Paul e-mails me just now to tell me this:

We're going to have a lil' girl with a pug nose and scary monster feet!!!!

Weee!!!

I have been having a stupid grin on my face for the better part of the day.

You cute,

-me

Cletus isn't even here yet and she has him wrapped around her pinkie. LOL.

29 weeks. Up early because I'm hyper about our ultrasound appointment at 8:50 AM. Last night we were watching the u/s tape from last time to get it to a blank space for today's appointment and both of us had forgotten how small Cletus was at 12 weeks. How big will he seem now in comparison?

My babyage.com order shipped so if I'm lucky it might get here this evening or tomorrow. Whee!

[10:45 AM]

We are back, and I've scanned and posted the ultrasound pictures. Cletus-the-Fetus is a GIRL! A strong 166 bpm. Everything looked great, we got to see her swallowing, waving, kicking, rolling, her bones, heart, brain, amniotic fluid size, etc. She's measuring at 3.5 lbs, so 2 weeks ahead but nobody seemed overly worried.

Dr. G. spoke to us briefly once we got out of sono. He wanted to be sure we registered for a class, and just said we'd keep an eye on how she is developing and if she is still measuring ahead and looks like letting her go to 2/5 may make her hard for me to pass her vaginally, we may talk about inducing her a bit early. Paul knows I'd prefer to let her come at her own time but asked on the car trip home if the choice is inducing early or C-sect, what I would pick. I'd pick to induce early.

He also confessed that even though he would have been totally ok with either, he was secretly leaning towards a girl. I don't knwo how many times he patted my stomach on the way home. He's so cute giddy. :)

I'm on appts. every 2 weeks now. (!!!)

Just spoke to one of the two class coordinator people and she said I should have gotten my papers a while ago since we spoke Nov 4th for the weekend class of Dec 6th. Tour is part of class. She's sending me all that stuff again and I don't have to return anything -- I can just pay at the door when we show up to class. Supposedly I'll have it in tomorrow's post so I know what time and what room and all that.

I'm not holding my breath.

Paul's cholesterol labs came back -- overall chol. and LDL are ok, but his HDL And triglycerides could use improvement. Didn't check his blood sugar -- will have to make them check that later. With diabetes in his family I really worry about that.

My family practice will take newborns! Hooray! So the ped. on call can check baby out at birth and then Dr. B. or his staff can deal with me, Paul, and baby. I forgot to ask about after hour pediatric type calls though... I will have to call them back up to be sure I can speak to someone outside their office hours. Hopefully it will work out because it will be nice to have the whole family treated by the same people.

Just got off the phone with Dr. B's clinic and they told me there's a doc on call for after hours stuff. Good. One more thing off my checklist!

Queasy today and yesterday. Morning sickness better not be coming back in third trim! That would suck! :P

Added my name to the PCOS quilt.

Having fun reading archives.

Thoughts on Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood by Naomi Wolf?

It reads fast, but probably not something everyone is going to want to read while pregnant, esp. if you have an anxious personality and worry easily.

The first half of the book disappointed me with it's tone... a frequent complaint reviewers seem to have. No, not everyone has the same pregnancy experience. But, geez, it got old fast... all the personal stories were negative experiences -- there were no positives to help balance it out. I just couldn't relate to it. I've read personal memoir type books that were much better editted for a more balanced tone overall and present themselves as a collection. In a clearly defined anthology or collection, you know going into it that every story is going to have it's own slant.

With a title like Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood I was expecting something something more factual, better researched, and more truly unexpected. So I wasn't ready for the heavy personals in the first chunk.

I still wonder why it has "parenting" as the back cover's category guide. But then, they couldn't have put "anthology" or "non-fiction" or "women's studies" or "popular culture" on it either because the book doesn't seem to have a clear writing style or clear goal in mind. Or maybe it aims for one and misses the mark? But definitely it was NOT a "parenting" type book.

