Mysterious Mountain Pass

Yes, I'm on vacation and cheating but I had to post this vent. LAST week I wore clothes, washed them, and packed them. We get to Bend and I discover somehow over the mountain pass, my clothes shrunk. I'm not kidding. They literally shrunk. Well, I say they shrunk but I think it is I that is getting bigger. This was depressing as I am *TWELVE* weeks pregnant. Well, I'll be twelve weeks on Sunday. Can this be true? I would believe it if, for the last 2 weeks I've been totally pigging out, but the truth is I haven't felt that great to pig out. So it either was the pass that mysteriously shrunk my clothes or I'm going to be HUGE by the time 9mo comes around.

Vacation is going good. We were in Bend until yesterday, now in BC visiting the in-laws. We've had a great time and the last two days I've felt pretty good! I found a great buy at REI on a fleece jacket for $40 and Nate found a nice gortex coat for $139.99 (originally $270!) The guys are doing "manly chores" today while Sherrill and I piddle around. We went to our favorite store today - full of great picture frames, dishes, towels, quilts, etc. Two years ago I found some really cool lavendar soap at TJ Maxx. I gave it to my mother-in-law for Christmas as a) she loves purple b) she loves lavendar. It was one of those you'll never find again because that's just what the store had at the time. Well, she loved it! Ever since I've been trying to find it and couldn't. I couldn't even remember the name to look online. Well, today in this awesome small-town store -- there it was! So I bought her another bar...I'll have to buy a case and give them to her every once in awhile.

Has anyone else gain weight/grow bigger extremely fast with their second baby? I've heard you do and it's not as if I'm "showing" because I'm bigger anyway ... but anyway. It's my story and I'm sticking to it - and she'd better find twins in there to explain this :-) Actually ... on second thought ... no. No twins!

Vacation here we come!

Well, we are leaving tomorrow for vacation. I think this will be the longest one we've been on as we won't be back until July 2. We are relaxing at the condo in Bend for a few days, heading to Papa and Sherrill's in BC for a few days, then driving to Seattle next Saturday. We're going on our Alaskan cruise (childess!) for a whole week and won't be coming back until July 2. Case in point, I'll be missing in action for awhile! I hope it rains while we're gone so our yard doesn't burn up! Chat at you when I get back ... pictures in tow!

Our office has closed...

So, I'm pre-paying bills tonight as we are leaving for vacation soon. I like to get that out of the way so I don't have any worrying to do while we're gone. I rip open our phone/internet bill and find it's oddly about $20 more than it normally is every month. I'm guilty of just paying the bill instead of pouring over all the fine details, but this unsettled me. So I start looking closer - and for the whole month they have been charging us $0.06/min for LOCAL calls! (That tells you how many calls we make from our land-line, mainly using our cell phone). We live in a suburb but calls into town have always been free. I go to call the phone company (because I'm one of those "gotta fix the problem now" girls) and I hear "We're sorry, our office is now closed. Our business hours..." so I must wait until tomorrow to find out what the problem is. If the case is that the area we live in is now considered "long distance" I will just cancel our land line.

Yesterday went well. As the previous post explains it was the last day with Dr D. He was very sweet at the end of the day, reassuring me that although selfishly he wanted me to stay, he thought I was making the right decision. He got me the most beautiful bowl from Pier 1, and even picked it out himself!!! In a reverse change of order, he said he asked his wife what to get me and she said "Just get her a gift certificate". He turned his nose at that and said "That's not from the heart!" Ahhh, what a good man.

Tomorrow is my official last day, although they've already asked me to work 3 days in July. Could this be a trend? I am working Triage tomorrow, which thankfully the day goes fast when working that desk. I have written cards to my most close colleagues and have already gotten a few "Going Away" gifts. I'll truly miss seeing my "other" family on a regular basis.

Au revoir, Mark

Tomorrow will be the end to my 3.5 years with working with Dr D as he is off Thursday and Friday. When I told him I was leaving, I bawled the rest of the afternoon. One of my patients said "Allergies getting to you, too huh?" I hope that I can keep it together as my pregnancy hormones are sorta out of whack. So what makes him so special?

