Seventh Month - March

Found here

Today’s Exploit:

After my first anxiety attack I started using Cupcake’s hypnotism cd’s that she gave me. It’s a self hypnotism that allows one to go to a happy place and essentially tune out the pain/discomfort.

One of the sessions focused on taking something that causes fear and picturing that process going smoothly and without pain or fear. I used this to focus on my fear of needles. I listened to the session and focused on reducing the fear of getting a shot/IV for a week. After that I’d cycle through three or four sessions every few days. 

I would practice this at night, and I’d practice getting to my happy place quickly and with distractions after going to the gym. Some of the women in my class would make fun of me for taking a nap right after working out, but what do they know?

Thankfully I started when I did because this is the time for the glucose test. First needle stick since the terrifying first doctor visit. 

It actually went quite smoothly. 

I went to my happy place while I waited for the sugar sludge to do it’s job and then when they called me in for the blood draw. 

No shakeys, no hyperventilating and the nurse didn’t ask me if I was going to pass out.

I call it a win.

Now I’m done’ with needles, right?

Sixth Month - February

Who knew one month could last 13 months?

Today’s Exploit:

I decided that having regular panic attacks is not beneficial to me or Monkey. So I did lots and lots of research. I looked up midwives and and birth coaches and doulas and birth centers.

Most of what I found was very religious. Which is not something I’m interested in being involved in a pregnancy/birth. 

I interviewed a couple doulas and a couple midwives. Most of them had so much incense or smelly oils that I wanted to turn around as soon as I stepped into their lairs. I found one that I could stand and put it on a back burner thinking I’d talk to the doctor and ask her opinion.

First I told the doctor about my needle-phobia and explained that I was having panic attacks and looking into maybe using a midwife. Her response was to vehemently lecture me on the fact that my body is now a not entirely mine and that if a c-section is necessary so-be-it. She essentially told me that I’m being selfish for having anxiety and wanting to find a way to alleviate it.

She definitely ensured that I leave her practice and run to the midwife.

Fifth Month - January

 People that don’t know me are starting to notice my belly

 Today’s Exploit:

I may or may not have had a panic attack at work. I realized that the first thing that will happen at the hospital after check in is an IV.

I may have mentioned before how I hate needles? I really hate them. I get shaky and verge on hyperventilation, and can't think straight.

So I started looking in to my options. Will the doctors pass on the IV if I sign a waiver? Birthing centers? Midwife at home? I did lots of research on each option.

I also finally realized that this is happening whether I feel like it is or not. So I started reading pregnancy/birth/baby materials. Found two books on pregnancy and one on fitness (to make sure I’m not overdoing anything). I also looked up good books on labor and coping methods, and the first months with baby.

Fourth Month - December

The language of a society changes slowly but steadily with the result that an educated person will not be able to read or understand words in his language written 500 years ago.

Today’s Exploit:

Thanksmas was crazy. We did ugly sweaters this year, instead of mustaches and google eyes for the family picture. Honey was promoted back to driller, finally, and naturally they changed his schedule so that he missed all the fun/crazy.  

Baby Arlo decided that I am the favorite and took naps and snuggled with me only. Evidently she liked being kicked by her cousin while sleeping. 

We tried to get some good pictures of Baby at the body-scan sonogram, but it’s stubborn like Daddy and would only show arms and legs. I had to schedule another session because they needed brain pictures. 

Also, YaYa decided that she did actually want to know if Baby is a boy or girl. But I said no one gets to know since I don't want to, wahahahahah!

Family crazy is tiring, makes you need pre-bed naps. 

Third Month - November

Between 1900 and 1920, Tug of War was an Olympic event. Found Here 

Today’s Exploit:

Slight panicking at the fact that I have to tell everyone NOW. Crap. I wanted to wait at least 3 more months. 

I had planned on waiting until after the next appointment to tell anyone, so we would hopefully have some good pictures of the baby. However, the plan to have Klay be the one to tell everyone and the timing of Thanksmas put a rush on things. It all turned out okay, but I was a bit of a wreck leading up to our Skype date. 

This is what Klay read to everyone:

A Family Story

 

I, Klay, am going to be a big brother.

 Baby Kerry is due 3 May 2017.

Kevin (otherwise known as Dad or Honey) hopes the baby will wait until 12 May, so that they can share a birthday.

  

Chukie Bug thinks that this is a joke, and that Dad (Honey) should go play with him.

Stelly Belly is so excited she can’t contain herself; although she might not know just what she is excited about.

Baby is healthy and ornery and about the size of a turnip this week.

 Mikah (Mama) has a big surprise for when you visit.

  

You are invited to attend the official sonogram

appointment on 15 December at 3:00pm.

Second Month - October

The other day I put my seat belt on. Then I reached back for my seat belt and was confused when I couldn’t find it hanging in its retracted position.

Today’s Exploit:

The doctor had told me that being relatively thin and in shape I should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat on the doppler at this visit. 

First we did the standard questions: no blood, no pain, everything’s normal, please don’t eat the entire house to avoid feeling slightly queazy. 

