Random Bits

I had a prenatal appointment. This time I was meeting the OB of the practice. I usually see a midwife but I was supposed to meet the OB at some point in case she ends up delivering my baby. My appointment was scheduled for 4, it ended up happening at 5. I was pretty annoyed to wait an hour but it reminded me why I chose to go with a midwife instead of a doctor. She was nice though very intense and doctor like. She was taken a back when the baby kicked her. Hey, if you push on him, he's going to kick you. That's my crazy baby boy :-)

We start our hypnobirthing class in a few weeks and I'm pretty excited. Mary wanted to do a "normal" birthing class but I pulled weight since I'm the one that will actually be doing the laboring. Mary was also into having a regular OB and I wanted a midwife but now she LOVES the midwife. Though we joke that the midwife has a crush on her because she's always telling Mary how good she looks. It's in joking fun, the woman is straight and older *much*.

Luckily, nothing dramatic came out of Mary's conversation with the play therapist. She didn't think visits were needed for Cameron right now so just to lay low and reavulate when HB's family wanted to have them. I just really don't want to start visits, never mind close to the baby's birth and hopefully Mary will also agree with that.

In funny things. Mary was recently featured in local magazine for her research in the state. The picture they had her pose for was a riot. I mean, she looks like she's going to kill someone. Needless to say, we like to laugh about it. And I have way too much free time on my hands and like to do this and make wallpaper for our computer.

Fingerprints and the HB Rant *that never ends*

Well, we got fingerprinted at the police department. WAY easier than dealing with the county sheriff. No appointment, we just went in and got them done. Of course, we've been warned that they may do them wrong and the officer did seem a little bit clueless. However, at this point, I don't expect for anything in this process to go smoothly anyways.

One of my points of wanting to go to the police department was to go at a time when we didn't have to bring Cameron. Of course, Mary thought differently and decided to do this before his therapy appointment. At least I got out of bringing him to therapy but he was a hyper maniac at the police department and at the end went to hit the police man with my umbrella. Lately, he's just so embarrassing. And doing this entire process while I'm 7 months pregnant is just weird. I can tell, everyone I've come in contact with is like, "what are you thinking?". You tell me! Oy vey.

Anywho, Mary's ultimatum of bringing Cameron to therapy was not a favor for me but because she to talk to the therapist about the HB situation. Oy. I am SO worried about what she is going to start.

Apparently, Mary had a 2nd visit with him a few weeks ago...she recently decided to tell me. I was definitely pissed to be lied to and one of the reasons I dislike HB so much is the mistrust he caused in our relationship. Anywho, apparently he wigged out at school afterwards and was hitting kids and stuff. Hi, welcome to visits. So they wanted to postpone any visits for a while. They were also recently clued into HB's hatred for his brother. HB often role plays with toys and dolls and has been basically murdering all the dolls and toys he refers to as "Cameron".

So they are now talking about having a visit that involved Cameron (and me) at the end of May/early June. Mary mentioned that I probably wouldn't go since I'd be so far along in my pregnancy. The adoptive mother (I like to refer to her as "nut job") response was that she didn't think I should be with held from seeing HB and that everything should be open and honest. Ummm, I don't want to see the kid anyways. The only reason I would go to a visit is to make sure everything went o.k. and that Mary didn't lie to me. Because I know if something goes wrong, Mary will just say, "it went great". Plus, HB had no idea I was pregnant and I was able to easily conceal my belly. Now, I'm large and the entire thing would completely overwhelm the kid's mind and be stressful for me.

Needless to say, my current stance is I don't want Cameron to see him. Since the visits will start close to the baby being born, I don't want to start that. We are working on so many things with Cameron regarding the baby and OUR FAMILY that seeing HB is just going to drudge up bad sibling energy and put Cameron in a bad place.

I want to look out for my family and Mary can do her own thing with fulfilling her desires to see HB. Of course, I'd rather her just let it go all together but she doesn't seem to be willing to do that. When it comes to the HB situation, I seriously dislike my wife. There is no other way to put it. I just hope in the end, she thinks of the affects on me, Cameron, and the baby.

Still Tired

It seemed like a really long weekend. Friday we had fun getting massages but beforehand I had my diabetes test and afterwards, Mary had us at Home Depot to pick up stuff to make a walkway. Then we picked up Cameron and headed home. So much for soaking in the relaxation of my massage.

