Still In Survival Mode

Remember over a month ago, when I promised more pictures and posts of the baby soon? That was crazy talk.

The past six weeks (six weeks!) have been insane. Other than the usual sleep deprivation and complete rearranging of our entire lives that new parents experience, we've had a lot of issues with feeding her and slow weight gain. Because of this, I've spent pretty much all day, every day since she was born feeding her. Or waking her up to feed her, or getting ready to feed her. Sometimes it's a struggle to find time to feed myself. I scarf down a sandwich while she impatiently cries in hunger. As you can see from the photo, it's worn us all out.

So am I finally posting now because we have it all worked out? No. We've made significant progress, but we're not there yet. I'm posting because it's the end of the day, August 31, and if I don't post today I'll miss an entire MONTH for the first time since I started this blog and that is unacceptable, even during this crazy time.

Hopefully I will start posting again soon. I think about posts, and compose them in my head during marathon nursing sessions. But getting to a computer and actually getting them written and online is a completely different matter. So try not to forget about me, check your RSS feed once in a while .... I shall return!

Introducing Eleanor

Keith and I are proud and happy to announce the birth of Eleanor.
Birth day: Sunday, July 20, 9:14am
Weight: 8 pounds, 2 ounces
Length: 20.5 inches
1o fingers, 10 toes, a fabulously developed set of lungs!

We're now at home, getting settled into the new routine. Expect many more posts and pictures in the coming days!

Bereft and Directionless without Satellite

I like to claim that I don't watch TV that much. I pretend like it's all Keith's fault that we have a big flat panel TV and fancy satellite dish. Although I will admit that even I cannot live without DVR anymore. You know, for when I want to record the Jane Austen series on Masterpiece Theatre.

But apparently, all of my posturing about not needing to watch TV is a pack of lies. Because our satellite is not currently hooked up, and I'm in a corner, twitching.

To take off the old roof and put on the new roof, the roofers had to remove and reinstall the satellite dish. Fair enough. But they don't actually reposition it properly—we have to call the satellite TV service to take care of that.

The satellite TV service wants to charge us a $50 service call to reposition the satellite. We're not big fans of that. So Keith wants to try repositioning it himself first. Being "fiscally responsible" (aka stingy), I approve of this plan.

Except. I'm home all the time now. And I don't have a whole lot of energy. All I really want to do is flip on the TV and watch other people do things while I knit a baby blanket for my sister or fall asleep on the couch. But Keith won't be able to try and reposition the satellite until probably the weekend, at the earliest.

I'm a little surprised how disconnected I feel without the TV. I know part of it is KNOWING that I can't turn the TV on, even if I wanted to. Well, I could watch a DVD, but I can't watch actual television programs.

I'm listening to NPR, which I often listen to all day at work, and it's surprisingly dissatisfying. I miss the moving pictures! Maybe I'm just going through the withdrawal, and by tomorrow the need for TV will be lessened. Maybe this will bring on labor, because I don't have anything else to amuse me.

Incommunicado

Last week, the rules about communication with my immediate family changed. I think it happened after my last doctor's appointment, when I eagerly called everyone and told them the doctor thought I could go into labor any day now.

Suddenly, my phone calls "just to chat" were no longer welcome. The person on the other end of the line would invariably answer with nearly hysterical excitement in her voice. But as soon as I said I wasn't in labor, the excitement was gone.

Now, no one wants to actually talk to me. They just want to hear that I'm in labor and they should hurry over to the hospital. The ironic part is this only afflicts immediate family—the people that would actually get the call to come to the hospital for the birth. I'm still allowed to call other people just to catch up, it's just those closest to me that find the sound of my non-laboring voice so very disappointing.

So I've stopped calling people over the past few days. If my mom or sisters want to find out how I'm doing, I let them call me. Which is another way that the rules have changed. Normally, I don't feel the need to rush and answering a ringing phone. If I'm in a store, I send it to voicemail. Or if I'm in the middle of something, I might wait and see who is calling and give him a call back at a more convenient time.

But those days are long gone. Because now, if Keith or I don't answer the phone, I feel certain that the caller will immediately jump to the conclusion that we're engaged in much more important activities. Like having a baby.

