Leslie Lee’s Weblog

So, yeah, last night I totally felt that earthquake. I didn’t think that I would react the way that I did, I totally freaked out! My knees were knocking together, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking, I was actually really scared! John was over at Tim & Brian’s watching the Warriors game, and thank gawd Lisa came over, because I don’t know what I would have done if I were by myself!

Well, I’ve got time, so let me just tell you all about my day yesterday…(poor you)

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So my day started off pretty good, I got through brushing my teeth without barfing. But then on the way to school, I got that car sick feeling, which lasted through noon. I made it through the kindergarten class, which is always a challenge, and the first graders actually kind of behaved themselves. (we made these spiders with our handprints, they turned out sooo0 cute! And they had fun, because I painted their palms black, and it tickled)

So I bought these Liz Lange maternity pants at Target a few weeks ago, they were black work pants with an elastic band that sits below the belly. Well, I washed them and that stupid elastic band totally folded and twisted, and got all f-ed up, completely unwearable. I was kind of mad.

Well so Lisa came over after school yesterday, and we had decided that we were going to go for a walk all the way to Burlington Coat Factory, at WestGate, because I heard that they had a pretty good maternity section (which I later found out that they don’t, it was two racks of ugly). Before we went Lisa suggested that I return the pants. Really? But I’ve already worn them! What the heck? I brought them, and we stopped by Target, and it’s not like I had a receipt or anything. Well they took them back!  They looked up my receipt using my debit card, and gave me cash back! How cool is that? So THANK YOU LISA! I would have never even thought of returning them! I figured I was just S.O.L!

So, yeah, we walked to WestGate, and then John picked us up from there cuz it was too dark to walk home. He dropped us off at home, and went to watch basketball. We decided to have some dino’s for dinner, so we were heating those up, and watched  Desperate Housewives. I was in the recliner, and Lisa was on the couch and the whole house started to shake. Omg, I jumped up and told her to get in the door jam between the living room and kitchen! I totally forgot what an earthquake was like! The whole house was rolling, it was hard, and then it settled down and then really started going again. It felt like the house was on a skateboard! It lasted what seemed like forever! I thought the china cabinet was going to tip over and the light above the kitchen table was swinging to the point it was almost hitting the ceiling.

Amidst all the shaking & rolling all I could think was how the house was going to fall down, and something bad would happen to the baby. I guess I can say that that was my first real maternal moment. After it was all over, it took me a couple of minutes to move, and I thought that we should go outside, in case a bigger one happened. I think Lisa thought I was a little crazy, so we stayed inside. We made a few phone calls, then ate our dinos. Yum. I made sure that I slept in full pajamas last night, just in case there was a big one in the middle of the night. How embarrassing to have to run out in the street in non matching PJ’s?? (I’m kidding)

 Oh, by the way, aren’t animals supposed to sense earthquakes ahead of time? Yeah, my super protective dog slept through the whole thing. Didn’t even twitch. He’s so useless! He’s lucky he’s cute!

So that was my day. Not too exciting. Hopefully it helped you pass the time, cuz that’s what it did for me. It’s 11:55 now, and I am off of work! Yay! I love holidays, it means parties and cancelled classes! Have a good one!

So this week I am 15 weeks, and I still feel like absolute shyte. Omg, is this ever going to end?? It’s like the most annoying, uncomfortable, constant feeling and I am so over it. It’s like being car sick all the time, even throwing up doesn’t really relieve it. Everybody tells me how great the second trimester is, so I’m just trying to wait patiently for this to happen.

So, if you haven’t seen me in a while, I am definitely starting to show. It’s really bizarre. I’m not necessarily freaked out by how I look, but more of how this whole thing feels, physically. It is sooooo weird! Like when I lift my leg I can feel this big thing, that kind of feels like a water balloon in my lower abdomen, move and push my stomach up. I’m scared to move too fast, like it might pop or something, not that moving too fast has ever been an issue for me. It’s weird how foreign it feels, though. Another kind of creepy thing is peeing. The uterus sits on top of the bladder, and I swear when I go to the bathroom I can feel my bladder deflate & my uterus drop down. Oh, it’s so weird!! Right now the baby is supposedly about the size of a large lemon, I can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like when I’m like 6 or 7 months along!

