Week 32: Ow

I got my first charlie horse last night.  I used to get charlie horses all the time when I played sports in high school and didn't drink enough water/eat enough potassium...I've had them on and off for the last 10 years...but I seriously can't remember the last one I had.  It of course woke me up 20 minutes before I was supposed to get up for work anyway.  I blame the lack of water yesterday as well as not eating as many bananas due to my restricted GD diet I put myself on...I haven't had yogurt, bananas or avocados since last Wednesday or Thursday?  Ugh.

I also got my flu and TDAP shots yesterday-didn't hurt as much as getting blood drawn, but of course after the first shot (TDAP), I see her scurrying to get cotton swabs and see blood all over her gloved finger.  Then after the flu shot same thing.  And then she says, "You're a bleeder!"  Thanks lady.

So I'm at Week 32 and apparently Baby H weighs almost almost four pounds and is almost 17 inches long.  He's growing fast!  Here he is (supposedly):

courtesy of babycenter.com

I've been feeling him hiccup a lot more and he doesn't move as frequently which is normal (apparently his sleep cycles are longer), but when I do feel him kick it's very powerful.  Again it's that alien-like experience where I see different parts of my stomach move.  I am also thankful that not many people come up and touch my belly-only a handful of close co-workers and friends have.  Phew!

Yesterday I walked down to the business office at my work and my jaw dropped...their whole office is decorated in a pirate-theme.  It's insane.  Apparently people came in over the weekend to decorate-I'm talking spiderwebs all over the ceiling, front desk is a pirate ship with a mast behind it, conference room looks straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean, copy room looks like a torture chamber with skeletons, and murals everywhere.  They went all out.  NO FAIR!  They didn't do that last year, so I thought we actually had a shot at winning the campus decoration competition.  Granted they also have about 30 staff members there.  I am by myself in the music department and my department assistants are helping. That's.  About.  It.

So in my spare time I frantically started decorating while my working D.A. and off-duty D.A. came in to help.  Today we're going to try to finish up a lot of it and then tomorrow I have to put these mini graves outside the house.  We know we won't win but at least we're getting into the spirit of it.  And of course we're using decorations from our own houses or using our own money to do this.  I think I've done a good job scouring the dollar stores for supplies.  But how I wish we all had lots of money to just splurge on decorations-since I work in the original farm house that was donated to the university, we could do wonders with this place.  My favorite small decoration I've done so far was "zombify" our department assistants...we have a "Meet the music department D.A.s" poster on our front entryway with their photos...I changed them this week to:

I still have one more assistant to go!  : )

Week 31: Halloweeny weekend

Yes, I wrote Halloweeny.  :)

Sorry it's been a while since I've written-it has been a very low-key week with not much going on.  Friday I had another two week checkup.  I pretty much left the office crying...

So my weight has been steadily increasing which is just fine-about two pounds every month.  Blood pressure is great.  Then after a long wait, my doctor comes in and looks at my chart.  She is the fourth and final doctor I am supposed to meet-my clinic has a total of four OB/GYNs, and I have to have an appointment with all four since any one of them can be my doctor the day of my delivery.  She was nice, but then she looks at my number from the gestation diabetes/glucose screening test.  I don't know if you remember this, but when I took that gestation diabetes test a few weeks/month back, they called me and said everything was perfect.  This new doctor said, oh wait, you have a score of 134, the last doctor must have been using the "old" numbers...let me break it down for you...most doctors say if your blood sugar level is 140 milligrams of glucose per deciliter of blood plasma or more, you need to take the three hour glucose tolerance test.  But SOME doctors say the cutoff is 130 mg/dL.  Yeah, my clinic apparently changed it so that 130-140 is a "gray area".  Ugh.

She said she wasn't going to push me to take this stupid three hour long test (which I've read that most people come back negative for GD), and that she can just have me see a dietician and make sure I'm eating properly, but I'd have to prick my finger every day just like a person with diabetes to test my glucose....but WAIT...

As I lay down for her to monitor Baby H's heartbeat, she first measured my tummy-standard procedure.  Then she says, "You are measuring a little high.  You should get that glucose tolerance test."

