Here we go again...

Today is a day that I have been dreading since that wonderful day when I frantically gently woke Kevin up screaming whispering in his ear that we had a problem new bundle of joy on the way. Yup, I busted out the maternity clothes this morning. The tub has been sitting on the floor of my closet since we moved in, but I've been putting off the Removal of the Lid ceremony for a couple of weeks now. Why? Because maternity clothes are admitting that no, I can't squeeze my ass into my regular jeans anymore. Well, I guess that's not really true. I can get into them fine and they're actually not tight thanks to some serious spandex in the fabric. But when I sit down (which I happen to do all day) the buttons press into my gut. Since I'm trying to maintain an air of professionalism while working from home, I make sure to at least wear pants and, unfortunately, my regular jeans were just not cutting it for me anymore. This became glaringly apparent yesterday when I opened the door to the Amazon guy (um, I actually think he's a UPS guy, but since he delivers my packages from Amazon everyday sometimes, I call him my Amazon guy) with my pants undone. It was then that I realized it was time to take the plunge into the wonderful world of elastic waistbands.

There might have been another reason I decided that it was time to finally give in. Remember this lovely picture? *Sigh*

We appear to have had another casualty.

Do I get a disclaimer? These jeans are (were) approximately 10 years old. So I don't know if it was my thunder thighs that finally did them in, or the fact that they had been wearing a little thin between the legs for years on end. Which I guess would still be the result of my thunder thighs. Damn. It didn't help that when these ones ripped (while getting into the car) Kevin told me that I didn't seem to be taking it as well this time around. I just glared at him.

The good news is that I had my first doctor's appointment on Tuesday and was able to confirm yet again that I had a reason for gaining mass amounts of weight baby in my belly! I know they had confirmed it a couple of months ago while we were still in Texas, but when it's that early and you can't feel the baby yet, the only thing you have to go by is your ballooning ass. So you just hope and pray that the baby is still growing and doing well (and that you did actually have a reason to eat that Big Mac Extra Value Meal last week. Twice.) 

Since I am starting from scratch with a new doctor's office, this week's visit was only a consultation. The doctor drilled me on my family history for a while and then opened up the can of worms known as my eating habits. He casually asked me what my normal weight is when I'm not pregnant. I told him 145. Then he looked at my chart and said "Hmmm. Based on your weight today, is it safe to assume that you've gained about 15 pounds so far in this pregnancy?" HA! Is that a trick question? I would hardly call that safe on his part. For one thing, the bastard tricked me by asking what my normal, non-pregnant weight is. Had he asked me what my actual weight was when I got pregnant, I would have said 148. And, according to my bathroom scale, I'm only 157 pounds as of yesterday morning for a total gain of 9 pounds. So, no I would NOT consider it "safe" for you to ask me if I've gained 15 pounds. Unless you would like that chart shoved down your throat.

Personally, I am very proud of my 9 pounds. I am over 15 weeks along. Actually, what I should say is that I'm very proud that I've only gained 9 pounds. When I found my scale last week, I was expecting much more damage than that. After all, I did spend the 3 weeks prior to moving to Michigan surviving on the 3 main food groups: Mexican, Chinese, and pizza. Hey, we were busy packing. When you factor the holidays into that equation, I'd say 9 pounds is pretty good. After all, the average non-pregnant woman gains at least 5 pounds over the holidays. At least I have an excuse. Plus, if I had been asked to guess what my weight was, I would have guessed closer to 20 pounds. Therefore, I am more than happy with 9.

15.5 WEEKS
Due Date: July 15, 2012
Total weight gain/loss: 9 pounds
Next Appointment: February 20 - we have our anatomy scan to see if we're having a boy or a girl. Also known as, the appointment to find out if we have to buy all new stuff.
Maternity clothes?: Just the pants so far.
Sleep: My lack of sleep this time around has nothing to do with being pregnant, and everything to do with having a toddler in the house. I remember WAY back to my pre-toddler pregnancy. Oh, those were the days. Greyden does pretty good with sleeping through the night, but I'd say he still gets up during the night at least 2-3 times per week. Even once a week is too much for this exhausted mom. I've been exhausted since the first trimester and even now, at almost 16 weeks, it still shows no signs of letting up.
Best moment this week: Listening to the baby's heartbeat! Also known as "yes, I deserved the Big Mac Extra Value meal(s)."
Movement: I finally started to feel the baby on Tuesday this week, at 15 weeks and 2 days. Much earlier than the 18 weeks I was at last time.
Food cravings: Sugary cereal. I am stocked up on Frosted Flakes, Cap'n Crunch, and Pebbles with Marshmallows. At the same time there is a box of Kashi Go Lean slowly rotting away in my pantry.
Planning/Preparations: None until we find out the gender.
Belly Button in or out: In - and again, we're planning on keeping it that way. I'd assume that since it stayed in last time, it would do the same this time. I should Google that.