The second half was slightly better in tone but it wasn't anything unexpectedly new. It has less personal stories mixed in and more statistics but seems to skim across the topics rather than going deeply enough. I remember wondering why this book was so short if the topic it attempted to cover had so much potential material.

One review I read made me laugh because it echoed my thoughts in a succint way:

Reviewer: ytak from Canadada
It stretches credulity to imagine that Naomi Wolf was unaware of any number of the issues her book covers.

Gosh, North American doctors tend to medicalise pregnancy, labour, and delivery.

Golly, pregnancy really gets a woman's nesting instinct perking.

Jiminy crickets, being a mother really changes a person's life.

Gee whiz, motherhood is seriously undervalued in North American society.

Heavens to Betsy, women generally end up being the primary caregiver.

Gracious, it's hard to be a mother **and** have a career.

I mean, duh.

While it's true that no one is fully prepared for motherhood, Wolf ranges, wide-eyed yet uninsightful, across well-travelled terrain, displaying a disheartening ignorance of the reproductive aspect of womens' lives. She presents as fresh and new phenomena and experiences that have been widely chronicled and trenchantly observed by far more perceptive writers than she, and she does it all in a prose that is both breathless and cloying. It is shocking that an educated woman, a proud feminist, no less, could have been as thoroughly uninformed about pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering as Wolf apparently was.

All in all, a silly book penned by an uninspiring scribe.

I'm still not sure if it's bad editting or unclear goals in writing that are the fault with this book. I wanted to enjoy it so much more than I actually did. I'm probably going to re-read it before I make up my mind if I'm keeping it or returning it but it certainly wasn't one I'd heartily recc. to friends and right now it looks likes a return.

Kathy, the doula coordinator called and after lsitneing to her descirbe my other 2 matches I told her we were happy with Michelle. (I don't know why I was calling her Rochelle.) The 2nd match is in Hawaii and doesn't get back til a week before my due date and the third lives farther away than Michelle does so since I liked her on the phone I am going to go with her. We'll meet after Thanksgiving.

So the weekend... every year for the last 3 years or so I try to book us an anniversary weekend mini-vacation. The first was to go mountain biking in Croom, the second we wound up having a spa weekend at the Wyndham, this year we had to postpone it a bit because of morning sickness in August but we finally got to this month. Originally it was going to be Universal Studios themed but we scaled it back to just being away. I'm feeling too waddly to deal with theme parking.

Friday. While I popped into the endoc. to get my lab drawn, Paul went next door to mail all these things he was supposed to have done earlier but didn't get a chance to do. The nurse doing my lab asked me if I was expecting an donce I said I was, if it was a single or twins. We did groceries on the way home, unloaded them, fed the pets, and then played video games for a while. Then we left for our 4 PM check in time at the Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa. We stopped at Target to get camera batteries and the cashier asked Paul if we were expecting. He had a funny but pleased expression on his face -- it might be the first time someone directed the question at him rather than me.

Check-in was very quick and we got to our room. It was very nice at a good location at a decent price. Anyone coming to Orlando to do that whole tourist thing who is going to rent a car for their stay would def. do well to stay there. We lounged about reading all this tourist info packet stuff and then we watched trashy TV until dinner time. We went down I-drive with the idea that we'd stop when we saw something tasty but we drove the whole length instead and ended up in the Belz shopping area at Van's Skate Park.

I think Paul secretly wants to give it a whirl -- I told him I'd rent him equipment for a session if he wanted to come back after dinner but he didn't quite take me up on it. He's got to get over his shyness first and the idea that he might be too old to play around on skateboards. Mostly it is the shyness though because the "too old" stuff is crap. Sure there were a lot of kids/teens there, but in the really BIG pool and BIG ramps? It was all adult men with their wives and babies/toddlers watching them from the balconies. They were our age or older. I'll have to write to Lara to see if Dean would enjoy a day at the park with Paul when they are down for the holidays. I think if he goes with a friend he'd feel better about the shyness in new places thing. We spent more than an hour people watching -- Paul explaining to me what different people were doing or trying to do.