Then we looked again at the ultrasound. Monkey was much larger, lounging like it had a couch just like Daddy’s. I can already see the family resemblance between Monkey and H. After sufficient ogling of the heartbeat and teeny limbs we moved on to the doppler.

We listened, and listened, and listened. Nothing. My entire stomach was covered in goo. The doctor tried checking the location with the ultra sound agin. All clear, lounging away.

Back to the doppler. Nothing. 

So she tried a fast switch. Found Monkey with the ultrasound and rolled it out of the way just enough to place the doppler. We heard maybe 3.01 heartbeats before the rotten little stinker was moving away.

Definitely just like Daddy. Anything that can get a reaction out of me…

First Month - September

I want to do this!!

Today’s Exploit:

I am not as organized as my sister, or as excited about fruit sizes as the weeks progress. However most of my doctor’s appointments have been quite eventful.

How we found out: 

We were visiting my baby (niece Arlo) at Cupcake’s house. I told H. I’m a couple days late. H. said okay and either didn’t remember or didn’t understand (he tends to ignore me quite a lot). So a week later I took a home test and told him the test was positive. H. said okay and went back to his phone. 

Obviously we are polar opposites of my sister and her Pop tart. I’m pretty sure she screamed and danced around the house after her 50 home tests. She even sent me a picture of her first one, since it was faint and she wasn't sure, and I believed it before she did.

I set up an appointment with my doctor and went home to eat some more bread and crackers and be queazy. I think I ate enough crackers that first month to feed a small village, since they were all that eased the queazy.

The date of my first appointment came and I went thinking I would be in and out and have to deal with the terrors of needles at another time. Yay for me, they told me at the beginning of the appointment I would have blood drawn. And then went on to drag the appointment out to an hour and a half. Panic is pretty exhausting after that long. 

I had my ultrasound and saw the miniature flicker that was the heart; and I was told not to do any high impact activities and not lift more than 30 pounds. I questioned that one, since I like to go to the gym and have been lifting considerably more than that for the past year and a half. But the nurse was insistent. (Naturally I ignored that and went with what was comfortable without making me want to pass out. I also had a lot of anxiety about ignoring her rules.) 

I finally started to relax, thinking that maybe, just maybe, they’d forgotten and I could get away without being a pin cushion. 

And then they shoved me into the room with the evil needle wielder and ran away laughing evil laughs. “Wahahahahahaha.” 

Actually they were quite nice about it and tried to make me feel comfortable, but I was in the same room as NEEDLES! The nurse drew 2 vials while I pressed myself into the bed trying to get away from the poking in my arm. And then she talked to me while I regained circulation and stopped feeling like I needed to have an anxiety attack.

So, I did survive, but now I go into every appointment trying to remember if this was one of the weeks that required a blood draw. I’m pretty sure I drive my doctor nuts asking when they are EVERY time.

A Square A Day

Setting: A while ago we took Klay to the Texas Safari. A drive through zoo with many exotic animals. They give visitors bags of feed to attract the animals, and then send them on their merry way to see all there is to see. Toward the end of our day we were passing all the large birds, and an ostrich was in the road going from car to car begging for foods. When it came to ours it stuck its head an neck through my window, and when I didn’t have any food to offer it tried Klay’s window. He shrieked and ran to the other side of the truck…

“That ostrich almost ate my face off!”

Today’s Exploit:

I think I mentioned that I am trying to make a quilt from pieces that my second mom gave me a while ago. I finally dragged it out and started working on it again. I have finished 2 squares and have 15 left. 

So I have a goal: to complete 1 square each day for the next 2 weeks. Then I should be DONE with the first stage of this quilt. 

The next stage will be deciding how to put the pieces together. Should it just be the girlies? Or should it have spacers? If so what colors should the spacers be? How big is this crazy thing going to be? How fancy should I make it? 

Never ending questions.

In the mean time, I am focusing on getting the squares done. A square a day. 

Whew. 

Poppies

Group Laziness

H. and Chuk were there for the fire, Stella was there for the pets.

Pull-Ups

A Klay Quote:

Setting: H. and Klay coming home for the weekend. H. called me to ask a question, but got a voice mail recording.

“How did she do the voice mail message if she couldn’t get to her phone?”

Today’s Exploit:

I can do pull-ups now, and I am very proud of myself.

I still struggle to do them with out a little momentum, but I’m getting there.

I do a “kipping” pull-up. Which means that I do a little swing and kick to get my chin over the bar, but I can do them. I am up to 6 in a row, mostly limited by he fact that the bar HURTS my hands. Right now my record is 50 in about 5 minutes. I had a partner, and together we had to do 100.

After doing those 50, the coach decided that I need to do “gymnastics homework” to do a new kind of pull-up. It’s called a butterfly, and it is slightly scary and magical and weird. You can find an example of the butterfly pull-ups here.

A New Year

This week’s recommended reading:

Image from here.

Today’s Exploit:

I have suddenly come into a profusion of books. I was showered with them for Thanksmas and Christmas. My family finally listened to me… They never get me books anymore, so it was quite exciting. I am working on number 4 right now. Yay.

