36-week checkup

Quick! Sorry!
Hemoglobin good. Blood pressure good. Protein good.
Gained 2.7 lbs. in 2.7 weeks. Good.
Baby's heartbeat in 140s-ish. Good.
Baby is head down, but turning side to side. Good. Baby's not fully "engaged" ("dropped") yet. No problem.
I'm starting to dilate ("a fingertip," she said, which is not quite a 1). Good.
And... I'm 50-75% effaced! Making progress!

Of course, when I asked the nurse-practitioner exactly how she could tell I was effacing ("thinning"), because she just goes in and pokes around a bit, and it's not like you can exactly take a caliper to a cervix, she admitted it was kind of a guess. So, take it for what it's worth.

Still feeling good. Happy weekend to all!

Real Men Eat Lots and Lots of Quiche

Hey there, things have been better the rest of the week. I picked up a stinker of a stuffy nose after water aerobics on Wednesday, and Lucy has a fever of 102-103 (but no other symptoms) but other than that we are all doing great. Gus is kicking up a storm, and I have my 36-week checkup today (results to follow).

Lucy's been super-funny recently about pretending everything is a phone. (Flash-forward to teenage years.) She takes a shoe, or a stuffed animal, or a pre-wrapped sausage, holds it up to her ear, and says "hello!" and then various other gibberish, and then "go!" We get such a kick out of her.

The Watsons came over last night, bearing dinner (feasty quiche!!) and dessert (homemade blueberry muffins!!). How on EARTH did we get so lucky, to have such amazing neighbors? All three toddlers LOVED the quiche, and we grownups polished off two whole pie-pans full. It was so wonderful of them -- thanks again, guys!

And it's Friday! Yay! I have a massage scheduled first thing tomorrow morning, and then Ellen's coming into town and we're going to try to go to TwinsFest, as long as we're all relatively healthy.

Big HAPPY BIRTHDAYS to Alison and Nikki today. Hope you girls have great days, respectively!

Oh, and we need some help on the girl-name front. I'm open to accept some lengthy and biased opinions on the names at right. Go!

Pregnant Babes at Work

Hey, here's a couple photos of me and the other 2 preggos in my office. I'm the one in the middle. :)
Girl on the left is due exactly one month after I am; girl on the right is due 6 weeks after I.

Oh, and girl on the left wrote a song which I thought was very cute:


We 3 pregos of ALTAFI are
Bearing bellies we've gained thus far
Wide and gorgeous
We are enormous
Following our cravings galore.

Am I blue?

Yeah, I'm a little blue today. For starters, my job... and then there's Lucy. What a kid. She started crying in Target after I picked her up from day care yesterday, and cried all through the dinner hour, and cried when I put her to bed. And though she slept for a couple hours, she was up crying by 10:30 again. And it's this whiny, tired cry... and she points at things she wants, but sometimes it's nothing, and she cries WHILE SHE'S SLEEPING. Completely asleep, eyes closed, crying.

And I'm starting to worry about her lack of verbal skills. At no point in this crying does she say "Mama" or "Dada" or anything that even sounds like a word. Even when she's crying alone in her crib in the middle of the night, and it's obvious that she wants a cuddle from one of us.

I don't know what we should do. She doesn't eat anything after day care anymore -- maybe a Clementine or a fistful of cheese, but nothing resembling dinner. She wants to sit on our laps, then wiggles to get down and then cries when we put her down. She cries when we try to play in the living room. Cries through her bath. But it's really the waking up crying in the middle of the night that gets me! She's been a good sleeper since she was, like, three months old -- what is going on?

Joel's a saint, of course -- he gets up, rocks her, and last night even let her sleep on his chest for a while. And I just feel terrible.

Not to mention, a girl at work accidentally said "this year" rather than "this time" when referring to my current pregnancy... and I just started crying. Is that what people think??

Sorry, I'm just tired I guess.

Constantine esmoldered at me!

Hey there. What a fun weekend I had! Joel got back from Denver on Friday night and it was sooo good to have him home again. Saturday we slept in 'til 8 and then we all went to open-swim at the high school by our house -- we had the pool to ourselves; it was great. Though Lucy seems to have forgotten how much fun she had in Water Babies last spring.
We just kind of hung out the rest of the day -- napping intermittently, eating occasionally, doing laundry sporadically. Sunday I had book club (always a wonderful time!) and Sunday night Jean and I went to see Constantine (from American Idol) and his band at The Fine Line. We NEVER go to concerts, or out at all really, and it was fun pretending to be young and spontaneous again. The show was pretty good; Constantine is still our boyfriend; I ran into my theatre friend Katie. It was a good night!
Oh, and CONGRATS to my cousin Kate and her husband Joe -- their daughter Isabelle Augusta was born on Saturday, and everyone's doing well.

Special thanks to Joel for letting me indulge in All Things Fun for Meg this weekend. Love you honey!

Thank goodness for black backdrops

... although I guess for those of you who are dying to see "how pregnant" I look, you're out of luck.

Some funny photos of me from my company holiday party. I'm an idiot. :)

Congrats Heather and Brian!