This test requires me to fast, have my blood drawn, drink a bunch of sugar, then have my blood tested every hour for the next three hours.  : (  One-I hate needles.  Two-I have to take time off of work to do this.  Three-WTF, gestational diabetes?!  If I do have it, they say it goes away after pregnancy usually.  But some women may develop diabetes after the baby is born.

And yes folks, I did break down as I was driving away from the clinic.  I thought I wasn't eating too terribly-but apparently not well enough.  Hubby made me feel better once I got home, and after a long walk we still went out to eat but I was a little more health conscious.

Pho Friday.  I got a small Tofu-Veggie bowl

All weekend I looked up gestation diabetes menu plans on pinterest and on the web.  I revised my grocery shopping list to include better foods.  Sigh.  I'll let you know how it goes-I won't be able to get the testing done until next week.

Saturday hubby and I ran some Halloween shopping errands-I wanted to get a simple mask for work since I'm going to wear my skeleton shirt again.  Then we looked around for cheap decorations for my work since we've entered in the Halloween decoration contest.  Stores were emptied out to make way for Christmas already!  It was nuts.  When we got home I worked on a creepy candle project for work that I saw on Pinterest.  It turned out pretty cool:

I'm going to throw battery-operated lights in there since I can't light candles at work...

Then we started carving pumpkins while watching horror movies!  Hubby was not too happy this year about the carving portion; I think he was a little impatient, but a good sport.

Look at that concentration!

My finished pumpkin

All lit up on our balcony

Both our pumpkins lit up

I'm a little sad I threw them outside so quickly-we brought mine in last night and it's already shriveling up-darn you sun!

Sunday hubby had to work, so I ended up doing a lot of laundry, organizing Baby H's stuff, grocery shopping and throwing chili in the crockpot.  I also took Miles for a walk in the morning and we went for another walk after dinner-trying to get on my feet a lot more.  Meals this weekend were overall healthy, and I'm aiming to stay on track this week as well.  I think my downfall has been candy at work-I keep a stash for students and faculty, and I've been sneaking Reece's cups here and there.  No more!  It's going to be very hard come Halloween...

So that was my Week 31 of pregnancy.  Tomorrow I get my flu and TDAP shots, Wednesday marks the second week of Miles' obedience training-which I failed to mention last Wednesday was his first and he did a fairly good job.  Then Halloween, one of my favorite holidays.  Hopefully I'll have an update sooner than later!

Week 30/31: Babymoon to Disneyland Recap

Pregnancy-brain kicked in yesterday and I put my cell phone in one bag then grabbed a different one.  So, I'm sorry for the delayed recap of our "Babymoon" to Disneyland this weekend!  Get ready for lots of photos...

Friday I met up with Matt at his work and to kill a little time (we didn't want to dive straight into traffic), we got his haircut at this quaint Armenian barbershop in Burbank.  $8 haircut and she did a great job!

Since we didn't know what else to do, we jumped onto the freeway and decided to grit our teeth and bare the long drive.  It was looooong.  But we finally arrived at our hotel around 7:45pm, then drove around for 20 minutes looking for somewhere to eat.  We ended up at El Toritos and it was yummy!

Saturday morning we woke up (er, I woke up excitedly) and got ready for our long day.  We got to Disneyland around 9:30am and stayed until 12:15am!  Here are most my photos, edited and collaged so there's not as many...

The first thing we did was get fast-passes for the World of Color, a night show in California Adventure.  Afterwards we stood in one of two longest lines of the day-the Toy Story Midway Mania! 

We walked around California Adventure after the Toy Story ride.  Flo's Cafe is in Car's Land and the Octopus-sushi guy was the Monster's Inc. ride.

After a yummy corndog lunch in California Adventure, we headed over to the main park-I love the fall decorations at Disneyland!

My hubby the skeleton

Top Left: Storm Troopers in front of the Star Tours ride
Top Right: Dixie Band on Main Street
Bottom Left: Storybook Land Canal Ride
Bottom Right: Pumpkin carvers come out during the fall-this is from Tangled

Left: Part of the Halloween festival
Right: Dia De Las Muertos tribute

Dia De Las Muertos band

Skeleton family waiting for the parade

Parade!

