11 Days!

I seriously cannot believe that in 11 days (or less) I will be a Mom of 2. It's insane.

I visited the Dr again today. I found out that I am dilated an additional centimeter from last week-- which means I'm at a whopping 2cm now. She said based on the size of my belly, baby will likely be of similar size to Ava, which was a nice, little 6 lbs 3oz bundle! Amen to that, sister!

She scheduled me for the induction, which will be November 4th-- Hard to believe that it's next Friday! And even better, our darling babysitter has switched around her schedule to babysit Ava so my Mom can come to the hospital with Ken and I. It will be great having her there this time around (I can already hear her hooting and hollering)!

My Mom is coming in on Wednesday which will be nice; we'll have time to hang out a bit before he makes his debut. And then my Sister comes on Friday, too. Talk about having a great support system in place! :)  Ava is going to go ballistic, having both my Mom and Sis here!

Best news of all??? I somehow managed to lose 4 lbs in the last week. Yahooooooooo! 

Consider yourself warned

What I'm showing you is certainly NOT pretty. This is what I am surprised with on a DAILY basis by our dogs.

And not only is it poo. It's puke too. Each day we have piles to clean-up. Now that I think of it-- A stock purchase in Brawny and Lysol would have been GENIUS.

So my question is this: How long would YOU put up with this?? Seriously! How long?? These dogs are so big they might as well be clydesdale horses-- you can imagine how HUGE their "messes" are.

They've been to the vet. They've gotten anxiety medicine. They don't have any stomach issues. They spend most of the day outside, in our fenced in yard-- which means they are getting PLENTY of exercise. Yet, they will come right inside and %$*# all over our house, the moment they come in.

I guess I should be thankful that they choose to do it in the bathrooms or on the hardwood floor. Thoughtful little bastards. Wait-- who the hell am I kidding?! This is re-God-damn-diculous.

We've paid for ACL surgeries for both dogs and spent countless dollars on top notch training, boarding, etc. Where does it end? I do not want to get rid of them. But at the same time, I will NOT clean up crap after my daughter, soon to be born son and 2 GROWN DOGS. I've had it.

False Alarm

Well that was interesting. Last night was spent at Hinsdale Hospital for what was determined to be false labor.

Just like my labor with Ava, I woke up in the middle of the night and was feeling contractions every few minutes. After 10 or so contractions I called the Dr who (based on my Mach-3-delivery-speed with Ava) suggested I come in to get checked out. We got everything (and everyone -- including our happy-to-be-awake-in-the-middle-of-the-night little girl) loaded into the car and were on our way.

They checked me at the hospital and the nurse said that I was "maybe 1 cm dilated". WHAT?!? They hooked me up to the machines (did I mention how much I hate that damn blood pressure cuff???? I forgot how annoying that thing was!). The contractions were regular, occuring every 3 minutes or so.

They suggested I walk the halls of the hospital to see if it would help in getting things moving. So Miss Ava and I walked the halls, stopping every so often to check out the babies in the nursery-- to which she would run to the window and say, "Ohhhh, Babies!! So cute!!!". As usual, she became a local celebrity in no time, charming everyone with her dancing and silly sayings.

She thought this particular 3 AM field trip was fun-- She got to be up and about in the middle of the night, eating loads of shaved ice, watching Little Einsteins in a hospital bed with Mommy and eating mini-wheats, crackers and gummi worms (hey, don't judge... it was all I had in my bag of tricks (diaper bag)).
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Well, after an hour of walking, I was checked again-- and there was "no change". So, we were sent home. I felt silly and stupid for causing a false alarm-- but the other part of me didn't want to take any chances. As the Dr said, "Hey, it's better than delivering in the car!". Good point.

We took a detour thru McDonald's on our way home. We were all starving! We got home around 7:00 and after breakfast, everyone was back to bed to catch up on some zzzz's.

As annoying as it was to go thru all of that, it was exciting too. My favorite part was the memory I now have of Ava and I walking the halls of the hospital at 4 am (while her dad laid in my hospital bed, trying to sleep), trying to coerce her little brother into making his grand entrance. She was my little buddy. And we just LOVED seeing those tiny, sweet babies. It's hard to believe that in 16 days (or less) one of those little beds will contain our baby boy.  One of these days... but not today. ;-/

Santa for Hire!

