Emmaology

So i've seen this on about 3 of my fellow bloggers site and thought it'd be fun! =)



Rules: YOU! Yes, you, reading this. You're tagged. Now that you know more about me than you ever wanted to know, play the game, it's fun! Let others know a little more about yourself, repost this as your name followedy by "ology."

FOODOLOGY:

What is your salad dressing of choice? Oil and vinegar

What is your favorite sit-down restuarant? It varies depending on what kind of food i'm in the mood for! =)

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Chipotle!

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?  Italian. i LOVE pasta.

What are your pizza toppings of choice? The works! Or ham and pineapple. =)

How many televisions are in your house? One

What color cell phone do you have? blue

BIOLOGY:
Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? an infected skin polyp.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? nope.

Have you ever fainted? i've come close, but never fainted.

BULLCRAPOLOGY:

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Nope

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I wouldn't want to change it

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? Just 1

Last person you talked to? My husband

FAVORITOLOGY:

Season? Spring

Holiday? Christmas

Day of the week? Saturdays!

Month? May

Color? blue

Drink? water. i would say 90% of the time thats all i drink

Alcoholic? Depends on my mood. =) Beer or wine are always a good choice!

CURRENTOLOGY:

Missing someone? not overly.

What are you listening to? Nothing currently... i'm taking a brief cleaning break. =)

What are you watching? Nothing! I was watching Gilmore Girls before this (yes, i own all the seasons on DVD)

Worrying about? Mostly work related things actually!

What's the last movie you saw? umm... sunshine cleaning! I watched it the other week.
Do you smile often? Yes

If you could change your eye color what would it be? I wouldn't.

What's on your wish list for your birthday? Alcohol! ;) Actually i kinda want the EA active thing for the Wii.

Can you do a chin-up? Probably not...

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? Both!

Have you been in a car wreck? Thankfully no

Have you caused a car wreck? Thankfully no

Do you have an accent? Nope

Last time you cried? I almost cried this morning in the car listening to the radio... they have a telethon for the kids hospital and they had a mother talking about her son in the NICU and i almost started to bawl.

Plans tonight? Nothing big!

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Absolutely
Name three things you bought yesterday? I didn't leave the house yesterday so I didn't buy anything!

Have you met someone who changed your life? Yes, many people actually. =)

For the better or worse? Better!

How did you bring in the New Year?  At home asleep.  Yes, i didn't stay up till midnight... i didn't even attempt it!

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? No

What songs do you sing in the shower? None

Have you held hands with someone today? Yes

Who was the last person you took a picture of? myself!

Are most of the friends in your life new or old? Old

Do you like pulpy orange juice? No! 

Last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? Its been a while...

What were you doing at 12 a.m. last night? Sleeping

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? I have to pee.

Cats Vs Cosleeper... Day 1

So we have a cosleeper mini bassinet for the bedroom. Originally my thought was to kick the cats out of the bedroom completely so that I didn't have to worry about the cats snuggling up next to the baby. Many people say cats avoid babies, but i've got some really snuggly cats! Then I discovered that there was a canopy you can buy and put overtop of the cosleeper! Downside is that you can't attach the cosleeper to the bed, however upside is cats can stay in the room! What can I say... i'm a sap and my cats have been my babies for so long...

So yesterday I set up said cosleeper and put the canopy over it. Of course before I got the canopy over the top they were fighting each other to sleep in it, but after the canopy went up they ignored it. Fast forward to last night when I wake up to pee and see my cat clinging to the side of the canopy! Of course I move it, scold it, and go back to sleep. Next time I wake up i see my other cat in the cosleeper. It took a minute for my brain to figure out he jumped onto the canopy which couldn't support his weight so it buckled. WONDERFUL. Thankfully the canopy part wasn't broken and sprung back into its normal position once I had removed said cat.

As if thats not bad enough they have all decided to scratch on it! So today I went to petco to try and find a natural spray to deter them and found nothing! Go figure! So now I am on the hunt for natural cat deterrents so I can use those and see if that keeps them off. I'm hoping they'll just get bored of the cosleeper and start ignoring it... i can hope right?

And I think we're ready!

My goal this weekend is to get ALL the baby stuff set up, organized, and ready to go. I know next weekend i'm going to be busy and not have much time, and even though at my last appointment nothing was going on... well... you just never know. =) So this morning I finished up pretty much the last big touches on Eiriks room, cleaned up the bedroom a bit, and set up the cosleeper bassinet! I've still got more cleaning/rearranging of my bedroom to do plus laundry for Eirik (cloth diapers and some more crib sheets). I also want to get my bags packed for the birthing center. I know I can't put my clothes in now, but I want to get together everything for Eirik as well as a few things that I know i'll need.