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Well tomorrow is Halloween. I’m kind of disappointed in myself for not putting more effort into a costume this year. I usually love to dress up, and this year I came up with a really good idea, but gathering up all the stuff was just too much, so I’ve abandon the costume idea all together. I’ll just have to do it next year. I was going to be the Wicked Witch of the East (WWof the West’s sister). The problem is that I couldn’t find any striped tights that fit. I went to the plus size store, but (super surprisingly) the legs were too big, but regular size is just way too tight around my tummy, and it’s uncomfortable to wear it under my belly – so, oh well. Next year. Can you believe that next Halloween I will have a 6 month old baby?!? Crazy! But how fun is that going to be?? I better learn how to sew so that I can make him/her super uber cute costumes!

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2 weeks from tomorrow we find out what this thing is!! So if it’s a boy, then I have the nursery all planned out…I’m going to have an Ugly Doll theme going on. Ugly dolls are these Japanese “designer toys” (which sounds fancier than they actually are http://www.uglydolls.com/ ) They are these cute little monsters. And I bought this book, Creature-O-Rama, and it has ideas on how to make your own creatures, plushy creatures, so I thought how cute would that be if I made my own, cuz that much I can sew. Anyways, so (for a boy) I was going to do a chair rail in the middle of the room and below put black & white stripes, and above a light blue with darker blue polka dots. And then these little cute monsters peeking above and below the chair rail and around the stripes, just kind of randomly. Wouldn’t that just be the cutest thing??

For a girl, I don’t really have any ideas, I mean I guess I could do the same sort of thing, just instead of blue use pink. But girls and monsters? I’m not sold on that idea just yet. But I did see the cutest thing at Costco. They had this little girls kitchen set. It had a retro Frigidaire, stove and sink all in pink. OMg, theeee cutest thing I have ever seen! So if it’s a girl, I don’t care if she can’t use it for years, I’ve got to have that kitchen set! I’ll do her whole room around that set!

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Can you believe that it’s already almost November?? This is my favorite time of year, work starts to fly by, and the vacations are abundant! Next week I have a full week of work, but then I have the 12th off for Veterans’ Day, and then the next week is already Thanksgiving, so I have to work on that Monday, but have the rest of the week off! YAY! And then only three and a half more weeks until the much anticipated 2 week Holiday Recess! And then before you know it, President’s Week (in Feb) has passed by and then Spring Break  (in late March) and then I’ll be on maternity leave! Woo Hoo!

I think I’m getting ahead of myself!

Well, I hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

Well, Monday was a fluke. The return of the energy was only a tease. But I now know why…

I had to have some lab work done this week – pee pee & blood tests – and yippee! I’m anemic! Ugh. So that explains why I am soooo tired all the time. I kind of expected it, since I’ve been anemic before; but I was really hoping that maybe my prenatal vitamins had helped in avoiding it. Oh well, now I’ll just be super uber grumpy from terrible constipation caused by the iron supplements. So beware! ;o)

I’ve also developed a lovely case of wetting my pants (almost) everytime I sneeze and throw up.I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, it’s just a little leakage, not like a whole tank. But thank goodness, this has only happened when I’ve been at home, so I still have a pretty good sense of humor about it. Ah, incontinence! Well, the pee pee test revealed that I have a lovely little bladder infection, which I’ve read is pretty common during pregnancy, so no need to worry.

Another common little thing I’ve read about being pregnant is this thing called Pregnancy Rhinitis.

