34 weeks

so 6 weeks to go. somehow that seems like way less than 7 weeks. at least we are now in the state of massachusetts so that the odds of roo being born without daddy around have just gone way down. we're also making a list of the things we need to acquire asap (car seat, stroller, etc.) so that we're ready should roo make a surprise early appearance. from babycenter.com: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. things seems to progressing on the house front. someone came to see our house yesterday too - giving us a grand total of 3 showings in a week! we haven't had that kind of action, even when it first went on the market. plus the realtor called this morning to tell us that the 12-minute lady is coming back to see it again (yeah!) and to let us know he's going to do an open house tomorrow. hopefully something will happen soon so that we can make something happen up here and get moderately settled before roo comes. even if the richmond house sells, we think we might still with the plan to buy a little farther outside the city to save some money. it would be fun to live closer to the city, but it would be nice to have spending money too :)

moving on up (a week in review)

it's been a helluva week. not sure i'll remember everything, but i'll give it a shot!! thursday 7/5 after scrambling to get out of the office early (got to love junk mail related emergencies!), i picked up my mother at the train station and headed home to meet some folks from work who had GRACIOUSLY offered to help me empty the fried-tape boxes from the attic so we could get them re-taped before the movers got there on tuesday. my friend jenn and i went off to pick up some virginia bbq for dinner, while her husband buck, jay, and jeffrey unloaded the attic in record time. (they were quite pleased to find that it is a walk-up attic as opposed to one of those creaky pull-down from the ceiling contraptions!) they were done before jenn and i made it back with dinner! we enjoyed a wonderful southern meal (mmmmm hush puppies and sweet tea!) before they all left. my mom passed out on the couch due to her long day of train travel, and i returned a call to our realtor. someone wanted to come see our house - yeah! on saturday - boo! the weekend really needs to be all about the packing, but we also really need to sell the house. so friday would have to be a "make the house look presentable even though we are mid-move" day instead of a "hard core crazy packing" day. sigh. friday 7/6 i had to work friday, but i gave my mom a list of stuff to work on while i was out, mainly re-taping and organizing the boxes the boys had brought down from attic the day before. we also found some stuff that could be easily packed without making the house look empty for the showing the next day. she got going on her list and i headed off to work. until our entire day was thrown off course... around lunch time i received a phone call from my mom. jackson the beagle had gotten into her suitcase (he knows how to open zippers!) and had eaten her entire week of medications and vitamins including blood pressure medicine and a crapload of ibuprofen. (she takes fish oil pills and we think that the aroma of those was just TOO good to ignore for jackie's beagle nose!) fortunately (or unfortunately - not sure) this was not the first time jack has ingested mass quantities of human medication so i am familiar with the routine. last time, when he ate a whole box of zicam, i wrote down the instructions from the aspca's poison control hotline (god bless them) on how to induce vomiting in a canine (hydrogen peroxide and ice cream - yum!) i told my mom where to find those instructions as well as the puppy poison control phone number. she got off the phone with me to get working on the ice cream concoction and to call poison control. she got him to vomit on the first try, but the aspca recommended that he get to a vet asap to get some activated charcoal. turns out of all the stuff he ate, ibuprofen is the worst and can be fatal in dogs. i called the vet and got them to squeeze us in even though they were booked all afternoon. i scooted out of work early to get him to the vet. jack got his dose of charcoal from dr. riley (and apparently enjoyed it!) dr. riley said that most pets hate the stuff, but jack ate it right up - figures! back at home, jack was relaxing on the couch in the living room. the living room with the light tan carpets. without any notice at all, he vomited up the charcoal from his belly. on the light tan rug. fun. remember that we have a showing at noon the next day. and we're supposed to be packing. because the movers that are already paid for are coming on tuesday. mom and i spent about an hour cleaning the huge black puddle out of the carpet. by the time we were done, you couldn't even tell it was ever there. phew. but we lost essentially a whole day of packing and cleaning time. we used the rest of friday evening to organize and clean the house as much as possible for the showing on saturday. but there was still a ton to do before noon... but jack is ok :) saturday 7/7 we got up pretty early to get to work cleaning and prepping for the showing. absolutely no packing was done. but by 11:30 a.m. the downstairs rooms were gleaming and looked thoroughly lived-in. the upstairs rooms were mostly empty, except for some well-organized boxes, but they were good enough to show. these people have to understand that we're seriously in the middle of moving, right??? we loaded the dogs into the car, went through the drive-thru for some limeades, and then pulled into the parking lot across the street from our house to scope out these potential buyers. they stayed in the house for 12 minutes - a new record for one of our showings! maybe 7/7/7 would be our lucky day! we headed back in once they left and rested a bit before launching into some serious no holds barred packing. we got a lot done. it looked like a tornado had come through our house, but boxes were getting filled left and right. we got a good chunk of the living room, dining room, master bathroom, and master bedroom done. the kitchen and the shed loomed in front of us, but we had some major reinforcements coming in the next day. feeling good about our progress, despite the inconvenience of the house showing and jackson's digestive pyrotechnics :) sunday 7/8 another early day for me and mom. we got back to work on the dining room and living room while our assistants for the day made their ways toward richmond. jenny and john came down from dc to help and jeremy's mom came up from williamsburg again. they all arrived around the same time and we all got back to work. virginia and jenny ROCKED OUT the kitchen (major props to them!!) while john tackled the scary, manly outdoor project - the shed. my mom kept going in the living room and i essentially finished the dining room. we ran out of cube and medium boxes at one point so jenny and i made a trip to the uhaul store to get more. the girl there officially knows me now and couldn't believe we were back for more! i have too much stuff. jeremy - please notice i said "i" - i know it's my fault :) additionally, we unloaded the contents of our kitchen cupboards on to the counters and everyone went grocery shopping before they left. by the time the help dispersed, we were tired but feeling really good that we would be ready for the movers to show up on tuesday.

