frustration is:

knowing you set the camera down somewhere in the house, but you don't remember where, and your baby is making the cutest faces ever.  Argh!

so bizarre

I don't think I'll ever get used to everyone and their mom asking about my boobs and how breastfeeding is going.

the full story of last monday, or at least as much as I remember

It all started when I went to my doctor's for a normal week 38 appointment.  Normally I'm at the clinic for maybe ten minutes and am told that everything looks normal for me and baby.  This time I was told that my blood pressure was high (first time ever), and when the doctor felt the baby she noticed he had shifted from head down to transverse (sideways).  At this point I was told that I could either have someone try to squish baby back into the correct position but most likely fail because it was so late into pregnancy and he'd probably be to big to move, or I could have a c-section probably at the end of the week.  So not what I was expecting to hear!  Up until that point I was fully planning on having a natural birth.  Then the doctor told me she still didn't like the look of my high blood pressure, so I had to drive to the closest Kaiser hospital and have them look into it further.  By this time I mostly just felt bad for Luna because I thought I'd be gone an hour tops, and I had barely said goodbye to her that morning.  When I got to the hospital they checked baby and me again.  Now he was being ornery and had managed to turn a bit more to become breech.  That added to my still high blood pressure and massively swollen feet, I was told I needed a c-section the same day.  I was so not prepared to hear that!!!  I am one of those people who likes everything planned out ahead of time.  I own about a million books on pregnancy and labor, but since I had planned for a "normal" birth, I had skipped over all the c-section bits, so I was feeling nervous and completely unprepared.  But at the same time, I was really happy because it meant I got to meet my little guy two weeks early, and everyone I know whose had a baby within the past year or two has had their babies at least 5 days late, and I was antsy to meet him as it was.  I do admit, I probably should had broken the news better to Jeff.  When I found out the news I called him and I think the conversation started something like me saying, "So, you want to have a baby today?"  Needless to say, he was a bit shocked.  Oh, somewhere in the middle of this story a nurse who hadn't read my info gave me water, and since I didn't know at that point that I needed an empty stomach for surgery drank it all.  Oops.  That honestly might have been the most difficult bit of my day, not eating anything from 8am until about 1:30 am the next morning.  I was sooo starving by the time they let me have ice chips.  Let me tell you, ice chips have never been so amazingly delicious as they were last Monday, or I guess technically early Tuesday morning.   Anyway, Jeff finally got to the hospital (looking back I think it's a little funny that I drove myself to the hospital to have a baby, I just didn't know it at the time.  But at least I didn't have to worry about being in labor in rush hour traffic on the way there.  I was nervous about that either because the hospital is kinda far away) and we watched The Incredibles while waiting for an OR to open up for my c-section.  By the way, I am thankful for being so OCD prepared, because Liam's room was already ready for him, the car seat was already installed in Jeff's car, and Liam's diaper bag, and our hospital bag were already in Jeff's trunk.  Booyah!  I don't know if it being a full moon had anything to do with it but there were about a million c-sections that night.  At one point there were 7 in line ahead of me!  And that night was the first night the hospital had ever reached capacity in the L&D floor.  I have to give mad props to all the nurses and doctors because I am completely terrified of needles, but they made me feel comfortable and explained everything as they went along, and I didn't even feel the spinal I was so freaked out about.  The surgery was such a strange feeling though, I was carrying on a conversation with Jeff and the doctors while several hands were reaching into my stomach.  It seriously felt like someone was lightly jabbing my stomach with their fingers (in a totally non-painful way), but I couldn't move my lower body, and my upper body kept twitching without my permission.  And when they started pulling Liam out it felt like a fat person was trying to sit on me.  Oh yeah, and he was born at 8:34 pm.  My only annoyance really was that Jeff got to hold Liam first, even though there really wasn't a way for me to hold him, because I couldn't fully control my arms, and the vertical sheet came up almost to my shoulders.  I have to say, it was nice knowing I didn't have to push Liam out at 40 weeks, because by then he would have been huge.  He was one ounce away from reaching 8 pounds at week 38!  He was 20.5 inches, and he got a 9 on his APGAR.  Because he rocks.  Not that I'm a proud mom or anything.  He was and is also very cute (I know I'm biased, but the nurses all agreed with me).  After the doctor stitched all 5 layers of me up I was given some wonderful morphine so that the nurses could squish my stomach every half hour to check things and not worry about me hitting them, because even with the happy drugs, that part hurt!  By this time it was around 10:30pm, and I felt bad because I know at least a half dozen family members were in the waiting room, and had been since about 7.  Finally we got moved into a recovery room at about 1am, and everyone got to come in and meet Liam.  Mad props to those who stayed to meet him (a few went home first, owing to the late hour) since it was very early Tuesday morning then, even everyone still had work that day.  After that it was 3 days in the hospital, a lot of medication, Jeff making fun of me for walking like an old lady, and a lot of everyone fawning over Liam.  All in all, I'm glad I got to meet Liam early, and that I didn't need to worry about my water breaking in public, or going through a 20 hour labor, etc.  Plus April 18 is a very nice looking date, and now no one I know has to share a birthday (there were at least 3 possibilities for Liam to share with).  And now a little over a week later, Liam is doing great, although he fusses much less when I hold him versus when others hold him (Mom was less than thrilled about that...), and I felt great (mostly) unless someone makes me laugh, then my stomach kills me.  Unfortunately Jeff keeps trying to make me laugh on purpose.  Woe be it to him if that makes my stitches fall out!  The best part is that Luna seems to like Liam, or at least put up with him.  I was really hopefully that they'd get along.  The first day we were home he freaked her out.  Every time he'd make a random noise she'd hide under the nearest piece of furniture.  But then two days ago I was sitting on the couch holding Liam in my arms when Luna jumped up and curled up on my lap.  Just like old times.  Love it!  BTW, expect to see about a million pictures coming soon, but right now I can't reach the camera...

