Dec 31: coming home

To begin with, i'm happy to report that Isaac seemed to figure out how to latch on after we sent him to the nursery last night. Maybe there was a class they didn't tell us about, but we've barely had any problems today.

Therefore, Today we came home from the hospital. The day was much more relaxed than yesterday. Not as many random people, more sleep at night, etc.

So here's Isaac, ready to go home.

Oops...he had a small blowout. Back to yesterday's outfit.

Amy and Brian stopped by on their way north. They weren't able to stay for long because Isaac got hungry, but it was still nice to see them for a little bit.

Then my family stopped by after dinner. While it is always nice to see them, it was especially nice this time because they did some laundry. I hadn't washed much of the newborn clothes since I was expecting a larger baby, so I wasn't really sure what Isaac was going to wear tomorrow. Instill don't have an answer to that, but at least there are possibilities.

I was going to post this tomorrow, but this child won't stop eating. I'll think hes done because he is almost asleep and not responding to stimulus to keep eating, but then he says he's sill hungry.

Friday: first day of life

Today brought a few challenges, lots of holding, and lots of visitors.

For example, it currently takes two of us to clothe Isaac. And since he liked to sleep, we had to unclothe (and then reclothe) to make him wake up for feedings. There was also a struggle to make him nurse on the right side...he won once, but we won most of the time. Of course, after the time he won he was hungry soon after, so I'm not sirens really won.

But besides that, we just spent a nice day with him and with visitors, getting to know him as he mostly slept. (there were lots of pictures with family and I'm not going to post, along with some cute ones taken on phones that I can't post right now.). Oh, he also had his first pee, which was expected. Unfortunately, I also got peed on. While I'm sure it is the first of many, I was hoping it would be longer.

Here we all are!

Isaac. The hat kept falling off, but his temp was on the cool side so we were trying to keep it on.

Isaac's celebratory dinner...that he didn't get to eat.

Mom and Isaac. We had both managed to get dressed.

Thursday: happy birth day

2:30am (Thursday): Amanda's dream about what a bad basketball player she is gets interrupted by contractions. For some reason she keeps going back to sleep even though it is a dumb dream.

3:00am: amanda gets up to see if they are real.

3:30am: Ben gets up. They play a few games while timing contractions. Things seem to be progressing and they call the doctor's office and plan to go the hospital around 7am

6am: they take a quick stop at Burger King

7am: Contractions are spreading out, but taking longer. They decide to wait to go to the hospital.

12pm: Contractions are close to 5 minutes. They hope to go to the hospital after lunch.

1pm: Contractions spread out again.

3pm: Contractions start to really hurt.

4pm: Amanda calls the doctor to see what is going on and if they should go in, even though contractions are not constant and range between 5-10 minutes.

5pm: the doctor says that it is Braxton Hicks and that I don't need to go to the hospital. Amanda pretty much cries for the next hour. How is she supposed to go through real labor if fake labor hurts so much? How is she supposed to sleep? How is she going to last through the night with the pain before her doctor comes on call?

6:30pm Amanda calls the doctor again, And this time talks to the doctor on-call (vs through the nurse). He says that Amanda is not in labor because those contractions are two to four minutes apart. And while I could go get checked, there isn't a good reason.

7pm: Amanda throws up her dinner.

9:30: after trying to sleep and completely not succeeding because of contractions, Amanda gets up and thinks her water broke. After looking all night for an excuse, she declares it is time to go to the hospital, even if they send every one back home. Ben quickly gets the last things together in case they get to stay.

10:00: Amanda is dilated to an eight! She doesn't have to leave! The baby is coming! Amanda asks for an epidural, even though the nurse says it is almost time and she could probably make it without one. (Did we mention even walking was getting painful?). A few contractions occur before the drugs can be administered and Amanda almost squeezes Ben's fingers off. Ben proceeds to only touch the top of Amanda's hand and Amanda squeezes the bedrail. The anastesiaiogist shows up promptly and administers wonderful drugs.

10:10: Everyone is happier once the epidural kicks in.

10:30: Amanda is dilated to 10!

11:45: Amanda starts pushing. (the doctor finished another delivery and so while he isn't there he is available.

12:00am: a mirror is brought into the room. Amanda enjoys watching the head crown, even though she wasn't sure she would.

