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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Meeting the Midwife

So, my doctor's office has a midwife who does all the maternity care. My first appointment, I just met with the nurse practitioner who usually does my gyno type stuff (pap smears, check ups, prescriptions). Today was my first appointment meeting the midwife.

She was really nice, which was a relief. I was not a huge fan of the doctor I had with Ramona, but I didn't have much of a choice because he was pretty much the only doctor in a 90 mile radius of our little shack in the desert. But this time, it seems like I have someone nice who is on my side. We talked about a lot of stuff, but I didn't get too much into the detail of how the actual birth process will take place (mostly because I still have awhile before I have to worry about that.) My next appointment is early January, and my next ultrasound will be at 22 weeks. Hopefully we will find out if we are expecting another mini-Meggie or our first junior Joe at that time.

The idea of having two kids is pretty crazy. We were playing with Ramona tonight, and I mentioned that next Christmas we'll have two kids. Joe gave me a weird look. I guess it is pretty hard to imagine it at this time. It seems like a lot of people are worried about their capacity to love more than one child when they're pregnant with their second. I'm not worried about that at all. I mean, I love Ramona more than anyone else in the world, and I love Joe more than anyone else in the world, and I love my mom more than anyone else in the world. You know what I mean? I have a lot of love for a lot of people, so I'm not worried that my love is a finite source that is running low. I do have worries, though.

My biggest worry is being a good mom with two kids. Well, not even a good mom, just not a crappy mom. I know all around I won't be a crappy mom, but I'm pretty sure I will be for the first few months at least. See, for the most part, I'm a pretty patient and loving mom. I don't yell a lot; I remain calm for the most part. But the one time I am pretty much guaranteed to be crazy and angry is when I am sleep deprived. When Ramona wakes up in the middle of the night and starts whining, I have been known to yell, "JUST SLEEP! Go to sleep!" (*Note*- this is a very ineffective technique to get your child to sleep.) I just lose it. And when Ramona was a newborn, I'm pretty sure I was half crazy the entire time because I barely slept. I'm positive I will be half crazy with this baby as well, unless it sleeps through the night starting the day it is born. And that's ok, I knew I was signing up for that when I decided to have another kid. But I just don't know how I'm going to function as that half crazy lady while also being a decent parent to a toddler.

So far, that's my biggest concern about being a mom of two. I'm sure I'll come up with other worries as time goes on.

Oh, and cute side story that is totally unrelated to anything else- today Joe asked Ramona whether she wanted a baby brother or a baby sister. She said, "A baby stitster! And popcorn."

Monday, December 5, 2011

New Baby

Kathleen said it looked looked like the dude in the wheelchair from Nightmare before Christmas, and I can't really argue with that. I do like that you can see the legs in this one, though. The baby chilled all stretched out like this most of the time, as if my uterus is a sweet hammock.
Here's a less creepy looking face, although it's still not quite right.
Ok, so this one shows the baby looking like a baby. The cool thing with this baby is that my placenta is visible during the ultrasound. (It's on the bottom front.) With Ramona, I never saw placenta on an ultrasound.
There's a little hand, from when the baby was trying to high five me. Then, it did sign language to indicate I should eat more ice cream. I must listen.
And here's a nice profile shot to prove that the baby is not a Tim Burton creature.

They said everything looks great and it was a lot of fun to finally see that there is something going on in there! Next week I will officially be in the second trimester.

Ramona's reaction to the pictures was to smear her peanut butter covered hands on them and announce "Peanut butter jelly jelly sandiwich!"

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas List

And because people have been asking, here's our Christmas wish lists.

Me

Art- MetroDevious. I would like the 15X15 MC square ($80) of the Joe Louis Arena stairs. I already have the Tiger Stadium welcome one, and it would be nice to have two to display next to each other.

Massage- Massage Envy. One of these is up at Westgate, and it would be nice to get a massage because my back and neck have been killing me lately. It will probably get worse as pregnancy progresses

Food- I like those big tins full of popcorn they always have at Christmas. Cookies are good as well. Candy is a good one. I like fruit.

Dress socks- I could always use more of these for work

Hat, scarf, gloves- I like to have a variety of these

Bookbag- It would be nice to have one to keep all of my school stuff together. I keep meaning to buy one and then forget

Laptop bag- I like to bring my laptop home from work during the winter so that I can work from home if the weather is too bad. I don't have a bag for it now, so it would be nice.

Hoodies, sweaters, maternity clothes- I still need warm clothes, especially work stuff. And I only bought maternity skirts when I was pregnant with Ramona since I lived in Death Valley, so I don't have any maternity work pants. I need long ones!

Sleep- I don't know how you can gift this, but I'm really into sleep right now.

Ramona
Hat & gloves- Her head is almost too big for the hat she got last Christmas, and she is really into wearing hats right now

Clothes- She wears a 2T now. She's not in desperate need of anything in particular, but she could always use more clothes.

Shoes- She wears a 7. She needs snow boots.

Toys- She likes anything with wheels. She's not really into stuffed animals right now. Educational stuff is fun. She can count and knows colors and shapes, and we're working on letter recognition right now. She likes treasure and dinosaurs.