Dr D is a wonderful man and doctor. He is patient, kind, understanding, compassionate, and generous. When I asked him last year if I could cut a day out of my week and only work M,W,F he immediately understood and said he'd do anything to accommodate me. When we bought our house, he gave me fatherly advise on what to look for and constantly was asking how things were going with the house and even walked me step my step on how to change out my dishwasher. When we bought our BMW he spent his lunch hour researching the specifics on it and he even took me out at lunch to drive it - giving me his "good job" on picking it.

Working side by side I could read him like a book - often doing a lot of his ordering of tests, etc before he had even see the patient in turn cutting a lot of time out of his day. It's amazing when I had a bad day - he had a bad day ... and visa versa.

One thing I will miss tremendously miss about working side by side with him are his daily David Letterman Top 10 list every morning. Him laughing loudly, no matter how corny they were.

With just as sad I'm going to be leaving my job - I am just as happy to be able to stay home with Maysen and Baby II.

Here Ducky-Ducky...

My sister was here yesterday from Portland and we took Maysen to feed the ducks which is always an ordeal. He usually gets wet once and almost bit a couple of times. He loves it there and we had a great day. Here are some more great shots, courtesy of my rockin photographer sister.

Tomorrow is Nate and I's 7, count 'em SEVEN, year anniversary. I don't think we have any plans as our cruise to Alaska (ALONE) was sort of planned for that purpose. I'm going to a play with my mother-in-law in the afternoon, which will be fun. Maybe I'll get him to make macaroni and cheese for me (AND with the added bonus of him cleaning up too! Now wouldn't that be a treat!) Have a good rest of the weekend.

New Blog

I have started a new blog for Baby II. Please visit this one too and add it to your Favorites, if you'd like updates on Baby II (not that I won't post here, but just another stop to make. I'll include the ling also on the sidebar on this blog).

New Baby Blog!!

My sister is on her way - we're going to hang out today. We'll probably take Maysen to feed the ducks, let him swim outside. Just relax. Supposed to be near 80 today.

grab the benadryl ... oh ...

Maysen looks like a rabbit in this picture - gotta love digital camera lag. He had been a good boy during grocery shopping, so as promised he got new playdough. Why are kids drawn to EATING playdough? I was a kid once too, and yes - I even ate playdough. It's salty, bland, and nothing I'd put in a bowl and sit down with. So why are they drawn to eating it?

After playing with "snake maker" and "worm hatcher" with playdough, I let him play by himself while I made dinner. After about 10min things got very quiet. I looked over and saw this. My first instinct was that he was having an allergic reaction to the playdough as his face was covered in a rash. As I looked closer, it looked like he had make-up on. Playdough is now known as finger paints! Oh well ... no harm, no foul and we had a good laugh.

Tomorrow is Nate's stepdad's mom's memorial. She passed a month ago down in California and we're just now doing the memorial. I'm not taking Maysen to that - I can only imagine trying to keep a 2.5yr old still and quiet.

I love this part of my job: calling 85yr olds who can't hear you when you're standing 6" from their face, let alone over the phone. Best part? When they insist you SPELL things to them. Here's me, after working 12hrs, patience running thin: "F - as in Frank ... no F! Not M ... FRANK not MARY! .... B as in BOY. No, B! BALL ... no NOT FALL!!". I finally resolved it with mailing a letter.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd the nausea is back. Goody!

denial

So I woke up the next morning after the post below and thought "Wow. I've got to apologize to my readers... " I had a few people call me "...are you ok?" So, I'm sorry. That was the 1am rant. I promise not to do that again ... well, at least not more than once a week. Deal?

I saw the most awesome sight tonight. Ok, picture this: older gentleman, big 'ole military-style glasses, pale robin-egg blue tight (like painted on) sweater, high water tight polyester plaid slacks, loafters from 1978, and the best part? Throw in the fact that his "part" started right above his left ear. You guessed it; the dreaded comb-over. But folks, this was amazing. It started just about an inch above his left ear .... and the 8" of hair extend over his shiny bald scalp to reach just above his right ear. He thought it was rockin and you could tell he really thought people were buying the fact that he still had hair, even though the 3 speghetti strands that there actually was were fading quick!! It's men like that that I'd love to have $1000 and a shopping spree with. Lord, if I'm ever in "that" bad of denial with the way things really are ... please give me a sign ...

