Leslie Lee’s Weblog

Ahh, Monday. Back to work after “vacation” is always hard. Especially when it’s freezing in my classroom! I went home for lunch and sat in front of our little space heater while I ate my spinach & tuna salad and a turkey dog. It was so nice and toasty – the heater, not the lunch. Now I’m back in my ice box of a classroom ready for a nap. Thank goodness it’s cold in here, or I would definitely fall asleep right here.

So our Thanksgiving wasn’t really much out of the ordinary, nothing too exciting to report. We did some shopping, we went to the Great Mall and Oakridge over the weekend, it wasn’t too crazy. John bought some really cute baby clothes at Carters, they were having really good sales. We got the outfit we think she’ll come home in, it’s really cute, it’s a little pants set and the top is kimono style so that it doesn’t have to go over her (hopefully) small head. I love it! He also bought a matching bib that says My Heart Belongs To Mommy, he thought that was precious, and a little onesie that says I Love Daddy and on the butt it has a little heart that says And He Loves Me. Awww. It was all under $20, and he made the comment (that he now regrets) that he could go baby clothes shopping every day, especially at these prices!

Just about everything that we’ve bought so far has been a majority of pink because last week I had this awful dream…it wasn’t really about anything in particular, but everything was in purple & lavender. I was half asleep tossing and turning, John asked me what was wrong and in my daze I told him almost in a panic, “the baby doesn’t like lavender!! the baby doesn’t like lavender!!” I immediately woke up and proceeded to violently throw up until 1:45 in the morning. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that, as silly as it seems, the baby does not like purple or any shade of it, therefor I am staying away from the hue all together. Blues, yellows, greens etc. are fine, but anything purple is out.

I’ve finally found the inspiration for her room – and yes, it’s pink, and brown & gold. It’s really cool, very asian mod styled. It’s these wall decals of 2 big gold colored fan tailed goldfish (although they’re titled Lucky Koi) and pink & gold cherry blossoms and then long skinny pink rectangles, and dots & circles in various matching colors.

The decals will go over her crib which will be against a creme wall, and then the other 3 walls will be pink with a gold and brown border. It has been really frustrating finding stuff for the room. I have yet to find a sheet set that I like, it’s ridiculous how much some of this stuff is. I’m not really into baby-baby stuff, like the stuff at Babies R Us is not my style at all, and all the stuff that I do like hovers around $400 which is mind blowing! Especially since I recently found out that the bumper should only be used in the crib until the baby can turn on her own, which is at like 3 months! So I’m gonna pay $400 for a bumper that I’m only gonna use for 90 days?! I don’t think so. So I’ve been searching for fabric to just make my own, well, not ME make my own, I can’t sew to save my life, my mom’s going to do it.

But this whole shopping experience has opened my eyes up to is the lack of options a mom-to-be has in retail stores. I mean, yeah, there’s Target and Babies R Us, but what other different and modern and most importantly, affordable baby stores are there? (besides online) I think this just may be my next adventure…

I can’t believe it!!

IT’S A GIRL!!

I was so sure that it was going to be a boy! But I am so excited & thrilled to be having a GIRL!

Yesterday’s ultrasound was my first over-the-belly ultrasound. I officially felt pregnant when they put the goo on my tummy, and I was surprised when it was all nice and warm. The lady measured HER, and SHE’s looking good, although I am only 17 weeks today SHE measures to be 18 weeks yesterday, so SHE’s a little ahead of schedule, but I kind of knew that already. After the technician lady was all done with the measurements, and she showed us all of HER organs and fingers (no lobster claws, thank gawd) and toes, and femur bone, and eyes(!!) and nose (!!), she move down to look for HER goods…

Hahaha, but SHE kept covering herself with her hand! Well, SHE kept covering and uncovering quickly enough so we couldn’t see what was going on between HER legs. And she kept flipping all over the place which made it harder, but finally after a few minutes of searching, the tech got a good position – it was as if we were inside a toilet looking up at her bum. And BAM there it was – my baby girls GLOWING LABIA!! Hahaha, but really, it was all illuminated. Whether it was done by computer so that we could see it more clearly or it’s just naturally bright white, I’m not sure, but there it was. It’s now official, we’re having a DAUGHTER!!