Well, it looks as though I have thought of the perfect way to get some extra holiday cash! I will be pimping myself out as a "Santa for Hire".

What sprurred this great idea? My 37 week Dr appointment. I've now gained 39 %$#*@ pounds!

39!!!!  *#$&@#!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I'm even telling you this.

With Ava, I gained a total of 26 lbs. How on earth is it that I'm up 13 lbs from last time with 2 1/2 more weeks to go...? And, on top of it all, I've been sick (nonstop vomit should mean weight loss, right?!) and chasing a toddler around. It makes no damn sense. NONE!

I'm sure my cookie obsession doesn't help. But other than the cookies, I've been eating pretty similarly to how I did when I was carrying Ava...? So why all the extra chubba-lub?! I don't understand it. I don't feel like I look bigger, either....? I mean, my belly is definitely sticking out further.. but that's about it. And all my maternity clothes fit me exactly as they did the first time around. Sta-range, I tell you!

When I told my husband he started laughing-- but in a way that was like, "Holy shit!! Bwwaaaaahaaaa!  That's hilarious!! You're a god damn cow!"... and then proceeded to tell me he thinks I'm beautiful (I call bullshit).

So not only did I realize that I have gained a massive amont of weight, but I also learned that I have made ZERO progress with getting this baby out of me before our scheduled induction date of 11/4. 0% dilated. 0% effaced.

FML.

So it looks like I will most likely be waiting 17 more days until we meet our baby boy... 408 more hours... but who's counting?! ;-)

I guess that gives me time to get my Santa costume in order.

GUESS WHAT...?!?!?

I am stone cold sober. And no, unfortunately it's not by choice. Nope-- instead, it's the growing organism in my belly that is preventing me from my usual antics.

Have you put 2 + 2 together?! If so, then you are correct!! There's a bun in my supersonic-oven and it's expected to make its arrival in early November!! 

Can I get a Yahoooooo!?!

What is so crazy about this pregnancy? We weren't even trying. In fact, we were actively waiting until our trip to Grand Cayman was over (so I could booze with the rest of the pack), but the universe clearly had other plans-- and trust me, we welcome those plans with open arms! We were just completely blindsided by the news!

I first found out when I was just shy of 8 weeks. I didn't feel right-- I was queasy, sleepy, and some things had just gotten-- well, bigger (including what soon resembled a beer gut-- which had me completely perplexed, especially considering I had been working out so much-- "Why the hell am I growing a belly when I should be sporting a six-pack?!"). 

I decided to take a test and sure enough, two lines showed up immediately. I could NOT believe my eyes!  What is super-ironic is I wrote an article for one of my columns called "Knocked Up"-- all about how 23 of my friends were pregnant, and how I couldn't believe it; everyone and their dog seemed to be pregnant!!-- And who knew?!?-- Yours truly was already "with child"!

I am so excited to share our news. At 10 weeks I took an Intelligender test; the test boasts 82% accuracy as for predicting the gender of your baby as early as 10 weeks-- and friends of mine who have taken this test have ALL had accurate results.  With that said... the test said: BOY! The Chinese Gender Chart (which was accurate with Ava), on the other hand, says GIRL. To be honest, we could care less either way-- we just want a happy, healthy baby. 

Clearly, Mom & Jim were excited to learn the news! We shared with them when we landed in Florida last week. Call me crazy, but I don't think they care about the gender, either!

I went today for my 12 week checkup to hear the heartbeat. After a minute or two, the Dr found it, beating strong at a solid 173 BPM.  Needless to say, everything looked GRRRRRR-8! When we ask Ava if she is excited to be a big sister, she either responds "Nooooo!" or "Jessssss!"-- pretty sure she has NO clue what it means just yet. I do think she will be an excellent big sis when the time comes, though. It does make me a little sad--thinking that she won't be my baby anymore. I had better just get over that, right? Not much choice in the matter because this little nugget is coming!