absolutely ridiculous

Yep. 1:09am ladies and gents! I thought first trimester you were so tired you couldn't think straight. Well ... my problem is even more grand than that!!! Not only am I nauseated ALL frigging day long, but I'm exhausted. The fun part? Come night time I cannot control my mind enough to fall asleep: "I feel like my face is irritated by my pillow - I'm hot - I'm cold - Nate won't stop snoring - now the dog's snoring - my back itches - did I hear something in the backyard? - did I shut the garage door? Have I pooped in the last 2 days?" I know the last one was a bit graphic and most don't care but you get the picture here! (and yes, with some more 20min thought I HAVE indeed pooped). Then here we sit, 1am, yep and still nauseated, thinking "Hmm, my son will be up in another 6hrs" Well, actually that isn't all that true - I'm convinced he's had sympathetic insomnia as he hasn't been going to sleep-sleep until about midnight and that usually involves at least one rendition of me rubbing his back, re-reading a book, and eventually a short trip to Mommy's bed. Tonight was a rare night of sleeping at 10pm, followed by screaming 30min later and refusal to lay down until about 45min ago, which had to be in mom's bed where he kicked turned, tossed, sighed. Back to bed he went and I shut the door. I think he got up and turned his light back on. Oh well ... maybe we'll both get to sleep in tomorrow then. Regardless, welcome to my world for the last 2 weeks!!!! Oh, and we mustn't forget to throw in the days that I have to go to work, which luckily have only been few and far between. But then I have the added bonus of getting 5, count 'em FIVE, hours of sleep, work 12hrs, and come home to .... you guessed it! NO SLEEP AGAIN! About 15min ago I sat on the toilet and bawled. So sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!!

My nightly routine: Phenergan 25mg and Ambien 10mg (yes, it is safe per my OB doc) and hope for the best. Most people will sleep 3 days with a combo like that. Not me! I'll finally fall asleep 4hrs later ... for a whopping 2hrs because then I get up, pee, toss, turn, pee, "Should I take a shower? Have I paid the water bill this month? I think I have but what if I haven't, what if the bill got lost or Maysen threw it away and I haven't paid it and they shut my water off. Then what, Leslie!?!?". Blah.

I promise not to be come a raging pregnant psycho on here ... but thanks for the temporary rant. I think it saves my poor husband who has been catching the brunt of my psycho pregnancy hormones which I feel badly about but yet can't control. Tonight's big one? "Why don't you talk to me anymore". I got the wide-as-silver-dollar-eyes look and the "What the hell are you talking about now??" Which of course pissed me off, and I locked him out of the bathroom. The sad thing, is I know how whacked out it sounds coming from my mouth - I know this. Yet I have no control over that, then the crying. My usual non-emotional-even-keeled type of personality is sure shot at this point. I'm hoping this crap is over before Nate and my getaway to Alaska for a week. I do not want to be feeling like this then. Then REALLY poor Nate. Bwaaahahahaa!

Skeletor!!!

I found this picture of Elisabeth Hasselbeck on people.com and was just horrified. Isn't this just a picture portrait of anorexia? Granted, I'm not a tiny person, but looking at this who would want to be? I think it's just .... quite frankly .... gross! She's about 3mo pregnant now and looks like there's a basketball jetting out from her stomach because she's just a skeleton.

Anyone keeping tabs on her fight with Rosie O'Donnell on The View this past week? I commend Rosie for leaving. Who needs that ... what a hooch!

Our Entertainment:

Maysen learned how to fill his cup up in our fridge. The most fun thing for him is filling it up and sprinting to the sink to dump it. By the time we caught him, he had spilled some water on the floor and slipped. Then it became a game.



Now this video is of Maysen "reading" the last page of his book. It has about 8 things on each page, and Maysen was in warp speed on reciting his newly learned items. They include (you can follow along with Maysen): nummies (gumdrops), kitty, "whistle" (pacifier), worm, money (coins), doggy, pea, bee, school bus, rocket,*pause*, giraffe, mountains, skyscraper, and ... (eventually) horsie.



And one last video ... to show what a Master Wagon Driver looks like, Mr Papa. Nate wasn't as graceful. I'll spare him the embarrassment and not show him :-)

Reversed?

Has anyone ever experienced night-sickness? Of course Sunday I was feeling great! No symptoms of pregnancy at all. That is, until Monday. Starting at about 7pm I started feeling nauseated and just an overall feeling of crumminess. Tuesday, woke up feeling great until Tuesday night, then nausea. "Ok, whats going on?" I'm thinking. Tonight? Same story. At 8:30 I start getting nauseated and a full/bloated feeling that I just have to lay down. So what's with having it backwards?

