Briana's Journal

I'm a bit behind again on updates. Let's see... weekend before last, we went to the ren faire with Sean's mom and nephew. Hayden had a good time this year, and wasn't scared of Ded Bob (the puppet, not the chicken) like he was last time. I about died laughing during the Ded Bob Show. There's a song that he sings "for the kids" that ends up with the line "Some of us were accidents." We were right in the front row and leaned in at Hayden when he sang it. (Yes, Hayden was an accident. Not a mistake, though. ;-) ) Sean and Hayden rode Davinci's Flying Machines, which Sean wasn't too thrilled over (fast spinny things bad), and Hayden actually got on the bungie trampoline jump, though he didn't go very high. Surprisingly, both Hayden and I lasted the whole day, though I was getting tired by about lunch time. A sit-down during lunch and the afternoon joust helped.

Tuesday, Sean had his tonsils out. Every time he gets a cold, it tends to knock him out harder and longer than it does me or anyone else, and usually prompts a visit to the doctor. The last cold, I told him to ask the doctor about the tonsils, who said it could be a 50/50 chance that removing them would help, and referred him to an ENT. The ENT agreed. I took the day off, and we got to the hospital about 7:30am. 8:30 or so they took him back for prep, and they let me back at 9 to sit with him. They didn't take him into surgery until about 9:45am, and after that it was the waiting game. The doctor came to talk to me once it was done, and everything went fine. He described the tonsils, and it sounded like they really did need to come out. Sean had a few problems with nausea after the anesthesia, but we finally got to go home about 4pm. Sean's doing well so far, with just a little bit of a sore throat and hadn't taken any pain meds yet. He's loving the orange sherbert, though. He's marked out of work for 2 weeks, so he'll have a nice rest with lots of liquids and video games. We'll have to wait until the next time he gets sick to see how much the surgery really helped, but I have high hopes.

Sean and I started going to childbirth prep class last week. It's no longer Lamaze, since they just tell you to breathe, not how to breathe. Last week's class was funny. The teacher had a guy put a backpack on his front, the filled it with sandbags for all of the baby weight gained during pregnancy: placenta, extra blood, fluid, and of course baby. She made all of the guys wear it, and had them do different things like pick up a dropped pencil, try to sit down and stand back up. She made Sean walk fast around the room. The one issue I really have wouldn't have been an issue for him: it's getting harder and harder to reach over counters and top shelves. But with his height, it doesn't make a difference.

Last night's class, we were practicing the different coping methods during labor, like talking to each other, focal points, and imagery, while holding ice cubes in our bare hands. We got to the imagery, and I'm trying to imagine walking the mountains in West Virginia with the sun shining through the trees, when I get kicked from the inside. Hard. He just didn't want to cooperate. I think I found my distraction, though. At one point another couple was whispering to each other, and I couldn't stop giggling. So now I may have to pack some comedy routines to distract me. :-D

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Yesterday I had a baby shower at work. It wasn't a big gathering, since that's hard to organize in a call center. But people brought me stuff at my desk, and I had fun opening it. And there was cake! Good cake, too, with whipped topping. It was mostly baby care stuff, like soap and lotion, and two packs of diapers. We also got 2 blankets, a Pooh hat/booties, a bottle cooler bag, some onesies and bibs, and a travel bouncy chair. Yay stuff!

I'm apparently in my 7th month now. Eek! Still not a lot of weight gain, but it depends on if you start from pre-pregnancy or my lowest point in my first trimester. I had my gestational diabetes test on Monday, so I'm waiting on the results for that. (Most likely negative, considering) And doctors appointments are now once every two weeks. Fun fun. So far my biggest problem is that one spot in my back, which usually clears up after I start walking a bit. And it's getting harder and harder to get from a lying position to sitting up, but that goes with the territory. :-D

A Goddess of Fertility!

http://album.veraliya.com/v/2009/goddess1.jpg.html
http://album.veraliya.com/v/2009/goddess2.jpg.html

I finished the costume about 10pm last night, then had to run out to Wal-Mart to get the drape and bracelets. I'm a tired girl today! I really like my new sewing machine. I had very few issues with it. The thread broke a few times when I went too fast, but I mostly got it figured out. And it's got cool w-style stitches.

Wow, have I been remiss lately. Let's see if I can catch up.

