Jul

I AM 50% EFFACED!!! I am *SO* excited!!! For those of you who have never been pregnant, “effaced” involves the thickness of your cervix – it needs to thin out before you can really start dilating (which, in turn, you have to do before the baby can come out”. Anyway, with Sami, I never effaced at all (which explains why the labor didn’t progress and I ended up with a c-section). So, this is *way* more progress than I expected, partcularly since we’re still over three weeks from the due date. I’m taking this as a positive sign – maybe (unlike Sami, who was quite comfy with life on the inside), this baby actually wants to be born! %-)

The doctor was very funny – he hadn’t seen me before (I’m “rotating”, meeting my doctor’s partners in case one of them has to deliver the baby), so I guess he thought I might be disappointed that I wasn’t dilating yet. He actually didn’t use the word “effaced”, he just said “Well, you haven’t started dilating yet, but half the length is gone”. I think he was very surprised that this made me so happy.

  

Jul

We seem to have finally figured out the key to getting Sami to stay in the big-girl bed – leaving the door partially open. She has a night-light in there, but she appears to really hate it when we close the door. Every night when we put her down, she would get up, open the door, and stand at the gate and scream for a while. We discovered, really by accident, that if we just didn’t close the door, she wouldn’t get so mad/scared. Now she still cries, but she stays in the bed. Also, if she wakes up in the night, she still stays in the bed (before, she would get up and open the door, and often go back to sleep in the floor by the gate). Craig and I are heaving giant sighs of relief that we’ve finally gotten her to settle into the new bed – of course, soon the new baby will arrive, and who knows what kind of traumas that is going to unleash for Sami! It’s never-ending, I guess…%-)

In other news, Craig had a blast on his trip (I’ll try to get him to write a Blog about it, but don’t hold your breath . Craig had some more problems with the laptop right after he got home, but it *finally* seems to be working fine now. Poor guy – he has like the worst computer luck of anyone I’ve ever met. Truly. I’d gotten so used to hearing him curse the machine I hardly even noticed when things would go wrong by the end! %-)

Aaron was with us for the week again this week, and just went home today. Now the house seems ver quiet without the TV or some video game blaring constantly! %-) Seriously, I feel bad for him, since because of the pregnancy we couldn’t go on a family trip like we usually do when he is with us in the summer.

I can’t believe it is almost August – less than a month now until the baby’s due date! Tomorrow I go for my next check-up, and they will check my cervix for the first time to see if I’ve made any progress. That was one of the most frustrating parts with Sami – I *never* made any progress! so, I’m bracing myself for no news.

Enough for now…night-night!

  

Jul

Tonight is Sunday night; since Thursday afternoon, Sami and I have been on our own. As a Father’s Day gift, Sami and I decided Craig could use some “time off”, so we bought him a plane ticket to go visit his friend Greg in Vermont. Normally, we would’ve all made a trip to New England this summer, but because of the pregnancy I haven’t been able to fly. So, we decided to give him a gift of some “guy time”, to do whatever guys do when they’re hanging out together.

As for us girls, we got off to a bit of a rocky start due to the big-girl bed transition – the first night, Sami got out of her bed and fell and hit her head, and in my panic to get in the room and get to her, I broke the gate on the door. Then I couldn’t get it fixed, and ended up loosing it and yelling at her, which then made me sick to my stomach – I *hate* yelling! But, she seemed relatively unscathed when she woke up the next morning. I’m using a toybox to block the door now, and she has done a good job, sleeping in the bed about half the time, and on the floor about half the time. Naps during the day are still harder, I’m not sure why.

Other than that, we’ve had lots of fun adventures while Daddy has been gone. I kept her home with me on Friday, so we had three solid “girls’ days”. We got some new bookcases in an effort to put our house into order, and she helped me build them – don’t laugh – she really was a good helper, handing me tools, etc. We went to Tot Shabbat services on Friday, which she loves. We’ve been shopping a couple of times, and we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant last night with Kim. I have had such a blast with her! It makes me wish I could spend more time with her…

  

Jul

Well, Sami did stay asleep last night, and she had even crawled back into her bed before falling asleep (the doctor had said to be prepared for her to sleep on the floor the first few nights). She just climbed up and curled into a ball at the bottom, but she did sleep in her big girl bed. And she didn’t wake up in the night, either (I figured she would). This morning, she didn’t cry when she woke up, she just opened the door and stood at the gate calling for Craig (he’s usually the one that gets her up).

But, today for nap – no way! I put her down, she wailed, then went back to bed. Then Craig decides to go check on her, and she wasn’t quite asleep and so she saw him – more wailing. This time she doesn’t get back in the bed, but rather gets pissed and throws everything not nailed down in her room onto the floor, then starts hitting the gate, then finally just starts playing. Finally after about an hour and a half we decided to go get her, but then she was in a very bad mood. Craig put her back down for a nap about 4:30 (which is *way* too late for her to be taking a nap), and (after screaming at the top of her lungs for 10 minutes or so) she did sleep for about half an hour before waking up and wailing some more. I just went and got her – it was almost her dinner time by then, so trying to get her to nap was a lost cause.

