SHUT UP ABOUT TOM CRUISE!!!

I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT HIM!!! I DON'T WANT TO SEE HIM!!! I DON'T WANT TO LISTEN TO ONE THING HE HAS TO SAY!!!

MY TV WATCHING WHILE ON BED REST IS BEING LIMITED BECAUSE OF THIS JERK!!! I WILL NO LONGER WATCH ANYTHING WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT HIM. I HATE BEING A CHANNEL SURFER BUT UNFORTUNATELY UNTIL THIS IDIOT IS DONE PROMOTING HIS LIFE I WILL HAVE TO DO SO.

WHAT MAKES HIM SO IMPORTANT? WHY DO WE CARE???

One more week...

One more week to be a family of three.

One more week to suffer through this heat.

One more week to enjoy my time with my "only child" before she becomes the BIG sister.


One more week to get all those small things ready that you have to do before a baby comes.

One more week to get a breast pump.

One more week to get the carpets cleaned.

One more week to remember what you do with a newborn.

One more week to re read the book Baby Wise. (To all new mom’s I can’t recommend this book enough.)


One more week to decide if I am going to do the VIA Chord program.

One more week to make sure my husband knows that he is very important to me in case for a few weeks I forget to tell him.



One more week to get all the clothes washed.

One more week to decide if I need a double stroller.

One more week to give myself three injections a day of insulin.

One more week of not being able to ice cream.

One more week to feel bigger than a barn.

One more week of bed rest.

One more week worrying about the delivery.

One more week to remember my lamaze breathing.

One more week to watch any show I want on TV.

One more week to be pampered.

One more week… until my beautiful baby boy comes into this world!!!!

Tom Cruise is a FREAKING IDIOT!!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Scientology the belief in writings of a science fiction writer? I just can't believe this idiot, Tom Cruise, whom I use to REALLY like, is out there telling women that they don't know the history of psychology, that Brooke Shields could control her postpartum if she believed in herself, that she is the only one who can control her emotions.

I have a few words for Mr. Cruise. When you have a degree that gives you the right to give advice to anyone about what they should do, think, or feel with regard to having a baby, then you can open your mouth. You don’t so shut the hell up!!! When you have a vagina and have had a child that lives in you for 10 months (yes people they lie to all of you… we are pregnant 40 weeks… in my book that’s 10 months) and does crazy things to your body and your hormones, then you can put your two cents worth into this conversation. Until then SHUT UP!!! I have no problem with someone believing that they need to focus on self and how to make themselves a better person, but you believe in a science fiction writer. I’m sorry you are NUTS. I use to love your films but I will NEVER buy, rent, or attend a movie that you are in ever again.

I wonder how many viewers NBC is losing from the Today Show because we don’t care nor do we wish to see or hear anything about Tom, Katie, War of the Worlds, or Scientology. I just want to scream every time I see him on TV. I can’t change the station fast enough. If I were Steven Spielberg I would be telling Cruise to stop talking, promote my movie and not your life. Katie… honey… don’t be a fool. I was someone who married a man several years older than herself… DON’T DO IT!!! Especially if he has the views he does about childbirth and postpartum. I was lucky enough to get out of that marriage and have a new husband who understands depression, that you often can’t control it when your hormones are going crazy. Katie, Katie. Katie, I’m soooo worried for you.

My baby Bo Bice

This year when American Idol began my mother was staying with us four nights a week helping to watch my baby daughter. One of her favorite shows is American Idol so this meant every Tuesday and Wednesday evening our TV time was made up of American Idol tryouts, top 20, all the way down to the finals. I had never watched this show. I do enjoy Reuben Studdard and Clay Aiken but I thought that Kelly and Fantasia were too "poppy" for me.

Anyway my husband, daughter, and myself joined Grandma in the living room every Tuesday and Wednesday night to see what would happen from week to week. I liked Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice, and the other blonde girl from the start. I watched it as much as I could. I found myself racing home from a bargaining session to see who was singing what or who got kicked off that week. Our family decided with about six weeks left to go who the final three would be and we were right. I was so excited that Carrie won. I think she is really talented and I hope she goes places.

Little did I notice however is how much my daughter was watching this show and paying attention to the "Rock and Roll" man... BO Bice. It seems that she was paying attention far more than I realized. As you can see by the picture she enjoys taking our toilet paper holder and using it as a microphone much the way Bo does when he sings. I don't know anywhere else that she would have picked this up from other than Bo on American Idol. Every night after her tubby she likes to grab her microphone and pretend that she is singing. Although we have no idea what she is singing about I think that I have my own little idol on my hands.

Who knew that American Idol could bring out the best in your baby... I think my girl is a born performer. Look out Idol 2020 my girl's getting ready NOW!!!