We stopped by Cars Land to take pictures before the World of Color show

Our view before World of Color

One of our last rides of the night, can't forget the Haunted Mansion!

 We ended with Astro Blasters since the wait was short, but Matt took photos the whole time while I actually shot at the aliens.  By the end of the night my lower back and feet were very sore, but I'm so glad I was able to get in our last trip to Disneyland before the family grows!  And hubby said I was a trooper...I have to pat myself on the back too, just because we saw a few pregnant women that looked uncomfortable, and one that was even in a wheelchair.

What really baffled me all day was seeing these families with tiny infants...both baby and parent were probably not enjoying themselves!  Why bring such tiny babies?  My biggest concern was the babies' health, surrounded by so many germy people!  And at the World of Color the people in front of us had a baby that was no bigger than 4 or 5 months old...the show was so loud but the baby had no earmuffs.  Why?!  Poor baby.

Anyway, Sunday we zoomed back to Burbank in less than 40 minutes and grabbed lunch before I scooted over to Thousand Oaks to pick up Miles from our friend Susie's house.  Once home he slept the entire day!  Happy puppy.

We also received a few boxes in the mail which was fun to come home to:

Petflow.com is my favorite place to get Miles's treats!  Usually a bullystick (those in the left corner) cost $8 PER stick.  This bag cost only $9.99!

Sorry so blurry...this is from one of Nana's friends who couldn't make it to the Baby Shower

More lovely gifts from Nana!

 All in all, it was a wonderful weekend!

Yesterday work went super slow, but afterwards I went to "happy hour" with a former student, current students and a staff accompanist at the Lazy Dog Cafe which was really fun!  I had a couple Arnold Palmers, that's why I quoted the happy hour.  The other ladies were able to enjoy the real happy hour.  : )

Lazy Dog Girl Night

Now it's just sit tight and grow larger until Baby H makes his appearance!  Things to look forward to in the next couple months:

• Pumpkin carving
• Decorating the music house with my department assistants to compete in a Halloween contest
• Scary movies (I love Halloween for this!)
• Day of the Dead celebration in Hollywood (possibly?)
• Second baby shower thrown by my co-workers  
• Cooler weather!
• Thanksgiving
• Families visiting
• Christmas
• Baby H's arrival!!!

Week 30: Weekend, Woohoo!

TGIF!!!

Babymoon starts tonight, and I cannot wait.  Work is very slow today with a lot of the faculty gone, so time is just dragging.

When I got home from work on Wednesday Miles was absolutely head over heels for me...he usually is, but this time he snuggled next to me and stayed on his back for a very long time.  I love him so much.

After our little snuggle-fest, our little family took a nice two-mile walk around the neighborhood.  It would have been longer, but my bladder has been shrinking due to Baby H's growth...had to head back sooner than later!

It took at least six pictures to have Matt and Miles both looking in the direction of the camera...and nice bag of poop he's got there.  :)

Yesterday we did the maternity ward tour at our hospital.  First cool thing-won a prize in their drawing!  It's just a small frame with a necklace that says "mom", nothing too special.  Hubby and I were eyeing the second prize - looked like a portable changing station.  Boo.

Anyway, so when I imagined going into the maternity ward, I pictured multiple rooms filled with moms in labor, babies everywhere, and a little bit of chaos.  Well it was opposite of that-the place was silent and empty.  I guess October isn't that popular of a birthing time!  I think one room was filled in the postpartum wing and that was it.  Our tour guide gave just a few good pieces of information, but other than that it wasn't an eye-opening experience.  They did have these crazy big lights in the delivery rooms that looked like spotlights-Matt asked what they were for and the guide brought out this remote for them...these spotlights will be aimed right where, well, the baby comes out.  It's already too much information, I'm sorry.

As far as my health, I've been coming along quite nicely.  I did get a weird dizzy spell sitting at my desk yesterday-almost felt like I could have passed out for a second which scared me, but after frantically googling it I realized it's very common since my cardiovascular system is all haywire.  Then yesterday while we scanned all the other pregnant ladies, we overheard conversations of when they were due.  A couple were due next month, and they were TINY.  When hubby and I got home we started doubting my due date, just because I was so much bigger than these ladies.  I guess Baby H is going to be a big, healthy baby.  Aye chihuahua.

