When two became three...

We have officially added a new bundle of joy to our little familia unit. No, Baby G has not made his grand entrance. He is still cooking (and apparently head down), but more on him later.

We got a dog. Not just a dog, though. A 5 month old Border Collie puppy. Are we taking crazy pills? Probably.

R has been casually talking about getting a dog lately. The last conversation about a dog went something like this last weekend...

(driving in the car)
Me: That guy looks kind of like Dog the Bounty Hunter (referring to some guy on the side of the road asking for money - aren't you glad I can reference quality tv?).
R: I want a dog.
Me: Ugggh. Babe, we CANNOT get a dog right now. We are about to have a newborn soon! Are you smoking crack?
R: But then they can grow up together.
Me: Yes, but G won't know the difference if we get a dog when he is one. He won't remember having a dog as an infant.
R: Okay, I guess we can wait.

Then fast forward to later that day when I decided (at this point I was the one smoking crack) to peruse the web for border collies. This is never a good idea, btw.

Me: Awwww, he is so cute! (shows R a picture of a puppy on the local animal shelter website)
R: He is cute.
Me: Maybe we should just go and look at him.

So of course we went the next day to the shelter to see if he was even still there. We found him all sad faced in his kennel and then put a 24 hour hold on him so we could go home and decide what to do.

C'mon, look at this face:



We couldn't bear to think of him staying at the shelter and possibly not getting adopted. That place is so depressing - I was almost getting teary eyed just walking around and seeing all of the sad eyes of the dogs looking at you from behind their cages (cue prego hormones!).

While there are obvious cons to getting a puppy NOW, I prefer to focus on the positives:
-He and G will grow up together and be buddies.
-He will be very protective of G.
-He will be a good running partner for R and for me (eventually when I start running regularly again).

But, yes, we will basically be raising two babies at once. Only fitting since I've received so many "Are you having twins?" comments, yes?

So without further ado, please meet, Oliver, our new baby. He LOVES playing fetch, going for walks, and shoes (just like mommy). He does not love taking baths or having to go to his "room." He is being shipped off to doggy boot camp training on Monday for two weeks.

Almost down to single digits

As of tomorrow, we will be in the single digits weekly countdown! I will officially be 31 weeks - can anyone else say crazy? I have been very busy lately even though it's my "summer" time.

Summer school started this past week, and this year I am directing again. The first week had its share of glitches but we got through it and everyone survived - no horror stories, just some unexpected events that I had to figure out. No one said being in charge was easy!

We have also finally started the construction on the house and it's in full swing. They don't come everyday because they are waiting on parts, certain people have to wait on others before they can do their specific job, etc. I am crossing my fingers that everything gets done in a month so we can put together Little G's nursery.

The trip to the beach with the fam last week was a nice getaway - I didn't want to scare off the tourists, so I did not show off "the bigness" in all of its glory. I have been surviving the summer heat by staying indoors as much as possible and drinking LOTS of water.

Besides the fabulous new upstairs we will soon have, R was also so kind to get us DVR. Neither one of us watch TV much; hardly at all, in fact. But I will admit that it is nice to have the ability to record something you THINK you might watch at some point. And the timing could not have been more perfect with the World Cup starting just as summer school went into session. I can go to work, keep up with the scores via my phone (let's face it - I can't NOT know what's going on), and then watch the games or parts of games when I get home. It works out quite wonderfully.

I have graduated into pouch pants full time. I can no longer get by with my maternity band and unzipped jeans because the belly is just too big. R called it giant the other day, to which I promptly replied, "Yeeeah, let's not use the word giant."
R: Okay, ginormous.
Me: Ugh, no "g" words then.
R: Enormous?
Me: Just gave him "the look" and realized I just should have said no synonyms of giant in the first place. Oy ve.

One lady at summer school took one look at my belly this past week and said, "Ohhh, almost time?" I told her not until August 22nd, and her eyes got huge. Her reply? Oh wow.