We went to Cattlemen's Steak House on the way back down I-drive and it was very good food. Paul told me ever since I've gotten pregnant we've been to more steak places than ever before previously. I told him since we'd NEVER gone to steak places before it wasn't hard to beat by going two times. He laughed. He's right though -- if I had to name the one odd pregnancy craving I've had it's steak. I'm normally not a steak person.

We'd talked about mini-golf but we were both too full so instead of going to Tiki golf we just went back to the resort and enjoyed the jacuzzi bath. Stayed up late watching bad TV shows. We don't normally watch it so it was amazing to watch all this junk on TV. We saw a LOT of bad stuff but "Jackass" probably tops them all.

Paul wouldn't let me change the channel because he wanted to watch the entire thing. He lay there under the covers giggling and I KNEW it was out of nostalgia so I punched him. Not that Paul's ever laid on the hood of a car and run gone through a car wash or run down the street in a dutch girl costume flashing people. But he HAS gotten into tubes and then been pushed down hill. And that stunt where they guy was trying to "skate" while strapped on to sanding belts? That's totally something he and his friends would have done. The climbing up a stepladder on snowboards going down a hill bit had him dying with laughter because if there was ever snow in Florida, that would have been something he'd have done also! Boys are demented. That's all I have to say.

Saturday. We slept in til noon and then we went to TooJay's for lunch. We bumped into Adam (co-worker of Paul's) and his girlfriend while there and chit-chatted for a bit. Paul joked on the way to the car that he was going to have give Adam a stern talking to on Monday because bumping into them entirely ruined the illusion that we were on vacation somewhere else.

We found a Barnes and Noble we'd never been to before and we spent a long time reading and looking at things. I picked up Misconceptions and Paul got another Terry Pratchett and a Christmas Carols book because he wants to learn to play them on the harp he just made.

Pit stop at a grocery to snag something for dinner. I hadn't realized we were going to have a kitchenette in our studio room otherwise I would have brough some food from the first grocery trip on Friday but oh, well. Then we tried to go swimming but Paul told me the water was way cold and when I stepped in to my ankles I agreed. It would have been ok for just me but I'm leery of too cold/too hot stuff with baby and all. We'll have to try swimming at the heated pool instead next weekend. Since the swimming was out we decided to walk around and explore the resort. It was probably 2+ miles roundtrip... we went all over the place -- by the lakes, by other pools, tennis courts, shuffleboard courts, the arcade, etc. I got a "menu of services" card from the Papillon Spa and Paul told me if I wanted to book an appt. for the next day to go ahead but I told him I already checked and they don't do pregnancy packages like I wanted. I just wanted the menu for my collection. We holed up again after that -- reading, more TV, long bath, dinner, etc.

Sunday. We checked out at 10 AM and went to breakfast at the Bistro McDonald's just because it was funny looking and their bistro menu cracked us up. Unfortunately we didn't get to try anything on the bistro menu because it was 10:30 and it was still breakfast. Went to Michael's to look at hobby stuff and to Petsmart to get a mouse wheel and then home for a nap. Later we popped in at Holly's to trade movies and visit for a while-- it was nice to chat.

Very restful weekend -- apart from doing nothing in particular, it was so good to get to just be together without interruptions. No phone, no family, no pets, no work, no baby discussions, just him and me.

Had a rough night last night for many reasons:

• Baby was very active and clonking around with no end in sight. Getting strong too -- a few of those kicks or punches made me wince!
  
• I was going through this hot/cold thing where my blankets just weren't right or the pillow was getting hot on my face. Had to keep shifting positions to find a cool spot.
  
• My hips hurt. I don't know if all the cleaning aggravated my hips or if it's that loose joint thing in pregnancy but man! I just could NOT get comfortable!
  
• Bathroom breaks. These are getting old, fast.
  