I'll be back next week with updates on our Babymoon, I'm so excited!

Week 30: Coming Along Fine!

Here I am at Week 30!  I thought of putting the image up from the "MyPregnancy" website since they update me weekly, but it's a little more graphic than this one.  The website that the above image came from said I'm supposed to be more tired and achy...I say Ha!  I'm not a normal pregnant lady folks...I do get a little tired driving home from work, but that's because I'm stuck in traffic for over an hour.  Monday after work we took Miles for a two mile walk and yesterday I did twenty minutes of my prenatal pilates DVD.  Cross your fingers my energy doesn't dip too much this last trimester.  Also we are taking our last "Babymoon" this weekend to one of my favorite places, or should I say, the Happiest Place on Earth...DISNEYLAND!  Yes, I'm such a big kid at heart.  Maybe that will give me an advantage to being a cool mom.  :)  Since I booked all of the hotels for my work's choir tour last March, I was able to reap all the points onto a rewards account and they hooked me up with two free nights to any Marriott (with a price limit), but they expire in March.  We'll be busy with Baby H December through March, so we figured we'd take advantage of a free hotel near Disneyland.  We leave Friday night then jet back Sunday morning so hubby can make it to work in the afternoon.  I'm so excited!!!

Coltrane update: We are still pretty down about her absence-but as I said before, our home is much more calm and relaxed without her.  Miles is a different dog too-I don't know if he's just not competitive  or playful without another dog around, or maybe he misses her...but either way, he's so laid back and independent.  We'll play with him, but then he'll play on his own which is super cute-he'll run back and forth with a toy in his mouth, throw it around and try to catch it.  I had a minor down moment when I was crawling into bed last night though, thinking about Coley and wondering how she's doing.  I contacted the Rescue coordinator yesterday to see if it was possible to get updates on her, but I haven't heard from her yet.  It would just be nice to know if she's settling in or not.

No more prepared childbirth classes so tonight I want to take Miles for a nice walk again, and then tomorrow we have our Maternity Ward tour!  Yesterday morning hubby groaned as I was getting ready for work-I asked him what was wrong and he muttered, "The Seahawks are playing when we have our tour on Thursday."  Oh boys.  And you know you're pregnant when the maternity tour is a good excuse to get yummy burritos beforehand at the restaurant a few blocks away.  Heehee...

Week 29/30: Weekend Update

My weekend was one big emotional roller coaster.

Friday night I went over to my coworker/friend's birthday/jewelry party...she lives about five minutes away which is awesome to have someone live so close!  (This is also the gal who has two kiddos and will be watching Baby H when we need her).  She turned her birthday into a wine and hor d'oeuvres party (I consumed sparkling water and apple cider) while her neighbor, who is a representative for Premiere Jewelry, did sort of a trunk show.  It was nice getting out and meeting new people-I really haven't done that in quite a while...which kind of makes me feel like a hermit, but at least I'm a hermit with my husband.  Anyway, I didn't end up buying anything but I did get to chat with all these new moms which was really fun.  I also didn't eat much because when I got home husband and I ate pizza.  Mmmm, pizza.

Saturday morning I was exchanging phone calls and texts with the French Bulldog Rescue Group, and we thought we were going to give Coltrane over to her foster family on Monday morning but turned out it was for Sunday morning...which meant a smaller window of time to spend with the one dog I've had for almost five years-longest time I've ever owned an animal.  Psycho animal, yes, but also a very loyal animal.  While Matt was at work, I washed all of Baby H's clothes and Oh. My. Gosh.  This baby has more clothes than I do.  But what's funny is we don't have very many newborn clothes--definitely a lot more 3-6 months.  We're set at that age!  I also did the grocery run and planned the menu for the week.  With so many baby clothes to wash (and my own laundry), I didn't get all of his clothes put away until 10pm.  

