Friends

This is a quickie...

I have been extremely lucky to have a close group of friends. Some have followed me through my whole life, others joined me only a few years ago. They all love and support me and have been incredible forces of good in my life.
One of these friends is Adrienne.
Adrienne and I met basically the 1st day of college and were attached throughout. We laughed, cried, danced, helped each other through the wonkiness of college relationships and "fought" only once. (I am not a morning person, haha). We lived together for years. I was her Matron of Honor when she married Mark, the love of her life. She listened with an open heart and open mind while I navigated through a divorce and then finding my own true love. Last year when my brother passed away, my friends swooped in and even though she lived many states away, Adrienne was always right there with me.
When she told me she was pregnant, I was completely overjoyed. A few months later, she was the second person I called after the + sign popped up for me (only after my parents!). After a 12 year friendship, Adrienne and I were going to experience pregnancies together... how amazing was that!?
Her beautiful son was born last week and I don't think I've cried tears of joy like this over anything... ever...
He, of course, is precious. Adrienne and Mark are fantastic. And I just cannot express the amount of joy I feel for my best friend. It is incredible.

I mentioned at the beginning my close group of friends. Over the next few weeks, you are sure to read about more of them. I have decided to embrace my sappiness and since I will be seeing most of them before the baby comes, I'm sure to get all verklempt.

 My mom and I were talking about how bittersweet all of this is and I think that's just fine. I am really looking forward to celebrating the end of my 20's and moving into a new stage of life on Saturday, but it is hard. I wish more than anything that my brother could meet me in Charleston, poke fun at my hugeness and be by my side. Instead, he's in my heart. Thankfully the people who are able to be by my side are completely amazing and are sure to hold my hand, make me laugh and constantly remind me that though I don't have everything, I have them. And that means the world.

Summer Time!

I realized I did have a few pictures that I wanted to post, so here's a quick update too...

Feeling pretty good, trying to get used to the heat. This weekend I will turn 30 and have my 1st baby shower, so I am very excited :) I don't get to crazy celebrate the end of my crazy 20's, but I do get to spend time with my family and best friends and of course get to celebrate the baby too! 

I am trying the 3 hour gestational diabetes test again on Thursday (I only made it through 1 blood draw last week before yaking). I'm not really nervous anymore considering a vast array of my friends and family have either had the GD's or at least had to take multiple tests. If I can't make it through the blood draws this week, they will basically just say I have it and "treat" me for the rest of my pregnancy. I've read up and cutting down carbs and sugars isn't really that big of a deal, I started cutting back as soon as I knew I'd have to take these tests anyway. And anything that will help baby stay healthy/me not blow up like a whale, I'm OK with.
All-in-all I have been incredibly lucky through this pregnancy so far... I have only been sick a handful of times, I have not puffed up like a blowfish and I've been able to keep the weight gain in check. So, if this is the worse, I'll take it! I will miss my bagels though...

As most of you know, if you read this or are around Eric and me at all, we love our dog. Like seriously love him. He is our first born and we refer to the baby as his little brother. So it's only natural for 99% of our photos to feature Harold in some form or fashion. I promise to post non-Harold pictures after this weekend though too :)

Harold is basically a big baby, so we are using this opportunity to get used to holding the newborn. 

Since he's a little guy, he thinks all of the little items accumulating in our house are, of course, for him.

I whipped out the steam cleaner and was deep cleaning the nursery chair. I wish I could capture how awesome it turned out, but you'll just have to trust me. 

The steamer got out all of the marks and stains, so that chair now looks damn near brand new!

This week we're going to organize the closet in the nursery and in the guest room next door so that we have actual storage space for all of the baby stuff. Until then, it's just getting piled in the crib. Maybe Harold will share the stroller so we have somewhere to stick this baby...

Love, love, love...

I was all inspired the other night for this blog post, but since I waited a few days I now am less passionate. I had a triple whammy of craziness that had me reeling at about midnight, then I worked my butt off the past 2 days and the reeling has subsided a bit. However, here's the basic outline... Insert fire and frenzy and lots of passion and you'll get it... :)

So it all started at about 7:15pm the other night (Wednesday I think...) when my "home phone" rang. (Yes, I have a home phone. It's awesome and red and I use it when my cell phone doesn't work out here in the wilderness.) SO... Ringing... It is a rep from the HRC. Eric and I are donators and if you know me at all, you know that I am super passionate about Human Rights, therefore I did not immediately hang up when it became apparent they were asking for money. I thanked the lady for calling, explained that I was in the middle of dinner and that I was a supporter already. She got snippy!
Long story short, I was so damn annoyed that I had to hang up on her. I know these people are just trying to do their job, but harassing someone in the middle of dinner when they are already an avid supporter is just ridiculous!
I hated the way she made me feel but I rationalized it away... One snippy cold caller will not make me turn my back on such a wonderful organization, but damn... that was annoying...

