Leslie Lee’s Weblog

It’s official, I’m sick again. Dammit. Is it bad that all I want to drink is a giant hot steaming cup of TheraFlu? I know that that would make me feel soooooo much better! Stoopid baby! I think she needs to just sack up so that I can feel better! Ugh, so this isn’t a head cold like the other times, jeez, thinking back, those times seem easy! No, this time I have an icky chest cold. Major coughing, congested chest, sore throat, weezing…fun, huh? I’m just waiting for the phlegm to kick in to really crank up the lovely sounding cough! I don’t think that John minds too much, I have absolutely no voice today, it’s a pathetic transvestite whisper, not sexy at all! Neither pleasant sounding or feeling, so I’ve decided to just keep quiet all together. Shocking, I know.

I’m hoping that I’ll feel better by Sunday, because I HAVE to go back to work on Monday, no excuses. I only have 4 weeks left, which means 4 classes with each grade, only 3 with the 4th graders, and only 2 with the kindergartners & first graders because of a conference day and noon dismissal – but really, I’m not complaining about that! But anyways, so yeah, I can’t call in sick at all! I have to get all their work done and ready to go for the art show. I can’t believe how fast everything is going! I can’t believe that there are only 4 weeks (18 and a half more days) of work left, and then a few weeks after that the baby will be here. HERE. Like, NOT in my belly. But in my arms. In this house. Wanting to be fed, and changed and taken care of….oh my gawd.

Well, my week off is more than half way over now. It has been so nice to not be woken up by an alarm clock, although I don’t really sleep in as late as I thought I would. But I do definitely take my time getting up, Monday I didn’t get dressed until well after 3, it was nice though.

Last week, while I was still working, the 4 o’clock naps that I had to take everyday during the first trimester, but exited during the second trimester, made a sudden return. If I don’t get that nap, I’m asleep by 7:30, which makes me a little upset because I miss Wheel of Fortune (how pathetic!). But being on vacation has helped a little bit, it’s easier to find time for a nap and not being around all those students & not having to wake up early really boosts my energy level a bit. Last night we went out for a friends birthday, and I took an hour and a half nap prior to, and I was able to stay out past eleven! Wow, I know!

Anyhoot, so today I am at 31 weeks & 4 days - so only eight and a half more weeks until my due date, which means only four weeks until maternity leave starts! WHOO HOO!

BABY UPDATE 

This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He’s probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby’s kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

Have you noticed the muscles in your uterus tightening now and then? Many women feel these random contractions — called Braxton Hicks contractions — in the second half of pregnancy. Often lasting about 30 seconds, they’re irregular, and at this point, they should be infrequent and painless.

more days until theee END! Whoo-hoo! Hahaha, not the end of being pregnant, the end of my school year! Yes, only twenty one more days of work. Can you believe it?

As for the pregnancy, I am in week 30 now, so only 10 more to go until my due date. Jees, it has just flew by!

John and I attended our first Preparing for Childbirth class last night. It wasn’t too exciting, we did breathing exercises that I just can’t get into, I feel ridiculous doing them. And we watched a video that definitely didn’t make me feel better about reaching the end of this experience. So in it, this woman was laboring her first child, and she was in a lot of pain, the nurse gave her a birthing ball to sit on (it’s just a yoga ball) and move around on, then she went into the bathtub for what she said was a few hours. But the whole time this woman wanted drugs for the pain, and the nurse kept telling her to wait, it’s better if you wait. She didn’t really give any good reasons for waiting either. Then the doctor came in, checked her and she was already at 8cm (you push at 10cm) and it was too late for her to get the epidural, did you know that it takes 20 – 45 minutes for an epidural to kick in? I didn’t know that! But anyways, so this woman had to push her baby out without any pain relief, she didn’t make it seem so bad, but….I’m not doing that! I’m not letting anyone talk me out of an epidural, that’s just crazy! So nurses beware!

Anyways, we have 3 more of these classes to attend, and every week we watch another video, I think next week we get to watch a C-section… yippee.

We also signed up for an Infant Care class that starts in a few weeks, I’m kind of looking forward to that. Hahaha, I’ve always enjoyed playing with baby dolls!

