Expected & Unexpected Stressors

This week had its ups and downs; I'm glad we found out the sex of the baby, because one up was we were able to fit in our registries this weekend.  And yes, we registered at Babies R Us, Target and Amazon...I remember having to purchase baby things for other showers, and being a little intimidated to approach Babies R Us.  So Target was on our list for those type of people; and apparently if we register on Amazon we get entered into a sweepstakes!  Haha.  I think it's also helpful to register for Amazon since we live far from our families.

Anyway, one source of stress that has been nagging away at me is the whole messy process of giving birth.  I'm an avid pinner on Pinterest, and I got ahead of myself and started looking into the postpartum articles/pins.  Oh boy.  I just know I'm never going to be the same after this baby, emotionally and mostly physically.  I've tried avoiding the whole "giving birth" topic and been focusing on all the good things about pregnancy, but I know I can't hide from it forever (actually, I can hide from it for hopefully another 20 weeks).

Here's the kicker-the biggest stressor(s) this week: our crazy dogs.  I love them to death, but they drove us up the wall this week.  Friday night the hubs and I completed our ritual of "fall asleep on the couch while watching TV", and when we both awoke 20 minutes later, we found Miles gnawing on one of our Mickey Mouse coasters.  And his late-night ritual consists of sprinting across the apartment, grunting with a toy in his mouth.  He can do this for at least five minutes before collapsing in exhaustion...but then once he catches his breath he bounds for his sister and tries to pick a fight.  He has more energy than any dog I've ever met.  When I'm on the couch, his favorite thing to do is jump up and walk all over me.  It drives me nuts, especially when he's trying to step on my stomach all the time.

Then when hubby and I tried to play any type of card or dice game this weekend, Coltrane got all nutso and came inches away from the hubs, licking at him feverishly and had that crazy look in her eye (licking is her way of being defensive).  She always thinks we're doing something terrible, we don't understand it.  We had to put her in her crate, and we have to do this every time.  It drives me insane.  Why can't we have normal dogs?

We've had the brief discussion about what to do with the dogs when the baby arrives...Coltrane can get really protective over me, and she manages to always find one person in a group of friends I'm with and attack them (she did this to my sister-in-law at Yosemite!).  She's done this since she was young, and what's weird is hubby is with her more than I am, and I don't know why she still thinks she has to protect me.  It's really scary because she jumps at people trying to nip at them, and she can knock over kids very easily.  I've heard all these stories about how dogs can tell a newborn belongs to you and can be gentle, but I've also heard the reverse.  So that really worries me-will Coltrane get jealous and protective with our baby?  I'm afraid she's going to be shunned to her crate a lot, which I don't want.  Miles loves everyone and everything, so we aren't worried about him, just that he can be rambunctious.

There are so many other things that I'm worried about, like how are we going to support this baby while I'm on leave and making half of what I make?  Will the hubby have steady work?  Are we going to be in the same one bedroom apartment/crappy neighborhood when the baby arrives?  Will the baby be healthy?  Those are the big questions for now, but my life is changing more rapidly than it has before and it's kind of scary.