So, I didn’t cry or anything, but I couldn’t stop giggling! And as we walked out of the office I couldn’t stop hitting John and saying, “Oh my gawd, it’s a GIRL!” He was really surprised too. We were both convinced that it was going to be a boy, and John’s mom had had dreams that it was a boy and according to her, all the signs were pointed to boy. Ahaha, but NO, it’s a GIRL!

Can you believe it??

I can’t!!

Today we find out the sex of the baby. It’s so weird to think that in just a few hours my big belly will go from an “it” to an actual he or she. That’s so weird. That’s so much more real. It’s like everything is going to change in the blink of an eye. I’m going to have a son or a daughter. Oh my gawd, I’m going to be somebody’s mother!!

I’m having so many different feelings about this. I’m excited and nervous, anxious and scared and super excited again. I have no idea how I’m gonna react. Some people say that they cried and got all emotional, I don’t think I will. But who knows.

I just can’t believe that this is moving along so quickly. It feels like just yesterday my mom was sending me this article on getting the sex of the baby early by sending some company your blood. It was super expensive, and I thought, oh, I can just wait…and here we are. 6 hours from finding out.

So this morning I had one of the worst barfy session so far. Lately it has been pretty casual, like oops! I just barfed. How cute. But today there was awful heaving and straining, it was miserable. I can’t figure this out. I thought that by now it would have gone away, or I would atleast have figured out how to avoid it. But no. Although, I have come up with an A+ plan on how to make it a little more pleasant. Every morning after I shower I drink a nice big glass of juice – apple, orange, whatever – that way when I get sick, which is usually right after I dry my hair, it doesn’t taste so bad. There is nothing worst than dry heaving up stomach bile. Ew!

This week the baby is supposed to be getting it’s taste buds, which means that it can taste all the stuff I’m eating. Isn’t that weird? This article said that if I’m eating a lot of spicy foods, then the baby will be more prone to enjoy things like that. Crazy!

“It” can also hear now, so John has been making CD’s for the little one. Do you think it’s bad that the list of songs I came up with include Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys and Metallica?

This has nothing to really do with being pregnant, I just want to vent about the worst Safeway ever! It’s the one on Bollinger & Miller Ave. in Cupertino (or maybe it’s San Jose?)

I’ve always hated this Safeway, the lines are always soooo long, it’s ridiculous. I have never been there and not spent atleast 10 minutes in line. So anyways, they recently remodeled so I thought I’d give it another try, maybe they put in some more check-stands, or a few self checkout lanes that I find so convenient. But it’s “new” so I went with an open mind.

My first impression was a good one, it looked really nice. But that quickly changed. Oh my gawd, I don’t know what happened, in fact I’m still curious to find out. The whole place smelled soooo bad! At first I thought it was me. Maybe my pregnant nose was just being overly sensitive and I was imagining icky smells. Or maybe I put on a dirty shirt that my cat peed on? (how awful and embarrassing would that be??) Cuz that’s what the whole store smelled like. Cat urine. It was rancid. It was soooo bad I’m surprised I didn’t throw up! They had “courtesy clerks” walking up and down the aisles spraying Lysol. It was just so wrong. Great Grand Re-opening! I was really craving some pears, but had resist because they were spraying the Lysol all throughout the produce section. That really grossed me out. I mean, yeah,  I could go home and wash them, but…

Although that smell was the worst part, they were also out of milk. What the?? Out of milk?? Not one carton of 1% or 2% !! And it turns out that last week when I sent John out for milk and he came home with a carton that was all puffy and expired the next day, it was from Safeway. Why am I not surprised?