12:15: the doctor is called in because the baby's heart rate was slightly in distress.

12:57: Isaac Bruce is born!

Tuesday: 39 weeks

It's that time of week again! Doctor appointment time!

I'm dilated to a 2-3, 90% effaced, and the baby's head is still low and facing the correct direction. The OB also stripped the membranes, which is supposed to help if you're close to going into labor but not really do anything if you're not.

Stay tuned.

Monday: no work

Yay, we didn't have to work today. We took it pretty easy, putting some stuff away and going to see the mission impossible movie.

Saturday: high school

Some friends from high school got together for breakfast this morning.  It was really nice to talk with them again.  I haven't seen some of them for...probably seven to ten years.  So we all got caught up.  I was taking the recycle out to the garage just as they were starting to arrive and reflected on how weird it is that we're adults now.  It might not seem that way to us, but we really are.  We are in charge of bringing the recycle out to the garage.  (And lots of other things too :) ) 

Thursday: done

Hurray!  We're done with work for a long weekend.  And I got to leave early, which was awesome.

Tonight Ben and I went to play Hand and Foot with his grandparents.  We did really, really well the first hand but decided they must have just been being nice to us.  By the last hand, we were way behind.

Wednesday: conversation

Amanda: I feel like I've been having little contractions all night.
Ben: do they hurt?
Amanda: no.(sigh)
Ben: (laughs) this is the only time that we want pain.

Tuesday: 38 weeks

Today was a doctor's appointment! They're fun.

I'm dilated to 2, 70% effaced, and the head is "very low". Progress!

Due to various things though, it would be nice if he would wait to start contractions until noon on Saturday. Or do it tonight. But I'd like to be out of the hospital Friday and Saturday. It probably means that's when he'll come.

Monday: dropped

Apparently the baby dropped a lot over the weekend.  "Everyone" at work mentioned it when they saw me today.

It also meant that I had to go to the bathroom any time I walked for more than 50 feet.

Sunday: Christmas

Today was Christmas with one of Ben's extended families.  We brought banana pudding.  Below is a picture of it being made to make Dusty jealous.  We had a lot left over, so if any one wants some, come on by.  I'd also like to say that I have an awesome husband who got some puzzles in the gift exchange because I wanted them.

Flurry is also enjoying hanging out under the Christmas tree.  Her white fur does make her seem like the perfect accessory for the tree.

Saturday: pep talk

Jess asked what I'm telling Baby to convince him to come out...

*It will be more fun to be out.
*You can see Dad (and other relatives)
*Christmas is a fun time...you don't want to miss it.
*There's more room to move.
*You have a name
*We have everything that you'll need for the first little bit...and most of it is set up.
*It works with scheduling better if you come sooner.

What I'm not telling him...
*It will be cold
*it's hard work to communicate
*Going through the birth canal is traumatic.

Friday: It's time!

It's time to meet the muppets! (Did I trick anyone? Please?). Ben and I went to see the Muppet Movie. It was good. A bit more singing than I expected, but a ton of cameos.

Wednesday: Christmas party

Today we had a work Christmas party.  It was pretty fun.  There was a ton of delicious food and we did a white elephant exchange.  We did the stealing game, but didn't unwrap the presents first.  That made it a little weird, but it went a lot faster.  Someone (easily) managed to convince someone that is scared of critters that something was moving in the box she had.  It was fun to see her proceed to hold it as far away from herself as possible.  In the end, it was a kazoo.

We also submitted Christmas child pictures.  Here's mine.

Tuesday: 37 weeks

Today we hit the 37 week mark, which means Baby is full term and can come whenever he wants.  I've started giving him pep talks on why he should come sooner rather than later.

I went to the doctor and am a "true 1" dilated and 50% effaced.  So at least there is progress.  The last day or so has also had an increase in cramps, but nothing that hurts.  On the weird side of things, I've felt better the last week or two than I have for a majority of the pregnancy.  I am still pretty tired, but nothing else is really wrong. And I can deal with being tired.

Monday: phone

Work gives their employees cell phones.  Pretty nice, right?

Except that mine won't do an audible ring.  I know it can make noise because I can hear what different ring tones sound like, but it won't ring when someone calls.  It will vibrate, but I take it out of my pocket often, and then it really needs an audible sound.