After Matt got home, we took the pups for a nice walk, sigh-our last walk with Coltrane.  It was so bittersweet Saturday.  Both hubby and I had our teary moments with her and we let her sleep with us that night.  It's been a long time coming, but to have a solidified date of her leaving us just made it really hard.  We kept telling ourselves this is the best course of action to take, knowing she'll be treated properly and hopefully get the training she needs; and if she stays with us, she'll probably be locked in her crate most of her life.  

Sunday morning we got all of her things ready and drove over to the Van Nuys airport (boo Van Nuys) where we got to drive onto the tarmac and pull up to the private plane she was going to be flying in.  Lucky pup.  We finally realized that the people flying Coltrane to Monterey were just helping out-they weren't her foster family.  What nice people, right?  And this couple had to be a few years younger than us.  Must be nice to be rich and have your own private plane in your 20s.  Holy cow.

Coltrane was surprisingly very calm about all of this, and it broke my heart to have to send my goodbyes to her.  As we were shaking hands with the couple I started to tear up and had to walk away before I started balling (ugh just writing this makes me tear up).  She was still so calm when I looked back, sitting there watching us.  I cried halfway back home but the more we talked about how this is good for everyone, the more I pulled myself together.  But I still made a haiku last night and collage of the frenchie I'll never forget.

Coltrane the Frenchie
May your life be wonderful
We will miss you so.

The apartment definitely had a different feeling to it when we got back, but we ate breakfast in peace and there was no fighting between the pups, or hovering around our feet or having to yell at her not to lick her bars.  After watching football with Matt for a little bit, I took Miles over to my friend Christina's parent's house.  Christina is a good friend who I used to work with but she moved down to San Diego after she got her Master's Degree and lives there with her boyfriend and new puppy.  Well she brought her puppy up and we had a little puppy play-date while we caught up.  These two were SO rambunctious...and I was embarrassed when Miles kept trying to dominate Riley's head...over and over.  It was weird.  But they played hard for almost two hours straight!

When I got home I gave Miles a nice bath and he immediately crashed until dinner, then fell asleep again.  You know your puppy played really hard when he starts cuddling/falling asleep vertically on a pillow next to you...

So overall, as I mentioned before, it's just been a whirlwind of emotions this weekend.  We really miss Coltrane and kept saying, "I wonder what Coley is doing right now," but last night we had our first really peaceful night.  I was able to snuggle up next to Matt without either of us getting attacked.  And this morning when I took Miles out it was so easy to get him to eat and potty.  Coltrane was so stubborn about pooping, seriously!  It took forever.  

Life will be fine for our little family now, but we'll always carry a soft spot for our little frenchie in our hearts.

Week 29: Rainy Wednesday

It's actually raining here!  Woohoo!  I've never been so excited for cold, drizzly weather...but it's just a nice change from the 90 degree weather we've had for the past, I don't know, five months?

I am now officially 29 weeks pregnant.  Warning: content in image below has explicit language...

Heehee.  Explanation of image: stretch marks can also happen to 40% men, and can happen during grown spurts in puberty, weight gain and body building.  So pregnant women are not alone!  Thankfully I don't have any stretch marks on my belly (yet?), but I've been slathering on my cocoa butter all the time so let's hope nothing appears.  Also Baby H is around 15-17 inches tall, almost as tall as he's going to be.  It's crazy to think that this long human being is folded inside my belly.

So Monday I had one of my all-time favorite meals I've made yet.  I normally do not post pictures of my food just because I think it's silly how people do it all the time on Instagram and Facebook now-a-days, but again, this was soooo delicious.

"Lasagna Stuffed Spaghetti Squash"

I found this recipe on Pinterest (as I do almost all my new recipes)...I've never been a fan of squash in general before, but I love spaghetti squash and how it substitutes for pasta!  This was a gluten-free meal too (sans cracked-wheat sourdough bread from TJs).  I'll be cooking this waaay more often now that squash is in season. Aaaand...that was the biggest excitement on Monday.  Sad.

Tuesday felt like Monday.  Work couldn't have gone any slower.  I took Coltrane for a nice walk after work since the weather has cooled down-hubby saw me on his way home from work and I was able to walk Miles as well since he had him.  I'm looking forward to more dog walks now!

