Fish Farts

Bunny was having some belly problems again so I have been doing a little trial and error that included changing her food one more time. I had been taking bones out of her chicken at every meal in case they were irritating her old lady tummy, but it got to be so time consuming that I would procrastinate feedings (or sometimes I would plan to do it all at once, and recently procrastinated that until the chicken started to rot in the fridge and had to be tossed) and started to feel like I wasn't really preparing her food properly. Since I am not in the right income bracket to be buying $2/lb low maintenance boneless skinless for the dog right now, I figured it was better to change :)

I got some sensitive stomach salmon- pretty much the same stuff Cosmo used to eat. All is well so far, except that she is not nearly as enthusiastic about meal time now (she was becoming quite the little raw meat savage)... and she FARTS! She farts all the time, and I have never smelled such a horrible thing! She's very energetic and she hasn't had an accident in the house since switching, though, so I am assuming the farting doesn't indicate a problem. Well, no problem other than the smell wafting out of the kitchen as I type.

I feel bad for taking her off raw since she loved it and was clearly looking terrific, and I am still a huge fan of raw, but hopefully she'll do well on this for now. Life is just getting too complicated.

Almost Ready

It's almost baby time, and we are close to being prepared. Not quite there yet, but close.

I've been trying to put our boxes of goodies together for the birth. Mine is the big laundry basket full of towels, a heating pad, and there is more to come. I'd say my box is the hardest to put together because pretty much everything that goes into it, we won't want to use again. I still need a nightgown (I don't really have one I want to part with), a strainer, a bowl... then we need to gather basic household things like a couple garbage bags, some ammonia, a flashlight. I should probably do those things tonight since we actually do have them around the house.

Matilda's box was much easier. All she needed were diapers, a nightgown, cotton balls, q-tips, peroxide and alcohol. The only things left to go in her box are 6 receiving blankets, and I am struggling with that one because we only have really nice new blankets we have gotten as gifts, and we are supposed to use ratty old disposable ones. Then she needs some olive oil, and it's just a matter of putting that on the grocery list and then making sure Jeff doesn't cook with it :)

All the other pictures are of the birth pool, in case anyone was wondering what a birth pool looks like. The top picture is just a photo from the company web page. It would be really hard to take a pic of the inside of our pool because we already have the disposable liner on it, so all you can see is thick plastic. You can see from the picture, though, that is has a padded bottom and also a seat to sit on. Quinn said he is mad, because that is what a proper kiddie pool should have looked like growing up. The other pictures are of the actual pool I will be using. Jeff blew it up last night for me since he is out of town this week, and I tried getting into it (which was REALLY hard to do because I am uncoordinated and lost my balance on the padded floor!). It's a lot taller than I thought, which I really like. Someone had told me the pools were only waist deep, but this one is shoulder deep. It's supposed to be one of the better pools out there. My midwife said I should fill it up and practice relaxing in it, but considering it takes over 100 gallons of water, and the hot water heater has to be turned all the way up in order to have enough hot water for it, I think I will just wait until the day of! All we need to do for the pool is get a hose for fill up (has to be a clean, potable water hose) and get a tarp to lay under it.

The only other major thing left to do is order the birth kit. That consists of most of the medical items like gloves, syringes, vitamin k, a cord clamp, and all that kind of good stuff.

So reading over this, we would actually be in big trouble if she came this week since we are missing some major things. I guess we better get on that! we're getting close, though.

Mini news

20 days to go. Ready to have her out. She's started poking her feet out from under my ribs. I get that she's out of space, but NOT COOL.

Quinn has a girlfriend. Ack!! I still blame Tom (see prior post) for asking the dreaded question of whether or not Quinn has a girlfriend. Dude, you jinxed me. Her name is Lauren, she's a redhead, and she plays the flute. This is all I know. Aside from that she is "crazy and funny but also nice." Oh yeah, and that he has used 5000 text messages and his phone minutes are starting to pick up, but that's OK since we have unlimited text and he's pretty good about sticking to nights and weekends for calls. Cute.

Spring break is next week. I am really hoping for a spring break baby. That would be great timing so we can be exhausted before having to figure out the teenager school shuttling routine.

Lucky and Lily

Just some random dawg shots. My favorite is the top picture of Lucky and Lily walking through the kitchen together.

Casual Corgi

I walked into the living room tonight to find Cosmo spending some quality time with his boy in front of the TV. Check out Quinn's feet- I think he's actually resting them on the dog!

