Megan 的个人资料Megan's World照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
|
2006/8/31 the luck continuesThere was a message on our machine when I got home - our crib is here! It's only been 4 weeks since we ordered it, so this was a real surprise. I'm letting the store hang onto it for at least a few weeks in hopes that the glider and dresser will also show up early. Wouldn't that be fantastic? I might just even let the store keep the crib until the other pieces arrive, whether or not Kate is born first. I paid a flat fee for delivery of the pieces, and the delivery crew will unpack and set up everything for an extra $10. Isn't that nuts? Hopefully the other pieces will come in early and it can all be set up before she's born. I'll probably call the store to have them check on the status of the other pieces in 2 or 3 weeks (that would be 6 or 7 weeks after ordering) just to get a sense of what the situation is. If it's looking like they each might take a full 12 weeks, well, I don't know if I'll be able to handle the anticipation of the crib when I know that it's only a short 40 minute drive from here...besides, by then we'll probably own a minivan
 , so picking up the crib would actually be straightforward. In reality, the crib was the least of my worries - I'm much more interested in having the glider and dresser in time for Kate, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. Lab is going well - the experiments continue - but this hourly work thing is for the birds! I've been working 9 1/2 hour days all week because I have Monday 'off' and then I'll be out of town Wed-Fri. I think I'll be working this weekend to make up some more time (and to get more work done) and I'll probably be in on Monday. I'm hoping that I can at least get paid for Wednesday and half of Thursday with the hours I'll have built up. My last paycheck was only for 68 hours (it covered the time when my mom was in town), and that was a bummer. When I was converted to an hourly worker Leo told me that it 'wouldn't make me rich;' if you take my grad student stipend and assume that it covered a 40 hour week, I got a huge $0.10 hourly raise after I graduated. Talk about not making me rich! *lol* And now I have to account for my hours. Laurie told me that the grad students before me have just turned in 40 hour time sheets regardless of the hours they worked, and while I'm sure that Leo actually wouldn't mind that, money is way tighter now than it's been throughout Leo's career (see this article), so I'm not about to take advantage of him.
I was going to go to yoga tonight, but traffic was so heavy getting there that I was five minutes late getting to the studio and I wasn't even changed - and yoga is not something you can walk in on late. I just came home rather than interrupt class, but I'm a little bummed. There's a class Saturday at 12:15, but I have a feeling that Jay and I may be at a dealership...
Ooh, my baby shower invitation came today - it's so cute! Melinda did a great job with it; I'm definitely going to keep it for Kate's baby book.  Only 7 weeks left!!!a resolution!So, things with the Mini took a sudden turn for the better today. My ad on Craig's List resulted in two people contacting me, but neither has followed up with interest in actually seeing the car. I got in touch with the finance person at the dealership today, and she referred me to someone else at the dealership who could tell me how the valuation of my car would be done. I left him a message, and when he called he told me that he'd buy the car for my full lease balance. I was dumbfounded. Apparently the auction value is actually just a few hundred dollars less than my lease balance, but he'd rather make my life easier and just buy it outright. I was dumbfounded! So, Saturday morning at 9:30 we're going to the dealership to hand over the car and fill out some paperwork. Just like that, it's going to be gone and we'll be down to one car. Talk about a speedy development - Sunday afternoon I realize that the car isn't going to work, and within a week the car will be gone. It's actually a little freaky...
