Yesh!

Got a house! Whoopee! Who wants to come and help Mike move?

39 years, almost 34 weeks...

For all of you who are curious what I have morphed into.

The continuing saga

We looked at houses last Sat since things went south on the one we planned on renting. Then we picked a house on Saturday which was ideal. We had discussed with the landlord the possibility of having an extension for 1-2 months in case our house closing takes longer than we think. He said it was fine. We went ahead with getting the lease, etc. The realtor told us that they were going to include the extension in the lease, but it was not written in yet. Fast forward to Tues. After many discussions with the realtor about how important the extension was to us and how I wanted to get the lease taken care of quickly (so we could move this weekend), she calls and says the landlord only wants to do a straight 6 months without an extension. I was so friggin' pissed. I asked about this repeatedly, and she told me it was OK. There is also a language barrier with the realtor which made it frustrating. So as I was melting down, Mike got on with another realtor who showed us houses on Sat too. She actually is a parent of a client of mine which was a coincidence. We liked the houses we saw with her, so to calm me down Mike suggested we start everything with her in case the house we wanted did not work. Well the house we want fell through yesterday, and the idiot realtor called me back to try to get me another place. As if I would use her!!! So, hopefully the third is the charm, and I am getting the lease to look at today. So we went from moving to White Plains to Harrison to Rye. When I get some visitors we can walk to the beach!

Backstory

Here is the story that goes along with yesterday's expressive quote. Over the weekend we went to Whole Foods, and Mike found some coupons towards cheese. He was excited to try something fancy and new, so he picked out a couple to try. The past day or two, our fridge has been sort of smelly. We rifled through, but nothing obvious revealed itself. Last night I heard Mike laughing in the kitchen. He had pulled out one of the cheeses he bought and realized that was the cause of the smell. He had not even unwrapped it. The cheese was unwrapped which became a biological weapon. It smelled like the fromagerie in Paris, and the rind would have received a top prize at the science fair. He even tried it, but it was inedible. We had to put it outside in the garbage last night and Mike had to brush his whole mouth out after the experience (I suggested tossing his toothbrush too). So beware of the cheese!

Psychic Energy

Whenever I am thinking, "I have not felt Baby W for a while", I inevitably get kicked shortly after. Last night I was thinking that, and I was kept up for a half hour gymnastic performance.

Quote of the Day

I think I bought a 6 dollar turd!

MW

Growing up

We have been furniture shopping the last week or two. We have both come to the conclusion that we do not like most furniture. The good news is that we like the same things so no arguing about what we want. So we shopped yesterday and hit a bunch of stores. Wow, most of the furniture is so fugly. We are also limited right now since we need to buy a couch that we need right away. So we can not change fabrics, etc. So wish us luck. We have one contender, but we may hit one more place. For example, we like the green couch better for shape and material, but we are not sold on the color. I think we should get the brown one since it will fit in anywhere we may buy. Mike mocked the couches up with a picture from the house, so if you want to comment have fun. I will email them to you. If the green was another shade I would be all about it personally. By the way, the couches are not magical as they appear in the picture.

Aurggg!

We are starting over for the rental house. We have been working all week on getting the deal sealed, and we did not get the lease until Thurs. That was annoying in itself since we were waiting for it since last weekend. Mike reviewed it on Thursday at work at quickly became agitated.

First of all, the lease was poorly written. It had language about "broken promises" all over it. We have never seen that before on any legal document. On the section about security deposits, it said that if the house is sold during the lease term that they could "give" the deposit to the new owners. There were sections that were basically indecipherable. Mike had sent our mark ups and revisions to the owner and hashed it out last night. There were a couple of real major sticking points on it. He first did not want to include "The parties agree that the laws of the state of NY shall control the interpretation and enforcements of the provisions of the lease." That is so we can not sue eachother in South Dakota, etc. Mike thinks he realized that the laws protecting tenants in NY state were strong. I think he finally got him to agree about it.

Here are the deal breakers for us. In the repair section, he wanted us to agree that we are responsible for the first 400 dollars of any repair. What a load of crap! I am willing to admit if I break something, but 400 dollars is not minor. What if a pipe burst in the 6 months we are there or the roof leaks? That is not due to our wear and tear. He acted as if he would not make us pay for that, but when it comes down to it people are weird about money. It is not worth the potential conflict in my mind. He is the home owner, so he should assume the risk of things breaking (unless we are destructive). I am not in the mood to sign a lease and worry about anything happening! The other thing sticking point made us feel he was unreasonable so we walked away. There was this huge (and ugly) entertainment center sitting in the living room. We asked the realtor if it could go, and she said he would take care of it. The renters he had before did not care and let it stay there. Flash forward to the lease. It said we were responsible for moving it, and we had to hire movers to move it in and out of the room (and we were responsible for any damage). As far as I am concerned, that really is not our responsibility. What if the movers damage it? Will our security deposit get sucked dry to pay for it? At one point he told Mike that we could hire the movers and he would watch them, but it is just so stupid. Those types of things gave us a bad feeling, so we walked away. So today we are going back to the drawing board!

