Karen Chatters » things that stress me out

Six weeks, give or take

Karen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:00:09 +0000

I went to the OB last week for my regularly scheduled appointment. I sat around for an hour plus, waiting, only to get actual OB face time of 5 minutes. Maybe even 4 minutes. It was your fairly typical appointment. The doctor said I was measuring exactly where I should be, despite the fact that I feel as large as a double wide with the front porch extension. I also feel as though I’m going to give birth to an octopus but I was assured that wouldn’t happen. Do they really know that? I was hoping to get an ultrasound at my appointment but she said perhaps closer to 36-37 weeks. In the meantime, I’ll just go with the assumption that my baby has in fact grown more limbs and will be more alien-octopus than gentle human who loves his or her mommy.

I have a little less than 6 weeks to go until my due date. And only 41 days to my scheduled c-section date, which I may change. I went ahead and scheduled the c-section for 10/19, which is only 1 day past my due date. I feel like maybe that isn’t enough time to cook a baby, I don’t know. Courtney was no where near ready when her due date arrived (based on the lack of dilation and other medical indicators), I wonder if Segundo will be in the same boat. Or uterus. The OB doesn’t really want me to schedule much past a week so I’m hoping to get it moved back by 3 or 4 days. We’ll see what they say.

I’m pretty uncomfortable and my bladder appears to be as large as a thimble. I spend the majority of my day either peeing or thinking about peeing, that’s always fun. I’m sleeping like crap and have been taking a Unisom once or twice a week so that I can at least try and catch up on some much needed zzzz’s. As they say, sleep now because once that baby gets here, there’s no more sleep for me.

There are days when I feel like there’s no way I’m going to make it to 10/18 and other days when I think I’ll go way past 10/18. I know Segundo will come when he/she’s damn well good and ready or the doctor decides he/she’s ready. It’s not at all lost on me that if I went ahead and scheduled the c-section date a week or so prior to the due date, it could potentially be MUCH easier when it comes to our new home and the timing of it all. Or worse, really. If we don’t end up closing on our new place until 10/15 (which we’re hoping won’t happen) but we can’t make the closing because we’re in labor and delivery, that could potentially be an issue. But most importantly, the health and development of Segundo is what’s most important so we’ll let him continue to cook and crush my diaphragm until he/she decides to work his/her way out.

We still don’t have names picked out. I said something to Paul about having the boys name already, he didn’t seem to think that was the case. He also didn’t have any suggestions to trump the name I’ve already chosen. I have a list that I add names to, and a couple of girls names that I really like, but we’ve agreed/decided on nothing. It’s still a, “what do you think of Gertrude?” kind of question only to be met with a shoulder shrug and “eh.” Or a flat out “no.” But there aren’t any serious discussions going on here, we have way too many other things to be discussing. Like counter tops for the new home. Poor Segundo.

Update on house closing: We didn’t close yesterday and at the time I’m writing this, our new close date is this Friday. We shall see, I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.

Ramblings

Karen — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:21:38 +0000

This week has been long and tiring and busy and full of laughter and maybe even some tears and I am SO glad to be home.

The first day of preschool went really well. Granted, I never left the building but she was on her own for a while in the classroom. OK, not really on her own as much as with her teacher and her classmates but still, no me. She did a great job but we all know that next week is a totally different week, a totally different day. She looked so big in her class, I actually think she’s the oldest one there, but in so many ways she seemed like such a big girl. She may not have cried but I did.

We’re trying to tackle the items on our fix it list for the guy who’s buying our house. Somehow the 7th has snuck up on us and we hadn’t really done much from our list. The buyer is coming by this morning, or this afternoon, to make sure we’ve done what we said we would, I think we just made it. It will be really weird living here next week not as homeowners but as renters.

I feel like I should be packing and organizing and getting us ready to move, somewhere in a month. It feels so overwhelming. I have managed to sell a couple of things on Craigslist and I’m desperately trying to offload a broken TV, which a lot of people are interested in. I’m just not sure any one’s actually going to come and pick up the behemoth. I did manage to go through the Tupperware cabinet and pitched all the bottoms with no tops and tops with no bottoms… I’m thinking that’s not going to be enough to get us packed and moved. I did go and get a zillion paint samples and while fun and I’m VERY excited, that also won’t get us moved.

I’m going in this morning for my 32 week appointment, about a week late. I’m anxious to see how I’m measuring, if I’m still big. I feel like I’m still big. Huge. I guess we’ll see what the medical professional has to say.

Learning to fly – or jump from Karen Chatters on Vimeo.