So now Jay and I need to figure out what we're going to buy. I refuse to buy an SUV out of principle, so that's one restriction. We're looking for this car to last for a long time and handle an entire family for that timeframe - two or three kids. Jay would also like the car to have some cargo room so that the logistics of transporting big things could be a bit easier than it's been so far. As far as I can figure, those parameters leave us looking for either a station wagon or a minivan. A large part of me strongly prefers the station wagon approach, but the minivan might make more sense. UGH, it's just the idea of me driving a minivan...My mom said today that I should just accept that this is how life is with a family, but I guess since I haven't actually lived this way yet it's hard to fathom. Since we haven't been thinking about this, it's pretty hard to know where to start. We're going to look at least at one dealership after the trip to get rid of the Mini just to get started. It'll be a few weeks, for sure, before we commit to anything, but I think we definitely need to get this figured out before Kate makes her appearance. Until then we can easily survive with one car. So, that's that! 2006/8/29 Mini updateOK, so we have a plan. First of all, let me just say that making Jay drive the car to work is certainly a viable option, but only for the couple of months that I'm home. Once I have a job we intend to have Kate in child care for as short a time as possible everyday, so he'll be dropping her off while I pick her up. Hence, two cars are needed that can actually transport her safely. Additionally, she'll be into an even bigger car seat around that same time, and I doubt that it will work at all in the Mini. So, Jay driving the car is at best a short term solution, and there are almost two years left on the lease.
So, for the plan. I posted an ad to Craig's List yesterday (and already had someone ask about it!), and I'm going to set up ads for the local papers and their online classifieds. I'm also thinking about going onto Auto Trader and Vehix. We're going to give it a few months to sell/transfer and only start to panic around the first of the year. Hopefully we can actually resolve this quickly, but we'll see. The last resort is going to be to transfer to a new lease through BMW; I'm going to call the dealership this morning to figure out what the details of that would be. If we end up doing that, we'll almost certainly wait until I have a job - or at least an offer so that we know my salary - because the monthly payments will definitely go up substantially even on the bottom of the barrel BMW. So that's the plan. Neither of us are freaking out about it, and I am crossing my fingers that we'll just be able to sell the Mini pretty easily. There are a lot of older model Minis for sale in the area for essentially the same amount of money that I'm asking for, so I guess we'll see. 2006/8/28 I knew it couldn't be that easyI spoke with MINI Financial Services today, and the method that I mentioned yesterday (paying the difference between the lease balance and the value of the car) is not a great one. The value of the car is determined by the amount that the dealer can get at auction. Needless to say, that's not market value, leaving me with a potentially huge liability that can't be predicted. Not ideal. The method most people use to get out of a lease involves finding someone to assume the lease or purchase the car. Great. I just posted an ad to craig's list, but I don't have a whole lot of hope. There are some advantages to taking over someone's lease, though - no downpayment and a shorter lease term. So maybe I'll appeal to someone out there...I really doubt someone will buy it outright, but hey, you never know. I got an email from a company called LeaseFolks right away - they manage lease transfers. For $25 I can post my offering to their marketplace where it can be viewed by people particularly interested in buying a lease. I'll have to think about it - they only get 10,000 visitors a month in US and Canada, and there's the potentially huge issue of transporting the car to another part of the country if someone was interested. Maybe I'll just get lucky and find someone locally that's interested in the car...*sigh* 2006/8/27 many, many groansDid I say I love my car? That was before the few tests I ran this afternoon...
Test #1: Does the (very small) stroller fit in the back of the Mini?
Answer: No. The height of the stroller when folded is longer than the width of the space in the boot. The only way to get the stroller in is to drop one of the seats and put it on its side in that space. Two problems...1. what a pain!! 2. it doesn't seem all that safe to have a loose stroller in the backseat with the baby. The car seat frame that we'll use initially is even bigger than the stroller. *massive sigh number 1*
Test #2: Can I manage to maneuver the infant car seat in and out of the car?
Answer: Barely. I installed the car seat base and thought things were fine. Then I added the car seat...The passenger seat needs to be all the way forward in order for the seat to be in place, and I expected that. What I didn't expect is that the front seat needs to be extremely upright or completely forward when the car seat is in place. If the passenger seat is in any kind of 'normal' position it bangs into the back of the car seat. There is no chance of carrying an adult in the passenger seat with this configuration - not only do my knees come within a half inch of the glove compartment (and I'm only 5'4"), but it's not comfortable at all (not to mention a total lack of safety) to be seated in this position. Getting the seat in and out of the car is going to be interesting for my back, too, once there's a 10lb child in it - much less a 20lb one! *many massive sighs*
Jay's boss has a Mini Cooper and a 2 year old, so I've been reassured by the knowledge that it can be done. I'm not feeling so reassured at the moment. I think I'll have to email his wife about this...