My friends Heather and Brian had their baby early, early Sunday morning. Jackson William was 8 lbs 4 oz and mom and baby are doing fine... I think. :) CONGRATULATIONS and welcome, Jack!!

Hilarious posting on Craigslist.org

Check out this listing in the "FREE items" section of Craigslist.org.

I mean, really.

34-week checkup

Saw the doc for the 34-week checkup yesterday. Everything's great! I gained another 6.5 lbs for a grand total of somewhere between 25-30 lbs. BP was something like 110/65 or so. I never get precise measurements on the "tummy check" or baby's heartbeat, but apparently both are going strong and as expected.

I did, however, have to ask the doc about what happens right after birth. Because I:
- was so excited
- didn't have my contacts in or glasses on so I was TOTALLY BLIND
- had been given that sedative (Vistaril) five hours before... plus the Nubain
...when Lu was born, I can't seem to remember anything about what happened right after she was born. Anyway, the doc last night thought I was crazy that I'd forgotten everything.

Sorry, I have to go work now. Happy Thursday!

Little things I am grateful for today:

• - hair binders (whatever did I call these before I moved to Minnesota? hair rubber-bands? hair elastics?)
• - water bottles
• - the sun (actually the sun is very large, but you know what I mean)
• - nice coworkers (some of them are large too -- although not as large as the sun)
• - Famous Dave's gift certificates

Exhausted but happy.

Did you have a nice relaxing weekend, but have a tendency to feel guilty about not getting too much stuff done around the house? Then don't read this. We went, as Joel likes to say, "hog-nuts" this weekend. Recap:

On Friday over my lunch break, I bought paint for Gus's room (Benjamin Moore's "Crown Point Sand") and the basement bathroom (Manda Mudd's "Megan"). Friday evening, Joel took Lucy ot Menard's to buy painting supplies, and I went out to dinner (Enjoy! in Apple Valley) with Mandy and her girlfriends -- it was fun to meet some new people.

Saturday morning, I taped off Gus's room while Jean picked up my p's at the airport. Then Gramps and Gram ("Googly Goo") watched Lu all day while Jean and I primed Gus's room and Joel painted the basement bathroom. Saturday evening was my company holiday party in Brooklyn Center, followed by a birthday party at the Richfield American Legion for Joel's sister Jamie, Joel's sister Julie's boyfriend Kaz, and Aaron Briner.

Sunday, I took my folks to the airport and then stopped by Ikea with Lucy. We bought her a new dresser and a toddler table-and-chairs set, plus some curtains and rugs for Gus's room. Joel's p's came over to watch Lucy and to help Joel start tiling the basement bathroom floor -- I re-taped (stupid blue tape!) and started painting Gus's room. At 3:30 Casey (a guy at my work) and his wife and two boys came over to adopt Hobo from us, which they did. When they left, Joel and I finished painting Gus's room, then I made a run to Target (Lucy was down to ONE diaper). After Lu went to bed, I assembled some of the Ikea furniture before bed.

Observations:

• Grandparents are AWESOME.
• Sisters who help paint are awesome too.
• The Richfield American Legion is very smoky.
• The 16-year-olds who work at Ikea can be very helpful and friendly, if you just ask.
• Benjamin Moore makes some really nice paint.
• Taping a room well, before painting, makes the painting part super-duper painless.
• Life without a dog is much simpler.
• We are going to have a new baby NEXT MONTH. ARGH!

Now I have to work five whole days in a row. But DANG do I feel GOOD!!

Alison has a baby girl!

My friend Alison (from Rolling Meadows HS) had a baby girl on December 28 (geesh Martha, can't get away with ANYTHING around here!). Click here to read her story!

CONGRATULATIONS DAN AND AL!!!

32-week ultrasound

Got the all-clear from the doc yesterday -- the placenta is now 4.5 cm away from the cervix, so all is well. The baby looks great, super-cute if I do say so myself. Now we just need to:
1. finish the basement bathroom
2. move the guest-room into the basement
3. repaint and furnish Gus's new room
4. sort through Lucy's old eensy-weensy clothes
5. buy some eensy-weensy diapers
...in the next 8 weeks or so. Aaargh!

Oh, and we're adding a new name to the mix: what about Elaine for a girl? We could call her Laine or Lainey, maybe.

We had a WONDERFUL long Christmas weekend (meaning it spilled over into Wednesday) with both our families. Thank you Gronaus, Dahlheimers, Ryans and Evanses (apostrophes omitted intentionally for grammatical correctness) for making this a fabulous Christmas chock-full of love and laughter. And LOTS of laughter. :)

I keep my pants up with a piece of twine

Grandpa "Googly-goo" Ryan is up this week, playing super-nanny to his favorite granddaughter. I can see why celebrities feel like they can't live without live-in nannies -- it is AWFULLY nice to have someone around of whom you don't expect anything except to entertain the baby. Whoa, that was some nasty syntax.

Joel and I were able to catch a movie last night (YESS!!) -- Walk the Line. It was good. Really good. But maybe a little long? And not exactly action-packed? But I really like Johnny Cash's voice. Or rather, Joaquin Phoenix DOING Johnny Cash's voice. Yum.
(Aside to Joel: Agent John Doggett! That's who it is.)