I've posted lots of photos of the room in progress... so here is the last one. The crib and the tree! I LOVE the tree.



My friend is making me curtains which are brown with leaves so it'll help balance things out... so when I get those and get them hung i'll get photos of that too. If you go to my flickr page you can see all the photos of the room.

Now back to knitting. I'm working on a really really cute easter hat for Eirik! I'll post photos when I get that done. =)

Caturday!

So I've posted all the adorable kitten photos of my current cats... so from now on every Saturday will just be a cute cat photo!

Caligula AKA lord of the laundry.

My stomach says feed me!

So the one question I have gotten asked MILLIONS of times is "what are you craving?". Thats a hard question for me because I LOVE food... seriously... food is my biggest weakness. There is a reason that I spent middle, high, and most of college 50+ lbs overweight. I don't discriminate when it comes to food... there is very little I do not like. Off the top of my head all I can think of is licorish flavored things and insanely spicy food. I'll try anything once. But, looking back over the past 9 months I have definitely had some cravings and aversions. Of course they have changed a lot... go figure!

In the 1T it was veggies. The only vegetable I really enjoyed were peas... everything else tasted blech to me. In fact in the 1T most food tasted that way... except fries. All i had to do was get a wiff of french fries and it set my craving off. That and the Kashi TLC Original crackers. I lived on those for weeks... before I started taking Zofran it was the only thing I could stomach... and yes, it had to be those crackers. I tried other brands and flavors.

The next big craving I had was cheese flavored things. Baked Cheetos were high on my list of foods closely followed by sunchips. Now I have always enjoyed both of these products, however I have never felt the need to have them like I did while pregnant. I would actually buy them from the vending machine at work, something I never do. This was closely followed by my cherry phase. Anything cherry flavored I wanted. Cherry pie, cherry turnover, cherry cheesecake... heck, i almost just bought the cherry pie filling and ate that! Thankfully the cherry phase didn't last long. My last big craving has been cinnamon flavored baked goods. Cinnamon rolls, apple fritters, coffee cake... anything baked and cinnamony with butter. That and ranch flavored things (Such as cool ranch doritoes). However the baked goods craving has been worse then anything else. Yes I have actually broken down and either baked or bought insanely unhealthy food simply to stop myself from going crazy.

Now onto a few aversions. The first one I had was chocolate. It wasn't one of those "eww chocolate" aversions it was more like I had NO taste for it. For a few months the thought of chocolate made me go "meh". Now anyone who knows me knows i LOVE chocolate. I keep it at my desk at work, at home... i have to have something chocolatey somewhere at all times. However for months I wanted nothing to do with it. My other biggest aversion has been ground turkey and chicken. Typically I don't buy ground beef. Why? Well, mostly because the ground turkey is so much cheaper to buy lean then the ground beef is. However for some reason the taste of ground turkey is disgusting to me. I can eat turkey and chicken in other forms... but ground? Nope. So needless to say I have been buying a lot more ground beef recently. The ground turkey/chicken aversion has actually been the only consistent thing my entire pregnancy. Everything else has come and gone.

I'm trying to not feel too guilty these last few weeks about what I am eating. I'm not going crazy by any means... but i know that soon it'll be back to my healthy eating and watching what I eat. Of course the occasional indulgence is okay... but looking back I can tell you why i've gained as much weight as I have! Well, live and learn right?

38 weeks!

Well, I'm now 38 weeks. I had my appointment today with my midwife and officially nothing is happening. Not that I am surprised by this news at all. I know that it also doesn't mean much because you can go from "nothing happening" to "holy crap this hurts" pretty quickly. That being said, my midwife wanted me to start trying to encourage things to begin progressing a bit. I'm taking evening primrose oil 3 times a day right now so I guess we'll find out next week if anything happens! Other then that my appointment was rather dull. More weight gain... but I expected as much. Its just so depressing to step on the scale now... even when I was overweight I never weighed this much! I keep telling myself its baby weight, i know how to get it off again, its not forever... but its still tough! Of course the fact I am craving things like cinnamon rolls doesn't help...

So here is the 38 week photo. I feel like a blimp!

I don't want to rush things but...

stick a fork in me, i'm done!