Baby continues to clonk even though I'm up for the day already. I can only hope on ultrasound appt. day he's this active.

Speaking of appts... Off to my lab appt. at the endoc., to do some errands, and then Paul and I are freeeeeeee for the rest of the day! Whee!

28 weeks, entering third trimester.

I'm so excited to be in the home stretch! Even more so for the ultrasound appt. I hope Cletus "tells" us if he's a son or a daughter... I'd like to start using his real name.

I'm taking a break from housework. It's very frustrating to want to clean things below waist-level and not be able to do it properly. I can sweep things into a little pile, but then bending down with the dust pan is hard. I really don't want to leave little piles around for Paul to get for me later. At least most of the house is not too horrible -- we've been cleaning quite a bit and it isn't so much mess or clutter as it is general dusting/sweeping to maintain the status quo plus sorting for Goodwill.

This morning I was trying to take digitial photos outside in the sun of the afghan squares I've done lately and they came out all weird. It's the dark yarns -- I just can't get a good texture shot with them no matter what I do. I think once all the squares are done, before I whipstitch I'll take new photos with the 35 mm SLR instead.

Up early so I can get Paul up and to his morning lab appt. to have his cholesterol checked. Not that it maks much difference -- I'd be up anyway. I'd just gotten to where I was sleeping comfortably and soundly for once when all of a sudden there's another problem with my sleep. This time it's not baby clonking around that wakes me, but my bladder urging me to pee.

[later at 4 PM]

Just got off the phone with Rochelle, my 1st doula match. I got a good impression from her so after I talk to Paul about it to see what he thinks, she's probably going to be the one we choose unless someone else impresses me more. Told her I'd call her back Mon.

I just want to check with Kathy, the doula coordinator, if I am supposed to be getting any other calls from prospective doulas or if she's giving them to me one at a time. She's not in the office til Fri., and I'm taking off for the weekend then so it's a bit awkward.

While the phone call is still fresh in my head:

• Is she certified? Yes, CEF trained with Kathy, the doula coordinator.
  
• Does she provide prenatal and/or postpartum visits? Yes, at my home, or meet for dinner for pre's, at my home for post's.
  
• What can you expect during these visits, if offered? What will her role in early labor?
  How does she define her role during labor and birth? guidance, help, support --- was very long answer covering different things and how to help the father in his role. As I get closer to my due date she will be in contact via phone about every other day.
  
• How many births has she attended? 50+ in the last something months/years -- I forgot it now that I didn't write it down while talking to her...doesn't do more than 2-3 clients due in the same month, been a doula for 3yrs, loves what she does and sounds like calm, sensible person.
  
• Can she provide references? Yes, via CEF.
  
• What types of births has she witnessed (Cesarean, epidural, intervention free, VBAC, teen birth, etc.)? Described her first one which was a forceps and another complicated sounding one I've now forgotten but overall her births seem to have gone pretty normal. She's done them at APH and birth centers. Also teaches hypnobirthing.
  
• Her fee? Already dealt with via CEF -- didn't even ask her that part. Kathy covered it already.
  
• Has she ever worked with your care provider or at your place of birth? Yes, worked with Terri and really enjoyed working with her, but has yet to work with Dr. G. It's luck of the draw who is on call the day I deliver. But she had great things to say about Terri's prescence and told me I was very lucky to get into one the best practices here. Which reminds me, after this next appt, I want to try to start alternating visits with her and Dr. G. both now that Terri is back and recovered from her surgery thing.
  
• Does she has back-up arrangements available? Yes, via CEF network and she's also training a doula in hypnobirthing. I'd like to know names and speak to her back-ups if I can.
  
• Will she provide labor support at your home prior to going to the place of birth? Yes.
  
• Is she familiar with many methods of childbirth? Ask this one again -- I've forgotten her whole answer.
  