Later that night as Eric and Harold snored in harmony, I was channel surfing and came across the new Bristol Palin show. I don't even want to get into the whole Sarah Palin shenanigans, but I'll watch any "reality" show once. It started off harmless enough... silly Bristol twirling her hair and moving to California... then came the hate... and it wasn't from Bristol. While at a bar with friends, she rides a mechanical bull and someone yells that her mother is a whore. A confrontation ensues and through some flowery editing, we find out that the 40-something year old is homosexual and is calling Bristol's mom a devil whore because she doesn't support gay marriage.

Hold up.

When oh when did fighting hate with hate start working? Oh, that's right... never.

Yes, man in the bar, Sarah has much different views on issues that directly effect you. But telling her daughter that she's a terrible public speaker and should rot in hell seems kinda unproductive... no?

Well, it was time to call it a day... then I signed on to facebook as the show was ending and saw that a friend of mine received a nasty, degrading note on her car. This isn't the first time it has happened, but apparently someone in our community has decided that because of her bumper stickers (I think??) she is awful and everything she stands for is evil. Seriously.

So in one day, I was made to feel like a bad person because my contribution is not generous enough, I watched a ridiculous counter-productive fight on tv and hateful words were left on an undeserving person's car.

Like I said, you'll have to insert your own fire and frenzy here. All I have to say is that I truly believe in love. I was bombarded with hate and negativity that night, but that was one night. I will continue to be friends with people who believe in different religions and politics.  I will love people and I will try my hardest to never fight hate with hate.

Yes, a little lackluster, but I'm telling you, I was fired up so I had to write something!

And now for something completely different...
I am feeling huge and the heat is not helping! It's the nasty humid muggy heat too, so you automatically sweat, but there isn't really enough sun or breeze to stand to be outside. Bluh. However, this is the last few days of my 6th month... And of my 20's! I turn 30 on the 30th (eek) and have my 1st baby shower next weekend too (woohoo!)
I shall post some pictures of my burgeoning belly in the next few days and will save the diabetes testing tales for the next post... oh joy... :)

Bitchin'

As this pregnancy progresses, I'm having the "usual" complaints. I can't breathe very well, probably due to the fetus' daily growth spurts, I fluctuate between exhausted and just bleh tired and the burning sensation in my esophagus makes me think this child is going to have an afro.
All of these combined are nagging, annoying things to deal with... But the most annoying of all is other people's responses.

"Oh, it'll be SO worth it!" is apparently the unified statement that every non-pregnant person has agreed to use when confronted with the agitations of a pregnant woman... Not just my Mom :)

Now, I don't doubt the authenticity of this statement. I've never heard anyone say, "Yeah, I'd never get knocked up again.. the heartburn is too freaking bad.. And look, all I got is this kid." I get it. It's worth it. In another 4 months, all of this will be a distant afterthought and I'll be overjoyed and enthralled and whatever other adjective you can think of to describe the feeling of having a new baby.
However, this is now. Much like anything crappy, of course I am trying to keep my eyes on the prize, but constantly hearing this cheery dismissive response makes me want to flare my nostrils and curse.

Thankfully I have a few friends who can relate. I understand that people want to spout off happy thoughts... I probably used to as well. But the constant need to remind me that I will have an actual child at the end of all of this is kinda unnecessary, as pregnancy often leads to a baby and all...
Women have been bitching about this for ages and once the baby is here, there will be a whole new litany of agitations. So to my mommy friends, I will make a concerted effort to listen to your gripes and offer to help if I can.
I've found that simply hearing that these feelings are normal is helpful. For someone who has never been pregnant before, I like knowing that toe-curling acid reflux is expected or extreme exhaustion is just a side effect of doing anything remotely physical.
No shit it'll be worth it. C'mon people.

This past weekend, my wonderful parents brought another load of baby treasures for our house. We now have a beautiful cradle for our little guy, thanks to a very generous family friend and the perfect chair for the nursery from my cousin. Susan and Bill have basically passed down everything awesome from their 2 boys to us... We couldn't be more grateful!
My parents also came with early birthday gifts for me too, which is always amazing :) Our house is looking more and more prepared for the baby and now I have an extremely comfortable bed too.

After some rearranging, we have the cradle set up in our bedroom...

Ignore the poor photo quality... Our child will dream of Bob...

So this week I will be working a bit, catching up on rest and household chores. My next appointment is in a week and I'll have to drink the orange sugar stuff for the diabetes tests. I've still been keeping track of calories and trying to go on a 15 minute power walk most days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all will be OK.
And even if it's not, it'll SO be worth it, right?!? :)