Look what I did

Obviously the details will need to be filled in and it desperately needs to be cleaned and pressed, but it's pretty much done. The big empty space near the bottom of it is for foot prints. I could just stitch some generic footprints on there but I've decided to wait until Stowa is here and put her actual footprints on there.

24 weeks

As requested, here is a picture of the belly at 24 weeks (it was taken yesterday):


Apparently, this is what 'carrying high' looks like. Or so I've been told (by a stranger at Target and a nurse at the PPC). That along with the heart rate at the last appointment have confirmed the gender (again according to a stranger at Target and a nurse at the PPC). People really love old wives tales.

This morning I finally made a decision on some of the stuff that we need for Stowa. I've been told that I need to register. Not sure why (don't most people just buy want they think is cute?) but I probably will. It'll be nice to have all that stuff on one list. I've already started buying diapers. I think I ordered everything I'll need to get started (except detergent, I need to find one that will work with our hard water). I'll have some of my friends that have cloth diapered take a look at what I ordered and they'll let me know what I forgot. How soon is too soon to order other stuff? Like a crib, car seat, and the crib tent (so the cats don't think that the crib is a special bed just for them). Better yet, is 30 weeks too late?

Lost

No, not the show. My camera is lost.

Does anyone know where it might be? I took a belly pic this morning to put on here and then proceeded to misplace the camera.

I've checked all the usual places (lately everything that I've 'lost' ends up being next to the giant bottle of Tums) but I can't find it.

So are there any psychics out there? Anyone have any visions? Or just want to guess?

ETA: No psychic help was provided. The camera was located next to the other bottle of Tums.

Rather depressing

There is a male House Sparrow dying on my patio. He's been there since around 9 am (maybe longer, but that's when I noticed him). He tries to stand up but isn't very successful. Then he goes back to leaning up against the wall. He looks miserable.

Why did he choose to die on my patio? I don't want to watch him die but I can't stop looking at him. Cuddles seems particularly intrigued by this. He has sat by the patio door and 'chirped' at this little bird for hours.

ETA: It has died. He had clearly been attacked by something. He has been removed from the patio.

More fun at the Poor People Clinic

I had another fun filled appointment today. First of all, there were no preggos smoking by the door. Just one woman and her 2 week old baby.

The clinic was running behind. About an hour behind depending on which department you were going to. The prenatal appointments seemed to be about 20 minutes behind schedule. Since I was told to be there 15 minutes before my appointment, I got to enjoy the company of a crack head and an older judgmental lady for 35 minutes. Wonderful.

At least the crack head kept to himself. He mumbled a lot and was rocking back and forth but he wasn't trying to bother anyone.

Judgmental lady, on the other hand, was rude to everyone. I think she may have been doing some sort of social experiment. First she was pissed that there was no where to sit. You know, except the 5 or so empty chairs. Then she was flipping out because there were no magazines to read. She accused an old lady of stealing them. Her next experiment involved the Indian (dot, not feather) family sitting across from us. She was glaring at them. She kept saying something about how bad they smelled. Loud enough for them to hear of course. I don't know how the heck she could tell if they smelled bad or not. They weren't that close to us. She then asked me if I knew them. I said no. She wanted to know why I would wave at their little boy (a little over a year old) when he waved to me. Umm, because the kid was cute.

Judgmental lady proceeded to make fun of the nearly everyone in the waiting room. She even told me that if I would just stop eating fast food that I would lose weight. Thanks for the tip lady. I didn't feel the need to tell her I was pregnant. Who knows what advice she'd have for that.

I'm really glad I get to go back on Friday!

Poor Planning

Itchy and I are poor planners. We do not plan things in advance. As much as I would like to sometimes, it just never works out right. So we end up doing things at the last minute.

Itchy has to take the national boards soon. He won't really be a vet until he passes the boards. So it's kind of important. He signed up for a test date. Then he procrastinated. It's not as easy as signing for a test date. You have to apply to take the test. Along with your application for the boards you are suppose to choose a state that you would like be licensed in and apply for that license at the same time. They make this process as confusing and inconvenient as possible.

The deadline for applying is rapidly approaching. Itchy is about to start a series of rotations that are much more difficult and time consuming. He had to get this stuff done this weekend. He just won't have time once he starts his next rotation. So he sat down on Friday night and got the ball rolling. He got the application filled out, found out what he needs to do to get a license in his preferred state, etc.

