Having babiez

I'm about 22 weeks pregnant...with a boy....

I apparently forgot to mention this before in the um...6 posts of my blahg life.

I think I'm 22wks...It could be off by one.

Seriously, it's my second pregnancy and I'm barely keeping track of this one. I have the time to read stuff, but what's the point? Things don't usually go as expected. My last birth was a friggin scary ass carnival ride...So what's to prepare for? I'll let the first time mommas soak up the drama.

It has been rough. More pains, more nausea, more toilet ring around my head, but things have settled down for the most part. So as long as I'm not throwing up, I'm happy to just cruise along with this one and pretend to be surprised in January when he's pops out.

The Bear is pretty upset about not having a sister. I mention many times through the day about his brother coming, but sometimes he pulls this schtick, "WHAAAT? A BROTHER???" Typical 3 year old sarcasm.

And the Hubs is bragging to his friends about how out of touch he's been with this pregnancy...Dude, stop showing off to your friends that you don't even see anymore. He was never in touch with the first one. Doofus.

Anyways, enough attention...Hubs is on vacation this week and I need some vacation from his vacation. Having a hubby home when he's gone all the time is like adding another kid to mix. I can barely handle it. The whining...the hunger...the "What are we doing today?" questions over and over again.

I leave you with the Bear's bowling face...He means business.

I almost forgot...

The Bear went to summer school this week. I've been lolling around in my pajamas for days because of my intense hatred of the hot weather outside. But I had to get "dressed up" for drop off and pick up on Tuesday and Thursday.

It seems the uniform for all the moms is super cute and classic or workout clothes. But your workout clothes can't be baggy or loose. Tight ALL OVER is the requirement!

It's exhausting. But at least my son looks uber cute at school without wearing smocked outfits. blech

Remembering

When the Bear was born and terribly sick, he was on a ventilator. His room was filled with giant machines just meant to support his 8lbs of life. It was so artificial, but so necessary.

His oxygen saturation was always so low. It was difficult to raise it, but it would usually fall back down by the end of the day.

This volunteer would come around to every NICU room to offer books for us to read. And I'd sit next to the Bear, press my face close to his incubator and read his stories.

His oxygen saturation would always go up, but it was always so difficult to read between my tears. It was hard to read these stories about birds, dogs or little kids when I was wondering IF he'd ever be able to experience the world. I'd sob between nursery rhymes all the time.

I really hope to volunteer at a NICU one day.

Things I love 2.0

I love how the Bear will take the time to sit down with me anywhere. I've been making slow progress on our veggie garden. I planted the teepees on one side and tomatoes on the other. Then we just sat between the mulch in the middle and talked about birds, getting dirty and school.

Such a darling little Bear.

Things I love...

I'm going to post one thing I love about the Bear that is unique to him every few days...Ths will get me posting more often.

I love that he "beeps" my car alarm with his plastic keys. It's funny to see him mimic arming the car alarm. Who does that? My Bear does that!

It's SPRING, EVERYBODY!!!

One day we were at the Botanical Center and Spring creeped up on us...


And then Mommy's to do list got big and it included a school Easter egg hunt...Which would've been more successful if a certain bear wasn't flinging himself down the hill like a jelly-bean goon.

"Drat...Four eggs? Mom! I need more eggs!"

Then we couldn't even make it halfway inside the house before the Easter Bear demanded to see his treasures. He somehow managed to score the most Starburst I've ever seen.



Score! A candy bracelet!...I mean watch...

"NomNomNom"

Let's not forget to dye our Easter eggs. Mommy was brilliant enough to do it outside. Mommy was not brilliant enough to bring all the eggs inside on a blustery day. WTF, Mom? We've lost 2 eggs!

We're going to the zoo egg hunt tomorrow, which I was informed we'll be lucky to make it inside the parking lot...Doh. So we'll be leaving extra early. If we don't make it in, then we're gonna crash the Baptist church a few miles away for eggs and hot dogs. Well, we were invited by a woman at WalMart. She was nice, and I love...I mean, the Bear loves free hot dogs.

