Creeping up on 100 days to go...

Anyhoo...things are just cooking along...getting fatter by the day it seems. I still have a belly-button, but I anticipate that disappearing in another week or two. Thank goodness the hubby understands my inferno-like heat and has been willing to keep the house a bit cooler for me (the dogs are appreciative also). We've been getting into the high 80's/low 90's already.

Why did no one tell me about the nasal stuffiness, non-stop sneezing, hot flashes (all day and night), leg cramps, back pain, stomach muscle pain, and shortness of breath? I feel like I've smoked 3 packs a day all my life!

Only one week to go until day 100 left to bake!!

Job Description

Thanks to one of my friends for sending this to me...it's not as if this is freaking me out even more! :-)

Job Description

Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma

JOB DESCRIPTION:
Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities! Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap,
plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION:
None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE:
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION:
Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Advice welcome...

For those of you with advice to share on this whole baby-thing....use the "comments" link to add your two (or three) cents. Also, any advice on baby stuff that I definitely need/don't need is greatly appreciated also. :-)

It's a Boy!

After paying for another ultrasound (after the less-than-stellar u/s last week at UMC)...we find out it is definitely a boy! I went to a place in Tucson called Already Adorable, which is a 3d/4d ultrasound business. Such a better experience! The 3d/4d technology is really incredible.

I got the package where I get 2 ultrasounds (the other will be at the end of July when I'll be about 32 weeks). So the change should be pretty dramatic from these pictures. Of course, this baby does not like to be photographed, so the pictures didn't turn out super-great.

20-week ultrasound experience

I need to vent about my 20-week ultrasound experience I had yesterday. My ob/gyn scheduled me for my 20-week u/s up in Tucson (at a big city hosptial that will remain nameless...ahem...the initials are UMC)...which is at least an hour and half away. My ob/gyn's office told me to check in at the Imaging Desk (which according to the hosptial signs, that is where all the CT/MRI/Ultrsound scans are done). I give them my name and they can't find me in the system, they finally tap into the main appointments database and tell me that I have to go up to the 8th floor to have my u/s done.

We make it up there and it's the labor/delivery floor that has an ob/gyn office attached. The waiting room was packed with pregnant women from all walks of life (it was a bit eye-opening to me). My appointment was scheduled for 11am, so I was very well hydrated and ready to go for an 11am u/s. The white board on the wall says they are running 40 minutes behind...immediate bladder shrinkage! Needless to say, I couldn't hold it anymore when 11:25 came. How ironic that I get called in at 11:30am!

Now for the fun part, I am thinking (just like my 2 previous u/s)! Wow was I wrong! The woman doing my scan took about 5-7 minutes doing all the measurements...all the while not speaking a word or telling me what she was measuring. After she was done doing all the measurements, I asked her if she was able to tell the gender. She very tersely says that that is not her priority (which I understand) and that if she had some extra time she would look. She finished up the last minute measurements and took oh, about 2 minutes to go back and try to determine the gender. She tells us very nonchalantly, well...I couldn't tell for sure, but if I were to guess it would be a boy. Wow...thanks...so much for my idealized vision of the u/s technician happily telling us what we were expecting. One good thing is that she said she didn't see anything out of place as far as heartbeat, structure, etc...with the baby.

She gave us 4 pictures that are of horrendous quality...I think one of them is a picture of a foot and the other three are profile pictures that I can sort-of make out a head/face. I am still really irked over the whole thing since my previous u/s experience was wonderful, the u/s tech guided us through the whole thing, pointing out what she was looking at. Last night it really hit me hard since I have no idea if I'll have another u/s during the second half of this pregnancy...I really feel like I was robbed of an experience.