• Misc: Lives 20 min away. She has email, but her web page is not yet done. Also has 3 kids : 18, 11, and 5. For hynobirth info she referred me to hypnobirthing.com and hypnobabies.com if that is something we'd be interested in reading about. Is more than happy to play the bad guy in keeping people I don't want out of my delivery room.
  

Having fun watching the hamster babies toddle about -- they've just opened their eyes and are teething on things, chewing things, dragging things around, but still nursing on Susie. They squeak but it sounds like little honks to me more than squeaky noises. The mice babies have fur now but are still not mobile and have eyes closed.

Had some cramps yesterday and today -- indigestion. Seem to get that more lately. Celtus was also very active yesterday so that didn't help any -- my insides feel like there's not enough room. Breathing deeply? Forget it!

Paul told me his Aunt Dareen said his cousin Lisa had one of her babies at 7 mos. While certainly possible, I think I'd prefer if Cletus stayed in for longer than that!

Doula coordinator just called to tell me she got my stuff and that she's trying to match me with someone who lives near me. She told me she may not have her today, but possibly on Wed. so we can do a telephone interview. I like this woman so much -- so on the ball!

Changed my endoc lab appt to friday instead of thursday so Paul can take me. Still don't know when my car will be ready at the garage. Poo. :P

This weekend is the 15th -- mid Nov. already! I was looking through babyage.com at all the things I want to order from there (co-sleeper, stroller, car seat) after the weekend.

We got home form the wedding around 9 PM. I crashed out and apart from waking up a few times during the night to pee, slept really well. Baby got active closer to morning so I went ahead and got up. And my back feels great. Hurrah for maternity belts!

It was all held at the restuarant in various spots. The service was outdoors in the side garden and very short. I was a bit surprised to see the bridesmaid's all wearing black and carrying creamy-pink tea roses -- a bit somber for a wedding but from a practical point of view, reusing a black evening dress type thing is a lot easier than trying to reuse a bridesmaid's dress that's too weird or frilly so I thought it was a great choice.

I have to remember to learn the Lord's Prayer (Padre Nuestro) in English. Paul didn't say it, but I said it quietly in a mixture of English and Spanish because I started out in English like everyone else in the congregation but then got tired of mentally translatating in my head so finished it up in Spanish. I never learned any of the prayers in English as a child whenever I have to say them I have to think it in Spanish but make it come out in English. It's weird.

When it was done we all went to this porch area to collect seating assignments and sign the guest book -- no receiving line. Then we got fruit/cheese/crackers/drinks from the litle buffet table and bar and hung around chatting with Paul's coworkers until a waiter announced that the dining salon was open. The bridal party came last so the DJ could introduce them all.

We got assigned to a table with Ira. Not exactly a coworker, but someone Paul knows from work and someone that I've met quite a few times. His grilfriend and then his younger brother and his wife were the other people there. Turns out the younger brother and his wife only got married 2 weeks ago, and we hear Ira and Karen may be getting engaged soon so there was a lot of wedding talk/comparisons. When Mike found out we eloped an then just threw a welcome home party after the wedding he told me that is what they would have liked instead.

"Oh, did you get pressured into a bigger one by family and stuff?" I asked him.

"Did I say that?!No....not me!" he rolled his eyes.

I laughed at him.

We talked about honeymoons and places to go, having kids, and chit chat like that in general. It amused me that all of the coworkers who haven't seen me in a while told me I looked great or fabulous or exquisite pregnant. What else would you tell a pregnant lady? That she looks like a wreck? LOL.

Other than me and Deborah (another coworker of Paul's) there were 4 other very pregnant ladies there. I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where there were THAT many people pregnant at once. It was kind of funny watching the bathroom door and the preggo parade.

Paul asked me to dance and I smiled and told him it was nice of him to ask but he was only asking because he knew I'd say no because of my shoes and being mega-pregnant. He grinned back. He NEVER wants to dance at weddings no matter how many times I try to coax him.

The lunar eclipse on the way out was nice -- hope someone got a picture of that for Dan and Lisa's wedding album.