Tonight will be my first prenatal yoga class. I thought that this could possibly help me get more comfortable. I can’t figure out how to stretch my back with this giant belly in the way, so I’m really hoping to learn something. And I could use some exercise. It’s only once a week for 5 weeks, but it’s better than nothing. It’s through Kaiser, and it was very affordable. It would’ve been nice to take the class with a friend, but who knows, maybe I’ll meet some other soon to be moms that are in my demographic & we’ll become buddies. Last night at the birthing class there weren’t really any, although I wasn’t really surprised, I was kind of disappointed. Oh well.

Anyhoot, happy Tuesday!

No, seriously, I LOATHE Mondays. I would have done anything to not have to get up and come to work today. I just have to get through this week! Next week is President’s Week, and I can sleep in every day! If I could have just slept until like 11 today, that would have made things a little better. The problem is that I’m exhausted!! I’m only getting about 2 or 3 hours of sleep at night. I am so uncomfortable, I can find a good position, but it only lasts about 5 minutes before I find myself tossing and turning to find another comfortable one. It sucks. Saturday night I finally fell asleep around 1am, then woke up at 3:30, couldn’t sleep just laid there, staring at the ceiling, listening to John & Cash snore. I tried entertaining myself by pulling single hairs on Johns head and watching him twitch, or by plugging his nose while he snored, but that got old after and hour or so. He finally woke up to go to the bathroom around 5ish, and there I was sitting up in bed, wide awake. So he turned the light on and we chatted until 7:30 when the sun was bright and shining. Then I finally fell asleep again until 9.

Part of the reason I couldn’t sleep on Saturday night was because of drama that had happened that night. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, my mind was racing in rage and frustration. For those of you who know me, you know who this is about, because she is seriously the main source of drama in my life. And really, there is nothing I can do about it, except ignore it, which gets harder and harder to do. So Saturday night I did her a favor, we decided upon a certain time for her to come pick up her kids, she made a big deal how it would be an early night, because I didn’t want to babysit in the first place, I’m just about 8 months pregnant, I’m tired & uncomfortable most of the time, and my bed time these days is around 8:30/9. So I was told she’d be at my house to pick them up at 9 o’clock. Nine o’clock comes around, no sign of them, the kids are tired and cranky. I get a text, We’ll be there at 10:15….Ummm, okay? What else was I going to say, right? So I texted back, okay, but so&so miss you and they’re really tired….she texts back, I’ll hurry. 10 o’clock I get a phone call & she says she’ll be there in a half hour. Now, I bite my tongue A LOT around her, but I just didn’t think that it was right, and I didn’t want it to just slide, like I was okay with it. So seriously, as nice as possible, without any rudeness or raising of my voice, I said I was upset that they are SO late, when you say 9 o’clock I expect some time around 9 o’clock, not an hour and a half later. Now a normal person would be somewhat apologetic, don’t you think? Atleast that’s what I expect, I’m doing you a favor, I don’t get paid or reimbursed, I never even get thanked, so a little remorse for being late wouldn’t be totally out of the question, right?? I really don’t think that that’s expecting too much. Well, I guess it is. No apologies, no remorse, nothing, just screaming at me. Yah, me. What the heck did I do wrong, except do you a favor?? She’s yelling how it’s not her fault, and this and that. Whatever. I told her (in a not like a pissed off me calm manner), “That’s not the point, the point is is that you’re over an hour late, and I feel taken advantage of. I just want you to understand that.” She responds with more screaming and foul language, so I just hung up. The kids were finally picked up at 10:40. The next day she had the nerve to text my sister with, You’re sister was such a bitch last night. Jodi didn’t even respond. So I am so over them, I decided that I don’t need this kind of relationship in my life or my child’s. She has officially been taken off the “Call List” and I don’t want her in the hospital when the baby finally does come. Maybe it’s a little hasty, but as of now, this is how it’s going to be. I won’t even get into what the baby is NOT going to call her. I held my tongue before, but those days of trying not to offend her are over. I’m fine with having to see her at group functions, but I am not making any effort to include her in events happening in my life. Does that make me selfish? Am I stooping her level? Should I even care?

