JT ain't got nothing on me

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like the record to show that, after almost four months of fits and starts and not feeling totally myself...

I am pretty sure that I have all of my sexy back:-)

Pretty happy about that.

Thoughts

I finished class at 2:30, and the realization that I have done everything I need to do before tomorrow hit me like a freight train. Whoa...I am having two babies tomorrow.

I don't want to say that I haven't thought about it, because I obviously have...but it just suddenly really set in that this is happening, and it is happening in approximately 20 hours. Like a sudden wave of "Oh shit".

I am just a little bit nervous about the surgery, but not terribly. I would say that I was probably more nervous about the surgery I had in the summer of 2007 than I am about this...although this one has a lot more lead-up to it. I think that I feel better knowing how common this kind of surgery is...it makes me feel better knowing that the doctors do it all the time.

I am going to miss being pregnant a little bit. Had I been able to be more up and about, I would really miss it, but I have basically enjoyed it. I feel great and have never really had the thoughts that I hear from a lot of women about just aching for it to finally be over with.

Mostly, I just feel ready...and I am not afraid to report that this is a new feeling as of, oh, about this morning. I don't have any loose ends to tie up or errands to run or anything that I have to do before the babies get here, I am just plain ready to go to the hospital and have it all done.

Now, am I ready to be a mother? Not quite as sure about that part...I will let you know in a week or so...but I am ready to have the babies.

In the meantime, though, this is all you will hear from me for the next five days, at least. Smoking Hot Roommate has my password, so she will post the details Friday or Saturday if she remembers, but I don't envision myself blogging from the hospital:-P

And when I come back, I am bringing two baby girls with me!!!

Names. Final. Maybe.

OK, seeing as we have somewhere between 12 minutes and 18 days until the babies arrive, it seemed like a good time to settle on some names. Of course, these are always subject to change, and I have had a LOT of people tell me that they changed their minds about baby names when they finally saw the little nuggets. So, take them with the requisite grain of salt.

First things first, I love the idea of family names (with an obvious nod to pretend family names in my case). Maybe it is because of my own checkered family past, or maybe it is because of my sense of traditionalism...but for whatever reason, I love the idea of naming people after various family members. Smoking Hot Roommate has a name that is at least quasi-traceable to someone who was born in 1848...that, to me, is super cool.

With that in mind, we set about to come up with four names (two first and two middle) for our baby girls. Immediately, you will likely note that both The Boy and I have sisters with whom we share enormously tight bonds. As such, both Twin Sister and Munchkin were the first names that automatically came to mind (well...their actual names).

Smoking Hot Roommate is the other obvious candidate, and was my next name choice. The fourth name is actually her mother's maiden name, which is a super cool name and one I like very much, especially as a middle name. So, there were our four choices.

First problem, I don't want to give one of them Munchkin's first name. She will still likely live at home part-time until the babies are eight or nine years old...and it just gets too complicated having two people in the household with the same name. So, that has to be a middle name.

Next issue is that Big Sis is having a baby in a month, and should that baby be a girl, she would very likely want to use her sister's name, and possibly her mother's maiden name as well (we had all talked about this a bit before). Obviously, I would defer to her if she wanted to use them, and would pick others to clear up the confusion. Yesterday, I finally got her to confide to me that, should she have a girl, she will almost certainly name it after her sister, and that her mother's maiden name will be the baby's middle name regardless.

Therefore...with all of this taken into account and everything worked out to my satisfaction...we have settled on:

TwinSister Munchkin, and BigSis SmokingHotRoommate.

LKM and MAM

Clarification

Just a quick clarification on some things based on a comment from Jen yesterday.

There is almost no chance that I will deliver these babies naturally, and that is totally OK by me. One of them has been in breach position pretty much the whole pregnancy and the other one has flipped back and forth a bit (but is not in the correct position and likely will remain there). If they don't think that they can deliver both naturally, then they won't attempt it, so it seems really unlikely that we will even try.

