Kickin It Old Skool Part Deux

Today we kicked it old skool shenanigan style. So I have to preface today's shenanigans with a little background. I've wanted a Wii for some time now and I finally convinced Marc that I wanted it for my Hanukkah/birthday present. Normally I would ask for some True Religion jeans or something but since I don't fit into much these days other than sweats I figured this was a good time to ask for the Wii, that and it's a big birthday - the big 3-0. So Marc agreed to getting me the Wii. Yesterday we were at Wal-Mart and they had some but we hadn't done much research so we didn't buy it. BIG mistake! Then we headed to Costco later in the day because they had a bundle pack but alas, they were sold out, go figure, the day after Black Friday. While we were there Marc found a "smokin' deal" on a Blu-Ray DVD player ($189 for a Sony - anyone who is in the market) and he somehow convinced me that it should be his Hanukkah present. I then negotiated the Wii plus the Wii Fit for my combo present. After our negotiation was over we were looking at watches and I found a Movado watch that I loved (also a "smokin' deal") that I convinced him would be perfect for a push present. So we went to pay for everything and we come to find out the watch on display was all that they had, so we returned it (I didn't want my push present to be something everyone tried on). So that is how today's shenanigans began, I guess they really started last night. :)

Sunday, 8:00AM - we wake up, take care of Homer, shower and head to McD's for some breakfast burritos that I was craving, we were out the door by 9:30. While at McD's we discuss whether we should go back to our Costco to get the watch because after doing some research we realize it's a really good deal. We decide to go to the Danville Costco because we want to go there anyway for the Wii, so we head up there and end up finding a different Movado watch that we like more. We buy the watch but naturally they are out of the Wii. I will also add that I peed at every single stop we made with the exception of Wal-Mart and Toys R Us. Yes, pregnancy and shenanigans are fun! After we leave Danville Costco we decide to go to the Concord Costco, we drive up there to see if they have Wii and take a peak at the Movado watches again. Good thing we didn't like them as much as the one we bought. No Wii. From the parking lot we look up all the Costcos in the area on our GPS system and call around, no Wiis. Do you see a theme here?

After giving up on Costcos we head to the Pleasant Hill Best Buy and they have Wiis, 4 or 5 of them, but do we buy them? Noooo! Don't ask me why, but Marc convinced me that we shouldn't buy it because there wasn't really a deal. So we get in the car, me pouting, and head back to the Dublin area. We stop at Daphne's for some lunch. Then we go into Loehmann's so Marc can look around. Then back in the car and on the way to Dublin Best Buy. At which point we realize Circuit City is going out of business and they might have some and for some percentage off. Yeah, we realize this as does everyone else and their mother and being out of luck at Circuit City. We stop at Babies R Us to check out some wall decorations for the baby's room, get her some more Giants outfits. Then to our Best Buy to check to see if they have Wiis, nope they don't. Then to Wal-Mart because remember they had them yesterday. Nope all sold out. So now I am getting really sad! I call the Pleasant Hill Best Buy to see if they still have some, nope sold the last one 10 minutes ago. I call Target and they don't even transfer me to the electronics department, the operator tells me if I am calling about a Wii or a Wii Fit, they are all out of them. So then I call Toys R Us and they have Wiis! So we jet to TRU and I get in line and I get the second to last Wii and third to last Wii Fit! Yippee! I was like a kid in a toy store, literally, I ran to the electronics department and they couldn't move fast enough for me there! Waiting in line seemed to take forever but I finally got up there and Marc got me my Wii and Wii Fit. Then to the mall to return our back massager that broke. We checked out a few other stores, naturally. Then a coffee for some energy, I was fading fast. Then to Sports Chalet to return some of yesterday's shenanigans. Then back to Best Buy to buy their special extra Wii controlleer that came with 9 extra games for $10 more and an extra nunchuck. Then to Blockbuster for our first Blu-Ray DVD. For those of you counting, that was 15 stops. Shenanigans!

Whew! I am exhausted. Shenanigans are hard work!

And that my friends is what they call Zimmerman Shenanigans!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving, or more accurately that Thanksgiving is already behind us for the year. It's funny how June-July-August went so slowly and now the fall/winter seems to be flying by. I remember in my first trimester saying that once I got to the holidays the time would fly by and it would be time for the baby to be here. And here we are, at the holidays and time sure seems to be flying by!

