Update on life 6/23

I had a very good weekend to finish off last week and start this one. I took Friday off from work so that Skip and I could spend some quality time together and get some things done around the house. We stopped over at Meda-Care for a little while and chatted with the folks there, then ran some errands and putzed in the house for a bit. The evening was nice and uneventful. Saturday Skip got up and went to clincals, while I went to my BodyWorks class in the morning at the WAC. I hadn't been to the class in a while so it was nice to get a good workout. I came home and mopped the floors, then left the house with Scotch and walked down by the lakefront with Steph. What a gorgeous day! Everyone and their mothers were out by the lake, but everyone was very pleasant, and me and Steph managed to get some sun (although her not as much, considering she just came home from Florida-- two months from now to get that peeling taken care of!). Then I got a private tour of Steph and Mike's new house, which was so great to finally see! I am looking forward to seeing what they do with the place, and spending some time down at Roots... :) Sarah, Andy and Elizabeth came over on Saturday for dinner, and we had a very nice visit. Us girls tried the new gelato place just down the street, SO yummy! Skip and I headed out to Waukesha with the Harrisons for the airshow on Sunday, and then just had a lazy afternoon and evening. We had a nice last-minute dinner at our neighbors' house, then I punched out! I haven't had a weekend like that in a while, so it really was kind of a good change of pace to be able to just do whatever for 3 days in a row. Especially with the weather as nice as it was. My hair is finally bleaching out!


As for the ever-developing pregnancy, I had my 23-24 week appointment this afternoon, and everything is progressing fine! I have been feeling okay lately, though I've had a couple pretty tough nauseous spells so I'm keeping watch on that. Skip, for the first time, got to feel the baby move the other morning, which was great. I've been feeling it squirming around in there for quite a few weeks now, so I'm glad Skip finally got to share it. I have all of my appointments scheduled for the rest of the pregnancy, which is a little surreal, but so exciting! Let's just hope I don't need that one that's scheduled for October 23rd!

Dreams 6/11

I was driving down Watertown Plank Rd and was the 4th car in the left turn lane onto 87th St into MCW. Well, all 3 cars ahead of me decided to turn at the same time (like side-by-side) when the light turned yellow, and they all started rolling over onto each other. The lady in the middle was in a convertible so I thought she was a gonner for sure. So I got off the phone with my mom and told her I needed to go help. So I kept my car running but put the blinkers on and ran over to help. I started to help with CPR and some other things, and everyone was okay, thank god. About 20 mins later I look over and there's a tow truck taking my car! So I run frantically after the truck and finally catch up to it at their office. I totally was yelling at them asking why they didn't ask around to see who's car it was, or why they didn't go look up the license plate at MCW. I was SO pissed, knowing I would have to pay to get it back. It turns out that the truck was contracted through this office, so not only did I have to pay the driver, but I had to pay the office, too. They handed me the bill, and it was over $3,000! I went ballistic on them because I said that was a ridiculous amount to have to pay, and I would have to write them a check because I didn't have $3,000 just lying around.

So I went out to get my checkbook, only to realize I was out of checks. The only ones I had were pre-paid amounts for my mom's checking account, which I knew I was going to have to use to get my car back.

This is one dream that I can peg a reason for having. First off, I have Advanced Skills at Meda-Care on Friday, hence the CPR and helping in the car accident. And second, I've been SUPER stressed about money lately, and I suppose that's where the concern over the $3,000 comes from. I swear I wake up MORE stressed after a dream like that, instead of working out all of my issues in my dreams like they say you should. Woof.

Dreams 6/10

I can't remember exact details, but I remember being at this old townie bar somewhere, and in the dream I had been there in the past and met all the people who worked/frequented there. I had gone that particular night to go get a jacket I had forgotten or something. As I was leaving, I wanted to take some french fries with me that they had just made. They were really greasy. Somehow I was walking back out to my car, and ended up not driving it. Skip was calling me to figure out where I was, because I wasn't home yet. Then I was walking through a weird forest/field, like towards a festival or something because I was walking towards music (all this was at night). Then it was like I was in the middle of a big race, and all these people were screaming because they had just run through a huge swarm of bees, which was now stinging me. I was freaking out because it hurt, plus I was thinking I was going to swell up and die. Sarah C and Andy Z were there, too. The stings didn't swell, but I had 4 or 5 of them all up and down my hands and arms and they itched. I remember crawling through some vines or woods, and then I was at another outdoor bar.