So Jay and I had agreed that if there was any way out of the lease we would wait on that action until after I had found a job. The rationale was that it seems most likely that we'll be able to transfer leases but not completely pull out of this one. Mini is owned by BMW, and the folks at the Mini dealership had talked to us briefly about moving into a BMW after this lease was up - it sounded like they really function as the same company that happen to have two brands. So, we're anticipating that the 'easiest' way out of this lease is going to be to get into a BMW. While we'd both love to have a BMW, needless to say it's a pricey way to go on one salary when a second salary is really just a lot of imagination - hence the decision to wait until I actually have a job to deal with any of this. Now that I've seen the reality of the Mini/baby situation, however, I think I'll be making that call to Mini this week to find out what options we have. I just went through the lease early termination details, and I can't really figure out what the cost would be because it all hinges on the 'realized vehicle value' - what they say the market value of the car is. I went and looked at Kelley Blue Book, and they're telling me that the car is worth more than what we still owe on the lease (the 'adjusted lease balance'). If that's the case in reality then terminating the lease will be no big deal because the termination fee is the amount by which the lease balance exceeds the realized value. Somehow I'm doubting that that will be the situation, but it does make me wonder if just terminating the lease might be a possibility after all...
Jay's getting a bonus on September 15...I wonder if we'll be using it for a down payment on a car...*sigh* Sunday afternoonIt's been a nice weekend so far. Yesterday morning I ran a couple of errands before I went to my prenatal yoga class. It was the second one I attended, and I liked this teacher a lot more than the first one. I don't know, though - Saturday at noon vs. Thursday evening...it's a lot easier to regularly book Thursday evening. The class yesterday was a lot less crowded, too - I guess everyone thinks that Saturday at noon is asking a bit much. The yoga felt great, and today I can definitely feel the effects of it - in my hamstrings, particularly. After yoga I ran around town looking for carpet for the living room - we want an area rug for the baby. It would be nice to just buy an area rug and be done with it, but they're super expensive so I was looking for carpet that I could just have cut to size instead. I found something that was reasonably priced, and this morning Jay and I went back to look at it together and ordered it. Yay! I'm very excited about it. I had found a rug last weekend that was 5x7 and brought it home to try - it looked great but was a little too small. Ever since I've seen the room with an area rug it just looks unfinished with only hardwood floors. It'll be great to have the rug - aesthetically and for Kate.
I got up this morning and washed my car in the alley behind our house - it desperately needed some attention. It looks terrific now, all shiny and clean. I love my little car, although I'm sure that I'll be cursing it once I'm trying to maneuver Kate into it on a regular basis...*sigh* We decided to start trying to get pregnant about 4 months after I ordered it, and that turned out to be pretty crummy timing, didn't it? I'm in a three year lease with 13 months under my belt...One of my to-do-while-waiting-for-Kate items is to call Mini and find out if there's any way out of the lease without massive penalty (for ex, transfer to another lease on a bigger car) in case we really can't cope. For now, though, I love my car - especially when it's sparkling clean.
So the rest of the day I'm going to spend doing some cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping...fun, fun. Although I am going to go set up my cloth diaper registry, so that actually will be fun. We're bringing snacks to our childbirth class on Tuesday, so I'm going to make some brownies later (or maybe tomorrow). Class last week was fun but pretty uneventful. Our teacher is a nurse that's been teaching prenatal courses for a long time, and she's really nice. The cost of the class included a fantastic text, and I've done most of the reading for this week (Jay still needs to do it, I think). There are 7 couples and we're all due within about 5 weeks of each other - another woman is expecting a girl on 10/18 like us, so that's fun. This week we'll start with coping strategies and real discussion of labor, so we're getting into the nitty-gritty. There are 5 class sessions covering labor and delivery, then there's one about breastfeeding with a lactation consultant, and the final class is basic newborn care. I was born before my parents finished with their Lamaze classes, but I'm hoping that the 2 week spread between the end of our class and my due date is enough padding - we'll see!