Pregnancy rhinitis occurs when your nasal passageways become irritated and inflamed during pregnancy. As a result, you experience nasal congestion, sneezing, and a runny nose. It is very similar to allergic rhinitis, except that it does not appear to be caused by any environmental allergens or toxins. Pregnancy rhinitis lasts for at least six weeks, and can occur at anytime throughout your pregnancy, although it commonly occurs in the first trimester. Symptoms of pregnancy rhinitis usually resolve on their own within two weeks of labor and delivery.

I think that this is what’s causing my so-called morning sickness – post nasal drip! In the morning it’s awful, especially in the shower because the steam loosens it all up and I’m choking and gagging…jees, hasn’t my second trimester started already?? Shouldn’t all this be over by now??

Yay! It’s Monday, and I’m feeling really good today! I’m not dragging around or grouchy, which is amazing, especially since I had two 8th grade classes this morning! So, I’m thinking that maybe, hopefully my energy is back for good?? Ya think?? This week I am 14 weeks, so probably, right? Oh gawd, let’s hope so!

Yesterday I was absolutely wiped out! We took Case & Claudia miniature golfing, and it was unexpectedly really hot. By the time we got home I was exhausted, and while they were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the arcade console thingy in the garage, both John & I fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours. So it was a nice change of pace this morning when I didn’t wake up as the evil scrooge that usually appears on Monday mornings.

We practiced responsible parenting this weekend not only by having a sleep over with the twins, but we finally got Cash the ole snip-snip on Friday. Yay! No more ugly balls bulging through his legs while he sleeps! (Ew!) So, I always thought when you got a dog neutered they cut the whole package off, and they were just left with a twig and no berries? Well, Cash has his twig (duh) and a couple of deflated berries. It’s really rather gross. It’s just like the shell of what used to be. Do they shrivel up and disappear, or will we always be reminded that we waited for the little suckers to drop before we got them taken care of? I’m so confused. Well, either way the poor pup is doing fine. He’s got to wear this stupid cone for 10 days! (I thought that was a really long time) And he’s so bad with it. He was clumsy before, so you can only imagine what he’s like with this big solar dish around his neck. You know he’s coming a mile away because you can hear the guy running into everything. He walks the whole length of the hall scraping against one wall or another. And you should see him trying to get through the doorway, it’s hilariously pathetic. He’s also not allowed to have any outside activity until he gets the stitches taken out (10 days), so he’s going nuts. (no pun intended) I feel bad for him, he has all this energy but we’re not supposed to play with him (i.e. throw the ball, etc.), he’s not even supposed to play with his plushy toys, but we’ve totally broken that rule. I think that if the vet’s going to put these kinds of restrictions on an animal, they should provide us with some good, strong sedatives for the length of those 10 days. That would make things a lot easier.

I love Wednesdays, especially today! I usually have only 3 classes on Wednesdays, 2 sixth grade classes and a third grade class. And my first class doesn’t start until 10:30, so I get to sleep in a little bit. Well today is exceptionally good because the sixth graders are away at science camp, so today I only have one class and that doesn’t start until 12:45! How great is that??

With that said, I’m at work, and kind of bored – so I thought I’d tell you all about my obsession with Hot Dog on a Stick. Oh my gawd, I cannot get enough. Not of their hot dogs, but of their cheese on a stick. It is seriously the most delicious thing in the whole entire world, it’s like the best grilled cheese sandwich ever made. It’s nice and gooey with the most perfect crunchy crust. Right now I could eat this for every meal. Mmmmm.

 A week or so ago I was obsessed with Target popcorn. Have you ever had that? The air popped one they make in their little food court. I was at Target, and I was starving! The whole entrance smelled like that buttery heaven, so I splurged and spent a whole dollar on a bag. I could not get it in my mouth fast enough, and do you know how hard it is to push a cart and stuff your face with popcorn at the same time? I was crashing into all sorts of stuff. (it’s a good thing I have my Asian heritage for an excuse!) Needless to say, there were lots of trips to Target for about two weeks for no other reason except for the popcorn. I highly recommend it, even though I’m pretty much over it now, and have moved on the the giant hunk of fried, melty cheese. Mmmmm….