I think that I'm getting really OLD!!!

Do you remember when you thought your parents were nuts because they listened to Country Music? Well I have found myself over the last week of bed rest watching CMT and really liking the music.

Maybe the music has changed?! I keep trying to tell myself that Country Music today is more like the Southern Rock music I use to like to listen to when I was in High School. As a product of the 80's we had what I thought was good music... Styx , Journey, REO, Loverboy, Ozzy, ACDC and many many more. We also had those interesting bands, The Tubes, 'Til Tuesday, The Motels, and the many different types of "new wave" music. I didn't much like the new wave... Being a musician I thought it was a crime that a person could make it famous as long as they had a synthesizer. They didn't even have to have a good voice. They could just mix and make themselves sound good. It amazed me, it still amazes me.

In the late 90's I started to DJ for a local club and the kids who would come in loved all types of music. I would play anything from John Denver "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" to Neil Diamond "Sweet Caroline" to Nine Inch Nails " I Want to F--- U like an Animal" plus the Dance songs and slow songs that were necessary to keep everyone happy. I thought I was really hip. I knew all the songs. I was early 30's, taught school by day, ran a bar by night... and knew 98% of all music out there.

Now, I'm 40... 40 years old!!!! I am a Mom of a 21 month old, with another to be born ANY DAY, I have a high pressure job, and I can't find anything to watch on TV except the Top 20 Countdown on CMT!!!! UGH. I think I'm getting OLD!!!

I wonder if when my little ones are a few years older will I be into their music? Or will they be writing a Blog saying..."Do you remember when your parents listened to Country Music and you thought they were square????"

Did you know there is a difference...

between labor and labor that should send you to the hospital?

I knew that there was a difference between Braxton Hicks, false labor, but I really had no idea that there was a difference in labors until you get to hard labor and then it's time to push.

Well I'll tell you, I'm really tired of this "light" labor. Friday it lasted all day. Yesterday, I maybe had 5 labor pains... today it's back. I'm trying to decide if it is because I'm tired or if the boy really wants to come out.

It amazes me daily the difference between pregnancies. With my first I was on bed rest forever, I had pre-eclampsia and I was not allowed to do anything for almost 7 weeks. This one, my love for ice cream and M&M’s got the better of me and I got, gestational diabetes. After trying to fix that with diet, which did not work and I was very faithful to the diet, they put me on insulin. The insulin has made me feel good and I have been able to work until this last Friday.

With the first one, I never went in to labor. Well I did have Braxton Hicks for 6 hours, we went to the hospital and they sent us home. Then four days later I went in for a non-stress test and they asked if I was over due which I was, they took me to have an ultrasound and with in an hour I was in a birthing room because I was almost out of amniotic fluid. I was poked with all kinds of needles to induce the labor and that is the first time I felt any real labor.

This one, he wants out, He wants out early, and I’m about ready to tell them GET HIM OUT OF ME NOW!!!!

I was going to try to have the last one natural… I got dilated to 6 centimeters when I said to my husband and I quote, “IF YOU WANT ME TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN, I NEED THE DRUGS AND I NEED THEM NOW!!!” We had a code word that I had to say, believe it or not today I can’t even remember what it was, but I could not have the epidural until I said the word.

There is a bit of concern with this one that I’m going to get to the hospital and be too far dilated and they won’t let me have the shot. I absolutely, under only conditions of saving the life of the baby, do I want a C-Section… BUT I DO WANT THE DRUGS.

So my husband just left to get me a BIG BEEF sandwich and ice tea. Grandma is here to help watch the girl. And I’m sitting in the red rocker, thinking about having a baby tomorrow if the doctor will let me, reminiscing to myself and you about how different these two pregnancies have been.

I'm grumpy... just deal with it

You know at 36 weeks pregnant I think that I deserve a few days of being grumpy.

Friday was one of those days. I had very little sleep. The girl did not want to sleep the night before and so I was up with her until 3am and then I woke up at 6:30 with terrible pains in my pregnant belly. I knew those pains... CONTRACTIONS. The problem is... it is too early to feel this way. I then look over at my husband, who is sleeping like a baby, and I start to get angry. This is when my grumpiness started. I have been up with the girl, he did help a little bit but he just cannot function in the middle of the night so I generally don't ask for help... (My trade off is that I make him change ALOT of diapers!!!) I am very envious of the fact that he can sleep and I can't.

So around 8:30 the girl and her dad wake up and we start to get ready to go to the doctor. I was really hoping that we could leave at just the right time so that she would sleep the hour up to Evanston and be in a good mood the whole day. Why would I think that would actually happen? We were late getting in the car so she was overtired from the start and did not sleep the whole way up there. Then we made her walk and walk and walk so that she would sleep between appointments. I could only be that lucky. She chose to sleep once and it could not have been more than 20 minutes!!!

