I'll bet you thought I was gone for good, huh? Nope, I'm here...

 

Things are going well with my pregnancy. I'm 18 weeks along now, and I felt the baby move for the first time the other day. Such little movements, particularly when I know how big they get later on! It was very sweet to feel them, and I guess it's just one more indication that yes, I am pregnant. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but my life is nuts enough that I feel like I've barely had time to really comprehend that fact. Anyway, things are going fine. I have my next OB appt and an ultrasound scheduled for the 17th. We could find out the sex then, but right now I think we're going to stick with the plan to not find out. I just think it would be kind of fun to be surprised at the birth, and since we weren't with Kate and we own all the baby gear we need, it seems compelling enough to try. Granted, there are days when I really want to know if we should refer to "him" or "her," but I think we can manage to show some patience. We'll see.

 

Kate is doing great. She's got to be the happiest little girl in the world, I swear. She's doing so much pretend play now, and she loves to play hide and seek. After months of earnest trying, she started to jump in mid-December, and I don't think she's really stopped since. Hopping is a favorite way to express her happiness! She's doing great at daycare - everyone there adores her, and I think she's really learning a lot and enjoying it. She's definitely a joy to have around; one of her teachers said to me the other day, "You must be so proud to have her as your daughter." Well, yes, I am in fact.   I'm deep in planning her new room, and I know that she's going to enjoy moving out of the crib and having new things to check out. We need to make sure that she has been transitioned (new room, potty trained being the big two issues) well before the baby arrives in July in order to keep life running as smoothly as possible over the summer.

 

Jay and I are ok. We've had a pretty tough month - Jay worked an unbelievable number of hours for the month of January, and he wasn't home for the last couple of weekends because of it. It all got pretty old, I can tell you. Between him being beyond exhausted and stressed, and me bearing the weight of everything non-Jay work related (and thus being exhausted and stressed, we were getting to be pretty grumpy. His big push was for a trade show that started tonight, so while he's out of town this week and I'm still bearing the weight of life, the end is really close. He'll never be a 40hr worker, but the craziness that has been going on will not continue either. For those of you who have known Jay's work habits for years - this is the most I've ever seen him work. You know that's saying a lot.

 

Work for me is good. I'm totally swamped, and I wish we had 8 day weeks so that I could get extra time in without having to work over the weekend. I pretty much refuse to do it (don't want to anyway, but I hate the idea of losing any of the little normal life time that I have), but that just means that M-F is super tough and I'm juggling an awful lot right now. I'm going to have to put in some extra hours soon, I know it. Too many things are at risk for hitting the ground...On a happy note, I received a promotion and a very generous raise to go along with it in my performance review. I've been working for 11mo now, and it's definitely been a roller coaster experience, but at least I know that I'm doing a good job.

 

OK, off to bed for me - I make it a habit to go to sleep around 9 so that I can get 8 hours in before 5am rolls around...