And the volume is all the way up.  And I tried setting a ring tone in case the "default" was silent.  So now I am going to bring it over to tech support.  Bah.

One more reason to not like phones.

Sunday: easy

Today was a rather easy day.  The house had gotten cleaned Friday night, so there were just a few things to do this weekend.  So Flurry and I spent quite a bit of the day on the couch...napping, watching TV, and writing emails.  The first round of quilting is also done on the quilt, next I'll have to decide if I want to do a second round or not.

Saturday: stuff

Baby's stuff is taking over our house and he's not here yet and not all the large items are set up.

We had a delicious dinner with Dad and Pat.

Friday: first snow

Today I woke up to about two inches of snow on the ground. For the first time ever, I had really conflicted feelings about it. I love snow and the first snow is always fun, but we don't have a garage, we do have a long driveway, and we have two people that don't want or can't shovel. The plan, as time goes by, is to park closer to the street so t least there is less to shovel.

We didn't shovel this time; it will probably melt in a few days.

Tuesday: more baby

I had another OB appointment today.  Today we found out that he probably has a long torso.  The head is down and it took her a while to find the heartbeat because it was higher up (on me) then expected.  I'm not dilated, but that is normal I guess.

The glider also came today!  It got here super fast...I ordered it Sunday night.  And it is tall enough.  Phew.

Monday: flowers

Ben brought me some flowers a few days ago.  The pine in the arrangement smells wonderful and the lilies are beautifully opening up.

Sunday: one month

There's only a month left until this baby is due!  Hooray!

In honor of that, we're having a baby post today.

Shower

Ben and I had a shower on Friday night for the baby.  I again don't have any pictures, but it was a lot of fun.  We got several things that we need (or think we need) and had a wonderful dinner.  It was fun to have both guys and girls at the party...it's interesting to see how both sides think.

Diapers

Ben and I are probably going to go with a cloth diaper service.  In case you wanted to see the breakdown, I included a picture of the spreadsheet and some of my assumptions below.  Beware though: I only spent about 30 minutes getting some of the numbers so they might not be completely accurate.

*77 diapers/week  (this might be on the high end, but some forums had really high numbers)
*disposable diapers were assumed to be $0.25 per piece
*the diaper service gives free diapers if the child isn't potty trained by 2.5 years.
*transportation impact was not included in environmental impact
*initial cloth diaper cost was estimated based on some Amazon numbers...but still an estimate

Laundry
I did my first load of baby laundry today.  Aww.  Probably the first of a million loads though.

Packed
I also packed for the hospital.  (Which is one reason I did some baby laundry.)  The problem is that I need a lot of the stuff yet.  I only have so many pants that I fit into.  And I still am using the electronics and toiletries.  So by the bag there will be list of last minute things to stick in.

Clothes
I'd like to complain that only half the maternity clothes still fit.  It is a little annoying to put on a shirt that covered my belly fine last week only to have an inch of skin show this week.  (Although I'll admit, some of this has to do with which pants I'm wearing.)  However, it made it easier to pack shirts for the hospital.

(ok, ok, it isn't a maternity shirt.  But it still seemed to fit well in the section.)

Glider
We also decided to purchase a glider on-line without having tried it out.  This is a little nerve racking, as most of the gliders that we sat in where too short to rest our heads against.  But the reviews for this say that tall people can rest their heads against this one.  And this way it is in the budget to get a footstool too.


Day care

I visited a day care near where I work this past week.  It's gotten very high recommendations from some of the people I work with and it is Christian-based, so unless I saw something that really scared me I was planning on using them.  Everything seemed fine.  And it is about five minutes from work so I'm planning on going over there to nurse at lunch.  (At least, that is the plan.)  I'm hoping that will take away some of the angst I might have about leaving him.

Nine month picture

Since there are so many other pictures in this post, I thought I'd add one more of how I'm looking today.

Saturday: today

Today was a very nice day.  I got to see a lot of people.  I took a nap.  I worked on the quilt.

:)

Thursday: off to bed

It's bed time again!  Hurray!  It's one of my favorite times of the day.  I love the going to sleep part, but even the relaxing in bed before sleep is really nice.