I also dreamt that I was in a department store shopping for pregnancy clothes, and I was already nine months along. However, no one believed me because I was barely showing. Then I was in my old bedroom/guest room at my mom and dad's, and it was like I was recovering from a surgery or something. They told me I had already had the baby, a boy-- Preston Charles-- but that they had put me completely under anesthetic because I had been in so much pain. I was happy to have the baby (whom I never met in the dream...), but I was so mad at everyone because I said I didn't have the memories of his birth, and I could never get them back.

No wonder I toss and turn at night...

All offense intended.

I frequently go on BabyCenter.com and read the useful information regarding pregnancy, as well as the posts other people can put up and comment on the October 2009 Birth Group. Usually the posts are posing questions and concerns about whether or not to have an epidural, how much weight people have gained, whether they're having a boy or girl, etc. Occasionally, people will also post vents/rants about off-topic things, and one of the latest was a post called "No offense, but..." It was allowing people to post purposely offensive statements under the safety net of that post. For the most part, it was amusing. However, one person put a post saying, "No offense, but a Bachelor in Arts is NOT a good degree." So, I retorted with, "No offense, but a Bachelor OF Arts IS a good degree, as is a Master OF Arts. I have both, and neither of them are in Art-- there is no such thing as a Bachelor IN Arts. If you think that, YOU are not the educated one." If anyone knows the BabyCenter world or any other type of site, then you know that I immediately initiated a "posting war," which I HATE doing-- even though this person was a moron and I was right. So instead of continuing the war, I just decided to vent on here.

I know plenty of people with Bachelor of Arts degrees who have wonderful careers and lives, and some of them even have them IN ART-- some of my artsy musical friends from Augie have gone on to be music and art teachers. I myself have completed two ..."of Arts" degrees, and am quite proud of that. Say I'm tooting my own horn, fine. But the thousands (and thousands...) of dollars in loan debt that I will be paying back over the next 20 years entitles me to be proud. I worked damn hard at both degrees and to have some moody, uneducated pregnant woman tell me that my degree is NOT a good degree makes me testy. Urgh. Anyways, I figured I'd vent this all out on here instead of doing so in a really long post on BabyCenter, only to have a bunch of other uneducated, moody bitches tell me that I'm attacking them personally and being "snarky." Damn proud to be snarky, especially today.

Update on General Things 6/8/09

I thought I'd put a little update on here about our lives in general, not particularly dream or baby-related. First things first, Skip is trucking along with nursing school at Bryant and Stratton College. There were some setbacks at the end of last semester, and left us both (as well as our families) feeling quite disappointed with the school and how they handled some situations. Nevertheless, Skip continues with the program and if all goes as planned (ha), he will officially be finished with classes in December. He has been doing very well in his Peds/OB class this semester-- perfect timing with a pregnant wife-- as well as his Writing class. I'm so proud of all he's accomplished up to this point, and have all the confidence in the world that he will one day make a wonderful nurse. Just keep him in your thoughts during the next few months that he can do as well in school as we all know he will do in the "official" nursing world. Skip has also kept up the jamming with the newly-reorganized "The Halo Effect." It's a mature group of folks that really seems to gel musically, and it's been much more bearable for me to listen to them a couple of times a week down in my basement.

As for me, my job at the Medical College of Wisconsin has been the same. We've had some frustrating projects/audits lately that have made obvious to me the bureaucracy of academia, but that's just how things go. Gotta go through the right channels and chains of command to get the work done and our recommendations out there. It's hard as the weather gets nicer to be sitting in an interior office with no windows and being inside for 8.5 hours straight. However, I think with my wandering mind, if I had a window I would get way too easily distracted from the work I should be doing (like right now...). I also have to remind myself that this job is what will pay for this baby to be born, and I count my blessings every time I have a doctor's appointment for the benefits I have through MCW, Froedtert and Children's. I cherish my time on the weekends to spend time with Skip, family and friends, as well as getting out in the coming months to the beautiful weather. My pale skin really needs a tan... I'm thinking I'll look like a big, fat ghost in my black dress at Steph's wedding in August if I don't get some color before then! Other than work, I've been trying to keep up with the exercising, though it's been actually quite hard to stay committed with all the changes happening lately. I've had to make adjustments each month to my physical activity, which I hadn't anticipated to be so difficult (not so much physically, but rather mentally). I'm doing okay, though. I haven't been working at Meda-Care pretty much since I found out I was pregnant. I just feel, for a variety of reasons, that it's too risky at this point in time. From having to lift heavy patients (with which I have trouble to begin with) to the myriad of risks in working in some sketchy neighborhoods (crazy drivers, shootings, diseases, filth) to germy hospitals, I feel taking a break from EMT-ing for now is the best for me. Though I still have to do Advanced Skills on Friday... I think I remember how to do CPR: 37 chest compressions to 5 breaths? No wait, that doesn't sound quite right... ;)

I look forward to the coming week: 1.) I get to spend some time dress-fitting with Steph for her wedding; 2.) Skipper and I are going to get some crap out of our basement for Mom's garage sale; 3.) Jazz in the Park on Thursday to see Bonerama (trust me, they are awesome!); 4.) Catching up with MCA people on Friday at Advanced Skills; 4.) Saturday spending some time with the Dwyers and the Prestons-- congrats to my cousin Catherine on her graduation from Woodstock High School! The summer will go by fast, as I already have most weekends booked with at least one or two things, but it'll get me out.