So I make hardly any outgoing calls. But I obsessively answer all incoming ones. I'm guessing this will be the new routine until I actually have reason to make The Call.

We love to cut it close

Well, the roofers arrived this morning. Our house was originally on the schedule for last week, which I thought would be great. Definitely finished by the baby's arrival time.

Except then, because of weather, it got pushed back to Monday. And then to today. And when they weren't here by 8 o'clock, I was afraid that they weren't coming at all.

But they did roll in around 9 .... half of a crew, instead of a whole crew. And informed me that, instead of being a 1-day job as I was originally told (2 at the outside), they're expecting it to take 3 days. Meaning that they would finish on my Thursday, July 17. You know, my due date.

I don't really know what to think. Is this normal? Is this to be expected when you're having a large job being done where the schedule is weather dependent? Should I be annoyed and arguing with the main office about the scheduling? Or should I just take it in stride?

My fear is that something will come up. If everything goes exactly as according to the estimate I originally signed, there's no need for Keith and me to be around and accessible. But what if things change? They find decking that needs to be replaced that wasn't covered by the original estimate and they need us to approve the additional cost of changes? I'm guessing it would be rather difficult for us to discuss roofing issues in-between contractions.

But anyway, let's focus on the good news: They have started. Even if they don't finish until Thursday, the forecast predicts no rain until Sunday. And, even if I go into labor today—as soon as I finish this post?—once I give birth and stay in the hospital for a few days, everything should still be finished before I come home with Little L. I'm just going to block out the racket above me, and focus on the positives. Or try.

Officially in Waiting

So, I'm done working. I have a "To Do" list around the house, because it's a physical impossibility for me not to ... but everything on the list is mentally marked with an asterisk that says "if I don't go into labor first."

It was very strange to clear off my desk last week, knowing that I wouldn't be back for months. I had originally offered to work from home this week, depending on how I felt. But it sounds like HR doesn't really approve of people working from home, and I don't want to go back into the office after I've officially gone on maternity leave (so anticlimactic, you know?) so I guess I'm pretty much done with work.

Today I plan on going grocery shopping, cleaning up around the house a bit, working on curtains for the nursery maybe (one down, three to go). My little sister, who is just starting summer vacation from school, is going to come and hang out with me, so maybe we'll sit on the deck in the backyard, sipping iced tea and admiring the lovely tiger lilies, as photographed by Keith above.

I'm excited for a relaxing, laid-back day. But I'm also hoping that my plans change suddenly because Little L has decided it's time to make an appearance. As I told Keith this morning, I've never been so disappointed to get a good night's sleep as I was when I woke up and realized dawn had broken without me going into labor. I know it's still a few days before my due date, but I'm an impatient person! Any other items are my list are just marking time—giving birth is really the next (and only) item on the REAL to-do list. Hopefully I can distract myself enough with the other, less-important tasks, so the wait doesn't seem so long.

Seriously Counting Down

Sorry my posting has been so sporadic lately. I expected July to be bad, but my lack of posts in June caught me by surprise. Apologies!

But seriously, I need to warn you that I might be disappearing off the interwebs very shortly. The due date for Little L is July 17, but who knows? I go to the doctor every week nowadays, and for the past two weeks they've waved me off with a cheerful, "See you next week, unless you give birth first!"

This is my last week of work, I'm very excited to report. I have been pretty tired lately, so I'm looking forward to being able to take it easy during the day next week, just keep the house basically clean, read a little, nap a little, etc ..... assuming the countdown is still ongoing, that is. If I don't go into labor until the 17th or after, early July should be great for my post count. But if you don't hear from me again after this, wish me, Keith, and the baby all the best! Many, many pictures will be forthcoming, I'm sure.

Finally Unveiled: The Nursery!

I know it's been a looong time since I alluded to this, but I'm finally posting a few pictures of the finished nursery. We're very excited with how it turned out. And not a moment too soon!

Items of note: The purple blanket on the edge of the crib is one I knitted myself for the baby. I'm also pretty excited about the basket of books that is on the floor, next to the glider rocking chair. And many, many props to Keith and my dad for hanging the fabulous white trim that separates the brown stripes and green solid color below.