Today is our final prepared-childbirth class and I'm not sure what's in store for us.  I've been reading the book they gave us a lot...I think it spurred on another baby dream last night.  This time there were no crocodiles or bears, but we had a nanny who would feed and take care of Baby H more than I did and it made me really sad.  Hopefully that won't happen in the near future.

Update on the pups...we still haven't heard back from the frenchie rescue org.-such a long process.  But I'd rather they find a good foster home for Coltrane than just give her to anyone.  And we will be enrolling Miles in obedience classes at the end of the month.

Okay back to work, Happy Hump Day everyone!

Week 28: Good weekend

Hi y'all!

My 'good' weekend streak is alive-nothing catastrophic happened, no doggy problems, no meltdowns, phew.  Feels good to have a couple weekends in a row that are problem-free!

So there is this program on KUSC, the only classical music station I pick up on my car radio, called "Off to School Requests" that airs every morning at 7:15am.  You can go online and request a song for them to play at this time-it's usually for students going to school, but they say adults can make requests as well.  I made a request a couple weeks ago and they played it this Friday!  I know it's nothing too special/exciting, but it really made my morning and my name was announced as the requester (it was for Holst's Jupiter from The Planets.  You too can enjoy this piece, here you go!).

After work I made myself do a pregnancy workout even though I was tired, but it felt good to move and stretch.  Then another relaxing night with the hubby.

Saturday hubby had to work in the morning, so I ran and got groceries then did a serious cleaning on the bathroom and kitchen, did all the laundry, vacuumed and got a crock pot roast going to make french dips for dinner.  Talk about OCD cleaning/nesting!  I was definitely tired by the time hubby came home and we relaxed at home again in the evening.  It was too hot to go out!  Darn heat waves...can't wait until they're over-which should happen sometime mid-week.  Phew.  Hubby went to bed early while I stayed up watching a guilty pleasure movie (I'm too embarrassed to say what it is!) and should have went to bed earlier because...

Sunday morning came around and my internal clock always wakes me up around 7-7:30am on the weekends.  Plus I had to get up to meet one of my besties Jen for breakfast (finally!) and so I was a little zombie-like.  We got breakfast at a place in Hollywood which was quite yummy and caught up.  She has a super cute 9-month old we chatted about and she walked me through the whole maternity leave process, which is so confusing!  She ordered a couple coffee drinks to go, and on our way to the car she had them stacked a little precariously...

It's a new trend, right?

We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and then as we were hugging before I left, this happened...

Not only did the restaurant forget about this cappuccino to go, she dropped half of it on herself, then the rest was unintentionally sacrificed to the Coffee Gods.  She will have good coffee fortune from now on!

When I returned home, I read up on my prepared-childbirth booklet while hubby watched TV and fell in and out of sleep.  That felt nice.  :)  Later on we made a trip to Burbank to IKEA-my nesting phase comes in strong waves, and I really wanted to get a wardrobe for Baby H's clothes.  I have this urge to get them all washed and put away!

Extra Baby H swag with a good deal on a dresser

Hubby put together a few things when we got home, but the dresser he will tackle this week.  I love IKEA!

Almost Week 29 of pregnancy.  I know I say this a lot, but I can't believe how fast time flies!

Week 28: Third Trimester

Hello Week 28, where did you come from?  You're telling me I have only 12 weeks left?!  Wow.

Baby H is now roughly 2.5 pounds.  And I am definitely starting to feel the weight of him...it used to be just a bump that felt light, but now when I take long walks or try to exercise, I start to feel mini cramps and just can't move as fast.  Aye Chihuahua!

Our third prepared childbirth class was last night and I kind of wouldn't have minded skipping that one due to the emergency C-section video we had to watch.  Ugh.  They did a vertical incision which is very rare now, but the baby was breached and they pulled the baby BY ITS FEET out of the poor lady.  It looked painful for the baby and very uncomfortable for the mom.  We had a substitute teacher since ours was out of the state for a few days, and when she asked if we had any questions I wanted to shout out "Yes, can you make sure I don't have to go through that?!"  But then we watched a video about the first few weeks with baby and briefly discussed breast-feeding, dad's roll and post-partum depression.  Those topics were worth learning about more for sure.  Class got out early and we decided to get some food near the hospital since we were both starving and just wanted alone time before we went home to the pups.  We found this awesome place called FreeB!rds and it was a build your own burrito restaurant (like Chipotle but a thousand times better).  I'm glad we ate there, now we know where to go/take family when I'm at at the hospital!

