No baby, but plenty of pity.

Nothing like getting looks of pity from your co-workers everyday as you come in and sit at your desk.

That and the occasional nervous/helpless man comments.

"Just let me know if I need to go boil some water!"

"I used to have an EMT license . . so let me know if you need some assistance!"

"How far away is your hospital?"

The ladies just want to be helpful.

"Let me know if you need anything!"

"Can I grad you something from the cafeteria?"

"Do you have a sitter for Alaina?"

"Call me any time!"

Now the only words that I want to hear are from the Midwife at today's appointment

"Would you like to be induced?"

YES PLEASE!!!!!

(And yes sister, just for you I have waited to have this baby so that I will be on maternity leave for your entire visit in July. I expect lavish gifts, aka flipflops, and a babysitter for at least one nap while you are here.)

Fun weekend . . . but no baby.

So I tried to sleep as much as possible this weekend for no other reason than I can barely function. I'm tired, crabby, cranky, snarky . . .you name a negative attitude and that's me.

I'm just ready to be able to move around again.

Alaina wants me to dance with her.
I can't.

Alaina wants me to play in the sandbox.
I can't.

Jeff would like to see the counters and floors in our house again.
I can't get around enough to clean up my growing piles.

And I have to have Jeff carry the laundry baskets up and down the stairs for me to do laundry because . . .
I can't.

So to distract my family from me being pretty much a decoration around the house, I brought home food from the farmer's market on Saturday, Alaina and I made princess hats (I didn't bring the right camera to download the pics), and made little pink cookies.

Jeff pronounce the pink cookies horrible, but what do you expect from a kid's recipe book? They were just powdered sugar, flour, vanilla and a little milk with food coloring.

Alaina thought they were wonderful so I declared them a success.

And I'm not the kind of person to post videos, but Alaina has started singing all kinds of songs.

One is the bumblebee song . . .which I thought they would never teach the kids at daycare because in the version I learned, you barf up the bumblebee, but they modified it to 'coughing up.'

And the cutest new song it the Tiny Tim Turtle song. Alaina has such good diction, Jeff and I were able to catch all the words by the third time she sang it.

I found a little turtle
His name is tiny Tim.
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all the water
he at up all my soap
And now he sick in bed
with bubbles in his throat.

(Accompanied by adorable actions and a cute voice.)

I think its time to get out my Philadelphia Chickens cd to start her on broadway style tunes.

A week and counting!

How unfair is it to dream that you have went into labor?

Very unfair.

Almost as unfair as your sister calling you and saying that you can't go into labor yet because she will be coming back for a visit exactly six weeks from yesterday, so hold off on the labor thing so that she can see the baby.

I hope she is volunteering to babysit during that time.

I'm ready to have this baby so that I can get some sleep.

hey now . . . STOP LAUGHING!

Seriously,
I want to be able to sleep instead of toss and turn all night long and get up every hour for a bathroom break or snack.

At least with a baby I'll get a few hours of good solid rest in between feedings.

Not to mention it will be a lot easier to get things done around the house. I have no energy to cook and have been living out of a laundry basket of clean clothes for a week and a half.


If I go late, I'll pity those around me. I'm getting less pleasant by the day.

TIme off for bad behavior, please?

Its time.

or at least I really want it to be time.

The midwife says that the baby is as low as the baby can possibly go, but that doesn't mean things are going to happen any time soon.

So I'm taking matters into my own hands.

Ever heard that energy drinks could start labor? Well I'm having Juice Stop put energy supplements in my morning smoothie (please hold your gasps of astonishment and criticisms)

And how about taking the stairs? Yep, I did my first set of hustling (not to be confused with running) up and down four flights of stairs at work. I'll probably do this 3-4 times a day.

And lots and lots of bouncing, plies, jumping anything that I can think of.

And it doesn't help that I have this insane craving to go running.

Seriously, all I want to do is strap on some running shoes and just move!!!

Its not that I'm sick of being pregnant, although I'm ready to feel a lot cooler during the day, but work has just taken a big dive and I don't want to be here anymore.

Heaven help me go into labor today!

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Alaina!

It seems just like yesterday I was obsessing over your first birthday party.

I've let the obsessing go this year and have already had much more fun!

I'm looking forward to another year of
"Oh, mommy, its sooooo beautiful."
"That'd be just great if you could do that for me mommy!"

And lots of hugs and kisses!

You had so much fun staying home with Daddy yesterday. You got to play princess all day and eat your birthday cookie, too!
I'm impressed that the first present you got to open was Mater. I'm so excited to have a big girl who likes to play with all kinds of toys, not just dolls and makeup.

And today is the big party day! I can still remember the little thrills from last year as you attempted to open your presents by yourself, this year is going to be even more fun!

I'm just sorry that I couldn't give you the present you really wanted.

"Mommy, I'm going to have my birthday and a barbie cake and I'm going to share it with my baby sister."

As close as I could get was the barbie cake.

Thanks for the Barbie aunt Stacey! She worked perfect! Jeff thinks I should compete with HyVee for making barbie cakes.

They charge about $50 for a barbie cake. I think I came in at under $10 and about 3 hours (excluding baking time).

Now I just need to wrap all those presents I've been hoarding all year.

Did you know that barbies have patterned underwear 'built in' now? I'm so silly I can't wait to hold her up to one of my old dolls and see how matel has revamped the vamp!

Recovery time

Its time for shots!

Nope not the nasty needle kind, but the fun colored ones! When Alaina was vomiting, I couldn't get her to drink gatorade, so I devised this system.

Every 15 minutes, she got to pick another 'color' to drink.

It worked okay, but she doesn't really like to drink anything but milk or water so this was a bit of a chore.

She really liked to 'nurse' her drink rather than drink it down. I'm betting she'll master the guzzle well before her 21st b-day at this rate.

Alaina was feeling pretty perky on Sunday, so we headed up to Omaha to visit the Denver Danglers. Here's Mimi horsing around with her grand daughters. Or should I say Alaina was the horse. And because she was feeling better, Alaina got to open her b-day present the DenDangs brought for her. It was a wonderful 'green' tea set. Alaina hasn't stopped serving Jeff and I yet.

Mommy do you want some tea?

Coffee?

Chocolate milk?

Pink?

Check out the fake cookies. She made me wait to take the picture until she had all the cookies arranged so that they were facing the camera at the same angle.

OCD girl strikes again!

Alaina is convinced that her sister will be here on Saturday to have cake with her for her birthday. I get a little misty when she talks about it. I hope this fascination with having a sister lasts for a while.

And after an intense debate last night, the baby still remains nameless. We've even tried making deals.

"if you let me pick this one's first name . . .I get to pick the next one."

Bad ideas all around.

Oh, Vomit!

Again
and Again , ,
And again . . .

Poor Alaina,

Its teh stomach flu again and she already vomitted six times since 7pm yesterday.
I have no idea what to do!

She gets so scared and just wants to drink water which comes right back up.

Poor thing.

I get to stay home with her tomorrow and hopefully the vomiting slows down, but with my luck probably not.

Hopefully we don't get into an accident this time in the van.

Now where did I put that sleep? I seem to have lost it somewhere here in the last two weeks and haven't found it yet!

Maybe I'llfind a little more after the baby is born,

Or not.