However, at the rate I'm going there is no way I'm going to finish my son's quilt before he gets here.  I finally managed to get it all pinned, but I've only done about one quilt seam in the last week.  Oh well.  It would be nice to finish it, but I think sleep is more important.

I realized the other day that it's been a while since five question Friday.  And since I'm tired and want to pretend that I can't think straight, it seemed easier than coming up with my own post.

1. Have you ever testified in court? For what?

No.

2. Do you still have your wedding dress?

Yes.  Although it's in the storage building.

3. Is there a special place you like to go when you're happy, sad, stressed, etc.?

Those are all so different.  I'm not sure there's a place I go when happy.  When I'm sad or stressed I like to go under a blanket.  Preferably somewhere I can sleep too.

4. If you have kids, do they sleep with you? If you don't have kids...will you let your kids sleep with you when/if you have them?

Probably not.  Flurry takes up too much of the bed as is.

5. Do you watch late night TV?

No, mainly because we don't have cable.  When I'm in a bedroom that has a TV in it I'll often watch something before bed, but then when I get to engrossed in it I'm glad that I don't do it often.

Tuesday: baby update

Today I was in for another OB appointment. Im still measuring a week large and the baby still has a heartbeat (although I forgot what the number was). Baby's head is also pointed the correct direction too. I still have a hard time feeling how the baby is pointing...I might be able to guess from where I feel kicks, but it would still only be a guess. She can do it from the outside! I suppose that comes with practice.

I also got to briefly see Betsy and Bryan in the waiting room, so that was a fun surprise.

Sunday: tester

Flurry is about the same size as a baby.  So we've made her try out several of our new baby items in advance of the baby.

The monster-shark didn't fit her very well, although she did have good teeth for it.

We've also put her in the stroller.  It doesn't keep cats in very securely...she kept jumping out.

Saturday: Happy Birthday

Today we celebrated Ben's 30th birthday.  30 years.  We did quite a bit of relaxing during the day, including trying out the new StarWars game.  It was fun, although neither of us see ourselves playing it much past getting to the highest level.  This was a free testing weekend, so we're not even sure if we'll get the game in the end.  Then for dinner we went out to eat with the family.

Friday: Christmas tree

Today we put up the Christmas tree. It's in front of the window so that we can enjoy it and it can be our neighborly Christmas decoration




However, we're not putting any ornaments on it and we probably won't do any other decorations (although I do still have a string of white lights.)


Oh, I did end up putting one ornament on it. I got it at last Sunday's baby shower and so it got to the house instead of being with all the other ornaments. It looks a little lonely, but eventually it won't be.

Thursday: happy Thanksgiving

Today we spent a very nice day with the family.

It's wonderful to be blessed by a great family.

Wednesday: emergencies

Today Ben and I figured out the family plan for three different emergencies.

1) House fire.
Get out of the house.  Meet on the road (or the other side of the road) across from the house.  Flurry's plan is the same.

2) Lack of donuts
Call a family member to bring you some.

3) A goose egg breaks open on your head.
First: don't open your mouth.  Second: If you do get raw egg in your mouth, spit it out and rinse with water.  Note1: We didn't actually cover how to deal with the broken egg on the outside of your body, since that isn't an emergency.  It's just a mess.
Note2: Getting raw egg in your mouth is declared an emergency as pregnant people aren't supposed to have any type of raw egg.  It isn't really recommended for non-pregnant people either.

(image credit)

Tuesday: hi

Baby Hilldore says hi.


(Or "get me out of here! There's not enough room!". But don't worry...i'll be a good parent and tell him he has to stay in and doesn't have a choice.)

Monday: hot chocolate

Betsy and I had drinks after work today.  As always, it was great to see her.  And she had a camera, so we were able to get a picture of us being pregnant together!

Sunday: baby shower

I had a baby shower today.  It was a lot of fun to see the ladies and hear the various stories that came out about their children.  And Baby Hilldore has a lot of cool new stuff. :)

I don't have any pictures right now, so you'll just have to take my word that everything was very nice.

Saturday: birthing class

Today Ben and I went to the child birthing class at the hospital.  It was pretty good, although also a bit scary...everyone in the videos looked like they were in so much pain.  (A little later they talked about pain medications and such, so that eased the scariness a little bit).  There was also a tour and just general information about how the hospital works and what to expect.  There were a few hands on activities, but they were all pretty short...we all had a baby doll but all that we did was swaddle it once.