( daycares )

Work is moving offices, 5 minutes down the road. Friday I was helping take down cubicles (holding walls and screws, crawling on the floor to remove electrical and ethernet cabling). Friday night I started getting the sniffles, I'm hoping from the hella-amount of dust on the floor. Half of the cubicles are set up in the new building, but the other half, my desk included, aren't coming over until this Friday. Yesterday was the official move-and-cut-over day, and I stayed at the old building to pack up my desk and keep an eye on the techs still left. Today I was bouncing around the new building since I didn't have any place for my station. I finally got it set up for about 2 hours, but then they swapped out the electric outlet from a 2-plug to the one for the cubicles, which won't have actual outlets until the cubicles are installed. But at least my phone works now! Moving sucks.

Sunday night we went to the Metallica concert. We got seats on the first level all the way back against the wall, which would have been better had I been able to stand all night. Every time I sat I tried to peer through the people ahead of me. I almost reached forward two rows to bop the guy who kept swaying. I can see, I can't see, I can see, I can't see. I really wanted to see Lars drum, especially after playing Rock Band. They played some songs from Death Magnetic, along with some older stuff. I did have to stand for One (which reminded me of high school dances where a bunch of guys would head-bang to the middle of the song), Turn the Page, and Enter Sandman. I went to the bathroom at one point, and there was another pregnant woman there. She was glad there was another pregnant woman at the concert, since she thought she was the only one. :-D I did get to watch a small mosh pit, and winced a few times as guys were pushed into the railing. Kelen moved around a bit during the concert, but mostly I just felt the hardness of his back/butt/head. I hope he enjoyed it.

Stolen from several people:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

I'm still thinking of questions for everyone else who posted this. Probably tomorrow.

I had another checkup today. Still haven't gained much weight, just hovering right over my pre-pregnancy weight. Though that's about 2 pounds in the past week or so, so I'm not worried. The doc/midwife didnt make any comments about it. She measured my belly (but didn't tell me, so I dunno what it is), and we heard the heartbeat again. Kelen was so squirmy and active that she had to hold down my belly to get him to stay still long enough to hear it. And he hit/kicked the mic twice. Next month is the sugar test for gestational diabetes. Blech. I have to figure out when to eat. I have a "breakfast menu", but the appointment is at 3pm. So I don't know when I'm supposed to eat, and if I can have both breakfast and lunch. Have to look this up.

On the downside, I'm coming down with a cold. I've had about 6-7 mugs of tea since the appointment, and I'm about to go make another.

The weekend visit went well. The bigger dogs, Joe and Bob, were completely scared shitless of Sammy, who would watch them, then occasionally attack. At one point, I was playing with them, tossing a small plastic ball, and Sammy was sitting at the near end of the hall. I tossed the ball towards the other end of the hall, and the dogs would NOT go after it. Quite amusing. :-D We didn't do much while the family was here, since it was an icky rainy weekend, but we did get the crib and dresser set up. They also brought down a bunch of clothes, so I got to go through those today, dividing it up by size. It was good having them visit, even if it was a bit of a madhouse. :-)

This is kinda fun. Not that I'll upload a lot of youtube videos, but at least I can if I want to, now.

Joe, one of my dad's dogs, apparently thought the logo on our treadmill was taunting him.

My cat is a nut. I actually recorded it, and Sean told me to throw it up on youtube. So here it is:

The shower is pretty much done. The only thing left to do is scrub out the shower pan and replace the plastic bit at the base of the door that stops it from swinging inward. I'll get pictures of that up later.

The floor in Kelen's room was a much shorter project. Between Sean and Ben, the room was cleared out and the carpet removed in a few weeks. The hardest part was finding a good time to get rid of the bed and some other stuff in the bedroom. After that, we picked out some nice click-lock hardwood flooring at Home Depot: Home Legend Oak Natural. It's a wider board, which will work well with baby feet. It's a bit darker than I expected, but it looks great in there. We had Home Depot install it, since we weren't sure how well we'd be able to do it. After all, look how long it took us to get the shower done! We picked up the flooring on Wednesday and let it sit in the room to acclimate. Today two of their contractors came out and leveled the floor this morning, then left for a few hours to let the concrete patches to dry. They came back about 4pm, and were done about 5:30pm. And it looks great! I'm letting it air out since it smells like paint thinner (to clean up any spots), but it's ready for visitors this weekend, and baby stuff. We've already put everything back up in the closet (which Sean painted yesterday to get rid of the colored scrapes on the wall).