Back to the present…so, if you’re ever wanting to go eat at the mall, you know who to call!

So this afternoon is our New Pregnancy class at the new Homestead Kaiser. How exciting! I have no idea what to expect in this 4 hour class, but I do know that by the end of it we should have scheduled our next appointment with my regular OB – Terry Gardner. Which means that we are one step closer to finding out the sex of the baby!! I am waaayyyyy looking forward to this! I think that this is going to be, by far, the most exciting thing to happen so far!

So, what am I hoping for? This is probably going to sound really stupid, I mean, I’m the one thinking it, and I even think it’s pretty stupid reasoning. But, I think that I’m hoping for a boy – but only because I really want to paint the room blue. I know, I know, even it’s a girl, I can paint the room blue… psht, whatever. That’s not happening. If I have a girl, her room is not going to be blue. That’s silly. I won’t be disappointed if it’s a girl though. I think that John would be really good with a little girl actually.

Anyways, stay tuned to see how the class goes…

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Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame. oh, and bor-ing!

That pretty much sums up that class. Thank gawd it was only about an hour and a half. It wasn’t very informative, it felt like the girlie that was “teaching” the class was rushing through everything and everybody else there didn’t have an ounce of excitement or enthusiasm – I didn’t see one person smile, it was sort of sad.\

But on a better note, John met me there on time and he dressed nice (no bleach spotted jeans & a holey white Tshirt). And we got our appointment set for the ultrasound that will tell us the sex of the baby….November 14 @ 4 o’clock! Yeah, doesn’t that seem like a lifetime away?? Unfortunately there weren’t any times sooner that worked. Boo. Oh well, I’m sure the time will fly by!

Welp, it’s back to work today. Boo. I had the flu all last week, so I didn’t go to work. I don’t feel that bad about it because it was only a 3 day week. Monday was Columbus Day, and Friday was Conference Day – and nobody wants to conference with the art teacher, so I had the day off.

In the 10 days I stayed at home I didn’t get too much done. I did the normal household chores, but I didn’t do anything above or beyond like I’d hoped to. I did open the door to Jodi’s old room, soon to be the baby’s room, but then I quickly closed it in fear that the giant pile of junk in there was going to swallow me up, never to be seen again. Finally John helped me find some motivation, and yesterday we moved the white desk out of there and into the pink room, and bought a new shoe rack for our closet, so the millions of shoes that had accumulated in that room could be put away neatly & organized. But if you came over today, looked in that room, you would never guess that we did anything to clean it up. It’s still a disaster. Oh well, I’ve still got 6 months to go, right?

So, yeah, I’m now officially in my second trimester! Kind of exciting! It’s amazing how fast it has all gone. On the other hand, it seems like I’ve been pregnant forEVER.

I’m reading Jenny McCarthy’s book, Belly Laughs, and I have to say that I’m not really that impressed. I thought it would be really raw and funny, but it’s not that great. Kind of boring. I dunno, maybe my expectations were too high. Has anyone else read this book? What did you think?

Oh, I found theeeee greatest maternity clothes apparatus thingy EVER. So, I think that I mentioned it before…I don’t fit in maternity clothes yet, but my regular jeans are far from buttoning so getting dressed and going out in public has been a challenge, not to mention depressing. So this last weekend, Lisa & I went shopping, and I was determined to find some f-ing jeans that fit. We went to Motherhood at Oakridge, which I now think is the BEST maternity store out there. (Pea In The Pod at Valley Fair is way too overpriced) And the girl at Motherhood was really helpful & informative and after I told her my fitting problem, she found me this rubber-band-girdle looking thing. It’s stretchy cotton material, like a comfortable girdle, and it helps keep your pants up without them being buttoned. It is the greatest, most comfortable thing ever. It fits over your pants, up onto your waist, and it really works! My pants stayed in place, you couldn’t tell they weren’t buttoned and if you wear it low enough, it just looks like you fashionable with the layered look thing going, and did I mention how comfortable it is?? Anyways, I highly recommend it! OH, and the best part? It was only $16.48! AND I g0t a whole gift bag thing with a bottle, a binky, and a bunch of coupons and stuff – it was great.