Not in the sense of i'm uncomfortable and want to be done being pregnant... i'm just ready to meet the little parasite that has been living in my uterus for 9 months!! The March duedate group on IVillage is having more and more births and seeing the pictures of these adorable babies just makes me that more anxious to meet mine! I'm ready to see what he looks like and hold him and have him here with me rather then inside of me! I have to admit i'm also ready for some maternity leave and time away from work too. =)

I know everyone says "oh, its easier to take care of them while they are inside" which I am sure is true... but i'm getting so excited and anxious! Still, 2 more weeks till my due date and I have a feeling i'm going to go till right around then. I'm having no real labor signs... and while he is moving lower and lower (I had a bladder once...) I know that doesn't really mean anything! I've just got everything crossed he's not too comfortable in there... my mom went 2 weeks overdue with both me and my brother. I don't want to have to wait another 4 weeks to finally meet this little guy!

Kitten Saturday!!

This week enjoy kitten photos of Sebastian!! He's the youngest cat we have at the moment. He's 2.







To this day Sebastian still has an obession with the bathroom. I find him sleeping in there all the time and whenever anyone uses the bathroom he rushes to get in there. Odd cat!

37 week photo!

Here is the 37 week photo!

Uneventful 37 week appointment

I am now officially full term! I'm a ticking time bomb waiting to go off! Or not... =)

I had my 37 week appointment and all looks good! The midwife was concerned because apparently Eirik is head down but not positioned correctly so he told me to do some exercises to help encourage him to move. I'm not concerned because he still squirms and flips ALL the time. I'm worried I may have a UTI so they sent out a sample to check. The midwives don't do internal checks so I have no idea if i'm dilated or progressing or anything. I like it better that way because I don't get my hopes up and then have nothing happen. So many people are so focused on being 1cm dilated already. Personally as long as the midwives are happy with how things look so am I!

Other then that I am overall doing pretty good still. I am however slowly getting more uncomfortable. It's not to the point yet where I am going crazy, but I can understand why when women reach this point they just want the baby to come out. Every day seems to add a new ache or pain that wasn't there the day before. I'm trying to look at all the positive things rather then the negative, but sometimes its hard!

My gripe at the moment is with UPS. Thanks to our lovely back to back blizzards one of my packages from Target.com is MIA. The last time they updated anything to do with it was almost a week ago! I called UPS yesterday to try and get information and was told someone from UPS should contact me today. Well that never happened so I called AGAIN. Tonight I got a much more helpful response. They are now investigating where my package is. I do have to call Target, but thats tomorrow's job. I'm too tired tonight so sit on hold and deal with more customer service people. The UPS guy said that my package may come tomorrow, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thankfully its just a crib bumper and mattress pad I am waiting for.

Side Note: Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms are DELICIOUS.

Kitten Saturday!!

So last weekend you got snow/cat photos instead of kitten photos. However, today I will give you kitten photos! This week i'll post photos of Laia. Now, these are low quality because they are actually pictures of pictures. Laia is almost 14 so when she was a kitten the digital camera was a high price item that no one really hard heard of! 





As you can see from an early age she was insanely fluffy!








Yes, thats the same cat. In the summer she looks COMPLETELY different. She was probably less than a year at this, but it was summer and she had shed all her winter fluff. Sometimes its almost like having 2 different cats. People are amazed at how big she looks in the winter because of her fur. That is until they pick her up and realize she weighs almost nothing! 

What was I thinking??

Last night the 2am insomnia hit. For some reason at least twice a week I wake up at 2am and can't get back to sleep till at least 3. Of course this lovely period is when my brain is wide awake and all sorts of thoughts go through my head. Last night all of a sudden I realized that on Wednesday I am full term. I know this doesn't mean anything because babies come when they are ready... but full term means that it could happen at ANY time.

This lead me to the panic of all the stuff I still have to do! I haven't installed the carseat. I was going to, but thanks to all this lovely snow it still hasn't occurred. I need to order more sheets for the cosleeper something I kept telling myself I had "tons of time to do". I haven't even thought about packing a bag for the birthing center yet. I know I don't need to take too much with me, but I should have least have some things together. I don't have nursing bras or thick overnight pads to wear.

This then lead me to the panic of how am I going to take care of a baby! I sat in bed last night freaking out because I don't know anything about babies. I've had this freak out before but it was when I had more time. Now all of a sudden I realize very soon I'm going to have an infant. Its not "months away". We're down to weeks... potentially days!

Needless to say I have spent my morning making lists of things that I need to buy and do. All those things that months ago I put off because "i had time" are now suddenly becoming more urgent. And to top things off I still can't really get out of my street thanks to the lovely snow. Its usable but not very good... the snow potholes make it feel like you are driving off road! And let me tell you going over all those snow potholes with a baby pressing on your bladder is the most uncomfortable thing in the entire world.

All I keep thinking to myself this morning is where did the past 8 months go??

Who Turned Up The Heat??