I made my first OB appointment today. I'm sad to say the doctor who delivered Maysen will not be delivering this new baby. I liked Dr H a lot, but she stopped delivering at the 2nd of 2 local hospitals. She's the mother of 3 small kids and being called from one hospital to the other was taking up too much time. I like the 2nd hospital so much better as the rooms are just like hotel suites. Private bathroom with jetted tub, bed for husband/family, fridge/microwave, TV/VCR, rocker/glider. It is just so home-like and that was very important to me post-CSection. So, I made my first appointment with my new OB doctor, Dr F for July 6th.

Loud Message on a Shirt:

Nathan and I learned a secret a week ago; we are expecting our 2nd child in January. We are pretty sure this is our Disneyland baby - and we were wondering why everyone we saw in Disneyland was pregnant! Karma perhaps? I am roughly about 4 weeks along and so far feeling great! Maysen is saying he's going to be a big brother, but when you ask if he wants a brother or a sister, he says "No brover, no sisser" I'm afraid he has no choice in the matter.

Our second piece of news is that in light of Nathan's new job, combined with our recent exciting news, we have decided that I am going to hang up my nurse's hat for a bit and be a full-time mommy. I gave my notice on Wednesday that my last day of work will be June 15th. I do not want to take for granted the rare and wonderful opportunity I have been given, as I understand there are a lot of mommies out there that would love to stay home with their kids and are unable to. I feel privileged that I am able to do this. I will work "per diem" at my job, hopefully maybe once a month to keep my hours up for my RN license. It was with a heavy heart I made this decision as I have been the happiest at my current job than I have ever been working. I love my patients, my doctor, and my fellow employees, but I felt deep in my heart that I needed to take advantage of this opportunity and be with my kids, as they will only be little once. I have seen already with Maysen that they grow way too fast.

Side note: The above message was an actual fortune I received in my fortune cookie Thursday, the day after I gave my notice at work. It was, to say the least, too weird...

It's been a long week filled with a ton of emotion so I am sorry if I have seemed missing in action. I look forward to my new adventures of a full (and second) time mommy!

Happy Momma's Day!

Happy Mom's Day today to those who are mommies! This is my 3rd Mom's Day to celebrate and got the best "I love you, mom" gift I could ever get. Maysen and I had gone out to the backyard to play while Nate ran to town. We had played on the swings, gone down the slide, and Maysen was keeping occupied with me filling up a pitcher and letting him water my flowers. All of a sudden I'm standing on my deck and Maysen comes running at me warp speed with his arms outstretched saying "Ug, Ug da momma!" He ran up and gave me a death-grip hug. I savored the moment hugging him ever-so-tightly as I almost whispered "Oh, I love you my baby boy." Within seconds he whispered back "Uve you too momma". I had just read (tearfully, I might add) Running's post about her encounter and thought how special that was, when I got my own gift this afternoon.

There's nothing like being a momma ...

New Job

Nate accepted a new job this week as a ASP.Net web developer for RealPro Systems here in Eugene. The best part? It's full time/permanent! He has been working for Weyerhaeuser for the last year since graduating, but it's only been on a contract basis. The money is good, but they just cut you a dry check - you're responsible for benefits, taxes, etc. - not to mention the possibility of no job (and no unemployment) after your contract is up. Nathan's will be officially up June 16th, but it was extended until November. Nate stumbled across this job and when he got offered it, it was hard to justify passing up a permanent position with benefits to something that could be over and done with in November. The money isn't "as" good as when you're contracting, but that's to be expected with all the "pros" of having a permanent position in a company.

Today we took Maysen to the indoor SPLASH wave pool. He's a bit apprehensive of the water - which I think I appreciate more than half the other children that were jumping into any and all other parts of the pool, unattended. Scared this mom to death! (Although I was appalled to see I might have been one of the few! Geesh!)

Now I'm going to go throw on my new 550 thread count sheets (part 2 of mom's day gifts) and try and get the overwhelming smell of chlorine out of my nose ...

Happy Mom's Day tomorrow to all my mommy readers!!