And if that doesn't work, his church/preschool is having an Easter egg hunt. Maybe we can make some friends whose invitations we'll politely decline when asked to join their church. I'm so stubbornly Catholic, even I'm getting sick of it.

Happy Easter!

TX bound and departed

So we went back to El Paso, TX for the Bear's spring break. And I just wasn't really into it. I'm sure it showed. I wanted to stay home with my husband, but he was going to work anyways. I thought a week in TX with family would be a welcome distraction, but all I saw were things I was happy to leave when I was a teenager. And it's sad. Going back home use to fill me with that yummy nostalgic feeling. But the whole city seems to be changing. It's been overtaken by just "stuff." Like media, violence, and suburbanite stores. It use to be kind of authentic in a way that the people loved chain stores, but held their community's businesses closer. Now it's just overtaken by brand names and advertising.

It's a turn off. I miss that homegrown quality. Which is a stretch to use, since nothing grows in West Texas...

My family never changes. My mom is such a great person. She doesn't even have to ask, and I don't even have to tell. Yes, my clothing is falling apart and the Bear needs summer outfits, and she's happy to help us out. She's amazing for putting up with our spending that week.

But that poor Bear...He had the nastiest virus ever. His whole upper lip turned raw from his constantly runny nose. He regressed with his speech to the point of grunting and motioning at what he wanted. He finally asked to go to the "Docty" and I couldn't refuse. Ah, those Mexican drs...They love them so antibiotics. He clearly had a virus, with a cough. But they gave him a Z-pak, and I just laughed. We love antibiotics in El Paso. People think they're the cure-all of any ailment. Ha.

Thankfully, the Bear felt good enough for some shenanigans with his beloved cousins. It's nice to see him hang out with them. They're silly just like him and they're prone to fits of giggles. They make me giggle like crazy too.

Crackin Dem Nuts

I'm having surgery on Tuesday.

I've been wanting this FOREVER already, and I'm actually not scared. Although once I say I'm not scared, I get a little queasy. But you know what's gonna be queasy? My drainage bags that I'm prolly gonna have. Cue the "ewws" please.

This surgery also means my mom is coming in town, which I'm crazy grateful for since that means she has to leave her job for 3 weeks. But then I'm sure she's selfishly thinking she's getting cuddle time with my kiddo. lol

Hopefully, this surgery will mean I'll start blogging again. I spend so much more time all over the Internet, why can't I just blog? Because I'm embarrassed by my ramblings of course.

BTW, XMAS is a comin' and I'm frigging out because something always keeps happening to the house. Like my DRYER!!! It's not drying, so that means I need to get the ducts cleaned which means at least $100, oh shoot me in the foot. Why oh why must this happen right during Xmas and the Bear's birthday? At least my son has no expectations of presents and my family is use to me not affording presents.

It's this time of year that I feel particularly useless by not working. I should make some babysitting money. But I'd rather watch reality TV and crack open nuts. Like literally crack open nuts. I love this time of year when you can buy a bag of assorted nuts and I can spend an hour cracking a small bunch open. It keeps me busy and my mind is dead. Luv it.

Major points of discussion since August 17th

• Sept 7th and I'm still sick. My time in Memphis was ruined by a nagging virus and dog allergies. now I have that dreadful cough that likes to pack a punch at about 9pm. Codeine is for babies at this point.
  
  
• The Memphis Babysitting Adventure went smooth! It was the longest my niece had been without her grandma and grandpa, so she would get a little homesick for them. But her love for a new school year definitely helped. Isn't it amazing how kids do homework on computers now? And things are so organized in binders! I mean, we would have to scribble our assignments somewhere and you just wrote stuff all the time.

• The Hubster was told he had to take vacation, so once my babysitting duties were over, we left the Bear in Memphis with the grandparents and took off to New Orleans!!! Whoopeee!!! We had the best B&B at the Green House on Magazine st. Loved their rooms. Was totally about to steal the mattress, because it was D-I-V-I-N-E!!! And their pool/back porch was so cute and decorated with tropical plants. They were perfect for an adult getaway. It saddens me that I couldn't take the Bear there, but children in a beautiful home can be C-R-A-Z-Y.