I am a freakishly cold person. Ask my husband! I am the person wearing layers of clothing, the person who has a hot water bottle to take to bed, the person who always has cold feet. I love blankets and sleep with tons on the bed. I wear a sweater or jacket at work year round because in winter its just cold and in summer the AC is up so high that i freeze. Everyone told me "Once you're pregnant you'll be warm". Even the doctors told me that! Well, up until about a week ago I would have laughed at them. Warm? I was still freezing! I was curled up at night under layers of blankets hugging my hot water bottle (no electric blanket use when pregnant!). 

The past week however that warm thing has really kicked in. Sure, i'm still chilly at work... but at night I am finding myself sleeping under only a sheet! And no, my house is not that warm. I keep the heat turned down pretty low to save on oil. Even my husband noticed that i was sleeping under less covers (or sometimes no covers!). I can't imagine dealing with the sweltering summer heat and humidity while being this pregnant if i'm feeling warm in the middle of winter! 

Speaking of winter, I am ready for it to be over. As you saw from yesterdays photos the snow hit us hard. Thankfully today it started to melt, however the roads are a mess! I'm sure the main roads are looking okay, but the side roads (like mine) are horrible. They are calling for more snow on Monday too... i am really hoping they are wrong! I do enjoy the snow... really. But Baltimore is not equipped to deal with snow on this level! On average we get about 18inches a winter... this winter we've had 75!! This week alone its been 55 or so. I've been stuck in the house for 2 days and am starting to go stir crazy! I'm hoping the roads are better this weekend... i just need to get out of my house! 

Blizzard Number 2!

As I said last night we are currently dealing with blizzard number 2! It started last night and this morning didn't look too bad, but throughout the day the situation has deteriorated. The original total snow estimates were 10 - 20 inches, but apparently this lovely storm has gotten stuck and we are now expecting 20 - 30!! I now officially have a downed powerline across my backyard and two of my neighbors back awnings have just collapsed under the weight of the snow and ice. I am keeping everything crossed that mine stays up! My husband is outside now attempting to get some snow off of it. 

Here are a few photos of the snow. 

The front of my house:

The back:

A stuck salt/plow truck:

And lastly the chocolate chip coffee cake I decided to make today. =) 

Apparently I moved to Canada...

Apparently I have moved to Canada where massive snowfall is the norm. Yes, thats right folks, blizzard number 2 has begun! They are calling for another 14 - 20 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow... thats on top of the 28 or so that fell on Friday night into Saturday. Where will all this snow go? Beats me! My street is still a complete mess! I made it to work today and yesterday but I informed my boss that if we really do get another 20 inches i'm not coming back till Monday. Its not worth it! People in this area are not used to all this snow which makes driving around crazy. Between that and the fact the streets in my neighborhood are HORRIBLE its an accident waiting to happen! Thankfully I can do some work from home so I don't have to use tons of vacation. Usually I don't have the option to work from home, but because I am working on reports and whatnot as opposed to doing lots of labwork I have the option!

I had my 36 week midwife appointment today. Everything continues to be uneventful! Eirik is headdown (which i could have told you due to the increased pressure I can feel down there!), heartrate normal, my uterus is measuring right on target. No massive weight gain either! At this point i'm up 44lbs. They haven't done any internal checks yet. The midwife practice is much more laid back about things, so i'm not sure if they do an internal check until you go into labor. I should ask. I also did my Strep B test today. I'm up to weekly appointments now and less then 30 days until my due date!!

Snowed In!

So it seems that the worst case synario snowfall they predicted was spot on correct! It didn't start quite as early as they said, but when all is said and done I have a feeling the snow totals will be about 30 inches! I don't know exactly how much is at my house, but according to the official precipitation totals for places nearby its anywhere from 25 - 30inches. WOW. The best part is I don't have to shovel! I do feel bad for my husband having to do it all though as we don't have a real snow shovel. He's been out there for a few hours now trying to get the front walkway done. So, here are a few photos of the snow!


First up my car, totally buried!





Next my husband taking a break from shoveling. You can really see how high the snow is! 





This is how my cats spent the day... 





I however spent the day much more productively! I cleaned, went through some old VHS and cassettes that need to be given/thrown away, and then I cleaned up Eirik's room some more! Yes, his room is looking more and more like a room and less like a catch all for baby things!











As you can see the crib is still being used as a catch all for everything. The crib wall is also bare because its brick and very tough to nail anything into. I am going to get a vinyl tree decal to hang there! I've also got curtains that will get hung up (the nasty blinds from previous photos are long gone!). 


