Drooling

Knowing that we have 2 mastiffs, you're probably thinking drooling is going to be about the dogs. Unfortunately, no.

Do a quick google for: pregnant drool

This started maybe a few weeks ago or so. I'd be falling asleep and would wake up to this weird feeling of drool coming out my mouth. WTF? It has gotten progressively worse but luckily only happens when I'm sleeping, not during normal conversation or anything. But I got a good look at my pillow yesterday and it was hilarious - drool pattern marks everywhere! It is the strangest thing. Most of the time while I'm drooling and sleeping, I wake up and have to wipe my mouth. It makes me wonder though how much drool seeps out that I'm not aware of? Do I need to buy new pillows after I'm done being pregnant?

While I'm very grateful I never got morning sickness or anytime of day sickness, I did get my share of strange pregnancy symptoms. I'm going to go ahead and list them off because it will make me feel better:

- I'll start with the drool, because it is annoying and really, what grown up drools while they're sleeping??

- Feet so swollen I can barely squeeze into my husband's size 10!! I keep them elevated as much as I can but as soon as they hit the ground you can literally WATCH them swell.

- Carpal tunnel. Mostly in my right hand, something about swelling of the whatever causes the nerves in my hand to carpal tunnel. I haven't been able to feel my fingers on my right hand for over a month now. There is a bit of a tingling sensation, but that's about it. Makes it hard to pick up and grasp things, they're pretty much just numb.

- Sciatica. I'm SO ready to be done with this. At least not sitting at my desk all day long has given me some relief of this but it is still there. Mostly when I try to lift up my right leg whether it is to put it on the couch, in the car, in my pants-  I get this shooting pain that makes me wince and make a little noise. Well, sometimes it's a lot of noise.

- Snoring. I still don't think that I do, but the circles under Lance's eyes tell me otherwise. I've started using the breathe right strips and they seem to help. I notice I can breathe easier while falling asleep and Lance stays in the bed at night. 

- Gas. My pregnancy books all said that you'd notice an increase here...but lucky for me, we do have the 2 mastiffs in the house so that's easy enough to blame on them. Unless of course, they get up and walk away from me, then it's kind of a giveaway it was in fact, me.

- Heartburn. This comes and goes. It doesn't seem to be tied to any specific food..I think for me, it has to do with what position baby is laying in. There will be days I go through like 20 tums, then there will be days I don't even need a tums. But being a person who has never ever had heartburn before, 1 tum is 1 tum too many.

- Water weight. There isn't an inch on me that you can't push and see your finger imprint for a good 2 minutes after the fact. Lance had his hand resting, not pushing, just resting on my calf the other night. When he lifted his hand, there were indentations of each of his fingers, enough that you could see his fingerprints. Water weight needs to go away.

K, I complained a bit, I feel better now :) 

My new favorite drink

A couple weekends ago we were at the grocery  and on one of the end caps, I saw a cranberry flavored ginger ale. It didn't sound especially yummy, but it was pink and fizzy looking and drew me in. I'd guzzled that whole 2 liter by the end of the evening. A couple days go by and each day I mention to Lance how I'd like some more cranberry ginger ale, it was good, will you go get some more? 

I'm a little surprised he didn't pick up on the urgency sooner. A few nights go by and he was out playing "Go" - I called him when I figured he'd be on his way home to say how much I really really needed that ginger ale. He didn't hear his phone ring and walked in the door just a couple minutes later. THEN he got the urgency of my need for ginger ale. He didn't even bother to take his coat off, just turned around to go get me ginger ale. 

He came home with 3 2-liters, score! I started guzzling right away and it was the best tasting thing I could have had at that moment. But then he had to point out how funny it was that not only did I really really want this ginger ale, but that I was standing in the kitchen window waiting for him to bring it to me. True, I was waiting in front of the window...I was thirsty. I didn't realize he'd see me in the window though :)

We've since made a point to keep that cranberry ginger ale in the house now. Mmmm.

Good kitty kitty

One of the kitties caught a mouse last night! 

Lance is much quicker about getting downstairs in the morning than I am and so is always first to the kitchen and to let the dogs out. This morning was no different, but then as I was convincing myself to get out of the bed I could hear him coming back upstairs. I was like, what's up - you're changing the routine!? :)

He had to come back up to tell me to give the kitties extra love this morning because one or both of them caught a mouse and put it in the kitchen for us to see. Well, at least they didn't bring it up to the bedroom for us to see. My old kitty had killed a shrew once and came trotting over to us with it her mouth like, here - look what I did!

So, I'm up doing my morning thing and Henry (gray kitty) does his thing, which is to follow my every move and be my shadow. He knows my habits and how the mornings go and he's gotten into his own habit of hearding me. When I'm finished in the bathroom, he heards me to the bedroom...when I'm finished there, he heards me to the stairs - its weird really. But that's Henry. George (black kitty) was downstairs the whole time being extra swishy. He would go in the kitchen and purr meow and then run to the basement - only to come back upstairs real fast all swishy. 

Lance thinks George was the hunter because George seemed very proud of himself this morning. I think the kitties tag-teamed the mouse and were both involved. It's hard to say. George likes to chase and Henry likes to put things in his mouth. The only thing we know for sure is that Mesa was not involved in any way. She was probably completely unaware there was even a mouse. In all the years we've had her, she has never shown any desire to hunt or catch things. The kitties though, took down a bat within weeks of being adopted!

I should probably point out that it isn't that we have an animal infestation problem or anything - it's just a house from 1902 is going to have some little holes for critters to come in through. Something I've had to just learn to deal with. And by deal, I mean scream. Bats make me scream, a LOT.

