Just Heather
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The Best Laid Plans…
Oct 26, 2005 | Filed Under: Baby Making, Calendar Girl

We are officially scheduled for induction on November 8th. However, I’m convinced there is no way this kid will stay in there that long. Today’s ultrasound measurements have estimated baby’s weight at 8 pounds. 8 pounds. At 36 weeks. Granted, it could be off by a pound—in either direction—so it’s possible she’s only 7 pounds. Then again she could already be larger than the last one was at birth. If she continues to grow at the expected rate of 1/2 pound per week, she would be one, big toddler by 40 weeks.

I am 3 cm dilated which is a bit scary to me considering my first two births. I was induced both times and went from 2 to 10 cm in under 2 hours. My doctor says I could go literally any day now, but she is hoping everything will hold off until I’m at least 37 weeks, which is this Saturday. I, however, would really like for her to deliver my baby. She leaves for vacation Saturday morning and will not return until the night before our scheduled date.

Either way, I’ll keep you posted. The new maternity center has internet access so the laptop is definitely on the list of things to bring. I did have to promise my mother she would get to hold the baby before I post pictures online. Though hubby thinks it will be hysterical to send camera phone pictures to everyone in the waiting room rather than actually going to tell them!

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Changing the Count
Oct 11, 2005 | Filed Under: Baby Making, Calendar Girl

Baby is measuring full term as of today. My doctor is hoping she’ll stay in there for at least 3 more weeks since she isn’t actually full term just yet. As long as little bit doesn’t have other ideas, we will induce labor on November 8th. I like having it scheduled. It is so much easier to plan. I’ll have someone here overnight with the girls so when I go to the hospital first thing in the morning I don’t have to drag them along right away. My sister will bring them after breakfast.

There will be plenty of time to pack, load the car, and be sure the house is ready for baby’s homecoming. Being able to give the girls a date instead of a ambiguous “soon” is so much easier for transitional purposes. Her birthday will be marked on the calendar, and the true countdown will begin!

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Lifting a Girl’s Spirits
Sep 19, 2005 | Filed Under: Calendar Girl, Making Connections, Picky Eater

Here I sit, wallowing in self-pity, doing nothing when suddenly it’s mail time! What normally consists of bills and junkmail, today had the added addition of presents! Well, more accurately a prize. Adelle ran a fun play-along contest for The Today Show’s Hometown Wedding. Somehow I managed to guess nearly every aspect correctly and won. Dell sent me Betty Crocker’s Easy Slow Cooker Dinners from my Amazon wishlist—a gift to warm my heart and soul!

Maybe now my family will be able to eat this week. Cooking isn’t nearly so taxing when you can toss it in a crockpot and walk away. The timing on this one couldn’t be better. The meetings and activities are in full force starting this week. Tonight it is a Brownie Leader meeting. Tomorrow is PTO. Thursday Stacia has church choir, and Friday she’ll go to soccer practice. Somewhere in the middle of all that I have to find time to get well and hit the post office, bank, and grocery store. Cooking would have definitely gone by the wayside this week.

I already found a few recipes I want to try. Pizza Fondue—who wouldn’t love that?— Swiss Steak, Pot Roast, Stroganaff, and Pulled-Pork Fajitas. I’m not one for Mexican-style dishes, but “it’s always fun to pull your own pork.” I’ll have to check the freezer for what’s on hand and put some of these together this week. Not today though. They’re on their own tonight.

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Selective Memory
Aug 16, 2005 | Filed Under: Busy Bees, Calendar Girl, Living Montessori, Scout Mom

Remember how excited I was that school was almost starting? Yeah, why didn’t someone remind me of the 50 million things to do, places to be, and meetings to attend. I completely blocked out a rather significant fact about the school year—we have about eleven hundred accompanying activities.

School starts in 2 days. I had my first meeting last night, the one for Girl Scout leaders. It brought everything back in stunning clarity. Free time? Right—the white spaces on my calendar are rapidly disappearing as activity schedules roll in.

  • Kids’ Church Choir—twice a month
  • Brownies—twice a month (being the leader did give me the opportunity to arrange the schedule so these two alternate)
  • Soccer—twice a week
  • PTO Meetings—once a month
  • PTO committees—I begged off this year (maternity leave?)
  • Brownie Leader Meetings—once a month
  • Bible Study—once a week (this one’s for me!)
  • Baby Doctor appointments—every two weeks for now; moves to weekly the last month (that doesn’t even account for the inevitable trips to the pediatrician now that everyone else’s germs will come home with my kid)

That works out to about 5 things each week. How ever did I manage to forget about that? For the foreseeable future my meeting notebook will be permanently grafted to my arm, my chauffer’s cap shall not be removed, and my bottom will be firmly planted in the doctor’s office waiting room. What idiot coined the term stay-at-home mom?

