Group B Strep

I have no idea what it is, but I have it. From what I have gathered through the Internet, it seems to be a germ that just kind of hangs out and does nothing in particular, but if you have it and you are pregnant, it can give your baby pneumonia, meningitis, or some kind of septic illness when she's born. Luckily, a round of antibiotics now and another during labor will keep the baby safe.

That's it here...23 week picture will be posted before I leave for Chicago!

iThanks!

And that, folks, is a picture of my brand-new iPhone! (Well, that's not a picture of MINE, it's just a picture of the same phone that I found online....) Have I ever owned anything that computer-geeky before? Nope. Do I need it? Probably not. But it's pretty awesome...if you're not familiar with the iPhone, it's practically a mini-computer...you can use it as a phone, you can surf the internet with it, it plays music and even movies. It means that on my upcoming trip to Chicago/New Jersey, my only carry-on item will be my purse because I don't need to bring a CD player or laptop or anything to entertain myself. I can fit a snack and bottled water in my purse, and maybe I'll pick up a magazine to peruse. Downsizing is good, since I'm already going to be carrying on the baby.

Needless to say, I didn't buy something like that for myself (I'm a teacher, not a magician...I don't magically pull money out of my butt. Although if I could, that would be awesome)....Craig gave it to me as a Thank-You-For-Carrying-My-Child gift. :o) I'm thinking, hmmmm, maybe this should be an actual guideline, kind of like the Anniversary thing, where you get a specific type of gift for each year, only in this case you get a specific type of gift for each child you have. It could go like this:

First Child--cool new electronic device
Second Child--a nice piece of jewelry
Third Child--a Mustang GT convertible
Fourth Child--better birth control and a smack upside the head

:o)

ahhhhh.......

That massage was just what I needed....hopefully tonight I'll be able to sleep! Last night was another bad one, I was asleep by 11:30 but woke up around 5:30 and finally gave up and got out of bed before 8:00am. Now I just need to order the yoga DVD....found one on Amazon so that's good.

If you live in the Raleigh area, I highly recommend Finesse Salon and Spa ....not sure about the salon part but the massage was excellent and they have very reasonable prices. I wouldn't mind one of the spa packages for, say, my birthday or Christmas. Hint. Hint. ;o)

simply awesome.

It must be amusing to have a first name that's also a fairly common surname, because when someone with that name is in the news, it can crop up in interesting ways:



Well, I found it entertaining, at any rate.... ;o)

That's really about all there is, we went to the doctor on Wednesday and everything looks good, except this particular doctor wants us to have an ultrasound at 28 weeks to check out the cysts again, we didn't even request it. There's no more to be worried about right now than there was the last time, he's just going to check things out. He also recommended a few things to help relieve the aches and random numbness that I've been getting as a result of getting bigger (eight pounds in one month!)....prenatal yoga, a full body pillow, pregnancy massages, heating pads on the painful areas (just not on the belly, we don't want to give the baby an amniotic hot tub), etc. If those things don't work then he may recommend physical therapy. I'm going to pick up a yoga DVD this weekend and think about the body pillow, and I actually did go ahead and schedule a massage for tomorrow, yay! I haven't had one of those in about four years. It can get expensive though (especially around here...what the heck???) so this is only going to happen a couple of times, unfortunately. Bleh. This is one time when it would be REALLY nice to be rich. (Oh, who am I kidding....one time? It must be pretty nice to be rich all the time... ;o)

HA HA HA!

