Long Over Due and Long Hours!

Hello all! Suffice, I may not win father of the year this year! I have not had much time to post but will do my best to try to post more. Anywho, I am in my first week of residency. I am on the Pedi Surgery team for the first 17 days, not that i am counting. it's very overwhelming. the responsibility level is truly amazing, but its fun b/c i get to write orders and they get done. better yet, i can prescriptions even for narcotics :) anywho, the hours are long. i am on call every third night, that means a >24 hour shift. this week i will have logged about 100 hours. you might be saying, isn't there an 80 hour limit, to which i say yes but it is an average over 4 weeks :( a sad fact i just found out. i miss keira, the baby belly, and puppies more and more everyday. to say things aren't going to plan is the understatement of the year. it's hard and i am very down, but someday this will all be a story. i really can't wait until we are sitting around with the kids and our dogs and i say, "Roo, i remember the summer you were born. Boy was that fun...." i'm sure the kid won't care, but hopefullly it will understand how much mommy and daddy love him/her and how much they love each other. last thoughts for now. commuting into boston is no fun. when i am not on call, i get up at 420 so i can drive to braintree for the 515 train that gets me to mgh at 545 for rounds at six. when i'm on-call i drive in b/c i have to stay the night. i got these tickets for parking near the boston garden. i used them for the first time on tuesday morning after quite an ordeal. i was running a little late and the gps confused me and i could not find the lot so i had to park in a different lot to get to rounds on time. after rounds, another intern covered for so i could move the car to the right lot. i was running the whole time and it was a very humid day in boston. i was covered in sweat when i got back the hospital and had spent 17 dollars on parking for 2 hours! the good news was, i only had 24 hours left before i got to leave! ttfn!

32 weeks

oh baby. we're getting big. and i can feel it. there's always a head or a butt protruding from my belly. i think roo is starting to get uncomfortable in there as the wiggles have picked up. poor thing just can't get cozy anymore. from babycenter.com: By now, your baby probably weighs almost 4 pounds and is almost 17 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. She has tiny toenails now, and her fingernails have grown in, too. Some babies have a head of hair already; others have only peach fuzz. roo and i have an appointment on monday and unfortunately will have to give blood again. i've been really good about taking my iron horse vitamins so hopefully my hemoglobin levels will be back in the good range. this will be our final appointment in richmond :( but we've already got our next-next appointment scheduled in boston 2 weeks later. we've got an ob/gyn at mass general so roo will likely be born at the hospital where its daddy works :)

more info on new house for sale

ok, so the house that when on the market yesterday is roughly the same size as ours square footage wise, but has one additional bedroom. recently remodeled but nothing fancy. they're asking $329,950. good luck peeps. of course, they'll sell this weekend.

another joins the fray

there's yet ANOTHER house for sale on our street, about 3 doors down from the one for sale right next to us. sign went up today. don't know what they're asking or anything about it - not showing up on yahoo real estate yet. it's open on sunday so i'll probably go check it out to see what they're offering. like we need more inventory on the market in this neighborhood! i think we are seriously going to own this house forever.

normal? or not normal?

i know it's normal for my feet and ankles to swell. and believe me, they are. but is it normal for one to be substantially more swollen than the other??? i think the gargantuan size of my left foot may have been the cause of the busted sandal referenced in the post below. my left foot is noticeably larger than the right. weird.

and so it goes

i got up early this morning to head downtown to the permits office, armed with my photos of the roads from every angle. i hate driving downtown and really hate trying to park downtown. somehow i got there and found a free street spot. i paralleled parked on the first try - not bad since i haven't needed to do it since we moved out of our last house. i was parked about 5 blocks away and as i was walking my sandal broke. i had to limp and waddle at the same time to try to keep my shoe on. must have looked funny to all the passing rush hour traffic. found the permits office easily and went right to the street permit counter. i explained my situation to the little old man working there (i swear he's probably worked at that same exact counter for at least 40 years.) he handed me the permit application and then requested 3 copies of a measured drawing of the streets in question. WHAT???? the lady on the phone yesterday said photographs. the little man was not impressed with my multitude of photos. i burst into tears again. where the heck do you get a measured drawing of your property??? i certainly have no clue. the little old man and the other lady behind the counter felt bad for me so they said they could look up the streets in their little computer program and make print outs in lieu of measured drawings. then the little man asks me how long they will be on the street. i told him no more than 5 days, but probably more like 2-3 days. at that point, he said that i didn't even need a permit. even for 2 PODS. seriously. i went all the way down there for nothing because the PODS people and the permit office lady from yesterday didn't know what they are talking about. love it. anyone need any detailed photos of westbrook avenue and stratford avenue?!?!?! as soon as i got to work i called PODS back to book my 2 new PODS and schedule the move of all 3 PODS from richmond to the driveway of my uncle's house in massachusetts, since we don't know where in boston we'll be. seems pretty simple to me, but apparently not. after spending one hour and 34 minutes on the phone with two different service representatives i have all my PODS needs met (i think.) because the last lady i was working with seemed somewhat incompetent i will probably call back later tonight to verify that everything is set up correctly. but assuming it is set up the way we discussed, 2 new PODS will be delivered to our house here on 7/9 and picked up on 7/12. on 7/13, all three PODS will start a long journey to the PODS warehouse in ludlow, ma to arrive there no later than 7/20. emotional roller coaster (temporarily) good. in other news, got a message from the realtor. the lawyer dude is apparently out of the picture now. he loved the house. his parents loved the house. it is exactly what he and his fiancee are looking for. but his fiancee won't even come look at it because it's not in the west end of richmond. i can seriously throw a softball into the west end from our front yard. sigh. realtor called her a princess. i laughed. but the realtor has left a message with the other interested dude from the open house, so maybe we'll hear from them soon. or maybe the west end princess will change her mind. at least i have PODS. and PODS packing people to pack my PODS. that's something.