I have kind of wanted a section the whole time, though, so that is fine with me. The way I look at it, you either suffer coming or going and you can't avoid it. You either get the pain and difficulty of labor and two deliveries, or you get the pain and nuisance of a recovery from the surgery. And while the recovery from a c-section is not as bad as it used to be, it is still a major, invasive surgery that you don't just get up and walk around afterwards. And of course, there is recovery from a natural delivery as well.

But here is my great fear...I am worried that I will go into labor, go through 10, 12, 24, 36 or however many hours it takes and maybe even deliver one of them, but then have them say that the other one is out of position and can't be moved and that they will have to do a section anyway. No way am I going through a full labor and still having to go through that kinda surgery. And since at least one of them has been out of position the whole time, that just seems way too likely.

So, even if the doctors tell me that we could try a normal delivery, I think at this point I would probably just rather have them go ahead and have a c-section.

On another note, I see that some of you have taken note of the new "Thought for the Day" over on the right. Munchkin said that a couple of weeks ago, but I will leave it up there for a few more days because it is super cute. And we can all guess what day in April she is rooting for;-)

Tax Day

Doctor's appointment this morning, with an ultrasound before that. The girls are really chubby!!! 5 pounds 10 ounces and 5 pounds 7 ounces, both doing really well. The ultrasound tech said that they both have lots of hair:-) Yay!!!

The bigger news is that my doctor has scheduled me for an April 15th C-Section, so that will be the absolute last day. They can sort of come any time they want now, and she even told me to not worry that much about sticking to my bed rest rules, but if they aren't here by tax day, they are coming out whether they want to or not!!!

I am super excited to have a date, it makes it seem that much more real. You know, since the 35 pound bulge in my midsection wasn't already...

Too cute to describe

You know what is a little worrisome at first, and then super adorable when you find out what it really is?

Fetal hiccups

The idea makes me giggle. The actual hiccups kinda do, too.

Even losing an hour isn't helping this go by faster

It is pouring rain outside, I am bored and confined to laying on the couch reading a selection of analyst reports, annual reports, research notes and other thrilling materials, and then translating them into PowerPoint slides for a presentation in two months. Also, it is only Monday morning and I have five more days of this shit to look forward to. Yay.

So yes, I am a little bored. So much so that I am thinking about going to school one day this week just to mix things up. And be bored there instead.

It actually wasn't a bad weekend...I had a lot of visitors. Munchkin got out safely on Saturday and is now basking in the Caribbean sun. I am not sure that the jealousy comes through in blog form;-). At least she calls me once a day to check in and allow me to live vicariously through her. The Boy did a ton of cleaning up and sorting of junk on Saturday, and I felt bad about not being able to help, but at least I was there for moral support. There were a whole bunch of boxes (well, Rubbermaid tubs) of clothes and stuff that needed to go into storage to make room for baby stuff.

He went out on Saturday night (to judge a barbecue contest, no less!), but a couple of friends came over to keep me company so I wasn't lonely. A couple other friends came over during the day on Sunday, too, and Smoking Hot Roommate came over for dinner as well. For a couple of reasons, she has been incredibly busy lately and I haven't seen her a whole lot lately...so it was really nice to have a couple hours to visit:-). Her "stuff" is wrapping up in the next two weeks, though, and then she will be back to being around all the time to take care of the two pregnant chicks:-)

And yes, she is a key part of Project Get Everyone To Move To The Beach For The Summer...

That gets us to today and my five day long grass-growing-viewing marathon. Wish me luck. And if you need me, I will be around...

"Spring Break" used to be more fun

How come no one noticed that yesterday was Tinkerbelle's birthday?!?!? I even tried reminding you, but I guess no one felt like checking the archives to figure out what March 11 is:-P. I wrote her a very long birthday email so she would have it when she woke up, and I sent her some clothes and girly stuff, too. And we talked for a while when she got home from school...needless to say, she is pretty darn excited to be an auntie! She is also very excited to come and visit her nieces once she gets out of school, which I am looking forward to as well. She is a really fun kid...different from Munchkin in a million ways, but really a treat to know.

I think I like the idea of having the babies on maybe a Friday morning, or a Thursday...just seems like right before the weekend is a good plan. Is it completely absurd for me to go to class on a Thursday morning and then head to the hospital afterwards to have them? I don't think they would let me, but it's a thought...:-D. Hmm...I would probably miss Project Runway that week, too...(yes, joke).

