2 Mommies and 2 Boys

pats2
Originally uploaded by hollykr1976.

GO PATS!!!!

I’m ready for a weekend of fun furniture moving and painting with my girlfriends!! (And my mom too!)

We promise not to open the bottles of wine until the room is at least 80% completed.

Sunday morning may bring an outing to Target – if Lois is up for it!

And Sunday night??!?

What’s going on Sunday night?

Oh yeah, FOOTBALL!!!

..and dinner at Salina and Ben’s, of course. I know Ben is a little disappointed that we won’t be watching his ‘Niners, but my Patriots are playing WOO HOO!!!

Plus, we will only be 5 minutes away from the hospital we are to deliver at, so, just in case Andrew wants to come on Sunday, we’re ready…so long as it doesn’t interfere with the playoffs.

So Consumer Reports retracted that car seat report.

See an article here.

I can’t wait to show it to Lois’ mother.

This little guy is still so darn restless!
Everyone talks about how you don’t feel much movement in the last month because things are so tight in there.
Uh uh
So not true.
Our little guy just finds more space to move to.

Of course, he never does it long enough for me to run down 2 flights of stairs to get the camera or camcorder.

But when he moves, he moves OUT. He did something which could be comparative to the Macarena on Monday morning, or the hokey pokey

left shoulder in, left shoulder out, right shoulder in, right shoulder out, butt in, but out, shaking all about in there

This morning, Lois had a HUGE lump on her right side. It was almost like his entire back and butt were sticking out sideways.

Very cool. Weird, but cool.

—

On another note, I am again asking for advice from the parents out there.

We postponed out baby shower(s) in December because Lois was on bed rest. We figured we would have it when he came. But now, we are just trying to figure out what we definitely need to have in the first month after he is born before the shower.

Here’s what he have so far:

- bassinet (no sheets yet) (thank you Suz)
- newborn clothes (thank you Suz)
- wipes
- a few diapers
- crib (in the box)
- pack and play (still in the box)
- car seat and stroller
- some bottles (thank you Suz)
- breast pump (thank you Suz!)
- crib bedding (thank you S&A!!!)

We might be in real trouble if it wasn’t for Suz.

Some things were purchased from our registry that I might like to have before the shower, but may not be absolutely necessary, such as:

- swing
- baby monitor
- bathtub

What else do we need for the first 4-6 weeks??? Is it rude to ask around to find out who might have already bought things???!?!?

We are having a painting party this weekend and I might have the changing table too! Is it possible that I could get his room set up this weekend?

We made it to 36 weeks!

Holy crap.

I don’t think anyone, including us or our doctors, ever thought we would make it to 36 weeks.

On being thankful…

I must offer the highest praise to Lois who listened to the doctors, didn’t cheat, didn’t complain about the food I provided to her (mostly take out) or the lack of cleanliness or organization in the house and didn’t completely freak out about my being responsible for the household in every way, shape and form.

(Although, she did make a few comments here and there about how she clips coupons and goes to the grocery store for “food with which to make meals” and I seem to spend a lot of money only to bring back “snack food.”)

On being back to normal…

Lois just called me after her doctor’s appointment. The OB told Lois today that she can “go crazy” and do whatever she wants. I told Lois she should be a little cautious about “going crazy” but maybe we can actually have a meal outside the house!

She is now a “normal pregnant woman” – whatever that means!

I need to clarify if this means any form of intimacy is a possibility. I didn’t want to ask Lois with her mother in the car.

On being early…

The one positive thing Lois held onto if he was born early was that he would be small, i.e. less painful for mommy when he comes into the world.

Now the joke it, after all of this, this kid is going to be late. The 10+ lbs, 2 weeks past the due date kind of late.

Just kidding honey!

Not really.

On being ready…

We are ready for him now, and he is getting stronger and healthier every day. I am getting the room together this weekend and have all of my work priorities in order so if I have to leave, I won’t be stressed out.

He now can come now. Anytime. Well, any time except for this Sunday between 6:30-10:30 pm or Sunday, February 4th between 6:30 – 11:30 pm.

Just kidding!

Not really.

1. Lois is back to work.

2. Her belly button popped back in.

Work involves a 1/2 mile drive to work, walking 50 ft to her desk and playing computer games pretty much the entire day, with a few interrupting phone calls here and there.

The belly button thing is apparently temporary. I assume that after a Big Mac extra value meal, it may pop out again.

—

Tomorrow afternoon brings another OB appointment, then the purchase of the crib. It’s another big exciting day for Lois.

Lois needs to work on how she starts conversations or reacts to kicks or moves.

She called Jody last week and started the conversation like “Jody, I’m so scared!”

It was a gossip call, but Jody had one shoe on grabbing for her keys.

Lately, she’s been saying a ton of “OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH”s or “Oh My God!”s at a fairly alarming tone. After a giant heart rate blip, I soon realize that she is fine.