The Miracle of......

Mike staying conscious during the childbirth video last night! Mike is on the squeamish side of things, so I am amazed that he actually watched the gory details. Of course the video had the naked lady from Hippieville pushing the baby out. I do not think I have ever seen a child birth video with a woman wearing some clothing. I guess if you are one of the earth mama types you would be cool with getting videotaped for an educational purpose in the nude. Anyhooo, I plan on wearing as much clothing that is allowable!

The other funny thing in the video was the one husband coaching his wife. He had his face about an inch away from hers. I can tell you right now that will not fly with me. It was hard enough practicing with Mike without laughing. The nurse was telling the husbands to massage us to make us relaxed, and Mike was tickling me instead. It also did not help that his hands were friggin' freezing for some reason. So I think we are quite the childbirth flunkies right now.

lazin' around

This weekend was the most eventful for a while which is not saying much :)
Mike and I got a rental house arranged, so it appears we may actually move before the arrival of Baby W. Fortunatly the house is a 4 bedroom, so there will be plenty of room for visitors. The feature I am most excited about is the washer and dryer! We bought a queen sized bed for the guest room this weekend, and it is comfy. This is the first time I have paid attention to all of the president's day sales. Usually I am out in Park City without a care in the world.

Mike's cousin and her college aged son were in town this weekend, so out came EuroMike. Since I could not run around the city, we met them at the in-laws after their long day for dinner on Saturday. On Sunday, I hung out with my friend and her baby and picked up the tourists and drove them to New Jersey. We had dinner again in NJ. Mike went touring around with the group on Sunday which was hectic (Circle Line and Empire State Building--total mob scene!). My friend Tracey lives on the upper East side, so I just lounged around there until they were ready for a ride back to NJ. Yesterday Mike had the day off, so he took the train in and met the group to walk around. I stayed home and packed stuff, watched a movie, and spent some time on my left side. I was glad Mike had some fun stuff to do. I have been quite the wet blanket lately. His cousins managed to come on one of the nicest weekends we have had in a long time (40s and sunny!). Mike said the view off the Empire was really awesome the other night since it was so clear.

Homebound Film Festival

I am starting a film festival since I am stuck at home. Today's selection was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I knew it was well reviewed but depressing in subject. I went with it since I figured a depressing but good movie is a winner. It was excellent and lived up to the hype. Definitely not for date night.

I scored a gift at the hospital today for my weekly test. The nurse gave me my own pair of straps for the monitor! I should make up a punch card where the 10th test is free for myself. You know you have been there too much when you get prizes.

Birth Plans...

Mike and I went to our first birthing class the other night. The night was sort of an overview, so there was info I knew and some I did not. The nurse was talking about pooping on the table right off the bat (along with some anatomical cross sections that illustrate why that happens). She was talking about enemas, and later Mike told me that he did not want to be in the room if I decided to get an enema. Thankfully I am in total agreement there. He then painted a scenario of him getting called from a waiting room with false congratulations of a new baby, when in actuality I just pooped.

Before we went to class, I reminded Mike that he is my coach. He then informed me that am not coachable. Now he has taught me how to do things over the years (athletic or not), so how can I be uncoachable? I started thinking back to when I had major fear issues when skiing, and I would freeze on the top of the run. He would try to talk me down and usually would throw a snow ball or two to try to get me relaxed. I then told Mike that I am not coachable when I am in a state of fear or panic. Then his point became crystal clear. It is likely that being in pain and nervous may not make me receptive to his coaching. So hopefully I will get tired and become compliant.

We both ended up opening our eyes during the relaxation exercises and looking around the room. I always end up doing stuff like that. At one point the teacher had Mike put his hand on my belly to feel it when relaxed and tight like a contraction. This experiment does not work well when I was sitting there trying not to wet my pants! He did not feel any difference.

I am not a big information seeker. Knowing too much makes me more worried, and at this point I do not want to sit and think what I may go through. Baby W is coming out in the way it has to happen when it is time. I do not have a a lot of control over it, so I am trying not to dwell on it. The funny thing is that I really can not complain about being pregnant too much. I have been feeling good, and I was able to keep active for 29 weeks at least. I saw a documentary yesterday with a woman having sextuplets, and I have it really easy! Now if I just could go longer without having to pee......