At the end we got a certificate of completion, although it kind of felt like a certificate of having no clue what we're getting into.

Friday: dining

We went out to eat this evening, as we normally do on Fridays. The wait to get seated was a little bit long, but oh well. When we finally got seated they took our drink and dinner order.

Two minutes later our food came out. Thirty seconds after that our drinks came out. Now, it sure is nice to get your food quickly, but that was a little bit too fast.

Thursday: hair cut

I got my hair chopped off today.  I know I've been talking about it for a while, but I finally set up the appointment.

Here I am in the morning:

Here I am after the cut.

I don't think I love the cut, but I usually don't love my hair quite this short.  I do like it though.  And I get to send five ponytails of hair off to a hair donation place.  I was told that usually people get to send two, maybe three.  Yay!  It makes me feel special.

Tuesday: baby

Today was another prenatal checkup.  :)  They're fast, but I enjoy them.

Baby is measuring at 34 weeks (1 week larger than expected).  The heart rate was 138 but going up because he started moving.  The head is facing my lower right.

Right before my appointment I went to the hospital to see an old childhood friend that just had a baby.  The baby was early (34 weeks) but is doing well.  Her baby is very small, but at the same time very large when I consider that I have something that size inside me.  I'm not really sure how he fits.

Monday: another first - honking

Today I did my first "watch what you're doing" honk.  I was driving down the highway (luckily not minding my own business).  You can see my car in the picture below as the brown car.  The Other Car (silver oval) was doing a Michigan turn.  (Side note: Michigan turns are weird left turns.  Basically you take a right onto the highway and the do a U-turn around the median.)  The other car was moving as I approached, but I wasn't thinking much about it.  I figured they would scoot into the turn lane or into the right lane; it happens all the time.

But no.  They slowly turn into the left lane.  Slowly.  By the time I realize that they're not being polite and that they aren't speeding up quickly I have to step on the brakes.  Not super hard, but hard enough to topple the bag-of-stuff that I have in the back seat.  Then I honked.  It was a polite honk, but seriously...they really cut me off and there was no good reason.  Then I had enough time to see no one was in the right lane (where slow cars are supposed to be), switched lanes, and continued on my merry way.

Sunday: solid foods

I got to watch Autumn eat her first piece of solid food today.  She as not thrilled and the looks on her face clearly conveyed that.  It was fun to watch.

Saturday: early Thanksgiving

Today we part of the day with family and celebrated an early Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful to have everyone together for a bit.

Pat made a delicious meal.

Nathan and Liz gave us some baby presents.  Here is the monkey modeling the awesome shark-monster towel.

And Nathan and Liz took a trip down memory lane with a well loved book.

Friday: 11/11/11

happy 1 day! I missed 11:11 both times, but don't feel too bad about it.

Nathan and Liz came by for dinner, so that was a lot of fun.

It gets dark too early.

Thursday: laundry

Well, I am about to put a load of laundry into the dryer, so I did manage to get that done tonight.  I didn't even touch the quilt, so I guess that won't get pinned together this weekend.  I'll have to find a different time/place to do it.

Today was the first snow of the season!  Yay snow.

Wednesday: sleepy...again

Oh, I'm going to say the same thing I say every few days...I'm tired.  I make it through the day ok, but then once I get home I crash. The last two days haven't been too bad, but I'm not getting my second wind tonight so I'm going to bed.

I need to finish the backing for my quilt so that I can use Dad and Pat's table to pin it this weekend.  I also need to do a few loads of laundry...we're all out of towels.  Chances of these happening tonight: 0%.  Chances of these happening tomorrow night? A strong 30% for each.

Monday: ?

What to say tonight?

We have a smart cat.
And a squirmy baby.
Ben found an awesome deal on a cool looking baby monitor.  It has video and will play music and we can talk to the baby and tell him to go back to sleep.  He'll listen to us, right?

Oh!  Flurry has a love of the penguin blankets.  She usually won't come cuddle with me, but if I'm under these blankets she will. So I make it a point to use them a lot.  She likes the outside, I like the super soft inside.  It's a win-win situation.