Backtracking just a tad...yesterday morning I received a call from the Frenchie Rescue volunteer and she said she is 99% sure she has a foster home for Coltrane.  The foster lady has a wedding to attend next week and will be out of the state until the 12th, but Coley will be able to go with her after that.  It's so bittersweet!  We love that pup so much, but this is the best plan of action for her.  : (

Hubby has been working like a ninja which is good, but he'll be working on Saturday so that means more nesting time for Nichi!  Planning on doing a deep clean of our place, grocery shopping, making those yummy fair scones and watching some girl movies and most likely horror movies (I love Halloween/October!).  Is it Friday yet?

End of Week 27: Successful Trip Home

Okay everyone, prepare for a very long update on the last few days!

Thursday
When I got home from work we discovered a few packages:

Holy cow, a Pack n' Play!

My bestie and her mom had purchased a Graco Pack n' Play from our registry-how awesome are they?!  Yeah, very cool.  I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

AND after checking the mail that night I found she also sent me:

Yum!

The card was absolutely hilarious and I've already eaten a couple chocolates from the cute lunch box.  Heehee...I'm saving the frogs for the weekend.  : )  And the book is too cute!  I've already gone through half of it; has some very good advice.

Friday
I woke up at my normal weekday work time and got ready to...sit in traffic.  Since JetBlue flies only out of Long Beach to Seattle, we had to sit through the normal weekday traffic to get down there.  It took us about an hour and forty minutes-not as bad as we thought, but it was still frustrating for the hubs.  I treated him to a fatty breakfast at BK once we got to Long Beach.  :)

Flight was great and the first thing we did when my pa picked me up was hit up Chang's Mongolian Grill...I've been craving that place for so long!  My favorite is the rice wraps, and I can't seem to find any other Mongolian Grill that serves them.

Second plate of food...hungry pregnant lady!

My pa and our waiter giving the thumbs up...he was very accommodating of  our constant requests of rice and rice wraps!

After filling our bellies to the brim, we sat in more traffic back to Tacoma.  That evening was spent going through a lot of my storage I left at home and either taking a few things or donating the rest to goodwill.  I found a couple things that I had bought for my "future baby" from Holland back in 2007...I should have taken pictures, but one is a little elephant that plays music and the other is a stuffed sheep.  I know I'm weird, but I wanted to be able to say, "I bought this for you when I was in Europe!"  I also snapped a photo of my "Record of Birth" hanging in the room I was sleeping in:

Let's hope Baby H is around the same weight as me!

Later that evening hubby sent pictures of two boxes that Nana and my sister sent him so he wouldn't feel left out opening presents...

Missy Box!  Homemade cart cover, towels and bibs.  And from our registry, a Chicco carrier for when we go on hikes/outings!

Nana box: Seahawk and Sounder onesies and homemade blanket and hat, how adorable!

Saturday
Baby Shower Day!!!  I had such a great time, and it was really nice seeing all my friends and family again.  I was sad that some couldn't make it due to understandable circumstances, but Nana and my sister did a great job-I have such a loving family!

That little guy on the left was made by my other "grandmother's" daughter, and the middle basket was made by my cousin!  

Sister set up a "photo booth" and we added the polaroids to our wedding guest book since it was only half full.

My Aunt Penny and Cousin Lisa (who my mom couldn't stop gushing about!)

My mom and me :)

Sister Missy, Bestie's mom Kay, Nana and Lola

My mom and Aunt Kathy

I also have to tell you that this was my first time trying french macarons...OMG.  I'm in love.  I think I ate about 12 of them on Saturday...whoops.

After the baby shower, we headed over to Redmond to meet my immediate family for dinner at Spazzos.  Dinner was meh (which I will be yelping shortly!), but it was really nice to see everyone.

