moldy shit and cut and screwed up the new stuff. Next step was to put the new faucet piping in. Wade promptly found that since the old faucet was so old it wouldn't fit the new faucet and had to go back to Home Depot for some plumbing supplies. We are lucky he is so handy and can cut and solder piping! Unfortunately one of the old pipes was being stubborn and broke part way up the wall so Wade had to cut an even larger hole in the wall. Fun shit.

He finally got it all soldered together and ready for the new faucet. Yay!

By the time this ordeal was over with it was getting late at night and he was finally ready to start gluing up the new walls. But, uh oh. He doesn't have enough adhesive. I made a final run to Menards for some more glue to save him some time. (That was the extent of my help w/ this project; besides helping to pick out the surrounds. I know. I'm so helpful.)

It was late Saturday night by the time he got all the walls up and ready to be caulked. Keep in mind we have visitors arriving Sunday afternoon. We were pushing it! :) Luckily he woke up early Sunday to finish up putting the new faucet on and caulking around the walls.

The finished product looks 100% better. I love it. Wade is the best handyman ever! Now all that needs to be done is to touch up the paint around the walls. That will be my job. I will then feel so uber useful. Aw who am I kidding? I don't care. I'm freaking making another human being. I'm SUPER useful. Screw it! :)

Luvs~

Hats Off to the Grad!

Wade, the GRADUATE! Although he was technically a graduate in December when he finished up his MBA, the grad ceremony wasn't until yesterday. After a long 2 hour ceremony we finally got to celebrate Wade's big achievement. He now has his Master's degree from Carlson School of Management! What a smartie I married! Good looking and intelligent? I think it's safe to say I scored big time w/ this one! :)

It was a beautiful day out and we went to lunch after the ceremony to Tugg's and sat out on their patio. The weather could not have been better. I actually started to get a little sun burnt after sitting in the bright sun for 30 minutes! Yikes! Guess that is what happens when you are pale ass white and finally see the sun after 7 months! :)

It was a great long weekend and as always good to see the family and hard to say goodbye. Luckily we'll get to see them all again soon w/ this baby bound to make an appearance shortly. (Only 10 more weeks until my due date, holy shit!)

Later dudes~

Busy Beaver

Wow. This week has flown by. I’m not even sure what all I did but it’s Friday and the sun is out (halleluiah!) so that makes me happy. Wade and I have decided to tear up the bathroom with a little home improvement project. I say “little” but what I mean is tear out the ugly sky blue tile flooring and replace w/ new porcelain tiles and tear out the nasty, moldy wall surrounds and leaky faucet in the shower and replace w/ new bright white shiny walls and new faucet. Once that is done we are going to get the tub refinished. Supposedly this is comparable in price to getting a whole new tub installed but a lot easier.

Unfortunately we have family coming this weekend so they may have to see some of this going on. (Don’t read that the wrong way; I’m glad to be having company, I’m sorry for them to have to deal w/ this while they are visiting us.) We are working on a limited time frame w/ Nugget coming in 11 weeks or less. (Holy shit!) We’ve got a lot that needs to get done in that time and not a lot of free weekends to do it. So tonight Wade will hopefully get the old wall surrounds tore out and be ready to start installing the new walls tomorrow. Assuming all goes well (which w/ our old house NOTHING ever goes as easily as it should) we could technically have the shower done before our company even gets here since they aren’t arriving until Sunday. Wouldn’t that be grand? We’ll see how that goes. I will post before and after pics for those interested in home improvement gone awry. :)

Wade’s graduation ceremony is Monday morning which is why we are expecting family here. My dad, Wade’s mom, step-dad, sister, grandma and grandma’s boy toy are all coming. It will be nice to get to see them all again and celebrate Wade’s huge accomplishment. I am so proud of him!

A quick pregnancy update: at my last OB appointment my doctor recommended doing kick counts once a day. I’m supposed to count the number of kicks I get in one hour and if it is 10 or above we are good to go. If I don’t get 10 kicks in an hour then I should contact the doctor and they can run some tests to make sure nothing is wrong w/ Nugget. I started doing these on Tuesday. I kind of forgot to do them Fri-Mon… Oops. Anyway, Tuesday I got to 10 kicks in like 10 minutes so I stopped b/c I was done. Easy peasy. Wednesday I decide that I’m still going to continue counting for the entire hour just to see how many times Nugget blasts me w/ her ninja moves. I counted 59. And I know I missed some b/c I was at work and got distracted. 59! How can some people have a hard time getting 10 an hour and I get basically 1 each minute? Thursday was a bit less but still a ton with 37 kicks in an hour. And today Nugget assaulted me with 45 kicks. She’s a busy little beaver in there doing who the hell knows what.

Needless to say I’m a little scared of what is coming out of me. She is one wiggly mother fucker for sure. Some of her kicks and rolls are so strong they take my breath away. I think we’re going to have our hands full.

Also I've noticed I now have pregnancy fat face. This was not a welcome discovery. In fact it downright blows ass chunks. But at least it's the freakin weekend.

Happy Friday Asshats!

xoxo~

Nugget's 28 week photo shoot

Here is our little Nugget in all her glory posing during her 28 week photo shoot. What do you think? Does she look like me? Haha! I may be biased (actually I KNOW I'm biased) but I think she is adorable already.