Well, anyways, moving on…the baby has taken moving around to a whole other level! Today my belly is about 46 and a half inches around & 14 and a half inches from top to bottom. I can feel how much bigger she has gotten in the last week. She still kicks and bumps, but her wiggleness has become freakishly startling. Sometimes my stomach will raise a whole half inch on one side. It’s a lot like having a serpent in there, you know how a dolphin will go up and down in the water? It’s a lot like that, but more fluid. I can’t decide if I like it or not, but it is really fun/creepy to watch. It’s actually kind of scary, sometimes it’s so powerful it takes my breath away, and I’m afraid she’s just going to bust right out of my stomach, like in SpaceBalls, when they’re in the diner, and that alien busts out of that guys stomach and starts singing and dancing.

I had a doctors appointment last week, and my doctor told me that I should enjoy my pregnancy now, because in the next 10 weeks the baby will probably more than double in weight and my belly will get that much bigger as well.

Oh. My. Gawd.

22 days until maternity leave…

We went to our 4D ultrasound appointment last Thursday, I was going to cancel it because I wasn’t feeling too good, but decided to go ahead anyways. And thank gawd I did! It was seriously the coolest! I can’t believe how awesome it was! It’s amazing how well you can see the baby, she looks like she could be in my arms, I mean maturity wise, cuz she looks so much like a BABY! It got both me and John really excited, now I really can’t wait for her to be here! Here are her pics…if you click on them, you get a better, less pixelated (??) picture…

Besides getting over 90 pictures on CD, we also got a 20 minute DVD. It’s a pretty cool thing to be able to share that with the soon to be grandparents. The DVD isn’t as great a picture as it was in the office on the actual monitor, but it’s still pretty smooth. The technician lady was saying that the baby has hella hair, that’s what all those bumpy looking things are on her head, and that she’s super chubs, especially for being 28 weeks, which is when she’s supposed to just be starting to fill out. Jees, yeah, look at those cheeks! She’s already got jowls, and that arm, is that cellulite?? Maybe I should cut down on the desserts! Gawd, I hope this baby isn’t going to end up a ten pounder! So anyways, yeah, this was totally worth doing, if I won the lottery or something, I think I would do this atleast every other week until she was born.

* * * * * * * * * * *

This weekend I pretty much gave John the whole weekend off, he’s been stressed lately, and I figured he could use a break. So, Friday night he went out and played Rock Band with the guys until two in the morning, while I stayed home and put up the Lucky Koi decals on the wall. They turned out FABULOUS! I highly recommend it! I got them online from Blik Graphics, and they were relatively inexpensive. My only thing with them is that they don’t stick that well to what I would think is a pretty standard wall, texture wise. Like the little edges of the fish fins kind of come up, and a few of the flowers need to be pressed down once in a while, but it’s not so bad that they would come off the wall. It’s really nothing compared to how it looks, it totally completed the room. I’ll have to post pictures once I transfer them from my camera.

Saturday was my first baby shower! It was a really good time, and the baby got really nice gifts! She is going to be the best dressed and accessorized little girl in town! This one was thrown by my most favorite Aunt Cindy and my dad’s wife, Cyndi, so it was mostly relatives from that side of the family, along with a few of my girlfriends. It was really nice knowing that although I don’t see them all the time, that they’re all willing to come together to celebrate with me. It was special. So if you’re reading this, thank you.

John went to the Foo Fighters concert Saturday night in Oakland with some of the guys, so I didn’t even see him all day. He had a really good time, and somehow managed to get himself all the way up to the front. Guy Fieri, from Food Network (Guy’s Big Bite), was there in the front row with his family, and John met him and shook his hand, I guess he was really friendly. John was pretty excited about sharing that “celebrity” news with me.

So now let me tell you what I found out about the whole return policy at Target, I went to exchange some things today, and it kind of pissed me off. Did you know that if received a gift or bought something with cash (because if you bought it with a credit card, they can use your credit card to look up the receipt), and you don’t have a receipt (gift or other) for something under $20, you can only use your drivers license to return once a year?? But then if it’s over $20 and you have no receipt for it, then you’re just screwed. No money back, no exchanges, no store credit. WTF?? I mean this makes me mad on it’s own, but then I registered here, and none of the things on my baby registry that were bought in store were taken off the list, which means that twenty people could go out and buy the same thing, then if they don’t include the gift receipt, which isn’t so hard to do – I forget all the time when giving gifts – I’m stuck with 20 of the same thing. That’s ridiculous, I thought that Target had a much better return policy than this, that’s half the reason I registered there, because of their customer service. What’s a girl to do??