And Butterpea Makes 3

Ok, so in my absence I have been taking classes like infant CPR and birthing classes and staff development for work (so I don’t get docked later at $50 an hour).  And of course, my in-laws were in town Thanksgiving week.  So I am the slow poke as usual about blogging.  Whatever.  Must find less to do. 

We took some great pictures at Thanksgiving and I will try to get them on here soon.  The turkey happened to weigh EXACTLY the amount of weight I had gained to date.  23 pounds.  Of course I ate all week, so I am way past that now.  :)  But we had lots of fun with Matthew holding the turkey and me with my belly being, well, pretty much the same size as that turkey.  I am sure plenty of weight is in my seemingly humongous legs and my swollen feet and hands, but the turkey and belly matched pretty well together. 

Pregnancy news updates…
Let’s see.  I went to the dr. on Monday.  Measured exactly 33 cm at 33 weeks so that was good.  I have numbness in my right ribs.  He says this usually goes away by a month or 2 after birth but sometimes it never does.  We’ll see how lucky I get.  And now my fingers on my right hand are numb…which makes typing quite interesting. I mean, I can type just fine.  I just can’t FEEL it.  The internet, which knows everything, says it’s carpal tunnel.  I had no clue that pregnant women get carpal tunnel.  It’s not from typing, but from the swelling.  Must go drink some more water. 

I took infant/child CPR yesterday.  Now I thought the other dolls were creepy but this thing takes the cake.  With the breathing tube in it for inflating the chest and the 2-part head with the gaping hole for a mouth, it was a bit much.  And you are expected to put your MOUTH on this thing.  Ew.  Of course, there is this supposedly sterile plastic thing they give you but it has a vent in the middle and that creeped me out more than the doll.  Oh!  And I was late to class.  That would be 5 for 5.  Yep.  I am late even without Mr. K.  (He said since I am a teacher I can just teach him whatever there is to know about CPR so he didn’t go.)  Our neighbor…due in 6 days…was there, so she was my partner.  If you have never seen two hugely pregnant women act out the Heimlich, you have truly missed out.  Even the instructor was laughing.

Baby news…let’s see…little Butterball (which BTW was the kind of turkey we got) is still moving around like crazy.  My dr. felt for about 5 seconds and said it might have turned head down.  But he’s crazy too.  I still have days when it seems obvious that the little tyke is transverse…laying across the belly.  Two giant hard round parts have to mean a head and a rear.  There just aren’t any other parts they could be.  Now I don’t know which is which, but they’re there.  And it’s so darned cute.  Every single morning it is in the exact same position.  Up and down but scrunched to my right side.  How it fits so much of its body between my ribs and hip bone I will never know.  I hope it likes that kind of consistency when sleeping out here in the real world. 

Let’s talk Thanksgiving.  My in-laws came in town.  That was awesome.  And K and J came over for dinner which was super fun.  I cooked a turkey and made all the usual things.  Mr. K’s mom made the dressing and some fantastic rolls.  K brought a great apple salad which was really like a dessert that you get to eat first.  And I’ll be darned if it didn’t start SNOWING right smack in the middle of Thanksgiving day.  Everyone knows it doesn’t snow here.  Maybe once a year.  Well this was short-lived and didn’t stick, but hey!  I never had snow on Thanksgiving or Christmas before.  It has snowed on my birthday a few times and it was snowing the day we got back in town from getting engaged a few years back.  But never on a major holiday. 

We’re working on our plans for Sweden ‘08.  Does anyone know if you can buy a plane ticket for a baby you haven’t had yet?  Guess I will call the airline and just ask them.  We need to book soon to get a good rate and make sure we have optimal baby seating.  I go for the method where the daddy sits with the baby and the mommy sits in first class with a massaging chair and eats baked fish.  What does a mom have to do for that?

I feel caught up now.  Next appt is Dec. 11 with a sono to see if Butterball has decided that head-down is acceptable.  Just 6 and a half weeks left! 

In contrast to “My mother is a fish.”  If you have never read Faulkner maybe you don’t get it.  And that’s ok.  Not all of us had the joy of taking Mississippi writers with Mrs. Findley.  I shouldn’t come off so sarcastic…I actually loved that class in high school. I was the writing type.   Anyway, I am a fish.  I couldn’t possibly drink any more freaking water if I had to.  I can’t stand it anymore.  And this will go on for MONTHS.  Breastfeeding?  Drink lots of water.  Oh thanks.  When do I get to return to my normal drinking diet of Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper??  And I am not a drinker, but a margarita just sounds nice.  Salty goodness. 

So my dr. says I must drink lots of water and have less sodium.  He was specific.  No soup.  No Chinese food with soy sauce.  No potato chips.  BUT!  He did not say no French fries.  And I wasn’t about to ask in case he might nix those too.  This is because I am SWELLING like a puffer fish.  To Mr. K- “My legs are elephant legs.”  Mr. K- “No, honey, you look fine.  Lie down on the sofa.”  Ok, just because he says the right thing doesn’t make my elephant legs any less of elephant legs. 