emotional rollercoaster crash

so yesterday i was doing good. had a great weekend in annapolis for chris and katie's gorgeous wedding. the open house sunday had a record turn out (5!), including 2 different interested parties that are scheduling follow-up showings, one for this wednesday most likely. i created the best damn moving to-do list ever and was rocking and rolling on it. i got quotes for 2 more PODS as well as PODS packing people (PPPs). then i hired the PPPs first since i figured they'd be the hardest to schedule as they only need to be here for one day. all it seemed i had to do was actually book the PODS themselves but that would be easy - as long as they are here when the movers come it doesn't matter when they are delivered or picked up. so i actually have a leaving richmond date. finally. (PODS are being packed on 7/10 so i'm outta here on 7/11.) stuff was getting accomplished. life was good. life was happy. but... apparently that's not allowed. in a my name is earl moment, karma decided i had more than enough good yesterday so i needed some serious crap to deal with. i called PODS back today to book the 2 PODS i need to store the rest of the contents of the house. easy, right? wrong. the lady reminds me that PODS can only be on the city street for 5 days without a permit. fine. no biggie. i already knew that. i really only need them there for 1-2 days to be packed by the PPPs. then she throws me a curve ball. apparently you can only have one PODS at a time without a permit from the city of richmond. not even allowed to place the order for 2 to be delivered without the permit already in hand. of course i learn this at 4:45 p.m. which means i won't be able get anything done today due to the glory that is city government. plus if i don't order the PODS soon i may not be able to get them here for when the PPPs will be here. and the PPPs are already paid for. crap. if i can't get this permit asap we are out a crapload of $$$ and i still have no way of getting all this stuff to massachusetts. i quickly called some random city phone number and told my sob story to 2 people before i ended up in the right department to obtain a PODS permit. the lady tells me that i'll need to come down to their office and fill out a permit application that may or may not cost me up to $100. i also need to bring with me photos of the street where i'd like to place the PODS. oh yeah. and the normal turnaround time for a permit is 5-10 business days, or more. i feel bad for the lady because at that point i lost it and just starting sobbing uncontrollably about how i don't have that kind of time, and i'm 7 months pregnant, doing this all alone, and everything's gone to hell. she must have felt bad for me because she gave me the supervisor dude's name and said that if i asked for him when i came in and told him my story he'd help expedite it as much as he could. but still no guarantee that i can get it in enough time to order the PODS and get the PODS delivered in time for the PPPs to pack them so that i am not out a boatload of money. other really fun tidbit of info - the permit office, of course is only open from 8-5 M-F, all days and times that i need to be at my full time job over 45 minutes away. as soon as i got home i took a bunch of photos of the streets and sent them off the walgreens.com to process. i'll have to pick them up at the scary ghetto walgreens in a couple of hours when they are ready so that i can have them with me tomorrow when i am waiting at the permit office at 7:45 a.m. for them to open so as not to miss too much work. can't miss too much work because i need to get paid so that i can afford all these movers that might not even have to move anything for me. love it. oh and i haven't heard anything from the damn realtor if the people are coming to see the house tomorrow or not. don't know if i need to be cleaning tonight so it's nice when they come. don't know if i need to leave work at any point to come take the dogs out of the house when they come. chances are in typical our-stupid-realtor fashion he'll call me at work tomorrow at like 4 and say that the people are coming at 4:30. he's really good with the advance notice. i work 30 minutes away. not possible buddy. but it's not like we can afford to turn interested people away. we need to sell this house like 2 months ago. i have officially had a nervous breakdown. there's just no way this is going to work out.

baby wildlife flocking to our house

so as i was getting dressed this morning i heard some really loud cooing, like a bird was right outside the window. i looked but didn't see anything. i went downstairs and peeked out the front door. sitting on our porch was a mama mourning dove and her so-ugly-it's-unbelievably-cute baby. (i did not take the pic - just found one on the net to illustrate how cute/ugly a baby mourning dove is. the person who took it takes a lot of good bird pics if you want to check it out!) then tonight, after i got home from baby school (more on that later) i looked out on the front porch again and this time there was a baby possum (aka marmot in our house) which was incredibly cute. i've never seen a baby possum up close and personal before - so cute. other than roadkill, the possum i've ever really seen up close was the beagle-sized one (i'm serious!) that would eat the cat food we left out on the porch for the feral cats at our old house. i have pics of that hideous beast on the computer upstairs but not on my laptop so i can't post them right now.

again - not my pic of a possum but very cute :)

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are baby animals stalking me?

31 weeks

9 weeks to go, 5 weeks until we're "full term" - damn that's scary. from babycenter.com: This week, your baby measures about 16 inches long. He weighs a little over 3 pounds and is headed for a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and he's beginning to accumulate a layer of fat underneath his skin in preparation for life as a newborn. As a result, his arms, legs, and body are filling out. roo and i attended more baby school last night to learn about breastfeeding. roo really got a kick out of it i guess because it was wiggling throughout the whole 2 hour class. guess it's just sick of eating placenta and wants milk! stay put roo - you've got a few more weeks of baking!

the video

ok. anyone who has had a baby knows what i am talking about. the video. baby school continued last night with labor basics part one. the video. yeah. that. eek. overall it was a pretty good class. not really any new info as i have read the books, but a good reminder since i am thoroughly convinced that i will not know that i am in labor. at every check up my doctor asks if i've had any contractions - not as far as i know! we spent two hours covering the stages and phases of labor, looking at pictures of the tools of the trade (forceps etc.), and other general info. then the video. wow. of course it was made in the 80's so the people are just awesome. and every lady was completely naked while giving birth - no hospital gown, no nothing. i know that birth is the whole miracle of life thing but damn is it graphic. and disgusting. i have no need to see that ever again. ever.

This is hard :(

Well, it's been a week since I left Richmond. I got through my first week of residency, it wasn't too bad, just a lot of oritentation and training. I actually start playing doctor next Sunday. Fortunately, my first day I'm on-call :) I hear a lot about how difficult the intern year can be, well i can tell you it's not going to be as hard as what I am going through now. It's really hard being away from Keira, Roo, and the pups. I miss them so much. I know we will all be re-united soon but it can't come soon enough. At South Station in Boston, they have these billboards promoting things to do around Boston. The premise is they show a picture of something that is "lamer" than doing a Boston acitivity. There is then a calander superimposed over the picture promoting Boston.com. This was one of the billboards that I took a picture of, while they incinuate sitting on a couch with a beagle is lame compared to hitting Boston, there is no place I'd rather be right now than on the couch with my wife and the dogs. Daddy misses you guys!

dam it!

went to the doctor this morning... he's concerned about my anemia because my hemoglobin level has dropped since the last blood test in january (was 11.1 in january, and was 9.4 two weeks ago.) normal range for an adult female is 12-16. so that means i have to give another blood sample at my next appointment in 2 weeks so we can keep an eye on it. i thought i was done giving blood. hopefully i won't come close to passing out next time.