It is a wonderful room. I love the light that fills it in the morning, and I think the colors are very welcoming and soothing. As our guest bedroom, we never spent much time in there. But now that it's the nursery, I know we'll both be in there day and night!

Our Pizza Box Holder

We haven't been very good about cooking lately. Partly because we've been busy, and I've been extra tired. And partly because we know we won't have the discretionary income in a few weeks to be ordering out all the time.

I've started referring to the stove as our "pizza box holder," since it seems to be doing more of that lately than actually being fired up. I hope we're not making it harder for ourselves to adjust after the baby arrives. Falling into bad habits now that will be hard to break later.

But I figure, any habit we have now is irrelevant post-baby. I don't really think we can assume that anything will be the same when we get home from the hospital. So even if the stove is a pizza box holder now, I think we'll be able to see it in a whole new light with Little L around.

It will be the surface on which we slap together peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Fascinating, Captain*

Well, we made it through the weekend! Keith's family came to visit and we had a great time hanging out. Overall, it was pretty laid back. But even so, and with all the help they gave me, I was still pretty worn out by Sunday evening. I'm very glad this is a 4-day week! (For my international readers: Friday we have off to celebrate our Independence Day.)

Most of the weekend we used paper plates for everything, because it just made life a whole lot easier. But I decided to really step it up a notch on Sunday morning and use real plates. I set the table with placemats, the smaller square plates, silverware, juice glasses, napkins—the works! If you didn't know better, you might actually think that Keith and I eat meals at the table on a regular basis.

So anyway, I turned all of the square plates at an angle to the rectangular placements, so they appeared as a diamond-shape to the diners. I liked the contrast of shapes. I did this as I set the table, and then completely forgot about it.

Maybe a half-hour later, after all of the eggs, goetta, watermelon, etc. had been consumed, Keith's sister Jessica looked around the table. She realized that half of us had left our plates as set, and the other half had turned them so the straight edge was against the table edge. Upon further inspection, we realized that all of the engineers (which includes Keith's dad, because his mom argues the kids got their engineering brains from him) had turned their plates so the straight edge was facing them. All of us non-engineers had left them cock-eyed.

I hadn't meant for the plates to be a psychological experiment, but I think the results were very telling!


* In case you're not as big a dork as I am, you may not realize the title is a reference to Spock on the original Star Trek television series.

Happy Birthday Keith!

Finally! Yesterday was Keith's 30th birthday, so the long 3 months when I am older than he are now over for another year.

It was our usual, laid-back affair. We went with some couple friends (that is, friends who are a couple, not two un-related friends) to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and to see the new(ish?) Indiana Jones movie. Beckett must even have known it was a special occasion, because he behaved himself while we were gone. This is more impressive when you know that, while we were at work on Tuesday, he got into the trash and pantry—and ate my Oreos!—, pooped in the attic, and peed in the basement. All in a day's work.

So even the dog behaved himself and when we got home from the movie, we actually got to bed at a decent hour. That part was very important because tonight is going to be a long night. Keith's family is coming up this weekend to celebrate Keith being old, and also to see the Reds play the Indians at Progressive Field. As always, we had the best intentions of cleaning every night this week so it wouldn't be so bad tonight. And we tried, but never really got as far as we wanted. So tonight will be a cleaning extravaganza. I hope the old man's knees don't give out when he's scrubbing the floor at 1 am!;)

The camera loves the kitten

Since getting the new camera, Keith has taken a million pictures of random items around our house, trying to get the depth of field, focus, lighting, etc., just right. He wants to get used to all of the features so that the first pictures of Little L come out perfect.

So far, I would say that the kitten has been his favorite subject, and the dog is a close second. Followed by inanimate objects within 2 inches of the lens (he really likes that short depth of field option), and then me.

Wednesday night was my last official writing group meeting before the baby arrives. I said I may show up in July or not .... it all depends on when Little L shows up. So my writing group members turned our meeting into a mini-shower and gave me all sorts of wonderful toys and clothes for the baby. When I got home, I showed the latest acquisitions to Keith and Gomez showed up to investigate. So the picture above is Gomez modeling a hand-crocheted frog hat from a girl in my writing group. Isn't it adorable?