Marc's been off all week so I have been dragging him to Day Care centers to try to lock down day care for when I go back to work in June and I am happy to report we have secured a spot at a day care place about a mile from our house and about a mile from my office. We are both pretty excited about it, they are very nice there, told me whenever I want to come at lunch and spend time with the baby I am welcome to, and the infant teacher's son had clubfoot so she is familiar with the treatment. We saw 2 other places and almost right away we knew that this was the place for her so I feel much better about leaving her when I go back to work, though I am sure I will be crazy the first day I have to leave her. So now all we need to do is find and orthopedic doctor and we are all set to go. My parents drove up with all of my big baby stuff on Tuesday, they got here early evening, we unloaded the car and the Marc and ran to get Homer who had his tumor removed from his tooshie that day. After we got home we had a good laugh at the drugged up Homer had some dinner and then called it a night. Homer did well during surgery, they just doped him up because they didn't want to intubate him and put the stress on his heart. Unfortunately he had a rough night, the rest of us did as well, I think he woke up from his anesthesia around midnight and was confused and barked for an hour. But he seems to be doing really well now.

Wednesday I worked in the morning from home and then we ran some errands. We ended up at Babies R Us with my parents so my mom could buy us our baby shower gift for next week and not have to lug it up from San Diego. She also saw the baby's closet and decided she needed some more newborn outfits so she got us a few outfits. My dad also picked out a ton of outfits for her, I've never seen him so interested in clothing! It was very cute and of course this little girl made out like a bandit. I didn't get a darn thing but that's ok because she got a ton and that's all that counts, plus her clothes are little and cute and mine are all big and prego still! My mom bought me a new maternity shirt that had buttons on it and I was already popping the buttons, it was quite sad since it was the day before Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. I cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, apple pie, basically the works. Jill and Edwin came down for dinner. I've decided turkeys are pretty gross and was very happy not to be in my first trimester for the preparation of the turkey. It's hard to believe that this is our last Thanksgiving without a little one, next year she might even be eating table food.

So things I am thankful for this year:

• My husband - who even though he constantly makes fun of my ever increasing size, I know loves me and I know loves our soon-to-be daughter even more (he keeps asking if she can just be born yet)
• Our Daughter-to-Be who I can only hope will be a healthy, strong, happy little girl and who her daddy and I can't wait to cradle in our arms
• Of course my Homer, whom I still can't believe is still alive but is doing better than ever and gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by
• Our family who has been such a great support system during the difficult times of our pregnancy and who continues to be overly excited about the upcoming birth of our daughter
• Our house and that we can still pay the mortgage while so many people in the country suffer
• Our jobs which seem stable at the current time and allow us to be challenged
• Our life, which while it doesn't always seem fair or seems like it gives us more bumps in the road than other people experience is ours and makes us who we are

So without further adieu, pictures from the evening.

The lovely table setting that Marc did:

A close up of a place setting, I was really excited to use my china for the first time ever:

Homer likes having company - it's fun!:

Jill and the Mort checking out his "Mort" Bjorn:

Dinner is served!

Marc and I, just cause we haven't had one of us taken in a while, I wore black because I thought it would be slimming but clearly I am beyond that point.:

Open, Open, Open - Mort really wants some turkey!

Homer had food coma too after his serving of turkey:

It's Belly Time!

As promised here's the latest picture of my belly, it was taken today at 29 weeks 2 days. As you can see from my expanding belly, she's baking quite nicely in there. We ran into some friends we saw last week at the Cal game today and they said I look like I got bigger since last Sunday when we saw them last. I guess it's true that you do massive bulk up in the last trimester. I go a week from Monday for my 7 month check up, then I start going every other week until mid-January and then I go every week until her arrival! I can hardly believe it's almost time to finally meet our little girl, we are getting very excited! Other than fighting a cold (yes, again - I've now had one each trimester), I am feeling pretty good.

In other news, today we went to the Cal-Stanford game at Cal with my work. Every year they do the Healthy Choice Challenge at major college rivalries so Marc and I got to tag along with the group. They always do the Cal-Stanford game in NorCal and we take people from Safeway to the game. It was a fun time and made me reminisce about my times at Indiana, though there's nothing like being 7 months pregnant at a college football game to make you realize you are now a million miles away from that carefree life. It was a good time though and definitely brought back a lot of great memories of hitting up sporting events in college, mostly basketball, since when I was at IU, our football team could hardly be classified as a college football team. It was a long day, especially for a pregnant girl, we started at 8:15 when we loaded buses at Safeway and headed to Berkeley for a tailgate that went until about noon, then over to the game for a 12:30 kickoff, then sitting in bleacher seats for over 3 hours and home around 5. Fortunately they gave us all stadium chairs but I was getting a bit uncomfortable by the end of the game because my precious little girl was stretching most of the game and was not making life comfortable for her mommy, of course now, she's comfortable and sleeping! I won't even get started on the port-a-potties which I have always made a point of not using but again, being 7 months pregnant makes you do things you never thought you would do! It was a fun day, you have to love college sports!