The ultrasound went great and everything looks normal with Nugget. She is measuring approximately 2 pounds 7 ounces and is in the 45th percentile for size. Everything is average! Which in pregnancy I think is a good thing! :) However my placenta has only moved 2 cm away from the cervix so we have to go back in for another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see if it has moved any further.

Here she is yawning. You can see her tongue. I think it looks like Edvard Munch's "The Scream".

What do you think? Do you see the likeness? :)

I also took the liberty to show you exactly what you are looking at just in case you are not well trained in looking at these ultrasound pictures (which I know most people aren't and think they just look like blobs). :) So below you will see exactly what you are looking at. Isn't she lovely?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'm heading down south today after work while Wade is staying home and hopefully cleaning our house. I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. :)

Happy Friday!

28 week update

I thought I'd do another one of the updates since I haven't done one since 21 weeks. We have an ultrasound today at 1:30 to check on my placenta previa. I am so excited to see how much she has grown and changed since our last one at 19 weeks! I'll be sure to post a pic or 2 once I get them uploaded.



How Far Along: 28 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 22 pounds (eegads!)

Stretch Marks: None. Thank the baby Jeebus. I hope it stays this way!

Sleep: Also none. Well, not a lot at least. I toss and turn all night. It is impossible to get comfortable and just when I do little Nugget seems to wake up and kick the shit out of me. Not nice Nugget. You are in time out!

Best Moment This Week: Husband of the year got me a mani/pedi and massage for Mother’s Day! My 2 neighbor girlfriends got the same thing from their hubbys (they are so sneaky) and so we all 3 get to go together for some girl time! Could they be any sweeter? I don’t think so!

Movement: A ton! She is so strong too! I see pokes out of my belly all the time now and I wish I knew if it was her foot or elbow or knee or what! And I felt her having hiccups for the first time on Monday! She’s an active little booger and is tossing, turning and kicking constantly!

Food cravings: Um, anything and everything? Yeah. Just give me food. Although sometimes absolutely nothing sounds good even though I'm famished. Go figure right?

Labor Signs: None! Yay!

Belly Button in or out? I guess it’s safe to say it is officially out since the only time it is still flat across is first thing in the morning before I eat. After that it is out constantly and when I laugh it pokes out about an inch further I swear. I think it is a whole nother belly in it’s own right it’s so big!


What I miss: Same answer as last time. My wine, beer, margaritas, martinis, etc. But I also miss my chin, ankles and waist. :)


What I am looking forward to: Besides our ultrasound today at 1:30, heading to Des Moines this weekend to participate in the MS Walk. Thank you so much to all who have contributed! I still haven’t reached my goal of $800 so if you want to donate there is still time! Click here! I’m hoping I can make it the 2+ miles no problem and with minimal potty breaks. I think I can!


Weekly Wisdom: Speaking of potty breaks, when you have to pee, go. Don’t hold it. It can get down right painful and also cause the fear of God that you may piss yourself in public. Also, it’s amazing what a little elevation can do to lessen cankle swelling. Ugh.


Milestones: I’m in the home stretch – the 3rd Trimester! Little Nugget can now open her eyes and she weighs approximately 2 ½ pounds and is nearly 16 inches long! Only 12 more weeks... (There is some sarcasm in that last part). :)

xoxo~

Until Next Time...

Well folks, it’s been a long, tough week. I’ve been MIA and it wasn’t for a pleasant reason. Friday, April 23rd I got an email from my dad saying that Paps was not doing well and wasn’t sure if he would make it through the night and that they were headed to see him. It blind sided me. I knew Paps had been having some issues but I had no idea that he was so sick. I left work, packed up some stuff and Wade and I headed down to Beatrice, NE.

I thank God that we made it there in time to get to see Paps before he passed. He was not able to communicate at that point but he opened his eyes a few times and I think he knew we were there. We had no idea how long he would be alive in the state he was in. As one of our doctor friends said “it could be a day, it could be a week”. So we left Saturday afternoon and headed to Des Moines. Saturday night at 11:15 pm we got a call that Paps had passed. Brutal. Why didn’t we stay just a bit longer? Was he alone? Did he know we had been there? Why hadn’t I called him last week like I’d planned? Why couldn't he have made it just 3 more months to meet his great-granddaughter? Some questions we will never have the answers to but you have to just push them aside and tell yourself that Paps knew he was loved. And even though I wasn’t always the best granddaughter (I should have called more often, sent more cards, etc, etc) I think he knew that I loved him. I have to believe that. Otherwise it will eat at me for the rest of my life.

I stayed in Des Moines with Kara and Todd and Wade unfortunately had to travel back home to be on a flight to New Jersey on Monday. Paps’ funeral was Wednesday and it was a very nice, small service. Then we traveled to Galesburg on Friday where I met back up with Wade.

So we finally got home after nearly 10 days away last night at 8:30. Possibly the longest week ever. I’m exhausted. I had my first baby shower on May 1st that I want to tell you all about but it will have to wait.

Little Nugget has another guardian angel watching over her now. I miss you and love you Paps.