The only problem is that Gomez seems to think all of the new goodies are for her. She's in for a rude awakening, but I don't have the heart to break it to her just yet.

And it just keeps growing

Just when you think the belly can't get any bigger ... surprise!





Keep in mind, the cropping is a bit different in the most recent photo. And it was taken with our new camera that Keith, dutiful citizen that he is, spent our "Economic Stimulus Check" on. We both knew we wanted a camera that took better indoor pictures than our old one, and he did all the research to decide we had to have a Canon XSI. So that explains the better detail, different colors, etc.

But anyway, this isn't about the camera. It's about the belly. Isn't it impressive?

Missing in Action

Sorry I've been MIA for such a long time. I've been trying to put my finger on why I haven't written lately, but I'm not exactly sure. There's plenty to write about, but I just never seem to have the energy to sit down and write about it. And maybe that's the problem; I'm just too tired.

The short version of what's going on today is:
1) We've recently learned that we need to replace all of our windows, due to lead paint issues. Just when we were coming to terms with that, our roof started leaking. So we'll go from being in a pretty good financial position (1 student loan paid off a few months ago, nearly ready to pay off the car loan that isn't even a year old yet) to looking at taking out a substantial home improvement loan just to get our house livable again.
2) On the other hand, remember when I was talking about my gardening project? Apparently, by buying 5 bags of mulch, we got entered into a raffle to win a $100 gift certificate to our local garden center ... and we won! We were shocked; Keith and I never win random games of chance. Unfortunately, we can't really spend the money because we're waiting for the soil testing results to come back. If the soil around our house is contaminated with lead, any hot spots need to be dug out down to 2 feet to get rid of the hazard. So not much point in planting new flowers.

Old houses can be so charming! See, just writing this brief summary makes me want to take a nap.

Hazards of the Doctor's Office

My perception of the doctor's office has been shaped by the fact that, for the most part, I am a healthy person. The doctor's office is someplace you go when you're not well, and they make you better. In general, it's a place I don't see the inside of very often. When I do, it's usually for another sinus infection or, say, breaking my finger.

This has changed since I've been pregnant. I'm at the doctor's office all the time now, it feels like. And not for any reason other than the fact that I'm still pregnant. I don't have any complaints or symptoms that need addressing, I just go in because I have another scheduled appointment.

It had never really occurred to me before that there's hazards to hanging around the doctor's office too much. Because you know who spends a lot of time there? Sick people! And the elderly. The elderly who really shouldn't be driving. Their ancient, enormous cars fill the parking lots of doctors' offices across the country.

I had another check-up this past week. It went well. I'm still pregnant. The doctor said the baby was a "good size." I haven't figure out yet if that's a euphemism for "rather large" or really just a good size. I'm not sure if I want to narrow it down.

When leaving the medical building, I pulled up to the left-turn lane. The driveway to the building is three lanes wide—one lane for incoming traffic, a center lane for outgoing traffic turning left or going straight, and the right-hand lane for outgoing traffic turning right. So I'm in the center lane, waiting for the light to turn green so I can turn left and be on my way.

The light turns green in surprisingly short order, and I'm just starting to pull out and curve left .... when I notice that there's another outbound car on the left-side of me, also turning left at the light.

Which would be fine, except that lane is for INCOMING traffic. Not that basic traffic rules stopped this elderly woman from calmly going out the inbound lane, and gracefully turning left onto the road.

What could I do? I also turned left, right along-side her, and into the curb lane. It's a good thing that we were turning onto a street that had four lanes, so there were two lanes headed in our direction, and we could each turn into one. The situation was only marked by its complete lack of alarm or distress. I'm driving alone in my car, wondering "Did that really just happen?". But she drives calmly on, no one honks or shakes a fist .... and I'm left to ponder the hazards of visiting a place where the elderly are known to congregate.

I will not be visiting a bingo hall anytime soon.

That Joke? Still Not Funny

Mr. "Alright for a Monday" strikes again. He's been driving me crazy all week and there's no sign that it will abate any time soon.