Sunday: Pininterest

Well, a few weeks ago I joined the pininterest craze.  It's because there are so many cool quilt ideas out there and this way seems like the easiest way to keep track of them.  I had been using a power point file, but it was getting large and bulky.

So if you happen to be interested, you can see the ones I like at http://pinterest.com/ahilldore/quilts/

Saturday: a wedding

Once upon a time there was a large group of friends (many friends missing from the photo though)

Seven years later, one of them got married (a few people still missing)

                                     

Only to find that the group had grown rather large.

After the wedding we went to someone's house and hung out, which was a lot of fun.  We played games, laughed at each other, met each other, and got caught up with life.

Friday: yay for the weekend

It's the weekend! Ben and I were both thinking of the same thing for dinner...ordering in pizza. It was nice - both that we were thinking the same thing and that I didn't have to leave the house after I got home.

Thursday: dinner

We hadn't seen Dad and Pat for a while, so we had dinner with them tonight...it was nice. However, I didn't take my nap after work so now I'm tired. And Flurry won't cuddle with me.

Wednesday: raking

Today I got home and since it hadn't rained I thought I'd get the leaves off the driveway.  They had nicely piled up, so all I had to do was move them down the driveway.  There were a few more than I expected, and so half the time I ended up using my legs to help push them instead of a rake.  It was fun.  Well, as fun as raking can be.

Monday: squirmy

Today the baby was squirmy. He made it hard to concentrate a few times, when I really needed to be concentrating.

So I emailed his father that he was being squirmy, since if I am distracted it's only fair that he somehow distract Ben too.

Sunday: it's Sunday

Hi.

It was a normal Sunday today, so this is a rather boring post. We went to church, I took a nap, we did some chores, and we watched a movie. My legs are a little sore from raking yesterday, which is unfortunate.

Saturday: raking

Today we raked leaves with people from the church. The raking itself wasn't really that fun as the leaves were wet, but it was nice to get out and meet some people and help people that would have had a hard time raking.

Friday: excitement!

1) Flurry's doppelganger was from ICanHasCheeseburger.com and choice A. Congrats to those who chose choice B as Flurry!

B) I had an OB appointment. I'm measuring 31 weeks at 30 weeks, so a little large. Which is nice; I feel a little large. But I still have a while to feel large. Anyway. The heart rate was 155 and all my urine nitrates disappeared.

C) Our house in NY is sold! Hurray! It was supposed to close a few weeks ago but didn't, due to floods and lawyers. But it did today, and we are super, super happy about that. It doesn't quite seem real yet.

Wednesday: doppelganger

A few days ago we found Flurry's doppelganger. Can you figure out which one is Flurry and which one isn't?

Choice A:

Choice B:

P.S. Here are some actual pictures of Flurry that you can use to compare:

Tuesday: 3 quarters

Today starts week 30 of being pregnant, so we're 3/4 of the way done. Woo-hoo.

Apparently the baby is the size of a squash right now. It seems appropriate since it is fall/Halloween time. However, squashes come in all sorts of different sizes so I'm not sure it is a really good comparison.

My circumference is 39.5"

Sunday: a grocery conversation

Ben: So we're stopping by [the close-by grocery store]?

Amanda: Yes. We need milk, yogurt, and shampoo. That should make us, uh, let us...

Ben: Those things are going to make us lettuce?

Amanda: ...survive for a few days.

Ben: Those aren't ingredients I would suspect for lettuce making.

Amanda: yeah, well, it should work. I read it on the internet.

Saturday: crash

I had a post to write today but then I crashed. So Ben got me in bed where I can fall asleep, probably sooner rather than later, but I need the desktop computer to write the post because it'd be easier.

Baby says "hi" and "I have legs! Do you want to feel them?". But Baby might be getting his arms and legs confused. It's hard to tell in the dark.

Thursday: phone call

I made a phone call the other day about a problem I had with the NYSEG bill (power bill for the NY house). The problem was that there were three estimated readings in a row. Usually they do estimated/actual/estimated, but that didn't happen because of the flood. And because the house was vacant, the estimated values were too large. Normally it would just average out in the next bill, but since this should be our last bill it wouldn't average out.