I'm not big on clothing that says things (especially those maternity shirts that say "Baby" on them....hi! Annoying! When I'm no longer pregnant, does that mean I should wear one that says, "Leftover Pregnancy Fat" on it? Yeesh.)...but this shirt I like:



There are definitely rules in place regarding me and the baby that's hitching a ride in that giant lump down there....first of all, if I don't know you or you are a student, you are absolutely not touching it, keep your hands off of me--that is ALWAYS the rule regarding strangers and students. (I haven't been approached by strangers but I actually had a student start poking my stomach, and another reached out her hand to touch it, I'm like, NO.) If I do know you, and you are going to touch, I don't mind if you pat it or place your hand on it, please don't start rubbing it....I'm not Buddha, I promise it will not bring you luck. If I thought it would, I'd tell everyone to form a line to the left and I'd start charging for those good luck rubs. ;o)

Building the winter wardrobe

My shopping trip yesterday netted me the following items:






(I couldn't find the actual shirt online, the one I bought is the same style but the blue is pinstriped and the cuffs/collar are white)


(I did not get the pink, I got one in white and one in green)


(This can be used as a jacket, or as a sweater....matches about half of my tops so that's good! Plus, It's not necessarily maternity, I can wear it after the baby, too.)


Sadly, I was stuck in line at the store behind THE MOST OBNOXIOUS PERSON ON THE PLANET. First of all...she was about eight months pregnant, and wearing a cami top with no bra...not a cute cami that was supposed to be worn by itself, but one that supposed to be worn under other tops. That, with tight velvet short-shorts. Hello, tacky! Second, she was purchasing a dress and one of the straps was coming apart at the seams. The lady behind the counter explained to her that company policy states that they don't give discounts, even for damaged merchandise, so she was either going to have to buy it as it was or get a different one. The chick proceeded to pitch a HUGE FIT. Thanks to her big, annoying fit I was stuck in line longer than it had taken me to pick out my items and try them on. UGH!!! I wanted to say, "HEY! MORON! SHUT THE HECK UP! IF YOU DON'T WANT THE DAMAGED DRESS, DON'T BUY IT! ARE YOU THAT STUPID?! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, WHY ARE YOU EVEN REPRODUCING?!" But, that wouldn't help much...so I kept my mouth shut. ;o)

21 down, 19 to go!

Woohoo, we're more than halfway there! I can't wait until she's on the outside and I can stop freaking out about whether or not she's okay in there...and I can start freaking out about all new things. (I have accepted that there will be freaking out. I'm just ready for a different type.) Lately, I get panicky if she doesn't move around in a timely manner. It seems like she'll have a very, very active day; which is followed by a few days where she hardly moves at all. During those days I poke at my belly, jump up and down, do anything to try to get her to move....it worries me if I don't feel it on a regular basis. Today might actually be an active day, she's been kicking me pretty steadily since I sat down in front of the computer. Yesterday there wasn't much but we DID manage to get Craig's hand on my stomach just in time before she aimed a good kick right at my belly button, and he felt it! Yay!

In other news, my body hurts so badly I have no idea how it's going to cope when she gets any bigger...my back hurts, I have a place on my lower chest/upper abdomen and one on my upper leg that goes numb and tingly for no reason, I'm crampy from all of the stretching my muscles are doing to accommodate the kid, and all of the pillows in the world can't help me get comfortable at night. I got up three times last night just to walk around because laying down hurt my back....really thought I had the rest of the second trimester to be comfortable, but I guess not. Maybe the doctor can refer me to a chiropractor or something, if not, I'm definitely doing what I keep saying I'm going to do, and that's get a massage. Most of the spas around here offer special pregnancy massages and that's sounding great right about now!

Anyhow, the good thing about not being able to sleep is that I got up early and started cleaning and doing laundry, so now I'm almost done and can enjoy the rest of the weekend! Later today I'm going shopping, because I forgot that with my upcoming trip to Chicago/New Jersey, I'm going to need cool weather clothes sooner than I had originally planned. Oh well.





Getting up early also allowed me to spend some "quality time" with the cats....they LOVE attention! We sat out on the porch since it was nice and cool early in the morning, and Toby alternated between snuggling up next to me and and walking in circles around me. Jack just kind of wandered around...he'll want attention when it's totally inconvenient, like at 4:00am.