May Meet Up This Saturday

We are meeting at the At Play Cafe in the morning of Saturday, May 23. I am planning to get there between 9:30 (when it opens) and 10:00. We'll stay as long as people are able. Although my daughter does not usually nap on weekends, we like to still pretend there is a chance so we will probably try to leave around 1:00 or so.

I think I'll be pretty easy to find. I'll be the 5'2", 9-month pregnant woman with a 6'4" husband and adorable toddler. I'll probably be wearing a purple dress and looking a lot like Barney or Grimace. Maybe I'll wear my black dress instead. I make no promises.

A couple things to note:
- Since this is an indoor location, there is no need for a backup rainy day plan. We'll just call this the final plan.
- There is an admission fee for the play area $8 for the first child, $6 for each additional sibling, but babies under 8 months are free.
- Socks are required for all children and adults in the play area, so even if you are wearing flip flops or sandals, bring some socks!
- There is a cafe with breakfast and lunch items which sound pretty good.
- If your child is exhibiting flu-like symptoms, they may be asked to leave the play area, especially considering the swine-flu hubbub. Hopefully, if you child has those symptoms, you'd be staying home anyway so as not to get the other kids sick. Personally, I don't think I could handle my toddler or myself being sick at this stage of my pregnancy! :-)

Here is the list of people I believe will be attending:
- Cara, Londo plus 1.5
- Colleen, maybe Justin plus 2
- Stacy plus 1
- Trannyhead, Mr. Trannyhead plus 1.5
- Dana, My Goofy Daddy plus 1.5
- Kate, maybe hubby plus 1
- Sonia plus 1

So that's 10-12 adults, 8 kids running around and 3 babies in bellies. Whew! We are going to be quite a crew. This is going to be fun!

If anyone else wants to come, just let me know!

Conversations with a Pregnant Woman -- Now With Extra Crazy!

Over the last few weeks, I've become even more crazy due to the pregnancy hormones. I'm an emotional person anyway, and even though it's Spring and my SAD depression is... what? In remission? I supposed that's a good term for it. Anyway, I'm not depressed or manic or anything like that. I'm just good, old-fashioned, emotional roller coaster, pregnancy crazy.

I just searched through my archives feeling that surely I talked about a moment of crazy I had when pregnant with the Pumpkin which typified what was going on then and now. But I can't find it! Apparently, this is the only place I haven't related that story. So I'll start with that story, because really, it's quite funny. And you can laugh. I laughed. It's okay. I think. Just don't laugh too hard. Because people? I'm crazy again. There's no telling what I'll do (probably cry).

In my first or second trimester with the Pumpkin, Londo and I saw an episode of Scrubs in which Carla was pregnant. In this episode, Carla went from happy to horny to crying to angry within seconds of each other. I kind of went off to Londo about how that was an unrealistic depiction of pregnant women... blah blah blah... making us look bad... blah blah blah... it wsn't really like that. And so on.

Fast forward to my third trimester. I had a moment when I went from happy to sad to angry literally within seconds. After the minute or two it occurred, I looked at Londo and said, "Whoa. That was like Carla on Scrubs! They weren't joking!"

I'm sure that doesn't happen to every woman, but man, it really did happen to me.

A little later in my pregnancy, I was even crazier. You see, we had moved into our house during my second trimester with the Pumpkin. There was always so much to do, another box to unpack, another bag to sort through. One day, I had opened a plastic bag which had towels in it in order to put them in the linen closet in our bathroom.

A little while after I opened that bag, Londo comes in the bathroom. I am sitting on the closed toilet lid, crying. My wonderful and caring husband kneels in front of me, and we have the following conversation:

Londo: Honey, what's wrong?
caramama: Nothing's wrong.
Londo: Well, why are you crying?
cm: For no good reason.
Londo: Well, there must be a reason. Tell me why you're crying.
cm: I'm crying because I don't know if the towels in the bag are dirty or clean.

Yes, my friends, I couldn't remember if I cleaned those towels before throwing them in a bag to move to the new house or just thought that I would do it once we moved in. So I didn't know whether or not to put the towels away like I had planned or put them in a laundry basket to be washed. That is why I was sobbing in the bathroom. But the conversation doesn't even end there.

Londo continues: Well, that can be very frustrating. It's understandable that it would upset you.
(Isn't he wonderful?)
cm: No, it's silly. I'm really just being crazy. I was crying earlier today because of an episode of King of the Hill.
Londo, still trying to be understanding and supportive of his insane wife: Well, there are some episodes of King of the Hill that are sad. Like the one where Peggy jumped out of the airplane and her parachute didn't open. Was it that one?
cm: No. It was the one where Peggy was fired as coach of the cheerleaders but in the end Connie does her cheer anyway.

(There was a short pause in the conversation...)

Londo: Okay, can I laugh now?
cm, starting to sniffle and chuckle: Yes.

And that is my story of how crazy I could be when pregnant with the Pumpkin. It's also a nice example of how wonderful my husband is and how well he puts up with me. I think it's also a good example of how I try to recognize and vocalize my own craziness, which I think is a good thing for all those around me.

As for this pregnancy, I had this conversation with Londo a few weeks ago:

caramama: I'm Carla-crazy pregnant again!
Londo: Oh, boy.
cm: I apologize in advance for the next... oh... year or so.
Londo: You do NOT get a year. I can't handle a year! I'll give you four months. One and a half while being pregnant and two and a half postpartum.
cm: Okay, I'll take the four months. But I reserve the right to exercise an option month at the end of the fourth month*.
Londo, nervously: We'll see.