That's the update for now!

Dreams 6/1 (So weird)

This was the weirdest set of dreams I've had in a long time. I woke up this morning in such an odd fog because I think my mind had only just recovered from constantly dreaming all night. It was a very weird feeling.

Anyways, it was all a big long series that just kept going: First, and I can't exactly remember the beginning, but I do remember having some type of a tornado dream and saying (in the dream) that I spoke too soon in my blog about not having a tornado dream in a long time. Then there were a few other little ones in there that I only remember snippets about. Then I was playing soccer with a bunch of Mexican guys (we had Mexican for dinner, so I'm sure that's why I was dreaming that). After we were done playing, I was in an outdoor kitchen with a bunch of them speaking spanish and they were showing me how to fry these donut-type things in a big pot of hot oil. I started fishing all of them out of there, and then I told them I had to use the bathroom/restroom. As one of the guys walked me to the bathroom, he asked what's the difference between saying "bathroom" and "restroom." I told him saying "restroom" was a little more polite. The bathroom was in a big park, and there was a weird attendant man in there (like there often was in South American and Mexican public bathrooms), and he had Joker makeup on-- Jack Nicholson Joker makeup. Odd. So I went into a stall and I overheard a couple of women saying how there was some rumor of a killer on the loose in the area. I got done and was walking out of the bathroom, when all of a sudden the bathroom attendant turned out to be the killer, and so we all started running away from him. He had this huge hatchet that he chucked across the field and it hit the bathroom lady and cut her leg off. Then my Mexican friend turned out to be a cop with a gun, so I told him to shoot the attendant, which he did. Then he apologized and started shooting at me and I realized he was the real killer. I kept trying to wake myself up because I was realizing it was all a very scary dream. Then I was all of a sudden back as a camp counselor, and the camp was back behind South Elementary school in CL. One of the kids was riding a little bike through the field, and I told him he needed to keep the bike on the pavement. Then a little later I went over to talk to him and he was all sad because he couldn't be talking about quantum physics anymore (or something like that, it was a very weird subject that a 6-year old would normally not have said). So I thought that was weird. Then I went over again to talk to him and he was all swollen and fat, and I asked him if he had gotten stung by a bee, and he said yes. So I picked him up and said that I was going to run him over to the Children's ER, which by now was right on the other side of the field-- by this point the kid's mom was there, and she had also gotten stung, as evidenced by a large welt on the side of her face. So I start running with this fat kid in my arms, and I get into the ER and they start working on him. The doctor was saying that if I hadn't gotten him in when I did that he would have died. I started trying to tell the kid that he would need to carry an Epi-Pen with him from then on, but he kept squirming around on the bed and wouldn't listen. I then was walking around the ER just looking around, and the doctor came up and squeezed my ass. Then all of the ER staff was goofing around with each other. Then I managed to wake myself up, thank the LORD.

I felt SO weird when I woke up.

Dreams 5/29 and General Reminiscence of D-Chi Days at Augustana

So, I keep having these recurring dreams that I am back visiting Augie, and I'm hanging out with all the current Delta Chis (I know who some of them are through my DCT family tree on Facebook). Why I keep dreaming this, I have no idea. I think the first time I started dreaming about them was when Sarah C. told me she had met a bunch of them at Augie last weekend when the 'Hams were there for Scott's graduation. Also, maybe it was because yesterday I had some strange hankering for a loaded baked potato from Arthurs or the super-unhealthy yet ever-so-tasty chili cheese nachos from the downstairs cafe at the College Center (I have craved those nachos at least once a month since I left there 5 years ago. Maybe it's because Jes and I would sit down there for hours at lunch time senior year in that back table hiding from everyone else on campus. Funny how some things stick with you...)