Friday night, I was up constantly. I've been sleeping like crap but had finally gotten into a good sleep when Cameron woke up screaming. Not exactly crying, just screaming, "I want water". His new thing is "I want" which I HATE. So after explaining to him that we don't say "I want" never mind scream it while everyone is sleeping, I got his water. He had one of his usual coughs but I was ready to throttle the kid. That was the beginning of yet another sleepless coughing Cameron night.

So Saturday I was completely exhausted but Mary had planned on building a walkway so I was stuck watching the kid. Of course, he had plenty of energy but was being a grump obviously from being sick or whatever. He is always sick so I don't know what to call it and lately he's usually grumpy. I'm not sure if it's just him being 3, his genetics kicking in, or a result from the recent changes. Needless to say, I don't like it.

Saturday night I did his nebulizer right before he went to bed which seemed to work. I decided to go to bed after I put him down. You would think going to bed at 7:30 would help my extreme tiredness. Even though it took me forever to fall asleep, I was happy to be laying down but then I was wide awake at midnight. I thought, it's probably around 4 so maybe I'll just stay up and then I checked a clock: midnight. Oy. So the rest of my night was spent trying to force myself to sleep. Oh, the joys of pregnancy insomnia or just the result of our overly stressful lives.

Sunday was a slightly better day. It was rainy and dark which I enjoy for one reason, Cameron sleeps longer. He didn't wake up until around 8 which was glorious and he was happy and smiley when he did wake up. Mary made waffles in the morning. I hate the mess she makes when she uses the waffle maker but they sure are yummy. Yes, my only highlights in life lately are revolved around food. LOL. In the afternoon, we took Cameron to the pool. I don't have a maternity bathing suit so I just sat on the side. Then we decided to take him to McDonald's. That was all fun until we went to leave and he threw a fit. Of course, we got the stare down from the other patrons when we had to rip him off the slide after he turned to run up it when he realized we'd be leaving. Oh, the joys of parenting.

MUCH needed Relaxation

My day started off kind of rocky or rather shaky. I had my gestational diabetes test. I was fearing the not being able to eat part since I'm starving as soon as I wake up. But it actually wasn't that bad and I made it through. The orange drink is also totally exaggerated by people. I mean, I don't normally drink orange soda (or much soda for that matter) never mind at 7 a.m. but it was no big deal and hopefully I don't have gestational diabetes.

Then, I was off to eat *obviously* and meet up with Mary since we were headed to a spa in Augusta. Sweet! She surprised me the night before by letting me know she had booked us massages. I have been dying for a massage so I was thrilled. It was also nice that she understood that my body needed it. In doing all this yard work and house work, I've felt she hasn't understood that it's taken it's toll on my body in a different way than hers. Anywho, she definitely scored big wifey points in booking us massages.

My massage was great. Ever since I went to massage school, getting a massage has been difficult since I tend to want to guide the massage and am rather critical. But my pregnant body has needed any sort of massage lately so it was wonderful and relaxing. I just wanted to take a nap afterwards. And it was definitely nice to receive since I plan on doing pregnancy massage training at some point.

So it turned out to be a lovely and pretty relaxing day. :-)

Exhaustion.

I am finally enjoying some rest after a hectic 24 hours. With the warm weather, comes "work horse Mary". This is what me and my mom jokingly call her because we are amazed at her energy level.

Anywho, Mary had this idea to add some shrubbery and stuff to the front; a little curb appeal for potential buyers. It's new construction so we don't have any and last year we only worked on the back yard. Since we weren't planning on selling, we wanted a space that we could enjoy. Dumb move...along with the $8,000 fence but whatever, what's done is done.

So yesterday Mary took the morning off so we could work on it. Of course, I can't dig any of the holes but I pick things out and design. I also decided to volunteer for placing everything and filling in the dirt. I thought this could help out since Mary could only work on things in the morning. However, being a large pregnant woman, this was NOT an easy task and involved the 2 things I hate to do (because they are painful), bending and getting up and down. By 4:00 I was done as in my body was ready to give out.

I feel like I'm at a stage where I'm actually enjoying being pregnant and having my little guy swimmin' in my tummy. But I will definitely be happy to have my body back. It's hard to move in normal ways and my body just seems to give out lately. Non-prego, I could just push through and get things done.