OK, I'm off to register for diapers!  2006/8/24 a solution, I thinkI bought a body pillow last night, and I LOVE it! The pillow hugging was helping a bit, but this is soooo much better. I just flopped my body across it, and this morning I feel much better than normal. Ever since I started with all of these pillows I've been sleeping through the night without issues, it's just a matter of how much pain I'm in in the morning. I'm so excited to think that I might have really dealt with the issue once and for all. Isn't that great? 2006/8/23 twin photos :)Claire, thanks for the clarification on the month counting. You are a bit of a freak sometimes, though...
Here are the photos of the girls - I couldn't get a great one of Jillian, but you can clearly see that she's tiny compared to Taylor... it's all about the number 2 todayToday is the last day of my seventh month - only 2 months left! (Actually, all of the books say that last week was the last week of month seven, but there are 8 weeks left and that equals two months in my world.) 8 weeks...lots of daydreaming going on these days. I had my appt this morning - Kate's heart is still going strong (not that I had any doubt given her dance parties), I'm measuring right on track, my blood pressure was better (120/60), and...I gained 3 1/2 pounds. ACK! That's 6 1/2 pounds this past month - I'm quite annoyed. Today I crossed the 160lb mark as well, so that was a little freaky. I was hoping to not hit 170, but now I'm thinking that there's no way that's going to happen. Oh well - it's for a good cause, right?
After my appointment I went over to Allison's - my planned one hour turned into three (we were just having too much fun)! The girls are sooooooooo precious. I love newborns, and it was great fun to have 2 of them; mom could hold one while I held the other.
They both slept most of the time, but I did get to feed Taylor right before I left, and Jillian was awake for a little while when I was holding her. I took a couple of pictures but don't have my camera cable on me - I'll post them later on. Jillian is teeny - she just crossed 6lbs - and so mellow. Taylor is the chub (a little more than 7lbs) and a little more vocal, although not very as babies go. Allison is loving motherhood and seems like a natural at it. It was really fun to see them, and I'm thinking that I may have to make the point to go visit again in a couple of weeks...I can always say that I need the practice, right? Oh, and the last number two - only 2 weeks until I get to see Claire!!!! 2006/8/22 TuesdaySo I did manage to sleep last night without any problems - I mean, I was in pain this morning when I woke up like I normally am, but I slept through the night. I moved from my side to a reclined position on my back for the last hour or so that I was in bed, and that was pretty nice. I know that I don't do well in that position for an entire night, but maybe I'll start moving to it partway through the night - anything to get me off of my side! Early on I had read that some women are just so happy after the birth to be able to sleep on their stomachs again, and I thought to myself, sure, I can understand that but it won't be me. WRONG (I didn't realize just how much I normally sleep on my stomach). What I would give to sleep on my belly...Two more months.
Tonight is our first childbirth class. We're taking a class offered by a non-profit organization based in Seattle that is dedicated to providing "unbiased research-based childbirth and parenting education." The class will cover major coping philosophies (Lamaze, Bradley, and Hypnobirthing) as well as a number of other techniques to help with labor progression. It's a 14 hour course (over 7 weeks), and some of the time will be dedicated to breastfeeding and newborn care as well. It's all pretty exciting! I'm sure that after tonight I'm going to be bursting at the seams with questions, and hopefully we'll like our instructor and feel like the whole thing is going to be really worthwhile. They offer the class both in Seattle and on the Eastside, but since class starts at 7:00 I figured I'd give Jay a break from the traffic and travel over to his side of the lake. Tonight I'll meet him at 6 at his office and we'll get dinner beforehand; I guess that will probably be our normal routine.
Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. I have an appt in the morning (nurse practitioner again) and I'm going to head straight from the doc's office to see Allison and the twins! I'm so excited to meet them!! I guess my perspective on newborns is going to be pretty different now that I'm anticipating my own in just 8 weeks - Tyler was the last newborn I held/interacted with, and I wasn't pregnant at that point. Allison has some stuff to give me that they didn't end up using, so that's nice. I figure I'll be there for about an hour or so. Later in the afternoon I have a haircut - I'm really in need of one - and that's always fun because my stylist has her new son and loves to talk pregnancy and babies. I've timed this cut so that I can get another one just before my due date. Pretty smart, huh? This is what happens when you're a planner.
 OK, I have a few things to do before I head out to meet Jay. Have a good evening! third night?I'm crossing my fingers for another good night of sleep tonight. Saturday night was a breeze because I was so pooped from my Friday night insomnia, and then - somewhat surprisingly - I slept all night again on Sunday. Anyone want to lay bets on whether tonight will be a success or a flop? Oh, and I got an egg crate pad yesterday - it's sooo comfy! I think I may have to get a body pillow, though. The pillow between my legs is keeping my hips and lower back aligned, but then last night I realized that I'm twisting in the middle of my back...it's pretty sore all the time now. I did schedule a massage for Friday evening, though - I'm pretty excited about that.
So today was my first day in lab without any writing to do! What a strange thing. I was so productive just doing lab work - what a concept! It was actually kind of fun to spend a few hours working with flies at the microscope - it's been a loooong time since I've done that. I have a shitload (pardon my french) of work to do before I leave lab, though, so the next few weeks aren't going to be laidback when I'm at work. But that's ok because I have nothing to do when I get home...ah...
OK, I'm off to bed - wish me luck! *yawn* 2006/8/20 :)Last night What Not To Wear had a 'baby on board' show about dressing when pregnant - and one of the girls just bought the dress I wore to both Tracey and Bill's wedding! I feel so proud of myself... *yawn*I'm pretty tired after my not-so-successful night of sleeping...FYI, I fell asleep around 1:00am in the recliner, and then woke up to use the bathroom at 4:40. I was so tired that I was sure I'd fall asleep again easily, so I climbed into bed with Jay - that lasted about 2 minutes. I realized that the aero bed upstairs might be a better option than the recliner, so I headed up to the attic with my pillow and a blanket...and laid there awake for an hour and a half. *sigh* I finally fell asleep again around 6, but I got up at 7:20, so all in all there wasn't too much sleeping going on in my world last night. I have no doubt that tonight will be better - I'm totally pooped.
Bill, a friend of ours who works with Jay, got married today at an 11:30 ceremony, so we left for that at 10:30 with Mike and Melinda. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun (congrats again, Bill!). M&M drove us, and they were kind enough to drop us off at a soccer game that Carmen was playing in at Qwest Field (the Seahawks stadium): an annual Boeing vs. MS game. That was fun too, and Carmen played really well. They ended up tying, 1-1. Jay and I caught the bus home (the third time we've made that trip in 3 weeks, funny), and grabbed dinner before we got back to the house. It was a great day - lots of friends and time outside on yet another beautiful day. I've attached some photos from the wedding...
I mentioned that yesterday's shopping trip was successful, so let me tell the tale. I left for downtown around 6 on the handy-dandy bus that stops outside of our house. I didn't really have a destination in mind, but I have this 20% off coupon at Macy's that's good through the end of the month, and it's always fun to wander through Macy's. My mom and I had been in there looking for a nice bag for me to use for my (so far imaginary) job - it was going to be her graduation present - and we had seen a decent candidate there, so I thought I'd look at it again (we eventually dropped the bag-as-present idea). WELL, I came across the perfect bag - it's brand new and wasn't there when we were, so I debated and then bought it with the money that my lab gave me. It's really fantastic; I'm very excited about it. While I was debating I wandered through the shoe dept (nothing interesting) and through the jewelry area. I came across a necklace that I loved, and it was 50% off and then I had my 20% off coupon too! A steal, to say the least, and a fun piece of jewelry to have. After I bought that item I went back to buy the bag - and got my 20% off there too. Woo-hoo! So, those items combined just about exactly equal the amount of money I got from my lab (with about $10 to spare). Very fun.