So I called. The people on the other end understood the problem. They checked the meter. And I managed to save $140.

Score.

Wednesday: with age, comes wisdom

Flurry, six and a half years into her life, finally realized that getting into the cat carrier only leads to bad things. For the first time ever we had to "jam" her into it.

At the vet she got her distemper shot, so she should be happy for the next year.

When we got home she had another first: hiccups. I've never seen a cat with hiccups before. They were a lot less frequent than human hiccups, but they were repetitive just the same. Flurry did not seem thrilled.

Tuesday: hi

Hi.

Today was much better than yesterday. However, I had to get up early to have a meeting with people from 3rd shift, so I'm tired now.

I'm often tired. I'm going to blame some of it on getting dark earlier though, because I always get extra tired around that time. The rest we'll blame on Baby.

Monday: eyes

I wish my frustration wouldn't leak out of my eyes. It is so inconvenient.

If it insists on leaking out, I vote that it should leak out of my toes.

But, three cheers for blaming everything on being pregnant.

Sunday: drums

Today Ben played drums in church for the first time; I think he did awesome. However, it was a little weird because it was the first time since we've been dating that I wasn't there for the practice. Usually I just did random things during practice (sleep, homework, read), but it was always nice to listen to the songs ahead of time. But now we have two cars and church is close by, so there's no reason for me to go early.

It's a little sad, but not sad enough to get me out of bed two hours earlier than I need to.

Saturday: inside

Today ended up being an inside day. We had tentative plans to go out, but they didn't happen. Partially because it was very windy, and partially because I was exhausted about three hours after I woke up.

So I took a nap for most of the afternoon, and the wind did the raking for us. Win-win!

Friday: tired

I've been tired lately; it was a busy week.

Ben and I went and saw "Real Steel" tonight. It was good, but not great.

Tuesday: productive

Today I felt productive. It's been a while since I've felt that way, so it was a good day. I got some stuff done at work and then I drove all around town picking stuff up and dropping stuff off. Now I'm tuckered out.

Hmm, I need some more content for today. How about some random pictures that I've been taking but have neglected to post?

Here are the wonky stars for Baby's quilt. I ended up changing the yellow star because one side seemed too stubby.

And what post would be complete without a picture of Flurry?? She has found a new chair to hang out on sometimes.

Monday: walk

I went on a walk with Betsy today. It was a beautiful day for a walk. It was also especially fun because she's due about three months after I am...it's amazing how many things are the same and how many things are different between the two pregnancies.

Sunday: apples, leaves, and appendages

I finished off all the apples today in applesauce. Some were getting a little soft, but they were all still good for applesauce.

We raked the front yard. It was nice because here you just rake the leaves into the street and the front yard isn't very big, so it was an easy raking job. However, I'm not sure the tree appreciated the wonderful job we did as leaves started cluttering up the lawn again as soon as we were done.

I had my hand on my stomach in just the right place to feel a good kick (or hit) this evening. The cool part of this was that I could tell it was a real appendage because I could feel a difference between appendage and no appendage. Usually it just feels like a bump with no discrete difference. I completely interrupted the conversation Ben and I were having and then we had a hard time remembering where we had left off.

Saturday: book review/give away

I was contacted a few weeks ago asking if I would be willing to do a book review. I thought, “Hey, why not? I like free books.” Soon after that, The Devil’s Puzzle by Clare O'Donohue arrived. In fact, two copies arrived so I am happy to be able to offer a give away! It’s the first one I’ve ever done. I’ll just randomly picking two people that reply to this post to get the book (although one person will be a slightly used copy).

(image from Amazon.com)

As a mystery, I'm not going to write too much about the story because I don't want to give the ending away. I was happy though that I wasn’t able to figure out “who-done-it” before the book was done. It was fun to have a quilting theme run through the book, but it wouldn’t detract from the book if you aren’t a quilter. I was a little sad that there wasn't a picture of the quilt block in the book; it seemed like since it was the name of the book it should have been there.

Overall I’d recommend the book, if you’re looking for something light and easy to read. It wasn’t a book that I couldn’t put down, but it was still interesting.

Disclaimer: I don’t have a cool official disclaimer like Denise, but I was under no obligation to write a blog post, review the book in a certain manner, or give away the book. I received no money for doing the review.