Top left: My oldest brother John and 5-year old niece Sydney
Top right: My FIL & MIL
Bottom left: My folks and nephew Lance (who tried to look serious, but I think he ended up cross-eyed, ha!)
Bottom right: My brother Avery, wife Amy and 2 1/2-year old niece Ari

Ari is such a cute kid!  And my sister is the greatest sister.  :)

As we were leaving the restaurant, it made me miss my hubby as "his" restaurant was across the way, haha:

When we got home, I ate more macarons and a yummy carrot cupcake Nana made for the shower and watched USC get pummeled by ASU.  That was a fun game.  I don't like USC, or $UC as we call them...

Sunday
The weekend flew by and Sunday arrived rather quickly.  After getting ready and eating some leftover fruit from the shower, I sat on the couch with sister and Bella, the cutest cat/dog (she's sort of cat-like because she doesn't act like a crazy dog...or at least, like our crazy dogs!).  But she was shaking and then stared at me for a long time.  It was quite unusual...maybe she finally sensed Baby H inside me?

Bella also likes to stick her tongue out.

I told my MIL and sister about the few things I wanted to gather before I left Washington and after packing up we headed out to the University Village next to the University of Washington.

Organic Washington Apples?  Check.
Fair Scone Mix?  Check.
Top Pot Donuts?

Check.  Starbucks was an extra perk!

Last on my list was Stumptown Coffee for my co-worker/friend who will be the one to drive me to the hospital if I should go into labor at work...Stumptown is my FAVORITE coffee and I would have bought some for myself but alas, I'm not allowed too much coffee (and I'd rather just not take the chance!).  We couldn't find it within the U-Village in the short amount of time, so I settled with Top Pot Coffee since it's local.  He tried it today and said it was yummy!

We made it to the airport with plenty of time and my MIL and sis took me in since my Baby Luggage was heavy (46 lbs. to be exact!).  The security line was insanely long, but it moved pretty quickly.  After we said our goodbyes, I ended up getting randomly selected for a new line where people do not have to take their shoes off, remove their toiletries or laptops!  I don't know why that made me so excited, but it did.  Unfortunately I still had to take my boots off because there are studs that go along the zipper, but I didn't mind.

I grabbed a Beecher's Grilled Cheese and tomato soup for my flight out and got to my gate when it was supposed to be boarding...and waited.  And waited.  The pilots were stuck on another flight and we were waiting for them to head over.  An hour later we were able to board and I shut my eyes as we pushed out to the tarmac...and waited.  And...went back to the gate.  Apparently they had refueled one wing but not the other, and so we had to go back and fill up again.  WTF.  I was fine with this but the lady sitting across the aisle was freaking out and kept talking loudly, and then two people hurried off the plane.  Did I mention we only had one bathroom working?

Fortunately we took off about two and a half hours later and made it back to Long Beach by 6:30pm.  Not too shabby.  Good thing to come of all of that was I got a few emails from JetBlue with a new account and $50 credit due to the problems.  That's going towards our flights to New York in August!  Woohoo.

So all in all, it was a really successful trip back home.  I did not miss the gray, rainy weather which stayed the entire weekend, but it was a nice change from the heat here.  But the next time I'll be seeing my family won't be for another few months.  My parents are actually talking about driving down for Thanksgiving and staying until Baby H is born since they'll both be retired by then!  That's neat.

Events to look forward to now: My last trip to Disneyland alone with the hubby which should happen in the next couple weeks...Baby Shower #2 thrown by my co-workers...and the arrival of Baby H!  Events that are kind of sad: Coltrane leaving our family.  The French Bulldog Rescue Organization have been in contact with me and they'll be talking about her case this week (it never happened last week, one of the ladies still had questions about her which I finally got a hold of last night).  So she may be leaving us within the next couple weeks.  We're both really sad about this, but she still has been showing the same behavioral problems...she even acted out a few times last night.  But we feel she will get the training/dedication that she just can't get from us since nothing has worked on her.

Tomorrow is the third prepared childbirth class...I'll be keeping you posted on that soon!