So, it’s Monday of a three day weekend. Not bad. But I’m sick. I have been all weekend, and it totally sucks. This isn’t really any worse than any other flu that I’ve had, it’s just that all the other times I’d take Nyquil or some other knock-you-out remedy & I’d just sleep the whole sickness off. But now I’m only allowed Sudafed, and only as directed. I’m not sure if it comes in a knock-you-out version, but John went and got the non-drowsy kind. Boo.

I had a cold last week, and felt like I was getting a little better by the end of the week, but then I got a flu shot on Thursday – which the doctor said was fine, actually recommended for pregnant women – and then Friday night this lovely strain of abnormal amounts of snot, sneezing, cough, headaches & a wicked sore throat kicked in. It has been no fun. But enough of my whining…

Last Friday I had my last appointment at the REI Clinic. It was a cool one too, the ultrasounds are much more exciting now that the baby looks like a baby. It has doubled in size, so now it is 54mm – about 2 1/8″. It was moving all over the place; we saw it’s brain, brow bones, ribs… it was pretty cool. It’s growing rapidly, I think a little more rapidly than normal, and so the due date keeps changing every time we’ve gone in. The first ultrasound had a EDD (Estimated Due Date) of April 26, then the second was April 24, on Friday it was estimated at April 20. If anyone is familiar with the numeric suggestion of that date, you might think that it’s cool – but I don’t. I think it’s LAME, LAME, LAME. I am NOT about to have  a 4/20 baby. So hopefully that will change by our next ultrasound.

ANYhoot, only about 5-6 more weeks until we find out the sex of the baby!! I can’t wait!! We have our New Pregnancy class on the 16th, that’s when they set up our first pre-natal appointment with our OB, and we can (hopefully) find out whether we’re having a girl or a boy. I can’t decide which I would rather have… I guess I don’t really care, I’ll be happy with either!

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 Cash, our other baby, woke us up in the middle of the night last night because he threw up in his crate.  Although it was gross, and he’s a dog, it was really cute the way he really is our baby. His crate is in the family room, and that’s where he sleeps every night, by himself. We sleep in our room, and the crate (as Case & Claudia put it) is his room. So lately, he’s getting older and somewhat more mature, so we’ve been leaving the crate un-zipped – because really, what’s the point of having a big “protective” dog (I use the term loosely, as he doesn’t even notice when the doorbell rings) if at night, when the boogeyman would come to get you, our big ferocious dog is zipped up in his crate? So we’ve been leaving him unzipped. It’s been working out pretty good, he’s been staying in his “room” all night and waits for us to get up and let him out. But last night I guess he wasn’t feeling well and barfed in his bed, so he came down the hall, into our bedroom and just rested his head next to my pillow, as to say “Mom, I don’t feel good”. So John got up, cleaned his bed out, and Cash ended up sleeping next to our bed on the floor all night. It was just really cute. Just like a kid. It’s weird because that’s really how I feel about this dog, like he really is my child, and I just love him so much! Okay, so now that you think I’m crazy, I’ll let you go….

but I am going to post a picture of my Cashy so you can see just how freakn cute he is. BTW, he’s 8 months now, and he weighs about 51lbs. We got him when he was 8 weeks old, he was barely as tall as our ankles and weighed about 5 lbs. Aww, how time flies…

October 1  Homemade Cookies Day, World Vegetarian Day

October 2  Charlie Brown/Snoopy birthday (Peanuts comic strip first published (1950)

October 4  National Golf Day

October 5  McDonald’s Day, Ray Kroc’s (founder of McDonalds) birthday (1902)

October 9  Alphabet Day Soup Day

October 10  National Angel Food Cake Day

October 12  National Children’s Day

October 13  National Peanut Festival

October 15  Poetry Day

October 16  Dictionary Day

October 22  National Nut Day

October 24  National Bologna Day

October 25  National Denim Day

October 27  Teddy Bear Day (Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday)

October 28  Pie Day, National White Chocolate Day, Leslie’s Birthday (of course!) 