Awesome.

Third Trimester Blues

We are officially in the 3rd trimester numbers and going down the home stretch. So far, the third trimester is my least favorite for a number of reasons, but not limiting to:
-It is getting harder to bend over to do things like tie my shoes without feeling like whatever I just ate is about to come right back up. Oh acid reflux, how I loathe thee.
-Sleeping at night is getting more and more uncomfortable. Being the awesome sleeper that I am, I definitely still sleep, but I wake up constantly and toss and turn from side to side.
-Iron pills. Will go into details further down.

However, with all of my gripes and grumbles, here are some things that I love about the third trimester:
-Being closer to my due date. Although this is a mixed bag of emotions, it is exciting to think that he will be here soon. Just as long as I don't think about all of the other things that come with that. ;) I kid, I kid... sort of.
-Feeling Little G move - our future soccer star still has plenty of room thanks to my "bigness" and I'm now starting to feel different movements (more like shifting instead of just kicking).
-Being closer to getting my body back. Yea! It will be tough to get my body in the kind of shape I really want it to be in, but I'm looking forward to having all alien life forms exit the baby house. If people still give me "Are you expecting twins?" comments, then I'll really know that there is much work to be done. Right now, I have the dreams of Peter Griffin from Family Guy. You know, from the episode "He's Too Sexy for His Fat" where Peter has liposuction and turns from this:




To this...




It's going to happen - it's just a matter of time!

The last time I checked in, the big news story of the week was my glucose screening. I have heard/read so many horror stories of how disgusting that drink is, yada yada yada. I'm either a freak of nature or the other women are just wimps because it really wasn't that bad. At all. Now I wouldn't request it with my meals or anything, but I gulped that tiny bottle down in less than a minute (I was keeping track since I had to down it in less than 10 minutes). It went down nice and easy and didn't have a bad after taste or feel like it wanted to come back up. The only anxiety was realizing I had to make it to my dr.'s office and have my blood drawn exactly one hour after drinking it, and I hadn't even left the school parking lot. And it was Friday at 3:00 during rush hour traffic. Ummm maybe I should have done it halfway through my drive?? But fear not, I made it with 20 minutes to spare, the lady got the needle in the first try (thank god!), and then I was on my merry way.

Fast forward to this past week when I got the news that I PASSED the screening!!! I really didn't want to subject myself or my veins to the 3 hour screening. Of course, there is always a catch when the nurse calls and requests that you call back to hear about your test results. At least I feel like there is. So I call back, she gives me the good news but then says that my blood work showed a low hemoglobin count. Yea for anemia. Okay, I have to take an extra iron supplement. No biggie.

WRONG. People, including the sweet nurse, had warned me about the potential side effect of taking iron. You know, the big C. So she had also prescribed something to ease that pain. I won't go into full details because that's a little TMI, but there is truth to the big C that even the helpful pill could not fix. Maybe this is all karma since my mom apparently had anemia when she was prego with me and had ... ahem ... issues. My first reaction to hearing one particular story: "MOM! I do NOT need to know that!" And now I think I am scarred for life.

But really. The big C and I met head to head this past Saturday when it finally reared its ugly head (no pun intended), and I was left battled and bruised on the war field (more like in bead) ALL. DAY. LONG. My stomach had the most painful cramps and then when I did hobble out of bed to eat something at 3 p.m., my acid reflux would not let me get comfortable enough to fall back asleep.

Poor pitiful me, yes? Hehe... well I triumphed (after sleeping all day and all night) and have decided to not let another iron supplement pass these lips.

Truthfully, though, I am about to call my dr., kindly explain what happened to me and see if there is another plan of action that can replace my current one.

Now that I have shared with you that delightful story, I will leave you with this. My bff really is the best photographer!




We have our 3D/4D ultrasound later today ... can't wait to see what Little G looks like right now! Another bonus to add to my third trimester list. :)