So this morning it was rainy and yucky but Mary was out there yet again to finish the rest of it. She's a trooper. Lucky for me, we were going to have a showing at 1 so I got to stay inside...of course, it involved cleaning. Though the cleaning and staging routine has definitely gotten easier and it didn't seem as painstaking as it has in the past. Mary also helped by doing the vacuuming last night. Luckily, because my back was shot after all my work yesterday.

Am I allowed to put myself on bed rest? Maybe I can get a dr's note that says I can't do anything but sip lemonade and soak in the new sunshine? ;-) Oh well, I am off to rest...that is if I can get out of this chair.

Adoption PROCESS

We were told by our lawyer that our paperwork was all set so we could go down to the court and do our fingerprints. That was it. It wasn't, go see this woman who will give you a "fingerprint kit". Then, call another woman to schedule a time to do your fingerprints. And the woman that does the fingerprinting only does them between 6:30 a.m. - 8 a.m. on Thursdays (what?!?!).

Anywho, we went down to do our fingerprints for our background check and we learned all this. Also, in the process, we met the woman that does them and instead of just scheduling us, she wanted us to call once we had the kits...which we were on our way to get. So about 10 minutes after meeting her, I left her a message since "she was away from her desk". She called back to let me know she could do it at 6:30 a.m. With a 3 year old in tow, we just can't be anywhere at 6:30 a.m. I mean, who can? That's seriously early.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call our local police department to see if they can do it. Though we've been advised that they may screw it up. I think that's the risk we'll have to take in hopes of having a someone being a little bit more flexible with scheduling. Just another annoying thing in this entire process.

And yes, we had background checks to become foster parents. However, they didn't involve fingerprints so I'm not sure if this is a new thing or just something for adoptive parents but it's annoying. And of course it adds about a month to the entire process since everything has to be processed before a court date can be scheduled.

3rd Trimester - WHAT?!?!

I'm in the THIRD TRIMESTER - aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Yes, I'm freaking out that baby will be here relatively soon. At the same time, I'm really excited to see my baby boy and enjoy some alcohol ;-) Of course, our lives are a mess right now with trying to get Cameron's adoption squared away and selling our house. Oh, I think back to when we first started trying to have a baby and it was the PERFECT time for it. If only my body cooperated.

Back to baby stuff. While we were in southern Maine, we went to Babies R Us. I figured just to browse, we don't have one up here so we always go just to look. Well, Mary gave in and let me purchase the bedding ensemble that I've wanted. She's not a fan of it but I LOVE it. Especially since I wanted to do a sailboat theme but wasn't finding any set that I liked.



Anywho, I was definitely happy that she let me have my way on this. I was surprised she was adimantly against it since I usually just do the decorating and she likes everything I pick. We've also come to the conclusion that we're not having a baby shower so buying everything is on us. We're hoping our parents will help us with some major items but we're used to doing things on our own at this point. Afterall, when you get 2 foster kids, nobody throws you a shower. And since all our family live far away, a shower just isn't really possible.

We will however have the best dressed baby since I have gone a little bit crazy on little blue outfits. LOL. Mary tried to put a monitorium on my baby clothes purchases to which I did not go for. However, I haven't bought anything in quite some time. But over my recent shopping extravaganzas, I went a wee bit crazy. It's also bad because I always feel the need to get Cameron stuff when I get the baby stuff even though Cameron doesn't necessarily need any clothes. I guess there's some fear of favoring the baby over him. But whatever, now I'm enforcing a monitorium on MYSELF. :-)

We also realized that all the major items we bought were bedding which a baby can't actually use right away because of the SIDS risk and we don't plan on having a crib right away. We figure we'll have the baby in our room but we've been going back and forth with a bassinet, pack and play that has a bassinet, or one of those sleep in the bed things. Mary's all into the sleep in the bed thing. I worry I'll never be comfy to actually sleep with the baby in the bed and as it is, our bed just barely fits us. Hmmm...has anybody tried one of these? Obviously it's the cheapest and takes up the least amount of room. I don't know, we fear being those new parents that have all the baby stuff taking over the house and not really needing 1/2 of it. I definitely don't want to be so wasteful.