Stretch Marks: Pffft. Of course not.

Showing?: I woke up Tuesday morning, looked in the mirror, and wondered what the hell happened to my gut last night. That should pretty much explain it all.

What I miss: My last pregnancy, but only because I was able to be pregnant without having to keep up with a toddler. When I was tired, I could sleep. Or zone on the couch for hours on end. This time around? Yeah, not so much.
What I am looking forward to: Finding out if it's a boy or a girl. I have a LOT of stuff to buy and a new nursery to decorate. I'm ready to get on it.

Milestones:  Non-baby related, but our house is almost unpacked! I have one box left in the office, which I'm considering just throwing away. If I don't open it, I'll never miss what was inside, right?

And the Parents of the Year Award Goes to......

This is how we spent last Wednesday afternoon:

I obviously don't literally mean "we", since I'm assuming if Kevin and I were also walking around the pediatrician's office naked under our coats, there would have been some issues. But since it was just Greyden participating in Pants-less Wednesday, we were good. We hit up the doctor's office because of a horrible cold that Greyden has had for about a week and a half. I thought he was on the upswing when his nose stopped running early last week, but Tuesday night he started coughing so hard he was choking. So much for my idea to let his body fight it off without antibiotics. Off to the doctor we went.

After a brief wait in the examination room, the doctor came in to check him out. She said his chest sounded clear, his breathing looked good, and his throat was fine. Then she checked his ears. "Looks like we have an ear infection!" she announced. I'm sorry, what? "Oh! Make that a DOUBLE ear infection!" she corrected herself. I just looked at her with my best "WHATTHEHECKAREYOUTALKINGABOUT???" look. Greyden can't have an ear infection. For one thing, he's never even had one before, let alone two at once. For another thing, he wasn't showing any symptoms. There was no ear pulling or walking with his head tilted to the side (my friend Nikki calls this the "special" walk when her kid gets ear infections). He was crankier than usual, but he was fighting off a miserable cold. I wasn't the happiest camper when I had the stupid thing a couple weeks earlier either. Then the doctor warned us that the right one was pretty bad, so don't be surprised if it ruptures and starts to drain. Huh? Drain what? I was so confused at this point. How long had he had a double ear infection? And how in the heck had we missed it? Yes, he was cranky in the evenings (and his teacher at daycare may have mentioned that she was earning her paycheck this week), but he hadn't even gotten a fever and, like I said, we figured it was his cold. (He also tends to take after his daddy, and Kevin is always cranky in the evenings. Dang, could he have an ear infection too??? Now that I think about it, he was doing the "special" walk a few days ago...)

As we sat in the doctor's office waiting for her to write up Greyden's antibiotic prescription, I could almost see our Parents of the Year trophy waltzing out the door. Oh wait, we might have fallen out of contention for that last Sunday, when Superbaby took a flying, head-first leap off the couch onto our hardwood floor, that is currently covered by a thin, rough, sea grass rug. He would up with a huge goose egg on his forehead and a lovely scrape from the scratchy rug.

And since I'm sure that you'll also notice the scraped up cheek, I might as well explain that about 3 hours prior to playing Superbaby, Greyden was petting my parent's dog when the dog decided to pet him back. Greyden got the rough pad of Scout's paw across his face. I have to admit that by the end of the day Sunday, I was beginning to worry that if we took him in to daycare the following morning, they might not give him back. It's been a rough week for the poor kid.

Of course it hasn't gotten any better yet. The Amoxicillan he was on caused him to develop a horrible diaper rash. Diaper changes are suddenly huge ordeals involving at least 10 minutes of hysterical screaming each time Junior poops. Needless to say, Mommy of the Year made the executive decision to cut off his antibiotic supply on Sunday morning, only 3 days after starting it, until I could call the doctor and get a different one. It's one thing to try to change him with two people, doing it with one person is next to impossible and Kevin is out of town for his National Sales Meeting for a few days. Hopefully this new antibiotic still clears up the ear infection but leaves his booty alone. Yesterday I let him run around my parent's house a bit without his diaper on to help air him out, too, which I definitely think helped. Oh, and sorry about the carpet Mom. I guess I owe you a carpet shampoo.