I left Macy's and grabbed dinner at this mall-like place. On the way to get food I saw that there is a Motherhood Maternity there (I had no idea), so I stopped back there after I'd eaten just to see if anything looked interesting. I bought a pair of exercise/lounge pants because all of my pj bottoms that I've been hanging out in are starting to be too small. For $13, I thought it was a good purchase. Let's see...then I went to The Body Shop for more body butter and to Old Navy to check out their current maternity offerings. I got a pair of gaucho pants (just for lounging) for $10. I did pretty well, I think. I wrapped up by stopping at Bed Bath and Beyond, but they didn't have the egg crate pad I was looking for. Bus home, and that was that - I was home at 9, so I think that was quite the productive three hours. I was pretty beat at the end of it, but not tired enough to actually sleep, I guess...
I have no plans for tomorrow. Literally, I have nothing that I have to do or even should be doing outside of the house. Do you know how long it's been since I could say that??? I can't even remember the last time. The weekends that I spent relaxing were always at odds with things I should be doing in lab, but now...I don't have an expectation of working on the weekend. Freedom! 2006/8/19 sleepless in seattleWell, I can't sleep. I got into bed an hour and a half ago, and it's just not happening. I'm attributing it to a number of things...my busy mind (I did finish grad school today!), my busy baby, the nap that I took this afternoon, and my snoring husband - just to name a few. I turned on the light and read for about a half hour, but that just made me more alert. I just made a mug of warm milk - something I haven't tried before but even my mother (a true milk hater) swears can be effective. I've moved from the bedroom to the recliner in the office, and I think I'll be here tonight. The recliner is a great way to get some of my sorely missed back sleeping in since it's not possible to lay completely flat. I'm drowsy but just not tired enough to turn off my brain...
Shopping was a great success, by the way - I'll give the details tomorrow...  2006/8/18 a student no more!!!!I just got back from turning in my dissertation to the graduate school - that's the last thing, it's over, kaput, finito!! Woo-hoo!! The process was very easy (that is, after I spent an hour and a half this morning collating 4 copies of a 110 page document that was made up of ~10 files). Since I had only very tiny adjustments to make after my preliminary formatting check last week, the final check went really smoothly. I spent this week really improving the whole thing (content-wise) - more comments from Leo came in yesterday - and I think it actually turned out pretty well. I can't really believe it's all over, but it is! I'm done with school forever...
 I'm in lab for a bit, but then I think I'm going to take off and treat myself to an afternoon of relaxation and celebration. Laurie said that I should go shopping (she knows how much I love to shop), and I said, what am I going to buy?!? I'm still so frustrated at my inability to buy clothes...I'm sure there are baby things to purchase, but really, I'm waiting to see what I get at my shower before I do all of that. I have been thinking about shoes, though...my favorite pair of brown sandals bit the dust, so I could replace them...then again, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy sandals at the end of the summer, does it? Such a dilemma. *lol* Maybe I should just shoe shop and see if anything strikes my fancy. Maybe I should just drop the idea of shopping altogether!