October 30  National Candy Corn Day

October 31  Halloween
Child Health Day – First Monday in October
Columbus Day – Second Monday in October
October – National Apple Month
October -  National Clock Month
October -  National Pepperoni Pizza Month
October -  National Popcorn Popping Month
October -  National Roller Skating Month
October – National Stamp Collecting Month
October – National Dessert Month
October – Fire Prevention Week (2^nd full week)

It’s my favey month! Happy October! My birthday is coming up, Halloween is approaching fast, the weather is changing, next Monday is Columbus Day (no work!) and now it’s okay for me to make everythingsmell like my most favorite smell in the whole world - Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin (from Bath & Body Works), not to be confused with their plain old Pumpkin scent, which stinks.  Oo! I can’t wait until the 27th! John bought tickets for the Ghost Train at Roaring Camp Railroad in Santa Cruz. It sounds really cool! For some reason I’ve been obsessed with trains lately. So this thing goes at night through the forest, and they reenact the Sleep Hollow (Headless Horseman) story. Doesn’t that sound cool?? I love scary spooky stuff like that! It was voted one of the best Halloween events by USA Today.

So this last weekend was exhausting. John & I were both in a wedding on Saturday, it was a LONG day! The day started at 12:30 and we got home around 11 o’clock. I am really starting to understand why a person needs to be pregnant for 9 months before a baby comes into your life. If only pregnancy would affect the father-to-be in a physically similar way. My patience has definitely been tested in the last few months. Hanging out with a bunch of drunk people is really hard when you’re sober. And I swear my dear husband is totally taking advantage of having a DD. It’s not that I’m having a hard time not drinking, I’m just having a hard time hanging out with people that are. If anyone has any experience or advice, please don’t hold back. Leave a comment or email me. I mean, I love my friends dearly, but I’m not so sure how long I can hang with all the partying.

Today I am 10weeks & 4days. Nausea has been lingering around for about a week or so now, and it’s really annoying. I guess I shouldn’t really complain about that because it’s not that bad, I don’t actually throw up or anything, it’s just a constant car sick feeling.  They say only a couple more weeks and it should go away. My second trimester begins on October 12! Can you believe it?? 

I’m really looking forward to getting my energy back, supposedly right now it’s at its worst because the placenta and the baby’s “life support system” is forming which takes a lot out of me. I’m also taking progesterone supplements which has a drowsy label on the bottle, so I’m sure that has some affect also. I’ve been experiencing weird muscle spasm like feelings on the sides of my stomach, it feels like my muscles are pulling and my “abs” get really tight. I’m assuming that’s from all the growing that’s going on. It’s a really weird feeling, and it only happens at night.

Clothing is a challenge right now. My jeans definitely won’t button, rubber-bands and long shirts have definitely come in handy! I bought some maternity jeans, but those are HUGE and I can’t seem to find any that fit just right yet. I got some maternity work pants that fit really well, so I pretty much live in those and pajama pants.

We have another ultrasound this Friday, it’s my last appointment at the REI clinic, so this will be my last ultrasound for a while. The next one will be to find out the sex of the baby. I keep flip flopping on what I think it’s going to be – John thinks it’s going to be a girl, I think I think it’s going to be a boy. But either way, I can’t wait to find out! Next weekend we’re having a Niners/Ravens get-together, and we’re going to be placing $5 bets on what we think the baby’s going to be. We’ll find out sometime in early November. If you want to participate, just let me know!