monday 7/9 i had to work again, but mom kept busy while i was out, packing boxes and shredding catalogs to use a packing material. my sister becky and her boyfriend came by "to help" after work, though they really didn't do anything except distract us from packing. oh well. at least they took some more of the unwanted food with them. a scheduled trip to the vet for bailey (just his regular shots) also slowed us down. it was a late, late night as we tried to get everything packed before the movers arrived some time between 9-11 the next day. i tackled as much of the master bedroom as i could before having to throw in the towel a little after midnight. if i wasn't pregnant i could probably have stuck it out much longer, but the extraordinarily swollen ankles, back pain, and general fatigue just wouldn't allow it. i set my alarm for 6 the next morning, while mom continued to work well into the night (she didn't go to bed until 3:20!!!) tuesday 7/10 i got right out of bed at 6, nervous about our ability to be ready for the movers when they got there. i decided to let mom sleep in since she had been up so late, especially when i saw how much progress she had made! with my energy refreshed and my ankles at their new "normal" size i was able to finish the master bedroom by 7 a.m., including isolating things i didn't want the movers packing into the master bathroom, master closet, and guest bathroom - three areas they didn't even need to touch! mom got up at 7 and between the 2 of us we tackled as many of those weird items that you end up with (you know the oddly sized or shaped ones that just don't fit nicely into boxes) as we could. i also ran out quickly to get bottled water and gatorade for the movers ( it was gonna be a HOT one!) and to hit up the atm for cash to tip them at the end of the day. we were making good progress, but secretly hoping the movers would come toward the later part of their 9-11 window. nope. they pulled up at 9:06. we got the dogs crated up, and took the movers for a walk-through of all that would need to be POD-packed. they immediately expressed concern about the ability to fit it all in 2 PODS, but committed to giving it their best shot. 2 of them got going loading the PODS, while the 3rd started packing up all the stuff we hadn't gotten to yet (lamps, framed art, etc.) there wasn't much left for mom and i to do by 10ish so we just watched as they hauled and hauled and hauled. not looking good for getting it all in to the 2 PODS. by 3 p.m. they had gotten everything out of the house (furniture and boxes) that they were supposed to, but the PODS were bursting at the seams. all the outdoor stuff (patio furniture, grill, shed contents) remained but there just wasn't room. oh well. the movers went on their way just as the thunder clouds rolled in and jeremy and i started planning "plan b" to get the remaining stuff up to massachusetts. "plan b" basically consists of a one-way plane ticket for jeremy and a uhaul truck :) no fun, but there's enough stuff left that it is worth it. 20 minutes after the movers left, the realtor called. someone wanted to come see the house in a half hour. though i am quite desperate to sell the house, i had to say hell no. when the movers moved the furniture, we discovered several of the kitty's favorite hiding places. there were patches of black cat hair under everything. the house was a certifiable disaster area. we took a chance that the potential buyers would be willing to come on wednesday instead. the realtor called back a few minutes later to say that we were on for 3 p.m. on wednesday. phew. but another freaking showing to prepare for when we have some MAJOR cleaning to do. oh well, gotta sell the house. realtor did mention that the peeps who saw it on saturday absolutely loved the house, but