Here's some pictures of the day - the band and cheerleaders came to our tailgate area for a little performance. I'm kind of far away because I am not so quick these days.

Cal football team taking the field - we were up kind of high but you get the idea:

The Healthy Choice Challenge - the guy had to throw the football from 25 yards and if he made it through the hole he won $500,000. He missed his first try but got the second try and won free grocerys for a year (not a bad deal considering price increases on food these days!)

Fastest Procurement Ever!

Most of you who know Marc know that he doesn't make purchases all that quickly. Well, we've been looking for gliders/rockers for the baby's room for some time now and we just haven't had any luck finding anything we liked - too nurseryish, too expensive, not comfortable, just no luck at all. We wanted to get something that was comfortable, since we'll be spending many late night/early mornings in the chair feeding her, but also something that we can use in the living room after we are past the baby phase of our lives. We searchd the baby stores and Internet and no luck. So a few weeks ago, we went to Macy's to see if they had any leather arm chair rockers. We walked in, told the lady what we were looking for and bam, we bought the first chair she showed us. (It helped it was on a killer sale.) Yes, I kid you not, it literally happened like that. I sat in the chair (mostly because my back was killing me) and Marc said "this is a done." I was like "Don't you want to sit in it before they run the card?" He sat in it and there we were, chair procured. We had blocked like 3 hours off that afternoon to shop for it so since we bought it in like 15 minutes we got into a few shenanigans afterwards. Right now we have it in the living room and are fighting over who gets to sit on it each night. When we move it to the nursery we plan on either putting a slip cover on it to protect it or putting a blanket on it to make it a little more "nurseryish" but it certainly will be comfortable during those 2AM feedings!

What a Difference

I've been on iron supplements for a little over a week now and oh my gosh, what a difference they make! I feel like a human again. I can function at work, I have energy, it's amazing. I even cleaned out all of my kitchen cabinets, freezer, refrigerator, reorganized them all on Saturday and then cleaned the tile (no chemicals involved - no worries). I went major prego on my kitchen! My Doctor is my new hero. We went shopping in the city yesterday and walked around all over Union Square in San Francisco and other than having a sore back I felt great!

Other than that I've been feeling great, my vericose veins have also been getting better thanks to my granny stockings! Yes between, my granny stockings, Raisin Bran, and PlumSmart, I'm feeling pretty hot these days. Pregnancy is a beautiful thing. Just when I think I can't get any bigger, I expand some more. And I have a lot more expanding to do, 2 1/2 more months, lots of growing going on. I can tell she's getting cramped too because I rarely get solid kicks anymore, I get more of the wiggling and stretching these days.

Look out for a new belly picture coming this weekend to a blog near you!

In Love (well more in love)

Today we had our recheck at the perinatal clinic. I must admit I was very nervous to go today, especially since a mere six weeks ago, it was not the most pleasant experience. I had nightmares last night that they would find something else wrong with our daughter. But as my doctor told me last week, "she didn't grow another head," so I was trying, very unsuccessfully to relax. I was still a wreck! We got to our appointment and we had a very cool ultrasound technician, she was young and very friendly. I was so tense but she started off my just looking at my anatomy, cervix, placenta, etc and the moved to the baby's anatomy, focusing on her face. She was in great position for profiles so she spent a lot of time on her face, even commenting on how beautiful her profile was. I must say, I can agree with that but I am a little biased. The tech even switched to 4D real time ultrasound which was so cool, we got some great pictures of her face. And since she's at that phase where fat is depositing, she's looking less alien and more human these days. She has the sweetest little cheeks and cutest little Buddah belly. I can't wait to pinch and kiss her cheeks and zerbert her little belly! After about a half hour or so of pictures and looking at her face and measuring her body she went to the get the doctor. We requested the same Doctor who did my amnio six weeks ago and also diagnosed her, we're ones for continuity with our doctors. It's just nice to see the same doctor multiple times and not get different theories. (Just to note: to date they still don't know why she has clubfeet, I guess it will remain one of life's great mysteries for us. I'm ok with that now that I know she's ok.)

