I am still alive

We gotta stop meeting like this.  I'm such a better friend than that.  And I do consider you my friend!


I have been lazy with pregnancy.  And then third trimester hit and the laziness went away because, oh my god, we're having a baby soon and I need to get my shit together!  But here's the thing- there is so much around me that got neglected, I'm still WAY behind!  And holy wow, people.  Third trimester is THE HARDEST to get things done.  Ok, maybe I'm forgetting all the sickness and exhaustion of first, but... I'm going with it.


AND ON THAT NOTE!


Pregnancy news!


As of today I am 37 weeks 1 day.  :)  This means full term, people!  We are all on baby lookout around here.  Not that you really want to know, but I am 1 cm dialated, and the baby's head has dropped.  This thing is for real.


And that also means that I have of course survived what I may have described as a hellacious gestational diabetes diagnosis and diet.  I won't lie, it's been hard at times.  Especially after the first few months when you start getting bored with what you eat.  But for the most part, I'm enjoying the food I can actually eat, and I'm honestly trying to think of ways to incorporate this style of eating (which is super healthy) into my every day life post baby and post GD.  It's really good for you.  And it's really been my saving grace.  I've only gained about 34 pounds, 30 of which I had gained BEFORE BEING DIAGNOSED.  That means for the entire third trimester I have gained 4 pounds.  Don't worry about the baby- he or she has been gaining in a very healthy way.  At my 36 week appointment (and ultrasound... I get them weekly now thanks to the GD) they estimate the baby to weigh 6 lbs 2 oz.


But with all said and done, I have a list of foods that I will be eating post-baby.  Included are spaghetti, a hot fudge cake from frisch's, and my birthday dinner, including cake.  Oh, and eventually pumpkin pie.  pumpkin muffins.  and breakfast foods.  I miss cereal and biscuits and french toast.


So that's the majority of the pregnancy stuff.  More to come.


Books- 


Apparently the last thing I read was the Song of the Lioness Quartet?  That really can't be true, can it?  I love to read.  I read all the time.  No way.  I said I was going to read Harry Potter... Did I do that?  I can't remember, but I honestly don't think so because I don't remember nearly as much as I would had I just read it... So I guess I need to read that (again).  BUT to help me catch up on my reading (which I thought I was behind before... that's nothing now!!!) my wonderful husband got me the Kindle for my birthday.  I'm so excited, and I have already downloaded several books.  None of which I've finished yet, but I will soon!  And happily I will be updating my 11K in 2011 list here shortly with the pregnancy book that I have read not once, but actually TWICE.


Work-


The main reason I have been so lazy!  I thought the 4 months of training for the job was a little much and kind of overwhelming.  BOY WAS I WRONG!!!  So I guess they like me?  Because they gave me a lot more work than expected... It was supposed to be temporary while someone was on leave.  But then she came back, and never took back the work!  I love it, though!  My job is so much fun, and so interesting.  Yes, I plan the production for our making systems.  Yes, to some people that probably would be very boring.  But my job is far from boring.  There are issues every day, and the schedules are ALWAYS like putting together huge complicated and sometimes incorrectly cut puzzle pieces.  Now that I'm finally adjusting (and have only 4 days before maternity leave) I can tell that the work has been a major cause behind my exhaustion.  Not that pregnancy has been enough!  It's gotten a lot easier on me now, though.  I know my job better.  I'm at that stage where I'm ready to learn the next step (believe me... I'm still on a basic level at work).  But obviously with maternity leave starting in FOUR DAYS I'm not moving on until I return.


In other news- 


My house is a wreck still.  But it's majorly improved.  Remember how I said I was lazy?  This is where it's been the worst.  I have finally gotten most of the upstairs cleaned up.  Our bedroom is by far the easiest room to maintain in our house, and I've successfully done so now for over a month.  :)  The guest room is probably just as easy and I've been doing well with it too.  I haven't gotten the office cleaned up, but I at least get in there and dust, vacuum, and clean the window every now and then.  And of course the nursery.  It's been well worked on!  More on that later.  The bathrooms have been more difficult to maintain.  My husband is messiest in the bathroom, and it's honestly a crappy bathroom to begin with.  It's definitely near the top of the major remodeling project lists.


The downstairs, however... is a disaster.  I got the dining room cleaned up last week, though.  And I got the fall decorations out- I just need curtains.  I imagine I can keep it clean enough.  My kitchen is still a mess, and I haven't even touched the living and family rooms.  Both of which have been swallowed whole by books, fabric, papers, yarn, more papers, bags (and bags and bags) and shoes.  Oh, and empty boxes from all of the baby stuff.  But the living room is seriously on my hit list tomorrow.  It's going down.


Mike, a job, and childcare-


So my wonderful hubs found a wonderful (and well paying) job!!!!!!  It's full time (I could sing) with not only benefits (yay!) but AWESOME benefits (YAY!!!).  So we are just thrilled around here.  We're both working on the same shift now.  That's a plus.  We get our weekends together!  And seriously.  I haven't even looked back to the days where we didn't.  How did we seriously manage that for so long?  This is so nice.


And with his new job, and a rather long commute, we had to get rid of his car.  It wasn't reliable.  And definitely not functional as a family vehicle.  So with the new job, and shiny new paycheck, we traded in the little coupe for a CR-V.  :)  We had been planning this purchase for a long while, I'll admit.  Don't think we're rich or anything (we certainly aren't).  But we knew we'd never be able to afford a car payment until Mike had a better income.


There are downsides to the new job, though.  One of which is childcare.  Our baby will be at a daycare center 40 hours a week.  But it's literally down the street from my office, so I can go see him or her at lunch time if I wanted.  And we found a daycare that I'm really excited about.  They stress education.  They start teaching them in classroom style ish at the age of 2.  Geography, Music, Math, Science, and Writing.  There may have been others too.  I can't remember.  They play too, though.  And still have nap times.  They were very organized, had lots of information and were real exciting people.  The kids were all happy, and you could just tell.  It was a good place.  


The only other downside is our poor puppy is not used to us both being gone all day.  I can tell he hates it.  But we're trying to make sure he gets a walk in the evenings or at least something.  And he needs to get used to less attention- a baby is coming after all.  It's just sad to watch.  He's adjusting well, though.  No bad behavior.  He really is a big sweetheart.  You can't help but love him.  I don't care what people say, I don't think my feelings towards him are going to change much after baby arrives.  


Ok, so I've bombarded you with TONS of information tonight!  I'm going to write another post on the nursery, and maybe if you're lucky I'll include a post on Puerto Rico (cuz who doesn't want to see THOSE pictures?).  And maybe, just maybe, I'll get something read here soon and I'll update my reading challenge.  I'm scared to look at the numbers, though... I was so close to caught up.