A rambling update of everythings

Holy crap I drew something.
This is the line art for a bookplate I'm
making for the Wy'east Gallery & Book Shop

It seems the baby-thing is contagious. A couple of friends of mine have discovered they are pregnant, I have an acquaintance who is acting as a surrogate for a couple, and one of my favourite bloggers, Alicia Paulson from ‘Posy Gets Cozy’(the secretive girl) has announced she has finally been able to adopt a little baby girl after going through a long period of searching, finding and subsequent deprivation of another opportunity. I am SO happy for her.  She posted photos of the tiny Amelia, and she is as precious as precious can be! They must be so happy!

Some yard decorations we got ... for the fun of it.

I continue to whine incessantly about the increasing pain of being with child. At this point, my little countdown timer on the blog says 26 days remain before Baby J’s due date. Of course, only 5% of babies decide to bust out of their confines on their projected due date. Most wait a couple of weeks more. My doctor isn't going to allow me to go over much more than a week since I’m ‘advanced age’ and therefore ‘high risk’.  I’m hoping that Baby J’s penchant for ramming my cervix with his little noggin is a sign he might come earlier. Keeping my fingers crossed, because it has become so painful, walking is veritable torture. 

Yes, it's like that. :D

I am able to find respite from the discomfort at the swimming pool across the street. However I went swimming with my husband recently, and he chased me all around the pool, and I swam too much, and the next day I felt like I was going to die. Floating = ok. Swimming = not ok. Any marginally prolonged activity will ruin me for 48 hours. We went to Kruger’s Farm on Sauvie Island with a couple we are friends with this past Sunday, and I got home and passed out like I’d been hit with a big game-tranquilizer and passed out on the sofa within seconds of sitting down, and the next day, I was in so much soreness and pain, I thought I was going to kill someone.

This is what my husband did to the pumpkin he got
at Kruger's on Sunday.

Our seventh wedding anniversary came and went this month; with birthdays, the shower and everything else, it sort of got thrown by the wayside. But we'll live through it--find a way to celebrate at some point. 

While I was grumpy and in pain yesterday, I noticed two guys walking up my driveway. I was lying on the sofa, wishing for a quick and quiet death, my hair was a mess, I was in jammies. I threw on my husband’s robe and opened up the door to the screen and asked what they wanted.  Apparently, these guys were from a Machinist and Aerospace Union that has been working to unionize the employees of my former company.  I used to work for PCC Structurals (Also known as Precision Castparts); a company that is pretty anti-union. I recall a couple of times when there were whisperings of union going on during my tenure there, and the company clamped down on it pretty hard. Christmas bonuses went up fifty bucks too. LOL. Guards appeared in the guard-shack for a while, and then the furor died down.  This union must be pretty serious to drive over thirty miles one way to talk to me at my home. They had a whole list of employees they planned on visiting too.  This is the most serious attempt I've seen in the seven years I worked for PCC from any Union, and I imagine my ex-company will have a bigger battle to face this time if they want to prevent the employees from unionizing. 

A regency infant's gown for Baby J's ORS debut.
An unexpected gift from a kind friend from CA.

Last night, Baby J kept me up until the wee hours, so I decided I would stay up because I had errands to run. So today was another day of my being out and about. Today seems like the longest day ever, because I left first thing in the morning to mail stuff, grab fuel, stop and visit my brother, hit the bank, swing by the baby store to pick up a rocker/swing for Baby-J, some felt and fabric for a project and I wanted sushi. Bad. By the time I had lunch, I was cooked. I got home close to one, lasted a little past two and crashed for five hours. It’s 3 AM now, and I’m bright eyed and bushy-tailed. When pregnant, be prepared for bizarre sleep schedules.

Breakfast at St. Honoré Sunday morning with hubby.

Other than that, I’m just patiently waiting for the time to come for the little squirmy-butt inside me to come out. We have his little bassinet ready, and his little rocker/swing thing (I assembled that tonight and it took the cat only a few minutes to start expressing interest in this device. I had to fold it up and put it away before he catified it). We have the car seat, not installed yet, but we have it.

My shower was held on 10/14, and Baby J got mostly clothes. We hardly got anything completely practical—which was kind of a bummer. Not everyone stuck to the registries either, as I had hoped. We had been pretty specific about asking for things we really needed, but a lot of the family just went to the baby store and went haywire on clothes, and ignored what we needed on the registry. I sound so ungrateful, slap me… I really am not ungrateful, just stressing out. I need to know we have everything ready to go for Baby J and that we’ll have what we need. Trust me, I've had what I call the 'To Go' bags ready for a few weeks already. One filled with onesies, swaddling blankets, mitts, socks, caps and other baby sundries, another filled with 2 nightgowns, a robe, slippers, mini-travel sized bathroom stuff, and lip balm. I am a spazz.