So now for the important stuff. She was very active, as usual, so we had a hard time seeing her feet but we got a picture of each foot and they are definitely clubfeet. The doctor couldn't see her pinkies because she had her hand closed (except for her ginormous thumb - see pictures below - it's really an abnormally long thumb. She must take after me with my very long fingers). But other than her feet he said everything else looks fantastic on her and she's grown perfectly. Her heart appears perfect and her limbs and head and everything are growing as they would hope. They estimate her weight to be at about 2 pounds 1 ounce which is where she should be for just over 27 weeks. He's giving us a two referals for Doctors to treat her clubfeet and I've also been doing some research and have a Doctor who I want to interview so we have three options. We go back at 36 weeks for one more look and at that point he will give us an idea of when he thinks I will deliver and hopefully about how big she will be. So the day before my 30th birthday we get to see her one last time before we meet our little princess in person about four weeks later.

I feel much better after today's appointment. I knew she was growing (based on my appointment last week) but it was nice to hear his positive reassurance she was all good after our last appointment. And most importantly we are totally in love with the little cutie.

I also got my glucose test results back today and I passed so no gestational diabetes - thank goodness, we didn't need to worry about that as well. I did come back anemic, which would explain why I have been so darn tired (I fell asleep while fast forwarding through a DVR commercial the other night and lost remote privelages) so I have to take some Iron supplements in addition to my prenatals. They said it was totally normal for pregnancy and my Doctor wasn't concerned. We also interviewed a peditrician today whom we both liked. She's right down the street from us, on a nice day I can even walk down to her office, and since we both liked her and she's so close we will go with her. She's pretty young and lives in Dublin also, has 2 kids so we feel comfortable taking our daughter to her.

So now here's what you've been really waiting for, some of the photos from today (you can click on them to enlarge them - they're small because I had to change them to jpegs in Photoshop):

Her classic profile picture:

Thumbs up - notice the freakishly large thumb:

One of my favorites of the day - her face is so sweet - I think she's gonna look like her daddy

Her sweet face again with her mouth open:

If she's giving us the "Loser" sign in utero, what's she going to do when she's a teenager?

And just because I was flipping through all of my ultrasound pictures - It's so hard to believe she went from this (remember the oval in the right corner?):

To this, in 20 weeks - truly an amazing miracle:

Favorite Time of The Day

Lately I have been trying to figure out why I have been having such a darn hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Homer's been sleeping down in the kitchen for the last few weeks and it is going beautifully, he gets to play, eat, sleep, drink, pee to his heart's content and Marc and I get to sleep through the night while we still can (other than my 3 bathroom runs a night). It hasn't been too cold in the mornings yet either so I that can't be the cause. So I can't for the life of me figure out why I can't get out of bed.

This morning it occurred to me why I can't get bring myself to get up, it's my favorite time of the day. Early in the morning right after the alarm goes off the baby starts to move around as I wake up. This morning my alarm went off at 5:30 and I had every intention of getting up then and doing some work before my 4 hour off-site meeting but as I was waking up, I just couldn't get myself up because if I got up the baby would stop moving around. I love the times when she is moving around, it's like our own secret language to each other. So I just laid there and said to heck with work and enjoyed the half hour while she kicked, squirmed, and got back into her comfortable position. I might have to work a little later tonight but I have no regrets because I got to enjoy my favorite time of the day (with my favorite girl)!

Update

Just a quick update on where we are at on everything. Yesterday Marc and I went to our hospital tour. Nothing too fancy they just walk you through Labor & Delivery and the process that you go through when you have a baby at the hospital we're delivering at. We saw the Labor and Delivery room (which are really nice) and then they took us to see a postpartum room (which are very small but private which is a good thing!) as well as the nursery. While we were there a baby was born so they played the Brahms Lullaby throughout the whole hospital. Everytime a baby is born they play it so the hospital is reminded of happy things. It gave me goosebumps. When we got upstairs we actually saw the baby being bathed in the nursery which was cool. It made the whole baby coming thing seem very real all of a sudden!

Friday I had my 6 month checkup and everything is going fine. Her heartbeat was normal and as my Doctor said, I have definitely sprouted since the last time I saw her. In previous months I was measuring about a week behind where I actually was in the pregnancy and this month I measured at week ahead of where I am in the pregnancy. So she essentially grew 6 weeks work in 4 weeks and I am now measuring at 27 weeks - such a relieft because I have been so worried she is too small. My Doctor also told us we need to find a peditrician so we are interviewing one on Friday, it all is getting very real, I had a bit of a freak out when she talked to me about preterm labor, all I could think is "I have no where for her to sleep if she's born!" Hopefully our furniture will arrive soon and I will feel much better!

That's the update from here. Friday we go back for an ultrasound with the perinatologist and then next Saturday we take our Baby Basics class. We'll finally learn how to change a diaper and swaddle a baby!