Friday!

Oh, thank god. Nothing particular makes me say that, but it's always nice to have days where you don't have to come to work.

Ru is so sassy. I know you're not supposed to assign traits to your kids, but dude. Last night, sitting at the table, she kept poking her fork in my arm. I asked her not to once, she did it again, so I took the fork away for a minute or so. Her response? She shoved her plate across the table! I took her over to the time out chair. When she came back, we hugged, I told her why she went to time out, and the girl gave me such a look. If she was thirteen, she'd have rolled her eyes at me. I am sure that I didn't handle things correctly, but what the heck? It also doesn't help that I can't seem to correct her or send her to time out without laughing. She's a tricky monkey.

Ellie is so ticklish. She loves being tickled and kissed on the cheek. Somehow, she's decided that the rug next to her crib is where the tickling should take place, so no matter where we are in the apartment, she'll say "lots of kisses?" and "tickles?" and then run back to her room and lie on the floor.

The ultrasound part of the nuchal went fine. It took the tech 10 minutes or so to get him/her to hold still and get in the right position though. 10 minutes of jiggling my belly (yum!), having me cough vigorously (ouch! round ligament pain!), and tipping the table so my feet were above my head. Man, that kid moves! Every time I've seen him/her on the ultrasound recently, Punky is moving and grooving all over the place. The tech and the doctor both told me that everything looks perfect and I am going to assume that the blood work will say the same, but we'll see next weke.

Caspar Babypants live tomorrow! The girls' first show, if you don't count Ruby's salsa in the park last summer. Zazie and I are the most excited of all, I think.

Oh, and the nuchal's tomorrow

You now have the option of pricking your own finger and mailing the sample in so you can get results the day of. I washed and swabbed my finger, squeezed it a bunch... and then I just couldn't do it. And Zazie, my faithful IVF shot giver, refused to do it, saying fingertip was way worse than thigh. So they'll be taking my blood tomorrow and I'll get results in a week. Waiting is a small price to pay for not having to prick.

And.... I'm probably jumping the gun, since I'm just 13 weeks next Tuesday, but I'm meeting with a prospective doula next week. I love that everyone has a website now. You can get a pretty good feel for people, or at least you can eliminate the folks you know you DON'T want. Anyway, this doula's fairly new, but she has a few good reviews, she lives in our neighborhood, she's queer/size positive, she's a massage therapist, and she does sliding scale. Now to see if we click!

Our first award!

Thanks so much to More Than Words for our first-ever blog award! 

The Liebster Blog Award works like this:

Say thanks to the blogger who nominated you, and link back to them.

List 5 blogs (ideally with fewer than 200 followers) that you feel deserve the Liebster Award and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Copy and paste the award to your blog.

Here we go:
1. Lemonpuss
2. Pajama Mamas
3. Baby Bump
4. Love + Love = Marriage
5. Bionic Mamas

I'm full of bright ideas

I have all these ideas about what to write when I'm not writing. Now, I'm writing, and fuuuuuuuuuu.

Still pregnant. Still having the sick. Yesterday, the progression of shredded wheat/banana, washing my hair over the side of the tub, and then brushing my teeth led to yakking it all up. That was only the second time that's happened so far, but man.

Ru is having some nighttime issues. All of a sudden, she's a huge bundle of requests at bedtime. Squares blanket, not strawberry blanket. (Of course, if you don't get out of the room quick enough, she'll make you switch blankets again before you leave). Snuggle-buggles. Another book. (Despite the five books already in the crib). And the crying. And the Mama! Mama! Mommy! Mommy! Moooaaamaay! (The combo request, just in case). This happens as we're leaving the room and then usually about 30 minutes to an hour later. Of course, El might fight getting into bed at first, but once she's in? She's under the covers, turned on her side, and ready for sleep. We leave the room, Ru starts screaming, and when we go in, there's El still under her covers, saying a cheery "hello." Ah well. Last night, they both fell asleep pretty easily. El woke up around 2 (and went back to sleep) and then Ru woke up around 6 (and went back to sleep). I guess that's not too bad?

An Oh Sh&t Moment

This morning. On the train. Oh sh*t, we're going to have to apply for pre-k next spring. We don't particularly want to send them to the neighborhood school (we don't live in the best district). But in looking at the numbers NYC puts out, last year, they had nearly 150 applicants for 36 seats. Many MANY of the schools nearby show the same kind of numbers: 3-5x more applicants than seats. That's not even factoring in getting both girls into the same school. We could move, but our lease is up in July. We can't possibly be ready to leave by this July, and next July will be after the application deadline. Dude.

So many things!

First ultrasound was yesterday. She/he is measuring right on schedule, we saw the heartbeat. Only one more ultrasound and then we're cleared by the RE. Yes!

Ru peed in her potty! Night before last, she was running around and she started pulling down her diaper, so I asked if she wanted to go, she said yes, and she did it! Poor girl... Zazie was praising her, but I think she was embarrassed she'd peed in the potty (her first potty-using experience months ago involved poop and she was totally traumatized and wtf?!) until we both started saying "Yay Ru!" and clapping. She went again last night and this morning. Zazie bought Pu.llUps this morning, so we're going to put those on her during the day. I think she's going to get it quickly...  El is nowhere near potty-training time, but we're hoping that if Ru gets the hang of it, El will want to do it too.

In other news, what the heck am I supposed to eat? Everything makes me want to puke. I am not a squeamish delicate person, so I'm annoying myself with all the retching at smells. This morning, Zazie made chicken salad in the kitchen and I couldn't go in without thinking I might puke. Not that I've puked yet, but you never know when the first time might be. I have been craving Spr.ite, and that sucks because the corn syrup makes my stomach hurt. I just ate a slice of pizza successfully so whee! Other things that are ok: apples, bananas, crackers, microwave burritos, Macro.bars. I'm having difficulty with protein, though. Meat smell makes me ill, Phil. I'd been chewing on those ginger chews, but the sugar in them was throwing me off. I just bought some ginger capsules and hopefully those will do the trick.

The update

Last week was rough in spots. I kept coming across articles mentioning things that no newly pregnant lady should read- my child has a rare chromosomal disorder, I had to terminate my pregnancy because of the baby's horrible, life-threatening deformities, I miscarried at twelve weeks. Can we get to this nuchal test now please? Oh wait, dag. That's not going to be for another month and a half.

Ain't nothin' to it but to do it (something I heard a husband saying to his laboring wife, btw, and I think it's awesome and useful in so many situations). No reason to worry until there's a reason to worry, right? I am still not feeling 100% "there's a baby coming to our house in November" but I am inching toward feeling that way. Maybe by six months.

Sickness kicked in like clockwork yesterday. For those of you counting at home, today is six weeks. I have been eating ginger chews like crazy. I need to eat so often to avoid the gags- it's really feeling like annoying work and we're only two days in. How do you eat frequently when nothing is appealing? I'm feeling a little heartburn-y, too. If it's this way now, I'm really going to feel like sh*t toward the end.