I know this post is getting long (even though its mostly photos!) but before I stop I had a realization the other night. As much as I know Eirik is doing great and everything looks wonderful i'm still holding back in a sense bonding to him. He's there, and I LOVE feeling him kick and move, but I feel like the bonding most women do with their baby before birth I haven't been doing. I think part of it is this still feels very unreal and the other part is i'm afraid to get attached to him in case something happens. Am I crazy?? Really, at 35 weeks pregnant I am still acting like I did in the 1T. As much as I tell myself i'm more relaxed now the only reason is because I am still not going to believe everything is okay until he's born and in my arms. I feel crazy! I feel like I should be enjoying this time bonding with Eirik while he's still in there... but instead when I do I worry about him. So rather then worry I distract myself with things like work deadlines and cleaning. I am determined to stop doing that and spend the next few weeks trying to really relax more. I just know i'll feel so much better when he's really here. 

35 weeks and more snow!

Here is the 35 week photo!! 





My very innie bellybutton is now officially flat. Its not popped out yet, but its not in either! It seems like every morning I wake up and think i'm bigger then the day before. Just 2 more weeks until full term! Sadly I had to miss my baby care class on Wednesday night due to working insanely late. I was disappointed, but at least it was free and I didn't loose any money. 


Apparently the Maryland area is preparing for a crippling snowstorm. The latests snowfall total is 20 - 26inches!! I can't remember the last time this area had 2 major snowstorms like this in one winter. First there was the December blizzard and now this! Its CRAZY. Of course I'm sure everyone is running to the grocery store for toilet paper, milk, and eggs. Of course this major snow event is due to start around lunchtime tomorrow... how wonderful. I already told my boss I am leaving early to get home before the snow gets bad. There is no way I want to fight rush hour traffic with a few inches of snow on the ground. Its bad enough dealing with rush hour traffic as it is! Of course those of you living in more northern area's probably think 20 - 26 inches is nothing... but for this part of the state its big news. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how much snow we really do get! 

Work Babyshower!

So today my coworkers threw me a little baby shower! It wasn't anything big and fancy as we're a really small group and we're all insanely busy with crazy deadlines. They told us we had a meeting and instead it was a little shower for me. They decorated one of the conference rooms and got cupcakes and a giftcard to Target. It was so nice!! =) The cupcakes were sooo yummy... they were from costco so they were more like little cakes rather then cupcakes! Of course I hadn't eaten lunch yet so I devoured the entire thing. Talk about a sugar rush!

The giftcard was perfect too because Target is having a huge baby sale right now PLUS free shipping so it means I got some more items crossed off my "need to get" list!

In non baby related news its snowing here... AGAIN. Maryland is notorious for strange winter weather. We get snow, but typically its a few larger storms. It seems like this winter every other day its snowing! I didn't mind Saturday's snow because I didn't have anywhere to go... however they are calling for 3 - 6 inches overnight tonight! That means my drive in tomorrow is going to be HORRIBLE and I refuse to call out for the snow and waste any vacation time. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact my street hardly ever gets plowed (and even if it does its not very well). As much as I love the snow I wish that it would occur on days when I didn't have to drive!

Dress Rehearsal

So tonight we had the dress rehearsal at the birthing center. In a nutshell we go and sit and listen to them tell us all the do's and don'ts. It was a room filled with lots of pregnant women at their partners listening to one of the midwives go over everything. It was scheduled for 2 hours but thankfully only took about 1. I have to admit I was falling asleep by the time it started, so by the time it ended I was really exhausted!

They went over a lot of things I already knew, and some I didn't. They went over the reasons for a transfer but assured us that the transfer rate was quite small. They gave out advice on what to bring to eat during and after labor. They also went over what to expect while you are laboring. In a nutshell they'll let you do pretty much what you want. They keep an eye on you and how things are progressing, but you aren't forced in one position.

Afterwards we all went and looked at the rooms so we could decide if there was one we liked more then the others. They are all a little different looking. 2 of the 3 rooms were VERY floral, not something I really liked. I think most of the time they only have one person at a time in labor, so you can pretty much choose what room you want. Originally I was thinking of possibly renting a birthing tub for a water birth, however after more consideration I've decided to just take advantage of the jacuzzi tubs. I am one of those people who gets nauseated sitting in warm water so I have a feeling i'd sit in the birthing tub for 10 minutes and be done. I can sit in a jacuzzi tub instead of renting a large birthing pool!

I feel more excited now... like this is real. I was talking with my husband at dinner and I kept saying "Eiriks room" and he said "You're talking like he's already here" and I realized thats the first time i've really done that. Until now its always been "the baby" but now its Eirik. Just a few more weeks to go!