Usually, I ask her if she’s okay about 25-30 times per day to make sure. I think she’s getting a little tired of that.

Saturday night, she gave me another quick scare when she stood up and said “OH MY GOD!” as she held her belly.

No, it was not a water breaking moment or a contraction. Apparently, her belly button had popped out.

Everyone in the room slowly released the breath that they had just held in. Thank you again Lo for stopping time with an excited utterance.

—

And here’s one for the “oh how our lives have changed” category…

We’re using shot glasses from my collection again lately.

Every night, I take down a different shot glass from the shelf and Lois does a shot of….

Mylanta!

Whoopie!!!!

We are wild and crazy girls!!!

—

*I think the term “excited utterances” is one of the few things I remember from Evidence in law school – one of those hearsay rules. Hey, I’m not a litigator.

Hey readers!

Even if we don’t always comment, we love keeping tabs on all of the blogs we visit.

This blog community is a wonderful thing!

There have been a lot of changes in these families since we started all of this almost 2 years ago!

Here are two new blogs of women ready to start this journey!

Please visit their blogs and offer any advice or thoughts!

Mommies in the Making

Starting this life

—

Also,

I think Loey would be mad at me for spending any money right now, but I really want this shirt for Andrew.

It comes in a onesie!

First of all – GO PATS!!!

Secondly, I want to say that I am recovering from my breakdown and we had a very successful weekend.

Saturday morning, Lois stayed in bed for a while. Lois was on the phone with Suz when she heard vacuuming.

“What did she break?” Suz asked.

This is what Lois saw when she made it downstairs:

What is it? It’s our living room – our cot-free living room!

She was so excited. All she kept saying was “I’ve graduated! I’ve graduated! I’ve graduated from the cot to the couch!!”

Yes, friends, she has graduated. She can now move around, a little.

We had a wonderful morning in our clean living room as I made her a great breakfast!

She took full advantage of her new found freedom as we spent 1/2 of the day at Salina’s baby shower and a few hours at Laura and Nancy’s afterwards.

Ok, so she spent the entire time on the couch in both places, but at least it was a change of scenery.

Congrats Lo! I can’t believe how well you have done to make it this far!

Lois has had a few breakdowns during this pregnancy/bed rest thing. Actually, she’s only had maybe two. Which is pretty good.

It was me who had the latest breakdown.

I’m not sure what really set me over the edge, but it happened last night.

I was upset because I was busy at work and had to leave to play tennis in my mother’s group because I was too absorbed in life that I forgot to find a sub.

I was upset because I have to much to do at work and had to bring work home and hate leaving this “new great career job” for other obligations.

I was upset because if Lois went into labor last night or today, I would feel awful about all of the loose ends at work, and I hate feeling that way.

I was upset because I just didn’t want to screw everything up.

I was upset that I needed to get stuff to eat for dinner because I hadn’t been grocery shopping and all Lois had to eat in the house was frozen bourbon chicken and one piece of pizza.

I was upset that I was going grocery shopping at Stew Leonard’s and I didn’t know what to get because Lois wasn’t with me.

I was upset because I heard that Target was having a HUGE sale on winter infant clothes and I really wanted to go get some 12-18 month stuff but Lois couldn’t come with me.

I was upset that Lois’ mother hasn’t bought the crib yet and is using the fact that I don’t have the room done as a reason.

I was upset because everything costs money and the town property taxes are due this month.

I was upset that Lois’ boss is being an ass and will fight having to give her unemployment so she will be hanging in this oblivion of unpaid leave until she finds another job.

I was upset because I am so out of shape and heavy that my clothes don’t fit and one hour of tennis made my back hurt again.

I was upset that my stupid Hyundai is less than 2,000 miles away from the 100,000 mile warranty being up, it’s been in the shop 3 times in the past 8 weeks and still has that fucking rattle somewhere underneath the car.

It’s all silly little stuff, I know.

I’m not much for crying but Lois cracked me last night, knowing that something was wrong.

We cried together as she held me in bed. Then, I fell into a fit of restless sleep for the rest of the night.

I feel awful that she’s the one going through the insanity of the bed rest, no income thing and I’m supposed the be the one keeping everything together. The last thing I want to do is stress her out even more.

On my way to work this morning, Bryan Adam’s “Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman” came on and I cried. I think it was the “can you see your unborn children in her arms?” that did it to me.

Sigh.

In the grand scheme of things, I know there are so many bright sides to what we are going through right now, but I still just needed a breakdown I guess.

Lois is irritable and testy.

She’s tired.

Last night, she put the Christmas stuff away, cleaned up all the bills, threw away junk mail and sorted the bags of crap that had accumulated around her cot in the last 7 weeks. (Nesting, maybe??)

Tonight, she hasn’t been feeling very well.

Either she’s about to go into labor or it’s going to be a very long next several weeks.

BTW – the doctor joked today that Lois will probably go late and have to be induced. This made Lois even more irritable.