Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

So apparently my incessant whining about wanting a donut was heard loud and clear by my co-workers. When I arrived at the office this morning there was a bakery box full of donuts. I have eaten 2.5. I loved every bite.

Can I tell you what I am not loving? Baseball season! I love football, I tolerate baseball. Baseball goes on forever though. I have to be careful because not liking baseball in St. Louis is a sin punishable by removal from the city. Jeff has gotten so in to baseball since we moved here. I like watching the games with him because he gets such pleasure from it, but I am so over the Cardinals. Yes we are still in first place in the central division, but the rest of the division sucks just as bad as we do. No matter what we do our starting pitching blows and the only bright spots in our line up are Duncan (nice job for a rookie) and Pujols. I am just over it. I am ready for football, real football, not this pre season scrubs play half the game football. Only two more weeks. I think it should be mandatory that baseball immediately ends when football starts. That would be perfection!

From the Outside In

Lately I have started to be able to feel the baby move from outside my body. What I mean is I can put my hand on my belly and feel something poke out. On the inside it feels like a bubble breaking but on the outside it feels like a little poke. It is very weird and every time it happens I am unprepared for it.

The other thing that has started happening lately is my cravings have gotten out of control. Right now I want a donut. I have wanted a donut for the last two days. Usually when our computer guy comes, he brings Krispy Kremes and supposedly he was going to come yesterday and he didn't. Then he was supposed to come today and he didn't again. I was livid! Where the heck was I supposed to get a donut? What is the matter with people? I may have to try to con Jeff in to stopping at the grocery store on the way home. At this point I would take a day old donut from the grocery store bakery. Now that is desperate!

Jeff and I are leaving for Las Vegas on Sunday. I am starting to get excited to go but I am also a bit anxious. Mostly I am worried about finding a cute cheap maternity swim suit and then feeling like a big white whale once I get there. There really is no disguising my largesse at this point, not like I was a supermodel to begin with so I don't know what my problem is. (Yes I do realize I just spent the last paragraph talking about donuts and now I am talking about feeling fat, but such is my reality.) We are going to see our friends Dana and Marc in Vegas and we are going to see The Phantom of the Opera and Ka (the new Cirque du Soleil at MGM) so it should be loads of fun. I will keep you posted on the maternity swimwear ordeal. Shopping for a swimsuit stinks to begin with let alone a maternity job. UGH!

Who Buys a Ralph Lauren Onesie?

This weekend was our first shower with Jeff's family in Iowa. It is about four hours each way and we literally drove in on Saturday and drove home on Sunday. It was a short trip but it was a really nice trip. I got to spend some quality time with Elsiemae (Jeff's mom) and Shelly (Jeff's sister). We went to the SUPER TARGET, yes you read that right, a brand new Target that has everything from groceries to a Starbucks. I could have pitched a tent in the camping supplies aisle and never left the store ever again. The baby section is way better than our Target. I had serious Target envy by the time I left. We had a good time looking at baby stuff - we bought Emmy a little Iowa Hawkeyes sleeper so she can cheer for the Hawkeyes with daddy. We also talked a lot about having kids, I was in good company considering Elsie birthed 16 children and Shelly is on her third pregnancy in two years.

I was telling them I am expecting the first six months to be miserable and to feel as though I might not survive. If they are better than that I will be pleasantly surprised but at least this way I will sort of be as prepared as I can be for that no sleep, how does everyone else do this feeling. They said it was as bad as all of that but it gets better and the love and joy that you feel are also hard to predict and measure. That made me feel better.

Shelly brought me a huge Rubbermaid tub of baby clothes from Danika since she is having a boy this time around. We started looking through them and many of them are brand new. They either didn't fit Danika or they were the wrong season, like a 6-9 month fleece sleeper but Danika was 6-9 months in summer. I had to laugh, about half way through the tub was a little white onesie with a pink polo pony on it. I about died. Shelly is the last person you would expect to have something like that - she is the queen of dollar stretching and doesn't have a pretentious bone in her body. She laughed and said it must have been a gift. I just had to wonder who buys that? Apparently lots of people do because I bet Ralph Lauren wouldn't be making them if no one was buying them.