• The Bear started preschool!!! It was half days last week, and he starts full days this week. Fantastic! I can finally get my hair cut and a new drivers license. I'll be sad to see my TX drivers license go. My hair looks fab, bitch.

• Hubs started his ER stuff this month. He's on a totally opposite schedule. Like tonight is 9pm to 7am. It's thrown us off too. I somehow lost a day this week. We'll get over it soon.

• Oh, and have we made friends yet...That would be a no. Not so much. *sigh* It's really difficult figuring out what to do with our time. All of our errands get done so quickly since we don't have socializing to fill in the rest of our time. I'm hoping with school starting and the beginning of a Wednesday playgroup, we can really meet some people. That we like. That like us back. Yeah.
  

Sucker for Sleep

Oh, how cute, right? Oh, he looks like an angel...*sigh*



This kid, I swear. I could boast for so long about how his sleep habits are so great. He doesn't nap, but he goes to bed without a fight. We have a routine of pj's, book, music, and then "night-night."

But we've totally hit a wall. The Bear has been in hysterics this week, which is totally not the week to give me hard time. I've been so full of , I don't know if it's anxiety or what, but it's BS either way. So my sleep has been completely backwards. I've been functioning on maybe a couple of hours of sleep a night and Mama is gonna lose her friggin mind at any moment. Whew.

The Bear has his moments like any kid at night where he wakes up and might need a pat on the back to lie back down again. I have no problem with this. But we've had 3 nights of pure battle. He wakes up at random hours like he's being beaten by his little stuffed animals. As I'm trying to soothe him or ask him what is wrong between is warbled gasps for air, he just gives me mixed signals.


Scratches the back of his neck..."Oh, is your tag on your shirt bothering you?"


"Garrrhhhh"


Wipes his forehead..."Are you too hot?"


"Bahhhhh"


Scratches his legs..."Do you have itchies (mosquito bites)?"


"Arghhhh"


*Sniffle, sniffle*..."Do you need a hug?"


"Waaahhhhhh"


This goes on forever, or at least 5-20 minutes. It's all a fog since I'm half awake. He might stop crying, sniffle, stand up, hug me, and then...try to fall asleep on my arm.? Oh, hell no. I'm not going to stand by your crib and let you sleep on me. I do not possess this same talent, so no way will I stay up as your pillow.

And yes, my son still sleeps in a crib. We haven't had any problems and we figured we'd wait for the appropriate clues to get a big boy bed. Which brings me to the second night of hell...The Bear has trouble communicating in his fits of anger, so during one of said fits while I was asking what the eff is going on with you (but in a mommy-like coo) he started beating up the bars of the crib. He was hitting them and yelling at them like a bear (lol). So now I'm wondering if he's just done with the crib and might be knocking into the bars.

By about the third time he wakes up, I'm so exhausted from my continuous lack of sleep. I just take him to the guest bedroom and we both completely knock out, until he wakes up and asks for pancakes. He tried to take me into the bedroom last night for "night-night" but I put my foot down that he needed to sleep in his crib. I don't have a rail for the guest bed and I really don't want to go to bed at 9pm to make sure he doesn't fall off the side.

I'm such a sucker for the toddler bed. They're so adorable and so perfect for a transition to a big boy bed. I'm sure they're really just a transition for moms. I've been wanting to get him a toddler bed, but maybe he's just really needing the space. Maybe he'd be better off with a twin bed. Ugh. His language barrier is really not helping right now. So in the meantime, I'm sleeping in the spare bedroom and trying to soothe him during his fits. If they get so out of control that I can't do anything else to help, I just let him cry it out. He's exhausted and he's lying in a perfectly good bed. Ta-dah! Just take it, kid. At least until your dad and I can make a well rested decision. Argh!!!