Books- She loves reading! We're mostly reading board books still, as she doesn't have the attention span to get into longer stories yet.

Art stuff- She likes to color and is starting to use play-doh.

Musical instruments- Ramona loves to make music.

Joe

Belkin - Tunecast Auto FM Transmitter for Apple® iPod® and Most MP3 Players

Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico

Any other cookbooks

Bouncing Souls - Ghosts on the Boardwalk - CD

Amazon.com or restaurant gift cards

Kids in the Hall DVDs

Decisions

This weekend has been pretty eventful. Friday night I worked on thank you cards for the wedding. It's one of those tasks that seems impossible and takes forever. I really want to send them out soon, so I have to just keep plugging away on them.

We had to decide whether to stay at our duplex for another year or to move. We like where we live (both the location and the actual building) and I think a two bedroom is fine for us (even with the new baby, there is plenty of room.) We were just looking around to see if there was something better, and we have had issues with our landlord in the past, so we were thinking about leaving. But, we decided to stay. Mostly because we hate moving, but also because we do genuinely like it here. Our landlord doesn't come around too often, so it's not a huge deal.

Saturday we went up to IKEA to get a big girl bed for Ramona for Christmas. We got the bed, but haven't got a mattress yet. I also got a few accessories for the house and some presents for Ramona as well. Kathleen came with us and got stuff for her wedding. It was fun to hang out with her for a few hours. Ramona was with Joe's parents for the day, so I worked on cleaning the house and did weird things, like spot-cleaning the couch, that I would never attempt with her home.

The plan is to finish unpacking a few boxes in our bedroom that we never bothered to unpack for the last year, then rearrange our bedroom and put the crib in there. Then, we'll set up Ramona's new bed in her room. I'm not sure when we'll move the baby back in with Ramona (or if we will before our lease is up here next year). It's going to depend on how well it and Ramona are sleeping then.

Saturday night we went to see The Muppet Movie with our friends, Cory and Kellie. *spoiler alert* Mickey Rooney is still alive! He did a cameo, so that was interesting. It was cute. I don't think it's going to become my favorite Muppet movie or anything, but it was enjoyable. I was kind of annoyed that it seemed to "cheat" with CGI instead of cool puppeting techniques a couple times because I'm lame. But, the songs were catchy and they did Rainbow Connection, so it made me smile.

Tomorrow I have my ultrasound so we can see the new baby. I can't wait!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Cutes for the Cousins



I thought Brook might appreciate seeing some of these pics from my bridal shower.

I'm Back!

Next week is the last week of classes. I'll have some free time again, so I'm hoping to be able to blog a bit more. I've been avoiding the internet lately. (Every once in awhile I go through a period where I'm just sick of the whole deal and try to stay away for awhile and just read and and craft and what have you.) But, I'm getting better about it now.

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote. I turned 28; Ramona turned 2.

Joe and I decided to try for another baby asap after the wedding. We both assumed it would take a little while (I mean, when you're actually trying, it's hard, right?) But, no, I got pregnant right away, that first month. So, the new baby should be here by the end of June. I'm 12 weeks now. My first ultrasound is Monday, and I meet my midwife on Wednesday.

I've been really nervous about miscarriage this time for some reason. I think just because getting pregnant was so easy. With Ramona, I was sure everything would be fine. This time, I've been almost paranoid. So, I'm really looking forward to the ultrasound and am hoping they'll tell me that everything looks amazing. This pregnancy has been a lot harder than Ramona's. I wasn't sick with her at all, and I've thrown up more times than I can remember this time. But I'm almost in that second trimester, and I'm starting to feel better already. In my second trimester with Ramona, I almost forgot I was pregnant until she started kicking. Hopefully it will be similar this time. I really can't wait to feel the baby move. It was my favorite part of being pregnant last time.

A lot of people have asked if I want a girl or a boy, and I honestly don't care this time. With Ramona, I really wanted a girl. Now I have a girl, so it's not a big concern. We plan on having three kids, so this one can go either way and it's not a big deal to me. But if it's a girl, I'll probably hope for a boy for the last one. I'm actually going to be really excited either way. I mean, another girl would be awesome. And a son would be really cool. Ramona talks about "brudders" all the time, so I think she would like it to be a boy. (At the library a couple weeks ago, she walked up to an older kid and said, "Hi, big brudder!" like five times. The kid was a good sport about it, and thought it was pretty funny.)

Ramona is really into saying hi and bye to everyone right now. When we're out in public she wants to say hi to everyone she sees. She's also really good at inadvertently insulting people. We were at Target recently, and I was hardcore wanting a soft pretzel, so we went to the food counter and I got a pretzel for me and a popcorn for her. There was a little girl who was probably a year older than her in line as well. I put Ramona down to look around and she walked up to the girl and said, "Hi, baby!" The girl responded with, "I'm not a baby!" and looked at her Mom and said, "That baby said I'm a baby!"

This is also bleeding over into bedtime. Before she goes to sleep, she has to say goodnight to everyone person she can think of, including television characters. It takes forever.

There are a ton of other cute things she's been doing lately, but I'll save it for future posts.