Playing Catch-Up

I have been putting too much pressure on myself with this blog. I have SO much to write about that I haven't been able to make myself start. Hell, I haven't even done Junior's first birthday party, which is now 2.5 months ago. And I just remembered that Christmas was in there too. So instead of remaining overwhelmed and just avoiding trying to play blog catch-up, which I've been avoiding for over a month now, I'm just going to give a status update on things right now. Birthdays and Christmas can come later.

We are officially in our new house! 



This picture was obviously not taken by me, being as you can see green grass and a blue pool, and not the brown mud that has been present pretty much since the day we moved in. And we're praying that the pool actually looks that good when we uncover it this spring since we haven't actually seen it yet. But we're not holding our breath. The people who lived here before us were absolute PIGS. Disgusting. When mom and I opened the refrigerator to clean it, there was solidified liquid spilled on every shelf and mold growing in the door compartments. And let's not forget the one inch thick layer of burnt, caked crap on the bottom of the ovens, or the drawer freezer, who's bottom was completely covered by a one inch thick layer of....something. And yes, they fed their kids out of those appliances. The rest of the house was disgusting too. I honestly don't think they ever cleaned. When something spilled, they apparently just left it, as evidenced by the sticky piles of goop in the corners with pet hair stuck in them. Needless to say we had our work cut out for us when we moved in. It was so bad that we had Empire come out the same day the moving truck came to replace the upstairs carpet. We didn't even want to imagine what kind of critters were hiding in the old carpet.

Closing day was interesting. Our original date was December 20, but that got pushed back to the 21st. Which was lucky for the sellers, because when we showed up on the 21st to do our final walk through before closing that afternoon, they were still packing! Never mind that the closing date had been set for 2 weeks by then and had bumped back a full day just a few days prior. Had we been able to delay the closing we would have, however we had a moving truck showing up the next morning at 7am so we were between a rock and a hard place. We had no option but to close with the assumption that they would be out by that evening.

Closing went off without a hitch. After we were done, we (my parents, Kevin's parents, and us) headed out to the house to do what we thought would be some minor cleaning before the boxes started arriving the following morning. HA! See above. We were there until 11:30 that night cleaning (and gagging). On top of that, there was still so much stuff in the house that it looked like they hadn't finished moving out. So Kevin calls the old owner and asked him when he was coming to get the rest of his stuff. He tells us that they don't have room at their new house and we can throw it all away. Are you kidding me? Why in the hell would the moron think that WE wanted their trash? Kevin told him we'd get it together and out by the garage and he needed to come get it the following day. And the previous owner actually did hire a guy to come get it which we weren't expecting. We figured we'd have to rent a dumpster to get rid of all of it. Yes, there was that much.

Moving ended up being a little more stressful than we had anticipated. On top of the disgusting conditions the previous owners had lived in, we had the Moving Nazi freaking out the entire time. (In case you didn't guess, the Moving Nazi was Kevin). In fact, he's still freaking out. In the beginning it was because Mom and I weren't unpacking the kitchen boxes fast enough for him. His genius idea was to get all of the boxes unpacked and everything put somewhere. It didn't matter where, as long as it was in a cabinet, closet, or cupboard. Mom and my genius idea (for real) was to unpack everything and put it where it belongs, thereby eliminating the need to handle everything we own twice when we have to re-unpack it from wherever the hell it got stuffed, per Kevin's method, in order to put it in it's correct place. Assuming we could actually find what we were looking for in the first place. Now his big hangup is the fact that we still have a few boxes around and not everything has a home yet. But in my world it's coming along nicely. The only boxes we have left are some decor, a couple of spare bedroom boxes, and a couple of boxes in the office. I think we've come a LONG way when you consider the fact that we were doing all of this over the holidays.

I think my favorite part of the whole process has been all of my ideas I'm coming up with to have the entire house redone. HA! Every time I say that, Kevin flips out (yes I make sure to mention paint colors and/or cabinet options at least a couple of times a day). The whole house doesn't need to be redone The basement is actually great. But the colors on the main level are just not doing it for me. For example, we have the honey oak hard wood floors throughout the first level. So of course the previous owners decided to play off the honey orange color and paint the entire two story living room a faux orangish color. 