So there I am, trying to rush to get out of the giant kitty litter box, irritated I’m not leaving with milk for my cereal or fresh fruit for a snack. I get to the front and it looks like I’m in the security line for the airport. The lines didn’t even look like lines, they were just huge masses of people. It was ridiculous. So when I finally get up to the checker lady that barely speaks english, she starts bagging my stuff. Now maybe I’m being picky, but it really ircks me when they don’t ask if you’d like paper or plastic. She starts putting my stuff in plastic bags, so I nicely ask her to do the rest in paper. The stupid idiot lady proceeds to put 2 cartons of orange juice, a two liter of ginger ale, a large jar of pickles, a pretty big thing of ketchup and 4 yoplait yogurts in one bag. Now how the hell am I supposed to carry this bag?? Not only did it weigh 100lbs, but the bottom would most likely break out if I could carry it! At this point I lost it, I was being calm and patient before, but I yelled at the lady. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? And started unpacking the bag myself. She responded, “Oh? Is that too heavy?” Uh, duh! And then she just started ringing up the next customer. I had to load all my own bags in my cart, which usually I don’t mind, especially when it’s that busy, but last night, I did mind.

I had checked my cell phone when I got in line, and again when I finally walked out the door. 17 minutes!! 17 minutes?!? Yah!! Just to check out of the friggin place!

The moral of the story? Stay away from the Safeway on Bollinger. I highly recommend the Lucky over at El Paseo in Saratoga, it’s really nice, quick, their produce is always fresh and free of Lysol contaminants and best of all, it doesn’t smell like rancid cat pee.

Not too exciting. My doctor, or Nurse Practitioner I should say, is my regular gyno, so there were no surprises there. My anemia is only slight, I’m only low by .5 (normal is 11.5, I’m at 11.0 – of what, I’m not sure, iron maybe??) So she said nothing to really worry about. We did hear the heartbeat. I expected something totally different. She did it by using this little janky machine she pulled out of her pocket. It looked like a really old, crappy 1970’s walkman thing with a microphone. There was no display or anything. I was kind of excited before because I read that if the heart rate was 140 or above, chances are you’re having a girl. Below 140 is a boy. Well, there was no screen or anything that displayed it, so I asked what she thought, and she guessed it to be 150. Wow, that was scientific. Especially since we heard it for a whole 5 seconds. Not that I’m bagging on my dr. or anything, cuz I really like her. But so yeah, I’m taking that with a grain of salt, cuz I’m pretty convinced that this evil little thing growing inside of me is a boy. Hahaha, I guess we’ll find out in a week!!

Umm, it’s 7 o’clock in the evening! Why am I at work?? Cuz it’s lame-o open house…

Omg, I am soooo bored! An hour left!!

I went out to eat with a co-worker before this, we went to La Paloma, Mexican food. I think that was a big mistake. Shouldn’t have done that. It’s a good thing I have a bottle of the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin room spray in my drawer!!

OMG!!! Is it 8 o’clock yet???

I’m just gonna keep writing cuz otherwise I’m going to freeze to death….

So I’m so bored that I bought a prepaid photo package on Shutterfly.com

$60 for 500 pictures.

That’s fourteen cents a print, and you can pick them up at Target in an hour!

I figured that with the baby coming that would be a good deal, huh?

Well, really, I’m using pictures of the 8th graders for their quilt project, so I figured this would be cheaper than printing out their pics from my computer. And I could get reimbursed for it.

Huh, it’s only 7:11…

I just farted.

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

I bought some really cute new shoes at Target the other night, they’re kind of hooker shoes though. I’m not sure that, as a pregnant woman, I should be wearing hooker shoes…eh, who am I kidding??

What can I do for the next 30 minutes??

Besides bore you…

Nothing?

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to continue…

so do you think that an enema is uncomfortable?

I don’t want to poop on the table.

I think I might have to get one right before the baby’s born, you know, so that doesn’t happen.

I really don’t want to poop on the table.

Well, I just don’t want anyone to see my poop on the table.

THAT would be embarrassing

I think more embarrassing than people seeing my va-jay-jay stretched to oblivion and a human being being pushed out of it….

Seriously, I am sooooo bored!!