And another example was from just last weekend. Londo and I were disagreeing about lyrics to some song**. That turned into him teasing me about not knowing lyrics in general. This is an old issue that he teases me about, which honestly pisses me off a little bit every time he teases me. To everyone but my husband, I'm actually known for my knowledge of lyrics. I was a singer for years, and I like to figure out lyrics and look them up when I don't know for sure. Yet, I get a couple wrong early in our relationship, and Londo spends years telling me I'm horrible with lyrics. I'm horrible about who sings what and I'm horrible about spelling, but singing lyrics is something I'm good at! (See? I'm getting a little pissy just writing about it.)

Anyhow, he starts teasing me about this old issue, and we had the following conversation:

caramama, emphatically: Just stop! You're going to make me cry!
Londo, incredulous: What? Why on earth is that going to make you cry?
cm: Because I'm almost NINE MONTHS PREGNANT! That's why! That's the reason!
Londo, as he backs out of the room: Okay.

And that was the end of that. Except, of course, for my need to blog all about it.

*Londo and I both work as consultants who contract with the government. If you know anything about contract work, this is hopefully as funny to you as it was to us. Or at least me.

**The song was that Papa Moco Jumbie song on Noggin. Anyone know if he says, "he dances to big harmony" or "he dances to bring home money"?

In Praise of My Husband, On His Birthday

I married the most wonderful, thoughtful, sexy, witty, funny, handsome, strong, intelligent man in the world. I'm sure you all have/are great husbands. But Londo, he's the best. And I'm saying that totally unbiased, I assure you. He is a fantastic husband, an amazing father, a supportive partner and my best friend.

Life with me is not always easy. There have been ups and downs in our lives, frustrations and joys. Londo weathers it all and comes through it with me even stronger than before. Take this pregnancy, for instance. It's not been any easy time for me or him. Londo picked up almost all responsibilities in our house. He took primary care of the Pumpkin, our dog and cat, almost all household chores, and me. Meanwhile, he continued to work fulltime out of the house and tried to take care of himself! The man is amazing.

Now that I've just started my ninth month of pregnancy, I am again not able to do much. Londo is on bedtime and nighttime duty with the Pumpkin every night. He is changing almost all of the diapers. He continues to do all the grocery shopping and almost all of the cooking. He continues to take out all the trash and recycle, do all the lawn care, pay all the bills, and so much more.

And even when I'm moody with crazy pregnancy hormones, and even when the Pumpkin is having a case of The Twos, and even when the cat and dog are being annoying, and even when his work gets super busy and stressful... even through all of that, he maintains his cool and wonderful sense of humor.

I don't know what I would do without him. I don't even want to think of the possibility of being without him.

Because regardless of all that he does and all that he is, this man is my soulmate. If I didn't believe in soulmates before I met him, I sure as heck do now! He is the love of my life. I'm so incredibly happy that he convinced me to love him I fell in love with him and have a family with him.

Happy Birthday, my beloved! I hope that this year is even better than the last. Maybe we'll eventually get some sleep this year! (Just a thought for when you blow out your birthday candles.)

Question of the Week - Sleeping Comfortably

In my very pregnant state, it is hard for me to get comfortable. Especially when sleeping. Even though we have this amazing king-sized bed with a soft pillow top, it's not enough. I am currently using seven pillows. That's right, seven pillows.

I have a husband pillow to supply the underlying support and structure. I have two king-sized pillows which I use for propping up at different levels (either sitting up or just keeping my head more elevated at night so I don't get the heartburn too bad). On top of those, I have a regular-sized feather pillow which I stuff under my head to get the exactly correct angle I need to sleep (or prop under my upper back when sitting up in bed). The regular-sized standard pillow is for between my legs when I sleep to keep my legs from angling from my wider hips (and to keep my laptop on when I'm sitting up in bed). Then there is the wonderful wedge pillow (by Bobby) to go under my huge belly when I sleep (I love this thing!). Finally, the last pillow I've added is a regular-sized feather pillow that I wedge against my back when lying on my side to keep me propped and comfortable. When I roll over to my other side, I trade the places of the wedge pillow and the last feather pillow, and it works well.

Now, this is not how I normally sleep. When I'm not pregnant, I pretty much just use one or two king-sized pillows (depending on how flat the pillows are). During pregnancy, I've raided the linen closet's extra pillows, the guest room's pillows, and even my wonderful husband's pillows. Luckily for the Pumpkin, I seem to have enough now.

I laugh at myself and my huge pile of pillows. I know it's just another pregnancy thing, just the way having an internal furnace makes me not sleep with any covers on, even when it's in the 60s inside our house. In fact, when I was pregnant with the Pumpkin during the winter (she was born in March), I had to open the windows a crack and keep the fan on even if there was snow outside. Poor Londo slept under about 5 blankets, while I could barely stand a sheet! It seems that pregnant women, or at least me when I'm pregnant, do some crazy things to try to be comfortable when sleeping.

But then I realize that I do have some oddities when sleeping non-pregnant in order to sleep comfortably.

Which brings us to this week's Question of the Week:
What odd/interesting/unique things to you do/need to be comfortable when you sleep?

Non-pregnant, I have always had to sleep with my feet sticking out of the covers (and no socks) unless it's crazy cold in the house. Also, I normally have to have my shoulders covered when sleeping or they get cold. This wasn't always true, but in the last few years I no longer buy tanktop-style tops to wear to bed because of my poor, cold shoulders. I probably have other oddities, but I can't come up with them now.

How about you? Is there a certain position you HAVE to be in? Do you need music, TV, lights, blankets, etc. a certain way to sleep comfortably? How many pillows do you need?