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better news - after two straight appointments having gained 5 pounds from the previous visit i did not gain anything since the last appointment 2 weeks ago. after the massive loss during the first few months, i'm only about +5 pounds from my original pre-prego weight. i needed to gain some weight, but we didn't want to keep up the pace of 5 pounds each time!

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otherwise everything is looking good. my blood pressure is good, the baby's heart rate is good, and my belly is roughly the right size.

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my next appointment is in two weeks and will probably be my last one in richmond - gotta get on with finding a doctor in boston!!!

happy father's day!

dad, mom is typing this for us because we don't have fingers. we love you and we miss you. we'll see you soon. happy father's day! love, abby, jackson, bailey, and martini and happy father's day to all the other fathers, grandfathers, etc. out there!

ebay is evil

got lots of stuff for a nursery. now just need a house to put the nursery in!

and then there were 5 (and a half i guess!)

jeremy and guinness the cat left here last monday. jeremy is now staying at aunt lois' house near boston and the kitty is staying with my parents at the other end of massachusetts. today, as my last act as a volunteer for brew beagle rescue, i drove up to dc to bring our foster dog sunshine to an adoption day. we didn't expect her to get adopted today, so another volunteer planned to take sunshine in as a foster until she does get adopted. i'm glad she was able to go into another foster home instead of having to go back to the kennel to wait for her forever family. but the numbers are dwindling down here in richmond. it's just me (and roo!) and the 4 resident hounds left. the house is so empty now. in other news, we had another house showing today, the second this week. don't know anything about the peeps that saw it today but at least business is picking up!

off with her hair!

a few months ago i realized how long my hair was getting. i wasn't growing it out specifically, just too busy to go get a haircut. instead of sucking it up an getting it cut, i decided to keep growing it out until it was long enough to donate to locks of love. i figured i'd let it grow until roo was born and then chop it off. but my hair has been driving me crazy lately. it's just way too thick to have long. and hot when it's 97 degrees and humid. last weekend i measured my ponytail to make sure i had the necessary 10 inches and i did. off with it! jeremy and i went to get haircuts on sunday, but all the places close early on sundays so no haircut for me. today after work i decided to go for it. it's gone! my hair is pretty short now - as short as it has been since second grade when becky got gum in her hair so mom gave us all boy-cuts so she didn't have to deal with that again. (roo did not like the blow dryer - it kicked me the entire time she was drying my hair!) had to use my cell phone to take the pic of the ponytail before they sent it off to locks of love so it's not the greatest quality but you get the idea. i hope the hair that was driving me crazy makes some little bald kid very happy :)

fun new toy for roo

ebay is my friend. there's lots of good stuff out there. i'm going to go broke.

30 weeks

30 weeks. wow. 30 is a big number. it is also close to 40 weeks. yikes. the end is near. 10 weeks to go. from babycenter.com: Your baby's a bit more than 15 1/2 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and fills out your uterus. Her eyes open and close, she's able to distinguish between light and dark, and she can even follow a light source back and forth. Once she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have a visual acuity of only 20/400 — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. roo and i attended our first baby school class last night called "for baby's sake" where we learned about all the bad things that can happen to babies and kids. we watched a ridiculously old video about household safety that contained nothing more than common sense. but then again, they wouldn't have to tell people not to leave loaded guns on their coffee tables unless some idiots somewhere did it. we got a 30 minute lecture about preventing diaper rash followed by a 30 minute lecture on using the booger sucker. good times. all the other soon to be mommies were frantically writing down everything the nurse said. made me glad i married a pediatrician. :)

better news!

just got word from the realtor that that couple that was scoping our house for their daughter got back in touch with him wanting to know if the house was still available. still may not pan out, but it's better news! guess i just have to anonymously blast random people on a blog to get them to respond to their email ;)

house selling update

i wish i had better news since jeremy has already moved up to beantown and the pups and i are still here, but... still nothing back from the couple who was scoping out houses for their daughter. our realtor has emailed them a couple of times but has gotten no response. we think our suspicions were correct that they were just snoopers with a cover story as not to seem like snoopers. oh well. then we got excited on sunday when we got a call from our realtor (at 11 a.m.) saying that one of the other realtors in his firm wanted to show the house to some of his clients at noon. as much as it sucks to scramble to get the house cleaned, vacuumed, dusted etc., get dressed, load all the pets in the car, and get out in under an hour - it's the only way this place is going to sell. we were out by 11:30, grabbed some limeade, and camped out in the parking lot across the street to wait. the couple and their realtor came right around noon and were in the house for a decent amount of time. good sign, right? wrong. this couple was yet another who is looking for an older home with older home charm and quirks. it kills me. our house is only 6 years old - you know that. you know that's not what you want. why look??? glad we scrambled so they could see it (rolling eyes) oh well, shot down again. we asked our realtor to provide us with a list of all the houses for sale in the neighborhood, the prices, and how long they've been on the market. there's 9 active houses in our tiny neighborhood now and most have been on the market about as long as we have. there are 4 houses with contracts pending and about 4 more that have sold recently. so stuff is selling. but then you look at what is selling. the 8 houses that have sold are either the really small/cheap houses (closer to 200K with ~1000 square feet) or the really, really nice houses (400K+ and 2000+ square feet). nothing in the middle range is moving. roo's arrival is getting closer and closer. and i really really really don't want to live in an apartment, at least not for long. so we decided to drop the price a bit more to see if that does it. but that's as low as we can go to leave room for negotiation. it is now priced below tax assessment. hopefully this will stir up some action. if not we'll have to just let it sit while we rent an apartment or try to rent it out and put it back on the market when the it starts to pick back up. i really dislike the sub prime people who couldn't pay their mortgages and the foolish lenders who thought they would. (and this comes from a girl who sends credit card offers to sub prime people for a living.) darn you fools.

Last Post From Richmond

Hello all! First of all, thanks to the Leonards for an awesome baby shower. I really had a lot of fun and it was great to see all in attendance. Thanks also for all of you who came to celebrate our the coming of our first bundle of joy :) Today, I am leaving Richmond and heading to Boston. To say I am filled with emotion is an understatement. Just about any emotion one can experience, I've got it :) It's very hard to leave behind ones you love so much, but they will be up there with me soon enough. It's also hard to leave friends and family behind. I will miss not seeing you more often, but we have the perfect excuse to come to Boston, "You have to see the baby!" And to the puppies, Kiwi and Roo, Daddy misses you, loves you, and will see you soon enough!