Tonight at bedtime – more wailing, but this time only 5 minutes or so. She was *so* exhausted! We figured that she had crawled into the bed again, but Craig just went and checked on her and she was kind of half-standing, half-lying on the bed – her feet were still on the floor and it looked like she had just kind of bent over and collapsed! It was very pitiful. Craig thought we should put her all the way in bed, which I agreed with – she couldn’t possibly have been comfortable the way she was. But, I forget that Craig has even less ability to be quiet than a bull in a china shop does. So he trips over her gate on the way out and wakes her up – more wailing. He sat with her for a few minutes hoping she would fall asleep, but she didn’t. Now he left and she’s standing at the door crying more. I really don’t know if *I’m* going to survive this transition!!! I feel like I’m torturing her…

And, in the midst of all of this, Craig has spent all weekend changing computers. I got a new computer last month, and I had given him my old one, but he hadn’t had a chance yet to make the switch. So, this weekend was it. The computer was completely set up with all the software he needed, etc. – all he had to do was copy his personal files over, and he was good to go. Simple, right? NOT!!! I swear, he has the worst luck with computers of anyone I’ve ever seen. Somehow it got all screwed up, we ended up having to re-install things what seemed like a million times – he would get error messages that not only had never happened to me when I was using the machine, but I’d never even *heard* of. This happened the last time he switched computers, too – it’s like he emits magnetic impulses that make the computers mad or something! %-) I’m still not sure the damn thing works, but I’m so sick of the never-endng stream of problems I’m ready to just hurl it (and sometimes him! out the nearest window. It has truly taken him longer to get his files set up on my old computer (which worked just fine until he started using it! than it took me to set up my new computer from scratch. Much, ***MUCH*** longer, as a matter of fact. No wonder he’s so hesitant to make a change!

My baby is finally quiet again – wherever she fell asleep this time, we’re just going to leave her!

  

Jul

Tonight we took the plunge and put Sami in her new “big girl” bed (a toddler bed). It has special new sheets and a special new bedspread. It’s been in her room for a couple of weeks now, and we’ve been talking to her about moving into it, but we haven’t gotten up the nerve before now. Her doctor said we should do it far enough in advance of the new baby that she doesn’t feel like she’s getting kicked out of the crib. So, we figured we’d been putting it off long enough.

I moved her blankie over to the new bed, her baby that goes to sleep with her, and her special bear that sings to her. I also sat with her for about 20 minutes, hoping she would fall asleep. No such luck – she was fine while I was in there, but as soon as I left, she started wailing. It’s 25 minutes later now, and she’s *still* crying. The doctor said (rightly) that she wouldn’t stay in the bed on her own, so we put a gate over the door. So, in addition to having a new bed, she also is now trapped in her room for the first time. She’s absolutely terrified, and all I want to do is go get her and hold her and rock her to sleep. I’ve been crying almost as much as her. Craig naturally thinks this is a stupid response, so he’s been yelling at me about how stupid I’m being, which helps a lot – NOT!

Thirty minutes, and now she’s finally quiet. Keep your fingers crossed for us…

  

Jul

I have successfully identified the top contender(s) for the “Dumbass of the New Millenium” award: Cosmetic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Surgery Rate, Medicine Online’s Bid For Surgery. Actually, not the site in and of itself, but the people dumb enough to use it.

Okay, usually I don’t just write entries to rip on web sites, but Yahoo Internet Life had a little blurb on this site in this month’s issue, and I couldn’t resist checking out. At this site, you register for your desired surgical procedure, and then doctors (and very fine ones, I’m sure! %-) bid to perform the procedure. Lowest bid wins, just like with government contracts and (as the Yahoo writer points out – I can’t take credit for this) “we all know how well that works”.

Can you imagine?!!

  

Jul

Today, Craig and I had the place to ourselves (we work primarily at home in the summer, even when we don’t need to be home with Sami). It was so quiet and peaceful! It probably seems strange to most people, but I was so relieved to actually be able to get some work done. Craig joked that we needed a vacation so we could work. It’s nice not to feel guilty every time I sit down at my computer, or try to do something for myself.

And it’s good for Sami, too – we’re not just being selfish. She was so excited to see Isabella (Caroline’s daughter, two months younger than Sami) this morning when I dropped her off. And her time with Craig and me is more positive, since when she came home tonight we actually wanted to see her and play with her, rather than trying to distract her so we could do other things.

As to my tirade from last night – I don’t take any of it back, that really is my perspective on things. But, lest anyone read it and think I’m evil, do remember that I’m pregnant and my hormones are all out of whack! %-)