And, of course, they could choose to make their appearance long before then without my having a say in it. We are past the point where they would be in imminent danger just because they are so premature, which is obviously a good feeling. They still need another 4 weeks or so to be really, really healthy and not face the prospect of extra days in the hospital, but it is good to know that they could come now and be out of substantial danger.

On another note...still not totally decided on names. We are most of the way there, but not completely committed. I have a feeling that we won't know for sure until we meet them!

Not much going on this weekend. Munchkin leaves in the morning, and I will miss her lots. I am on Spring Break next week, which will make me really bored. I am hopeful that I can make a lot of progress on our group project so that I can advance it to a point where the guys in the group can pick it up and finish it during the next month when I am "less available." I think we have a good plan, so I am optimistic that it will work out. And it is not like I will be completely out of commission going forward, I would just like to step back a bit and only have to worry about my own individual work.

That is about it...other than that, I will just be around and laying low...and waiting!

Is tax day a bad birthday?

Who knows what tomorrow is? Well, really today, since it is 11:45 and most of you will read on Thursday during the day...

I watched Idol tonight, and actually thought that the guys were pretty good. Overall, they were better than the girls, but I think that the girl with the dreads is the best of the whole bunch overall. At least that is my impression after some very sparse early season watching. Not sure what is up with Kara, she seems to be overly emotional and weepy...something is going on there.

So, let's see...I had a totally uneventful doctor's appointment this morning. No ultrasound, so just a matter of seeing the doctor, having weight, blood pressure and urine tests taken and an oh-so-pleasant cervix length check and pre-term labor swab test. Looks like we are going to schedule a C-section sometime around week 38 just to have it on the books. Obviously, they can come whenever they want, but it would be kinda neat to have a date to look forward to.

It is like 90% that I will have a C section. Both girls are in the wrong position and have been pretty consistently. The chances of them both lining up before I deliver is pretty slim, so the section seems likely. Totally fine with me...my great fear is going through a long labor, delivering one of them naturally and then having the other get all twisted and have to have the section anyway. I am ok with either labor or the recovery of a C section. But I don't want to do both!!!

So, since I sort of get to pick their birthday...I am taking suggestions:-)

This is easier when it is freezing out

I assume that everyone is familiar with the legendary scene in Alien when the thing crawls out of the guy's stomach? Well...for the last few days, my stomach has looked very much like the early stages of that! Well, pregnanter...

I just can not describe how totally weird it is to see bizarre lumps and rolls and indentations coming and going all the time. Sometimes I feel like it is maybe an elbow, or a foot or something, but usually you just can't tell what it is at all. Whatever it is...they have been ACTIVE the last couple of days. Actually...you know what it looks like? It looks exactly like there is someone in there rolling around and pressing against the skin from the inside;-)

Also... the kicking in the crotch? It feels like they are trying to get out!!! I know a lot of women get the bladder kicking, which supposedly hurts a lot. I haven't had any of that, but they are doing a number on my cervix...

You know what makes bed rest 1000 times worse? Nice weather...argh...it was sunny and mid- 50's all weekend here, and it made me sick to not be able to get outside for more than five minutes. I felt like a little kid who was sent to her room and had to watch all of the neighborhood kids playing out her window.

Spring break next week, which will be really boring...lol. I should have a TON of work to do,which should keep me busy, hopefully. Munchkin is definitively leaving me to cavort with her dashing foreign boyfriend and family. PT and doctor's appointment last week and they both said that she is good to go. No running, no jumping, no extended walking or standing and just basically taking it sorta easy. Obviously, swimming is all good, which is convenient. Frenchie's Mom volunteered to make sure that she sticks to her rules...very nice of her.

Kind of a funny conversation with her about her leaving. We were making flight arrangements, and I said something about "We need to make sure that The Boy can drive you guys to the airport on Saturday morning," (her friend is going to...I mentioned that, right?). Her response was "Eh, we can just take a cab if we have to."

You know, because 14 year old girls just hop in cabs on their own all the time...right?