29 weeks

wow it's getting big! from babycenter.com: Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to accommodate his brain — which is busy developing billions of neurons. With this rapid growth, it's no surprise that your baby's nutritional needs reach their peak during this trimester. To keep yourself and him well nourished, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamin C, folic acid, iron, and calcium. (About 200 milligrams of calcium is deposited in your baby's skeleton — which is now hardening — every day.)

i passed!

had another appointment on monday, including the glucose screening to see if i have developed gestational diabetes. had to drink the horrible sticky sweet orange goo and give a blood sample an hour later. the nurse taking my blood only had to stick the needle in once this time (as opposed to stabbing the heck out of my arms last time.) however, once she was in there she dug around for a while (painful!!!) leaving a massive bruise on my arm. i hate hate hate giving blood and almost passed out this time. the nurse said she hoped i passed the test so that i wouldn't have to go through the even-worse second round of testing. fortunately the dr's office called today to let me know i passed. yeah! no more giving blood for the duration of this pregnancy! woo hoo! unfortunately, i am still anemic and have to start taking the massive horse-pill iron supplements again.

Movin' on Up

As my very pregnant wife keeps reminding me, I haven't posted on the blog for awhile. Well here I am now. I now have about 1 weeks of freedom left in my entire life. Residency starts June 13, though I won't actually being doing doctor stuff until June 24. I am very excited and nervous about it but those are the least of my concerns. I am having a difficult time adjusting to the fact that since our house has not sold that I have to leave my pregnant wife behind in Richmond while I am in Boston. Hopefully she will be up there soon! I will miss her and the baby belly very much!

boy or girl?

we don't know. and we won't know until roo joins us in august.

to hold you over until then here's what the internet has to say about roo's gender: -

according to the chinese lunar calendar, roo will be a girl because babies conceived in december to mothers who are 28 at the time are female.

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according to the gender predictor from childbirth.org, there is a 31% chance that roo is a boy and a 68% change that roo is a girl. even better this calculation is because:

• You are carrying the extra weight around the hips and bottom, so it's a girl.
• The hair on your legs is not growing any faster during your pregnancy, so it's a girl.
• Boys are carried low. You are going to have a boy.
• Your feet are not colder than they were before pregnancy. You are having a girl.
• Dad-to-be is gaining weight right along with Mom-to-be, which means that you'll have a boy.
• The maternal grandmother has gray hair, so a boy will be born.
• You had morning sickness early in pregnancy, so you are expecting a girl.
• Your chest development has been quite dramatic during pregnancy. You should expect a girl.
• Since the sum of the mother's age at conception and the number of the month of conception is even, it will be a boy.
• Your urine is a dull yellow color, so you will have a girl.
• You are craving sweets, which means that it is a girl.
• Your nose hasn't changed during pregnancy, which indicates a girl.
• You have been craving fruits, so it is a girl.
• Your baby's heart rate is 140 or more beats per minute, so it's a girl.
• Your belly looks like a watermelon, so it's a girl.
• You use the handle, so it's a boy.

so based on 5 minutes on google, it's kinda looking like roo is a girl. that is, if you trust the internet. which of course i do. isn't everything on the net true?!?!?!!? ;)

28 weeks

28 weeks! and fortunately it has not been as scary as the movie! the third trimester is here and the kid is getting huge! from babycenter.com:

By this week, your baby weighs a little over 2 pounds and measures about 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can open her eyes — which now sport lashes — and she'll turn her head toward a continuous, bright light from the outside. Her fat layers are beginning to form, too, as she gets ready for life outside the womb.

You're in the home stretch! The third trimester starts this week and lasts until 40 weeks. If you're like most women, you'll gain about 11 pounds this trimester.

round ligaments are awesome.

can't really type sarcasm :) i have discovered this new form of pain over the past few months. it ranges from the constant burning pain in my lower right side to a sharp, stabbing pain. these days a simple walk from the parking lot to the office will kick the pain into high gear, i.e. the sharp, stabbing pain. fun. dr. jeremy correctly diagnosed my pain. from web md: Round ligament pain refers to a type of pelvic pain caused by stretching of the round ligaments. This occurs more commonly on the right side of the pelvis. Your uterus is normally the size of a pear. Thick ligaments, one of which is called the round ligament, hold your uterus in suspension within your abdomen. As the uterus grows in size and weight, these ligaments become very long and thin, stressing and tensing like rubber bands. - The ligaments pull and tug on nearby nerve fibers and sensitive structures, causing pain. The severity of pain can worry you. Although round ligament pain is uncomfortable, it is also very normal. A ligament spasm, an involuntary contraction or cramp, usually triggers a sharp pain. These spasms are found more frequently on the right side than the left because of the normal tendency of the uterus to turn to the right. You might awaken at night with pain after having suddenly rolled over in your sleep. The pain may also be brought on by exercise.

we really don't know!

oh yeah - to clear up some confusion / speculation... we really don't know if roo is a boy or a girl. we swear. really. several shower attendees were / are convinced that we know it's a boy and just aren't telling. some folks noticed that our babies r us registry had a distinctly boy vibe. it just so happens that all the cute onesies, blankets, and other baby accessories that have puppies and dogs on them are boy-ish. we just love doggies and know that roo will too, regardless if roo is a boy or a girl :) i personally think it's a boy (and have since it was the size of a grain of rice) but have no clue if i'm really right. we'll be happy either way!

surprise!!

man. my coworkers got me good yesterday with a surprise baby shower. i had no idea they were planning anything!

a few of us went out to lunch at chili's. my friend jay had to leave early to run some errands, but i didn't think anything of it. we headed back to the office to the conference room we spend all day in working on our current project. i walked in and there were a lot of people in there (which is normal) including jeremy (which is not normal!) at first i didn't realize that it is weird for jer to be in a conference room at work. then i did. then i noticed the balloons, streamers, cake, and presents and it finally dawned on me. sneaky sneaky!!

a bunch of folks chipped in and got us all kinds of goodies, including the play yard we just adore! we'll be able to use it as a play pen, changing table, and bassinet. little baby roo is starting to acquire a lot of stuff, a trend that's not likely to change any time in the next 18 years :)

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love my coworkers! and i can't believe that jeremy knew about it and kept it a secret!

open house #3 update

so while we were out of town on sunday, our realtor held another open house to make up for the botched one the previous weekend. it was our best attended open house to date, but still only had 4 people came through. we did get a potentially good lead. a man and woman came through. they are scoping out houses for their daughter who is moving to richmond very soon. they really liked the house and thought it was what their daughter is looking for. the daughter will be coming to town in 2 weeks to look at houses so we're hoping to hear from her soon! we're not getting our hopes too high, but this is the most promising movement we've had! fingers still crossed!