( Pictures )

I'm having a football fan. Well, we're going to raise him as one anyway. But I stayed up through overtime of the Tennessee/Pittsburgh game last night. As soon as Pittsburgh won, Kelen started kicking away. He was kicking so much that Sean finally got to feel it.

My brother called me last night after Sarah's ultrasound. I am now three for three. I told them they'd need to have three kids if they wanted a boy, and I was correct when the first two were girls. This one's a boy! They're sorta excited, but Sarah and the baby are both overweight, with the baby measuring three weeks ahead. So now Sarah has to go on a diet. She's not happy about that. :/ But it's still pretty cool that we'll have boys very close to each other.

Today's chores are:

Shower:
spot-grout any holes (done)
finish caulking (done)
seal grout (done)
paint over badly grouted areas on the wall

Baby's room:
sweep (done)
wash baseboards
touch up paint

Thank goodness for LJ archives, though I wish I'd checked earlier. We tossed the old paint cans a few months ago because they had all dried up, so I had no idea what the color was. I took a chunk off the wall, but the paint match couldn't figure it out exactly. So I took a sample of the color match and a color that I eye-matched to test out. I was curious, though, and decided to check old posts. Sure enough, I posted about it, so now I know exactly which color it is. Which isn't what we got. So it'll be another trip to Home Depot, but at least I know for sure now.

Waiting for the MIL now so we can go to lunch. Foooood. I knew I should have told her 12:15-12:30...

The ultrasound was scheduled for today. We were only a few minutes late, which meant less time waiting. We got to see the US tech take all of the measurements of the head, belly, femur, listened to the heart again, and all of that good stuff. She asked if we wanted to find out the gender. The baby turned just the right way so that it was quite obvious, and quite proud to show itself. I'm not sure if that comes from Sean, or my lil brother Timmy who embarrassed me the first time Sean came to visit by running out of the bathroom after bathtime yelling "Nakie boy!" This one is aaaaaall boy! Kelen Ian will be joining the clan. Sean's quite excited and looking forward to spending time with his son. I'm just glad for all of the correct number of parts! Kelen was too absorbed with playing with his feet to be too much of a wiggleworm, so the tech didn't have to fight to get the measurements. :-)

As you all know, I usually have very vivid dreams. This morning I had my first baby dream. It's not quite as weird as the one I had earlier that night, where I dismantled a cat. It came apart just like those moveable toy cats, where it comes off at the haunches and such, it's just weird when the cat is still looking up at you and meowing happily. When I told Sean this at 2am, he told me no more sloppy joes for dinner. :/

The baby dream was one of those "five more minutes, Mom!" dreams that came after my alarm went off. Sean and I were shown into the doctor's office, which had 2 ultrasound tables (one for 2nd trimester, one for 3rd) and a birthing bed all in black leather. The nurse gives us both those paper gowns, which we changed into. The doctor comes in, and she has me get up on the 2nd Trimester table. The "wand" looks almost like a plastic spider, which she freaked me out a bit by travelling it up over my knee. She starts the scan, and we can see, plain as day, a baby sitting on its legs, knees wide open, so that we can plainly see that it's a boy. Sean, who wants a girl first, curses and I start giggling, until I notice another set of legs underneath. The doctor pans around to the side, and there's another baby being sat on by the first. *I* start cursing, since I only want *one*! It pans a bit more, and there's a third baby on the side. (At this point, I notice that there's a lot more room than normal. It looks like a computerized 3D image, complete with square-ish background with the box lines drawn on it). Right after we see the third baby, a dog runs and jumps over and past the trio, and there's a turtle off to the side. That's.. not quite right, I think. I woke up when one of the babies flew by using the turtle like a skateboard...

I've really got to stay awake when the alarm goes off. *shakes head*

I know a lot of Americans are curious or have questions about how a national healthcare system works, with all of the debate going on in Congress. My friend wendymr has opened up a post here where if you have questions, you can ask, and people with experience in other countries such as Canada and the UK can answer with their own experiences. There are already some excellent posts, which you can read through. Here's what she says:

Want to know about people's actual experiences of waiting lists? Quality of care? Ability to choose providers, types of treatment or anything else? What's free and what isn't under different countries' systems? Then ask away. If you're from a country with a healthcare system that's either free at the point of use or based on affordable insurance coverage available to all, feel free to answer with examples from your country.