Bored

I don't want to complain, because life could be a whole lot worse, but I am getting really bored. The thought of another six weeks or so of laying down all the time except for class is kinda depressing. I know it is all for the babies' (and my own) health, and that this will all be a really small inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, but it is getting really frustrating.

I would like to be able to go out to dinner, or go shopping for myself or run my own errands or clean my own house (lie...totally fine with not doing that). Or I would like to do those things regularly and not feel like I am committing a crime against the pregnancy police if I stand up for an extra 10 minutes every day. And I would like The Boy to not feel like he is abandoning me if he goes out for a bit on a weekend night.

Heck, in a month or so, we won't be able to do any of that stuff in peace anyway! Seems unfair to not be able to do it now. At this point, I am just bored with sitting around waiting for something good to happen.

Here's the thing...I have loved being pregnant. I think I look super cute, I have no bloating or swelling or weird skin coloration issues (save for the regular dark line down my tummy). No really unusual aches and pains at all and I am sleeping great. I was sick and tired early on, but have felt really good for a long time now. Blood pressure is great, all of my other tests are great, weight gain is perfectly normal and manageable. All of the weight is in my belly, save for the little bit in my boobs:-).

And you know what? I want to be out looking all cute and adorable and pregnant and healthy! I am frustrated that I feel so good and yet I have to lay around like an invalid all the time.

Alright, I need to stop complaining, but I felt the need to vent. Given all of the complications that some people have during pregnancy, and the difficulties that others have in even getting pregnant, I have very, very little to bitch about. But whatever, it's my blog!

I will be back tomorrow with some more practical, less annoying stuff...namely, summer plans:-) Until then...

Who wants to be my nanny?

OK...to continue my thought from last week...while I am not totally sold on figure skating as a sport, I wouldn't really argue it that strongly because basically when it gets down to it, usually the guy who does the hardest jumps without falling wins. But ice dancing? C'mon!!! The announcer seriously reported that one girl would get extra points because of the good sideways twinkle in her eyes. Also, she looks like a character from Avatar...

None of these, however, hold a candle to Solo Synchronized Swimming as the dumbest thing I have ever seen because it is both asinine and completely inaccurately named.

Moving on...

Super awesome and fun baby shower:-). I was pretty good about staying reclined the whole time, even though it was pretty hard because I really wanted to be up and around to greet people and whatnot. And we got all kinds of super cute baby girl clothes and stuff that almost makes me really excited about having babies. At the moment, it is filling up The Boy's parents living room until we make some room for it. He has a little bit of furniture moving to do before we can move the stuff in.

Some things I have decided on:

There shall be only one crib. At least for the first couple of months...no one really seemed to think there was a need for two, and it will save on the furniture buying, moving and assembling for now.

There shall also only be one of a whole bunch of other things like swings, bouncy seats, play mats, etc. If we need a second because they both love being in them at the same times, we can always get another one later on, but there is no reason to get over-cluttered if we don't need to.

There shall maybe be no new car. We sort of thought we would get a new one, but don't really need it. Mine is going on six years old, but it has really low mileage and is probably big enough. If I thought that we would be heading back and forth to the beach every weekend in the summer with three adults, two babies and all of their stuff, then I think we would have gotten something bigger with a third row. But since Munchkin will be at the beach all summer (and could always ride down with someone else if she had to) it doesn't seem really necessary.

There shall likely be a nanny. Simply put, it is cheaper and more flexible than day care. Having babies in day care is both really expensive (roughly $2,000 a month each) and inflexible (you can't do part time...it is all day, five days a week or nothing). I can adjust my schedule so I have no classes one day a week (at least) and The Boy can likely work four days a week as well (or like four and a half by having one of his real or my pretend cousins who are in the 14-18 year old age come over after school to babysit so he can work from home that afternoon.) His Mom said that she wants to do at least one full day a week permanently (seriously, how awesome is she?) which leaves us needing to fill in like a day or two every week with a Nanny. This means I have to start looking for one...

Alright, that is a lot for one Sunday night post...so I will have to continue this brain dump later on;-) Toodles!

Sport?