wilmington weekend

alrighty i am way behind on all kinds of blog updates :) i'll plug through them tonight!

saturday we drove down to wilmington to see our friends krissy, jeff, brendan, and mrs. o. the drive down was pretty smooth - traffic heading south from richmond is so much more bearable than traffic heading north!!! plus we got to use our new tom tom for the first time. all we had to do was type in the address and off we were. jeremy even got his bojangle's fix :)

mrs. o threw and barbecue / baby shower for krissy and jeff on saturday afternoon. krissy and i got to compare bellies again. it's amazing how different babies grow. krissy is due 2 days before me, but she's carrying her baby much higher so her belly appears much bigger. she's so cute! the shower reminded us of just how much stuff babies require. one of the guests there brought her 2-week old little girl who was wearing her 5th onesie of the day. yikes! i see a lot of laundry in our future! :) mrs. o is just too generous. she got some awesome presents for us. jeremy received a baby medical book and kit (yeah doctor jer!) and a really neat digital baby book. it will allow us to capture this blog and other baby memories for posterity to embarrass roo with years down the road! mrs. o found some cool vintage stuff websites for snoopy stuff and got me a really cool painted mirror of snoopy and woodstock, as well as a red and white snoopy throw blanket which will look awesome draped across a glider chair in the nursery! the icing on the cake (hehehe) was the diaper cakes she made for both me and krissy (see picture above!) she used rolled up diapers, bottles, and other little baby things to decorate the cakes. so clever and so useful! thank you so much mrs. o!!! it was such a relaxing weekend away from all the stress of home (probably our last for a LONG time!!) we ate well, played lots of wii, and got to hang out with great friends we don't get to see often! fun fun fun!

27 weeks

wow. 27 weeks. it's just flying by! from babycenter.com: - Your baby is really starting to fill up your uterus. This week he weighs almost 2 pounds and is about 14.4 inches long with his legs extended. He can now open and close his eyes, and he sleeps and wakes at regular intervals. He may suck his fingers, and although his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with assistance — if he were to be born prematurely. Chalk up any rhythmic movement you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and isn't bothersome to him, so enjoy the tickle. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. Wonder what he's thinking? - roo is definitely thinking about how much it loves kicking me. this week it has discovered that it can wake me up with a really solid kick :) you can even see my belly move as roo rocks and rolls in there. i was holding jeremy's stethoscope to my belly to listen to roo and it decided to kick that too! - we're getting ready to head down to wilmington, nc for the weekend - we'll get to see krissy and jeff and grammy jean :) krissy and i can compare bellies again. her's was much bigger than mine last time but mine has gotten huge over the past two weeks! - the realtor is having another open house here this weekend, after the botched attempt last weekend. not sure many house hunters will be out on memorial day weekend, but who knows. maybe we'll get some bites. we really need to get it sold soon - jeremy has to be up in boston in a matter of weeks. if nothing happens soon we need to determine plan b (renting, buying a house without selling this one, etc.) fingers crossed that it just works out!

really? hadn't noticed...

home sales slump in april, further hitting home values

introducing dr. jeremy!!!!

as many of you know, a chapter of our lives came to a close this past weekend as jeremy FINALLY graduated from mcv after 7 long, hard years of studying. he is now officially a doctor doctor with his md and his phd. what a smartie pants!

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we attended 2 graduations totalling 4 hours. friday was the medical school graduation ceremony where jer got his green medicine hood. he also got to stand alone in front of the entire crowd because he was called out as this year's only graduating md/phd student. the dean called him the epitome of a physician/scientist. his mom and i are very proud, though she was much more vocal about it during the ceremony. :) we're fairly certain we'll be able to hear her on the dvd we ordered for her of the whole graduation ceremony! saturday was the overall college graduation for all of vcu. the ceremony was scheduled from 10-12 but as of 11:28 they had yet to confer a single degree. with over 3,000 students we thought there was no way we'd be done by noon. but because only the phd students walk and all other degrees are conferred en masse we actually finished by 12 - very impressive. saturday jer received his blue phd hood, giving him two and me none :)

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yeah for jeremy! is there a doctor in the house????? :)

26 weeks

i am way late on this one - it's been a crazy week - more later! from babycenter.com: Your baby now weighs a little under 2 pounds and measures about 14 inches, from head to heel. The nerve pathways in her ears are developing, which means her response to sounds is growing more consistent. Her lungs are developing now, too, as she continues to take small breaths of amniotic fluid — good practice for when she's born and takes that first breath of air. If you're having a boy, his testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take about two to three days.

house update

still no action on the house, but hopefully we'll kick up some this weekend. we're having another open house on sunday. will be lots of fun considering that saturday is jeremy's graduation so we'll have folks in and out of the house, plus less time for cleaning. fortunately we've kept it pretty clean since the last open house and for each showing so there's really not that much to do. interestingly, the house for sale next door finally dropped in price - quite dramatically to 299,950- over 15K down from what they had been asking. guess they're having no luck either!

happy mothers day!

happy mothers day to all the mommies, mommies-to-be, dog mommies, cat mommies, grandmas, and grandmas-to-be!

25 weeks

25 weeks. it's crazy - it seems like we just found out we were having a baby! from babycenter.com: "Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight — a pound and a half — doesn't sound like much, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more and more like a newborn. His hair is probably recognizable now (in color and texture), although both may change after he's born." had another appointment this week. found out i gained weight for the first time - but still down based on how much i lost early on. 5 pounds this time. i was freaked out, but the nurse said that most pregos have one crazy month where they put on a bunch of pounds and then stabilize to a slower weight gain. it was really cute when i was at the doctor's office. a couple came in for their first appointment including their first ultrasound. they were so excited. it seems like just a short while ago that was us. but now we're dealing with an ever-expanding belly, heartburn, and all the other fun stuff you experience during pregnancy. also this week, i moved on to the full belly panel pants for the first time. gosh i love them. so comfy. i think everyone should have a pair of those, even if they're not pregnant! :) now it's time to start researching all the gadgets and gizmos we need to support this baby - strollers, car seats, playpens, bathtubs, baby monitors, etc. we don't even know what we need! any advice from experienced parents would be helpful - what do we need? good brands? that thing you just can't live without? anything babies r us will tell us we need but we really don't?

i heart jenny and suz!!!!

jenny and suz - you two are too sweet!!! thank you for the very, very comfy pants!! it's so nice to have pants to wear! thank you thank you thank you!!!!