We get to my Non-stress test and sure enough, I'm having contractions and they are about 8 minutes apart. No one seems to be too worried about it. EXCEPT ME!!! I have four more days to work... I need to work and I'm worried about what I am going to do. I'm also worried that Don starts his new volleyball job on Monday and what is going to happen if I have this baby early? How do I get hold of my Mom and get her to our house as soon as possible? I don't have a suitcase, not just that but I'm not even packed. We haven't gotten anything ready for this baby, and I'm starting feeling guilty. Why am I so laid back about getting things ready for this one? He's just as important as Grace. Am I just that much busier? UGH.. calgon take me away!!!

We get to my doctor's appointment and my blood pressure is sky high. He does an exam and tells me that I'm starting to get ready to have this baby... dilated one centimeter and he could feel the head. Well I'm thinking... what does that mean? Do I go to the hospital? Am I sending my husband and child home to pack for me??? What are we doing? Thank goodness my doctor and Don are so laid back because... I'M NOT AT THIS POINT!!! He has the nurse check my blood pressure one more time and then informs me that I am not going back to work. I am to go home and rest. Not do anything just rest. Call if I have a head ache. Call if I have blurred vision. Otherwise just rest, hopefully the contractions will go away and we will get our 3 weeks in. He then informs me I have to do this HORRIBLE test, that I won't go into but it involves 24 hours and finding out if I am expelling protein. I HATE THIS TEST!!! And then he tells me I have to come back on Monday. So next week I have to go to the doctor Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday... unless I have the baby first. But I can't have the baby for the next two weeks because Don has volleyball camp at his new job. (DO YOU SEE THE CRAZY THINGS THAT RUN THROUGH A PREGNANT MOTHER'S MIND???!!!!!)

So then we decide that we should go get something to eat to avoid the rush hour traffic. Well our girl, who is use to eating out, and is generally really good at a restaurant, decides to through a FIT! She was soooo tired, because she never had more that a 20-minute nap all day. I'm so embarrassed. People are looking at us. At that point I told Don I was not going make these people around us suffer for our sake... so we got up and left.

You know it was one of those days. It has been one of those weekends. I tried to explain it to Don yesterday. Everything just goes along fine... I'm fine... I'm fine... I'm fine... all of a sudden... I PANIC... I have to do this I have to do that... I need his help... I can't keep up with the girl... we don't have a name... we have nothing done... I BITE DON'S HEAD OFF... I CRY... I'm fine... I'm fine ... I'm fine...

So I finally just told him and my family, I'm grumpy and they are going to have to just deal with it. Right now... they are all sleeping and I'm up because I'm not feeling the greatest, but this is a great time. No one to bother me. Nothing to think about really. I think that I will go make me some breakfast. Maybe send them to church and I can relax for a while longer. Then it will be back to a day of I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine... I PANIC.

Shameless Plug...

For about 4 years now I have been a personal use consultant with Mary Kay. I have a few costomers but I have changed jobs since then and now married with a family and I have put that business on hold. I don't really know why. You know you can make money selling the stuff!!! In fact you know one of the finalist for the Apprentice, Tana, is/was a Mark Kay lady. She was my favorite and I really liked what she did to find out who would buy what and marketing her product. I however amd not that creative, but I woke up this morning thinking... HMMMM as I begin my maternity leave why not give a shamelss plug for my business on my blog.

Well here it is... if you would like to check out that new Mary Kay products and/or interested in purchasing something please go to my web site...

My MaryKay website

As I'm sitting home with my new baby and my little girl it would be wonderful to get a few new customers. You know one day it would be nice to be independently wealthy as a Mary Kay consultant, I could work less hours and be home with my kids. I'd also really like one of those red jackets, he he he... But for now I'll continue to work the job I love, but maybe I can use the money from to take vacations....

Any suggestions for a name???

As I sit here wondering if I am either in labor (which would make me a month early) or just experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions I thought that I would write to see if those of you who might read this blog have some good suggestions for a name for my baby boy.

Don and I have "narrowed" our list to 8 options. None of which I am totally excited about except for the names Charles or Patrick. Neither are favorites of Don's. As I have written before naming my children is a major issue for me. The child has to live with this name the rest of their life. Being a former teacher, there are kids with names that I remember saying to myself what was that parent thinking??? I even had a mother with a crazy name... "Hi," she said, "I'm Early May". Yes you are reading that correctly... Early May. Guess when she was born??? I was playing in an orchestra back in high school and the guest vocalist singing with us was Merry Belz. But the kicker was that her maiden name was Christmas... so her name was Merry Christmas Belz. WHAT WERE THESE PARENTS THINKING???? Wasn't the only daughter of former govenor Hogg of Texas named Ima. So her name was IMA HOGG!!! Names are issues with me can you tell...