Have I mentioned that I have a baby shower tomorrow? I believe that I have left it out...my bad. Well, I do! The Boy's Mom, angel of angels, is throwing it...you know, because she felt like just moving in with us for 10 weeks to play Nanny wasn't contribution enough:-)

I am actually sort of looking forward to it, and not just because it is an excuse to get out of the house for an afternoon! It gives me a whole other couch to be reclined on, which is very exciting...lol. Or maybe I can sit in the recliner. Or maybe I will just mix it up. Just the usual suspects, a handful of friends and some of The Boy's family, so it should be nice and relaxing and fun.

My Aunts are a little bit bummed that I can't come to Chicago, because they wanted to have a baby shower, too. So, I am a little bummed about that as well...but no traveling for this girl:-( Which also means that I missed out on the chance to spend Tinkerbelle's school vacation with her this week...also a bummer (last year we went to Disney and it was awesome!)

Other than that, very little going on in AM-land. Munchkin's foot is doing pretty well, and her physical therapy has gone according to plan. No more crutches, but she is far from 100%. At least she can walk around now, so she is less cooped up and bitchy...lol. (I kid, she really is almost never legitimately bitchy.) Her trip next month is still up in the air...

OK...I like watching figure skating, and I think they are remarkable athletes. But I have a hard time with any sport where you can't tell who wins without an arbitrary and subjective judge. Same goes for half-pipe snowboarding and moguls skiing and freestyle aerials. I love watching that stuff...and my love for stoner snowboard chicks is well-documented...but they are more performance art than sport. Can you imagine if the 100 meter dash was interrupted because, at the 50 meter mark, someone had to stop and do four dance moves and then keep running again? That is moguls skiing...

Which is not at all meant to demean the athletic ability required to do them. There is very little that requires more training and more pure strength and agility than ballet, but that doesn't make it a sport either. At the same time, it does not look like the curling team misses a whole lot of buffets and could well chain smoke and drink heavily while competing...but at least there is a totally objective means of telling who wins.

I am not sure what my point is...and I can't promise to have thought this through...but if you need someone to tell you who wins, and there is room within that for a judgement of artistry, then it is not a sport. And the corollary would be that you don't have to play a sport to be an athlete. Are figure skaters athletes? Absolutely! They train like the dickens, are in great shape and have physical capabilities above and beyond those of even superbly talented people. And curlers (or archers or shooters from the summer games) could never physically exert themselves even the slightest and still be great.

OK...that is my story and I am sticking to it.

The Bachelor

First of all...keep the baby dates coming, this could be fun:-) As a reminded, my due date is May 4th, but it is unlikely that we will get very close to that. The doctor considers April 6th to be a good target date where they should be strong and healthy...anything beyond that is icing on the cake. But, there are no rules that say I can't go full term!!!

In other news, I watched my first ever (I think...at least the first in a VERY long time) full episode of The Bachelor last night. What. The. Fuck. It kinda made me ashamed to be a woman, or at least to be told that these are "amazing, beautiful women".

1) Some of them are sorta cute. One looks like a horse. None are that good-looking. Which would be OK if they were bringing something else to the table. But...
2) I can't even imagine how low your self-opinion has to be to go on a show like that. The whole situation is completely fucked up (we can talk about The Situation some other day...hee hee) and can only exist because of self-esteem issues. Think about it...these girls have to basically show up and beg for attention from one guy, putting on a lengthy show to demonstrate which of them can do the most to please him. Never once do any of them get to ask what he may bring to a relationship...they just have to assume he is awesome and then grovel.
2a) Case in point...I saw on The Soup where a girl got kicked off for flirting with a cameraman. Yet, the guy is allowed to fool around with all of them and spend "romantic overnights" with any of them that he chooses. So, he can bang every one of them and they all love it, but if any of them say hello to another guy, they get booted.
3) If there is a worse way to start a relationship, I can't think of it. There are cameras everywhere...the guy is simultaneously making out with 30 other girls (and sleeping with at least several), everyone is on vacation and you get tiny snippets of time to actually meet each other, each one of which has at least the outline of a script drawn up. Also...how long are they there for? I feel like they all fall madly in love with him sometime between 15 and 25 minutes of meeting him...
4) What is up with the production quality? It seemed like the whole second half of the show was filmed on someones Flip...was there something weird going on last night?