Officially sane (for now)

Just got back from the doctors office, and for the first time was able to calm down and get a reading on my BP that was not high due to white coat hypertension. What really helped is that I kinda made them change things up so I could relax. I have to be put on a monitor twice a week, so I came in early and asked them to do it first so I could relax. That has been working for me well when I do the test in the hospital. And would'nt you know, it was the best order of events for me. So I think I am getting over some of the BS that keeps making them test me for pre-eclamsia every week. This in turn will further help keep my BP down! I was beginning to think that I needed hypnosis!

Bookworm

Yesterday Mike and I went to see Junot Diaz speak at the library nearby. Junot Diaz wrote last year's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Mike and I just read the book and he spotted that the author was speaking at the library we frequent. I liked the book, but it was written in a unique style.

I have never been to one of these events before, so I was curious to see what the turnout would be and how the session would go. It was packed when we got there, and people kept piling in. The moderator of the session ended up being a CBS news reporter (instead of the librarian I pictured). They started off with a piece the reporter did on Diaz, and then he conducted an interview. Junot Diaz was pretty funny and insightful, so it was pretty cool to hear what he had to say. It turned out that the book took 11 years to write. I think it was worth the wait. He has a very atypical background. He is a "ghetto nerd". He immigrated to the US when he was a child and settled in a rough part of Jersey. He would sneak off to the library and downplay his nerdy side to survive. Alot of the same themes are in the book.

The funny observation that we both had watching this event regarded the crowd there. It seemed like people had an entitled attitude. A woman coming in really late stood right in front of Mike without regard to if he could see or not. Stuff like that was going on when they did questions from the audience. People just blurting out questions to get theirs heard. The most telling question came from a woman who asked Junot Diaz if going to grad school helped him write the novel. After answering and then commenting about how it helps to get in a program that will give you a fellowship and waive tuition, the woman made a comment that illustrated the snobbery going on. She rejected going for the free education, because she felt the "craft would suffer". Somehow I think a Pulitzer Prize winning author from the ghetto tells us all we need to know.

Dream on

This morning Mike told me that he dreamed that I got my hair colored. Of course he was mad at me in the dream. I had the same dream a few months ago. In my dream, I forgot I was not supposed to color my hair, and then worried about how mad Mike would be. Mike told me in his dream I figured I was almost done anyways, so no harm. The theme is the following:

Janet colors hair while pregnant=Mike becoming angry at Janet

This is why my hair is half grey! Well, I also figure why put strange chemicals on my head right now so I agree with Mike.

Serenity Now

I did much better on my non-stress test. Maybe I am getting the hang of this stuff. I managed to keep calm for once, but now I am going in with my home readings too to let everyone know I am a basket case in the office only!

Boringer

I have not been blogging much since there is not much to say when I am hanging around the house! At least I am getting my rest!

Heroes

I think I need to watch the last episode over. I can not remember what happened to everyone.
Mike and I burst out simultaneously at the end that the show was going to turn into Lost.
As if you could take Silar down with a taser!

Head Case

Now that I am stuck at home, one main form of entertainment is going to the doctors. I went on Wed, Fri, and to the hospital yesterday. They are having me go to have a monitor put on twice a week to see how the baby is doing due to the hypertension. Baby W always passes with flying colors, and is developing just fine (had ultrasound on friday, and up to 3lbs 10oz.

Of course I have a history of the white coat hypertension as most of you know. This one intake nurse makes me kinda nervous. She is nice, but immediately when she tests my urine and takes my pressure, she makes "oh no" kinda comments. This sort of gets me into an anxiety mode right away. She's like, "Oh, there is sugar in your urine". They had to do the glucose testing on me twice, but the perinatologist and my doctor have determined that I do not have gestational diabetes. So I can now have that comment roll off of me. Then she always comments when my BP is high, and lately when I see my doctor I get worked up about it and it goes up to 160/90. That tends to raise concern as you would expect. After knowing my pressure is up, it is really hard for me to relax and I just dwell on it. The first time it happened I went on the monitor in the hospital, they did blood work, and they watched my pressure. Guess what? My pressure went right down lying around the hospital and they let me go. So that is why I am lounging around at home.

When they put me on the monitor and take my pressure it is called the non stress test. Yesterday it turned into a stress test. My BP was up when they took the first reading. Then I just could not relax at all. I swear I was having a mini-anxiety attack. They took blood again and urine to make sure I did not have pre-eclampsia. I was not comfortable in the bed either. Finally I asked them to change the bed position, and would you know my BP went right down? I knew all the tests were negative. My palms were sweating, my face and chest were flushed. I really wonder what my heart rate was! So hopefully I do not cause a shit load of unnecessary testing due to my mental status! So morning reading today: 130/65. I am such a psycho!

PS, I have to go the hospital to get the monitor, it is not a big deal or an emergency. The office is closed on Saturdays.