Since the application needed to be notarized (no idea why) we figured that we would find a notary on Saturday. How hard could that be? Apparently, in this town it is very difficult. There were only 4 places that had a notary (that we could find). One was out of business, one place no longer offered notary services, one place closed early, and the other place didn't answer their phone. Great. We needed to get this done so we searched for a notary in Capital City. They had lots of notaries. Lots. Most were open 24 hours a day.

Yep, on Saturday we drove to Capital City to go to the Bail Bonds place because they had a 24 hour notary. Then we went to the race track. Because when you don't have any money and you just left the bail bond place, where else would you go?

It ended up being a fun night though. We did awful at the horse track. Our picks just didn't work out. But the horses were pretty and it's still fun to watch. We didn't do so well at the casino either. It's probably because they didn't have any cat slot machines.

The funniest part is that we ate at a NASCAR themed restaurant. NASCAR is not our thing. We don't get it. It's just driving. Why is that fun to watch? But out of the options we had, it was the best place to eat. I tried taking pictures but it was too dark. It was pretty funny to us though. I was just surprised that it took all of 2 and a half months in this state for us to eat at a NASCAR restaurant! We are in NASCAR country after all.

I have to say though, the little time that we spent in Capital City really made me miss living in a big city.

Let's talk about maternity clothes

Why are they all so freaking ugly?

So far I have been lucky enough to wear most of my regular clothes. I had to pick up a few new shirts because most of my shirts were more on the fitted side. Between the belly and the boobs I looked stupid. So I bought some regular shirts in a bigger size. Those are fine. My shorts and jeans still fit for now. To be completely honest though, they are much more comfy if I unbutton them. Which is fine at home but I certainly can't leave the house like that.

I know that these clothes aren't going to fit much longer. I've still got months of growing ahead of me. This has forced me to look at maternity clothes. They make me want to cry. I just want a pair of jeans that are not ugly and that aren't going to cost more than the baby's crib. The shirts aren't too bad. I can deal with those. But the pants? Ugh. Forget about wearing maternity shorts. Those are terrible. Maybe they look better on?

To make it worse, most of the stores (that I can afford-some of those specialty stores are crazy expensive) don't even have this stuff in the store. You have to buy it online. And you can't return it to the store if it doesn't fit, you have to mail it back. I hate that.

Earlier this week my favorite pair of jeans ripped at the knee. I knew it was just a matter of time. It still made me sad. Since they now look way to ratty to wear out of the house and I was down to just one other pair of jeans, I had to go shopping.

Since I have (clearly) have issues with maternity jeans, I just bought regular jeans in a bigger size. They were on clearance too. That made me happy.

I'm pretty sure that once/if I outgrow these I am just going to live in yoga pants. That's acceptable for pregnant women right?

I keep forgetting to tell you

Itchy gets to be an exhibit at the State Fair! Yep, the vet school "donates" students to the fair to be a part of the spay/neuter demonstration. Since Itchy is on a small animal surgery rotation at the same time that the fair is going on, he gets to be one of the donated ones!

Since he has the option to drive himself, I get to go with! It's going to be fun for me, not so fun for Itchy. He'll be busy the whole day doing pre-surgical exams on the animals and what not. And of course the whole audience watching him in surgery thing. That might not be so fun. However, since he will be busy I can go do whatever I want. Itchy even found a fair guide book for me.

Now I've only been to one other state's State Fair (that I can remember). But that fair is fun. So many things to see. The people watching is hilarious. The animals are fun to look at. There are so many people giving away useless crap! I can't wait!

4th of July

How was your 4th of July? Ours was pretty low key. Itchy had Friday off so we did a little shopping. Just a few things for the baby. Tiny little girly outfits. Most of them have kittens on them. Too cute.

We also went fishing on Friday. We drove to a small town about an hour away. We got zero fish. Not even a bite at the first lake. The second lake/river was more fun but still no fish. That $80 we spent of fishing licenses sure has paid off! There were a lot of cool birds/wildlife there though. I saw a Kingfisher swoop down and catch a fish. There was a Great Blue Heron that was having much more luck catching fish than us. I heard (didn't see them) several raccoons in the trees behind us. The coolest part was when a doe swam across the river.