Kate is getting to be soooooo strong that it's really almost scary to think that there's almost 9 weeks to go. Trying to fall asleep last night was a joke because she was being so violent. My poor tummy...the spot where her butt has been pushing against (for weeks now) is actually kind of sore to the touch - too much constant pressure, I guess. Yesterday I felt like my skin was going to burst open because it was so tight across my body, but today is better. I guess that probably means that I've stretched a bit more in the last few days. And there's so far to go... 2006/8/16 9 weeks to go!Holy cow, I'm 31 weeks pregnant. We're into the single digit countdown now...OMG! I was talking to Carmen last night and we were marveling at how fast time has passed. It's just nuts. This is the last week of my seventh month!! Crazy, crazy, crazy. I got a little panicky this morning when it occurred to me that another week had gone by. I guess we're pretty much ready to go in terms of necessary logistics - although if she was to show up tonight Jay would definitely be making a trip to the store! But the basics we have covered. It's more the thought that in nine weeks we'll have a baby. It's so exciting, but it's intimidating as well. I'm very glad that we're starting childbirth classes next week - it's time to get that show on the road! On the topic of classes...we've signed up for another tour of the hospital (we saw it in Feb), an infant first aid/CPR class, and Jay is taking a fathering class. My calendar in September is pretty funny to look at - between the weekly childbirth classes, the other classes, and my multitude of ob appointments, my world is about to really become dominated by prepping for Kate's arrival.
Kate herself is pretty dominating these days. Her movements are so constant and strong that I just burst out laughing sometimes - either that or I say, 'ow!' It's great that she's active because it means she's healthy, but I have to admit that I look forward to the (totally unpredictable) times when she's quiet. She gets hiccups every morning after I eat breakfast now, and that's quite the thing. Oh, and speaking of breakfast - I awaken STARVING every morning now. I get out of bed, brush my teeth, and eat. There's no way that I can shower and primp before chowing down. I'm definitely a little 'worried' that I'll have gained another 3 pounds at next week's appt! So be it, right? My disgusting full stomach issues have gotten better since I've started 'grazing' all day (Angela's phrase), so that's been a huge relief. I didn't know what I was going to do if that issue persisted throughout every day. My sleeping seems to be a bit better, too, although I haven't bought the egg crate thing yet. The pillow between my legs seems to really be effective in minimizing my back pain. I have a new issue - I wake up with a million things running through my mind. Questions to ask Carmen, things I want to look up, etc. Carmen had told me at one point that she kept a pen and pad next to the bed so that she could write all of that stuff down and go back to sleep easily, and I think it might be about time for me to take that approach. It makes me wonder though, what the heck is going on in my mind while I'm actually sleeping that I wake up so focused on little details. 2006/8/15 One day closerMy dissertation is due to the graduate school on Friday, so I've been busy incorporating the comments of my reading committee - some of which are still trickling in. I had the formatting check done on the document last week, and there were only a few very minor changes to make - what a relief. Some of that stuff is really hard to change, so I was glad to not have to mess with the document too much. I'm really hoping to get this all turned in on Thursday (I was aiming for Wednesday but dawdling faculty have hindered my progress), but no matter what it'll be turned in on Friday. Yay! So, once Friday hits I'll have to finally face the music on my student loans. I got a statement from Cornell yesterday telling me that I'm 90 days into my grace period, so I'll have to call them to straighten that out - I want my 90 days back! I sent in the deferment form this spring that verified my status as a full time student, so I'm not sure what went wrong there. I guess my loan payments are going to start coming due in March, and let me just say that they will be a terrific impetus for me to find a job! Jay gets parental leave through MS (1 month paid + up to 3 months unpaid), but the rules have changed in the last year. We thought that he had to take the paid month within a year of the birth, but it actually has to be completed within 6 months! That discovery was kind of a bummer because I had been planning on staying home for a full six months, but it doesn't really seem like it makes a lot of sense for us to both be home for an entire month at the same time. I guess I'll be looking for a job a little earlier than I had planned. It also means that our daycare start date was moved in a month...what a pain. Yeah, between my student loan payments kicking in and the cost of daycare (not to mention the cost of Kate herself), our monthly expenses are going to be dramatically higher next spring... 2006/8/13 advice, please!OK, so I was thinking that Claire's egg crate suggestion might really be the way to go, but then I went and looked at the maternity pillows again (I've looked at them in the past). Now I'm wondering if my hip pain might also be due to a mis-alignment issue...maybe cushioning isn't really the right approach. For you ladies who have gone through this whole pregnancy thing, can you please give me your opinion on the options that are available? People seem to love the Snoogle, but I'm sure some of the other pillows work equally well...I'm off to go check out the egg crate options!