I feel the need to reiterate, once again, that he is a very kind person and a good human being. Would give you the shirt off his back and all that. " But although he is truly nice ... he is also genuinely not funny. Or rather, every once in a great while, lightning strikes and he says something hilarious. That has not been the case this week.

The biggest problem is if he finds a "joke" that he likes the sound of, he repeats it over and over and over again. And it wasn't even funny the first time.

When I saw him on Monday, he feigned amazement. "You still around?" he said. "You haven't had that baby yet?"

I gritted my teeth and hope he mistook the grimace for a friendly grin. "Not yet!" I replied. Because what else can I say? It's true; I haven't had the baby yet. I'm not due for 6 or 7 more weeks.

But right away I knew. THIS was going to become his next favorite joke. So for the next six weeks, I'll have to endure him asking if I'm still here, or acting surprised to see me around the office. AND IT WILL DRIVE ME INSANE.

Just like this morning. When he said "Still here, huh?" and I twitched, ever so slightly.

Weekend of the Project: #5 The Belly

And of course, the main project! The 9-month project for whom all these other projects are taking place. Here's the belly picture from May.

Shockingly, my belly button is still hanging in there. I thought it was a goner weeks ago. And yet, it's still around! It may not be so much of an "innie" but it' s not quite an "outie" yet, so I'm happy with that. For month 8, that's not too shabby!

Some days I wake up in the morning and feel like The Belly has grown during the night. I have a hard time imagining what the next picture will be like. It might be on panoramic setting.

Weekend of Projects: #4 Dresser

This is as close to seeing the nursery as you'll get for now. This used to be Keith's dresser from high school. It was a natural-looking wood veneer—pretty plain and simple.

I don't remember when it appeared in our house .... I think Keith's parents handed it down to us when we got the house for our guest bedroom. Oh, I take that back. Keith said that we had it a few apartments ago, so apparently it's been around longer than I thought!

To make it fit in with the nursery, Keith painted it white and I added the brown and green accents. It wasn't a very cooperative piece of furniture—Keith needed to do three coats of white before it looked even. I got frustrated because the wee little accents took FOREVER to paint. It was the smallest area we'd painted all weekend, and yet it seemed to take an inordinate amount of time. Probably because, once it was finished, I could put down my paintbrush once and for all!

Of course, having said that, I think another coat might be in order for the colored accents. But I just might get used to how they look now, since the alternative is to open the paint cans again.

Weekend of Projects: #3 Bookshelves

This was really all Keith's and my Dad's project. Therefore it's my favorite project, because these fabulous bookshelves appeared, just like magic!

Ever since we moved into this house, I've wanted bookshelves in the living room, flanking the fireplace in the living room. For a few months now, Keith and Dad have been working on this project—researching the best way to build the bookshelves and measuring and buying materials.

Silly Keith and I; we thought the bookshelves were pretty much done once they were assembled. This weekend he would just be doing some "finishing touches." Oh, our DIY naivete strikes again!

FYI: Staining takes a LONG time. Especially when you need two coats of stain on each bookshelf. Plus on the back (which was attached after the staining process). And on the trim pieces. So just keep that in mind.

But as you can tell from the pictures, the final results were absolutely worth the (Keith and Dad's) time. I think they're great! I can't wait to fill them with all of my impressive literature books from college. I'll have to dust the books off first, though.

Weekend of the Project: #2 Garden

This is a picture of a project in process, because it didn't occur to me to get an After photo. We got 5 bags of mulch and a few plants to make the front garden beds look a little less pathetic.

This project involved weeding, which for me is a game of "Is this a weed or a plant?" After weeding, I planted a few myrtle starter plants, since I'm trying to get ground cover started to compete with the weeds. Maybe, about 5 years from now, the myrtle will be winning and I'll have a little less weeding to do.

I also planted a container that looks very cute on the front step. It almost looks like our yard isn't completely hopeless! There's still plenty of room for improvement—and I mean room. There's not a whole lot of plants and large spaces for the weeds to grow in-between. So, as with the myrtle, my plan is to take the long-term view. Take out a few weeds and put in a few more perennial plants every year, and eventually we'll improve the weed-to-plant ratio to an acceptable level.