The little town we were in was a total resort town. It reminded me a lot of the town in that movie The Great Outdoors. I totally want to go back. They had mini golf, go carts, an amusement park, etc. It looked like fun.

The crappy part of the weekend was that Itchy had volunteered us to dog sit. Even though I do not want a dog of my own, I usually like other people's dogs. These dogs were stupid though. Even dumber than the dogs we watched over Christmas break. We were warned that one of the dogs would need to be bribed with treats before we could really even get in the house. Fine. Whatever. Seriously though, it took almost an entire box of Milkbones before we could get past the entryway. Ridiculous. Even then the dumb dog was still lunging at me. Jack ass. The other dog was barking and skittish but at least she wasn't trying to lunge at me.

Jack ass dog would NOT go outside the entire time we were watching them. Instead he just shit and peed in the house. That was fun for Itchy to clean up. I would have but I'm pregnant. Ha ha. Itchy was worried about it staining their carpet. Umm, not our problem. I firmly believe that the day you buy a dog is the day you invest in a really great carpet cleaner. They go hand in hand. The dogs also chewed up a few dvd's and a book. Stupid, stupid dogs.

The rest of the weekend was spent at home. Itchy had homework to do. It rained almost all day Saturday. It stopped just in time for the fireworks though. We went to watch them since it's our first 4th of July back in the States. It was fun but definitely not the best display.

Nirvana

It seems that Stowa likes Nirvana. I had to drive to a neighboring state last week and every time Nirvana was playing, she started kicking like crazy.

Tonight Itchy and I went to watch the fireworks. Stowa had been very quiet all evening. On our drive home a Nirvana song came on. She started kicking like a maniac.

This is pretty cool and freaky to me. I love that she likes Nirvana. But the coincidence of it all is kind of freaking me out.

It's a.....

Cuddles and Patches are very happy to announce that they are going to have a little sister! Cuddles is really hoping that this little sister will like to play more than the first little sister we gave him (Patches is more a sleep all day kind of girl). Patches has never had a little sister but she hopes that the baby will like to drop food for her.

The ultrasound seemed to go pretty well. Of course, the tech can't really tell you anything. A doctor has to review it, but the tech found all the necessary parts. So at the very least Stowaway has the right parts (maybe-I'll get to that later).

I found it a little disturbing that Stowaway so closely resembled Skeletor. The tech said that all babies look like that at this stage. She promised that the baby would get cuter before she is born. I'm going to be pissed if she lied to me.

I got to see little hands and feet (although, the feet didn't look so little) and the tech pointed things like the kidneys and stomach to me (like I could tell what the heck she was looking at). At one point the baby yawned. That was cute. She moved around a lot. The tech was trying to get a good look at the umbilical cord and every time she'd get it framed the baby would kick it.

The tech also gave me a couple photos to take home (they've had to cut back on printing these photos in an effort to save the county money, but she felt bad for me since I went alone). Now one of these is an ok picture. Nothing scary, just a little profile picture. It's posted below. There is another profile pic that is blurry. In that picture it totally looks like the baby has a hoof. I do not want a goat baby. And then, the tech printed out one pic that scares me. It's a picture of the baby's face as though she is looking at me. Freaking scary Skeletor is looking right at me. It's just creepy.

Here's a pic of Stowa* today from the outside:

I left my face out of the picture on purpose. You all just want to see the belly anyway.

Here's Stowaway on the inside:

I've called all the immediate family. Well, except Itchy's brothers. He can call and tell them. But I'm guessing that they already know. Itchy's mom probably called them already. She is very excited. She squealed when I told her it was a girl. She said that she "finally got my girl". She seems to think that she is the one that gets to pick the name. She said "you can guys can think of some names and I'll think of some names. Then you'll tell me your names and I'll decide." Yeah. That isn't going to happen. Itchy already knows that he gets to deal with her. I think we're going to have our hands full with that one.

We've already got the name picked out. We're going to keep it a secret until the baby's born. My mom is pouting. She thinks she should be the first to know the name since she was the last to know about the gender. My sisters are annoyed by our decision. Itchy's mom is not going to handle this well. For now we can continue to call her Stowaway or Stowa for short.

We've also decided to go with a Cat Hair theme for the nursery (aka corner in the bedroom). It'll match everything in the apartment and it's definitely something that will grow with her. It'll also be able to get things to match since EVERYTHING will have cat hair on it. Patches and Cuddles are excited to help decorate!