24 weeks

no wonder my pants don't fit!!! from babycenter.com:

Your baby's growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, that makes a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon put on more baby fat. Your baby's skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds are developing. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily. The top of your uterus is now an inch or so above your belly button, which means it's about the size of a soccer ball.

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just for reference, the non-pregnant uterus is only about the size of a fist.

Jackie's Home

After a hard night of drinking, er iv fluids, Jackie is back home with us and almost good as new. You could just see it in his face that he was feeling a lot better. He's on a diet of hamburger and rice for the next few days, now sure how that is a bad thing for a dog. He's also got some antibiotics to take to help restore his normal colonic flora. His brother was very excited to see him too! We're really relieved to have him back home and happy!

Jackie Update

We didn't get any calls from the vet last night or this morning. So, no news is good news. I called this morning and they said Jackie was very "frisky" this morning. He is still getting IV fluids but is doing well. The vet will call us later to give us the details but this was welcome news especially for Bailey. He knows something is wrong with his brother and has been very sulky and clingy. Hopefully Jackie will be coming home soon. We will let everyone know what the vet says when he calls!

we love you jackie pants

Jack's In the Hospital

Our oldest beagle Jack is spending the night at the hospital. He was vomiting and had really bloody diarrhea all day. We took to the vet as soon as the vet could see us. He was diagnosed with hemorrhagic enterocolitis. It sounds a lot worse than it is. Basically, his bowels are so inflamed that he is pooping blood. It can be serious if not treated, but he is getting excellent care as I write this. However, it is still scary and we are anxiously awaiting word that our special dude is doing better. We will keep everyone posted. Please keep Jackie in your thoughts. We love him very much and miss him a lot right now.

good call cate!

cate - thanks for the tip on motherwear.com! my order got here yesterday :) i got loads of cool new shirts and stuff to wear that actually fit! woo hoo!

sigh

the house has been on the market for four full weeks now with minimal interest. we dropped the price earlier this week but no bites yet. we haven't even had anyone come see it since last sunday :( hopefully something will happen soon!

23 weeks

the belly is getting huge! all non-maternity clothes are officially booted from the clothing rotation which means it's time to buy some more maternity clothes (or start doing laundry like 5 times a week!) from babycenter.com: Your baby is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound. His skin is red and wrinkled. Blood vessels in his lungs are developing to prepare him for breathing. He can swallow, but he normally won't pass his first stool (called meconium) until after birth. Loud noises heard often in utero — such as your dog barking or the roar of a vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze your baby when he hears them outside the womb. look at that - i was right a few days ago when the wiener dog woke up roo :) hopefully roo will learn to sleep through anything, like a true bard!

We got a Wii

Hope everyone is doing well. We've been kind of bummed with the house selling and some of the other stressors in our life, er the baby moving etc. anywho, we had sort of wanted a Wii for a little while but they are hard to come by. Yesterday, Keira was not feeling well, so I took her to work. She figured she wouldn't be there for long so I lingered around the west end of richmond. I decided I would try to find the elusive Wii, mainly because I thought I wouldn't find one and it would kill some time. I went to Best Buy, 2 Circuit Cities, Target and CompUSa. No Wiis to be found. Then I went to Walmart and they had like 10. I went and picked Keira up and told her Walmart had Wiis and she said let's go get one. So we did, and it is soooooo much fun. By the time we got back, the had already sold 4 of them! The Wii has brought some fun back in our lives. The sports games are way fun to play. I got a Mario game which is a lot of fun too. But the best part is this morning I downloaded the original Super Mario Brothers. There are so many fun old games to download. We figured this was justified since we might as well have something to do in the middle of the night with the baby crying :)

can dogs smell pregnancy?

we've been wondering, because the dogs here have been very clingy, martini the dachshund especially. she insists on snuggling with my belly whenever possible. jackson has been cuddlier than normal as well. dogs can smell cancer and termites, why not unborn babies?? apparently it could be for real!

good luck jodi!

roo's "aunt" jodi is defending for her PhD tomorrow - best of luck dr. jodes!!!!

roo can hear! (and it thinks wiener dogs are annoying too!)

aunt lois, her friend carol, and their irish setter puppies spent the night here last night. richmond was a good halfway stopover point for their boston to florida trip for a dog show. the red dogs were sleeping in their crates downstairs in the living room and our dogs were upstairs in bed with us. i was laying in bed awake around 4 a.m. this morning (i have a cold - more about that later) thinking to myself how lucky roo is that it was able to sleep. one of the setters was rustling in its cage which caused tini the wiener dog to commence her high-pitched yapping. roo immediately kicked me hard as if to say, "mom, shut that dang dog up!" :) so having a cold when pregnant is no fun. the only cough medicine allowed is robitussin dm which doesn't seem to do anything. i can't take any of the good stuff :( i haven't gotten a good night's sleep in days since i am coughing so much. and the house situation still sucks. we got a call from our realtor today at 2:15 to see if someone could come see it in 30 minutes. jeremy and i were both asleep on the couch at the time and the house had not yet recovered from our having our overnight guests. somehow we managed to get up and get going. we got all the vacuuming done and the house in respectable condition within a half an hour - not too shabby. i'm sure we could have said no but at this point we just want to sell it so badly. it's like we're being held hostage by this house. the realtor thinks we should drop the price a bit to see if that helps. we're open to that but it just sucks to not make as much money as you hoped. the feedback we've gotten from people who have looked at the house so far has been less than helpful. most of it is stuff we can't do anything about and the other things are things people could change if they wanted. someone said they wished our kitchen cabinets were taller. someone else wished the family room was more formal. someone didn't want a newer home (???) and others are concerned about the fate of the empty lot across the street since we don't know what will go up there. we can't make our next move (buying a house in boston, moving, etc.) without selling this place so we're screwed. kinda sucks.

22 weeks

another week down! they seem to be flying by! from babycenter.com: Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn, checking in at 10.9 inches and almost 1 pound. Her skin will continue to appear wrinkled until she gains enough weight to fill it out, and the fine hair (lanugo) that covers her head and body is now visible. Her lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath her gum line. Her eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyelids and eyebrows are in place, and her pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily.

i have decided that roo is a fitting name for this child as all it seems to do it jump up and down in my belly all day. it's a real wiggler!