Early Mom's Day

Yipee! I'm back to video taping my little man! On Saturday I got my Mother's Day gift early. Nate bought me (us) a JVC Camcorder, but instead of taping to a tape or DVD, the newest thing is the camera just has a hard drive in it. So you hook it up to your computer and download the video, or pictures. I can take still shots with this thing (which is tiny) and there is no lag or delay time. I love it. Sunday we went to the beach for the day. Here's Maysen talking about the doggies.

My first time

"Will I ever use this? I mean, I'd rather be reading a magazine in the sun, I hope this gets out soon."

It's amazing I've been an RN for 5 years now, and every couple of years I have to renew my CPR certification. This includes the Heimlich maneuver, which I think I've been taught ever since Health class in high school. Who would have thought that my very first serious time of using it would be on my 2 1/2yr old son at dinner time.

Tonight we're eating dinner in the living room watching a movie and eating dinner. Maysen was sitting in front of Nate and sort of kitty-corner from me. All of a sudden he got very still. I look over and he's sitting there with a glazed-over look with his mouth open. I had given him a quarter of a peanut butter sandwich, which he never has a problem with. Well, he must have crammed the whole thing in his mouth (which he's never done) without me noticing. Anyway ... he's sitting there so I jump up (Nate had no idea anything was wrong because he couldn't see him) and I whacked him a good few times on the back. You know how your adrenaline is raging so I knew they were pretty hard ones. If he was ok, he would have started crying, but *nothing* which was just plain eerie. So I looked in his mouth and his eyes were just panicked. I whacked him again hard about 3 times and then I looked back at his face and I felt like a deaf person because his face was red, tears streaming, eyes in cry-mode, face in cry-mode but he was *silent*. I knew then that his airway was blocked as he was turning colors. So I threw his tray off him, pulled him onto the ground and did the Heimlich. On the third thrust I was able to get it up and he started crying. I'm not sure who was more scared. Me or Maysen? Within 10min he was OK, asking for cereal and I was still shaking.

But ... he's OK. Thank goodness. I was thinking the whole time to myself "oh my God, what if I can't get this out?" It's amazing how "autopilot" you go into .. as I don't remember much about it, I just sorta went out of body and did what I had to do. Nathan said "I'm so glad you were here because I wouldn't have known what to do."

Phew .. I'm going to bed now....

Choo Choo Tongue!

This is the caricature picture we had done at Knott's Berry Farm in California. (And this is us stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland due to technical difficulties). The guy who was drawing took about 6min, and I was amazed at how well he did considering Maysen did NOT want to hold still!

Maysen has started using his tongue to help him with fine motor skills such as getting his train set just right on the track. I captured a few really cute ones tonight:

I'm getting a DVD camcorder for Mother's Day!! We didn't have a video camera during Maysen's birth - and regreted it, so got one. The video has to be transferred to VHS, blah blah blah but in January when I went to video him out in his first snow, the picture didn't work. We regretted not having on at Disneyland so that's my Mommy's Day gift!! We're going to get it tomorrow. Maybe then I'll be able to put snazzy clips on here like some of my friends have!!

Happy May Day!

Do you still do May Day Baskets? Today my doorbell rang at 4:00pm. "Hmmm...", I thought, "who could that be?" As I went to the door I saw our neighbor girls running away giggling. Above is what I saw on my door.

I remember doing May Day baskets when I was young - we would pick flowers (mainly lilacs) and we'd put them baskets, load them in a lid to a cardboard box lid, load it up in mom's van, and drive around town delivering them. We'd run up, ring the doorbell and run (to the van) like sly dogs. I don't know why, but I specifically remember May Day'ing to my grandma Leota and babysitter "Gwennie".

On a sad note, Nate's Grandma Dolly died yesterday. It is very sad, but she had previous complications and it was somewhat expected. Nate and I are working on a slideshow/movie of her life so we've been busy working on that. May God bless your soul, Dolly.

... and I'm sitting here 10 feet away from my present of lilacs and can smell them from here. Can't beat that ...

Few out of a million

I had 159 pictures to chose from, so here is a select few from our vacation. We had a great time, but good to be home. Today was spent picking a record amount of weeds from my yard. I love my yard, but man it's high maintenance. Hope you enjoy the pics - some of my editing didn't go through, but I've already got an hour into this, and I'm done dealing with all these pics. Now I have to get these (plus all pics from Sept to current) printed - a job I'm avoiding.

Enjoy!