The first dream was thoroughly strange, as I was kind of "babysitting" the current girls in this huge hotel room... with Shay and Kim (Girls, I love you. I dream about you all the time... Just kidding, I have no idea why I thought about you when I was dreaming about Delta Chi, considering you two were Speeds). Anyways, Shay stayed up in this huge loft with the girls, and Kim and I were downstairs just about to fall asleep, when I look up and there's a huge tidal wave coming at us. I was afraid for all the girls, but I knew they would be fine because they were all so high up. However, Kim and I got soaked by the wave as it splashed into the room. After that I don't really remember much of the dream...

The latest dream was that I was back at Arthurs, but it looked like a combination of The Mark and Arthurs, like the bathrooms were back in this huge conference center-type area. And the restaurant part was like a restaurant, then all of a sudden I was talking to all of the girls who were on treadmills. I was trying to convince someone (like Sarah C. or Steph or someone, can't remember) to come and hang out with the girls with me, because I didn't want to be all by myself. I don't remember how oddly the dream must have morphed after that point...

Maybe I need to go back to Augie just to quell this strange obsession. I had thought about Homecoming, but that's not happening this year because I will look like I'm about ready to burst being so pregnant. Oh well, maybe next year. It's just very odd, but then again my dreams are always very odd. This pregnancy thing is just making them all the more peculiar. At least I haven't had a terribly scary one in quite a while (those are the worst-- I don't wish my scary dreams on anyone)... knock on wood!

19-20 Week Update

Skip and I had our 18-20 week ultrasound yesterday, as well as our latest regular appointment with Dr. Barnabei afterwards. The ultrasound went really well, and it really was amazing to see all the developments that have happened with the baby since the last one. You could see every little finger and every little toe! The tech said all was well, and everything was measuring as it should. The Maternal Fetal Care Center doc came in and took a look as well, which was a little uncomfortable, because he didn't say practically more than 5 words the whole time. So much for bedside manner. However, he did say that everything looked good! We got some great pictures of Baby Manning. For now it's going to be a surprise as to the gender of the baby. I swear I saw a certain, ahem, "structure" that would indicate this is a boy, but then I also swear I heard the tech say something about it being a "beautiful girl" which I could have imagined (and she wasn't supposed to do, since we said we didn't want to know). So now I'm totally confused, which is fine, because I still don't know what the baby is! I feel like it is a boy, Skip thinks it's a girl-- so we'll just have to wait and see!

My appointment with Dr. Barnabei went fine as well, and she said everything sounded good. Her only concern was that I was getting enough to eat, because I've only gained a total of 4 pounds so far. I told her I eat enough, but I'm also cautious not to be one of the people who just gains and gains-- I have to LOSE that weight, you know. I just said I'm keeping close tabs on everything. So she said things are on track. We are going to sign up for a childbirth class pretty soon here, too.

So that's about it! Monday will be 20 weeks, so that officially makes it 5 months. More than halfway through!!

Dreams 5/11

Just one short one from Friday night, after having been at the Brewers game (I kept a scorecard for the whole game, and was very proud of myself that I remembered how to do it! I was a great game!):

I was back in summer softball, and we were playing on one of the old grass fields that probably is now part of the parking lot at South High School. I was catching, and someone pitched the ball, and I kind of fumbled it. Well, the girl on first base started stealing second, but SUPER slowly, and I thought to myself: "Are they seriously trying to steal with me behind the plate? This will be easy," (This often happened during summer ball, when they didn't know that nearly every catcher on our team could gun down people at second, because about 2/3 of our team played school ball-- so we could actually play, unlike many of the other teams during the summer. The other coaches would be surprised when their girls would be out by miles trying to steal...). Anyways, I go to throw the ball, and my cleat totally got stuck in the mud, and the ball only went like 3 feet. That was pretty much the end of the dream. Talk about an anxiety dream!

Update for the Pams :)

I was told I need to blog about my pregnancy by a couple of Pams... And I said I was! So, to appease these ladies and anyone else curious, I'll give a little update from our latest doctor's appointment.

We saw Dr. Barnabei last Friday morning (after waiting 30 mins from when our appointment was supposed to be... urgh). We just talked about how everything was going, and also got to hear the heartbeat. Still going strong! No news is good news at this point, as she said we're just kind of in "cruise control" for the next couple of months. We're officially 4 months (16 weeks) along! I've got to remember to go to the lab sometime this week for some bloodwork, though, since it was too crowded last week. Don't let me forget... Oh, and according to Babycenter, the Squirrel is the size of an avocado, and his/her heart is pumping 25 quarts of blood per day. Pretty cool!

In other news, Steph's bachelorette party was this Saturday, and a wonderful time was had by all! Especially Steph! A little embarassment of the Bride-to-Be, some games, food, wine (LOTS of wine) and chocolates made the night a success. Looking forward to August!