I Heart Benji

It is over. Last night I deleted the last episode of So You Think You Can Dance from my Tivo until next summer. I almost saved it so I could watch it over and over but I thought that would be overkill. My very favorite dancer from day one, Benji, won. Benji at one point put his dance career on hold to serve on a mission in Mexico helping orphans. What is not to love about Benji? I was so sad to see it end. I think I have issues.

We hired someone new and I was telling her about my obsession and low and behold she loves Benji and SYTYCD too! Who knew?!?

I hope Emmy realizes the sacrifices mommy made for her. The tour is coming to St. Louis and I told Jeff I didn't want to get tickets because we could use that money for baby stuff.

The First Shower

Our first "informal" baby shower is this weekend. It is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with Jeff's family. I am pretty sure it is really an excuse to get together and play cards but I might be wrong. His family is BIG on cards. I stink at most every card game but they are kind enough to teach me idiot games that keep me occupied.

I am excited to see his family. We will probably get to see about 1/3 of them. Sister Shellie is coming in from Minneapolis and sister Liz will come in from Makokota, Iowa and then Rodney, Amy, Karen and Dave all live in CR. The only bad part is boarding the dog and the five hour car trip. I hate road trips. If it is more than three hours I would rather fly but this shouldn't be too bad. I will take a book and try to sleep a little.

Speaking of sleep, I have been getting very little the last few nights. For some reason I have not been sleeping well and it wreaks havoc on my body. I am exhausted by 9:30 am and crabby by 3:00 pm. I just keep waking up to pee and then not being able to go back to sleep. Last night was pretty good but I kept dreaming about Hell's Kitchen. Who said reality TV was bad for you. I think it is just getting harder to get comfortable. It sort of feels like I am sleeping on a sack of potatoes. Nothing hurts it just feels odd. I am sure that will only get better - ok so not really.

I am approximately 23 weeks this week. When I think about that I realize I am more than halfway there. I sort of think 30 weeks will be a big deal because really it is a total crap shoot from there on out. Oh boy, I already get panicky just thinking about it.

Insert Screw E into Hole Two

We did it! Jeff and I put together the first baby furniture purchase and we are still married. You see, putting together furniture in our house often causes domestic discord. I tend to get anal and bossy (imagine that), Jeff throws the directions aside, I freak out and we yell at each other until whatever furniture piece is built and fairly stable.

We put together the rocker I ordered from Target.com and it really only took 15 minutes. The chair looks nice and it perfectly matches the bedding set we bought. Slowly but surely we are getting the nursery together. We are taking baby steps because otherwise, like everything else, it starts to feel a bit overwhelming.

The other very exciting thing that happened this weekend is I watched football. Oh sure it is preseason and the key players only play for one possession, but it is still football. I LOVE FOOTBALL! It is so much better than baseball, we watched that too. I can't wait for the regular season to start. The only other girl that I know that relates to my excitement is my friend Kim. Kim is a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan and I am a big Dallas Cowboys fan and one year when we were both running around in the same circle in college they played each other in the Super Bowl. It was a big day for Kim and I. My boys won that game but it was the cause of a solid week's worth of animosity. I thought of her as The Bus and the Steelers won last year. I didn't know where Kim was but I was sure she was thrilled. Enough about football for now...

Emmy has started to kick or punch or do Tae Bo or something every morning when I wake up. It is like she has a morning workout plan. (Maybe she is trying to encourage mommy to get out of bed and work out I don't know, but it feels funny.) It sort of feels like gas with no pay off. I sort of enjoy it though, it seems like our little secret time together.

The Kind of Mom I Won't Be

Yesterday I spent a large portion of my day in the Kansas City airport, specifically the Southwest terminal. The Southwest terminal has exactly three things, Starbuck's, Burger King/Sbarro and a Mexican place. Not exactly the best airport to get stuck in. On top of all that, I was without my lip balm because I had to check it to avoid having it confiscated. Darn terrorists! Now we all know that the airport is an excellent place to people watch. What you might not know is it is also an excellent place to pick up parenting DOs and DON'Ts.

DO
-Prepare for delays with a myriad of snack/toy options appropriate to your child
-Travel with a stroller or sling or something to carry the little person around in - this also works as an excellent sleeping location as I noticed yesterday
-Make yourself and your children comfortable with blankets or sweatshirts or whatever is available
-Keep your children within a three foot radius of you at all times (you would be surprised how many people do not abide by this one - have they never seen those kidnapping movies?)