2am ramblings

2am, waiting for a cheesecake to cool. Jeff's going to a friend's house tomorrow to help him fix his truck. Friend is making some fancy lunch for everyone who is helping out, so Jeff offered to bring cheesecake for dessert because the guys have heard how good his cheesecake is. In the middle of making cheesecake Quinn called to be picked up from a friends house after the school dance (midnight... seriously, this kid needs some wheels of his own) and when we got home Jeff was passed out on the couch with a half made cheesecake in the Bosch. I guess he decided to take a nap while his cream cheese softened to room temp- he has been out of town all week so he's really tired. We all know how this story ends. Jeff never woke up. Tavia is finishing the cheesecake. Not that I am complaining- I'm a bit of an insomniac anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

I am starting to wonder how I am going to get through the whole labor thing. I've been having contractions for a couple weeks now, and the more days that go by, the more they actually hurt. It's way healthier for me and the baby to just do things naturally, but OH. MY. GOSH. I know I am going to hit a point where I just want to be knocked the heck out and wake up comfortable again. Just trying to remember that it will only be a few hours of my life, and I can get through it. Baby girl has a big ordeal to go through in getting out here, too. I guess we will just go through it together.

Quinn had a lot of fun at the dance. Baby brother had his first real date! He went on a double date with the girl's friend and her date. They went to Chili's for dinner, then to the dance. Then apparently the dance sucked (a high school dance sucking, go figure) so they went to a friend's house to watch a movie. He was home by midnight, was where he said he would be, didn't get into any trouble... a successful night out in my book. Not to mention he got actual social interaction rather than playing the stupid xbox all night. Now he is in bed because he's exhausted.

And now I am going to bed, because Jeff's cheesecake is cool enough for the fridge and I am wiped out.

It's About Time

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog since the 22nd. Sadly, this is because I have NO LIFE!

25 days until Matilda is born. I've been trying to get together the supplies we need on hand. Not sure how well that's going. The start of my supply basket was 4 old towels. I came home the other day to find they had been removed from the basket and used. I guess I should have made everyone clear on what the special laundry basket in the corner was for.

I finally felt bad enough about my ugly, tufting dogs that I broke down and did a Corgi grooming session the other day, and got enough hair to make a litter of puppies. Maybe I should start making Corgi wigs. I imagine it could go over well with the dog show set. Corgi blowing coat before the big show? I have your answer- the Corgi wig! Now if anyone does this I expect some royalties for the idea. I also tackled the strategic challenge of doing Bunny's nails. Fortunately she was cooperative, but I still shaved down my own nails as much as I did hers. One day I'll master the Dremel. I don't show so I would never spend the money on a grooming table, but I definitely see the benefit of having one set up. Though I think in a few more weeks I'll remember that it's really not that challenging to bend over/get down to their level again, and Bunny will also fit in my lap again for nails.

Quinn got asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance at school for Friday night. I still need to get the details on this one. No idea who he is going with or anything, but I thought it was cool that he is finally starting to get a social life at this new school. Of course this comes a day after Tom asked me if Quinn had a "serious" girlfriend yet (we were talking about the challenge of raising teenagers) and I told him no, Quinn never even dates. Look at that, Tom, you jinxed me!

I've been doing more looking into school for myself lately, thinking I should probably get on the ball with applying for financial aid so I can start taking classes again in the fall. I'll have to take classes online, so I may continue at North Texas because it is cheap and I've already got an online degree plan set up there. I keep feeling like a general studies degree is a path to nowhere without a masters, though, and that is a commitment to more school when I am already having trouble finding the motivation to finish. Though having a degree is obviously better than not! I've been kind of playing around online to see if there is something better, as in "What would I absolutely love to learn about that would hold my interest if the money/distance thing was not an obstacle." So I found a Homeland Security degree, 100% online, through the University of Maryland, which is actually a real, accredited, decent school. It was HARD to find... most of the legit Homeland Security majors are only offered face to face, and I can't exactly move for college at my age so I'd long ago given up on the idea. The others are through those online rip-off schools. I rarely tell people I have been interested in taking Homeland Security for years- even Jeff was concerned I might just be in fantasy land trying to be the next Jack Bauer- and the programs are hard to find so it's never really been an option. So I think I will apply for financial aid and, if I end up getting decent aid (out of state tuition will run about $20k to finish the degree and that's way too much to tack onto my student loan bill) then THAT is what I would like to do. Sitting on the computer learning more about mundane business garbage that I'm not interested in has my head hitting the keyboard, so why torture myself more at UNT if I don't have to? Of course if I have to, I will.

Not much else to report. Time to let the dogs out for their morning pee and start my day.