Just stunning, don't you think? Here is the kitchen, with is peachy walls and pickled oak cabinets:



And the other half of the kitchen.



The master bedroom:



Yes, that's porn 70s burgundy baby. Not quite my style at all (I'm much more partial to porn 80s mauve). 


The basement:




The back of the house:





Kevin's baby. He thinks a virtual bow hunting simulator is going on the second floor. He thinks wrong.  



More of the backyard:





And the front. Hopefully we will be able to get our lawn to look like that this summer without our trusty Mexican lawn crew. I think the last time we mowed a lawn was 2005.  No, I'm not joking.



So that's our house tour. I took all of the pictures from trulia.com. I considered taking new pictures so you could see it with our stuff, then realized that you couldn't actually see the rooms because of our stuff. So I'll wait on those shots.

Another aspect of our new Michigan life is that I'm working from home. Being the social butterfly that I am, I had my doubts. I like human (adult) interaction. But I am seriously loving it. The biggest challenge I'm dealing with is the quitting work at the end of the day part. It's really hard to shut down my email, especially when Houston is an hour behind me. So when I'm "done" working at 5, it's only 4 there and the emails are still flying in. Plus my boss works late so when she's emailing me at 6:30, it's 7:30 my time. I think they're getting their money's worth out of me. Kevin is threatening to put a door on the office. 

Overall, I am loving being back in Michigan. Our location is amazing. We're in the country, yet we're about 6 miles from both Brighton and Hartland, where I can find everything from Target and Meijer to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Best Buy, and an outdoor mall. And I'm actually liking the snow! (This is most likely because when there's no snow it's muddy and brown outside.) Although I have to say, one of the things I was looking forward to the most about moving back was the outdoor winter sports. I was all gung-ho to go skiing, snowboarding, sledding, skating, and snowmobiling. Then we got up here and I remembered I was pregnant. My winter activities just dwindled down to snow shoeing. Yay. Maybe next year (actually, it had better be next year, because if I am in this predicament again, we will have much bigger problems than the fact that I can't go sledding.)

Speaking of outdoor activities, we actually took Greyden outside to play last weekend! The poor kid hadn't been outdoors to play in over a month. I know, we're horrible parents, right? The fact is, we just hadn't thought about it. It's been cold out, and when it's cold out in Texas, you stay indoors. It wasn't until last weekend I realized that if we continue to follow that mentality, poor Greyden wouldn't get to go outside to play until June. So we bundled him up and hit the (ginormous) play set (that the previous owners paid $15K for. Who in the hell pays $15K for a play set????). I actually took a ton of pictures because it's cold and who knows when we're going to get the kid outdoors again.
 

Not only was this Grey's first time dressed up for winter, it was also his first time in boots. Or any shoes for that matter. He looked like Frankenstein walking around for the first few minutes.

He's not quite sure what this huge, open expanse is. Or who turned off the furnace

  

 

He insisted on climbing up the slide. Yup, he's all boy.

 

I'm not moving, Dad. What seems to be the problem here.

 

  

This one was blurry, but pretty much captured Greyden's feelings on playing outdoors.

Watching the Texans game last weekend

And let's not forget the fact that I'm pregnant! I unfortunately accidentally found our bathroom scale today and realized that I'm up 9 pounds at 14 weeks. Stupid me decided to look back at my old posts and saw that I was only up 10 pounds at 17 weeks last time. This obviously isn't going to be pretty. I was told that I'd start showing earlier with the second one, but so far all I'm showing is some cellulite and a major muffin-top.

Now that I've done a brief catch up, I will hopefully be keeping a little better tabs on this blog thing and not waiting so long until the next post. My goal is two posts per week. My reality is not so ambitious. Next time I'll try to include my pregnancy progress (mainly to keep myself on track) and some house before and after pictures. That is, if we ever get around to unpacking those last few boxes. Of course if I do that, then Kevin won't have anything left to complain about, so I might just hold off on those for a few more weeks. After all, we've got plenty of time. With the absolute hell that we went through trying to move across the county over the holidays, I seriously don't plan on moving again. Ever. It's a good thing Kevin picked the right house.