Liam's first movie

changes

You may have noticed the change in the ticker at the top of the page... Yup, Liam has arrived!  A few days early, which makes me happy, because as you probably noticed, I was going a bit stir crazy being pregnant.  Anyway, Liam was born Monday April 18th at 8:34 pm.  We just got home from the hospital this afternoon, and boy is it nice to be home!  Luna still doesn't know quite what to make of the little guy, but Jeff and I simply love him!  More details and story to come later, but now it's time for bed... sleep is going to be awesome, presuming I ever get any ever again.  :)

I suck at waiting

So I've got two weeks left until Liam's due date... The car seat has been installed, the hospital bag is in the trunk, our house is full of baby everything, his clothes have been washed, sized and put away.  Really, there's not much left that I can do.  We've even baby-proofed the house already.  Did I mention I still have two weeks left?  And everyone I know who's had/having babies recently has been AT LEAST 5 days late.  I've also read every baby book I own (which is a rather large number).  Waiting sucks.

Dear Liam,
Please get here now.  I hate waiting.  I'm bored.  I keep accidentally running into things with my stomach.  I had to get out of bed to use the restroom three times last night, and none of my clothes fit.  Plus, if you are late, you will be in big trouble and I might ground you until you turn 18.  So please please please come a few days early.  Plus, I really don't want to be induced, because I hear that sucks.  Be nice to your mom and come now.

I'm going to loose my mind.

Oh so helpful

Apparently during this last trimester I have begun the wonderful nocturnal habit of snoring.  It's gotten to the point where Jeff got up and slept in the guest room last night to get away from me.  I felt really bad because my snoring woke him up.  Then I got confused when I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that Jeff, his pillow, and his alarm clock had vanished.  Luna was pretty darn confused too.  She has her routine, and that routine includes sleeping with Jeff in our bed.  If he is gone, she goes crazy and will sit at the foot of the bed staring at our doorway waiting for him.  Poor kitty.  Anyway, since I felt bad about the snoring I went to a few websites to see how to stop it, if possible.  The first three sites I found were supposed to help pregnant women specifically stop snoring.  Unfortunately the best advice they could give was all the same.
A) stop drinking
B) stop smoking
ummm, aren't I supposed to do that anyway?  Wow, what helpful sites...

I wish it wasn't true

The last few days my feet and ankles have swollen massively (thanks pregnancy hormones!), and when I told Jeff how weird it now feels to point and flex my feet he pointed out that my feet and ankles look as if they belong to Aunt Marge from Harry Potter.  He then asked me if I wanted him to contact the Ministry of Magic for me to help deflate me.  Ha ha.  Unfortunately I think his comparison of me to Marge isn't too far off track.  Eew.  On the positive side, at least my hands, though swollen slightly aren't as bad as Marge's.  I can still comfortably wear all my rings.  Yay!

pictures!

yeah, I know.  I keep not putting photos up.  Well, maybe this will make up for it.  Belly pictures!

Oh so cute and fluffy!

So it looks like we might have rats in our attic.  Jeff made me google ways to get rid of them, but every page I looked at with photos of rats just made me go all googoo eyed and say, "Ah, look how cute they are!  They're so fuzzy!"  I can't help it.  I'm one of the only people I know who has ever had a rat for a pet.  Justin was awesome by the way.  I think that instead of getting rid of our rats the rats could:

A) be best friends with Luna
B) learn to cook with me like in Ratatouille
C) sing with me like in Cinderella

Don't those sound like much better options?  Besides, all other ways seem to involve us having to torture or poison cute little rats, and then dump them in the trash ourselves.  And that just sounds smelly and disgusting.


Oh, random quote of the day (and its context, which helps a lot)
"Oh, so I have to pee in the attic?" -Jeff (on me telling him that to get rid of rats we're supposed to make the attic smell like detergent or ammonia because rats hate clean smells.

Pregnancy Brain

I will be very happy to have the full use of my brain again.  It was pointed out to me that I have indeed been to Washington.  A fact that I don't know how I could have forgotten because it was only two years ago!  I swear I am not normally such a space cadet.  Mostly...  Maybe that's why it took me so long to put Liam's stroller together yesterday.  It came from Fed Ex squished in a box with all small pieces detached.  When I was 5 I had a fully functional toolbox (including a sharp metal saw.  What were my parents thinking?!) and I knew how to use everything in there.  And as of today I have put together at least half of our furniture (Ikea of course) by myself.  So I am so stranger to assembling random things.  However, it took me at least a half hour to put together a stroller.  It did make me feel better that the stroller company included an instruction booklet that was like 20 pages long.  However, they placed the booklet in the center of the stroller so you couldn't see or reach it until you unfolded the whole thing, which was a process in and of itself.  At least our new stroller is large and heavy duty.  If I had had so much trouble with say, and umbrella stroller, now that would have been embarrassing.

And on an unrelated note, the car seat has now been installed in Jeff's car, and Liam will be full term this weekend, so I vote he just pops right out this weekend.  This of course relates to my quote of the day, "Patience is for people who aren't pregnant."  -Liesl

optimistic perhaps?

I was doing errands this morning when I stopped at a light behind a guy in a convertible.  Normally, no big deal, but his plates said Washington.  I've never been there, but I know from people who have that it rains quite a bit.  I've decided that anyone who owns a convertible with Washington plates is supremely optimistic.  Or stupid.  I can't quite decide.  I mean, wouldn't that be like someone from Hawaii owning a snow blower?

You know your husband rocks when...

He brings home chocolate ice cream without being asked (or begged, or hinted, etc.)
Yay for Jeff!!!