More evidence that I'm becoming the Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man:

• My size 10 black high heeled mary janes that have always been a touch too lose? Very snug, to where I will wear them to the wedding today but I have to start looking for another pair of black dress shoes for the Xmas holidays.
  
• My grandfather's jade ring that was too loose on the thumb? Fits my ring finger fine now.
  
• Short necklaces? They are now chokers. Yow.
  
• the D cup bras I bought intentionally too big earlier in this pregnancy? They are fitting me almost normal.
  

27 weeks. Got Paul to give me a back and hip rub last night and It felt nice but I woke up early this morning hungry and with aching hips. It's weird how all my joints are suddenly so loose.

This evening when we went to go get a wedding card we popped into Motherhood to get me pantyhose and a maternity belt. I won't be wearing it around the house or to things like this wedding where I don't want it showing through or under clothing, but for running around town or walking around a lot I can see where it will come in handy. Cletus-the-fetus is getting quite large and the extra support feels really good.

Both Paul and the saleslady commented that I looked happier in it and that my posture was beter -- I didn't slouch forward with it on. So now I'm curious... exactly how big is this baby now anyway?!

Had a dream where I kept Baby in a drawer in my childhood dresser and that Baby was really this weird plastic pink doll. Yet it still produced wet/pooey diapers so I spent all day jus changing it. I don't know what that was all about but it's the first dream I've had in a little while.

FedEx came early this morning to bring Paul his harp kit so I have a feeling he will be working on that tonight.

I may not get to wear that skirt to the wedding -- new stretch marks and much poochier belly. Sigh. When I tried it back on this morning and joked to Paul, "Ack! How dare he grow! My skirt is tighter!" he thought I said "How dare he growl?" Paul told me he then thought, "Growling... that's a new one...." This struck me as funny.

Baby is still knocking about but I'm in a much better mood and feeling alert and happy. Maybe that mythical 2nd trimester burst of energy finally arrived. I feel less draggy so I'm more kindly disposed again.

Baby settled down so I got to sleep a lot. Yay! But then I woke up with that bellybutton ache again. It's always something, isn't it?

I was reading some Post Partum Fitness Links this morning. I'm starting to feel restless and I miss my normal routine, my normal range of motion, my normal sleep position, everything. As soon as Dr. G. gives me the ok post partum I'm ready to go back to fitness goals.

Cletus is still active. Little sleep again. Sigh.

Stole the doula questions from here for a template and modified them to apply to my situation. So the packet is signed, the questionaire finished, the deposit check enclosed, and if I'm lucky before the end of the week I'll hear back from Kathy, the doula coordinator about who my potential doulas are.

Susie Hamster is a better organizer and housekeeper than the mouse. Both feed well, but the hamster keeps track of her babies and deals with them better -- goes out to collect them back if they wander off. She also cleans her nest daily. The mouse made a nest but I never see her rearranging things like Susie does and she leaves babies flung all around her tank when she's tired of nursing and walks off with babies still clinging to her underside. I have to keep putting them back in one corner. One I didn't see in time so it died because it never got fed.

The baby hamsters still have their eyes closed but have fur now so it's neat to look at the "cow" patterns on them in brownish-black and white. We're probably going to keep 1 girl... so I'm trying to decide which one has a recognizable pattern. They also walk around the tank blindly and it's cute to watch them trying to coordinate their back legs with their front legs until Susie comes along and herds them back. No fur on the mouse babies.

Paul said Susie Hamster is a whacko because she took one of her babies on a jog in the hamster wheel. She was holding it in her mouth while running. I think she was on her way to put him back and decided to take a spin first. He told me he better not come home one day to find me on the treadmill with Cletus in my mouth squeaking like crazy. Well, darn! There go my plans!

Paul got to feel Cletus for the second time -- yay!