Anyway, I realized that maybe my brief love of the show wasn't gonna work when I noticed that there had been a 30 minute long, tear-filled scene where one of the girls quits (not real sure why, to be honest) and I couldn't muster an ounce of interest. It was supposed to be crushingly emotional and devastating for both of them, but I just couldn't figure out why they were taking it so seriously...can you imagine if you broke down like that every time you went on two dates with someone and realized it was just not happening? At least I know I wouldn't have sat on his lap and flashed my panties to a national audience while I did it;-)

So...anyone care to defend the show? Did I miss something?

Update

All went well with the doctor...blood pressure still good, no signs of pre-term labor, babies heartbeats good, and my cervix appears to be holding steady. So, week one of partial bed-rest must be considered a success...

No means "No". Unless it means "maybe".

So, as I am sure none of you are at surprised about, I got talked out of a firm "no" on the trip to St. Bart's in March. Munchkin can be really persuasive, and she is really hard to say no to!

I agreed to the following...if her doctor and physical therapist say that she is cleared to be on her foot without any restriction (except for running and sports, which will be out for a while), and if my doctors still say that everything looks OK and there are no signs of pre-term labor, then I will let her go. I think that her foot will be the real issue, and at a minimum, this will ensure that she is really good about her PT instructions until then, which will only be good for her. So that is that, and we will have to see how it unfolds.

In the meantime, I am nervous for tomorrow's doctor's appointment. Things have gone really well on the quasi-bed rest front and I still feel great. And I can definitely feel a difference...there is less of a feeling of them weighing down (and kicking me so much) in the crotch. Hopefully, that feeling of eased stress is reflective of the actual state of my cervix. Status quo will be totally OK by me...

Wish me luck!

Why I love my study group (or: quasi-bed rest) (or: how much do you want to know about my cervix?)

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning, and got some kinda-annoying news that is gonna require some lifestyle changes.

First of all, the babies are doing great:-) Both are active and healthy and really good sizes (2 pounds 8 and 2 pounds 7) and are developing right on schedule. And I am doing great, too...blood pressure is the same as it was at my first appointment, no terrible fatigue, no unusual aches and pains (beyond what you'd expect). My weight is good, sugar levels are good, all of my tests have been normal and I have no swelling and bloating. My rings slide on and off super easy.

And then there is my cervix...ugh. Without the lengthy description, here is all you need to know: a short cervix means a risk of pre-term labor. If your cervix gets smaller than 2.5 centimeters, they put you on bed rest for the duration of your pregnancy. As I have detailed here before, that would be a total and complete catastrophe and would be a MAJOR pain in the ass for me. All of my efforts to stay in school this semester are for naught if I have to go on bed rest (and yes, I know this was a stupid idea from the beginning...keep it to yourself!!!).

So, at its first measurement, my cervix was something like 4.0 centimeters. It stayed around that size until about four weeks ago, when it was like 3.5 centimeters. Two weeks ago it was 3.0 or so, which was not a great trend, but not super-alarming. Well, on Friday, it measured about 2.7, and that started to get me worried. It is pretty easy to see where, in two more weeks, that number could be at 2.5 or less, which would require me dropping out of school and losing basically a whole year of school.

After talking with my doctor, we decided on a plan to try and head this off at the pass, which involves putting me on part-time bed rest. Basically, other than sitting up in class, I plan to be laying down essentially all the time. Fortunately, I can do pretty much any work I have to do laying down. It is gonna drive me crazy being that useless, but if it can get me to make it all the way to the birth (or at least close) without having to go totally on bed-rest, then I will give it a shot. One day in, and so far so good...the fact that it was 12 degrees outside didn't hurt.