DON'T
-Let your children stand on furniture, just because it isn't your chair doesn't mean they should be allowed to stand on it.
-Take your airport frustration out on your kids (tough to abide by but necessary)
--Pack everything your child owns in a carry on-seriously!
-Let your kids run wild - it annoys everyone else

My best parent-to-be moment came when I was in the restroom for the 90th time and I hear a woman instructing her child not to touch anything. "Don't let your shirt touch the wall Becky, stand perfectly still!" Now don't get me wrong, I don't want my kid to lick the toilet but they are not going to catch a fever if their shirt brushes the bathroom wall. Call me crazy but I am not an anti-bacterial gel kind of girl.

What is it with Baby Stuff and Fish

So I did the deed this weekend, no, not that deed. I registered for all of the stuff I think I will need. Here is what I learned...

-The stores think you need a lot more stuff than you really do.
-There is no one around who likes us enough to buy us a crib so why do they want you to register for that? Buy your own darn baby furniture.
- Jeff thinks the baby should have pink EVERYTHING. I said, "You can pick between these three car seats as they are all the same brand just different patterns" and he picked the pink and gray "Lindsey" version. Go figure!
-The "best" high chair is also the ugliest but it is the only one with a washable and dryable seat cushion and two dishwasher safe trays so I picked that one anyway. I love my dishwasher almost as much as my husband.
-There is power in a scanner gun, Jeff and I fought over it in Babies R Us. I let him have it since I did Target by myself the day before.
-Baby Depot is the cheapest of all the baby stores but they don't have them everywhere. (They are inside Burlington Coat Factory.) So if you live near one, take my registries and go to the Baby Depot, everything is about $10 cheaper.
-Note to gift buying friends I don't really care what print the onesies or t-shirts or sleepers are, so pick the ones you like as long as it doesn't have trucks on it, even then I am not real picky.
-Breast pumps freak me out.
-I like to say the word Boppy. Say it, it is fun!
-I swear I could hear my mom giving commentary the whole time. "Look at those cute pajamas, get that!"
-And finally, I learned that you can always change your mind as I have already altered my registries online today. God bless the Internet!

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Like I said, we are registering this weekend and I have been studying. I have called people, reviewed emails from new moms, read my Baby Bargains book and checked on Consumer Reports web site. Basically I didn't study this hard for the SATs when I took them. You would think that my child's very future depends on what high chair I buy. I dreamed about Pack and Plays all night last night. That and the Sig Eps formal. Don't ask, it is a long story.

In other news, I just got an email from my friend announcing that leggings are the big thing for fall. I can remember a time when I lived in leggings and big oversized sweatshirts. That was our winter uniform in college. I may have to revisit those times. Perhaps that will bring me comfort when I have a screaming newborn and it is 8 degrees outside. I look forward to January.

Me, Jeff and a Bar Code Scanner

I think this is the big weekend...Jeff and I are going to register. His family is going to throw us a shower in a couple of weeks, very spontaneous and fun of them, so we figured we ought to register for the occasion. The last time I registered I just ran around Linens and Things with a scanner gun going "Ooohhhh, I like that, click, and of course we need breakfast in bed trays, click." This time I have to register for actual things that I will need. I was talking to another friend of mine that is pregnant and she swears her registry has 30 teething rings and one bottle. Again, this is where all of my friends lists really will come in handy. I swear my friend Jeanette, or Nutty as we affectionately call her, has been a life saver. No wonder giving birth is like joining a sorority, you have to know way more than the secret handshake and password to get in. You have to know about Boppys and breast pumps and strollers and mittens. When Jeanette, who lives in California, first t old me she got mittens I was very confused as I was sure her baby's hands could not have been that cold in Cali in December. Then she told me they are so the baby doesn't scratch herself. Who knew?

I have finally started to have dreams about having a baby. Up until now I have had all sorts of weird dreams about everyone I have ever known. Seriously, every ex-boyfriend, high school acquaintance and second grade best friend have made appearances in my dreams in the last two months. Suddenly I have begun dreaming about having a baby. Of course they are terrible, anxiety filled dreams about leaving the child in the car and getting arrested, but at least they are about the baby. My friend who is a licensed therapist says that the good news is having a baby is real to me now, the bad news is I am living out all of my fears in my dreams. Let me tell you, it doesn't make for a good night's sleep.