Update: Alright, I think I'm going to take back my request. I just read a little article about pressure on hips during pregnancy, and they specifically recommend the egg crate option (which looks like it'll cost ~$20) to deal with the problem. I'm thinking that a pillow between my legs (did that again last night) might suffice to keep my back straight, and a cushy mattress will help with the bigger discomfort - my hips. What doe everyone think of that? 2006/8/12 Ah, SaturdayIt's been quite a few weeks since we've had what I consider a 'normal' Saturday - between the thesis work and the family visits the weekends just haven't been standard. I slept a little late this morning because I was awake again for a little while early this morning. You've all been lucky to avoid complaints from me so far (and I've been lucky to not have any!), but as I'm really getting bigger now life is getting more uncomfortable. I mentioned my hand/foot swelling recently and my stomach issue yesterday, but now I'm going to fill you in on my sleeping issues. There are two basic problems: 1. my back is sore every morning and 2. my hips are achy. The back thing (I think) is due to my stomach pulling on me all night long; last night I slept with a pillow between my legs and that seemed to straighten me out more. This morning my back definitely didn't feel like it had been twisted all night long. The hip issue, though, is another thing altogether. Basically, I'm pretty bony in the hip region - I don't have big hips and not much padding in that area, so having to sleep on my side all night is putting a lot of weight and pressure on my poor hipbone. It is by far the most uncomfortable part of sleeping now - this morning I actually put a pillow under me in an attempt to reduce the pressure on that part of my body, but by then it was too late. Soooo sore. Our bed isn't even that hard, so it seems a little silly that my weight is causing me such discomfort, but there you are.
Kate's movements have gotten to be pretty dramatic - any motion (ie, not just kicks and punches) is visible from the outside now. I swear I spend half of my day watching my belly move! Every night when I lay down for bed she goes crazy for a little while; I always start out on my left side, and for a couple of weeks I've been noticing that the movement is really centered at the point where my belly begins to rest on the bed. Last night...man oh man. It was the first time that I've really felt like a body part was protruding! Jay and I are pretty sure it was an elbow - it was so hard and pointy! I guess it could have been a knee, but based on what we know about her positioning, it's hard to imagine that a knee could be over there. Because it was really poking out at the bottom of my belly we couldn't see it, but I think that it's going to be just a short time now before body parts are visible from the outside when I'm just sitting around. Jay finds all of this extremely humorous - he's started referring to her as an alien! *lol*
I took a picture of the crib blanket because my mom and I both agree that the URL that I posted the other day really makes it look weird. I haven't ironed it yet, but you get the idea. my stomach conundrumDo you remember how a few weeks back that I mentioned that I had this strange feeling that might be heartburn? It's been weeks since then, but in the last few days, I've had this same awful feeling again. Yesterday I finally figured out what it is. My stomach is being squished as Kate gets bigger, so I'm not able to handle normal volumes of food anymore. If I eat too much I end up feeling like it's going to back up into my throat (lovely, huh?). The problem is that the volume of food that I can eat doesn't satisfy my appetite, so I'm hungry all the time. The appropriate remedy is to eat small amounts of food constantly, but it doesn't really seem to be working. I feel like I'm always walking the line between feeling ok and feeling gross. I think that not only do I need to modify the volumes of food that I eat, but also what it is that I'm eating. I need to find things that are quickly digested so that my stomach doesn't remain full all the time - of course the problem with that idea is that the more quickly food is digested the less satisfying it is. *sigh* I'm all ears if anyone has suggestions... |
|
|