Whether or not the US is planning on following those examples is another question. But this at least will give some answers.

I'll start this off by saying that I didn't watch the cartoon as a kid. Sean watched the cartoons, but has only read a comic or two here or there. The movie is based more on the comics than the cartoons, from what I've heard.

This is a complete action movie, so don't go in expecting too much more than that. But it's great on action. It kept us entranced and entertained, with rarely a dull moment. Even the "quiet" moments were interesting and didn't drag.

My two biggest worries for this movie were casting: Marlon Wayans as Ripcord and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as The Doctor. In my opinion, Marlon Wayans was one of the larger downfalls of Dungeons & Dragons, probably second only to the writing and storyline. However, in this movie, he's toned down (as much as a Wayans can be) and his character works. As for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I didn't think I could believe him as a bad guy. But he's fairly unrecognizable, both in appearance and voice, so you're not thinking of the geeky kid in Third Rock From the Sun or 10 Things I Hate About You. Ray Park, once again, doesn't say a word, nor do you ever see his face behind the mask. Though at one point I did think "You don't fuck with Darth Maul!"

I heartily recommend this movie as an action flick. We both enjoyed it, and didn't walk away disappointed at all. In fact, it blows Transformers 2 out of the water. We weren't bored, and we weren't stuck mocking any of the characters. There are, of course, the trademark lines scattered throughout the movie, so expect those. Also keep your eyes peeled for random actor cameos. One had me snickering, the other had me puzzled because I recognized him but couldn't place him (recognizable in two of the director's other movies).

My only complaint was that I DIDN'T GET MY POPCORN!!! Sure, I could have walked out after the trailers to get some, but a family was blocking the end of the aisle, and I didn't want to disturb them, and once the movie started, I didn't want to miss anything. Oh, well, I got a burger after the movie.

I'm a little late in posting it, but we made it back home safely. The weekend was good, and we did a lot of visiting. This year was the 30th anniversary of my great-grandparents' passing, so more people than usual showed up. There were people I haven't seen in years! I just hope they come more often now that we're staying in a bigger location. The old house is starting to fall apart, which just breaks my heart. But even if it was kept up, it would be too small for even the smallest years. We got there Friday night, and Sean and I picked out our beds. He let me sleep on a bottom bunk and took a top bunk, which we had to make sure was safe. It was a little freaky because every time he rolled over, the bed creaked and swayed! But it held, thank goodness. He moved into a bottom bunk on Sunday night when there were more beds open. Saturday I helped make breakfast (then tried to guilt-trip the ones that sat outside that the pregnant woman was cooking), and scanned a lot of pictures. And I mean a *lot*. And I didn't get anywhere near finishing with one photo album. One cousin was helping put together a little show for Saturday evening, and needed military photos, so I scanned those, and then we tried to figure out how to get it up on a screen. Must remember that if I'm going to show it with my computer in the future, I need the DVI adapter, since it doesn't have a VGA adapter. After the show, I got my first baby shower. :-D Another cousin made me a beautiful cake, and I got a bunch of presents and a few gift cards. Now I just need to start getting the nursery ready! Sunday was the usual Decoration at the cemetary on top of the mountain (I swear, one of these years I'll remember that's sunburn city, and I need a hat/sunblock) and then lunch. Some of us went swimming back at the house, then played cards before hitting the hay. And Monday was the drive back, which for some reason exhausted me. I'm looking forward to next year when I'll have my own pass-around (nickname for a baby that everyone wants to hold!).

We're getting closer to getting the bathroom done. We started the grouting, and got one wall done. I've really got to remember not to do that in clothes I wear to work. *scrubs at grout spots on jeans* I think Sean's going to do more grouting today. Soon it'll be done and we'll be able to get started on the bedroom.