they were concerned about the lot across the street. but they liked it enough to call the city to research the plans for the lot across the street, so that's promising. we'll see. i had to run off to a going-away happy hour that my coworkers were having for me and mom stayed home relaxing (though without any furniture!) and doing some organizing. later that night i made a walmart run to get us some blow-up mattresses to sleep on. i think i totally scored a $37 air mattress for free thanks to the general incompetence of my walmart cashier. sweet. the air mattresses weren't the most comfortable ones in the world, but after a long day of packing and moving, they were good enough. wednesday 7/11 reality sets in. there is no freaking way we'll get all the remaining packing, cleaning, spackling, etc. done in time to leave on thursday plus be ready for the showing at 3. it's just not going to happen. even if we stayed for 3-4 more days we probably couldn't get it all done to my standards. we decide to add the spackling and painting to jeremy's agenda for his "plan b" trip and to hire merry maids to do the cleaning when jeremy is back in richmond. we started packing up the remaining things to make jer's uhaul loading easier. and cleaning up all the cat and dog fur. which is when the vacuum craps out. yes, the $500+ dyson. lovely. it just wasn't picking up any of the hair like it normally does. but i quickly diagnosed two issues - one it was set on the bare floor setting (why? i do not know) and i was doing carpet, and the beater bar thing was coated in layers of tangled thread, hair, etc. after switching the setting and cleaning out the beater bar we were back in business sucking up fur like a freaking dyson should. phew. i didn't want to have to hate my dyson. i love my dyson. at 1:57 the doorbell rings. it's the potential buyer and her agent. my mom is holding 3 of the dogs by their collars and i had the 4th. this is a rough re-enactment of our conversation: realtor: did your realtor tell you we were coming? me: (tersely) yes. at 3. realtor: (awkward pause, as if waiting for me to offer to let them see it now) me: we're in the middle of moving. come back at 3. realtor: ok we'll come back at 3. me: great. i'm sure we're at the top of their list now, but i don't care. i just want to be able to get on the road like we're supposed to on thursday. mom and i quickly finished up what we were doing, loaded the dogs into the car, deciding to forgo the limeade, and parked across the street to watch. they came back promptly at 3 and stayed in the house for 6 minutes. not bad considering there is no furniture or decor of any kind in it. just empty rooms. we dropped the dogs off and set out to run some errands. i dropped my mom off at the scrapbooking store while i ran into the office to check email and do some web-necessary to-do items. afterwards, we dropped a bunch a crap off at the goodwill, grabbed some wine boxes from the wine store to pack our wine in, and grabbed dinner (our first real meal in days!) at lonestar. delicious. except i think i left my cell phone there, though they said they didn't find it. so if you're trying to call me, that why i am not answering. there's a chance that my phone is just somewhere else amongst all the chaos but i'm pretty sure i left it there. oh well. it was circa 2003 and dying a slow death anyway, but it does suck to be without cell phone. so that's it. yesterday was a relatively uneventful drive from richmond to my parents' house where all the rupons were reunited for the first time in over a month! the dogs and i are hanging out here catching up on email and other things, while jeremy had to run back to boston for a meeting this morning. next on the agenda - figuring out how to not be mortgage-paying homeless people!