The bassinet is assembled and
ready to receive its squirmy charge.
Thanks to my eldest sister for this crucial
item.

We had to go out and get all the things we really needed immediately, the car-seat, the stroller, the bassinet, all that.  I am aware that buying cute baby clothes is more fun than buying diapers and wipes, I have fallen into that trap myself. Now I know the value of getting the practical items on the registry for new parents—and I will make sure from now on, when I attend a shower, to pick the things that aren't necessarily cute and fun, and add a little tidbit of cuteness to the gift for the sake of fun. In my experience, family members usually pitch in for the larger, practical items, but that somehow didn't happen.  We got 99% clothes and blankets. One or two folks did go with practical items. I have bottles (no breast pump), a few g-Diaper pants for 3 month olds, a tub, and a couple of other sundries.  But we are still in the air over important things, like the diapers I want to use, and bedding for the crib.  We also need to get a crib and finish the baby-room up. It hasn't even been started ::facepalm:: right now, the room is chockablock full of baby stuff from the shower and random gifts from people leading up to the shower, flooring in packages, and other stuff we need to sort through but I am just not inclined to deal with because I’m so damned Preggo and painful all the time. WAH!  Ugh. So much pressure. Luckily, baby will not need his own room right away, and can subsist in the bassinet if he arrives early.  We will muddle through I suppose. I won’t lie, I was hoping I’d have the room done before he got here… all cute and pristine and ready for his arrival.  Dream on Johanesen!

My sister's gift. The colours are not nearly as washed out
as they appear in this photo.

My sister Helen did give me a precious cute canvas which will be affixed to Baby J’s bedroom door when it’s been painted white (it’s a weird tannish-pink right now).  I sort of lost it a little bit when she gave me the painting. Understanding how my sister and I have evolved, relationship wise, is really humbling. She’s grown so much as a person in these past few years, I've changed so much too, that two people who could never really meet eye to eye are now able to have a sisterly relationship. It swelled my heart, just spending that little time with her the day of my shower. The fact that she was THERE was HUGE. And there without an agenda, or because she had other things to do (well, she did, but she came for the shower primarily). There was no sense of obligation… it was so wonderful, having her next to me exclaiming her delight in the baby clothes and being so open and genuine with my friends. I’ll never forget that. Ever.

I could not invite Satan to the shower. She would have ruined an already awkward occasion… and there were already prickly moments that day as it was, to add my mother to the mix would have ended in disaster. On the most part everyone got along… it was strange to mix friends and family, a collision of worlds, and there were territory issues and hurt feelings that I somehow couldn't manage to escape (never seem to be able to).  Either way, with Satan out of the picture it was easier to just show up and enjoy it.  I have been on a ‘satan moratorium’ lately, and haven’t spoken to my mother for a month or more. We got into a tiff about some stupid thing she wanted to do, and honestly, after being told in no uncertain terms that I should reduce my stress during this pregnancy, I found it easy to just block her out and keep her at arm’s length. It has been strange to be completely in stealth mode with her, and my husband thinks it’s inexplicable and feels like I should go see her and mend fences.  The problem is, there are no fences to mend.  It is always a place where I take her abuse, and she makes the messes and I clean them up. I’m just done with it.  I’m not sure if I even want to see her before Baby J is born, honestly. Or even after… which is a sad thing, but I just can’t stand her vitriol.  Last time I went to visit her, Baby J was just as kicky as a mule, and I made a couple of grunts of discomfort in front of my mom, and she whipped her head around with a sneer of disgust on her face and said: “Jesus Christ! What a mean little cuss!”… already ascribing negativity to someone who is completely incapable of ill intent.  She is already painting him as something bad.  She never really has been a nurturer, and she has openly said she doesn't like kids.  She had better not be mean to this boy or so help me I will duct tape her to a wall and forget about her forever. It’s bad enough she’s mean to my in laws and my husband… They are adults and can defend themselves. This child is off-limits and will never be exposed to the crap I was. Never.

Made this some years back. Got supplies
to make some more today. Easy
hand-sewing project.

Ugh.  Anyhow, I’m done ranting about my evil mother for now.  I’m in waiting mode. It could be that my next post has pictures of little feet and a belly and a squishy-face… who knows? Maybe my next post will be something creative and light-hearted.. ::laughs:: I hope to get back to that place soon enough… when beebs is born and I have less agony, and a bit of time between baby naps to do fun things.

Be happy. HC