BTW, thanks to the nagging of my family, I am now on Facebook. But I will not play those application games. *harrumph*

I had my 4th month appointment yesterday. My regular doctor's schedule was messed up, so they rescheduled me with someone else. Sean's on vacation this week, so he was able to come with me. I went in, did the cup, weight, and BP, then waited (and waited, and waited) for the doctor to come in. Turns out I was actually scheduled with a midwife from the UK. The practice has like 10 doctors and 5 midwives, and they encourage pregnant women to see all of them because we get whoever is on call that night when you go into labor. But she was very nice, and explained the difference between certified nurse midwives and doctors, and the difference between pregnancy care in the US and in the UK/Europe. Apparently overseas it's primarily midwife care, with doctors only stepping in for complications, which we're just figuring out over here. So after the discussion, we got to hear the heartbeat, which she said was in the 140s. As we left, we got to schedule to ultrasound for August 31st. Whee!

After looking at the both of us, the midwife asked how tall we were. When we told her, she said she hoped the baby took more after me, at least at birth. After seeing my cousins, I sorta doubt it, but we'll see. :-D

It's that time of year again, so this afternoon we're off to the mountains for the family reunion. See you all Monday!

Last week Sammy stopped eating and started vomiting. I thought he was just turned off his food, but he was barely even eating Bear's food (barely, because the vomit was mostly Meow Mix-orange). It didn't clear up after a few days, so I took him to the vet on Thursday. They checked him over and ran a few tests, but didn't find anything wrong with him. Instead, they gave him an anti-nausea shot and some pills to take over the next few days. They worked, because he's back to devouring his food.

Yesterday we finally finished putting the tile up in the shower. In a few days, we'll be able to grout it. Yay! I fudged on the spacing of a lot of it. If I had stuck with the 3/16th spacers (or whatever they are), I would have had to make very thin strips on the edges. I spaced them out a tad bit more, and I was able to use full tiles all the way across on the two small walls. The hardest part was trying to put the tile around the spot for the shower knob, but I think there's enough room there now.

We also had lunch with the MIL and Hayden. Hayden was a bit clingier than usual. He was staying with the MIL all weekend because his mom popped on Friday and was still in the hospital (and no, still no divorce. No comment there). But we had a good lunch despite the usual talking over drama.

Today was cleaning. Vaccuumed, swept, mopped, cleaned off the couch and the coffee table. I'm ready for a nap now. I think I'll just rest and read my book.

Whew, I think I overdid it just a tad yesterday. But I'm feeling better today. For now, anyway.

I woke up at 7, and after my morning rituals went out to weed the garden, which is starting to look like my neighbor's yard. I was looking down at the walkway to the shed when I heard loud rustling. I looked up, and I had flushed out two fawns, which were now standing in the corner of my yard. I stopped and watched them, eventually sitting down on one of the stones. They kept looking at me in between eating leaves. One of them got about 20 feet from me before wandering back towards the fence. Sean noticed me sitting in the middle of the yard, and came to the back door to see what I was staring at, then watched the fawns from there. I sat there for a half hour just watching them watch me, before they decided to move on. I just wish I'd had my camera, or that Sean could have gotten a good shot from the door.

After that, we finally went to see Harry Potter (good, though I missed a few things from the books, especially the last half hour), had wings, then came home to work. We got the large wall of the shower tiled (2 down, 1 to go!), then cleaned up the kitchen. I finally had to stop because my back HURT. I also talked to Sarah, who finally had her doctor's appointment. They had problems finding a heartbeat at first, so they did an ultrasound. Baby's perfectly fine, and there's only one in there. Yay!

Today is gym, more cleaning, and helping friends get furniture. As long as I don't overwork my back again. :-/

Sean's dad moved to the Myrtle Beach area last year or so, and had been asking us to come down and visit. So this past weekend, we finally went. We didn't use any vacation time, so it was drive down on Saturday after Sean left work (arriving at 11pm, eek!), and drive back yesterday. Sean's step-mom was going out of town but we had a good visit with his dad. He took us to the Garden City pier, and we got to see all the families on the beach. Now I know where to go for the beach, since Garden City was a lot less crowded than Myrtle Beach can be. We hit a flea market (or half, Sean and I started flagging fairly quickly in the heat), and then we went to a bar on the Waccamaw River to watch the sunset and listen to a country singer. Monday we made a quick trip to Georgetown to walk the boardwalk and look at the stores before heading back home in time to get the kitties from being boarded at the vet. The car worked out well for the trip, which was good. And I was sooo exhausted after all of that, and fell asleep right after Torchwood. :-)