He's growing up

We've always jokingly made fun of Franklin and his 'simple ways'. He's not an especially bright dog, but he's a really good dog. Eleanor though, she's our college grad. 

Whenever someone comes to the door or a stranger gets too close to the house, it is always Eleanor sounding the alarm. Franklin will, on occasion, let out a woof but doesn't always bother to get up to see what the woof was for. This weekend, our little boy grew up! He found his inner guard dog finally. Lance was napping, and I was playing in the baby room...putzing around, organizing, etc. when all of a sudden Franklin let out a really big boy bark and went flying downstairs. Eleanor slowly came out of the bedroom a bit bewildered, not barking, but headed downstairs anyway to see what Franklin was doing. Honestly, I figured he was just having a moment and there was no reason for him to be barking. But I went downstairs, and I'll be darned if there wasn't someone at the front door! I didn't hear the doorbell, and Eleanor obviously didn't otherwise she would have been barking right away. 

Up until now, he was just "for looking at", but I think he's going to be a good guard dog after all! 

Ready ready!

I'm ready. Baby doesn't seem to be ready yet, but I certainly am. This whole business of sciatica is really getting old now. As the days go on, my pain gets worse. I can't lay down or get up without letting out a very genuine cry of pain. It's this shooting pain that goes down the inside of my right leg. Doc says, oh its just one of those pregnancy things, baby is pressing on your sciatic nerve. Well sure, why wouldn't she be?

I have this vision of her inside me with various pull cords: one for sciatic, one for bladder, one for squeezing my lungs, you get the picture. She's just in there randomly pulling the cords for fun :) The space inside is getting more constricted for her now and when she moves I can literally see my whole belly rumble with the quake. It's pretty freaky to watch and realize, that's a baby in there!

And the larger my belly gets, the more the gray kitty wants to be on it. Like it is his own personal shelf, lol. As soon as I lie down on the couch, he comes out of nowhere and gets all comfy on my belly. Oddly, that also signals to baby to wake up and start shimmying. These two, they have a strange relationship already...he will not budge from my belly no matter how violent she gets inside. We joke that all that movement is giving him a belly rub and he likes it. Especially lately, the movements have been really pronounced. Henry digs it.

Lance is working on fixing up a dresser he had as a kid. It is being donated to baby girl. He's painting it, made new feet for it, and attaching new hardware. I found some cute little pooh decals to go on the sides too. It already looks like a completely different dresser. I'm ready to start washing all her clothes and get them put away in her drawers. The crib gets delivered tomorrow so he'll have that to put together next. A nursery - its all about the putting together.

It's coming together

And by it, I mean the nursery. Lance had to do some patchy patch to the walls and then sandy sand and then more patchy patch...you know the routine. So after all that, he was finally able to put some paint on the walls - he did that this weekend. We chose a great color for that room. Initially I was a little worried about the fact we chose beige - no other room in the house is as boring as beige. But seeing it on the walls and knowing it will be filled with colorful cute pooh-bear items, makes beige the perfect color for our nursery.

He then put together the glider/rocking chair we picked up...looks great in there. I can't wait to rock our baby for the first time in it :) Last night Lance put together the "travel system", which is a stroller with a built in/removable car seat. Quite the contraption. Minutes later we were wheeling it around the living room like pros. I can see that we'll have to do some 'de-sensitizing' of it to the dogs though. Well, Eleanor anyway. While she would eat the arm off of any intruder that dare come in our home, she's a bit of a pussy when it comes to things that move. The stroller threw her for a loop, so we're going to have to work with her on that. We started to a little last night...giving her treats as she came up to sniff it and see that it is not going to attack her. Franklin though, he just laid on the couch watching the whole thing go down without a care in the world. We wheeled it over to him, he sniffed, accepted his treat, and laid his head back down. I think he's good with the stroller.

They've been invited into the nursery also to watch and sniff as things appear and happen in there. We're doing everything we can think of to make sure this big new change is as easy on them as possible. They've been our spoiled babies for so long, we have to make sure they know its OK.

Because Franklin is Franklin, I don't know that he realizes anything is different or that things are changing. (he is after all, just a boy) But, Eleanor is our brilliant dog and she totally understands what is going on. Just the other day, I was laying on the couch with my feet up and she came over to get some pets and love. I was talking to her about the baby and pointed to my belly. She sniffed my belly and then laid her chin across it. She knows there is a baby in there :)

The Change, it's coming!

Everybody else is blogging about our new President, so I'm going to too. Last night and a couple times today watching the news and just thinking about it, I got a little choked up. Again, probably has something to do with my raging hormones - but at the same time probably has something to do with how very important this election became to me. And how excited I am to see someone put us all back on course. 

I remember 4 years ago, voting and then seeing that Bush ended up winning...I was bummed, but didn't really think it'd matter THAT much. Uh, turns out it did. This go round, I was so involved in the election process. I spent time reading and researching and learning about the candidates, I took time to caucus for Obama, I donated to his campaign, I attended one of his campaign speeches, I even sent out emails on his behalf. When he was declared the Democratic nominee, it was exciting to think - wow, that's the one I picked out of the gate and actually caucused for. Then for him to win the presidency I couldn't help but feel a little proud that I did good and I did right.

For our country to choose a non-white president is Big. For Iowa to have chosen him, HUGE. I can't help but wonder what my grandparents would think of this. When I think of Nana and Gramps, I don't think of them as 'having it in them' to vote for somebody who isn't a white male. This election would have just thrown them for a loop....Obama, and Sarah Palin...what to do?? I'm really proud of our country for coming as far as they have, being able to see past the color barrier and choosing the right man for the job. I'm excited to see what this will mean and what will happen.