update on the whole moving adventure forthcoming

things are crazy and no more internet at home (computer and modem are packed!!) so i will get an update on the whole crazy moving adventure later tonight if i can find a wireless network to tap into, or tomorrow once i get into my parents' house :)

I'm currently staying at Keira's aunt house in Hanson, Ma. I can't thank her enough for bailing me out in a time of need. The house is 30 miles or so from Boston and is definately in a more rural area. Keep in mind that there are lots of little critters that live around the house. On Sunday, I went to see a house in Quincy and when I opened the door I found a mouse in the corner where the door meets the car. I tried to grab it with some pliers that i had in the car but it got away. I figured it crawled into the engine and probably would jump off or burn. I got into the car two more times that morning with no sign of my mouse friend. Then i stopped at duncan donuts, opened the door and there was my friend. this time i was able to grab him with the pliers. i got out of the car right by the drive through holding a mouse with a pair of pliers. a guy in line was looking at me like i was crazy. then this dude in van sticks his head out the window and said "I'll have one of those with a large coffee to go!" I let the mouse go and went to the car to lock it and get some donuts. mmmmm donuts. in all the excitement i left my keys in the car which i locked! so i had to wait for AAA to bail me out. anywho, thought it was a funny story that you all may get a laugh out of :)

33 weeks

this week marked the first time i was belly-molested by a complete stranger. the grocery store lady who helped me bring my groceries to the car just reached out and started patting the belly to determine if it is a boy or girl. random touchy-feely ukrop's grocery bagger says girl, for what it's worth! :) from babycenter.com: This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood. As your baby fills out even more of your belly, lots of things might start to change: Whereas before you were sashaying, you may find yourself waddling. Finding an easy position to sit in — let alone sleep — is becoming more of a challenge. And bumping into chairs and counters is par for the course. You may be feeling some achiness and even numbness in your fingers, wrists, and hands. Like many other tissues in your body, those in your wrist can retain fluid, which can increase pressure in the carpal tunnel, a bony canal in your wrist. Nerves that run through this "tunnel" may end up pinched, creating numbness; tingling, shooting or burning pain; or a dull ache. roo is huge!!! as for the other stuff... waddling? check. difficulty finding a comfy sleeping position? check. bumping in to everything? check. tingly fingers and hands? check. also, spilling stuff all over myself? check. dropping everything i touch? check. :)

happy 4th!

spent my whole day "off" packing. heard the fireworks but didn't see them - oh well! got a lot done though. now the office, guest bedroom, and guest bathroom are entirely packed. i also got a good start on the master bedroom. mom will be here tomorrow to help with the packing and cleaning, as will a few AWESOME people from work who are going to help me haul the boxes with fried tape on them from the attic. fyi - the dachshund barks at fireworks and the beagles are all afraid of them!

anemia update

talked with temp doc earlier today. my hemoglobin levels have fallen again, down to 9.2, despite the fact that i have been taking my prescription strength iron+ vitamins like a rock star. my iron saturation is actually normal - i have vitamin b12 deficiency anemia. guess that's why he needed 7 vials of blood - to look for all the different types of anemia. what causes b12 deficiency? from webmd: Vitamin B12 deficiency anemia usually develops when your body cannot absorb this vitamin from food. This can happen if:

• You have pernicious anemia. In pernicious anemia, your body destroys the cells in your stomach needed to help your body absorb vitamin B12
• You have had surgery to remove part of your stomach or the last section of your small intestine
• You have a digestive problem, such as sprue (also called celiac disease), Crohn's disease, bacteria growth in the small intestine, or a parasite.
• You take medicine to treat heartburn and ulcers for a long time. Examples include omeprazole (Prilosec) and lansoprazole (Prevacid).

guess it's either the pernicious anemia or a digestive issue since my stomach is intact and i don't take ulcer meds! anyway, we'll talk with new boston doc at my next appointment to see what we need to do, but it may require b12 shots (fun! i love needles!) big bummer from webmd: You should not drink alcohol while being treated for a vitamin B12 deficiency. Alcohol interferes with the body’s ability to absorb this vitamin. i've already had to go 7+ months without a drink. not sure how long i can hold out after roo is born! :)