So listed below are names we have thought of. In most cases they have something to do with family... I'm open to other options I just don't know that Don is. Any suggestions would be helpful... MAYBE.

Names

1. Donald Lee, the 3rd
2. Donald MacIntyre (he would be called Mac, this name comes from Don and then his uncle's last name)
3. Patrick MacIntyre (we would call him Pat)
4. Donald Christopher (Don's mom likes this but would prefer Christopher as the first name... I don't care to have my child named after me. It reminds me of Young and the Restless where Victor and Nikki named their children Victoria and Nicholas)
5. Bernham MacIntyre (My mom's uncle's name and Don's uncles last name... I can only think about him being Bernie Mac)
6. Charles Lee (Don's uncle's first name and Don's middle name... one of my favorites)
7. Charles Leroy (we would call him Charlie and the middle name would be after my grandfather... this is my favorite.)
8. Donald Jude (after Don and my mother, Judy, and we would call him DJ)

So there they are... the other family names are for the most part worse than any I have listed here... Albert, Arnold, Gustf, Frank, William (which I would gladly use but Don won't let me have a Will and Grace), I know there are others but I can't remember them at this time.

Well now that my pains have gone away and it is 5:30am... I have been up since 3. I better try to get another hour of sleep because I have a busy day of bargaining. Hope to hear from you about suggestions for names...

Three weeks to go!!!

I have absolutely nothing ready for this baby. I don't know if this is the way it is for other mothers but it is amazing to me that I virtually have nothing done other than today I went and bought diapers. I remember with Grace I wanted everything just right, but then you sort of realize that it might be just right for one day and then it is WING IT!!!

We have terrible water, when I say terrible I mean terrible sulfur smelling yellow water, where I live and so I have to go to the laundry mat to wash all the baby clothes. I do want to do that because I would like to them to be soft and smell good. BUT WHO WANTS TO GO TO THE LAUNDRY MAT?!!! The only nice thing about the laundry mat I go to is they have a wireless network so I can play on the computer while I sit and wait.


For baby number one my husband made a cradle. This time he isn't going to. Or at least at this point he hasn't gotten around to it. I am assuming with only 3 weeks to go it is not going to get done. He thinks that the baby can use Grace’s and my feeling is that they should each have its own. He said that since this is a boy, the boy won't care if he had a cradle of his own, Don says that it is a girl thing and that Grace will get the cradle handed down to her and she can decide if she wants to let her bother use it if he ever has children. I think that I will ask one more time and then just deal with the fact that a new cradle is not getting made.

Thank goodness for my mom being here taking care of Grace because she found the baby bottles that I need to use for a newborn.
Yet I do plan on breastfeeding once again for 6 months and my pump is broken. You might think that I would want to get that ready or at least know who I could rent one from before the baby gets here. Why rush it? What's the hurry?

I never realized how dirty carpets get with little ones. We have carpet in our dining room!! ICK!!! I'm big on not wearing shoes in the house but that is not a priority of Don's and so I just hate it when I get the carpets cleaned and people wear shoes in my house. I probably should have done this a few weeks ago because when Don's Mom and Dad return home from their mission trip... they won't take their shoes off either when they come over. I can handle the shoes a few weeks after the carpets are done but not the same or next day. At this point knowing that I am moving soon... do I clean my carpets? Once again what's the rush?

With my Grace I didn't really nest. I was on bed rest for 6 weeks before and well this time... it doesn't look like bed rest is going to happen and so I have been working. Because I'm working I think that that increases my adrenaline and I get home and I just want this done or that done... I want the cradle, I want clothes washed, I want my breast pump fixed, and I want my carpets cleaned!!!! We spent all morning cleaning today... I told my husband that every Saturday we are getting up and cleaning so that at any point that we might have to go to the hospital early the house will be good to go. My mom keeps it pretty clean through out the week, we just need to keep it that way when she leaves.

So, three weeks to go and so much to do and very little time to get everything ready for baby number two. I am working a lot to try to get some loose ends tied up before I go and then I am planning on not being gone more that eight weeks. I stayed home a bit longer with the first one but since Grandma will be here to watch the kids I think that I can go back to work and not worry. Well you always worry as a Mom but that would be the topic of another blog. Wish me luck that the laundry gets done, the carpets get cleaned, the breast pump gets fixed... and maybe just maybe a cradle will get made.