Updated belly pix. And speaking of belly pix, a story:

Miss Prissy is the hen from those old Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. In one episode Prissy goes hunting for a husband and Foghorn the rooster tries to get her to think that Dawg the dog is really a rooster in dog disguise. He tells her the way to a man's heart is through his stomach and sends her over to the dog with a melon to wave around and entice him with. She does this crazy little melon dance all around the dog who is sleeping in his doghouse. He wakes up, gets all excited and barks at her. Then he starts to chase her because he's gotten angry and want to eat the melon. She's THRILLED to be chased!

We saw this episode in the last month or so and we both found Foghorn's instructions and Prissy's subsequent melon dance hysterical. "Show him the melon, but doooooon't let him have it! You gotta teeeeease him a little," explains Foghorn to the attentive Miss Prissy.

A few days after we saw it, I remembered the cartoon coming out of the shower. So I didn't bother getting dressed after towelling off and went to go find him in the dining room.

I didn't say a word -- I just held my very large, round pregnant stomach in my hands and started waving it at him and then taking it away and doing this wacky little naked gyrating dance all around the dining room table and he kind of laughed and looked at me like I'd gone insane.

"Honey, what on earth are you doing? Are you just being weird?"

"No. I'm doing a Miss Prissy dance and tempting you with my melon, " I answered and shook my stomach at him again. "I gotta teeeeease you a little."

Then he *really* started laughing and chased me all the way to the bedroom while I screamed in my best Prissy voice, "Ooooooh, a maaaaahhhhhnnn!"

Every once in a while I still wave my stomach around at him when we're out on the town and it cracks him up every time. That's me. The Lewd Belly Thruster.

BIL just called to tell us they're 11 weeks pregnant with #3. We're happy for them and glad they're almost out of first trimester. I'd been wondering if we'd be hearing news of that kind soon but I'm not surprised they kept it quiet for a while since they'd been worried about miscarriage.

Mom is making me nuts with baby freakout stuff. I would have expected more of this if I were closer to due date but dang... I've got 3 mos yet! Too tired to write. Baby is beating me up today.

Slept badly last night and woke with a headache and a calf cramp. Ugh.

Went to Bahama Breeze with my parents for lunch and then to the movies to see Runaway Jury. It was ok but not something I would have picked to watch myself. But mom is a big John Grisham fan so she picked it and we went along with it. Gene Hackman's performance was very good but for me the movie was too predictable.

Going to the movies with my parents was the same as always -- Dad bursts into laughter at inappropriate spots and he and mom keep arguing in firece whispers. They can't just NOT talk. I can't sit next to Dad or else he'll keep poking me and ask me what's happening. But it was fun and then when I got home I took a nap.

Spent most of Sat. with my BIL and the nieces. Greg wanted to check out photo shops in the area and the kids came along just because. Paul and I had a good time tagging along and offering suggestions. Greg starting to get into photography and is trying to set up a darkroom in his garage so we're lending him a lot of my supplies and things to help defray his start-up costs since I'm not going to get to play with that stuff for a while between pregnancy, breastfeeding, and early baby care.

After being dragged to all these (to them) boring stores we took the kids to the playground to blow off steam and they seemed happier.

I remember going to the bathroom with Sarah twice to help her with a particularly hard button on her shorts and to lift her high enough so she could wash her hands in the sink. She was sitting there on the potty babbling away at me while I was sitting on the edge of the tub waiting to help her fasten her pants when it suddenly occured to me to wonder -- how many years of sitting on the edge of the tub do I have ahead supervising a baby/toddler on the toilet?

We took a nap after they left before heading out to dinner. At dinner I mentiond to Paul that while I look forward to having kids, there's still a little part of me that feels like our couple-only days are on countdown and I'm really going to miss the QUIET. I'm glad we waited a while before having kids -- gave ourselves enough time to be alone with just each other. It's helped make for a stronger marriage.

My hips still hurt when I get up in the morning and I've noticed more breathing struggles and more waddling. This baby is getting uncomfortably big.