temporary doctor hates me

today was my last appointment here in richmond. i have a temporary ob/gyn because my original richmond doctor is out on maternity leave. i also have a doctor lined up in boston, but for the time being i have been seeing one of the other doctors in the richmond practice. he is worried about my anemia so i had to do another blood test today. i was kinda hoping that it might just be a finger prick because he was just checking in. nope. and it was even worse than the previous two blood tests, including the glucose screening. i think he's trying to torture me because i stopped taking the iron for a while (with my original doctor's permission) because of how bad my nausea was. the nurse drawing my blood had never even seen a doctor order the some of the tests he was requesting (scary!) AND whatever he was looking for requires 7 full vials of my blood to see (ouch!) the regular jabby nurse was out on vacation today so i had their substitute nurse. like original nurse, she's an older lady who believes that the best place to get blood out of me is in my arm even though my veins are non-existent. i try to tell these people that the veins in the back of my hand are far superior but they don't listen to me. substitute nurse jabbed me in my left arm and managed to get 3 of 7 vials before that vein ran dry (meanwhile leaving me with a nasty bruise - again.) fortunately, before she could dig in my other arm to get the rest, another substitute nurse swung by the lab and offered to help out. she was much younger and willing to give my hand a try after i promised her it wouldn't bother me any more than the constant arm jabbing and bruising. sub nurse #2 got 4 vials out of my right hand in half the time it took to get the 3 out of my left arm. she said i had the most productive hand veins she'd ever seen. see - you should listen to me nurses! and the best part - no bruise and no pain. roo is still tracking a little big, but within normal tolerances so that's good. but getting papa john's for dinner last night = bad idea, at least on the night before a doctor's appointment. i weighed 3 pounds more this morning than i did yesterday morning because the papa just sitting in my belly. oops! but sometimes you just need comfort food!

105 hours = <10 dollars per hour

So I made it through my first week of residency. I logged 105 hours. When you break that down, it's less than 10 dollars an hour. Anywho, it was brutal. I'm on the surgery service which is not much fun. However, I switch to a new more laid back rotation in a little over a week, so that's not bad. The good news is that the surgery service travels all over the hospital so I got to see where Roo will be born! Very exciting! I can't wait! In other news, life away from home is very hard. I miss the fam a lot but will get to see them in about 10 days or so. That is going to be awesome. Well, i gotta run I'm supposed to be watching a surgery but there is really nowhere for me to get a good view so i am pretending to follow-up on some lab results. hehehe. talk to everyone later!

tired of this real estate market, tired of packing, and just plain tired

i didn't go to either of the open houses today. was in a groove packing and didn't want to lose momentum. there were a bunch of people at the one next door. i don't get it - tons of people come see that house but no ones comes to see mine! depressing. oh well at least i won't have to look at it much longer, even though i'll essentially be homeless. yeah. awesome. but at least my 3-page, 3-column per page, single-spaced 10-point font to-do list has a lot crossed off it. progress. the office is 100% packed. all that remains in there is spackling / painting and cleaning. whew. i got some work done in the hallway and the guest room too. i'm fairly confident that we'll get everything packed in time, i just don't know how we'll get the house clean at the same time. plus, all the packing tape is peeling off the boxes that jeremy packed and put in the attic before he left. it's too darn hot up there - the tape just looks fried off. i will need to get all those boxes re-taped. but i certainly can't carry them down the attic stairs myself to do so! i may need to swallow my pride and ask for help from all the people at work who offer to help me pack and prepare for the move. i pay well (with pizza and beer!) so tired - two straight days of nothing but packing - i'm pooped!

hard core packing has begun

really the packing began back in march when we rented the first POD and filled that sucker up, but until today the house was still lived in and it didn't really appear that we had starting packing. with less than two weeks to go, i have kicked into high gear and begun the REAL packing. jeremy's mom came up from williamsburg today to help me pack. we done good :) we attacked the office since the tall bookshelves housed a lot of stuff needing of packing. i am happy to report that we packed 27 small sized boxes of books, photo albums, and miscellaneous office stuff and decor. the office is essentially packed - just have to take the stuff off the walls and load up the computers. one room essentially down, a whole bunch more to go! this was the worst one though. the kitchen will be a little time consuming, but all the other rooms are already down to bare bones. i am terrified that 2 additional PODS is not going to be enough. we have a lot of stuff. a lot. i know we don't need it all but i don't have the time to sort through it right now. we'll have a big tag sale up in massachusetts as soon as we get settled! for now, fingers crossed that 2 more is enough. if it doesn't all fit into 2 PODS we can leave some stuff here and come back for it later, i suppose. the house that's been for sale next door is also having an open house tomorrow. i'm going to check that one out as well. maybe peeps will come to the two open houses on our street and then see that our house is for sale too and call our realtor for a showing!

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!