Let me tell you some fun art facts…

Did you know that Caravaggio was a rogue & and fugitive? Yeah, apparently he got drunk and stabbed and killed someone in a bar. He had to leave Rome, and he ran for the next 4 years until he got a fever and died!

He was one of the best Baroque artists.

Did you know that the Baroque period is my favorite period in art history?

Yep, it is.

Surprised? Why? Because I don’t come off as being that sophisticated??

Psh. Whateva!!

Did you know that Flemish people were from the country Flanders, and that Flanders was/is the modern day Netherlands?

Yup, it’s true.

Georgia O’Keefe was born in New Prarie, Wisconsin in 1887 and died in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1986. She was old!!

Did you know that Frank Stella (American abstract artist of the 20th century) has a really big forehead and I’m pretty sure (from looking at his picture) that he could probably touch his upper lip to his nose….

Okay, 15 minutes until this stoopid open house is over….

I had a total of 5 families walk through in 1 hour & 45 minutes.

BOO! HISS!!

Alright, fine. I’m gonna go twidle my thumbs and sing Christmas carols to my fetus….

This week I’m officially 4 months prego! (16 weeks) I’m not really feeling that much better, although I’m definitely not as tired as I have been.

John and I went to a wedding on Saturday afternoon. I went and bought a cute new dress, and since I didn’t have time to go to a “real” maternity store, I just bought some size 2x nylons at Target, thinking they would fit over my belly. Well, during the ceremony there was a lot of standing, and it was in a stuffy church filled with a bunch of old Asian people. (you know that smell?) I started getting really hot, short of breath and dizzy. It was horrible, I was really scared I was going to pass out. Although the nylons were bunching at my ankles, it turns out that the size 2x pantyhose weren’t big enough. How sad. As soon as I got in the car those suckers came right off, John took me home before the reception and I can no longer eat Gold Medal Ribbon ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Once that comes out of your nose, it’s kind of ruined. The poor guy went to the reception by himself, but he had a good time.

On Sunday I made my way over to the Motherhood store at Oakridge and bought 2 pairs of maternity tights, and 2 pairs of nylons, I figured it’s probably not a good idea to keep the other ones that cut off the circulation to my brain. They weren’t expensive, but they weren’t that cheap, like $8-$10 each. They were sitting on the banquette in the living room, still in the bag on Monday evening. I went to see Jodi’s new apartment, and John left to take Tim home. Cash has been really good lately, and we’ve been leaving him alone in the house if we’re not going to be gone too long. Most of the time he just sleeps anyways, especially if he spent the day at work, and Monday he went to work and spent most of the evening playing hard with Sierra (Tim’s dog). Psh. Well not last night! He found the Motherhood bag and tore the shit out of it along with both pairs of tights and one pair of the nylons. I don’t know how he managed to rip up the bag, tear open the packaging for all three garments, remove all the cardboard in the nylons and tear the crotches out of them. OMg, I was soooo pissed! It wasn’t just the fact that he ate about $30, but it’s such a pain to go all the way to Oakridge Mall. Man, did I yell at him. John was kind of laughing the whole time, cuz Cash just sat there on his mat taking his lecture with his head hung down, occasionally looking up at me with just his eyes, trying to look as cute as possible. When I stopped yelling at him he moped to his bed and sulked. It was actually kind of funny. Bad dog. He’s stuck outside from now on!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So a few times a week I get emails from WhatToExpect.com, that gives me updates on what’s going on with the baby. Today it said that this week it’s hearing is intact, so I can start singing to it or reading books. (feel sorry for him if I start singing!) Hahaha, so I’m sitting here at work and instead of listening to my usual radio, I put in one of my Christmas Cd’s. I don’t care what you people think, I’m turning this kid into a Christmas music loving freak, just like me! Hahaha, it will probably backfire on me, and he’ll hate it with a passion. Oh well! But they say that once the baby is born, it will be able to recognize the stories and songs that they heard in the womb, isn’t that crazy?? I have a womb!