This one comes with high recommendations. H has read one book since we met, and it’s this one. Not only that, he’s read it twice.

So I am delighted to enter a new year with so many new books to read, to distract me from my continued joblessness (and the fact that I haven’t heard anything about a recent interview), and that H. is back at work on a schedule that I don’t particularly like.

Happy Belated New Year. (You can hear the noisemakers, right? And the 73025 fireworks that had Stella and Chuk driving me nuts with their shivers and need to be ON my lap.) 

... A POOL!

I did 42 kipping pull-ups today.

Hands hurt now.

Today’s Exploit:

My parents came to visit this spring. They have really awesome luck when they come down, in that it always rains. They came down for Thanksmas one year and it had been beautiful and 70-75 degrees for the week before they arrived. It was rainy, sleety, windy and nasty the whole time they were here.

This time was the same. We got gallons and gallons of rain. I think we saw sunshine for 23.6 minutes the whole week. And that time was so humid it hurt.

Anyway, while they were here we took my dad to watch Klay be a Little Beast at my gym while Cupcake and I danced around and did choreographed kickboxing, or something. On the way to the gym we saw a skeleton of a house. No walls, no roof, just framing. 

My dad tried to make a comment on it, but was interrupted in a most hilarious way by Klay.

Dad: That house doesn’t have…

Klay: …A POOL!

It is now one of my favorite quotes of all time and I think of it every time I drive by that house, which is pretty darn often.

Painting Some More

 This week’s recommended reading:

Today’s Exploit:

I have finally gotten back to painting my house. I have been neglecting it for about 5 months, give or take.

We had someone come and do the main living area of the house last November, but I had only done the upstairs bedrooms and part of our bedroom. So I had a half done bathroom for months and months.

Well, I finished the bathroom, and took down the light fixtures. So now I have a fresh painted, albeit, dark bathroom. It is nice during the day when you can see what you’re tripping over.

Next I started working on the media room. It is basically a bedroom, but has some recessed lighting. At least that’s why I think they called it that. It was a charming yellow, like my kitchen and dining rooms. But I wanted it white to be better for watching movies with the projector, and H. goes with it because it’s easier than arguing. Also, the furniture will be gray, not brown. Also, because it is easier to agree than argue.

While I was at it, I decided to paint my kitchen since the removal of the nasty plastic backsplash left a mismatch of yellow and tan in addition to some charming gashes. They were kind enough to use foam glue to secure the plastic stuff. Naturally it tore the layers of paint and speckling off when I took it down.

Now I just need to paint some cabinets and vanities and we’ll be off to the next project.

Yay.

Chukie Has Hiccups

Frio Weekend

Q: What did one wall say to the other wall? 

A: I'll meet you at the corner. 

Today’s Exploit:

We went to the Frio River last weekend. It was lovely and chaotic.

We stayed in a house with 12.2 people. 7 Adults (They claim), 1 Almost Adult, 5 Kids and 1 newborn (hence the .2). Plus two crazy dogs that thought 5 kids was AMAZING.

The weekend was a waterlogged adventure of too much alcohol, too much food and manic kids on a Tarzan swing. 

Friday night was beer pong and lots of drunken hugs and “I love you”s. Letting kids stay up too late and eating too many cookies.

Saturday was enough food to feed 87, an afternoon at the Frio itself and a bazillion tubers. 

Saturday evening was spent at the creek by the house with kids on the Tarzan swing. I went to the pool with them to make sure no one drowned. H. went with me and a couple others came for a while. I managed to be in the water when one of the kiddies let go at the wrong time and got a knee stuck between a rock and a pretty big root, shrieking his head off making people think he severed his leg rather than being stuck. Later on, when all the adults deserted me, another kiddie decided not to let go at all and smacked into the tree with the back of his head.

But overall it was a good weekend and everyone had fun and no one got seriously hurt.

Supposedly we’re supposed to go on a cruise next year…

Procrastination is My Superpower

 This week’s recommended reading: 

A new addition to the Old Kingdom books! So excited!

Today’s Exploit:

I have been too busy having adventures and procrastinating to make posts for the past few months. I am very good at making excuses to avoid doing anything productive. I have only been relatively consistent going to the gym and taking naps.

I have even procrastinating on my job search and painting my bathroom. Also, I just realized that  need a new banner! Maybe I can figure out what will go well while I paint…

I Have Doggies!

I need to make some more marshmallows. And chocolate mousse. And probably some salad.

Today’s Exploit:

I have adopted. (Really it should say "we" but I'm selfish today, and home alone.)

Twice.

First we got a boy.

He is energetic and lovey and pretty.

He is mostly a lab.

Klay named him Chuk.

Chuk has never ending energy.

Then we got a girl.

She is timid and affectionate and slightly irritated with Chuk, although who can blame her?

Klay also named her, he just doesn’t know it yet.

Her name is Stella.

Stella is a German Shepard and Hound mix.  

Chuk and Stella, the two crazies.

Here’s a picture of them fighting over my lap:

 

Stella likes to stay close. 

Chuk is too busy killing all the toys to take pictures.