Had my 30-week checkup this morning and all is well there, too. I've gained 6 more pounds (17 or 26 total, depending where you're starting from), BP and baby's heart are all good. My doc is a doll and she cheerfully signed my cord-blood donation form and answered my silly questions. She always knows just what to tell me to make me stop worrying. Love her.

Exercise and the Pregnant Minnesotan

What a horrid time of year to be hugely pregnant!

1. Because of all the hat, scarf, coat, etc. I have to wear to stay warm, it is not at once obvious that I am pregnant. HALF THE FUN OF BEING PREGNANT IS IT BEING OBVIOUS. Nay, instead, I just look a little rotund.

2. Speaking of exercise... a simple walk around the block is really tough when your city doesn't plow the sidewalks. Most people do their own, but occasionally you get to a block with lazy residents and you're Out Of Luck. Which, for me, could easily also mean On My Butt, followed by Suddenly In Labor.

3. The wind! My god, the wind. Manages to swirl up under my shelf of a belly, beneath my coat and my plenty-long shirt, and freeze my little lower abdomen. Brrr.

4. The shopping! My god, the shopping. Hauling my burgeoning self from the farthest corner of the parking lot, to the store. Lugging gynormous parcels everywhere. And I'm sure people would be delighted to lend me a hand... see #1.

Well, that was kinda dumb. Sorry, I have to go shopping. :)

Weekend Wrap

Gus is, as we speak, cuddled up comfortably ON MY INTESTINE. And it really hurts. I just want to jiggle him a little to get him to change position.

I had a dreadful episode of sadness on Saturday, precipitated by Lucy's being a total MONSTER for me. The usual, you know: slapping me, pinching my skin, screaming and refusing to sit still for a diaper change, refusing to eat, and general whining and malaise. Made worse, because Joel's been working on the bathroom and I really WANT him to work on the bathroom, and he really WANTS to work on the bathroom, and fer Petey's sake I should be able to take care of my own daughter for one stinking day... right?

Anyway. Turned out what I really needed was just a little nap, and what Lucy needed was to be left alone in her pack and play with 75 different toys and a couple ounces of milk, watching college basketball for about an hour.

We all recovered.

Had my book club's annual cookie-bake on Sunday, and thank God for those girls. I got some ideas for the kids' rooms, lots of "stop worrying, you're doing fine" (which I desperately needed), a few pregnancy workout videos... and it didn't hurt that the cookies were (and are) super, duper yummy. Joel is even eating them with surprising voracity, considering he's never been a "dessert guy."

(Cute aside: because Joel is the Gronau I know best, I often (and sometimes mistakenly) project his qualities onto his family as a unit. Well, once I said something like "Oh, you Gronaus aren't really dessert people!" and Joel's mom was VERY quick to disown this particular trait of Joel's as an anomaly and certainly NOT representative of the family as a whole.)

Thanks also to my Mom (who is probably surprised reading this, since I didn't even actually talk to her) for mentioning to Joel how she is able to enjoy grandparenthood MUCH more than parenthood. It just helped me put things into a larger perspective and realize that I'm normal for not being able to maintain a blissed-out aura of peace and happiness at all times.

People are funny

So, I have a banana sitting on my desk. It's not the most beautiful banana in the world; it's probably a day or four past its prime. Reminder: I work in a cube. TWICE today, someone has stopped by my desk and told me how "disgusting" the banana looks. And twice, I have responded, "Hey! You're going to hurt its little banana feelings!"

Now, how often in YOUR life have you gotten to say "little banana feelings"?

Think about THAT. :)

Done? Good. I'm going to take it as a compliment that my co-workers feel comfortable enough with me to openly criticize my food.

It's turning into a good day today, despite itself.

Fun With Polls

I'm experimenting with some polls. See the ones at right? You should vote. I want to see if I can make it work within a post, too, so...

How should we arrange the kids' rooms?
	Lucy should stay in her own room; it's HER room.
	Lucy should move into the other room; Gus can have "the baby's room".
Free polls from Pollhost.com

15 month checkup

Lulu had her 15-month checkup yesterday. Vital stats:

Weight: 24#, 6 oz. (75th %)
Head: 18.25" (63rd %)
Height: 31.5" (83rd %)

So for all of you who keep telling me she's a peanut, she is NO PEANUT!

OK, fine she's a peanut.

Anyhoo, she had three shots (flu booster, MMD and chicken pox), which pretty much knocked her out for the night. But other than that, she's great! Next appointment is at 18 months, at which point she will be (gasp!) a big sister. Holy crumbs!!

Had my last swing and latin dance classes last night. What a fun experience... but exhausting!

Penguin Pratfalls

Joel had Lucy in her "penguin suit" this morning (her snowsuit, that is, which is pink, not black and white, but which renders Lucy extremely chubby and waddly and therefore penguin-esque)... and Lucy tipped over and cut her lip on her tooth. Ouch! Joel said there was some blood, of course, and he feels terrible. He said if she was a little older he probably would have taken her straight to Dairy Queen. Golly, I love those two. :)