Just flew home yesterday. Our luggage decided not to make the last leg of the trip with us and was delivered this morning. Thank goodness we always take the carseat on the plane with us or I don’t know how we would have gotten home safely.

And we’re off again to stay with the in-laws for a few days.

I just want to go back to bed. Munchkin and I both have colds. She was up a million times in the night because her nose was stuffed up. Grape de-snuffling syrup - as we call it around here - helped a bit, but not enough.

Bleah.

My head hurts. I need coffee.

There isn’t any internet where I am going, so my next post will be in the new year.

Munchkin is fascinated by the water outside the window, but she keeps saying she wants to go swimming and won’t believe us that the water is too cold.

Christmas was good. The flight down here was fine though we accidently made off with the airline’s seatbelt extender that we used to install the carseat as it got caught up in the bottom of the carseat and I didn’t notice until I went to install it in my parents’ car. Oh well. We’ll give it back when we fly home - but that will be just a little embarassing.

I’ll update more when we are back in Portland tonight. We’re almost to Seattle now.

This trip is so short. We fly home on Friday

We leave early tomorrow morning for Portland. In the meantime, my house is a mess, laundry awaits, and I haven’t given much thought to packing yet. Ugh. Tonight is going to be so much fun in the sense that it won’t be any fun at all.

I can and must do some cleaning today - as much as I hate the thought - but I can’t do the laundry until M is home because Munchkin can’t be left on her own upstairs (she’ll try to climb over the gate) and I can’t manage both her and the laundry baskets going down.

I also have some sewing projects I really need to get done and I’m not quite done with shopping.

Can I go back to bed now?

I’m being a terrible mother today, but the television set is making a wonderful babysitter. Now if only it could change diapers and fix snacks.

I feel horrible. I couldn’t sleep last night and I’m sick to my stomach and have heartburn at the same time. My head hurts and my neck is stiff and I don’t want to move or do anything.

I look terrible. Whenever I throw up thesedays I break little blood vessels in my face and I’m all splotchy and gross for days afterwards. I wish that wouldn’t happen.

I’m okay though. We’re okay. But a woman in my due date forum just posted to let us know that she’s heading into the hospital because she is in labor and has bloody show. And she’s only twenty-seven weeks along. And I started crying when I read it, but part of me was thinking that at least if it happened to me it wouldn’t be as bad now, because I am two weeks past her…

The waves did not go over well Thursday night. We retreated to the safety of the calm, warm teaching pool pretty quickly because Munchkin was freaking out. Most of our class did the same. Only the two oldest toddlers - who must have been pretty close to three years of age if not more - stayed in the big pool. They seemed to have a great time. Perhaps when Munchkin is a little older and a little less timid (she still won’t put her face in the water) she’ll enjoy them too.

The older kids in the other classes erupted in cheers when the buzzer sounded meaning the waves were about to turned on.

Munchkin enjoyed swimming for the most part though, and I am sad that the course is over. I’d like to sign her up for another one right away or even just take her to the open swims (where we’d probably spend most of the time in the warm pool since they do turn on the waves for half the time in the big pool - and we get cold there anyway), but alas, they are closing the pool for maintenance during January and February. And in March, well, I don’t think I’m going to be up for swimming for a while after that. Perhaps in the summer though if we can find a class on the weekend or late enough that M could join us after work to watch the baby. Or he could even take her.

I don’t know why it took me this long to take her swimming to begin with. I wish I’d started her younger.

OMG! This was so scary to watch that it left me shaking despite knowing that there was a happy ending.

Thank goodness they were both okay. And I can’t imagine ever having to do something like that; what must have been going through that poor mother’s head…

“Wow, busy day here,” said a man coming in the door behind me as we entered the doctors’ waiting room and saw that there was only a couple of empty seats. It was apparently his girlfriend’s/wife’s/whatever’s first visit.

Meanwhile I was thinking “thank goodness, a relatively slow day.”