This will be tough on The Boy, too. I am not supposed to be up much when I am home, and am not supposed to lift anything, which leaves him pretty much in charge of everything around the house. The obvious other complication is that Munchkin is incapacitated, too...so he doesn't have her help, and has two patients to take care of:-)

Final story, though, about my incredibly awesome study-group guys. We have a study room that we can keep stuff in, where we have meetings, and where we keep all of the files and stuff for our semester-long group projects. It is basically like our office at school...only the six of us have to share it. The room has a conference table, a couple desks, and a bunch of office chairs. Usually, after class ends every day, some or all of us convene there to work on either class stuff or project stuff. That is where I do most of my homework before I leave for the day to head home, and really where I spend most of my time at school.

Well, my new plan as of Friday morning was to basically scrap that...and just head straight home after classes end (which is usually like 2:30 or so). I broke the news to my group members when I got to school, and they were bummed. For one, it is harder to do group work if I am not there. And second, I think that they would just plain miss me:-). However, being the resourceful future captains of industry, they weren't about to let a little medical complication get in the way, so they came up with a solution that is actually even better than mine: they stole a couch.

The lobbies outside of all of our study rooms are basically like study lounges with chairs and couches and coffee tables and stuff. So, once I told them that I had to recline whenever I wasn't in class, they figured that they would just take one of the desks and one of the chairs out of the room (leaving it randomly in the hallway...lol) and swipe one of the couches to stick in our room. Problem solved! No word on what the facilities department is gonna do when they find all the furniture has been removed from its appropriate places, but we can deal with that on Monday.

In the meantime, I can now sneak away to the study room to lie down between classes, for an hour at lunch, and then all afternoon while I do my homework and whatnot. So now, I will have to be on my feet (or driving or sitting up, which is just as bad) from at least about 7:45 until 10:00 on an average day, which is a lot time. But after that, I will get 15-30 minutes to lay down, then usually another 90 minutes of class, an hour to lie down at lunch, 90 minutes of class and then pretty much lay down for the rest of the day.

Let's all cross out fingers that this keeps me off of full-blown bed rest until it is time to have the babies...

What color, exactly, is "Badd"?

Let's talk about sex! More specifically, let's talk about the complications of doing it with a giant extra part of your sticking out of where your stomach usually is, and all kinds of weird hormones floating around. I know I have at least three other pregnant readers, and a whole bunch of Moms, so I expect to get some feedback on this...

First, I have found my sex drive to be pretty much unaffected. I get tired more easily, so in that sense it has waned, but it hasn't gone away entirely, or gone raging off the charts, either. It seems to have been pretty much the same as it always was. I guess, maybe. I am a little surprised that I don't feel any less sexy...I had figured that I would feel bloated and gross and not quite like my little sexpot-self, but that hasn't been the case at all.

I think part of that is due to the weird, sort of foreign-ness of it all. While it is clearly my tummy, it sorta feels like it is not? I am not sure I can really explain it...but I definitely don't feel like "my stomach is huge" so much as "I have this weird stomach thing attached to me." I don't really feel much less sexy, at least not around The Boy, which has been a pleasant surprise.

There is one difference, though...I feel less slutty. Sometimes, and I am sure you can all relate, you just feel a little sluttier than usual. It may manifest itself in saying dirtier than normal things, or doing different things than you may normally do, or in more unusual locations...but there are just times that you feel like the inner porn star needs to get a little air time (I will spare you the details in this forum, but I can elaborate outside of this if you need some ideas:-P). There has definitely been a whole lot less of that, and I really think it is because of some psychological acknowledgment that I want to be more respectable in front of the kids:-P. They can't see or hear me, but they know...

Second, the logistics are getting difficult! I can't lay on my stomach, I am much less flexible, and I can't really lay on my back for too long, either:-). I have always orgasmed fastest and most often from being on top...and that has become kind of unworkable, as it gets a little tough to really get down to all of the really good grinding with a giant belly in the way:-) To counteract that, we have been making better and more use of some of the goodies in my closet...which I am totally OK with... I will come right out and say that I would be one miserable bitch these days if I didn't own a vibrator.

Third, there is at least one advantage to being pregnant...Boobs!!! My boobs are, by my standard, huge. In regular woman terms, that means that I actually have boobs, that they provide an actual filling-out of clothing, and that they carry with them some actual volume. This is a new phenomenon for me, and has been quite fun to get used to. Sure they will shrivel up and go away when this is all over, but I am enjoying them while I have them. They can really be quite useful:-)

In summary, it's been different, and there are some challenges, but I haven't found it to be a huge downer on my sex life...it is pretty easy to work around:-).