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we've had 2 more private showings of the house this week and another tomorrow. maybe one of these will work out!!!! we had to take the dogs to doggie day care today since someone was coming to see the house, and jeremy had to take his boards today (and i had to work of course.) the dogs are so tired now and it'll only get worse - beaglefest is tomorrow. they'll be pooped!

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yeah for jer! 24 years of schooling and he's done!!!! :)

boston update - day 2 - sunday

after thoroughly enjoying our good night sleep in the westin, we got up and going pretty early on sunday. after a botched attempt to find the realtor's office on our own, we got directions and made it there. we had a bunch of houses to see so off we went... house #6 was a nice old victorian in quincy. beautiful house just didn't meet most of our needs. the front yard was fenced but not the backyard which doesn't work for the dogs. the rooms were small and none of our furniture would fit. house #7 was also in quincy. it was really cheap but being sold as is. we pulled up to see it but soon found out that it had actually sold the day before. too bad, since it had promise. house #8 had an AWESOME view of quincy harbor - right on the water. unfortunately the house itself was not nearly as nice. it was obvious that the owner "fixed" it up to sell, but only really took care of the cosmetic stuff. dad said the house was in lousy shape and was the worst one we saw. we had really high hopes for house #9. from the internet listing, it looked like an exact replica of our current house (which of course we love.) too good to be true. the house was as awesome as described, but they did fail to note in the listing that the 1/3 of an acre was almost entirely unusable swamp land :( that wouldn't work so hot for us or the dogs. house #10 was also in quincy. it was an ok house but didn't have a garage. it also backed directly up to an apartment complex which makes us wary. we had to take off our shoes to look through this house which was a little weird. nothing really wowed us about this one unfortunately. we liked house #11 quite a bit. it was also in quincy and had a ton of square footage. it has an in-law suite, which we don't really need, but did provide a lot of space. the only issues were that it didn't have any fencing at all (would be pricey to add) and it has been on the market for close to a year which just made us wonder if there was something wrong with it that we just didn't notice. we've ranked this one as #2 for now we LOVE house #12 in milton which just went on the market. it is perfect perfect perfect for us. what is unfortunate is that there is already an offer on it. we could put in an offer too but given that our house hasn't sold yet, it's highly unlikely that our offer would be accepted. wicked bummer as this was our #1 favorite house from the weekend. house #13 was in milton and was built in 1765. it has a ton of character but just needs more work than we can handle (both time and money wise.) jeremy could hardly stand up straight since the ceilings were so low. house #14 in milton was a similar story. lots of charm and space. good bones and could be an awesome house if you have the time and money to put in to it. unfortunately, it was already close to the top of our budget and my dad estimated that it needed another $100K of work to make it right. so at this point we have one house that we love but can't have. there are 2 others that we'll keep on the list but aren't ready to commit to. we're just going to keep our eye on what's out there but we feel stuck until our house sells. somewhat depressing since we loved the house in milton but just couldn't get in fast enough. we feel like we're at a disadvantage being so far away - we just can't act as fast as the local house hunters. :( the good houses are going to get gobbled up before we could even see them. we're going to get stuck choosing from the leftovers :( and add on top of that - the train ride home sucked. the train was filled to capacity due to the weather and all the airline cancellations. we couldn't sleep sprawling across multiple seats so it was difficult to get any sleep at all. the train also got in almost 2 hours late because of the bad weather along the way.

boston update - day 1 - saturday

we're back! the train ride up to boston on friday nite and saturday morning was good - the train wasn't very crowded so we were able to each use 2 seats and sleep a bit. we pulled into south station right on time at 8 a.m. and walked the 1/2 mile to our hotel. we were too early to check in so we found a restroom in the lobby and got changed and cleaned up a bit. we grabbed breakfast in the hotel restaurant - jeremy loves hotel restaurants. it was yummy but pricey - jer's breakfast buffet was $21! we grabbed a cab and headed over to the realtors' office where we met up with my parents. we were scheduled to see 5 houses on saturday so we headed out. house #1 was in quincy and only a short walk to the t station - good for jeremy's commute. it was our favorite house of the day, but it did have some drawbacks. there's a gorgeous in ground pool in the backyard, but it isn't fenced off in any way which isn't good for beagles or babies. my dad also had some concerns about the lack of insulation in the attic as well as how the roof was vented. that's why dad was there - because that's not stuff we would notice on our own! despite the drawbacks, we're keeping this one on the list. house #2 was in milton, a little further from the t, but a better overall town with a better school system. the house was ok but there were just too many things wrong with it for us to keep in on our list. the yard was tiny which doesn't really work for all the hounds. there was also some weirdness going on in the attic with some really classy cardboard-box insulation. not sure what they were hiding with that. my dad had a bunch of other concerns, making this one just not worth the money :( house #3 had a ton of promise. it is an 1870 farmhouse on a gorgeous lot in milton. the yard and landscaping were awesome so we had a ton of hope for the inside. unwarranted, unfortunately. the inside was interesting. very quirky, with little rhyme or reason to the decor and finishes. some rooms were really nice and others were horribly outdated. it was listed as 2 bath house, but unfortunately one of the bathrooms was in the unfinished basement just like our last house we rented on kensington avenue here in richmond. good for jeremy and monkey, except that they'd bump their heads since the ceilings were only 6' high. also the rooms were just too small and would never fit our current furniture. this one did not make the list :( we were SO excited about house #4. it was our favorite house from our internet research before the trip. it is a gorgeous 6 (yes 6!!!) bedroom colonial built in 1893. it has everything we want (except central air - sorry jeremy!) we pulled up for our showing and rang the bell. nothing. so our realtor called the listing agent only to find out that the owners took it off the market because the offer they had made on another house had fallen through. wicked bummer. :( house #5 really only made our list to look at because of the central air and promise of a short walk to the beach. it is not enough square footage but we figured we'd check it out anyway. the layout actually made the smaller size workable, but again my dad found too much wrong with it. it needed a new roof and a complete exterior paint job. more work than we have time for! no dice :( so day one we saw 5 houses and only one was good enough to keep in consideration. oh well. after the houses, we had tickets to the red sox game. our realtor sent us in the direction of fenway park and we were off. somewhere along the way, my dad decided that we had plenty of time to go back to the hotel before the game despite the fact that none of us are too familiar with the city of boston. we had a map that mom had bought but it was a terribly un-user-friendly map that just caused more issues than it helped. we proceeded to drive around all of boston for almost 3 hours trying to get to the hotel and then just back to the fenway area. my dad was driving like a madman - pretty much just fitting in with the rest of beantown drivers - and cursing up a storm. finally we figured out how to get near fenway. we found a parking lot where they were charging $30 for parking. at that point we didn't care - we were late for the game and we all had needed to pee for hours at that point. we were just happy to be getting out of the car. but just as we were about to pull into the lot, a parking spot on the street opened up so we grabbed that. (but, none of us considered putting quarters in the meter... more on this later.) the game was fun. fenway was packed as it was home opening weekend for the sox. sox won 8-0 which was good given the drama we endured getting there. we headed back out to the car to head back to the hotel. there we found a fluorescent orange parking ticket waiting for us. bummer - until we realized that it was for only $25, which is still cheaper than they were charging to park in the lot! considering all the numerous traffic violations my dad had committed that day, this was a blessing. it could have been so much worse! somehow jeremy figured out how to use the bad, bad map to get us back to the hotels with minimal cursing and crazy dad driving. we grabbed some more expensive dinner at the hotel and crashed - happy to be sleeping in a comfy bed rather than on a train!