There’s no place like home, I hope

Karen — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:25:35 +0000

It’s been a long week, on several levels. There’s been the not sleeping and the inches of rain while on vacation and the barking dogs at 5:15 in the morning and that whole “homelessness” bit. It’s been 9 or 10 days since we put the offer in on our potential next home with no word and then we found ourselves in a closed bid, bidding war which is hugely stressful. I’ve been researching short-term rental apartments and storage places and can you fit a pack and play in a refrigerator box down by the river.

And then yesterday, finally, we got word on the house. We got it!! Not only did we get it but we got it with our initial bid, the one from last week. Not the one where we had to outbid ourselves and maybe some other potential buyers and we stressed and we hemmed and hawed and tried to figure out how much we were comfortable spending and then stressing some more.

I got the call yesterday, the Realtor said we’d won the lottery. He wasn’t kidding. Because the house is a foreclosure and it’s owned my Freddie Mac, there are all kinds of incentives for the buyers. So the bank actually countered our offer with a better deal for us!! No wonder the banks are in such trouble…

The deal isn’t done. We still need to do the inspection, hopefully tomorrow, and see what happens from that. We’re expecting there to be issues, the house has been vacant for a while and we don’t really know anything about who did what and when. But worse case scenario, we put in a new AC or hot water heater and we’ll be good to go. We hope.

The timing is still terrible. We could close as late as 10/15, I’m due to have a baby on 10/18, and we have to be out of our current home by 10/7. Nothing like cutting it close. And then, there’s still a few weeks of work that would need to be done before we move in. So, we could find ourselves with nowhere to live for a few days. Or maybe with you? Or you? Or you over there?

Vacation is exhausting

Karen — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:00:11 +0000

We made it to New Hampshire on Friday without much fanfare. Our flight left Atlanta about 30 minutes late which wasn’t so bad as it allowed us to eat our dinner while we waited to take off. I attempted to strap Courtney into the toddler plane harness thingy* and she was having none of that. “Down! Down! Down!” she screamed and cried and carried on for the next 30 minutes, which is exactly how long it took us to get from the gate to the runway. So, I took her out of the damn harness and put her in my lap and she was fine and talked nonstop for the next 45 minutes. I’m not sure what our neighbors thought of us but I tried my best. And of course Courtney didn’t sleep on the flight and I had to resort to Elmo, who makes me want to stab a pencil in my eye, but it kept her entertained and out of my shrinking lap.

Anyway, we’re having a good time. Saturday was really nice, Sunday was icky but either way it’s COOL and pleasant, some would say cold, and we were wearing pants and long sleeve shirts. Our biiiig problem is that Courtney isn’t sleeping. She won’t nap and she won’t sleep at night. She’s screaming and carrying on and it’s exhausting. It’s not relaxing for me and while she’s not really behaving all that badly or anything, it’s stressful. I just want her to sleep! Our first night she screamed for 90 minutes when I finally gave up and went to bed myself and put her in the bed with me. And she crashed out. Both days she wouldn’t nap so I ended up lying down with her and I fell asleep while she read a book. This nap thing is working out and only briefly and kind of just for me for a minute here and there. My hope is that this sleep thing improves before we leave here on Friday because mama needs to relax.

Oh, and ALL she wants to do is play outside. Which would be PERFECT if it weren’t raining and cold.

So maybe when you get right down to it, there are things about this vacation that could be improved. I do believe the weather for Monday is continued crap, as I’m sure the sleep schedule is. For example, as I write this, Courtney has been in bed for 40 minutes and screaming that entire time. My guess is that when I go in there to go to bed, she’ll still be screaming and in order for me to get any sleep, I’ll have to pull her in bed with me. However, as of Monday night (tonight, I s’pose), we’re splitting into separate rooms and she’s completely on her own. Or so I hope…

*If you click on that link and actually buy the harness thingy, I think I get six cents. There, disclosure made.

Later

Karen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:00:43 +0000

Courtney and I are headed out tonight on our little jaunt north, to one of my favorite places on the planet. The temps look like they’ll be in the 70’s during the day and in the 50’s at night. FIFTIES!!!! I am beyond overjoyed. I’ve packed a sweatshirt and jeans and clothes one wears when it’s FIFTY-FIVE degrees out. I doubt I’ll need them but the fact that I even have them is so exciting to me. It would be so awesome not to sweat from every pore in my being…. Oh, and of course I’m excited to see my family. That’s always a bonus.

I’m putting the house stuff behind me and leaving Paul in charge of our future. I’m sure he’ll do awesome with his honey-do list (I know he’s reading this thinking, “when am I going to see this list??”) which is 10 pages, single spaced, typed, 8 font…

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend. A friend took this about a month ago, I love it. It’s so trashy. Courtney looked at it and went, “BELLY!!!” Hehe.