Anyone else?

Baby Pictures

Better late than never, here are the baby girls from last week:-) I also have 3-D ones, but they didn't come out great, and are sorta creepy...lol. I like my girls to not look creepy!!! Baby Non-Presenting has her hand right up in front of her little face here...


While Baby Presenting just sorta seems to be hanging showing off her "round head". Yes...the radiologist told me she has a round head...whatever that means. I was really hoping for "triangular"... I believe that is her sister's head in the left hand corner of the picture, but I am not sure.

Anyway, back to school today, so my lovely vacation is over with. You would think that all of that free time would have led to some blogging, wouldn't you? But...um...no, it didn't. It led to me doing a whole lot of nothing!

I did a lot of cooking...I made lots of cookies and brownies, plus a roast one day, chicken in white wine sauce another day, and a lasagna on another. It all turned out pretty good. I went to Munchkin's school to talk to some of the high school girls one afternoon, and that was really fun. I went to the gym a couple of times, which felt good and allowed me to read a lot (I read books by both Glen Beck and Barack Obama in the same week...that feels like it should be some kind of a record.) And I took my first pre-natal yoga class, which was awesome!!!

Most importantly, though, I talked The Boy into taking me on vacation the weekend after next...Yay!!! Nothing super fancy, just a quick long weekend in Florida to get away from the cold, relax a bit and get some sun. This is, of course, assuming that the weather in Florida improves a little bit...it is almost as cold there as it is here! Hopefully, Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis and their husbands will come with us, too:-) Munchkin will either come with, stay with one of them, stay with a friend or stay at Papa Bear's.

Munchkin's friend's Mom called me yesterday to see if I still wanted to come on the annual ski weekend that the girls always go on, and that I have gone on the last couple of years. Obviously, no skiing or snowboarding for me, and I am not even sure I will be able to cook as much as I have in years past, but I certainly hope I can still go! Hopefully another month of growing won't make me totally unmanageable:-)

OK...that is enough for now...I have some stuff for tomorrow that is a little more fun:-)

The gym and traveling

I started going to the gym yesterday, which is something I have never really done much of. When I first found out I was pregnant, I asked my doctor whether I should undertake some kind of a fitness program. She told me not to start anything new, but to keep walking as much as I can (I walk a lot) and to start some basic stretching and stuff.

That worked out fine, and I have felt pretty good throughout most of my pregnancy so far. Unfortunately, it is now really cold, very snowy and quite icy out. Given the balance complications that come from carrying a whole bunch of new extra weight, that is a recipe for disaster! So, I have moved my walking indoors, probably for the duration. Also, my tuition includes access to the gym, so I might as well use it, I suppose, right?

I don't walk so much as I waddle:-). But it is nice and relaxing and I can watch TV or read while I do it. I'll ask the doctor tomorrow if there is anything else I should do as long as I am there. I also think I may start Yoga, too.

One another note, as many of you that have been reading for a while know, one of my favorite times every year is our annual spring trip. Since Munchkin moved here, we have gone away every year in March (during her spring vacation) to someplace warm. She and I went to Disney and the beach in Florida, and then a whole bunch of people, including two of Munchkin's friends, went to Mexico in '07, and then to the British Virgin Islands in '08, then back to Mexico last year.

And, now that I have a spring break that coincides with hers...we should be all set, right? Darn babies and their flying ban!!! Argh!!! How am I supposed to get my winter warm-weather fix if I am grounded? Big Sis, too...she probably won't be able to fly, either (she is more likely to get the go-ahead than I am, though). I really didn't think this through, did I? So, long and short, the March trip is likely a no-go.

Munchkin and Smoking Hot Roommate are scheming on their own travel plans...which are more ridiculous than I could possibly explain. I will let you know if they materialize:-). But that really does me no good!!!

So...who thinks that I should make The Boy take me somewhere for a long weekend real soon! Florida maybe?