21 weeks

here's the latest from babycenter.com: Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long. His eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed. And you can certainly feel him move. He's oblivious to your schedule, though, so don't be surprised if he starts working out just when you're settling down for the night. If you're having a girl, her vagina is formed now, though it will continue to develop until birth. so roo should be 3/4 of a pound but according to our ultrasound this morning roo is already 1 pound and 1 ounce! big little roo! my doctor said that roo is about 10 days ahead of schedule! roo is very, very cute. we got to see it crying and kicking me on the ultrasound. we also have some fun new roo pictures that we will post as soon as we can get them scanned in. roo was not shy and the ultrasound nurse could tell what gender roo is, but we didn't find out. it will be a surprise!! now we need to quickly get the house clean and get packed for our trip to boston this weekend. someone is coming to see our house today at 3:30 and our train to massachusetts leaves at 6. crazy!

peeps are peeping and so are we

we've got someone coming to see the house on friday and someone else coming on saturday! fingers crossed - our realtor said he's feels pretty good about the lady coming to see it on friday!

meanwhile, we're almost ready for our trip to the town of beans this weekend. we've sent our realtor up there a massive list of houses we like, and have flagged the ones we really, really like. i think he has a much better sense for what we're looking for now! we'll be seeing 5-6 houses in milton and braintree on saturday and a whole bunch of houses in quincy on sunday. most of our faves are in quincy, which is really convenient for jeremy. it's about a 25 minute subway ride to mass general from quincy - not too bad!

Jeremy's Weekly Post 4/7

Hello all. As you can see we woke up to find about 1/2 inch of snow on the ground. Good thing we planted all those flowers :( I can't believe how big the baby is getting. We are already half-way home! I think Roo may be grounded on its birthday for all the kicking, nausea, and stress it's putting on Keira :) Hey, anyone wanna buy a nice house in Richmond? Open house was less than stellar but hopefully it will all work out. I've seen a lot of people take flyers about our house, that can't be too bad. We're going to look at houses next week in Boston. We were hoping to have an offer on our house by then, but who knows. It's kind of exciting b/c this is the house that Roo is going to come home to! I hope he or she likes it :) This week I take the clinical skills portion of my boards Thursday in Philly. Wish me luck. It shouldn't be too bad, but will be a long day and a little bit of driving. The following week I take the written part. Looking forward to putting all my efforts into moving and preparing for graduation!

snow!

we haven't had any snow all year here in the RIC, why not now???

there goes all the nice flowers we planted!

a good reason to buy our house

richmond is less deadly than normal this year

20 weeks

half way there!!!! no more produce comparisons. i guess roo is just a baby now: from babycenter.com : "Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom, and about 10 inches from head to heel. (For the first 20 weeks, we use measurements taken from the top of the baby's head to her bottom — known as the "crown to rump" measurement. After that, we use measurements from head to toe. This is because a baby's legs are curled up against her torso during the first half of pregnancy and are very hard to measure.)A greasy white substance called vernix caseosa coats her entire body to protect her skin during its long submersion in amniotic fluid. (This slick coating also eases the journey down the birth canal.)Your baby is swallowing more, which is good practice for her digestive system. She's also producing meconium, a black, sticky substance that's the result of cell loss, digestive secretion, and swallowed amniotic fluid. This meconium will accumulate in her bowels, and you'll see it in her first messy diaper (although a few babies pass it in utero or during delivery)." it's hard to believe that we're halfway there! roo is definitely getting big as evidenced by the rapidly increasing size of my belly. it's a wiggly little thing with a powerful little kick. and 10 inches long - that's almost as long as tini, our dachshund! in general, i am feeling much better. i am eating more actual human food and not throwing up nearly as much. what's weird is that the random aversion to tissues is back this week and has made me throw up a couple of times this week. just can't win! no hits on the house yet, but we must be patient :) fingers crossed that the cold temps this weekend don't ruin all the nice work we did out in the yard last week!

if a house is open and no one comes, is it still open?

no good news to report from the open house. it's was pretty darn slow according to our realtor - only three families came in. :( at least they were all actual house hunters as opposed to nosy neighbors. but he said it's pretty rare to get an offer straight from an open house unless it's a super desirable house for whatever reason. fingers crossed that we have better luck with realtors showing it to individual clients. at least the house is super duper clean right now so we can keep it this way and be ready for additional showings at the drop of a hat. our house needs someone to love it as much as we do!!!! it really sucks that there are now 3 houses on our block of our street for sale. the one to our right is for sale and so is the one three doors down on the left. the one right next door is smaller and more expensive, but does have a garage which we don't. the one on the other side is also more expensive. it has one additional bedroom and a formal living room but is still the same (or less) total square footage. it will be interesting to see how this all works out! one of the houses has been on the market since 2/28 and the other has been on the market forever, since the fall i think (i can't find it on the yahoo real estate site or on the local prudential office's site, but the sign is still out front.) so yesterday for the open house we had to scoot and take all the pets with us, so jer and i drove around richmond for a few hours with 5 dogs and a cat in my jetta. loads of fun. how does it work for private showings? any experts know (carey!!!)? do we have to do something with the dogs during the showings? if it's on the weekend or at night we can load them into the car again, but if it's during the day, we can't exactly take them to work with us! doggy/kitty day care would be expensive! people have to understand that we still live here, right???

open house

the house is listed - 4 and 1/2 hours until the open house! got some last minute touch ups to do but we're ready. amazing! check it out! wish us luck! we've got our fingers crossed for a quick sale! wanna buy a house?