The feet and toes hurt.  I have already had to remove my wedding band for good…and also the James Avery heart ring.  Now this heart ring has history.  Mr. K gave it to me at Prom, so I have had it on for a good 14 years.  This weekend was the first time I ever took it off.  It’s brought me lots of good luck too.  Once at my old school, I was helping the custodian move a table into my room.  It was the school kind that you can stand up to store and then they open out when in use.  So the two ends meet in the middle.  Well, somehow one of us let go and it came crashing down on my hand.  Right in the middle of this table, my hand was stuck.  Had to reopen it and remove the hand.  Luckily the ring was there.  It was practically flattened, but we all decided that without the ring I would have lost 2 fingers.  So, ode to the ring. 

Had another baby class this week.  Yesterday we went to Baby Care.  Well, first let me say that Butterpea is likely to come around, say, February, if it follows the K tradition.  Which is?  Be late wherever you go.  2 classes down.  2 classes we walked into late so far.  There are 4 more.  Will we go 6 for 6?  A possibility. 

So we go to the class and we walk in late.  And everyone has the same creepy dolls as the last class.  Everyone has one.  Now the lady says she thinks they are out and we might have to share.  Well, that’s annoying because you have to pre-register for these things weeks in advance so they KNOW how many people are going to be there.  There is even a roll.  Whatever.  So she gives us…the birthing doll.  What is a birthing doll you might ask.  Good question.  It is this doll head with overly long and skinny panty hose like doll legs and arms that they can fold up to show you how the kid comes out of the birth canal.  Great.  As if I didn’t already have a weird doll aversion.  (But alas, no nightmares.)  Now this class was much more laid back than the last one.  Diapering a doll is somehow quite amusing.  Especially when you could wrap the diaper around 3 times, as in the case of our birthing skinny doll.  One guy was trying to dress his doll when the head popped. right. off.  Now that was funny.  And they give everyone different clothes to prove a point that some clothes you just should not buy.  One lady got this outfit to put on her doll.  It had more snaps than I have ever seen.  Once she unsnapped them all to put them on the kid, she couldn’t figure out how to snap them back together.  Very amusing.  Must have sleep sacks, onesies with basic snaps, the end.

Today I officially broke the 20 pound mark, by the way.  Now the belly grew 4 cm in 3 weeks, so I am blaming the baby.  Couldn’t possibly be that I decided pizza isn’t so bad anymore.  Couldn’t be the 80 pieces of Halloween candy I just had to eat because we didn’t have a single trick-or-treater.  (They were minis!)  And I didn’t eat ALL of them.  Yet. 

Oh My Goodness!  I forgot the most important event of the week!  Mr. K actually put the crib together!!  Yay!!  Now the dresser will have to be done this weekend.  And maybe even the painting if we’re lucky.  Well, if I am lucky.  I bribed him with homemade snickerdoodles for the crib.  Worked.  Might try almond bars for the dresser.  And I tried to help with the crib.  He says to me that HE is doing this for HIS baby.  That was until he couldn’t hold the sides at the same time as screwing in the bolts.  Then I got to help.  :) 

Remember that list I posted a few weeks back?  We actually did several of those things.  Don’t die from the shock of it.  So here’s how it looks now:

1. Honeymoon photos hung.  Check.  (There should be a key for that.)
2. Wedding album.  Resorted pictures.  Talked to photographer.  Must make final cuts.
3. Garage sale.  Never happening.  Going to donate to BIL and Good Will.
4. Queen bed removed.  Now dear Mr. K thinks if we turn it, it will still fit in the room so that visitors can stay in there.  I’ve measured.  I say it won’t work.  But what do I know.  If it fits, the room will look so crowded.  I mean, where’s the Eames supposed to go??  Helllllooooo.
5. Assemble baby furniture.  Half a check.
6. Paint.  Hmmm….Isn’t that what in-laws are for?  I mean Mr. K has 2 brothers.  Pregnant lady says paint.
7. Pick fabric.  Check.
8. Blinds.  Mr. K has some mega book to pick from and it was too overwhelming.  Must look again.
9. Mount TV.  Maybe by the time the Butterball is walking.
10. Stain back door.  By the time they are in elementary school.
11. Tape ceiling. By Jr. High.
12. Flowers in the front.  Uh, not planting flowers.  Too far gone for that much work.  Where’s my mom when I need her?  Might just buy mums.

Now to a terrible topic.  My little Zippy.  Unfortunately Target and Right Start do not let you put a new car on your baby registry.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love Zippy.  We’re bonded.  I don’t want a new car.  Zippy is a 98 Rav 4.  You might recall that I drove my Volvo until the only working part left was the engine.  The trade in value was $200.  Yes, that’s in hundreds.  Zippy needs 2K worth of work.  It’s only worth about 5-6K.  So this leaves one wondering…What is the point?  Now my dad is paying half.  This is perhaps because I sounded so pathetic when I talked to him about it.  Perhaps because I am pregnant.  Or maybe he’s just being nice.  Whatever the case, I still have to pay $1000.  I don’t want to.  I like my money and I like to keep it.    Water pump.  Leaking oil gaskets.  New brake pads.  These are not things I want to spend money on.  New purse?  Yes.  Water pump?  No.  I am so cheap.  Heck, I am rotating 3 pairs of pants and one pair of jeans to work each week.  And that was just because I broke down and bought the 3rd pair of pants at Target for $12 just this weekend.  So there Zippy sits as I try to make a decision.  Mr. K says it’s still cheaper than a car payment.  That’s true but doesn’t make it suck any less.

I am off to drink orange juice and take an iron pill.  Dr. says take with OJ or with spaghetti.  Uh, spaghetti?  Well, at least I like spaghetti.