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14 More Days
Aug 04, 2005 | Filed Under: Calendar Girl, Household CEO, Mommyhood

Oh, how I loathe summertime. I am just not cut out for warm weather. Today I had intended to beat the heat with an afternoon at a local water playground. It was not only so I could wear my new maternity bathing suit and even out those weird tan lines. It was also a bribe to get the girls (I don’t know why I still link to them every time—their blogs have not been updated since 1992!) to do their chores. All I wanted was the crap picked up off the living room floor so I could vacuum. Yes, I occasionally do that.

Instead, they chose to lay on the floor and whine about how it just isn’t fair. Why do I have to do all this? Um, maybe because you’re the ones who made the damn mess in the first place. Then my mom gets after me with her whole Cinderella-complex. I’m thinking it’s really not too much to expect a 7-year-old to clean her own messes. It’s not like I have her cooking my dinner or ironing my clothes. After 4 hours, the living room—which was really not that messy, by the way—doesn’t look much different then it did last night, except for the addition of breakfast crumbs.

I did manage to get them to pick up the eleventy hundred pairs of shoes they had strewn about the first floor on their way up for nap/quiet-time. Of course, that was met with huge sighs and groans about how it was just too hard to carry that many shoes at the same time. Then I mentioned that perhaps they had too many shoes to begin with and I should come visit the shoe rack with my donation box. Extra hands suddenly appeared and all shoes made it to the appropriate locations without any mishaps. It’s a miracle, I tell ya.

I feel sort of bad that I’m the one counting down the days until school starts. I’m sure that makes me a horrible mother in some eyes. I’m just so tired of breaking up fights, tearing down soda-bottle walls between lunch seats (at least they figured out how not to fight for one 20-minute period per day), and listening to whining about how unfair it is that they have to do something other than veg out in front of the television.

2 weeks. I can manage for 2 weeks. Besides, they are going to Camp Grandma’s for 1 of those weeks so I really only have 5 more days of this nonstop, in-your-face, what-can-we-do-now summer schedule.

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What Day Is It?
Jul 12, 2005 | Filed Under: Calendar Girl, Quotable Kids

All day yesterday I couldn’t remember if it was Tuesday or Wednesday. Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning and discover it was still Tuesday. The slow moving week has made me realize something, though—school starts in only 37 days! I really think it’s the constant bickering that makes the days drag on. I honestly can’t wait to separate them again. I would never have thought with such an age difference, that they would fight like cats and dogs, but you’ll see I mean that literally from one of yesterday’s “conversations”:

Stacia: (singing) I know you; I walked with you once upon a dream. (repeat. over and over again.)
Brenia: Stop singing that song!
Stacia:: (singing)I know you; I walked with you once upon a dream.
Brenia: Stop it! Hssss!
Stacia: Grrr.

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Summer Haze
Jun 27, 2005 | Filed Under: Book Worm, Calendar Girl, Living Montessori

The other day we got Stacia’s 2nd grade teacher assignment in the mail, along with the huge list of supplies and a text book bill. Can this summer zip by any faster?

My posts are so few and far between. I don’t seem to have much time to think about it. I’m not even keeping up very well on my favorite blogs. My days consist of the same old stuff, with the addition of a second child to entertain and summer activities to attend. First we had a week of Girl Scout camp, then a week of soccer camp. Now it’s just day to day things.

I meet some friends at a park every other Thursday. Last week we went to a water playground. The girls had a great time, but I missed a few spots with Brenia’s sunscreen. She had a series of red dots across her cheeks. Oops.

We are also participating in our library’s summer book program. Most of the prizes are free meals at restaurants so I was all about it. Any summer night I don’t have to cook is good with me. It’s just too damn hot to turn on the oven. I’d grill every night except I feel bad asking Spencer to fire up the grill as soon as he gets home every evening. Sure, I could do it myself like a good little feminist, but the gas terrifies me.

We’re not quite halfway through with this summer, and I’m already wishing the extended calendar had passed. Eleven weeks is a long, long time. The holiday weekend should be a nice break. We are going up to my in-laws lake cabin. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and we just don’t go often enough. Mostly I feel bad inviting myself all the time, but it’s so nice to be away for a few days and not have all my day-to-day responsibilities staring me in the face.

I’ll have at least one update before we take off—gotta get my mixmania posted and mailed!

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Quick Pregnancy Update
Jun 02, 2005 | Filed Under: Baby Making, Calendar Girl
  • Arrived at the correct time for my checkup.
  • I lost a pound, which is okay since I gained too much the first time.
  • The baby’s heartrate is significantly slower (to be expected in the 2nd trimester), so there goes the gender by heartrate theory.
  • They let the student nurse attempt to draw my blood.
  • Notice I said attempt.
  • After two tries, she gave up to let the nurse finish the job.
  • The nurse had a bit of trouble too. Apparently the first vein just suddenly stopped producing blood after 1/2 a vial.
  • She switched arms (again) and filled all 6, leaving me looking like a drug addict.
  • I have an ultrasound scheduled in 4 weeks.
  • This one should tell us if we can change this blog skin to another color.
  • November is still forever away.
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