The waiting room is stuffed so full of chairs that another couldn’t possibly fit in. There is a sign on the wall asking men to allow the pregnant ladies to sit. Still there are usually at least a few women who have to stand, and the men often can’t fit in the waiting room standing and so end up crammed into the entry way between the outer and inner doors or even outside.

I miss the doctor’s office from last time where there was always plenty of places to sit and usually only a couple of patients waiting. They also had a neat little kid-sized table and chairs set up with toys and crayons and paper as well as the normal magazines and books. This office has no toys and only a couple of kids’ books. Alas, it is only five minutes from here, while we’ve moved across town since I was last pregnant so it could take up to an hour in bad traffic if I used that doctor again.

Baby is fine with a heartbeat of 147, my blood pressure was nice and low, and best of all I passed my one hour test so I don’t have to worry about gestational diabetes. On the downside, I now weigh three pounds more than I did when Munchkin was born. Ugh. And I still have almost three months to go. I’m reached the point where I am supposed to go in every two weeks now, though it will have to be three weeks until my next appointment since I will be out of town.

Off to find something for Munchkin and myself to eat, and then it will be time to head out for her last swimming session. I’m sad about that – she really enjoys them. And the pool close to me will be closed for maintenance during January and February, so we can’t even go to open swims here. And then there will be the new baby keeping me busy, so who knows when I’ll be up to taking her again.

The pool here is a recreational pool rather than the sort appropriate for laps and swim meets. It starts really shallow – like just step into it shallow and then gradually goes deep which is nice because even little kids like Munchkin can walk in on their own power and stand with their heads above water until they’ve made it quite far out.

It also has wave capabilities. On Tuesday the instructor told us that they would be turning the waves on for eight minutes tonight! I’m wondering what Munchkin is going to think of that. I suspect it won’t go over well, but the instructor said that if any of the kids get really upset we are free to leave and head over to the shallow, warm kiddie pool which Munchkin loves, so it will be fine in either case.

One of the women in my due date forum just posted that she has gestational diabetes I feel bad for her of course, because while it’s not a huge deal, it is a pain and puts her at higher risk. But it also makes me feel less safe because somehow so long as none of them got it, I wouldn’t either.

Strange how the mind works.

And also strange how the lab works.

They don’t do blood work and such in offices here. Instead there are a number of labs throughout the city. The doctor gives you the forms for the test and you go to one of them to get the test done.

I got the form at my last appointment but put off going in for the one hour test until this Saturday. What happens is that they give you this super-sweet extra-sugar-added orange soda and then take your blood an hour later to check your sugar levels to see how well you handled it. Last time around when I was pregnant with Munchkin I remember thinking it was hilliarious that what is basically orange soda with a bit more sugar had a warning label on it saying it was by prescription only. This time around I found out just how serious they were about that.

Last time I went to a different lab and there wasn’t anything around it and it wasn’ t worthwhile to leave and drive someplace and come back, so I just sat there. This time I went to a lab in a small mall and so I planned to wander around during my hour of waiting. Except I couldn’t because they wouldn’t let me leave. I might have a seisure in the foodcourt or something! And then I might sue them! On no! So I had to sit there.

And meanwhile while one or two others had to wait, most of the women in the forum say that their doctors gave them the drink to take home with instructions to drink it before their next appointment. So they can drive and such after drinking it, but I can’t even wander around the mall.

And they are in the lawsuit happy states, but I am not. I just don’t get it.

Oh well. At least they had decent magazines to read. My next appointment is Thursday, so I should find out if I passed or not then.

I’m pretty good about marking the calendar with Munckin’s big achievements - laughing, sitting, walking, teeth coming in, etc. - but not so good with some of the little things. And really, the little things may not be such a big deal, but they are special anyway.

So today Munchkin peeled an orange for herself for the first time.

She bit through the peel first then used her little fingers to pry it off. Of course she left the peel in little pieces all over and made a big mess.

It’s not much. It’s not big. But it is just another sign that my baby isnt’ really a baby any more.

Sober Santa.

For those of you who like me are too clueless to figure it out yourselves, you play the game with the arrow keys, not he mouse.

Hee!