Baby CountdownI look at my blog almost every day to see the baby ticker and keep the countdown going, and today is another benchmark day: 1.5 months! I really hope she is going to come early, because I am pretty sure I have reached the uncomfortable stage. Here are some of the things I am noticing, especially as I can tell she is dropping lower for her big arrival:
- Very sore crotch bones! Sorry, there is no better way to put this. I think her little head is putting so much pressure on the bones that they hurt. I am getting used to it, but every once in a while when I stand up I nearly face plant because it's some new and stronger pain.
- It's really hard to pee. The books say you are supposed to pee all the time towards the end, but I am exactly the opposite. I usually make it through the entire night, and rarely have to go during the day, even though I drink a ton of water! She must be pressing up against my bladder in just the right (or wrong) way.
- She's a big stretcher. She must be feeling cramped, because lately she does big stretches with her arms and legs, or I can feel her trying to stretch her entire body out.
- Sleeping ALL the time again. I am back to passing out in the middle of whatever I am doing. She's supposed to be having her biggest growth spurt ever over the next 3 weeks, so that must have something to do with it.
- Feeling very feisty and cranky. Feisty isn't so bad, but the cranky could stand to go.
I am pretty nervous about having a baby around to take care of, but I will be pretty happy to have my body back to normal operating ability in a few weeks!
Baby PrepThe birth pool arrived a couple weeks ago, and we will be inflating that in the next couple weeks and filling it up for a trial run, just to make sure there are no leaks and that we know how to use the faucet connections and pumps.
I have been reading through my online childbirth class, and think I have a fairly good idea of what to expect. I am not one to sit and practice relaxation techniques, and I know I will wish I had once the time comes. I just keep thinking that bodies are made for this, and it is impossible to know exactly what to expect, but that I will get lots of smoothies and snacks that day, which I may or may not throw up towards the end of labor. As long as I can stay calm and keep my mind focused, I should be in good shape. The one thing the birth class teaches that has actually stuck with me and given me something to visualize is that human childbirth is a lot like animal childbirth. That immediately conjured up a mental image of our dog Sadie having puppies. I can vividly remember all the steps she went through, and how calm she was. I think that will help to think of when I am trying to remember what to do.
School
I got a notice from Quinn's school yesterday saying that he has 33 hours of detention due to a high number of absences this year. 33 hours! Of DETENTION!!! It isn't like he is some truant with a bunch of unexcused absences, either. He is always excused, either by me or with a doctor's note. Enter in CRANKY Tavia. I made an appointment to meet with the assistant principal tomorrow to have a conversation about this. I am fully expecting that they will not let him out of this ridiculous requirement, but I am hoping that they will count his extracurricular school activities towards his missed hours. That meets with my logic, so we will see how flexible Mr. Principal is, or if he is going to be a jerk and go by the book. The crappy thing about this is, the past month has been really great with Quinn enjoying school. Now that they've slammed him with 33 hours of detention I get to hear the door slam every day to and from school, and all the "this place sucks" and talk of getting his GED again.
I am not a huge fan of the GED idea. He is getting pretty good grades, had those awesome PSAT scores, and is starting to get letters from colleges wanting to entice him to apply. The
other part of me realizes that he is a year behind because of that horrible freshman year and won't graduate until 19. So maybe it would be fine for him to get his GED this spring and take the SATs, go to community college starting in the summer to start his college work, then transfer to a 4 year college in either one or two years. That plan would put him back on track, but my only worry is that he would get lazy and not follow through with school. So it's just a matter of his maturity level, and whether community college would jump start that or allow him to be lazy. High school doesn't seem to be doing him a lot of good socially or academically. He relates best with the juniors and seniors, who are in a few of his classes. He isn't learning anything in his classes because it is all review from WA (but he refuses to take advanced classes because he doesn't want homework). The only thing he enjoys right now is band. I am very torn. The other part of this scenario is that he will be 18 in less than a year and can just walk into the office and withdraw himself from school if he wants! Quinn is definitely the type to walk into the office and tell them all to piss off while signing his withdrawal forms if he gets frustrated enough with their system. So do I do it now and get him involved in college so he has a better chance at being successful, or do I keep him in high school and cross my fingers that he loves it and doesn't get frustrated again in the next 9 months? Hopefully this principal will work with me and I won't have to make any decisions right now, but it's still an ongoing debate.
AWESOME OPPORTUNITY
There's not a ton I get excited about lately, but yesterday I got some news that made me thrilled. Because I volunteer with the animal shelter in Houston, I get the opportunity to go to a class on March 25th given by Charles Jantzen from the Houston SPCA. A lot of you have probably seen him on the TV show Animal Cops Houston. He's the chief investigator down at the SPCA, and he is giving a class about the logistics of animal cruelty investigations. I'm going to be pissed if I have the baby that day. This should be a really awesome class. I don't know if I could ever investigate animal cruelty cases because it would be too upsetting, but I've always been really interested in how they investigate and bust the losers who abuse their animals. I'll definitely do a blog update after the class!
VOLUNTEERINGI've really been loving the volunteer work lately. I mentioned to the volunteer coordinator some of the ways I thought the mall adoptions could be improved. I kind of figured she would either like my ideas, or I might find some other volunteer work to do. There were just too many new volunteers and they weren't equipped to deal with the adoptions, and I had seen a couple very poor adoptions made. Well, it turns out that she was interested in my feedback. We've spent some time over the phone and email fine tuning some ideas, and last weekend she had me just go out there in a training capacity with the new people and I feel like we made a lot of progress with learning how to screen applicants, and figuring out what the newer volunteers needed to feel more comfortable placing animals. I don't do many useful things during the week, so I really love this. I've been kind of watching the different shelters and their job postings to see if something pops up that I would be qualified for- they're just like other companies with multiple departments that make them run, so you don't necessarily need to have to be an animal expert. Plus I am starting to feel like I have some connections now, so if I saw a position I really wanted I could probably at least get in the door for an interview.
That's about all for now!
Caption: Tavia! Paging Tavia!
